Pope promises reform
Good old Onion…
Calling the behavior shameful, sinful, and much more frequent than the Vatican was comfortable with, Pope Benedict XVI vowed this week to bring the widespread pedophilia within the Roman Catholic Church down to a more manageable level…”This is absolutely unacceptable,” Pope Benedict said. “It seems a weakening of faith in God has prevented our priests from exercising moderation when sexually abusing helpless minors.”…Starting next year, specially trained cardinals will make unannounced visits to inspect and observe random churches in order to ensure they are not going beyond diocese-wide molestation caps. The inspector-cardinals will grade each parish based on long, private interviews with altar boys in darkened church basements, and careful observation of priests’ sexual activity….As a “goodwill measure,” Cardinal Re said all churches will also be required to display a sign next to the altar showing the number of days since the last molestation.
Oh gee – is that more petty gossip?
Excellent. If you can measure a problem, you can manage it!
This is a good one from 2002:
Pope Forgives Molested Children.
Yes, indeed, Steve, when I first linked to it, I thought it was a news story until I came to the line that priests ought to know that they can only molest a child every two weeks (or something to that effect). Then I looked, and saw that it was the Onion, but, oh dear, it does, for the most part, seem to be real reportage!
Frankly, the Onion article paints the RCC in a better light than its new comments from today.