Confession is not enough for hideous crimes

CHRISTIANS must be ashamed of the latest sex scandal to bedevil the Catholic Church. How can some religious leaders preach to the world about sin, repentance and godliness when they have in their own midst clergy who lead such sinful lives?

They should rather pray for the French clergy who preyed like wolves on thousands of innocent little boys in their care.

Don’t give me all that pious claptrap that Jesus died for our sins on the cross when you have respected and trusted men of the cloth within the Christian community who commit such abominable crimes on little boys.

What is shocking, it’s not one or two isolated cases but tens of thousands of cases stretching back as far as the 1950s.

This latest scandal to rock the church comes after mass graves of indigenous children were uncovered in Canada.

Hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered in the grounds of two Catholic boarding schools in British Colombia and Saskatchewan.

This horror story belongs to Nazi Germany – not to a church. In fact, wherever the Catholic Church had established itself around the globe it had abused the indigenous tribes in the name of Western culture and religion.

The clergy took an oath of celibacy but couldn’t control their sexual urges. Despite the atrocious crimes being committed within its hallowed walls the church turned a blind and indifferent eye to the abuse of defenceless little boys in its charge and threw “a veil of silence” over them.

For decades the Catholic Church did not lift a finger to stop this hideous crime. So the lecherous clergy and other laymen felt protected by the church and could satisfy their lust with impunity.

And their sinful acts were easily forgiven. All they had to do after committing their vile deeds was go up to the altar, pray, confess and ask for forgiveness for their ugly crimes. And it was readily granted. With the blessing of the church, they continued their dirty filthy vile acts. Estimates put the number of sexual abuse cases in France at a staggering 300000.

Credit must, however, be given to the Archbishop of France and Pope Francis. The former expressed his shame and horror at the findings and Francis sympathised with the victims.

All the past popes went silently to their graves. Now the church’s eyes are open it must expose all the filthy perverts and paedophiles who it has been harbouring within its walls and hand them over to the police for criminal prosecution.

Confession is not enough for their hideous crimes. They must rot in jail.

If the church has sexual predators prowling freely within its own walls, how can it preach sin and salvation to the world? You wonder why I have no faith in religion?

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN

Kloof