The Last Death Knell of Catholicism

The Irish government released a report today, detailing the decades of abuse meted out to thousands of adolescents by nuns and priests in Catholic reform institutions around the nation.
I recently saw a documentary on the same subject, and the stories were absolutely horrifying. Not that it surprises anyone anymore, the fact that Catholic priests have, en masse, engaged in the most egregious behavior.

What is still surprising, on some level, is that nations the world over continue to shy away from doing anything meaningful about it. The Irish report solidifies as documented fact what was already a very open secret, but its prescriptions for restitution are numbingly weak.

Most appalling of all is that none of the criminals (and that's what they are, though government reports and newspaper accounts still hew to the much more opaque term "abuser") are named in the Irish report, and the government has no inclination to prosecute anyone. Instead there is a compensation fund set up for victims by the state, the funds of which are provided by........ wait for it...... the taxpayers, not the Irish Catholic Church. Oh yeah, you also have to waive your right to sue both the church and the state in order to qualify for compensation. Nice deal.

I'm hard pressed to think of any other institutions, save the military and the police that has allowed heinous behavior to persist for so long. Same old, same old.

But at the same time, the truth gets out that, and with church attendance dropping precipitously, maybe people are finally getting even in the way that really matters - erasing the power by erasing the numbers.

Paris Hilton's My New BFF

Have you ever seen this show? I literally just watched it for the first time. Why? I'm not sure really, but it was amazing. Not "good" amazing, obviously, but amazing nonetheless.

It'd be real easy to trash this show, but sometimes I get in these weird states where I can tolerate mindless bits of pop culture in a kind of cultural-anthropological sort of way. It's what makes even the most dire reality shows still somewhat intriguing - it's always fascinating to watch how people behave.

Reality shows present one thing to the cameras, but what's really fascinating about them is what's implied about the behind-the-scenes goings-on. To put it more simply, what really draws me to reality shows (sometimes anyway) is that the contestants willingly submit to the torture they're subjected to, even knowing exactly what to expect. I mean, the people on Paris Hilton's My New BFF auditioned for this show because they really thought it was a good idea. Now, their reasons for doing so don't interest me. What does interest me is that a simple cost-benefit analysis of reality show fame would show that it isn't worth it, and yet people - loads of people - go for it anyway.

I'm not sure I have any deeper points to make on the matter right now. It's all more than a bit exasperating, and I could also really not give a shit, but at the same time it's morbidly fascinating.

I have used the word "fascinating" far too many times now.

Good night.