“We believe this bill is designed to bankrupt the Catholic Church."

Because, of course, that would be the one and only reason that a woman or a man who was sexually abused by a priest would want to initiate a lawsuit against a Church who silenced any attempt to hold their clergy or religious institution accountable for the great harm that was caused.

Perhaps, had the Church Fathers had responded in a humane, caring and responsible manner when children and parents approached them with evidence of these transgressions, instead of sweeping these crimes under the carpet, such legislation would not now been necessary.

A friend recently lent me a novel by Ariana Franklin, Mistress of the Art of Death. The author admits that she allowed an anachronism or two to slip in so that the narrative flowed.

The basic historical background is rigorous however, and there is one issue critical to the storyline that returns in Franklin's subsequent novel, The Serpent's Tale. The Catholic Church maintained then that members of its clergy were not obliged to obey man-made laws. This was the question that divided Henry II and Thomas Beckett:

"The clergy have Christ alone as King and under the King of Heaven; they should be ruled by their own law."

Centuries later, the Catholic Church perseveres in following medieval principles and maintaining that its ecclesiastical rules are the only ones that are God-given and irrevocable.

Un grand merci to JJ who blogged the news item quoted.

Poached Nuts on Research Menu, Hold the Eggs.

Back in July, we wrote about scientific ‘eggheads’ creating embryonic stem cells by using stimulated yet unfertilized ova, in Virgin Eggs Over Easy, Hold The Sperm. Meanwhile, a different group of scientists with something else on the brain have been playing around with mouse testicles. From the CBC story:

Stem cells found in men’s testicles could someday be used to grow organs and tissues needed to fight disease, researchers at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have found. … Scientists obtained spermatogonial progenitor stem cells (SPCs), which generate the precursors to sperm and determine fertility, from mouse testicles.

Catholic clergy got hot under the collar about research that used stimulated ova, and made up their own (unscientific) claims that if these eggs grow for the first few days and then stop, according to Church doctrine that may mean that they’re actually “very short-lived human beings”.

So far, there has been complete silence from the Vatican regarding research on testicular cells. This may be explained by the dynamics of another process, uncovered in the course of conducting research on male mice.

… other researchers have shown that adult cells can be reprogrammed to acquire
stem-cell potential. However, this process, called “induced pluripotency”, has
resulted in a generation of multi-potent stem cells that carried an increased
risk of transforming into malignant cells.

Now, does that process not sound familiar …? Isn’t that the perfect metaphor for the vile entity known as the

Magisterium?

Magisterium is a technical ecclesiastical term in Roman Catholic Church referring to the teaching authority of the church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the church, led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope). According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so infallibly within the Sacred Magisterium. The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him

The Magisterium, a proliferation of malignant cells that fetishizes the fetus and command blind obeisance. Sounds quite right to me.

Originally posted at Birth Pangs.