Canadian bishops deplore Hitchens article against Pope
March 23, 2010
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement on March 18 criticizing two articles on the abuse scandal.
“We strongly deplore the tone of these articles which are offensive to Canadian Catholics and imply that the Church has not responded to the problem of sexual abuse,” the bishops’ statement notes. “This is false, and the accusations are evidently influenced by prejudice.”
“The attacks against Pope Benedict XVI are unjust and incorrect,” the statement continues. “In fact, the Holy Father has shown an example of great leadership, by apologizing to victims and by supporting the initiatives of Bishops to prevent future cases of abuse.”
In one of the articles, Christopher Hitchens wrote:
The Roman Catholic Church is headed by a mediocre Bavarian bureaucrat once tasked with the concealment of the foulest iniquity, whose ineptitude in that job now shows him to us as a man personally and professionally responsible for enabling a filthy wave of crime. Ratzinger himself may be banal, but his whole career has the stench of evil — a clinging and systematic evil that is beyond the power of exorcism to dispel. What is needed is not medieval incantation but the application of justice — and speedily at that.
Hitchens is also a vocal critic of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, describing her as "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud."
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Further information:
- Statement by CCCB President on articles in Canadian newspapers (Salt + Light Television)
- Christopher Hitchens: The great Catholic cover-up (National Post)
- Tempête sur l'Église (La Presse)
- Christopher Hitchens: Mommie Dearest (Slate, 2003)
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Posted by: Bernadette -
Apr. 03, 2010 12:38 PM ET USA
I just read the French paper above and they, too, keep calling the disorder "pedophaelia." Why is there a sinister silence and desire to steer us away from calling it what it is? Homosexuality. 80 percent of cases have involved pre-pubescent boys (10 to 16). Perhaps because this would lead psychologists, the media, and the public to admit that homosexuality is a "psychological disorder" as the Church has maintained all along? It is not normal & no particular "rights" should be granted them.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Mar. 24, 2010 3:08 PM ET USA
Wouldn't it be amazing if God chose to knock him off his horse as He did with St.Paul?
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Posted by: Lisa Nicholas, PhD -
Mar. 24, 2010 12:53 AM ET USA
I've become convinced that Christopher Hitchens is firmly in the grasp of the Father of Lies, and doing his work -- calling good evil and black white. Of course, he doesn't believe in the Devil any more than he does in God, and he would spit on my prayers for his enlightenment, repentance, and conversion. That won't stop me, though.
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Posted by: -
Mar. 23, 2010 10:08 PM ET USA
Hitchens, like the devil, perniciously attacks anything holy, like the Catholic Church and the Holy Father. And like the devil, will go out with a whimper and not a bang.
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Posted by: DrJazz -
Mar. 23, 2010 7:56 AM ET USA
What's all this stuff about "iniquity," "evil," and "justice"? Those are such "medieval" concepts! I thought atheists abstained from making such primitive and old-fashioned "value judgments"? Does this Hitchens guy secretly adhere to some type of "moral" code? (Perish the thought!) If so, we need some "better" atheists (if one can make such a judgment!) to root it out of him! Where are the thought police when you need them?
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Posted by: -
Mar. 23, 2010 7:40 AM ET USA
A wicked man. Where's the condemnation of his inflammatory bigotry?
