V.5 Abuse of Children in Religions

Crippling the Minds of Children has Calamitous Consequences for All

There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

If we are to reach real peace in this world . . . we shall have to begin with the children.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81)

The mind of a child is like a fragile flower, easily crushed for life by disabling assumptions acquired during the formative years.

Unless we break the vicious circle of self-perpetuating ignorance, which is indoctrinating rather than educating children, the world will remain in "the predatory phase of human developed" it has been in since the human species first appeared.

This writer

Introduction

A. Poisonous Consequences and Its Antidote

B. Traditions are at the Root of the Problem

C. How the Minds are Crippled and Controlled

D. Insights Concerning Education

E. Violent, Physical Upbringing

F. Female and Male Genital Mutilation

G. Sexual Abuse by the Roman Catholic Church

H. Most Nations Ignore the UN Code On the Rights of the Child

Introduction

The crippling of children's mental faculties has calamitous consequences for all individuals, societies, and the world community. Eventually, these children will hold responsible positions ranging from being parents, voters, office holders, and educators to leaders in commerce and industry, and even more importantly, they will be lawmakers, judges, and even heads of nation states. This crippling, which includes the inculcation of disabling assumptions, is systematically practiced by all the world religions. It keeps these institutions and their dogmas alive--it is their life blood--it explains their power over the minds of most of humanity.

Mental abuse is almost universal and far worse in magnitude than the harm done by:

Violent, physically abusive upbringing
Female and male genital mutilation
Sexual abuse by the clergy, priests, nuns, etc.

This chapter details the violations with emphasis on mental abuse. Moreover, it explains a viable remedy to these atrocities grounded in the insight that a mind once enlightened, barring physical illness, generally does not become dark again.

A Work of Artifice

The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
But a gardener
carefully pruned it.
It is nine inches high.
Every day as he
whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,
It is your nature
to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
how lucky, little tree,
to have a pot to grow in.
With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth:
the bound feet*,
the crippled brain,
the hair in curlers,
the hands you
love to touch.

Marge Piercy (1936-)

*Foot binding, for beautification, was quite common in China but is rarely practiced today. As the girl reached adulthood, her feet would remain small and dysfunctional, prone to infection, paralysis, and muscular atrophy. Today, it is still a cause of disability among some elderly Chinese women.

A. Poisonous Consequences and its Antidote

The most deadly of all sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit.

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

The crippling of children's minds has poisonous consequences:

The many are condemned to live life at a lower level of awareness. This is the main conditions that permits their exploitation and deception. They retain a childish dependency on these institutions. Hence, they never become self-governing in important matters of decision making. As parents they reproduce mental images of themselves. As voters, they are not independently thinking and informed but rather easily manipulated citizens. And as educators, they simply parrot their own teachers; hence, their is little or no progress in the development of the mind in general.
Democratic societies suffer because their is a correlation between the quality of the voter and those who run for office and get elected--administrators, lawmakers, judges, heads of state. Moreover, scientific and educational progress that would benefit the material and mental condition of all is impeded or even squashed. In the medical field, for instance, a thousand years of progress has been lost on account of the Dark Middle Ages. This has already caused enormous suffering and premature death for millionth and billionth more will pay for this pernicious ignorance that is still with us.
The united world community, the United Nations, is sabotaged or at least weakened by these individuals who carry out the often hidden agenda of institutions that programmed them during their formative years. In particular the monotheistic religions who are on a mission from God to impose their faith on the rest of the world--foremost Roman Catholic Christianity and Shiite-Sunni Islam--have been hostile to the human rights agenda of the United Nations.

Nobody, not even parents, have a right to cripple minds.

"The fact that children, because of their vulnerability, need special care and protection, . . . ." is widely accepted as a principle but not practiced by the almost 200 or so nation states that comprise the United Nations. And the UN "Convention on the Rights of the Child" entails the right to full personhood for children. The psychologist Nicholas K. Humphrey (b.1943) argues correctly that,

Children, . . . have a human right not to have their minds crippled by exposure to other people's bad ideas—no matter who these other people are. Parents, correspondingly, have no god-given license to enculturate their children in whatever ways they personally choose: no right to limit the horizons of their children's knowledge, to bring them up in an atmosphere of dogma and superstition, or to insist they follow the straight and narrow paths of their own faith.

In short, children have a right not to have their minds addled by nonsense. And we as a society have a duty to protect them from it. So we should no more allow parents to teach their children to believe, for example, in the literal truth of the Bible, or that the planets rule their lives, than we should allow parents to knock their children's teeth out or lock them in a dungeon.

It follows that an upbringing or education that impedes the right to personhood is unethical. Humphrey proposes a general test for deciding when and whether the teaching of a belief system to children is morally defensible:

If it is ever the case that teaching this system to children will mean that later in life they come to hold beliefs that, were they in fact to have had access to alternatives, they would most likely not have chosen for themselves, then it is morally wrong of whoever presumes to impose this system and to chose for them to do so. No one has the right to choose badly for anyone else.

However, he admits that this test will not be simple to apply, but a straightforward solution we need. Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-99) suggested:

Let teachers teach what they know, and let preachers preach what they know.

Of course, by "knowledge" he means justified, probably true belief. And by "Let teachers teach," as a freethinker he certainly means to give the faculties of the mind free play.

An antidote would be a "Democratic Citizen's Education" as outlined in The Educated Citizen. In particular, for teachers, parents, and preachers it would mean the acquisition of what the The Intellectual World has to offer, for it can purify religion from error and superstition. It would start with the demand that "one has a conscience about what one says and what one believes," and culminate in an understanding of the best accredited provider of knowledge, namely, science and its method. Here, N. K. Humphrey's claims correctly:

Conversions from superstition to science have been and are everyday events. . . By contrast conversions from science back to superstition are virtually unknown. . . The reason for this asymmetry between science and non-science is not—at least not only—that science provides so much better—so much more economical, elegant, beautiful—explanations than non-science. Although there is that. The still stronger reason, I'd suggest, is that science is by its very nature a participatory process and non-science is not.

Moreover, for preachers an acquaintance with modern scholarship of their sacred texts would be most beneficial. This is, for instance, readily available for religions where the Bible is foundational. Together with the above recommendations, they could even decide on preaching and practicing an honest and compassionate God or the principles of Dharma as role models or ideals.

B. Traditions are at the Root of the Problem

The resistance against absolutely necessary progress lies in the unfortunate traditions of nations who through their educational system perpetuate harmful beliefs like a hereditary disease from generation to generation.

Albert Einstein (source unverified, my translation)

Together with the evolution of a large part of the brain that allowed higher level thinking, came a strong need for explanation and knowledge about the world. Besides looking for "greener pastures" it was a force that motivated our earliest ancestors to search for what lay beyond the horizon, and in the process they soon spread to all corners of the planet. And the minds that outwitted predators and competitors for mates and rank in the social hierarchy, also had the power of drawing inferences from facts and plan for the future. Moreover, their curiosity demanded answers to the ancient existential questions: Who are we? Where did it all come from? What is the meaning of life? etc. And none are more curious than children when it comes to fundamental questions "about how and why things happened, and how the world was made."

The earliest answers were a multitude of wild speculations that would eventually be unified in the texts of the world religions. Moreover, the texts had to contain instructions for behavioral control of the many living now in a state of interdependency in larger communities. For allowing and promoting a given belief system, the rulers demanded, and the priests expected, that their elevated positions be protected. And protection or social control started ever since with the dulling and crippling of children's mind. And with official answers to basic questions:

They devised systems of education that would crush curiosity and so avoid its heretical or revolutionary consequences. Fortunately a few usually escaped this intellectual castration and preserved into adulthood their child-like sense of wonder. As a result the human species discovered many things (Nigel Calder, born 1931).

Among those who "escaped this intellectual castration" were people like Darwin who enlightened the biological world, Marx who explained the social sphere, and Einstein who illuminated the micro and macro universe. All three were also down-to-earth, courageous philosophers with an advanced social and moral conscience. For instance, read their evaluative analysis of religion in Intellectual Giants Critique Religion. Below, Einstein explains "the predatory phase" of human development, the alliance between rulers and priests, which we have still not overcome as follows:

. . . most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country. They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks. The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior (my emphasis).

The same author tells us that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Well, we have tried the ideas of religious and ideological traditions--the ideas of our pre-scientific ancestors--over and over again without getting different results concerning the education of children. Isn't it time we try something that is new and most promising such as using common sense and the evidence of the senses to accept a high standard of intellectual honesty, the scientific method, and the habit of rational thinking towards the common good that starts with a quality education of our children.

C. How the Minds are Crippled and Controlled

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training,

for it trains people as to how they shall think.

Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

The easiest way to insure stability is to engender fear. Teaching the skills required for responsible decision making is much harder.

Walter A. Kaufmann (1921-80)

Religious abusive conduct with respect to children is too systematic to be judged negligence--it is obviously intentional.

Vivid descriptions of guilt, such as original sin, and eternal torments in hell, frightens children and tortures adults with fear in the final hours of their existence. (Photo source: Free Inquiry, fall 2002)

What do children in hell experience?

Father Furnis, an English priest also known as "the children's apostle," described the tortures of hell in a series of Books for Children. Here are two examples depicting the torments of a boy and a little child in hell:

His eyes are burning like two burning coals. Two long flames come out of his ears . . . Sometimes he opens his mouth, and breath of blazing fire rolls out. But listen! There is a sound just like that of a kettle boiling. Is it really a kettle boiling? No. Then what is it? Hear what it is. The blood is boiling in the scalding veins of that boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is boiling in his bones. Ask him why he is thus tormented. His answer is that when he was alive, his blood boiled to do very wicked things.
A little child is in this red-hot oven. Hear how it screams to come out! See how it turns and twists itself about in the fire! It beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor. You can see on the face of this little child what you see on the faces of all in hell--despair, desperate and horrible (my emphases, quoted by George H. Smith)

Hell is a real place according to the Bible, and it cites Jesus Christ as an eyewitness who has been to Hell and back. Here are a few of the numerous citations in the Gospels of what J.C. allegedly had to say about it (my emphases):

Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast [them] from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire (Matthew 18:8).
But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation (Mark 3:29):
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched (Mark 9:43):
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42).
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Matthew 25:46).
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12).
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:29).

For the sinister mentality and means to the practices of child abuse by the world religions, see the chapter on Antisocial Minds and Their Means.

Concerning the teaching of religion, according to Rousseau (1712-78), children cannot understand abstract concepts such as the soul before the age of about fifteen or sixteen, so to introduce religion to them is dangerous. He writes, it is a lesser evil to be unaware of the divinity than to offend it. Moreover, because children are incapable of understanding the difficult concepts that are part of religion, he points out that children will only recite what is told to them – they are unable to believe.

Finally, while educational child abuse is practiced almost universally by religions, in the U.S., James G. Dwyer in his work Religious Schools v. Children Rights (1998) demonstrates that religious schooling in the U.S. [and elsewhere] is almost completely unregulated and that common pedagogical practices in fundamental Christian and Catholic schools may be damaging to children:

He presents evidence of excessive restriction of children's basic liberties, stifling of intellectual development, the instilling of dogmatic and intolerant attitudes, as well as the inflicting of psychological and emotional harms. It includes excessive guilt and repression and especially among girls the result is diminished self-esteem.

D. Insights Concerning Children's Education

How is it that little children are so intelligent while men are so stupid?

It must be education that does it.

Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824-95)

The greater part of the people we assign to educate our children we know for certain are not educated. Yet we do not doubt that they can give what they have not received, . . . .

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837)

As a result of all his education, from everything he hears and sees around him, the child absorbs such a lot of lies and foolish nonsense, mixed in with essential truths, that the first duty of the adolescent who wants to be a healthy man is to disgorge it all.

Romain Rolland (1866-1944)

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.

John Ruskin (1819-1900)

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.

Rachel Carson (1907-64)

The adult with a capacity for true maturity is one who has grown out of childhood without losing childhood's best traits.

Joseph Stone (1903-86)

Perhaps a child who is fussed over gets a feeling of destiny, he thinks he is in the world for something important and it gives him drive and confidence.

Benjamin Spock (1903-98)

It is true that a child is always hungry all over; but he is also curious all over, and his curiosity is excited about as early as his hunger.

Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900)

When teachers have a low expectation level for their children's learning, the children seldom exceed that expectation This is the self-fulfilling prophecy.

John Niemeyer (1903-87)

What a shame it is that children are constantly being ranked and evaluated. What a shame it is that superior achievement of one child tends to debase the achievement of another.

from Society and the Adolescent self-image

No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.

Charles Dickens (1812-70)

A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.

Longfellow (1807-1882)

E. Violent, Physical Upbringing

Corporal punishment, e.g., beating, is simpler than educating a child about moral behavior. Educating is often not an option for the punisher since he or she is not informed in this field. Hence, their is a correlation between education and the method of choice for correcting a child's conduct. The beater himself, more often than not, has had a like upbringing and a parochial education that endorsed this kind of abuse. In any case, he has a very limited, and often false, understanding of what is right and wrong conduct. Of course, whipping and other physical violence allows the punisher to get rid of build-up frustrations that may have nothing to do with the child's "sinful" conduct. And in doing so, he or she is encouraged by Biblical passages that demand both corporal and capital punishment as well as infanticide:

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth* him betimes [early] (Proverbs 13:24).
Chasten* thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying (Proverbs 19:18).
Foolishness [is] bound in the heart of a child; [but] the rod of correction shall drive it far from him (Proverbs 22:15).
Withhold not correction from the child: for [if] thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die (Proverbs 23:13).
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Proverbs 23:14).
The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left [to himself] bringeth his mother to shame (Proverbs 29:15).
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey . . . when they have chastened* him . . . Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city . . . And they shall say . . . This our son stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; [he is] a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die . . . (Deuteronomy21:18-21).
Happy [shall he be], that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones (Psalms 137:9).

*chasten--to inflict suffering upon for purposes of moral improvement

Directives such as these, and belief in a vengeful God who would punish harmless earthly pleasures perceived as sin with the ultimate and eternal torture of hell, drives some parents to use corporal punishment to enforce parental authority and to prohibit supposed sinful behavior.

F. Female and Male Genital Mutilation

Children have a right that their genitalia is left intact. In particular, in the case of girls, parents have no right to mutilate their daughters to suit their own religious-sexual agenda. Let every girl decide how to best use the unimpaired body she was born with. "Female and male circumcision," as its practitioners call it, originated in ancient Egypt. However, only male circumcision found its way into the religious texts of the Hebrews, and into Islam and Christianity when they accepted the Hebrew scriptures. Female circumcision is practiced throughout the world, but the practice is concentrated more heavily in Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East. Amnesty International estimates that over 100 million women worldwide have been the recipients of these procedures, with over 2 million female genital mutilations being performed every year.

Female circumcision is more appropriately called Female Genital Cutting (FGC) or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). They are performed upon very young girls, often by force, and often by those who are not medical professionals, outside of surgical facilities. It is most commonly performed between the ages of four and eight, without any anesthetic or sterilization, and by women with no medical training. FGC can lead to death through shock or excessive bleeding.

Many mutilations are performed with shards of glass and other crude tools. The failure to use sterilized medical instruments can lead to infections and the spread of disease, especially when the same instruments are used to perform procedures on multiple women. It is not uncommon for infection to occur, sometimes resulting in death.

The mildest mutilation involves only the removal of the hood of the clitoris. More severe is the partial or total removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy). The most severe form of female genital mutilation includes the cutting of other parts of the vulva*. This procedure is called infibulation and involves:

Clitoridectomy, the partial or total removal of the clitoris.
The removal of the labia minora.
The cutting of the labia majora.
The sewing together the cut labia majora to cover the vagina, leaving only a small hole to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass through.
The sewn together labia majora is eventually cut open by the woman's husband before intercourse.

The consequence is that first sexual intercourse is extremely painful, and can result in additional damage, due to the need to cut open the labia majora. Sexual pleasure through stimulation of the clitoris, a critical part of typical female sexuality, is of course eliminated. At its worst, female genital mutilation is a means of HIV transmission. Women one whom the procedure has been performed are also more likely to acquire HIV through intercourse, due to the damage to the genital area.

In the past several decades, there have been pushes by global health organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), to end the practice of Female Genital Cutting (FGC). However, due to its importance in traditional and religious life, the practice remains in many societies.

*Vulva (plural vulvae), the external genitalia of female mammals that surround the opening to the vagina. Collectively these consist of the labia majora, the labia minora, clitoris, vestibule of the vagina, bulb of the vestibule, and the glands of Bartholin.

Male circumcision involves the complete or partial surgical removal of the foreskin, which is the fold of skin that covers the tip, glans or full glans, of the penis. The clans is the most sensitive-pleasure yielding part of the penis and has corresponding parts in the female clitoris. The removal of the foreskin is most often performed upon infant boys. It has religious significance in the Jewish religion and in Islam. It has spread into Western culture, and peaked in the early 80s.

The circumcising of the newly born is subject of intense deliberations. Proponents support it as having health advantages, though there is no plausible evidence that this is the case when a male practices bodily hygiene. Opponents, as implied above, see it as a violation of the individual's human rights. A sound compromise would be to leave the male boys intact, and let them decide at a mature age.

G. Child Abuse by the Roman Catholic Church

a. Sexual Crimes by Priests

b. The Rape of Children by an Army of U.S. Priests

c. Fathered by Priests, the Ostracized Children

a. Sexual Crimes by Priests

"The caretaker of the soul (Seelsorger) mutates into a soul destroyer" (Seelenfresser) writes an otherwise Catholic-friendly Southern German newspaper (Süddeutsche Zeitung) about the sexual crimes of priests:

What makes these crimes so terrible is the trauma that not only affects the body and soul [mind] of a child, but also the ability for a [rational] religious belief is destroyed for many years to come. Men ordained by the Roman Catholic Church to be mediators between God and humans become defilers of children (my translation).

Transgressions range from fondling to violent sodomy. Oral sex is somewhere in between. However, it is most disgusting when done under the guise of a holy sacrament as in the case of a fourteen-year-old altar boy. He was urged by a priest to give him oral sex, "blessing it as a way to receive Holy Communion."* And the reporter of this event asks:

How long does it take powerful institutions to learn that it's not just the crime, it's also the cover-up that damns you? The Roman Catholic Church [at least in the U.S.] kept silent for decades about the immoral, even criminal betrayal of its children.

Concerning the roots of this behavior.

In a conversation with the editorial staff of the publisher DAS WEISSE PFERD GmbH, Uta Ranke-Heinemann** (URH), the first ever female Catholic professor of theology, answers questions that go to the underlying causes of this criminal conduct (my translation):

Staff: What in your opinion are the roots of children's sexual abuse by priests?

URH: On account of being favored with homosexual tendencies, some young men--in complete innocence--confuses their homosexual tendencies with a divine calling [to become a priest]. In no other profession is the share of homosexuals so high as in the Catholic clergy--and the higher up in the hierarchy, the larger is the percentage. 60% of the Vatican is homosexual [but not necessarily practicing it].

Staff: Why are homosexuals favored?

URH: The marriage of the monk Luther to a nun resulted in a gigantic wave of priests getting married. In particular since this event, the highest commandment for educating priests is "No Scandal with Women." The higher one climbs in the Church's hierarchy, the more is one handpicked [chosen with care for a special purpose]. Only those qualify of whom the Church is sure with respect to woman. Bishops must swear under oath: no women priests, no woman for priests, no contraception. By the way, from this one sees to what kind of a celibacy-credo Christianity has shrunk . . .

Staff: Why doesn't the Church give up celibacy?

URH: With the abolition of celibacy, the homosexuals in the Vatican would lose their ideal biotope*** [long-term relationship]. That is why they cling to it with teeth and claws. Imagine, if the pope would marry, and their suddenly would be a First Lady, it would steal the show from the cardinals and cause a disturbing confusion among this all-male terrarium [an enclosure in which to keep small land animals]. Up to now it has been: All men are shepherds, all women are sheep. This clarity of who is on top and who is down would be endangered.

Staff: Does this all-male environment produce pedophiles or do they already come with these inclination?

URH: In any case, in no other profession do homosexuals have such easy availability to boys, for example, altar boys.

*http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020401/story.html

**Uta Ranke-Heinemann (born 1927) was relieved of her teaching position by the Church for her persistent doubting of the virgin birth. Later, she was declared a heretic and excommunicated on account of her book:

Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. Women, Sexuality, and the Catholic Church, 1990.

Another on of her publications, with Peter Heinegg is:

Putting Away Childish Things: The Virgin Birth, the Empty Tomb, and Other Fairy Tales You Dont't Need to Believe to Have a Living Faith,1994.

***in biology: a small area with a uniform environment occupied by a community of organisms.

b. The Rape of Children by an Army of U.S. Priests

Another indicator of the Church's power in the U.S. can be seen from their ability to cover up serious crimes over decades of transgressions. Moreover, some claim that the mental rape--Catholic indoctrination--of children is as bad or worse then sexual rape. More about this in Egregious Errors in Religions. The transgressions of U.S. priests have probably their counterpart, but quantitatively worse, in predominantly Catholic countries of the less-developed world where the Church has more power to suppress these crimes. Concerning the U.S., the following account is in key parts by the Roman Church herself:

In the early 21st century the American church was shaken by accusations of child molestation on the part of many clergy. A study commissioned by the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops showed that some 4 percent of American priests (more than 4,000) had committed such crimes, in some cases repeatedly and over a period of several decades. More than 10,000 cases of molestation were authenticated, though victims' groups asserted that additional cases went unreported because the victims were ashamed to come forward. It also became evident that some bishops had made a bad situation worse by shielding priests who had sexually abused minors or by transferring them to other pastoral assignments. When faced with the immensity of the problem, the church, after some halting steps, dealt with it publicly and worked to prevent abuse from happening again. By 2004 the Catholic church worldwide had paid out more than $1 billion (U.S.) in jury awards, settlements, and legal fees, leading some dioceses to consider protection under bankruptcy law (my emphasis). (Source: "Roman Catholicism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.)

c. Fathered by Priests, the Ostracized Children

      To this day, the 
      church punishes the born out of wedlock children of male priests. The 
      priest is allowed to continue in his priesthood only on the condition that 
      he separates himself from his children. Very often, the fact that he has 
      children is hushed up and the mother of his children must struggle alone 
      to raise them. And worse, these children are considered bastards since 
      they were born out of wedlock. Children of annulled Catholic marriages are 
      also considered bastards. These children and their offspring for ten 
      generations to come cannot enter heaven according to the Bible:

A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD (Deuteronomy 23:2).

           
      It is historically verifiable, however, that many of the popes in history 
      had children even after 1139, the year in which priests were forbidden to 
      marry. The following popes had children:

Popes:                                      Born out of wedlock children:

Innocent VIII  (1484-1492)                       several

Alexander VI*   (1492 - 1503)                      4

Julius (1503-1513)                              3 daughters

Paul III  (1534 - 1549)                    3 sons and I daughter

Pope Paul IV (1559 - 1565)                       1 son

*Alexander lived with the mother of his children for twenty years, while he was a cardinal.

           
      The following popes, who lived before 1139, were married and gave their 
      wives and children, presumably, a legitimate place at their side:

St. Peter, Apostle

St. Felix III (483-492        (2 children)

St. Homidas (514-523)      ( 1 son)

St. Silverus (536-537)

Hadrian II (867-872)         (1 daughter)

Clement IV (1265-1268)    (2 daughters)

Felix V (1439-1449)          (1 son)

H.  Most Nations Ignore the UN Code On the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Preamble On the Rights of the Child, reaffirms the fact that children, because of their vulnerability, need special care and protection, . . . .

Under pressure from religious and conservative groups, most nations do not implement or enforce certain articles of the (go to) United Nation's: On the Rights of the Child:

Article 3 - Best interests of the child

All actions concerning the child shall take full account of his or her best interests. The State shall provide the child with adequate care when parents, or others charged with that responsibility, fall to do so.

Article 6 - Survival and development
Every child has the inherent right to life, and the State has an obligation to ensure the child's survival and development.

Article 12 - The child's opinion
The child has the right to express his or her opinion freely and to have that opinion taken into account in any matter or procedure affecting the child.

Article 13 - Freedom of expression
The child has the right to express his or her views, obtain information, and make ideas or information known, regardless of frontiers.

Article 14 - Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
The State shall respect the child's right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, subject to appropriate parental guidance.

Article 17 - Access to appropriate information
The State shall ensure the accessibility to children of information and material from a diversity of sources, and it shall encourage the mass media to disseminate information which is of social and cultural benefit to the child, and take steps to protect him or her from harmful materials.

Article 19 - Protection from abuse and neglect
The State shall protect the child from all forms of maltreatment [this would include mental abuse and neglect] by parents or other responsible for the care of the child and establish appropriate social programs for the prevention of abuse and the treatment of victims.