First it was widespread pedophilia among Catholic clergy throughout the world and the even more scandalous suppression of it by the hierarchy of bishops reaching up to a previous pope.
In India's Catholic world too, similar scandals were not unknown. Though pedopholia was probably rampant like elsewhere, though not as publicly revealed, due to the extraordinary respect once given to priests in Indian society, sexual exploitation of nuns especially in Goa's backyard Kerala, was the bigger scandal. The revelations took place due to courageous nuns risking their lives, their livelihood and their monetary benefits due from the church, baring their sordid experiences through books and through other public means, how they were shamelessly taken advantage in the name of God. As if hundreds of thousands leaving the church finding it hard to beleive that their own salvation could be obtained through a tainted entity was not enough, now comes another revelation from an Italian public prosecutor in Calabria that the Calabrian mob (Ndrangheta) could be considering the assassination of Pope Francis because of his intolerance to the financial crimes of every kind that the Vatican has been embroiled in. Rumors in serious circles have always made the rounds that Benedict the previous Pope very unusually took a bow from the papal office because he was under a similar threat. While Vatican apologists will take consolation in the honesty of Benedict and Francis, we Goans will feel betrayed by the bureaucracy of a Church whose every earthly word was as good as oheaven-sent to our fathers and mothers and all their ancestors who beleived and prayed like their life and life thereafter depended on it, little knowing that the source of all their beliefs could have come from a bunch of crooks who spoke one thing but did another. Woe to those who will tell me that we cannot hold them to a higher standard. From the days of paid indulgencies to pedophilia and financial thuggery do the most poor and vulnerable and naive always get taken for the hardest ride? Roland. Sent from Samsung Mobile
