Finally, an Admission Catholic Clergy Focus on Themselves

George Weigel writes often about his Catholic Church. He has written several books. Almost universally he defends every aspect of it. In his review of an internal study of the clergy by the Church itself, Weigel notes that the clergy system in the church is a caste system. It operates to protect its members and maintain its superior status within the Catholic Church. 

Weigel writes the caste system, where those who rank above others can behave badly but retain control of those under them preventing any disclosure, is at the heart of the Catholic problem. It was this system that prevented those who knew about sexual abuse from doing anything to stop it. The requirement clergy retain their superior and untouchable status within the denomination meant disclosure was not allowed. This superior position was more important than the victims of sexual abuse. Victims were expendable, the prestige of clergy was not.

The scholar Weigel makes general suggestions that oversight of the clergy needs to come from official boards made up of lay leaders. When clergy already own all the stock in the company it is hard to envision how any "outsiders", even lay people with lofty credentials, would ever be allowed authority over clergy. Leaders in the clergy would ask, "What's in it for us?" 

Control by religious leaders over those who give them money seems never to end. Besides Catholics there are the Mormons. It took some effort, but it was finally revealed the Mormon Church has, not millions, but billions of dollars. If members were ever allowed to vote on the simple question, "Do you want your religious leaders to control billions of your dollars?" I wonder what the answer would be? Perhaps the majority of members would say "yes." Religions seems to destroy rational thinking in people.

So called "religious freedom" is like a pet dog that does not want to be on a leash. For its own safety it needs, not only to be on a leash, but on a short one.