Via the Washington Post, the Vatican is on the defense, trying to protect the reputation of the Pope in the wake of the latest child rape scandals:
The defense of the pope, outlined in an interview Tuesday by the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's official spokesman, came as the church hierarchy is launching a public relations blitz in the United States and Europe to ease Catholic anger and bolster the pope's image in sermons and interviews ahead of Easter Sunday.No sense of responsibility. These people are shameless.
In the New York Times, Maureen Dowd eviscerates the leadership of the Catholic Church. This one is a classic:
It doesn’t seem right that the Catholic Church is spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin.Definitely worth a read. Dowd was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools. Today's column is written by someone who knows the beast. It's appropriately vicious.
Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused — and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged — children.
The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.
This week of special confessions and penance services is unfolding as the pope resists pressure from Catholics around the globe for his own confession and penance about the cascade of child sexual abuse cases that were ignored, even by a German diocese and Vatican office he ran.
