Chris Johnson of MCJ rips James Carroll a new one in a fisk of the latter’s bemoaning of the fact that the project to Episcopalize the Catholic Church has been set back decades. Sample:

While the Vatican and its recruits just say no, the rest of us attempt to apply tested modes of ethical reasoning to revolutions, for example, in genetic science that separate reproduction from sexuality.

Translation: we have our house “theologians” declare that they’ve “studied” the issue and decided that boinking a man/woman/other you’re not married to isn’t a sin any longer.

The title says it all: Pell rides papal bandwagon of death and concludes with, “Safe sex campaigns have strong political backing. But how many good Catholics will die in Africa and the Philippines before they learn that in the 21st century disobeying the Vatican line is a matter of life and death?”

Uncle Di responds:

How many people would contract AIDS (or any venereal disease) if Church teaching were followed? Zero. Yet when actions of those who hold her in contempt boomerang back upon them, she is blamed for the effects of their recklessness. As I’ve said before: other institutions are held responsible for hardships resulting from obedience to their teachings; the Church is held responsible for hardships resulting from defiance of hers…Just curious. I have no way of checking Marr’s claim that Australia waged the world’s most successful war on AIDS, but if his grasp of public health is as reliable as his history of Christian doctrine, one is — how to put it? — ill-advised to accept a clean syringe from his hands.

Hat tip to Thomas Peters for this one from the Winnipeg Sun:

“Human law has no value” when it’s contrary to God’s law, the archbishop explained. How convenient, of course, that old, rich men who are completely out of touch with the harsh realities of people’s lives take it upon themselves to interpret God’s will.

And so it goes. The Vatican continues to oppose abortion and millions of women around the world — many of them Catholics in developing countries — continue to have them because they don’t give a hoot about church teaching on this issue…

…If given the choice, most women would have a couple of kids — not six or eight. If the Catholic Church really cared, it would be handing out condoms and birth control pills all over the Third World.

It’s almost like the church gets off on female suffering.

Repost from Fr. Z, with his comments on a UofM’s editorial in red left intact:

The Catholic Church has their hands full
3 March 2009

By Jason Caviness
Columnist

The Catholic Church is in a royal hubbub again. You have probably read about Bishop William Richardson, [Yes…. "William Richardson" and not "Richard Williamson".  He is off to a splendid start, this budding young columnist.] the Catholic priest who recently had his excommunication lifted by Joseph Ratzinger, now commonly referred to as Pope Benedict XVI. Richardson made headlines in late January when he went on Swedish television and had this to say – with a straight face – about the Holocaust, “I believe there were no gas chambers … I think that two to three hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps … but none of them by gas chambers.”

Richardson was excommunicated back in 1988 for reasons unrelated to his Holocaust denial by Pope John Paul II, who Richardson criticized for being too progressive and not nearly medieval enough in his condemnations. After John Paul II shuffled off his mortal coil and was replaced with a good old fashioned woman – and homosexual-hating pontiff – Richardson was welcomed back into the holy clubhouse. That is, until footage of him making idiotic statements about the Holocaust aired all over the world. Now all of a sudden the Vatican is feigning outrage and are trying to distance themselves from this public relations snafu.

People all over the world are expressing their surprise with Richardson’s faulty grasp on reality, but why are they shocked? This is not the first time that the church has done something shockingly ridiculous, nor will it be the last. The thing is, doing and saying outrageous things is their stock-in-trade. Without their callous disregard for evidence and reason, there wouldn’t even be a church. After all, what is Christianity without the immaculate conception? Without the resurrection? Without the worship of a trinity that is somehow not polytheism?  [Also well-schooled in metaphysics, I see.]

[Up to this point, the puppy has merely shown some coarse bigotry.  Now he reveals his lack of understanding of understanding about the relationship of fides and ratio, auctoritas and intellectus.]

Richardson and the Vatican are only a part of the problem. The real villain here is irrationality itself. Without irrationality, religion would never have gained the foothold it currently has on the human condition. Irrationality leads to things [the depth!] like the Holocaust and 9/11 (Richardson also denies that planes struck the towers). Irrational thought makes a virtue of faith, which is belief without evidence to support it.  [sigh… ]

Once you believe virgins can get pregnant, anything goes. [back to the bigotry] Many irrational beliefs are innocuous enough; virgin birth, walking on water, healing the sick with only a touch. But once logic has been devalued to the point of irrelevancy, the mind is open to infection by the worst ideas that man can devise, and there are always evil men eager to pollute the minds of others.

The bishop clearly has no regard for evidence (indeed, what “holy” man does?). [Prepare yourselves for the irony of the following… savor the irony…]  We know the Holocaust occurred because of a convergence of evidence, not just because somebody told us so. Richardson’s mind is apparently so conditioned to accepting things on “authority” that he feels no pressure to provide evidence to support his stupid claims. Richardson and the Vatican will tell you irrevocably false nonsense like Communion wafers and wine are literally the body and blood of Christ, and that’s harmless enough. [back to bigotry] But they will also tell you horribly destructive things. They will tell you AIDS is not as bad as condom use. They will tell you you are a wretched creature who is guilty of a sin committed – inexplicably – prior to your birth, and that you should lead a guilt-ridden life because of it.  [young fool]

I will acknowledge religion has done some good and that it continues to do so. But this latest fiasco betrays the true tenets of all religion; [as if he knew any of them that well… but let that pass] deceit and hostility towards reason. Try as they may to separate themselves from Richardson and his cohorts in the uber-conservative Society of St. Pius X, [Consider the writer’s ability to get Williamson’s name right, ... ] the church will forever have PR issues like this one. By embracing superstition over logic, they have guaranteed as much.