Memo to the Catholic Hierarchy: LEAVE THE JEWS OUT OF THIS.

As more sickening details of the Catholic Church's shameful cover-up of child abuse unfolds, the usual apologists have come forward to try to deflect the well-deserved attention this enormous scandal has attracted worldwide.

The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household, delivered remarks in the traditional Good Friday prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica with Pope Benedict in attendance.


According to the New York Times account of the event, Father Cantalamessa noted that Easter and Passover were falling during the same week this year. "They (the Jews) know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms," he said.

Father Cantalamessa quoted from what he said was a letter from an unnamed Jewish friend. "I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole world," he said the friend wrote. "The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."

Really?  Who was this "friend" who compared anti-Semitism with the criticism the Church is dealing with?  I'd like to know who he or she is.  I'd remind this person that anti-Semitism was instituted, encouraged, and promoted by the Catholic Church through millennia and was the basis for Hitler's "Final Solution." 

The scandal and resulting worldwide outrage over it was brought down upon the Catholic Church, not by outsiders who are anti-Catholic, but by the policies, cynicism, and cowardice of the men who lead and run the organization.

What the Church is experiencing is not at all close to the anti-Semitism that Jews have suffered through hundreds of years under Catholic Hierachry--a hierachry that actually encouraged this hatred. 

Pedophilia has been a rot on the Catholic Church for decades--maybe centuries--we'll never know the extent of it.  But we do know that the Church's leadership--up to and including the current Pope covered it up in order to protect the Church's reputation.

The Church cared more about protecting its reputation and standing in the world than it did the lives of innocent, helpless children.  And then when those children became adults and sought justice for those crimes, the Church, with its considerable power, tried to thwart those efforts and blamed the victims. 

And now some spokesman is comparing what the Church is going through to what the Jews suffered AS A RESULT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S history of anti-Semitism? 

If there is anything more evil than that, I don't know what it is.

DISCLAIMER:  Yes.  I and others know that individual priests and nuns and Catholics are good, caring people and not all Catholics should carry the blame for these monsterous crimes (contrary to what the Church's position was on the Jews' carrying the blame through generation after generation for being Christ killers.) 

A fish stinks from the head down.  There's a terrible smell coming from the Catholic Church.