Recently the Australian Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the child abuse of the Catholic Church in Victoria released its report on the horrific saga. Monica Dux, an ex-Catholic wrote the following in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“…Any residual sympathy I had for the Catholic Church has bled away in recent years as the horrifying extent of clerical abuse has been laid bare. The acts that have been documented are of the most appalling kind, not only in their cruelty and their scale, but in the profound betrayal of trust that they involve. It’s been convenient for believers to look on these crimes as the acts of wicked individuals. But the truth is far more shocking. The church has protected these criminals.
“It has systematically enabled, covered up and defended their crimes, in a way that suggests a thoroughly diseased and dysfunctional institutional culture; one that places the interests of the organisation over those of individuals.
“Even now, many of those who represent the church continue to demonstrate an inability to grasp the extent and nature of the crimes committed against generations of children, or to offer adequate compensation. As a committee member in the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry said: ‘Today’s church leaders view the current question of abuse of children as a “short-term embarrassment” which should be handled as quickly as possible to cause the least damage to the church’s standing.’
“People sometimes argue they are justified in participating in a corrupt organisation, so they can change it from within. Yet there is a point where an organisation becomes so diseased, so thoroughly associated with wickedness, that no decent person would affiliate themselves with it. Surely the Catholic Church has reached this point…
“…Wouldn’t the ultimate act of contrition be to dismantle the organisation that fostered, protected, and is still unable to grasp the gravity of the abuse its agents perpetrated? Maybe this is one time when we really should be asking, what would Jesus do?
“Because there is one thing I am sure he would not be doing, and that is attending Mass this Sunday.”
The author may be on to something. The Bible describes this wickedness in graphic spiritual terms.
“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Revelation 17:1-5
As for affiliating with the Catholic Church, the Bible is equally pointed. Decency demands God’s true people to “Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4
As for dismantling the church, the Bible also predicts the dissolution of the Papacy in a most violent and dramatic way. It will be done by rulers or kings. “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:16-18
Note that this is describing a city that rules over the kings of the earth. If there is one city-state that has ruled over kings and rulers, and is seeking to do so again by political might and power, it is Vatican City.