Is the System Corrupt Enough to Make Tim Dolan of NYC the next Pope?

Tim Dolan was giving depositions just as he was borrowing a billionaire’s jet to hop the Atlantic and take Rome by Media Storm. But not to worry. The cemetery deal was about burying cash and not bodies – ha ha.

Then again I can remember Governor Fife Syminton III of Arizona running for Governor not to be governor but solely to avoid prosecution in the Savings and Loan fraund scandal in Phoenix and let’s not forget Governor George W. Bush of Texas about to be indicted in the Enron Fraud thing. Seeking and holding a higher office can keep the dogs of justice at bay sometimes. 

Now would be a good time for Tim to move on to bigger and better things.

God knows that Benedict was not Rock Star material.

And if the modern papacy is to be of the John Paul II model, the Rock Star PR Media fantasia thing, then Tim Dolan is the next pope coming from the PR, BS Media Capital of the Planet, New York City.

Seems like yesterday I had never heard of Tim Dolan from Milwaukee and he shows up unannounced to become the instant favorite son of Gotham City. Wow. Instant local media celebrity. Don't bother to check to see how dirty his laundry coming from Milwaukee is - his drawers etc. - (nasty business - the truth)

http://thisculturalchristian.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-mick-rc-archbishop-in-nyc-tim-dolan.html

The nostalgia just overwhelms me with the thought of losing Tim to Rome and the Big House Time Show.

Yeah right.

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Vatileaks Show Trial of Paolo Gabriele Begins Today

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John Corapi - Judas Priest?

Innocent or guilty, I have formed an opinion of this matter burning up keyboards on the Catholic blogosphere.

Father Corapi, until recently a living saint, has apparently taken the money and run so to speak.

There were allegations of sexual amusement (with women) and drug addiction.

FYI The Ongoing Story 

I saw him a few times on EWTN, haven’t watched it in years, with his aggressive defense of the RC catechism and all things RC. I was not impressed.

His speech seemed to be impeded by badly fitting dentures as he seemed to spit a lot when making a point. 

Quite popular with devout middle aged catholic babes.  There is a great wailing and gnashing of teeth since his departure from the official catholic airwaves on the very huge rosary, middle aged catholic babe blog circuit. 

In a sense, he has gone over to the other side.  His Santa Cruz Media seems to be in his for-profit name and not in name of his religious order or any greedy diocese.   Get the deed.  Keep the deed.  Screw everybody else. Catholic rock stars don’t need a conscience.

Screw the ecclesiastic courts set up to investigate abuse.  Set up shop in God’s country, Montana, praise the lord and pass the ammunition – and keep the profits on DVDs, pamphlets, inspirational books etc.  And let’s not forget the lecture circuit.  Great deal.

And now a second planned career to out church corruption.  Caiaphas lives!

The Catholic church has gone to hell – surely and truly gone to hell.

Jimmy Swaggert move over. 

Arrest and Trial of Benedict XVI

Richard Dawkins calls for arrest of Pope Benedict XVI

RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”.

Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.

When I first saw this story a few days ago I was reluctant to comment. I think that a warrant or a bill of indictment should be prepared against the Holy See in some European or International Court. However, I would not think it prudent to pursue a trial for these recent felonies and cover-ups of felonies by the worldwide hierarchy of the RCC in general and the Vatican specifically, in the case of crimes against humanity – children.

I guess that being American I have come to accept the legal opinion of Obama that we cannot prosecute Dick Cheney and George Bush for war crimes and other crimes against humanity. Shame on us.

All crimes against humanity should be vigorously prosecuted no matter who commits them. It is the right and more importantly the moral thing to do. The secular global world has to take a stand on right and wrong as described in law and not be influenced by any mythical religious setting or context as in crimes committed in the Vatican

The fact that two well known atheists, Dawkins and Hitchens, are bellowing these charges against Benedict XVI and his thug bishops sounds a little too much like religious persecution. But then again over the centuries the RCC have burned enough atheists as heretics. Perhaps the Dawkins/Hitchens spiel is equal time and fair play.

Just imagine if only indictments were prepared in a legal court system in Europe. The pope would have to hide in his Vatican with protection of his armed guards in his palace in Rome like some Mafia Chieftain.

Dawkins/Hitchens claim that the Vatican is not a country. That Mussolini when he ceded political control to the Vatican in 1929 was merely respecting the turf of another warlord such as himself.

According to some opinion, the pope has no diplomatic immunity. The Vatican was denied official nation status at the U.N. in 1964 at the insistence of the U.S.. No doubt a crook like LBJ could smell another snake in the room with the Vatican trying to claim nationhood. As a permanent observer at the UN, the church has been able to wreck havoc on the planet with its medieval ideals of birth control forced onto a lot of UN programs.

But putting aside all the showmanship of Dawkins/Hitchens trying to sell more books etc, there is the base, the common little ordinary simple faithful that the RC hierarchy are totally unaware of and totally our of touch with. This base in the form of the Rev. James Scahill of St. Michael’s Parish in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts “called in a sermon last weekend for the pope to resign over the church's sexual abuse scandal.”

Priest calls for pope's resignation

Pope Benedict XVI has found himself tied to the crisis after news broke last month that 30 years ago, when he was an archbishop, he approved accommodations in his diocese for a priest accused of child sex abuse so the priest could undergo therapy.

The priest, who was not identified, was let go from church service in 2008, according to church officials in Germany.

"If he can't take the consequences of being truthful on this matter, his integrity should lead him, for the good of the church, to step down and to have the conclave of cardinals elect a pope with the understanding that the elected pope would be willing to take on this issue, not just in promise," Scahill said.

When you lose your base, you lose in politics. The papacy is – a political – and not a spiritual job position.

The scandal of failed CEO types running the Vatican continues.

Blasphemy and the Last Supper

I think the concept of blasphemy is archaic and obsolete in light of the free speech and expression as mandated by law in our Constitution.

Still the concept for Muslims, if enacted by U.N. international law, would put Danish Newspapers and Danish Cartoonists in the category of criminals. I cite the recent hubbub regarding the image of Mohammed as a terrorist depicted in a Danish cartoon.

Terrorism and blasphemy are in the eyes of the beholders. The Global Town Square should be neutral in the enforcement of blasphemy concepts across national borders which also usually reflect national local feelings or religious local beliefs.

I think it inappropriate that the local minority Muslims in Denmark made an international issue over the cartoon. A minority has no right to impose privileged or entitled status of private religious opinion on the majority.

Perhaps in a more civil world, the occasion to insult will be reduced in the interests of respect of the rights of others both locally and internationally.

Thomas Aquinas says that “it is clear that blasphemy, which is a sin committed directly against God, is more grave than murder, which is a sin against one's neighbor. … it is called the most grievous sin, for as much as it makes every sin more grievous.” Wikipedia

Of course, in the recent Texas School Book deal to replace Aquinas for Jefferson is a poor choice IMHO. Aquinas is really a very abstract medieval theologian and obsolete on many of his opinions. Banning Jefferson in Texas will only excite, entice the curious to find the father of modern revolution and enlightenment.

Regarding the above image of a censored in France and Italy clothing advertisement in 2005, I take exception to it being banned in the name of Blasphemy.

The Last Suppers

BBC News:

France's Catholic Church has won a court injunction to ban a clothing advertisement based on Leonardo da Vinci's Christ's Last Supper.

The display was ruled "a gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs", by a judge ......

The authorities in the Italian city of Milan banned the poster last month ......

Italy's advertising watchdog said the ad's use of Christian symbols including a dove and a chalice recalled the foundations of the faith and would offend the sensitivity of part of the population.

The Catholic Church used a similar argument against the advert, which also shows two of the apostles embracing a bare-chested man in jeans.

"When you trivialise the founding acts of a religion, when you touch on sacred things, you create an unbearable moral violence which is a danger to our children," said lawyer Thierry Massis.

"Tomorrow, Christ on the cross will be selling socks."

I find that the DaVinci Code the book, while a pile of myth and speculation, opened a true door not to enlightenment but in opening the mind up to all the possibilities of ancient myth and how it all could have been rewritten differently especially in the New Testament that is.

With the current meltdown in the Vatican over cover-ups and conspiracy over sex abuse crimes worldwide, the concept of private “church” matters (the way these crimes were treated) comes into question with the “infallibility” invoked in this covering up of crimes against children.

Getting back to the DaVinci Code, what would the world look like if women had been the predominate sex throughout history?

Getting back to the Vatican scandal, I think this image above from 2005 is more appropriate now with the image of an aroused and or prostitute male figure in place of the John/Mary figure of the DaVinci Code’s interpretation of DaVinci’s Last Supper mural.

Even more appropriate in the symbolism of that john/mary/prostitute image is that modern image being embraced by the Peter figure of that famous original icon image and with Judas’ legs intertwined in the whole mess.

Any good Christians feeling betrayed these days, as if by Judas, but instead by the Chair of Peter?

Blasphemy is not always a crime especially if it tells or depicts the Truth.