The difference

The difference between atheists and the Catholic Church.

There is a new Pope...

Hey, Catholics

If religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church want to be exempt from government regulation, they they need to get out of the business of running organizations in the private sector that are subject to governmental oversight. Why are Catholics running hospitals anyway?

Now with the Pope resigning, maybe they can get their values sorted out.

From the Daily Kos

Catholic bishops announce new rule: No more saying a fetus is not a person just to win a lawsuit
from Daily Kos by rss@dailykos.com (Kaili Joy Gray)

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ, these guys are shameless:

It was a startling assertion that seemed an about-face from church doctrine: A Catholic hospital arguing in a Colorado court that twin fetuses that died in its care were not, under state law, human beings. [...]
On Monday, the hospital and the state's bishops released a statement acknowledging it was "morally wrong" to make the legal argument.

"Fetuses are people - unless it costs us money!"

Fucking hypocrites.

They wanted GOOD ideas!

U.S. Catholics have an issue - fetuses or money?

Source: Daily Kos

-----------Catholic bishops to 'review' position that fetuses aren't people after all
from Daily Kos by rss@dailykos.com (Kaili Joy Gray)

Well, this certainly didn't take long:

Three Colorado bishops said on Thursday they will review a Catholic Church hospital's defense of a lawsuit that argues fetuses do not have legal status - apparently contradicting the Church's teaching on life issues.

The case stems from a malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit filed by Jeremy Stodghill in the 2006 death of his seven-month pregnant wife Lori at a Catholic hospital in Canon City, Colorado. Her twin fetuses also died.

Catholic Church - Money is more important than the fetus

The source for all that follows...

A fetus is not a person if it costs us money, says Catholic Church
byKaili Joy GrayFollow


You know how the Catholic Church is always going on and on ... and on and freakin' on ... about the sanctity of life and also a bunch of vague concepts about liberty 'n stuff? We can't have abortion because every sperm is sacred. We can't have insurance coverage for women's health care because something about Taco Bell and freedom. We can't even fund cancer screening because apparently Jesus was cool with women dying of undetected breast cancer.

And all of this-all of it-goes back to the Church's insistence that life begins with your very first hell-worthy dirty thought and must be protected at all costs, despite all consequences, including, of course, the consequence of dead women, whose lives are not nearly as valuable as the "life" of an unborn fetus. In just the past year, the Church has called upon its faithful followers to march, to starve themselves, to go to jail, to even take up arms-all to protect those fetuses. No exceptions. None. Not if the fetus is already dead inside the womb. Not if the fetus is going to kill the actual living woman carrying it. No goddamned exceptions EVER.

Well, except for one: when it's going to cost the Church money.

Turns out, when a man sues a Catholic hospital for malpractice because his wife and the twins she was carrying inside her died when she turned up in the emergency room and her doctor never bothered to answer a page-well, things get a little tricky. Yes, the Catholic hospital adheres to the strict Ethical and Religious Directives of the Catholic Church, as set forth by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. And yes, those directives include the claim that "[t]he Church's defense of life encompasses the unborn" and a mandate to uphold "the sanctity of life 'from the moment of conception until death.'" But come on. That obviously does not apply when Catholic Health Initiatives, the Church-affiliated organization that runs the Church-affiliated St. Thomas More Hospital where a young woman and her two unborn fetuses died, is the lead defendant in a lawsuit:

Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights.
As Jason Langley, an attorney with Denver-based Kennedy Childs, argued in one of the briefs he filed for the defense, the court "should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term 'person,' as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define 'person' under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses."

Catholics still submitting to humiliation??

I can verify - the Catholic church really - REALLY - teaches this shit.

That's how Catholicism workds

There's a good explanation for that...

Adding to the understanding of the Christian religion that drives politics in the US

Catholics Want You To Suffer

This is incredible (From Daily Kos - Click the link to read more)...

Not content with being Bart Stupak's puppet-masters, pulling the strings to strip all abortion coverage out of healthcare reform, end all of their social service programs in DC if the city goes forward with a proposed gay marriage law, refusing communion to Catholics because of their political beliefs, the Bishops have outdone themselves on this one. David Dayen reports:

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops released an "Ethical and Religious Directive" this month that would ban any Catholic hospital, nursing home or hospice program from removing feeding tubes or ending palliative procedures of any kind, even when the individual has an advance directive to guide their end-of-life care. The Bishops’ directive even notes that patient suffering is redemptive and brings the individual closer to Christ....

Holy Shit - From The "How Stupid Can They Be?" Department.

Roman Catholic couples are being encouraged to pray together before they have sex.

A book published by a prominent Church group invites those setting out on married life to recite the specially-composed Prayer Before Making Love.

It is aimed at 'purifying their intentions' so that the act is not about selfishness or hedonism.

Click HERE to read more of the story.

I found this story on Gawker.
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Religion Is Nuts!

I rant a lot (maybe too much) about organized religion, but it is stupidity like this that keeps me doing it...

RIO DE JANEIRO — A Roman Catholic archbishop says the abortion of twins carried by a 9-year-old girl who allegedly was raped by her stepfather means excommunication for the girl's mother and her doctors.

"The law of God is higher than any human laws," he said. "When a human law — that is, a law enacted by human legislators — is against the law of God, that law has no value. The adults who approved, who carried out this abortion have incurred excommunication."

But that's not what REALLY makes me angry about the buffoons running the church. Did you notice something missing? Something unusual?

THE FATHER THAT RAPED THE 9-YEAR-OLD-GIRL WAS NOT EXCOMMUNICATED!

I guess because those church priests and bishops like a little rape themselves, now and again.

Where the Catholic Church Dumps It's Perverted Priests

If you read my blog, you know that one basic premise that I hold dear is that most religions are evil - they pretend morality and good will toward fellow humans, but in reality they are naught but businesses set up to make big bucks and screw over everyone but their own. A case in pooint from the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News...

A group of 43 Alaska Natives who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests and church volunteers have sued the Jesuit order, alleging that remote Alaska villages became a worldwide dumping ground for clergy with histories of abuse.

The 78-page lawsuit filed this week in Bethel Superior Court is the latest in an Alaska clergy scandal that involves more than 300 victims and about 40 accused perpetrators, according to Patrick Wall, a former monk and priest who works for a California law firm as an advocate for sex abuse victims.

This week's lawsuit is on behalf of 35 men and eight women, and another one is in the works with another 60 or so victims, said Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa, who is one of the lawyers representing the group.

People keep coming forward, he said.

via J-Walk blog.