A Mold on our Civilization

I will first admit that I am overwhelmingly opposed to the Church, so any assumption of stance is hereby made perfectly clear.

Yet, the revelations of its child abuse cover-up has been water to my already chip-pan-fire.  Like the reader who throws up his arms at every illegal immigration story, who is already predisposed against immigration, I am no different.  But my particular vice is the faults of the Church.  Their outdated views.  Their embarrassing stories.  And now, unfortunately for their victims, their concealments.

A certain effect of the recession seems to have been the uncovering of elitism.  First in the bankers through condemning their excess.  Then in the politicians with their greed exposed.  Now, although the stories of child-abuse are entirely different, being far more serious with real, identifiable victims, this will hopefully shift attention onto the segregation of the Church from civilization.  My father often said there will always be two institutions that will never be exposed for their corruption; the Church and the legal system, on account of their exclusive statuses of confidentiality within society.  For the Church, at least, scrutiny is beginning to rumble beneath our feet.

I won’t detail the current allegations against the Church, they are more than covered by other outlets.  Instead, I want to discuss a photo…

…the PopeMobile.

I came across this photo when reading an article on Joseph Alois Ratzinger, the man who became Pope.  An interesting piece, on Ratzinger’s political shift from relative liberalism in the 50s, to a hyper-conservative approach there forth.  However, it was the photo that stood out.  Like many spectacles, the PopeMobile has become a blind spot, not really worthy of interrogation.  Yet look how awkwardly the world of the Church marries with modern society, here epitomized by the car.

The image is ridiculous.  Aside from being absurd in its design, like a moving tomb for religion, there is something more at work.  The Church, at least, in its current form, is not compatible with modern society.  Just see how the Pope is physically separated from that which surrounds him.

News reports, as they love to do, sprinkle their monologues with footage related to the story.  In coverage of the child-abuse claims, this has been in overdrive.  Showing real-time, live footage of the Vatican and its city; the cardinals in red swinging smoking lamps; the Pope himself covered in bling.  There is no tradition here – well, none that I can see.  All I observe is decay and age in its most abhorrent form.  The practices are outdated, the robes they wear self-satirical – and organised religion has absolutely no place in contemporary society.

The Church is a mold on our civilization, being cultivated by the delusional for the weak, deprived and vulnerable.