We are living in extraordinary times. The world is shifting. Events such as the global economic crisis, the election of Barack Obama, the earthquake in Haiti, and even the passage of health care legislation in the United States of America have cracked open our brains in the 21st Century. We have cut the fat of institutions that weren't working (though still not nearly enough in the greedy financial industry). As we watched terrible human suffering in Haiti, we've had a chance to give new thought to our place on this earth and what we can to do help others. This is a hard lesson to remember in our fat lives.
The election of Barack Obama has opened the pipes of communication and commerce to a planet that had been blocked in every way imaginable by his predecessor's administration. Now, conservative leaders and media stars like Rush Limbaugh, S. Palin, and Glenn Beck are so afraid of the beacon of light that many of us see and feel in these days of worldwide evolution that they they'll say or do anything--with no limit to their fear- and hate-mongering tactics--to grasp at controlling the minds of good American men and women.
And now, a religious potboiler has been thrown into our transformational mix. The Catholic Church is being raked over the coals again for protecting child abusers, and Pope Benedict XVI has been singled out for his personal knowledge of and official protection of some of these offenders in years past. (Christopher Hitchens wrote a good article at Slate.com about this subject here. For the record, Hitchens is famously an atheist.)
We've all read the stories and seen the footage on CNN and other outlets with some of the victims relating how and when they were abused, their attempts to report it and what the abusers told the children to manipulate and silence them, and how the childrens' lives had been affected. We are all horrified that the victims were repeatedly sexually and mentally raped by the very people who were supposed to be caring for them as "Christian" leaders, so it is no surprise that this pope and his Church are being raked over the coals throughout the media.
Besides Christopher Hitchens, another outspoken critic of the Catholic Church is intellectual/writer/performer Stephen Fry, who gave a riveting talk on his views about The Church at the Intelligence Squared series.
Intelligence Squared is Britain's premier debating forum, providing a unique platform for the world's leading figures in politics, journalism, and the media to contest the most important issues of the day, be they political, social, intellectual or historical. Demand for tickets to our ten annual debates now far outstrips supply and we regularly have audiences ranging from 800 to 2,500. Employing the classic "Oxford Union" style of debating, the world's leading speakers are pitched against each other with a clearly defined motion, to try and win over the votes of the audience through intellectual argument, charm and persuasion.
Intelligence Squared now operates in London, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong and Kiev. Several of our debates will be seen by an estimated 72 million viewers on BBC World News and intelligencesquared.com is now home to a fully interactive website containing some of the finest intellectual content on the internet.
Here is a video of Fry's eloquent speech. It's about as long as a TED talk.
On Facebook, a friend commented on Hitchens' piece with this:
....this is a less loved Pope, he won't be in the role for very long, they've paid a billion to the Americans, they've earmarked a billion in Ireland and Munich, etc will get their due...his role will be altered and accountability will occur, AND... See More, more importantly, perceptions WILL change, these institutions are losing their power to some degree....
What do you think?
What needs to happen? Is it time for the Catholic Church to transform?
Beth Arnold lives and writes in Paris. To see more of her work, go to www.betharnold.com.