Let Me Take You Down.....

This rather disturbing video was made in 2010 by Italian investigative journalist and author, Carmelo Abbate. He wrote a book, published in 2011 called Sex and The Vatican. In the book, he documented taboo issues for the Roman Catholic church as the women who become priests' mistresses and the children they have (and those they abort). It details allegations of the rape of nuns by priests. And it concludes that large parts of the clergy are leading double lives because of the crushing burden placed on them by the Vatican's insistence that they lead lives of celibacy and chastity.

The video was shot as part of an investigation by Panorama Magazine and documented the double lives of gay priests in Rome. I found it because I watch a French News discussion program on France5 called C dans l'Air...and tonights discussion was about the resignation of Scottish Catholic Cardinal, Keith O'Brien, the highest ranking Catholic in the UK, over the growing revelations of his own tattered sex scandal on the eve of the Papal Enclave to choose the successor to Benedict XVI. The book by Abbate is has actually been in development as a French documentary which is to be shown later this year. Here is a PDF link to the 320 page book by Carmelo Abbate.

The book was actually 12 on the Amazon.fr best seller list and the first edition sold out in a week. He has been interviewed and written about extensively here, but in contrast, in Italy the publication of Sex and the Vatican has been met with a wall of embarrassed silence. It is as if it had never happened.
This only focuses on the dilemma of the Catholic Church in attempting to maintain it's medieval mentality of total control in a world that has evolved far and quickly beyond their ancient brutal methods. In reality, with in Vatican City the pope had the power to order executions as recently as 1969.  Though the last execution was carried out before 1900, the Vatican imported the French refinement of the guillotine in the Napoleonic era and over 800 people were executed by papal order in the 19th century. If you read history, some of the Renaissance popes personally administered truly blood thirsty brutal murders.
In the 1950's, the Catholic Church dealt with boys who were their sexual victims and had the audacity to complain by ordering castrations. The breaking Irish scandal in the CatholicChurch, The Medieval Nightmare of the Magdelene Slave Labor Laundries and how they evolved and the attempt at suppressing the bad press surrounding this scandal and failing miserably again illustrates just how out of touch with the21st century they really are. The discussions I have seen lately spoke of how the Vatican would try to suppress what they know,and protecting them selves by trying to maintain their medievally enforced fascist faith created fear wall of silence. So Benny the Rat learned how to twitter, or how to order his underlings to tweet for him. How Hip, How 21st Century is that? They still don't have a clue. Like the Republican Party being left in the dust in the last Obama/Mittens  presidential race, they may be aware of technology, but that doesn't mean they understand it or have a clue as to how to really use it.
Let's look at the line up the Vatican is trying to use in implementing it's crippled Conclave to select the next pope. Benny the Rat is going to resign on February 28. He is going become fallible again...damn...and the implications of the case in Rhode Island, focusing on Maciel Mariel which commenced last week is going to be his focus as he is drawn deeper and deeper into the web of sexual abuse, fraud and money laundering which brought about this present crisis. So are we going to see  a quick deliberation between the cardinals, eager to have a new Pope by the Easter holiday? In that spirit, here's a quick rundown of the men-or-women-no-no-not-women-who-would-be-Pope:
The People's Choice
Luis Antonio Tagle, hailing from the Philippines, is among the youngest and newest Cardinals, having been made one just this past November. His quiet reserve and respectfulness is very Pope-like, and while it would be nice to see a Pope who wasn't an old white man, bookmakers have him at 16-1.
Please, God, No
The boisterous Timothy M. Dolan doesn't stand much of a chance of being Pope, with America being a superpower and all, but his handling of the sexual abuse allegations (paying off priests to leave the priesthood instead of reporting them to the police), should disqualify him enough. Bookies have him at 50-1.
The Relunctant Canuck
The Quebecois Marc Ouellet described the possibility of becoming Pope "a nightmare" in a 2011 interview, but he is a theological conservative who is about the right age for Pope (a spry 68). Sometimes self-effacing in a progressive country with a declining amount of Catholics, the Cardinal is running at 4-1.
Home Cookin'
Italy's Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi is giving what amounts to the keynote address of the weeklong papal Lenten retreat, but his low-profile is overshadowed by his fellow countryman, Angelo Scola. He's running at 16-1.
The Charismatic Favorite
Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, is very similar to the outgoing Pope, except younger (at an unripe 71) and a little more progressive. He has focused on immigrants rights and outreach to the Muslim world. He's running at 7-2, so get used to this guy — he might just be the next Pope!
The Black Pope
Peter Turkson, Ghana's first Cardinal, has promoted abstinence as a solution to stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa. He's not going to be Pope. Strangely enough, the bookmakers I'm using for odds have him at 5-2. I would love to see all the living room walls of Boston with a picture of a black Pope on it. Oh god, I would love that.

For some reason, the money is saying that the Vatican is going to try to elect a third world pope...Turkson is running pretty strong right now. He's playing a fairly aggressive game as he talks his Macho African anti gay rhetoric...according to him, this faggy priest pedophile thing is basically a White thing...Black men don't play that....but as I am Sister Mary Noreen's worst night mare, I have to play the race card. If Turkson, or the Philippino, Tagle, were actually elected to pander to the disaffected legions of alienated Catholics who are leaving the church in droves, then conversely, the super conservative but ever shrinking core of the old time true believers would be forced to go deeper into the schismatic sects that already are claiming thousands of the conservative racist core of Orthodox Catholicism....In America and Europe, there is a long standing schismatic heritage of ultra nationalist, old time fascists who consider themselves the true believers. I mean what would Opus Dei say? Though they represent a fringe, it wouldn't take much for the conservative catholics in America to reject a black or hispanic pope. I really hope that the catholics step into the abyss and elect a third world pope, because that's what the sane world needs. We need a real schism in the catholic church. We need to see the real racist, fascist psyche bared.

Bring It On!