Thursday, February 7, 2013

Talk About Sickness

We are making great strides towards health here today and Mr. Moon is actually on his way to Publix to pick up a few items and I won't even tell you what was on that list I gave him except to relate part of a conversation we had about it which went like this:

Him: Do you want yellow or chocolate? I want fluffy icing.
Me: You just pick out whatever sort of cake you want.

We're at that place where we're hungry but nothing sounds good (with the possible exception of cake) and the idea of cooking makes me want to cry a little.

So I watched most of a documentary about the Catholic Church sexual abuse problem (problem! Haha!) called "Mea Maxima Culpa, Silence In The House Of God"  because I'd already seen the episodes of Shahs of Sunset which Bravo was offering.
I have one thing to say.
The Catholic Church needs to be destroyed.
I mean, really. That's the only humane, Christian thing to do if you ask me. Not just because they've been covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests for thousands of years but because it is a twisted, fucked-up, sucker of money from the poor all over the world. That and oh, you know, the way they discriminate against women and refuse to admit that condoms save lives and so forth.
I cannot believe that anyone takes those gowned and capped old white men seriously, much less believes for one second that they are holy and that the most ornately gowned and capped old white man of them all has the capability to tell us humans what GOD wants us to know.
What fucking crap.

Here's the trailer of the film.





Pretty powerful. But you know, as the film points out, the Catholic Church is the most powerful organization on earth. So I have little hope for any sort of real justice for any of its victims, whether they be women in third world countries who die in childbirth with their tenth child in nine years or whether they are adults who will never, ever be right in their hearts, their minds or bodies because of being sexually abused.

Okay. That's my rant for the day.

It's been a quiet, laid-back and laying-down sort of day in Lloyd, Florida. It rained on and off all day and I've never seen as many birds at the feeder as we've had lately. We found Miss Baby's latest secret cache of eggs in an old flower pot in the pump house and there are now a dozen beautiful, small, pale ivory eggs in the refrigerator. She'll probably find a new place to lay now that we've taken these. She is such a wild thing, that little hen.

We are in less pain today, we are recovering. The viral illness has done its work in our bodies and soon, its presence here will be just a bad memory. Okay, maybe a memory worthy of a little PTSD but still- we'll get over it.
But some things no one can ever recover from. Not entirely.
And I thought about that today, as I watched that film, as the horror of the sickness of the Catholic Church was documented before my eyes. But I will say this- every one of the incredibly brave victims who are still alive and who come forward to face their abusers (which, believe me, is one of the hardest things in the world to do- I was never able to directly do it), are helping to perhaps, maybe, possibly, make it impossible for this sickness to stay hidden, for those who cover-up to retain any sort of comfort in their roles as enablers.

One can only hope.

And, I guess pray. If one does that which I do not. Because believe me- it's not JUST the Catholic Church where the power of the pulpit allows for such hideous abuse.
Within any religion wherein the power is centered on a few, there is bound to be misuse of that power and it is always the most innocent who are harmed.

Which is why I worship trees and babies and oceans and stuff. Or, well, really like them and get my spiritual needs fulfilled by them.

Be well, y'all.

Love...Ms. Moon

P.S. My abuser was not a priest but a stepfather. Which is incredibly common. And I think about the fact that priests are addressed as "Father" and I shudder.






12 comments:

  1. Wow. That clip alone was intense. I wonder when it's coming out officially? Our whole city is in a sort of quiet uproar about the sins of Cardinal Mahoney, but I have to admit that life goes on for most Catholics. I think the evil is so great that they all turn their eyes, sort of like what most Germans did when the Nazis methodically began their own evil. If you don't mind, I'm going to post that clip, too -- maybe tomorrow when I feel better.

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  2. Elizabeth- The documentary is running on HBO. Please, always, use what you want.

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  3. Yes. Sometimes the darkness of misused power feels like it swallows my soul too. I keep hoping and pulling for change, and secretly feeling that it may just be impossible without a total societal implosion. Wide scale stuff, which is also a little scary. But then again not as scary as some of the stuff going on in the world. I'm babbling.

    Basically, I liked what you had to say. (well, you know) Especially about the trees and babies and oceans.
    xo

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  4. God, Mary. I was raised Catholic, and while I still find parts of Mass really powerful (I like ceremony, I guess) I left a long time ago. I was 14 when I knew it was deeply fucked up, and then when I was 20 and went to Vatican City and instead of feeling, like a good Catholic girl, like I'd entered the holies of holies, I was sick to my stomach. All of that talk, all my life, about sacrifice and ablution and sin and here was a golden palace. And yet, Catholics don't have a monopoly--clearly--on ugly religion. Westboro, Scientology, Mormons, all of it: blech.

    I'm not sure this was the best recovery documentary to watch while coming out of an illness! I think I'd go back to being sick as hell.

    But. Glad you're feeling better. And calling these mofos out.

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  5. I will watch your video but not today. I have to have the strength for it and that is not now. I wonder if karma is real. I hope so anyway. I am glad you are gradually recovering. S Jo.

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  6. Trees and babies and oceans and stuff. I am with you on that. And maybe appreciating that all those things are connected and interdependent.

    The Catholic Church IS being destroyed -- it's destroying itself. All you need to do is look at all the Catholic schools that are closing, and at all those empty pews in the churches (especially in Europe!), to see evidence of that. It is a structure for another time. And if there is a God, I believe he agrees.

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  7. I'm soooo glad you and Mr Moon didn't die of the plague that tried to KILL everyone. I mean, viruses are so stupid. Kill your host and then what? Where you gonna live, you stupid virus.

    Speaking of the host. The Catholics are imploding, and not a minute too soon. I walked away from organized religion when I was 14. The Anglicans were so irrelevant. Later I found out Father (yech) Frey was abusing kids. Figures.

    There is a special place in hell for abusers of all kinds.

    And the Boy Scouts-WTF?

    Love always,

    Beth

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  8. Appetite is hugely overrated at times but there are moments when only cake will deliver. I know, I have been there (too often?).
    But if you can stomach documentaries on the church of evil, you are on your way. Have a look at devils disguised as nuns, if you can handle even more cruelty:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtxOePGgXPs

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  9. the amount of money that was supposed to be for the catholic schools here where i am that got diverted into the legal defense fund is staggering-not as much as the silence and the fact that the abuse was covered up and allowed to perpetuate for YEARS. i am deeply ashamed to have taught in that system.

    xxalainaxx

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  10. I couldn't agree more only adding that all those fucked up religions need to go.

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  11. I am glad to not be part of any organized religion. I know that my wife was raised Catholic and the guilt seems to rule her life at times. I am glad to not have had religion added to the other problems in my childhood.

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  12. I've sent my kids to Catholic School. Mostly so they could make their own decisions about Religion, but be exposed to the one we were both raised in. I haven't been to church since I was 11 and they fired/moved the priest I liked because he was an alcoholic. I knew them to be hypocrites because half the congregation were alcoholics too. Anyway, the kids were both relieved we let them make the choice, since they are logical children, they saw it for what it is. An effed up mess.

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