Poor, poor Pope (who owns Prada shoes)

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'" Matthew 19:23-24

I won't go on and on about how horrible and sad and disgusting a large part of the Catholic Church's history is. You likely know it already. The history books are filled with stories about the castration of young boys so they could be sopranos forever and sing for the Pope. The orphanages that were really just brothels for pedophile priests and lets not even talk about the neighborhood priests that preyed on trusting families and their sons whose role as altar boy came with serious unspoken job responsibilities.

Let's take all that and put it on a shelf shall we?

Let's talk about the grown, retired workers of the church. The men and women who for decades worked for wages way under standard pay for the same jobs in the private sector. The same folks who were practically volunteered for this church as a career choice, went to Mass at least on Sundays and paid their tithing on time. It seems that the lovely Catholic church has had to declare bankruptcies many, many times over and now they can't afford to pay their retirement pensions. The pensions that are not protected or insured because they are from a religious organization and not a private company. The money is gone. And they don't have to pay and they won't.(click here to read the article.)

These people.Who own this?  They are broke. Sorry ma'am, we just can't give you your $400 per month pension that you just worked your entire adult life for.  We have lawyers to pay.

Isn't that a crying shame??  That they can't fund their own pension plans because for centuries they decided to molest, rape and abuse the children of the world and then got caught.  And the getting caught part is really what matters, because if they hadn't gotten caught you can bet your retirement fund that they certainly would still be doing it and still hiding away the victims and the perpetrators.  

 I can't look at the photos of the Vatican and see beauty.  I don't see it in my neighborhood churches, in the fancy stained glass windows or the polished brass candlesticks.  It all just looks like greed to me. 

It looks, well, sinful.

And what is so sad, is that the church is filled with good people too.  Priests who are an encouraging and inspiring force for so many.  Nuns who dedicate their lives to feeding the poor and running huge organizations that are a lifeline for millions of people.  How frustrating and sad for the members of the church to see this and have the whole world looking at them with a "Tsk, tsk, tsk" wag of the finger. 

The leader of the church can help heal this travesty.  Yet he continues to avoid and pretend it isn't happening or that the millions of his followers don't deserve an explanation as to why these things are happening.  Why the very best of what the Catholic Church has been and can continue to be is not what we think of first when we hear about the church. 

I'm not sure what the followers of this religion can do.  Priests are trying to stand in front of their congregations make apologies on the church's behalf, which is fine.  But its a band-aid trying to cover a mortal wound.  The healing needs to start somewhere much bigger.  And what's sad is that I don't think that will happen with this Pope.  He is allowing anopportunity for recovery to just slide by.  And that is really just another travesty to add to the long list.