Informant38

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan One could not read the pope's words and doubt his dismay. One could not read them without imagining too the anguish behind them. Surely they gave heart to the good priests and seminarians who need to know the pope is on their side; certainly the bad priests, and their protectors in the hierarchy, understood what the pope thinks of them and their actions.

And yet, one must hope the pope's letter was only a beginning, only a prologue to action more grave and definitive.

{somewhere in there is buried a key element of the split - the mentally unhinged break between the spirit and the world. or however you're comfortable describing it. this is a world leader. this is a very serious subject. BUT. this is also an institution and a man who believe in the active presence of evil spirits. and they walk along this thin tightrope line between publicly admitting that and surrendering the bulk of their credibility and influence, or quietly almost secretly doing things like exorcising demons. well? the devil in the sacristy? the therapist or the exorcist? mumbo jumbo or freud? it's these narrow places that don't allow wishy-washy buffet-style spirituality to coexist with scientific and logical thought. and gradually erode the power of these men and their institutions. either the devil is a real and active participant in the affairs of the world or the catholic church is a morally bankrupt institution of cowardly and delusional eunuchs.
so these columnists and commentators themselves tread the same stretched line, because they have to balance the truth of the world as they see it with the powers held by these men and their institutions, can't say bad things about scientology or they'll come around and trash your whole existence. can't criticise the parish priest for molesting your son they'll run you out of the diocese(this happened to my father's family). and eventually it all piles up which is where this subject began. evil is real and'other' or evil is real and 'inner'. or both of course but not accurately. but the 'media' has to give credence not because of the possibility of truth but because of the political power wielded by these institutions. thus the Mormons, a religion of dull-witted nonsense with a great deal of economic power is given deference in this country. and thus it's a big scandal about priests and pedophilia/homosexuality, when this is neither new nor surprising to anyone but the most naive.}