Why do popes, bishops and priests not go to prison?

My friend is asking me repeatedly why the pope, and his bishops and priests are not in prison for the mass child abuse crime and its cover up? The Catholic church has a lot of allies and resources. It is the main church of capitalism. From its pulpits, its full time apparatus of 400,000 priests, its publications and its huge works of art and wealth it preaches that the only system is the present system, that is capitalism. When this was challenged by the liberation theology people in the church 30 or so years ago this opinion and these people were crushed with ferocity by the top church leaders and the organization made safe for capitalism again. The Catholic church co-operated with US Imperialism in sending resources to the right wing military dictatorships in latin America where this liberation theology was strongest and the result was the massacre of many of these people and the working class and the poor. The church made clear it was prepared to spill blood for capitalism, to make its own apparatus safe for capitalism, its showed it could be relied upon by capitalism, it demonstrated its value for capitalism, it showed it was prepared and able to fight for it. Capitalism in turn returns the favor and defends it. this is the main reason the Catholic church's leadership is not behind bars.

Then there is the church's role in the crisis of stalinism. Stalinism collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. However the alternative did not have to inevitably be a return to capitalism. Another alternative was the establishment of a democratic workers' socialist society. But this was anathema to capitalism and also to the Catholic church. Both would have lost their wealth and power. So the Catholic church used its resources in alliance with the capitalist forces in the West to help bring down stalinism but also and extremely importantly it used its resources to make sure that what replaced it was capitalism and not by a democratic socialist society.

Capitalism owes the Catholic Church big time. In spite of the coverage it gives the epidemic of sex abuse the capitalist media gives huge coverage to the Catholic church's defense and to its unelected male leadership in maintaining their positions of power and influence. It offers no alternative to the undemocratic male dominated structure of the church. And it makes every effort to keep the Catholic church out of the clutches of the legal system. It allows and perpetrates one law for the Catholic church apparatus and one law for others. There is a different standard.

Capitalism covers the arrogant defiant fight back that we now see coming from the Catholic leadership. It repeats the criticism of the mass child abuse crime but it also defends the allegation that criticism of the pope's role in covering this up is similar to anti semitism. It shows the charade, meant to intimidate, of the church's ceremonies and easter parades. But most importantly it defends the Catholic church in its fundamentals and it keep s its main leaders out of prison. if the pope went to prison which he should this would be a shattering blow to the authority of the Catholic church and its claim that the pope is the representative of so called god on earth and with this the ability of the catholic church to defend capitalism would be weakened.

The arrogance of the Catholic church is unbelievable. It is under extreme attack in Ireland where so many of its members and former members feel betrayed. It is hard to see a priest on the streets in his uniform because there is so great hostility even to the point where they might be attacked physically. The Anglican church pointed out this crisis in the Catholic church in Ireland. And what was the response? An arrogant whining snarl from the Catholic hierarchy. How dare the Anglican church make such a comment when the Catholic church was trying to rebuild its credibility. As if the Anglican church should recognize what the Catholic church was doing and help it regain its credibility. This came only a few months after the Catholic church and the present pope set up a separate section in the Catholic church to try and split off the more right wing section of the Anglican apparatus who were opposed to gay and lesbian people being made ministers and bishops. This is only understandable in the context of the extreme arrogance of the Catholic apparatus who think they are the representatives of so called god on earth.

This arrogance plus the importance of the Catholic church in defending capitalism and capitalism's support in return is why the pope and bishops and priests are not in prison by the hundreds. The Catholic church is too important for capitalism and there is one law for it and one law for the rest of us.

On a final note. If capitalism or any wing of capitalism tends to forget this then the Catholic church mobilizes its supporters through its priests and churches and influences votes and politicians as it did in the health care debate here in the US when it got funding for abortion removed from the bill. It continues to have this mass base through its huge resources, though its tradition going back centuries, through its astute political role, through its threatening of its members that they will not go to heaven but will go to hell if they do not toe the line, through its instilling of fears in its its members and the removal of these fears through the confessional. The Catholic church terrorizes its members. And naturally this is fine with capitalism as long as it does so in the interests of capitalism and this is what it does. And so its apparatus stays out of prison.

Sean