As Ireland withstands Rome’s offensive apology while an Irish bishop resigns, I ask Americans to understand why an Irish Catholic woman who survived child abuse would want to rip up the pope’s picture.
I have long wanted Sinead O’Connor to say something more about all that, and maybe she has and I missed it. But this op-ed in the Washington Post answers a lot. At the time, when she ripped up the picture of the pope on SNL, I thought: “awesome.” But not really sure why, just a powerful sign of rebellion. As is usually the case, the more you know… My distaste for Catholicism just grows with knowledge, and so these new revelations are for me no more than another nail in the coffin–what else can there be now? How many nails to seal it?
But it’s not just Catholicism, it’s religion, the man-made concept. So flawed, so very very flawed. And it seems as if the worst men for the job hold the highest positions (ha, women in religion? subservient at best!). Follow the money, follow the power, and you will find them. I watch all of this with interest, but surprisingly little emotion. You’d like to see some justice but then, I don’t really expect it to happen. I don’t really think most people care that much. And I don’t know many people who are/were religious anyway.
To Irish Catholics, Benedict’s implication — Irish sexual abuse is an Irish problem — is both arrogant and blasphemous. The Vatican is acting as though it doesn’t believe in a God who watches. The very people who say they are the keepers of the Holy Spirit are stamping all over everything the Holy Spirit truly is.
Here’s the Hitchens-Maher version (UPDATE: embedding working.) I like this version very much.