Hitchens!

Once again, I find myself agreeing with someone whom I find to be personally loathesome.

But yes, I do agree with Christopher Hitchens 100% on the issue that the Pope, as chief enabler of a state, culture and corporation ("Vatican, Inc.") that endorses and protects child rapists, must answer for the crimes of the church.

As more and more people come forward with their tales of abuse at the hands of Catholic priests, I wish some powerful prosecutor would come forward with a raft of charges against the Vatican, and Ratzinger the ex-Nazi himself. Is it too much to wish for an ICC trial at der Haag? Frankly, I'd love to see him tried and found guilty, and tossed into prison with other child molesters. I'd settle for having him named as some kind of international criminal who is unable to travel outside the walls of Vatican City without being arrested, or even forbidden to travel to some countries (hey, Dick Cheney has been declared a war criminal in Spain, so I can dream, right?).

The church's willingness to settle billions (yes, with a "b") on those who have already gone public, demonstrates that they will pay any amount to protect itself, so why can't a conglomerate of US Attorneys General and their international counterparts file massive suits seeking punitive damages for the rest of the church's money?

Bankrupt them.

And for all those namby-pambies who claim that these were the actions of a few "bad apples," fuck you. The very first time the church moved an abusive priest rather than serve him up to the police, it became institutionalized pederasty, and every child-raping priest breathed a sigh of relief knowing that his job was safe and that no punishment would ever be meted out by the corporation he worked for.

If anyone thinks the Mafia, or the Yakuza or the Russian Mob or the South American drug cartels are bad news, they need look no further than the Catholic church down the block to see where the most powerful gangsters in the world are found.

And the capo di tutti capi is enthroned in the Vatican, the Bishop of Rome in his red Prada shoes, rubbing his hands together as the faithful line up to feed their children to the beasts in cassocks in their communities.

I have to ask this of every parent who is at this moment indoctrinating his children into Catholicism, why? Why are you going to allow YOUR child to become a part of a religion and church that has made shielding child molesters part of its very public corporate policy? Why do you think it won't happen to your child? Do you think the priest in your parish won't hold the same bludgeon of shame and silence over your child that these child-rapists held over their victims?

And when it happens to your child, what will you say to make yourself feel better as your child's rapist is spirited away to another parish to inflict himself on someone else's child? Will those 30 pieces of Vatican silver you receive as hush money assuage your guilt that you knowingly fed your own child to The Beast?