Pontificating Doublespeak

Orwell would be proud, or perhaps horrified at one of the Pope's more recent speeches. The Catholic Online piece on the event is nearly as bad as the speech itself in its feeble attempts at spinning the real intent behind it.
The "news" piece opens with this gem, "Grave threats to the Church's public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres." This from the organization that not only has covered up the most widespread instances of sexual abuse but continues to refuse any responsibility. What "moral witness"? Who's threatening the church? It's utter nonsense.

In his speech the Pope rambles on about "radical secularism", "suppression", and "limits." I'm unaware of any rules, regulations, or laws that prevent individual Catholics or groups from worshiping as they see fit. Nor are there any preventing the Church from conducting its affairs. I think the last word is the key to what really bothers the Pope. The church, though still overly influential, is losing some of its sway. The Church is not happy that it can't simply bully people and get whatever it wants whenever it wants. What the Pope objects to is being held to some basic standards of conduct. Considering how lax even that it is, the arrogant prick aught to be grateful.  If clergy were held to the standards the rest of us are far more of them, including the Pope, would be behind bars.

Recently there have been a number of instances where the church was not awarded publicly funded grants. Contrary to the false statements made by the Catholic Church, this is not due to any discrimination. The church has outright refused to meet the requirements of the grants in question. An excellent example is a Health and Human Services grant designed to aid the victims of human trafficking. Many of these victims have been sexually abused, especially those forced into prostitution. Guess what the Church refused to do? They would not even refer individuals to those willing to supply contraceptive or reproductive services and/or advice. Not even advice! Basically, they cried foul when they were not allowed to re-write and dictate the terms of the grant.

The Pope and the Catholic hierarchy don't really give a shit about freedom of religion, at least not beyond their own faith. When they talk about "suppression" and "limits" they are unconcerned about limiting anyone else's rights they are concerned with legitimate checks on their power.  I see no difference between their whining and the tantrum of any spoiled brat who doesn't get their way. Grow up!

The December 28, 2011 edition of Jesus and Mo does a pretty good job summarizing not only The Catholic Church's  idea of what religious freedom means but what most organized religions mean when they talk about religious freedom.