GOP Brick Crashes Through Bishop's Glass House

A Catholic Church poohbah, Bishop John B. McCormack of Manchester, New Hampshire, just had a big fat brick smash through the moral glass house he inhabits. The brick was hurled by one D.J.Bettencourt, a Republican N.H. State Representative, who on his Facebook page called the good Bishop "a pedophile pimp."

You see, the Bishop opined that the vicious state budget cuts (being enacted nearly universally across the U.S., using the economic downturn as an excuse, even though the real reason is the trillions of dollars hoarded by the rich and their corporations) hurt the most vulnerable members of society. (Of course, reactionaries' attitude toward society is best exemplified by Margaret Thatcher, who between smashing unions opined that "there is no such thing as society" when rejecting the notion that the government should aid the poor, homeless, etc.)

Bettencourt, aggressively defending his neofascist party's assault on social spending, retorted "Would the bishop like to discuss his history of protecting the ‘vulnerable?'" “This man is a pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a raincoat over his head in disgrace. He has absolutely no moral credibility to lecture anyone.”  Bettencourt said he was referring to McCormack's service in Boston under Cardinal Bernard L. Law, in which capacity McCormack was assigned the delicate task of investigating- read, cover up- complaints that priests had sexually abused minors. (He was promoted to bishop of Manchester in 1998. Apparently he did a fine job perpetuating the Church's decades-long coverup of its institutionalized pedophilia for a few more years. Or is it centuries long? Probably.)

But all good (or bad) things must come to an end. Eventually the elephant stuffed under the rug got noticed- the media finally stopped aiding and abetting the coverup. So in 2002, the archdiocese of Boston cut a sweetheart deal with state prosecutors that killed a criminal investigation. The diocese admitted it had protected abusive priests and submitted itself to "audits." (Whatever that means. They look at your paperwork.)

I.E., they admitted to a criminal conspiracy and to aiding and abetting pedophilia- sexual assaults on children- for years. But hey, they're holy men! You gotta cut them some slack! (This attitude of mine is labeled "cynicism," a twisted inversion of reality. The cynics are the "authority" figures- the cynical bastards in power who manipulate people into obedience and submission and preach rules and morality they violate secretly themselves. And it's doubly cynical of them to stick the cynic label, which belongs on themselves, on people who see through their bullshit and call it out.)

Then, in what sounded like a veiled threat to sue Bettencourt, the Manchester diocese said Mr. Bettencourt’s comments were false and defamatory. But Bettencourt stuck to his guns, saying that the bishop had “brought shame and dishonor on my church here in New Hampshire.”

Which just goes to show how gutsy he is- aside from the fact that U.S. politicians are bred to kiss the rings of the bosses of organized religion- Bettencourt is a Roman Catholic! That means he risks being "excommunicated" and thus having his "immortal soul" burn for all eternity in "hell." Wow! Sounds scary!
(Plus, what is he gets sued??!!!)

But seriously, the Catholic Church only gets tough with pols who support women's right to control their own bodies and terminate pregnancies. That's all. Even murdering the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, didn't cause the Vatican to break with the fascist death squad rulers of El Salvador. The Catholic Church is fundamentally reactionary- regardless of the occasional humanistic jabber you hear from them. The ones who really believe it and practice it are routinely murdered in Latin America (less frequently these days while L.A. is in one of its periods of civilian rule) and the Vatican looks the other way. (Unlike the holy stink they raised when a single priest was murdered by Polish secret policemen in the bad old Soviet days. Those secret policemen were actually tried and imprisoned by the Polish socialist government!)

UPDATE: April 8: Yesterday Bettencourt punked out and apologized to the Bishop after a private meeting with him. Maybe the Bishop threatened to have "God" send him to hell. Of course it's easier to attack powerless poor people than the powerful, eh Betty?