re: #399 Summer

I say this as a known and proud Atheist around these here parts:

Perhaps “Billy boy” ought to worry more about anti-Christian behavior in the report than what he believes are anti-Catholic statements on this subject.

But I know that’s asking far too much of a “devout” lobbyist.

From PZ Myers

The Catholic League downplays the evils of child abuse

…

I should add that this particular document only describes the girls’ treatment, and the summary report points out that the sexual abuse of girls was relatively light, compared to the pervasive sexual brutality of the boys’ workhouses. Donohue didn’t even bother to address the plight of the boys from this report.

Donohue was wrong. Reuters actually played down the horrors of the Catholic workhouses from the commission report — read it yourself and you’ll find that it isn’t making “wild and irresponsible” accusations at all, but is soberly stacking up a mountain of evidence that the Catholic Church in Ireland was practicing great evils.

I also don’t buy the excuse that this was done in the past and is irrelevant today. Donohue makes it relevant, acting as he does now as the embodiment of the mindset that allowed these nightmarish conditions to exist.