The Catholic Church continues to deny their crimes against children, or otherwise downplay child rape within their community as isolated and insignificant. As a young Catholic, this was one of my first signs to me that there is no god. When I first heard about priests raping young boys, my eight year-old mind immediately thought that no god would allow this to happen. I realized that there probably is no god when the priest in my own church di not denounce the acts and pray for the children, but rather he played the victim card and accused the media of exaggerating the reports.

This problem is far worse than a few clergymen fondling genitals, this is a mass of people blindly defending and supporting an organization that condones and practices child rape and abuse. My family denounced the acts, but also assumed that the incidents were isolated. They continue to monetarily support the Catholic Church’s mission to cover up their crimes. I am deeply ashamed of my family’s position on the matter, but I try not to think about it.

Bill Donohue

This week a report was released on the rape and abuse of 127 girls in Ireland, Bill Donohue continued to minimalize the incidents as the “culture of life,” an absolutely despicable attitude which permits and enables the crimes to continue. We should be questioning the moral integrity of Bill Donohue and every Catholic who defends and supports the church on this matter. Rather than responding to Donohue, I will link to PZ Myers who has already written a beautiful response: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/05/the_catholic_league_downplays.php

We deserve a better moral standard than this. When people ask me why I oppose religion, I point out these repeated incidents. I couldn’t care less how many homeless people they feed, because any secular organization could do the same humanitarian works. I only hold organizations to the same moral standard that I hold myself. I don’t need an eternal supervisor to tell me that child rape is wrong, but apparently their god finds it to be excusable anyway. I cannot have respect for any member of such an organization, and I hope they will soon recognize the same thing that I did as an eight year-old; these acts are inexcusable, and no proper moral standard to live by.