The Vatican has not yet commented on its latest sex scandal in which a chorister was sacked after accidentally being discovered procuring men as sex mates for at least one member of Pope Benedict’s inner circle.

Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican chorister, over the specific physical details of men he wanted brought to him. Transcripts in the possession of the Guardian suggest that numerous men may have been procured for Balducci, at least one of whom was studying for the priesthood. via The Guardian

We passed on this story yesterday because neither the Catholic Church nor this website condemns homosexuality, although the Catholic church states unequivocally: “Under no circumstances can they (homosexual acts) be approved.”

I’m more concerned about American bishops defining the terms of health care and reproductive rights of women in this country, than yet another Catholic sex scandal. The bishops are busy guys this weekend, according to Politico.

The Roman Catholic bishops signaled Thursday that if agreement is reached with House leaders on anti-abortion language, the church would work to get the votes needed to protect the provisions in the Senate — and thereby advance the shared goal with Democrats of health care reform. via Politico

If I read this article correctly, the Catholic bishops are literally saying that they will strong-arm the Senate to muscle through their abortion language. Presumably they will threaten enough Senators with re-election problems, to get them to agree with Rep. Stupak’s alleged ‘higher principles’ around abortion language in the health care bill.

My concern about Angelo Balducci escalated, when I read today that he’s also a senior adviser to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the department that oversees the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide missionary activities.

I can’t say enough about the good works of Nicholas D Kristof, but the relationship of religion and women remains a tough one for him to balance.

Last week Kristof praised the work of World Vision, a charity I, too, have supported. The head of World Vision in the United States, Richard Stearns, says the organization bans the use of aid as a lure to religious conversion. I hope so.

Kristof wrote a balanced, factual column about the good and bad of missionaries, hitting all the important points that people like me expect him to address.

Writing about the 10 missionaries in Haiti, based on their own mission statements on their websites, and now reading a Vatican title — ‘Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples’ to describe the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide missionary activities — the handwriting is on the wall about the goal of much missionary work.

This is a battle for converts, money and pie chart statistics. Too often, poor people are the pawns.

via Jurvetson on FlickrVatican Morality Police

With all the morality lessons issued to women from Rome, and with Rep. Stupak’s insistence that his faith calls on him to embrace higher principles, it seems fair to share the news that the Vatican’s chief adviser to its worldwide missionary activities is involved in a homosexual sex scandal.

Good grief. The plot is thickening way beyond my original intentions, when I sat down at the keyboard.

Searching now for an update on the sex scandal in Ireland, I read that there is a chorus of outrage after Irish Bishop of Ferns Denis Brennan has asked Irish parishioners to donate money to cover the church’s compensation bills. I am SPEECHLESS!!

The Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, drew the ire of abuse victims by appealing for parishioners to pay 60,000 euro ($90,000) a year between them for 20 years towards compensation bills.

Ferns in County Wexford was arguably the most notorious area of Ireland for child sex abuse by Catholic priests, with more than 100 allegations of child sexual abuse made between 1962 and 2002 against 21 priests operating in the diocese. via Herald Sun via Irish Independent

New Sex Scandal in Netherlands

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, dozens of Catholics have come forward in the part few days, encouraged by media coverage of sex abuse cases in Ireland and Germany. (I missed Germany).

The Catholic bishops’ conference, led by the Salesian Bishop Adrianus van Luyn of Rotterdam, will hold a regularly scheduled meeting on March 9 and discuss whether to launch a wider investigation. via Washington Post

This is the story about Catholic abuse of children and teenagers in Germany.

Unlike America, the Vatican doesn’t run the German government or its press and chief newspaper: SPIEGEL I quote with astonishment these passages, because such an article would never appear in a major newspaper in America. Post-Nazi Germany is very concerned about morality police and dogmatic thinking, which explains this utter shredding of the Catholic Church in one of the nation’s most respected newspapers.

On the surface, the Vatican’s objective is to protect the sacrament of the confession. In reality, however, it is trying to uphold the Catholic Church’s claim to being a superior moral authority.

Nothing can be allowed to besmirch this authority: not the sexual abuse of children and adolescents, committed by thousands of Catholic priests worldwide; not the secret relationships between pastor and their housekeepers; not the covering-up of priests’ children; and not the love affairs between gay clerics. They are all cases of a double standard that arose because it is difficult for people — even priests — to subordinate their human desires to a papal encyclical.

This code of silence has been upheld for decades, in some cases informally and in some cases by virtue of Vatican directives like the 1962 guideline.

But now the wall of silence is coming down here in Germany. It started when Berlin’s Canisius College, an elite Jesuit high school, recently disclosed the sordid past of a number of members of the order, who had abused students at the school in the 1970s and 1980s. After that, new victims began coming forward on a daily basis. By last Friday, at least 40 of them had accused three Jesuit priests of molesting children and adolescents, first in Berlin and later at the St. Ansgar School in Hamburg, the St. Blasien College in the Black Forest and in several parishes in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.

Authorities say this is the ‘tip of the iceberg’ concerning Catholic sex abuse in Germany.

My take on many Catholic men, whether they are priests, bishops or lay people, is that they honestly believe they are above the law. When Representative Stupak says that his obligations are to higher moral principles than the US government and the US Supreme Court, he means it.

Seriously speaking, isn’t that treason?

Back to the Italian problem and whether or not the Vatican has a really big sex scandal on its hands in Rome, or just one Gentleman of His Holiness with a sexual appetite not in sync with the Holy Sea — no word, no comment is forthcoming for now.

In fact the Vatican is scrambling with new challenges around a key miracle attributed to Pope John’s path to sainthood. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre’s apparent return to full health after she prayed for holy intervention shortly after the Pope’s death in 2005 is no more.

… a Polish newspaper has claimed that a doctor who scrutinised the 49-year-old nun’s case concluded that she may have been suffering not from Parkinson’s but from a nervous disorder from which temporary recovery is medically possible.

The Rzeczpospolita daily also reported that Sister Marie, a member of the Petites Soeurs des Maternités Catholique order, has now lapsed back into ill health.

However, the Vatican dismissed doubts over the “miracle”, saying that its Congregation for the Causes of the Saints had only just begun to look into the case. via Telegraph UK

I’m sure the Catholic men will work out this minor miracle problem. It’s all part of a good day’s work for the men in charge of managing the bodies of women worldwide. We’re just too darn immoral to do the right thing without men being our good shepherds.

Doesn’t God think there’s a fundamental problem when the fox presumes to guard the hen house? How many countries must have sex scandals before people begin to seriously question the wisdom of fine, furry, saintly beasts like those expecting the poor people of Ireland to pay for their crimes against humanity? I would like Rep. Stupak to explain that one to me.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but this Divine Comedy has veered into absurdity. Anne