Breaking the law

Vatican: St. Peter and Castel Sant'Angelo around 1835. Drawing by Major Irton, engraving by R. Sands

How does it come about that Canon Law is allowed to take precedence over the common law of other countries, in which the Vatican has ‘outposts’ — as if Roman Catholic priests had diplomatic immunity? Religion and law make bad bedfellows, and no citizen of any country should be above — or outside of — general civil and criminal law. It is as unacceptable as if French law were to apply in Dover and English law in Calais. Naturally, I raise this question in wonderment that paedophile priests in the UK and Erie are not — only too often — treated as the common criminals that they are, arrested and put on trial. Happily [sic] in America and Australia — and now in Belgium — Canon Law has been overridden, and offending priests have been arrested and imprisoned (following due process), just like any other ‘moral law–breakers’. Their treatment at the hands of other prisoners has in many cases been as violent as that meted out to other paedophiles, and at least one — John Geoghan, of Boston, USA — has been murdered. I do not remotely applaud the latter action, but find that my eyes are quite dry.

For decades, I believed that Roman Catholic priests were the holiest beings on earth — for all that I did not share their beliefs. The dog collar put me to shame in my youth, and I somehow felt that I had a duty to believe. Now, I view the dog collar with astonishment bordering on derision. However, this is — albeit ineluctably — tantamount to tragic in its consequences, given that it is tarring with the same brush some of the finest human beings alive. The Vatican is the problem. It is corrupted with power — as always — and the stench now emanating from it has reached the nostrils of all. In so doing, it has utterly dismayed thousands — if not millions — of Catholics whose primary inspiration is derived from the example and teachings of Christ. We might well wonder if Pope Benedict XVI has any cognizance of the contents of the New Testament, so absolutely does he seem to be dedicated to the congealment of doctrine and the maintenance of power. ‘Every Stoic was a Stoic; but in Christendom where is the Christian?’ Emerson wrote. Well, I have exampled such recently — Bonheoffer, Archbishop Romero, and Desmond Tutu, to name but a few — but I do not include Joseph Alois Ratzinger among them. He is so careful in his theology that I cannot see Christ’s having a moment’s patience with him. Well, it cannot last. There is a wonderful museum in the Vatican, and at some point in history that it what it will become in its entirety. For the rest, it is anthropology — right now.

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Postscript

As some of you know, I shall shortly be starting a course with the University Of Cambridge Institute Of Continuing Education — as indeed will some of you! — and this will almost certainly mean that my blogs will be sporadic. They take up quite a lot of time, and I am not prepared to write anything that is not considered. On the other hand, I sometimes just ‘get an idea’, and a blog follows. However, if my wife, Liz, sees me writing something, she generally says, ‘You’re not blogging again are you?’ I have no defence!