Pope “I will not say a word about this” Francis will still not say a word about this, with “this” of course referring to the massive sex abuse scandal that is worse than we imagined.
When the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska was the only U.S. church that refused to take part in annual reviews of sexual misconduct, it’s almost like they were hiding something. Oh look:
Many of the new allegations in Lincoln focus on the actions of the Rev. James Benton, a 71-year-old priest who retired last year despite church leaders knowing about abuse allegations against him for at least 15 years.
Dr. Stan Schulte, a 37-year-old chiropractor in Lincoln, said Benton, his uncle, molested him at a rectory sleepover in the early 1990s when he was a boy. Another Lincoln man, Jeffrey Hoover, reported a similar experience with Benton during a camping trip in the early 1980s while he and the priest slept in the same bed.
Bishops in Pennsylvania would much rather have a victims’ compensation fund than have legislation that extends the statute of limitations on the crimes committed. I bet they would.
Pat Buchanan says the clock is ticking for the Catholic Church to seriously deal with its crisis, and of course blames tolerance of gays. Oh, he also writes:
Not unlike Watergate, the issue here is whether Pope Francis knew what was going on in the Vatican and in his Church, and why he was not more resolute in rooting out the moral squalor.
For those who do not recall, Buchanan was a White House advisor to Nixon during Watergate.
Susan Gerbic interviews a pair of skeptics coming to CSICon all the way from Brazil, Natália Plasternak and Carlos Orsi. They say they intend to start their own skeptic institute in Brazil, modeled in part after the Center for Inquiry. Well, it just so happens that Fidalgo is a Portuguese name, so we’re already on the same groove.
Maryam Guiahi, an ob-gyn who has worked for a Catholic hospital, writes to the Times to report that over 1 in 5 Catholic hospitals do not report their Catholic identity at all, and that this kind of obfuscation is “bad medicine.”
Lille University in France decides to scrap its degree in homeopathy. Its dean of medicine said:
It has to be said that we teach medicine based on proof – we insist on absolute scientific rigor – and it has to be said that homeopathy has not evolved in the same direction, that it is a doctrine that has remained on the margins of the scientific movement, that studies on homeopathy are rare, that they are not very substantial. Continuing to teach it would be to endorse it.
But if you strike it down, it shall become more potent than you can possibly imagine.
Alissa Wilkinson at Vox looks back at the religious-conservative opposition to Harry Potter, starting when the series launched 20 years ago. For example, a Focus on the Family review of the first book says:
The meaningless charms found in this book may not summon occult forces, but there are real charms that do. … Biblically speaking, to participate in the world of witchcraft brings death rather than a fuller life.
They’re growing minibrains at the University of Pennsylvania. Hey, I’m all for compact brains, as long as they don’t have a notch.
At The Guardian, Molly Scott Cato warns about Europe’s extremist right and its impact on climate policy:
What this fiasco reveals is the huge threat to rational climate action posed by the rise of the far right. It also shows the risks from Brexit, as the links between climate denial and Brexit are well documented. For example, the long-standing supporter of Brexit and arch-neoliberal Nigel Lawson founded the Global Warming Policy Foundation to oppose climate change mitigation policies. He labelled the Kyoto protocol “wrongheaded”, and has called for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to be shut down.
Charlie Wood at the Post looks at the efforts to confirm the existence or nonexistence of “Planet Nine,” which includes the frustrating possibility that no definitive answer can be had for thousands of years.
Google’s internet-providing Project Loon balloons are mistaken for alien spaceships in Colorado. Before it was known what they were, Fort Collins police tweeted, “Just in case they were aliens who get mad about drunk driving, you should probably drive sober tonight.”
Geert “You’re-Not-Helping” Wilders cancels his Muhammad-drawing contest that sparked furious protest from the government of Pakistan, and he says drew several death threats.
Greg Garrison at AL.com profiles 18-year-old “paranormal investigator” Dalton Jones as he sets forth to find proof of a demonic haunting:
If the team can prove a case of demonic possession, Jones plans to ask Exorcist Bryan D. Ouellette, a regular on “Ghost Adventures,” to perform the exorcism.
“He’s been on many times to perform exorcisms,” Jones said. “We have to have proof of demonic activity. If you’ve ever watched Ghost Adventures, we do it very similar.”
Dude has already wasted $6000 on “state-of-the-art paranormal detection equipment,” namely the PSB7, or Paranormal Spirit Box. “It detects radio frequencies,” so we’re told.
Meanwhile, another group of what Ian Harris would call “scientographers” go spirit chasing at a Montana prison:
The night vision camera captured what they call “orbs” or energy left from spirits.A separate camera captured what they believed to be the outline of a ghost taking a shower.
Case closed!
Quote of the Day
A court in India dismisses a blasphemy charge against 18-year-old actor Priya Varrier, who, in a film is seen winking and giggling during a song about Muhammad. Yep, something that stupid was actually happening. BBC:
Chief Justice Dipak Mishra dismissed the case against Ms Varrier as well as the director and producer of the movie, saying: “Somebody in a film sings a song and you have no other job but to file a case.”
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