I call Godwin's Law

An apt title for this post. The Catholic Church's latest arguments in defense of the indefensible; the allowing of the raping of children by priests to go on and on and on and on. [edited to correct my mispelling of Godwin, D'oh!]

I have been really busy, which is why I haven't been blogging that much, but something came up yesterday that I just had to blog about. It does touch on my earlier blog on xenophobia. I am referring to the Catholic Church now comparing the media attention focused on pedophile priests and their enablers and protectors in the Catholic Church to Antisemitism.

What this tells us about the mind set of the Catholic Hierarchy is how detached from reality they actually are. The key element of Antisemitism was the Blood Libel against the Jews. This is the false statement that Jews use the blood of Christians in their religious rituals, and to make matzos which were used in Passover rituals. It is quite ironic that it was the Catholic Church that was the main instigator of the Blood Libel against the Jews. It was the centuries of Blood Libel against the Jews by the Catholic Church that set the stage for the Holocaust.

The largest difference between what the media is doing now to the Catholic Church and what the Catholic Church did to the Jews for centuries is that there actually were Catholic Priests who actually did sexually abuse children, the Catholic Church hierarchy actually did cover it up, the Catholic Church hierarchy actually did force children to remain silent (under pain of excommunication), the Catholic Church actually did not report these pedophile priests to secular authorities, the Catholic Church actually did not take effective measures to stop these predators from preying on children, the Catholic Church hierarchy actually did lie about the extent of the problem, first saying it was an American problem, then an Irish problem, and now the flood gates have been opened.

In contrast, the Blood Libel against the Jews is and was actually false. Under Jewish law, what Jews are claimed to have done in the Blood Libel is forbidden. Blood from any source (animal or human) is never kosher and can never be consumed as food. Human flesh is never kosher and can never be consumed as food. Killing is not allowed, human sacrifice is never allowed, Jewish priests are not even allowed to be in the presence of a human corpse. The whole idea of the Blood Libel simply cannot be done by a Jew acting in accordance with Jewish Law so as to perform some Jewish religious ritual.

I first heard about the Blood Libel against the Jews in the mid 1960's, when I was told it by a boy my age who went to a Catholic School. I didn't believe it then because even with my rudimentary knowledge of things Jewish (as a fairly well educated Presbyterian), I knew that it made no sense. The holiday of Passover long predated Christianity, there were no Christians for Jews to use for the first Passover, there could be no “tradition” of using something that would not be available for millennia. There was no Jewish tradition of torture the way there was a Catholic tradition as in the Spanish Inquisition.

Because the Blood Libel against the Jews if false, we know that the hatred of Jews associated with Antisemitism cannot have occurred because Jews actually used the blood of Christians for anything. We know the Blood Libel against the Jews is false, so it cannot have been the actual reason for anything. The hatred came first, the Blood Libel was then made-up to justify the hatred. This observation bears on the false comparison too (discussed later).

As I discuss at length in my post on xenophobia, the hatred of xenophobia comes from dehumanizing of “the other”, due to an inability to understand “the other”, due to a lack of consilience in the Theory of Mind of the two individuals. The lack of ability to understand is due to a lack of brain structures that can instantiate the same mental concepts. People can learn to understand others, but this takes active neuronal remodeling and people can refuse to allow it to happen. This is what bigots do, they wallow in their hatred, refusing to understand those they hate as fellow human beings.

The claim by the Catholic Church Hierarchy that the articles about Catholic Priests sexually abusing children is like Antisemitism would be funny if it wasn't so serious. What it does show is a complete lack of understanding by the Catholic Church Hierarchy as to the seriousness of the sexual abuse of children by priests, a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of the cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by priests, a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of lying about the cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by priests, a complete lack of understanding of the damage that sexual abuse of children by priests does to them, a complete lack of understanding of Antisemitism, and a complete lack of understanding of what centuries of the Blood Libel against the Jews actually did.

Comparing the NYT coverage of the sexual abuse of children by priests to Antisemitism derives from Narcissistic Rage. This is also known as Narcissistic Injury, where criticism (deserved or not, usually deserved), so wounds and hurts the self-image of the person experiencing it, that they lash out to protect the perceived mortal injury to their self-image. Narcissistic injury is about injury to self-image, not any other type of image or any other type of injury. It is most severe when the criticism is justified, and the perpetrator has no justification, no rational explanation to deflect the criticism, so they lash out with rage and seek to destroy and cover-up the criticism. The severity of the narcissistic rage does depend on low nitric oxide. It induces a fight or flight response and can induce acute psychosis and delusional thinking. I think it is this positive feedback of low NO causing more extreme fight or flight and an exaggerated response that causes the severity. It is like road rage, the out of control rage is the same. The wackiness and incoherence of the excuses given for narcissistic injury reflect the acute psychosis caused by the rage.

The cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests was done to protect the image of the Catholic Church. Not to protect the actual Catholic Church, but to protect the image of the Catholic Church. The actual Catholic is the people in it, what they do, what they believe, how they act and treat other people inside and outside the Church. The image of the Catholic Church is what they pretend that they are. Pretending that Catholic Priests did not sexually abuse children didn't change the fact that they did, but it allowed those in the Catholic Church Hierarchy to pretend that it did not happen. This is a sign of delusional thinking, believing something even when there is overwhelming contrary evidence.

Narcissistic injury is typical in top-down social power hierarchies, such as the Catholic Church. In top-down social power hierarchies, who ever is at the top is always right, simply because they are at the top. One moves up in a top-down power hierarchy by sucking-up to those above one, and then as the ones higher up die or retire, then one moves up depending on how well one has sucked-up to those above. When a higher up is shown to have been wrong, that can easily trigger narcissistic injury, and a narcissistic rage. This is how the Bush Administration was run. Cheney wanted a memo saying that torture was legal, so he got a memo saying torture was legal. If necessary Cheney would have replaced lawyer after lawyer after lawyer until he got the lawyer that would do what he wanted. This is what Nixon did in the Saturday Night Massacre, he ordered the Attorney General to fire the Special Prosecutor, the Attorney General resigned instead. Nixon kept ordering people until he found someone who would do what he wanted, a brown-nose suck-up.

I appreciate that the Pope and the Holy See thinks that it is bound by no Earthly laws. This is the nature of top-down hierarchical thinking. In a top-down hierarchy, the only “law” is the whim of those higher than you in the hierarchy. In this respect the Pope is no different than Jim Jong-il of North Korea.

The Narcissistic Injury that the Catholic Church is perceiving to its image is purely one of image. The Blood Libel against the Jews actually resulted in Jews being killed, 6 million of them in the Holocaust. Six million dead because of Antisemitic lies vs the Catholic Church Hierarchy's feelings being hurt because they can't wallow in their delusional denial about the harm that Catholic Priests and their enablers and ultimately that the Hierarchy is responsible for.

What this actually shows is that the Catholic Church Hierarchy is unable to empathize with the children who were sexually abused, unable to empathize with the parents of those children, unable to empathize with normal people who are repulsed by this behavior, and unable to empathize with victims of Antisemitism (living and dead). So who can they empathize with? Beats me, I have no idea. I have more empathy than all of them put together and I have Asperger's.

A top-down social hierarchy isn't run by empathy and understanding, it is run by those at the top dictating and those underneath them following. It is the essence of truthy, where what ever those at the top feel is right is how those underneath them will perceive reality. It is not something that those of us in the reality based community can understand.

That the Catholic Church Hierarchy would make this comparison tells us something. There is no logical basis for the comparison, but the Hierarchy feels that there is a basis for comparison. The Catholic Church Hierarchy feels as though they have been mortally wounded. There is actually no basis in fact for this. The Catholic Church Hierarchy knows better than anyone what actually happened. They have actual records, Priest personnel files, complaint letters, Church trial proceedings, notes from interviews, they can even interview the actual priests involved. None of what is coming out should be the slightest bit surprising to the Catholic Church Hierarchy.

Logically the Catholic Church can 't be surprised by any of this, no matter how much they lie and pretend that they are surprised. They can't be shocked either because they already know it. What is surprising is that they are so out of touch that they think they can fool everyone with their narcissistic rage and nonsensical arguments.

They are also blaming the gays, saying this is not a problem of Catholic Priests being pedophiles, it is a problem of gay people because some of the victims were post-pubescent. This doesn't make any sense at all. That it is brought up is (I think) because the narcissistic rage has induced delusional thinking. People with a gay orientation are not more likely to rape children. Self-identified heterosexual men are the group most likely to do that.

The question of why blaming others for the crimes the Catholic Church Hierarchy is accused of is even brought up? It does nothing to mitigate the harm that the Church has done. It does nothing to heal the victims. It does nothing to prevent future harm. All it does is seek to divert attention away from the actions and inactions of the Catholic Church Hierarchy. The Catholic Church Hierarchy isn't stupid. They know these are invalid arguments. They know they don't matter.

Is the Catholic Church Hierarchy legally culpable? I think they are, even the Pope.

The Vatican Legal team is now claiming that the Pope is immune as the Sovereign of the Holy See and so has sovereign immunity as a head of state. That may be true for ordinary crimes, but there are crimes for which a head of state is not immune. There is no sovereign immunity for Crimes against Humanity.

The Holy See has observer status at the UN, is signatory to a number of International conventions and declarations. By agreeing to these, the Holy See has acknowledge that no person, including a head of state is above the law. By agreeing that no head of state is immune to prosecution for Crimes against Humanity, the Holy See has acknowledge that the Pope himself is not immune to prosecution for Crimes Against Humanity.

Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949

Convention on the non-applicability of statutory limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity. New York, 26 November 1968

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. New York, 10 December 1984

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. New York, 25 May 2000

The Rome Statute

Several of these are relevant. The Rome Statute states:

Article 7

Crimes against humanity

1. For the purpose of this Statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

(a) Murder;

(b) Extermination;

(c) Enslavement;

(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;

(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;

(f) Torture;

(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;

(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;

(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;

(j) The crime of apartheid;

(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

2. For the purpose of paragraph 1: [a-d, f-g omitted]

(e) ‘Torture’ means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions;

Article 25

Individual criminal responsibility

1. The Court shall have jurisdiction over natural persons pursuant to this Statute.

2. A person who commits a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court shall be individually responsible and liable for punishment in accordance with this Statute.

3. In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:

(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or through another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally responsible;

(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs or is attempted;

(c) For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission;

(d) In any other way contributes to the commission or attempted commission of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose. Such contribution shall be intentional and shall either:

(i) Be made with the aim of furthering the criminal activity or criminal purpose of the group, where such activity or purpose involves the commission of a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; or

(ii) Be made in the knowledge of the intention of the group to commit the crime;

(e) In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to commit genocide;

(f) Attempts to commit such a crime by taking action that commences its execution by means of a substantial step, but the crime does not occur because of circumstances independent of the person's intentions. However, a person who abandons the effort to commit the crime or otherwise prevents the completion of the crime shall not be liable for punishment under this Statute for the attempt to commit that crime if that person completely and voluntarily gave up the criminal purpose.

4. No provision in this Statute relating to individual criminal responsibility shall affect the responsibility of States under international law.

Article 27

Irrelevance of official capacity

1. This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular, official capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member of a Government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under this Statute, nor shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence.

2. Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.

Article 28

Responsibility of commanders and other superiors In addition to other grounds of criminal responsibility under this Statute for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court:

(a) A military commander or person effectively acting as a military commander shall be criminally responsible for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed by forces under his or her effective command and control, or effective authority and control as the case may be, as a result of his or her failure to exercise control properly over such forces, where:

(i) That military commander or person either knew or, owing to the circumstances at the time, should have known that the forces were committing or about to commit such crimes; and

(ii) That military commander or person failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.

(b) With respect to superior and subordinate relationships not described in paragraph (a), a superior shall be criminally responsible for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed by subordinates under his or her effective authority and control, as a result of his or her failure to exercise control properly over such subordinates, where:

(i) The superior either knew, or consciously disregarded information which clearly indicated, that the subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes;

(ii) The crimes concerned activities that were within the effective responsibility and control of the superior; and

(iii) The superior failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.

[As I read and understand these, children who were under the control of priests and who were raped by those priests were “tortured”.]

'Torture’ means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused.

...a superior shall be criminally responsible for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed by subordinates under his or her effective authority and control, as a result of his or her failure to exercise control properly over such subordinates, where:

(i) The superior either knew, or consciously disregarded information which clearly indicated, that the subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes;

(ii) The crimes concerned activities that were within the effective responsibility and control of the superior; and

(iii) The superior failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.

The convention on child trafficking requires state actors to criminalize sexual exploitation of children and to cooperate to the greatest extent possible with international agencies to stop that exploitation.

Threatening children who have been sexually abused with excommunication if they report it to civil authorities is also a violation of the child prostitution convention. What matters is not what the document they were forced to sign actually means, what matters is what the child thought it meant and was lead to believe it meant. It was designed to compel their silence while providing plausible deniability. A child doesn't have the legal capacity to understand, or to agree to such a thing. Any such agreement is itself exploitive of the child.

The Catholic Church Hierarchy and the Pope both in his current status as Pope, and in his earlier status in the Office of the Doctrine of the Faith were clearly in a position to know and stop the raping of children, and were clearly in a position to submit the matter to competent authorities in the US, Ireland, Germany, Italy, and many other jurisdictions, and they did none of these. That makes the Catholic Church Hierarchy, including the Pope guilty of crimes against humanity.