So what inspires this mini rant you ask; well who other than the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church has been in the news today after Pope Benedict wrote an open letter to “help in the process of repentance, healing and renewal.” from the paedophilia revelations. This was done shortly after the head of the Catholic church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady apologised for his role in covering up the abuse allegations. All this comes across as a massive PR stunt by the Catholic Church to attempt to restore the public’s confidence in the archaic institution. If the Pope and his cronies really did regret the actions of its members then they might sack some of the people involved instead of protecting them, as in the case of Cardinal Bernard Law who was given a job in Rome after accusations of child abuse. He is wanted by a grand jury; perhaps the Church thinks it is above secular morality where people are expected to pay for their sins with time in jail. I don’t. 

This aside, the Catholic Church has a fundamental problem when it comes to trust because it is hard to trust an institution that, not only is built on a bed of lies, but that continues to lie in order to protect its perceived religious righteousness. Pope Benedict is well known for his blatant lies about contraception and aids and on the very day the Catholic Church is trying to make amends for raping children and covering it up a Catholic adoption charity wins the right to discriminate against same sex couples.

Sorry about the rape, the homophobia and the aids; Believe in Jesus!

Now whether you agree with same sex couples adopting children or not is not the issue I wish to raise here. Clearly the Catholic Church does not and has fought to support that opinion in court. What I do want to draw attention to is the lies; refusing to allow a couple to adopt on the basis of their sexuality is discrimination simple.

Not according to The Bishop of Leeds, Right Rev Arthur Roche, who said outside the court: “Our case has not been brought on an anti-gay agenda of any sort. We respect, and would not want to diminish, the dignity of any person.” But that’s exactly what they are doing! There is no other way of describing it; they are depriving same sex couples from having children on the basis of their sexuality and for no other reason. That is discrimination; that is an anti-gay agenda. Yet again a member of the church is blatantly lying, something isn’t so just because you say it is, although I realise this is the basis of faith. You can’t say you aren’t being homophobic while at the same time celebrating a victory in court that allows you to discriminate against homosexuals. You don’t get to say you respect the rights of all individuals when you are being prejudicial.

So the Catholic Church has lied about raping children, discriminating against homosexuals and contraception, thus condemning millions to die from aids, and they expect us to take their word for it when they say there is an omnipotent creator watching our every move and sorting us into heaven or hell. They better hope for their own sakes that they’re wrong.