Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Oh what a Conn'er


In a recent address at Leicester's Anglican Cathedral the former leader of UK Catholics Cardinal O'Conner claimed that "secular values" were responsible for the violence in the totalitarian states of the 20th century. Why Catholics (and Anglicans for that matter) allow this buffoon to speak in public is beyond me, it must be deeply embarrassing for educated Christians to listen to such ignorant dogma. Any historian worth their salt would point out that it was TOTALITARIAN (the clue is in the name) systems of government with psychopathic leaders that were the problem with the Nazis, Pol Pot and Stalin et al, not just the separation of church and state, not to mention how he would explain WW1? Such a simplistic "re-telling" of our (shared) bloody past betrays a blatant attempt to reassert Catholic influence in a world where it's clearly in decline. In a strange way I'm reminded of the pathetic assertions of longevity that Muammar Gaddafi made in the dying days of his regime; with support waning and universal condemnation over the paedophilia scandal does the Catholic church feel like it's making a final stand before it sinks into oblivion like every overly confident religion before it?

I would like to remind Murphy O'Conner that his organisation and him personally oversaw the covering up of the most horrific crimes of child abuse in the 20th century a sin for which he has mysteriously never been brought to account. If you are thinking that the photo above isn't of O'Conner then you would be right, it's Father Michael Hill the priest now serving a prison sentence for abusing children (including handicapped children). O'Conner (the then Bishop of Hill's diocese) knew that this man was a paedophile and yet failed to do the right thing and report him to the authorities, he was allowed to continue exploiting vulnerable kids.

How anyone can take any assertion about morality from O'Conner seriously is beyond the wisdom of any saint, Catholic or otherwise.

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