The Vatican has now forgiven The Beatles, up next....

IRON MAIDEN!

;D

http://newsroom.mtv.com/2010/04/13/the-beatles-vatican/

The Vatican has now forgiven The Beatles, up next....

IRON MAIDEN!



Nah, the church was into the iron maiden about 700 years ago!
:o

Iron Maiden?

Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the Pope with wrath, for he knows the time is short

..or something like that, anyway

Iron Maiden?

Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the Pope with wrath, for he knows the time is short

..or something like that, anyway


"Because" he knows the time is short, but I'm just being pedantic.

The real problem here was that back in the day, the priesthood was considered a noble calling for a lot of people who actually believed, plus a lot of random gay dudes chose the priesthood, as well as the odd pedobear.  For the latter two groups, it was a convenient face-saving excuse for why one wouldn't marry.  

Well, over the decades, society became sufficiently secular that your average straight dude saw no point in taking on the priesthood at the cost of celibacy, and when they decriminalized homosexuality, well, your average gay dude didn't need the priesthood as a cover.  (He can just join the Republican party ;)

That left pretty much only one class of kink as interested in the priesthood.  And now the chickens have come home to roost.

"This can't go on, I must inform the law" doesn't come close, because it's not even a Catholic/Protestant thing anymore.  But as long as we've got Iron Maiden queued up...

"Believe in me and send no money,
I died on a cross, that ain't funny,
But my so-called friends, they're makin' me a joke,
They missed out what I said, like I never spoke,
They choose what they wanna hear, don't tell a lie,
They just leave out the truth as they're watchin' you die,
They're savin' your souls by takin' your money,
Flies around sh*t, bees around honey,
Holy smoke, Holy smoke,
Plenty bad preachers for the devil to stoke,
Feed 'em in feet-first, this is no joke,
This is thirsty work, makin' Holy Smoke."

 - Iron Maiden, wishing everyone a happy belated Easter, and only 20 years ahead of their time.

When I was a kid, I hung around fundamentalist circles, and Iron Maiden (largely because of "666" and the awesome album art) were supposedly one of the "really satanic" groups.  Turns out they were better Christians than the people who were calling down hellfire upon them.  Better at Christian Rock too :)

That left pretty much only one class of kink as interested in the priesthood.  And now the chickens have come home to roost.

I'm not sure whether this is actually the case or not, but one stat I've heard quoted (by Catholics, admittedly) is that the level of paedophilia within the priesthood is basically the same as that found in the general population - it's not that they're specifically interested in the priesthood, it's just that within any large group of people you're statistically likely to get a few.  This seems reasonable (and, let's face it, statistically it isn't a huge number of priests we're talking about).

Not that this is completely relevant to the current brouhaha, though: it's not the fact that there have been (and probably still are) dodgy priests, it's what the Church did when it found out.


Turns out they were better Christians than the people who were calling down hellfire upon them.  Better at Christian Rock too :)

Shhhh.... don't let the fans know ;)