Ungodly

I'm starting to think "Catholic" is code for "Cthulhu":

A NINE-year investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorised thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades - and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.

The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic'' in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order.

Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

Victims of the system have long demanded that the truth of their experiences be documented and made public, so that children in Ireland never endure such suffering again.

But most leaders of religious orders have rejected the allegations as exaggerations and lies, and testified to the commission that any abuses were the responsibility of often long-dead individuals.

I've no doubt that there is some exaggeration and a few "false memory" incidents involved here, but I'm not inclined to charity where the Roman Catholic Church is concerned. The church has systematically manipulated political and social institutions to their advantage for over a millennium; any amount of punishment and public scorn they may receive is too little and too late.

From selling the papacy to the highest bidder to operating the Spanish Inquisition to helping smuggle Nazi leaders out of Europe, I can find no redeeming quality in their version of religion. Let them hang.