The Australian media is in a 'bite its own leg off' frenzy over the impending canonisation of Sister Mary MacKillop.
It is happening as I type. The canonisation, not the self-legectomy.
As an atheist and the son of a man who carried the mental (and physical) scars of mistreatment by Catholic nuns for all of his life, it can't be over soon enough.
At least he wasn't in the care of Catholic priests.
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Ummm...Matthew Chapter 18 verse 5 comes to mind, Lee.
ReplyDelete(Even atheistic humanists own bibles)
Avus: Some people ascribe to Proverbs 22:15. But I don't believe that the intent is to maim the child. Could be wrong, of course.
ReplyDeletePersonally I am a "1 Tim 5:23" man.
ReplyDeleteIntended or not, too many of us suffered at the hands of organized religion. I know what your dad went through Lee, as an escaped Catholic myself. I'm not looking forward to my cannonization either...
ReplyDeleteI came, I read...but who the hell is Mary MacKillop?
ReplyDeleteI think I heard that this particular saint-nominee is known for having brought a pedophile priest to justice in the nineteenth century.
ReplyDeleteNominating an appropriate saint should do a WHOLE lot to resolve the church's problems in this area. Action of this kind is bound to assure that the world can breathe easy and know that it's "never again" when it comes to pedophile scandals in the Catholic church.
Beating a child into submission or as a punishment is abhorrent in any situation. We make the false assumption that just because these nuns and priests are dressed in the habit of the church that they are morally superior to us.
ReplyDeleteThey are human, good and bad, holy and wicked and some are profundly attempted to abuse the trust and power somewhat naively still given to them by some of us.
It is almost an autonomic, reflexual habit of these people to immediately cover up such atrocities all in the 'good name' of the church, as the church in their eyes must come first.
It has come out recently that she stood up against a paedophile priest. Was excommunicated for her efforts and then readmitted later. Sainthood is based on two certified miracles of people being cured of the incurable after praying to her.
ReplyDeleteThe other side of the ledger, people who prayed to her and weren't cured, is never taken into account, for some reason.
If the truth be known Avus, as an atheist humanist I probably know the Bible better than you do.
ReplyDeleteDoes this assume that I am not an atheist humanist too, Lee?
ReplyDelete