Naming names

a former nuncio (ambassador) from the Vatican to the US discusses the scandal, and names names.

full letter here.

I worked for the gov't in the US and understand how bureaucracies work, (i.e. delays and the evidence going missing).

and in this case, Pope Benedict's comments about the "gay mafia" in the church's curia (bureaucracy) seems pertinent. To remove them would have taken time and legal procedures, which might not work due to obstruction by other big shots with an agenda.

So Pope Benedict resigned under pressure... shortly after he received a report (never released) about the problems...

But the background you need to know is that a new pope receives the resignation of everyone, so it would have been easy to clean the swamp.

but that didn't happen.

as for Wuerl: He knew what was going on in Altoona when I was there, and unless he was blind he must have known about the priests cruising in the gay bars of Pittsburgh back then. But of course, it was "consensual" sex, so who cared (duh).

And he promoted a "sex ed" program for Catholic schools that had a lot of my neighbors upset too, but I don't know the details.


here is the Washingtonian puff piece on Wuerl.from 2011.

how bad is all of this?

Well, according to Kuya, the sermon at mass today was about the problem.

here gays are part of the culture and accepted as part of the family.

but we also have outsiders pushing an aggressive "gay agenda" here which is not the same thing.

Here, the sex tourism is mainly guys looking for girls, but there is also a large gay sex tourism component (often associated with drugs and one reason for the increase in HIV here), not to mention that we are a center for pedophilia against street kids of both sexes and also a world leader in cyberporn.

I don't know how bad it is here in the Philippines: Here, traditionally priests have wives on the side in the same way that businessmen have "second wives" on the side, and no one cares.

but Duterte says he was abused, and he has a grudge against the self righteous clergy who oppose the drug war but not drug use, and who get photo ops with crooked politicians who often steal money slated to help the poor.

so I suspect it is just a matter of time until things blow up here too.

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But this article at Huffpost (via Instapundit) is quite disturbing: it's R rated so I won't quote it, but this is sexual abuse, and yes, I've seen it when serial predators hit on young girls too: and yes, some girls who are abused also get into a promiscuous lifestyle, not because they want sex, but because (like the author of the above post) they want love.

it's not just priests: it's teachers, strangers, and neighbors.

millstone anyone?