Catholic Priorities: Forget Pedophiles, Get Those Atheists!

Here's a story that typifies Pope Benedict XVII:

(AP) "VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI is creating a new Vatican office to fight secularization and "re-evangelize" the West — a tacit acknowledgment that his attempts to reinvigorate Christianity in Europe haven't succeeded and need a new boost."

Never mind about those pedophile priests. Forget about AIDS in Africa and the Pope's role in spreading it. Pay no attention to those pesky Belgian police who keep raiding your church records to root out your crimes.

No, the real problem is those atheists and secularists! Why, the Church needs a whole new office to fight secularization! It's obviously the only problem facing the Roman Catholic Church worthy of serious action!

It's stuff like this that makes me predict that the Roman Catholic Church will fade into obscurity in the next couple of decades. It has become self-perpetuating. The moral priests and parishioners who care about their children, about the three million deaths from AIDS per year in Africa, about world hunger, and about overpopulation are abandoning the Roman Catholic Church in droves. The only ones left behind are either corrupt themselves or just sheep who would follow the shepherd over a cliff without a question.

So it's no surprise that Cardinal Ratzinger, the man who news reports say was complicit in covering up the pedophile scandal and protecting pedophile priests, was elected Pope Benedict XVII by his fellow cardinals. And it's also no surprise that the Pope's highest priority is a new Vatican office to fight secularization, while he simultaneously blasted the Belgian police because they lawfully seized a cardinal's computer for evidence related to pedophile priests.

The Roman Catholic Church has a fox named Ratzinger guarding its henhouse.