Back in February, I pointed out a controversy caused by a political cartoon from December, by Mark Fiore, who has won the Pulitzer Prize. And he’s the first to do it with animated cartoons.
But before this good news, it turns out that December was a doubly troublesome month for Fiore, because that was when his iPhone app was rejected by Apple Computer. Why? Because it “ridicules public figures.”
Follow-up: Fiore submitted his app again, and this time it was accepted, but the decision had to come from Steve Jobs.
Jeaniebeanie, I’m sorry that you felt personally attacked. It was never my intention to make this exchange of ideas personal in nature. I thought I had just stuck to ideas of the subject matter at hand.
I debated writing anything for a few days, since you indicated that you had just become a Roman Catholic on Easter Sunday. But then I thought, “Wait a minute. This is America. We’re supposed to be allowed to voice our opinions, even in disagreement.” Where I think that discussions of different ideas get derailed is when things degenerate into inappropriate name-calling, gross exaggerations and other distortions of accurate facts. And in talk that is obviously hateful and vitriolic…venting of the spleen, as is commonly done by the very popular talk show host Rush Limbaugh (whom, in my opinion, I consider a demagogue).
I have friends who are Roman Catholic and friends who are right wing conservatives. Also, I come from a long line of Roman Catholics, on both sides of my family. I was baptized and confirmed as a Roman Catholic. Much of the time I just don’t “go there” in discussions of the problems in the Catholic Church or political issues, with my friends and neighbors who look at things differently. In my mind, we can agree to disagree.
But I look at this blog rather differently. It’s a public forum. I’m becoming concerned that what will prevail in this country’s politics, for example, is who screams the loudest (in addition to who has the most money to buy influence on Capitol Hill). And there’s a lot of screaming going on out there right now. I’m beginning to worry that if I simply stay silent on certain things because it is easier or because I am lazy, that my silence may imply my agreement. I’m sorry if you thought I was just a screamer here on this blog; that’s the last thing I want to be. I am exasperated with certain things concerning the Roman Catholic church, Wall Street (including Goldman Sachs) and in today’s politics, to be sure. But I hope to never stoop to the level of the kind of savage criticism I hear going on in politics these days, that whips people up into a frenzy of fear.
Getting back to the problems within the Roman Catholic Church, I do believe that there are good priests all over the world who are fine men who are not pedophiles. If some of those men are homosexuals, I really don’t care, as long as they don’t touch underage boys. I’m not against the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy who act responsibly in sexual matters.
Of course, that’s a cutting edge issue, which is causing splits within the various mainline Protestant denominations these days. I don’t expect other people of faith to hold my opinion on that, and I don’t try to sway them, either. We can respectfully agree to disagree on such a controversial subject! I can understand their point of view, even though I don’t share it.
But you’re absolutely 100% right, Jeaniebeanie, the pedophilia within the Roman Catholic church gets much, MUCH more press coverage than the pedophiles within our own cities where we live, or the sex slave trade around the world. The print media, which in many cases is fighting to just stay alive, publishes what is most likely to cause someone to buy that newspaper or magazine. The broadcast media, which competes daily with a plethora of channels to retain its sliver of the pie in ratings, sometimes lurches towards sensationalism and/or appealing to prurient interest in its stories. Who can forget the overkill of the coverage on “the death of Michael Jackson”?!!!
So WHY the media fascination with pedophila among priests, putting other sexploitation stories in the background, which are actually much more lurid in details? I have to refer back to the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic church, in presenting itself on the one hand as a virtuous religious organization, while at the same time SHIELDING pedophile priests from criminal prosecution. People hate hypocrisy, and they hate coverups, as much as the initial crime itself.
Does the Roman Catholic church have ANY public relations experts working for them? The worst things you can do in a crisis are: to not investigate charges with unflagging dedication and total honesty; to not admit adverse findings immediately; to not apologize swiftly; to not make fair restitution to those wronged as soon as possible; and not enact new rules promptly that are clear and strict in attempting to control such problems from happening again. Foot dragging, defensive remarks and “brushing off” accusations are DEADLY mistakes in public relations.
Sadly, the Roman Catholic church bungled things badly, and has not shown adequate transparency in its handling of the pedophile scandals. That turbocharged the sex scandals and dragged the issue out way longer than if it had been handled correctly from the beginning, – when public sympathy WOULD have been with the church hierarachy, for having to endure the nightmare of pedophile priests molesting children under their guidance!
But, since this was NOT done by the bishops and the Vatican, everything became a juicy field day of sex and corruption for journalists to report on to the public. The Roman Catholic church unwittingly served it right up on a platter for the press. No undercover investigation needed, no expensive trips to poke around in a 3rd world country where the journalist doesn’t speak the language, no danger of getting murdered by organized crime rings far from home for discovering the details of sex slave trading, in order to turn out a riveting story.
Yada, Yada, Yada. I was told I’d get attacked once I joined. Make no mistake, I DO NOT buy into a lot of the tenets of the Catholic Church. I did it for my husband, because both his remaining stepsons joined and he wanted his whole family to go to church together. I totally agree with all your points, My REAL religion is God = love. Period. Lizzie, all I meant to say is that a much bigger problem is getting IGNORED because all the press time being allotted to the Catholic Church. I’ve had to endure a LOT of personal attacks lately since becoming a Catholic (NOT a popular thing to be where I live, worse than being Satan), and I’ve barely told anybody. Somehow the news just got out. It’s easy to beat up the Catholic Church because it seems just about everybody can’t stand them, but what about other pedophiles? There’s plenty of THEM out there. And for crying out loud, there ARE good priests out there. I know TWO.
Would I jump off a bridge? No, not again!
Mom said, 2 Wrongs Don’t Make a Right. And “Aww, Mom, OTHER kids do it” was met with, “If they jumped off a bridge, you’d want to do that too?” Yes of course, it matters very, very much that kids are sold into sexual slavery. It’s unspeakably tragic, disgusting, and sad. But that does not in any way lessen the responsibility the Roman Catholic church needs to face in its complicity regarding covering up for pedophile priests, and shielding them from appropriate consequences -like jail time.
I disagree that the Catholic church in the U.S., or in any other country, has the situation well in hand. The April 26th issue of Time magazine in its “Briefing” section, page 12, states that the policy of following civil law on pedophilia was never explicitly documented. The Catholic Church’s guidelines about notifying local police in cases of suspected sexual abuse, released on April 12th, 2010, is STILL only a suggestion – NOT a requirement, according to the Time magazine article.
I don’t see the Roman Catholic church as a scapegoat at all. In fact, I feel it deserves some additional criticism since, by its very nature of following Christ, it holds up a high moral standard for believers. It SHOULD be a whole lot better than those who live in the darkness of their depravity like sex slave traders, who don’t present themselves as moral examples to the world. So you can layer on a repugnant hypocrisy within the Roman Cathlic church hierarchy, on top of the sins of cover-up, and the originating sins of pedophila.
The hypocrisy of the Jewish priests was something that Jesus denounced. The dishonesty going on within the Temple in Jerusalem around Passover time angered Jesus to the point of cleaning out the “den of robbers,” as he called the money changers. I don’t think Jesus would have dragged his feet in dealing wlith pedophile priests, either. His very clear passion for the welfare of children is quoted in the varous Gospels. “It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.” – Luke 17:2, New International Version.
I became a Catholic on Easter Sunday. Both the priests in our parish are upset about the bad rap the Catholic church is getting and has been getting because of the actions of a few guys, but truth be told, ALL big institutions have bad people in them. There is a far, far bigger industry dealing in the exploitation of children that has absolutely nothing to do with the Catholic Church. The Church is a convenient scapegoat, always has been. Yeah, there are some bad guys who have to get out. The U.S. has it covered, but the European and other Catholics are WAY behind in how they are handling it. Still, bad as this problem is, a far more widespread and unspeakable problem is that of childhood sexual slavery. It is WORLDWIDE. The seemingly innocent sporting event of World Cup Soccer hides a terrible dirty secret. Check out this article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952335,00.html
Justice vs. cover-up: When Mother Church puts its reputation ahead of doing everything it can to protect children, something is gravely wrong. Pedophilia is extremely difficult to cure, but priests were moved to new situations where they STILL had contact with kids! Teachers having sexual contact with children have been fired. But many priests were not defrocked.
Covering up such a crime amounts to becoming an ACCESSORY to the crime, after the fact. Didn’t Mother Church understand what Watergate was all about? If you think you’re so important, so indispensible that you’re above the law, it is flirting with catastrophic consequences.
When I was, what used to be called, a Jesus Freak, I briefly attended an Assembly of God church. The preacher called the Vatican “the house of Satan.” That extreme statement was one of the reasons why I felt uncomfortable there, but put into secular terms — corruption, abuse, and crime — I’d say he was right after all.
Love this cartoon! GREAT faces; blind, arrogant comments; the utter silence of the Pope… nails everything in a nutshell!
I have no sympathy for the Vatican and its pig-headed clinging to doctrinal views more appropriate to the 19th century. If Rome continues to insist on an unmarried priesthood but doesn’t want so many male pedophiles, it needs to revisit the issue of – gasp – OMG, FEMALE priests!!
The Vatican’s refusal to consider ordaining women eliminates half the population for candidacy in their clergy, thus rejecting a transfusion of some healthy new blood that is badly needed. When the patient would rather stay on life-support than accept a chance at a cure, you have to wonder at the ridiculous depth of the prejudice involved against the idea of female priests.
Some mainline Protestant denominations have been ordaining women since the middle ot the 20th century. If Reformation leader Martin Luther were alive today, no doubt he’d have a few more statements about the conduct of the church, to add to the 95 Theses he nailed to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany.
You’ll have to show me. Does he make fun of people besides himself?
…and yet Colbert’s Word app is accepted…