Opus Dei To Hunt Down Vatican Whistle-Blowers 286
First time accepted submitter Aguazul2 writes "In a familiar story relocated into the bizarre world of the Vatican, a whistle-blower who brought to light excessive overpayments on contracts to friendly suppliers was sent to the USA as punishment, and further sources of leaks are now being hunted down by a crack team headed by an 82-year old Opus Dei cardinal. It's just like Wikileaks, only with parchment and quills — probably."
Typical Vatican thinking (Score:5, Interesting)
Let me clearly state from the outset that I bear no ill will against any individual Catholics who wish to abide by the religion of their choosing. But to look at the long history of the corruption and arrogance of the Catholic hierarchy and not feel completely outraged is to facilitate their wrongdoing.
Just two recent examples: First, the child rape scandal. It was going on for decades, while superior members of the clergy would help cover up the abuse of children by pedophile priests by shuffling them around, colluding with local law enforcement to intimidate families, and paying hush money. To this day they fight the allegations, trying to minimize the impact of what they did and frame their actions as that of a small number of isolated "deviant homosexual" priests, while complaining about paying money to victims that they could be using "for the greater good." They don't talk about making reparations or holding accountable the officials who turned a blind eye or even assisted in the systemic corruption of covering up these atrocities.
Second example: this case. So the Vatican has been shown to be corrupt in its financial dealings, and what is their reaction? Hunt down the whistleblowers, rather than punish the ones doing the actual crime! It's the same kind of thinking--what threatens the Church, in their view, is not the failure to do the morally proper thing. It's whomever exposes their leadership for the arrogant crimes they commit under the guise of being holy.
I don't understand how Catholics can sanctify these dirty old men as the self-appointed leaders of their faith. If that's what your spirit tells you, then maybe you should consider the possibility that you're being held spiritually hostage by these people as a way to further their power, and the reality is that if you truly want to be closer to God, there are far better ways to do that than through these morally bankrupt charlatans.
Re:Which is why... (Score:4, Interesting)
Why yes, because corruption in non-religious areas is unheard of.
Corruption is highest in areas where the people have the reputation of being incorruptible/working for the public good.
Religions are in this group, but so are...
Unions,
Activist Organizations,
Health Services,
Government Services,
Education,
Science...
Actually I am willing to bet the areas where there is less corruption (At least in corruption/dollar) is probably in business as everyone expects them to already be corrupt.
Re:my MIT classmate works at Vatican (Score:2, Interesting)
Who cares what state-of-the-art equipment they have, when they still believe in ghosts and goblins? All the scientific work in the world does not for one second make up for what this circus of repressive idiots did to Galileo Galilee, or for the actions of the Inquisition, so it makes no difference if they're doing observations, their data cannot be relied upon because they think an imaginary creature created all the stuff they're looking at, with the supposedly state-of-the-art equipment you claim they're using.
Also, as for pens and quills, although every single thing of theirs may be hilariously outdated, let me ask you this: have you ever heard the expression "getting medieval on their asses"? The Catholic Church excels in exactly ONE AREA: tormenting people, and making them regret having ever been born. They're EXPERTS at that shit, the fucking assholes... no one, not even their phony-baloney "god" knows how much misery that fucking organization is responsible for, it's uncountable and boundless, and as long as it continues to exist, it will continue to pervert and warp the minds of its members, and try to spread the evil of its dogma around the world. Much like just about every other religion on the planet. How sad.
Re:Which is why... (Score:2, Interesting)
The Vatican has the right... It is not a democracy
Now that's interesting. Where do you think rights come from? I would argue that a non-democratic government has no legitimate right to do anything.
Re:Religion (Score:5, Interesting)
A few years ago, I was approached by a customer to create 1500 bumper stickers that said "Gay Guys Suck!". My boss got all squeamish, and was really hesitant to do this, as he didn't want our company to be seen as "anti-gay". I couldn't help but laugh at his discomfort, and went ahead with the job anyway.
The customer that wanted the stickers was a buddy of one of my buddies, and they were intending to hand them out at the gay pride parade in Salt Lake City (which is a surprisingly popular event here). The design was a psychedelic rainbow with black text. Oh, and when I say "buddies" I mean two guys that have been together for 15 years, and attend each and every pride parade, doing something like this each and every year.
The sticker was *designed* to generate a knee-jerk response from people who just don't get it, in a very clever version of "Bwahaha... sometimes you straight folks are so silly when you try not to be awkward..."
Don't always take what people say at seeming face value; sometimes there's a deeper concept you might be missing. The above post could actually be pretty clever, viewed in the right light.