Catholic Church Heirarchy Raided in Belgium.

That Slough of Despond, the Catholic church is not faring too well these days.  Belgian authorities have raided the church's headquarters looking for evidence of cover up and dirty dealings in the global sex abuse scandal that refuses to go away despite attempts by the misogynists that run the organization to make it so.
Apparently,  the palace of the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels had been sealed off and police have also  raided the home of retired archbishop Godfried Danneels. According to the BBC "officers were tapping on boards and looking for hidden spaces", its must be like a scene from a crime thriller.  Mind you, the Catholic church is renowned for its ability to hide the truth from the outside world so the level of success might well be limited.

I recall the case of a pedophile priest here in the US that was sent off to work with indigenous tribes in South America as things were getting to hot for him here, a safe place for him as far as the church hierarchy is was concerned. This was thee standard practice for dealing with pedophiles. What are we supposed to think; the movers and shakers in the church thought the tropical climate would cease the priests activity, that he would be "cured"? He must have had a field day down there.  I can only imagine the horror and shame his new victims must have felt and probably still feel. Becasue of that we will probably never know.

The present pope, the former Nazi youth member Benedict, has pledged to bring justice to the victims of child abuse due to the activities of his colleagues.  He is the most proactive pope in this regard his defenders claim.  This is after the fact.  One of his flunkies initially claimed that the accusers were spreading "petty gossip."

Most of the perpetrators have gotten off with reprimand, or they have simply resigned their posts. What a scandal.  This organization has held back the progress of human society and culture.  I have nothing against individual Catholics but I wonder why someone would remain in such a rotten institution.  I couldn't imagine some member of a KKK branch saying that "I'm in the Klan but I'm not a racist" getting very much sympathy for that argument.

I had to read John Bunyan's famous allegory when I was at school and had a really hard time with it but I always remembered his terms that were so descriptive, like the "Den of Iniquity" for example.  I never realized that when he wrote of the Slough of Despond thus........
'This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond.."
 
.......that he was talking about the Catholic church.  He was quite a visionary after all.