Christopher Hitchens: Catholic Church Wants 'Wiggle Room' For Rape And Torture Of Children (VIDEO)

Author and journalist Christopher Hitchens appeared on "Real Time With Bill Maher" Friday and slammed the Catholic church for it's handling of the "rape and torture of children."

Pope Benedict XVI was criticized this week after internal church files showed that in his prior capacity, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had ignored multiple letters from Bishops asking him to defrock a Wisconsin priest who abused as many as 200 boys at a school for the deaf. On top of these claims, the church is dealing with a wave of sex abuse allegations in Germany, Benedict's homeland.

Hitchens argued that the church has been complicit in abuse by protecting abusers and shuttling them from parish to parish. As he sees it, the moral church wants "wiggle room" for "the one crime that no one can think about without vomiting."

Hitchens: The only worry [the Pope] had was 'Would this damage the church?' Would it hurt the church--not the children. Now what I want to know is this: what is the attorney general of the state of Wisconsin now going to do? Are we going to say these people are above our law. I appeal to people. I mean, that's what's being asked for. If you're a clergyman, you're not liable to the laws.... Don't let's call it child abuse. It's the rape and torture of children.

Maher observed that there is a "Watergate-like aspect" to the scandal and that it's creeping up the church hierarchy. Although Maher also argued that because the church is a country unto itself, it will not be held accountable. Hitchens brushed aside Maher's concern and pointed out that the Pope is still a civilian when he travels.

WATCH:

Comments

[EmilyRose2010]

09:32 AM on 04/17/2010

they want wiggle room? sir, that is to gentle; these pedophiles and their cover-up supervisors they are even more offensive), what these criminals to get away with ruining children lives by these sickos.

[David Belkevitz]

11:14 PM on 04/11/2010

Not only does the Vatican and Catholic church protect paedophile priests, they also assisted the mass murderer's of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, protecting the killers of thousands of Tutsi's and moderate Hutu's. The priest's name was Athanase Seromba, too many details to go into but he got 15 years while many more escaped justice.

[jdrourke]

07:52 PM on 04/11/2010

Who cares if Hitchens' liver is marinating in gin; the man is right on this one!

http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/dearest-pope-benedict-arnold/

[slaughterhousejazz]

01:23 PM on 04/10/2010

I agree with Mr. Hitchens. I wish he wouldn't drink so much. Thanks to Mr. Maher.

[StephenJK]

07:44 AM on 04/02/2010

I wholeheartedly agree with Hitchens. Although the ramped up hyperbole can be ratcheted down. If this were the case of Joe Six-Pack molesting young children he'd be thrown in jail and probably killed by the other inmates. These priests are not special. They hide behind the cloth as if it is above all. They are the lowest heathens among us.

WAKE UP AND LEAVE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH! In fact disavow all religions that promote violence, rape and torture of ANYONE! Please for the sake of humanity. Do it now. Make the institutions defunct by not giving them your money. If you are you are contributing to this madness.

[whomod]

03:24 AM on 04/02/2010

Every time I see Hitchens on TV my heart goes out to him. He has such a huge grievance towards God and judging from every appearance i've seen of him in memory, the guy looks as he's batting some serious demons not the least of which is alcoholism.

Hopefully one day he'll find that fulfillment and peace won't be found by drowning oneself to escape that which torments him and lashing out at his creator.

[mtracy9]

05:11 AM on 04/02/2010

Nice of you to deflect attention from the object of discussion -- the molestattion of children and the protection of the molestters by the Chuurch.

[whomod]

08:36 PM on 04/02/2010

I'm not deflecting anything nor do I defend the Catholic Church in ANY matter. I simply made my thoughts on Hitchens known. I for the life of can't understand why some people have a need to make everything regarding "religion" (which I don't believe in nor approve of BTW) a matter of adversarial reaction.

So just to clarify, child molestation by ANYONE is criminal. The Catholic Church is no exception. And this veil of secrecy and protection from all quarters (not just ecclesiastical either) is reprehensible not to mention criminal in it's own right.

Happy?

[scottco]

08:11 AM on 04/12/2010

Hmmm, I've never heard him lash out at his mom or dad...

[IowaGirl]

10:11 AM on 04/01/2010

I agree with other posters that Hitchens is a terrible spokesman for the prosecution of these child violaters. But I love the fact he has come out swinging and uses the correct, non-euphemistic phrase "rape and torture" of children v. the tired and vague phrase "child abuse."

I personally am going to use "rape and torture of children" from now on. Please join us.

[gal416]

10:47 PM on 03/31/2010

¶ The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. Psalms 53:1

[holyheretic]

11:48 PM on 03/31/2010

Thank you wise, Post-Christian Founding Fathers, for the separation of State from Superstition.

John Adams (1735-1826)

"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses."

( John Adams, in his "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America;"[1787-1788]; from Adrienne Koch, ed., The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society, New York: George Braziller, 1965, p. 258. )

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_founders.html

-
http://whengodwins.blogspot.com/
http://holocausthagaddah.blogspot.com/

[PWM]

05:29 PM on 04/02/2010

That is one of the best Question Begging passages from the Bible.

God is a meaningless word. An extreme subjective abstraction defined with even more subjective abstraction. No one believes in something that cannot be defined, yet one can believe they believe.

[othel]

07:02 PM on 03/31/2010

Any respect I may have had for Hitchens as an intellectual (or as anyone with any common sense for that matter) abandoned me after he came out in support of Bush and the Iraq War. As a result, I'm VERY suspicious of opinions he may have regarding ANYTHING.

[StephenJK]

07:46 AM on 04/02/2010

Same boat. If you get into an atheist discussion thread they love to defend his political views simply because he's one of them. but, Hitchens is correct on this one.

[DakotaMinnesota]

04:59 PM on 03/31/2010

I think Christopher Hitchens is a bad spokesman for atheism because this dude is utterly depressed. Every interview of his I see, he looks like he's a boilermaker or a few more sleepless nights away from jumping out a window. No wonder religious people think they have a monopoly on happiness if the face they think of when they think "atheist" is Hitchens' sagging mug.

[holyheretic]

05:20 PM on 03/31/2010

Naturally, many people love their delusions so much, they will demonize anyone who rejects superstitions. Many "full of Faith" people turn Spinoza, Adams, Jefferson, Freud and Einstein into demons for that reason.

-

IN THE EAST GOD WON - IN THE WEST, SCIENCE
http://whengodwins.blogspot.com/

http://holocausthagaddah.blogspot.com/
http://holyheretics.blogspot.com/

[Salty 2]

11:08 PM on 03/31/2010

The games not over.

[StephenJK]

07:47 AM on 04/02/2010

Science is responsible for the world we live n today. Not very pretty if you ask me, my friend.

[StephenJK]

08:18 AM on 04/02/2010

LOL Well, you got him. And you have the self-righteous Dawkins and his militant firebrand atheistic hyperbole. So Anti-god they right books about it and hold conventions. Is all that needed? I wouldn't mind the nutjobs so much if they were simply anti-religious (which, obviously they are). But, they love to take it to the offensive level and ridicule anyone who believes in a higher power as deluded and clueless. They don't have a clue just like the next guy on that matter.

[DakotaMinnesota]

09:59 AM on 04/02/2010

At least Dawkins is hilarious, in my opinion. If you have a problem with him voicing his opinion "without a clue," imagine how atheists feel about religous people who honestly believe they have a clue. All Dawkins is saying is "I am absolutely positive I have no clue, and it's terrifying that some people actually claim they do."

[andycan]

04:45 PM on 03/31/2010

Hitcjhens is just a bored provocateur.
Don't listen to anything he says.

[PWM]

05:30 PM on 04/02/2010

I rather listen to him than the Pope.

[karmafriend]

12:50 PM on 03/31/2010

After all this, shouldn't any parent, who trusts their child with a priest, be held responsible too -- if their child is raped by a priest?

[mtracy9]

05:13 AM on 04/02/2010

But the priest is supposed to be the servant of Godd.

[MikeDu]

11:37 AM on 03/31/2010

Anybody recall the singer Sinead O'Connor, decades ago during a Saturday Night Live performance, tearing up a picture of the Pope and saying something like 'fight the real enemy'? People have known for decades the depths of cruelty and depavity infecting the Catholic Church. These' new revelations' are decades old. The only reason anyone si 'shocked' now must be because they had been willfully ignorant before now. This was an open secret.

[Wilkby]

08:54 PM on 03/30/2010

It's time to clean the Ratz out of the Vatican.

[Wilkby]

08:53 PM on 03/30/2010

Hitchens was on Morning Joe today, and he looked like a badly hungover drunk who had about half an hour of sleep. Is he about to croak?