In case you thought we had heard every repulsive thing the Roman Catholic Church had done, prepare to be appalled all over again. A Dutch newspaper is reporting about documents that show that the church castrated young boys who were suspected of being gay — or who ratted out priests that molested them.
Underage sexual abuse victims were castrated in Dutch Roman Catholic psychiatric wards in the 1950s, according to the Rotterdam-based newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
Castration was performed on young men who were thought to be homosexual, but also as a means of punishing those who blew the whistle on abusers, the paper quotes sources as saying.
NRC discovered proof of the forced castration of one young man and strong evidence that at least ten other abuse victims were subjected to the removal of their testicles. The proof includes court documents, medical records, letters from lawyers and private correspondence…
NRC also writes that a prominent Dutch politician tried to secure a royal pardon for Catholic brothers convicted of sexual abuse at Harreveld, a former boarding school in the Netherlands. The politician was Vic Marijnen, who later became Dutch prime minister.
Marijnen was chairman of the Harreveld board of governors at the time when the abuses took place. He was also vice-chairman of the Netherlands’ main Catholic child protection agency and leader of the Catholic People’s Party (KVP), which later merged with Protestant groups to create the Christian Democrats.
Voltaire was right: écrasez l’infâme.
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yellowsubmarine
March 21, 2012 at 1:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wow. I’m not a violent person, but if the Vatican were to be suspiciously burned to the ground, I wouldn’t be upset. How anyone can still be Catholic (or indoctrinate their effing CHILDREN into it)after this is mind-boggling to me.
RW Ahrens
March 21, 2012 at 1:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I saw this yesterday for the first time and posted it on Facebook. I also commented on another of the FTB poster’s blogs about it.
But, still, after a day of knowing about it and thinking about it, I still cannot dredge up the right words to convey my utter disgust, horror and outright contempt for an organization that would do this at an institutional level, when its entire reason for existence is supposed to be to fight evil, and not participate in it!
The day when the RCC sells off its last piece of property in this country and begins its final retreat into historical obscurity cannot come too soon for me.
'Tis Himself, OM
March 21, 2012 at 1:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
For those who might be wondering, “écrasez l’infâme” means “crush the infamous”.
Bronze Dog
March 21, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It seems like we’re always finding evidence of new lows for the RCC, and with it, I find new frontiers of disgust.
Area Man
March 21, 2012 at 2:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Cue shoot the messenger response in 5, 4, 3…
aaronbaker
March 21, 2012 at 2:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
To me, twenty or so years ago, it would have seemed pretty over the top to say this–but the Catholic Church really is an international criminal enterprise.
Incidentally, Sinead O’Connor deserves a public apology.
Chris from Europe
March 21, 2012 at 2:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You forget all the art, the historical documents including palimpsests and the Vatican museum.
aaronbaker
March 21, 2012 at 2:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“You forget all the art, the historical documents including palimpsests and the Vatican museum.”
The Italian Government should seize the Vatican, evict its occupants, and declare it a state-owned museum. No need to punish Michelangelo and Raphael for the crimes of others.
JustaTech
March 21, 2012 at 2:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Chris from Europe: You’re right, that would be a terrible loss. Not to mention all the monetarily-valuable stuff they’ve got in there. What should be done is an acution. The art goes to museums (not private collectors) so everyone can see it, the documents are shared among research libraries that can preserve and study them, and everything else is sold to the highest bidder. The art that is part of the buildings is a bit complicated … maybe a trust to operate them as museums?
All the money? Goes to everyone the RCC has harmed, their families, and some real damn charities that would actually do some good.
(This makes me want to take Tim Minchin’s Priest Song and play it at top volume.)
noastronomer
March 21, 2012 at 2:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Area Man #5 “Cue shoot the messenger response in 5, 4, 3…”
Didn’t you read the article? We don’t shoot messengers any more. We cut their balls off.
Mike.
jimmiraybob
March 21, 2012 at 2:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is unexpected from a religious-political organization that, over centuries, institutionalized brutal tortures and sanctified death by burning people alive, sometimes slow roasting them for maximum effect, for thought crimes against the one and only Truth?
laurentweppe
March 21, 2012 at 2:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Garibaldi did it, once, and Napoléon III sent half the french army to retake Rome for to pope
grumpyoldfart
March 21, 2012 at 3:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The Catholic Church has been castrating boys for centuries – check out the castrato singers.
peicurmudgeon
March 21, 2012 at 4:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Of course, it was the molestees (just made that up now) who were punished. Nothing was done to the molesters. I guess the vow of chastity took care of that.
exdrone
March 21, 2012 at 4:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, they created a few thousand castrati a year in the 18th century, so not do so for a few more troublemakers. After all, if juvenile mutilation was justifiable for listening pleasure, why not for defending the reputation of the church? [/snark]
Castrato, BBC documentary part 1 et al
reasonbeing
March 21, 2012 at 5:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It really is disgusting. At this point anyone in the pews is nothing more than an enabler and really not worthy of any respect as clear thinking person.
left0ver1under
March 21, 2012 at 5:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If catholic priests are supposed to be celibate, why aren’t they forced to become eunuchs once they attain priesthood? Walk the walk, if they believe it so much.
At the very least, it would reduce a lot of the pedophilia.
laurentweppe
March 21, 2012 at 5:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh yes, because nothing can express more your own moral superiority compared to corrupt priests and their apologists than indulging in very same form of sectarian tribalism. Since anger and outrage at the rapist priests and their real accomplices does not suffice anymore, are you going to require the systematic disenfranchisement of every catholic or just demand that they do a public auto-critic at gunpoint?
democommie
March 21, 2012 at 5:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“At the very least, it would reduce a lot of the pedophilia.”
Maybe, maybe not, (http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/frames/252/spalfram.html). Paedophilia is not always about sex. Dr.X may be along to weigh in on this.
Michael Heath
March 21, 2012 at 7:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
yellowsubmarine writes:
I would argue that the harm caused by evangelicals and fundamentalists to children is far worse than that by the Catholic hierarchy. I’m not conceding rhetorical hyperbole in my previous assertion, I think it’s far worse.
Yes there’s some horrible behavior by priests, but that harm was and is caused to a relative few while I think nearly all fundie and evangelical parents abuse their children by energetically seeking to deprive their kids of reaching their fullest potential. Primarily by either denying them a sufficient education or by the parents and their respective faith community putting pressure on these children which has them compromising their higher educational opportunties; and therefore their career opportunities as well. This insidious form of abuse is the second most under-reported story I perceive, the worst being our inability to confront climate change.
Tony
March 21, 2012 at 7:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
JustaTech @9:
–I like the idea of an auction. However, I think all money made should go to the victims of the Raping Castrating Church.
Tony
March 21, 2012 at 7:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Scratch that. Brain not functioning after work. Must learn to open eyes and fully read a post before responding.
Tony
March 21, 2012 at 7:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
–Ah an apologist for the church (hopefully one day morally repugnant apologists will recognize the error of their ways in supporting the evil catholic church).
It’s not going to work.
Moral superiority is not at play here.
Where is this outrage by catholics towards their hierarchy?
Where is the massive public outcry?
Where is the criticism?
Where are the letters to the papacy?
Where are the catholic churches rejecting the Vatican?
Where is the admission that all the rapes of CHILDREN and now castration of CHILDREN have been systematic and known by catholic officials?
If someone cannot understand the role EVERY. SINGLE. CATHOLIC.
plays in continuing to support the church and how that, in turn gives them license to commit these atrocities (since there aren’t enough church members actively opposing these crimes and letting the clergy know), there’s something disturbing about that individual’s sense of morality. Of course, chances are the moral compass has been affected by the Raping & Castrating Church.
Any individual continuing to support the catholic church should ask themselves: “would I continue my employment with a company if I found out they were complicit in child rape?”
Oh, by the way, no one has advocated *forcing* anyone to do anything, let alone holding others at gun point.
Raging Bee
March 21, 2012 at 8:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So…has Bill Donahue had anything to say about this yet?
Dr X
March 21, 2012 at 8:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
She deserved an apology all along. She took grief because of the special treatment routinely accorded to religious criminals like JPII, who was an accomplice to child sexual abuse. They should dig up his rotting corpse dump it in the ocean with bin laden.
laurentweppe
March 21, 2012 at 9:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You are lying about me
You are slandering me
Do not pretend that you’d not send a mob after me if you could, because that’s what slanderers do: accuse someone of being a “morally repugnant” criminal -or accomplice of criminals- hoping that some idiot will do the dirty work in their place.
***
Ignored by people like you who love to pretend that it does not exist, or is so small that it is irrelevant, or when showed cases of either the laity standing up against the hierarchy or member of said hierarchy doing the right thing instead of circling the wagons, love to pretend that it is a perfidious attempt to deceive and elude vigilance.
When Irish Catholics became enraged at their hierarchy after the publication of the Murphy report, I remember reading a few post and comments which basically said “Youhou! More Atheists! Yay!”: and the Catholics who were as angry as anyone else, yet remained catholic? They did not exist according your crowd: Irland was to be populated by a faction of virtuous ex-Catholics and a faction of treacherous depraved still-Catholics and no one else: and anyone claiming otherwise shall be accused of being secretly in cahoots with the dark international conspiracy of Children Rapists Inc. and subjected to cyber battery until bullied into silence: So Sayeth the self-proclaimed Virtuous-Ones.
The “Where is the Outrage” line as also be used by christian biggots who demanded “Where is the Outrage by Muslims toward Bin Laden”: if you use the same kind of rhetorical bullshit that biggoted wastes of oxygen, you’re going to receive from me the very same amount of contempt than I give them.
***
No one has openly advocated holding people at gunpoint, but you want to do it soooooooo much that I can smell your bloodlust from where I am.
***
It keeps getting better and better: yeah: let’s desecrate corpses and tombs: you know, like the heroic marines who urinated on afghani corpses, or like these friendly “defenders of secular society” do when they get bored
kraut
March 21, 2012 at 10:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Do not pretend that you’d not send a mob after me if you could, because that’s what slanderers do: accuse someone of being a “morally repugnant” criminal -or accomplice of criminals- hoping that some idiot will do the dirty work in their place.”
It must hurt to experience what the RCC has done for millennia to others. As an ex catholic I must say it feels fine to have them taste their own medicine. No apologies.
And I am pulling a Godwin here:
A criminal organization that is supported by their membership despite the publicity of their crimes in turn makes the membership criminal associates and collaborators. See the Nazis.
But, the church had a millenia or two to do what the Nazis achieved in a few years, so it is easier to hide the corpses by encouraging forgetfulness for the crimes of those goons and their Ober Gangster pro tem Ratzinger…there were worse, but history as taught by the RCC so far has been one of the winners, so the worst usually winds up under some dirty carpet. Time is history has to be written about this criminal organization by their victims..
kraut
March 21, 2012 at 10:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“It keeps getting better and better: yeah: let’s desecrate corpses and tombs: you know, like the heroic marines who urinated on afghani corpses, or like these friendly “defenders of secular society” do when they get bored”
As far as my french goes – the term used for the offenders is “racist” Do you imbecile really suggest that racists and secularist are one and the same? Are you really not ashamed to conflate racism and secularism, part of the latter is humanism?
Are you really already driven to desperation by attacks on your cherished goon squad that you resort to falsehoods and lies ala Donahue? If that is all you have to contribute – fuck off, arsehole. You are definetly not welcome.
Chris from Europe
March 22, 2012 at 6:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
About what delusions are you talking here? There’s no lie on Laurent’s side. And I doubt that Laurent is doing this because he’s Catholic. We don’t even know.
But given some reactions here including yours, Laurent’s judgment seems to be correct.
The difference here is just that Laurent is remaining reasonable. Is everyone not flying into rage the enemy? Then you definitively are a mob.
Desecrating corpses has nothing to do with secularism. It’s just a way to express hate of your enemies. It doesn’t get noble because the kind of hate isn’t racism.
I don’t see how stealing JPII’s corpse and desecrating it, helps to convince anyone that he was a really bad person.
How are you in the position to tell Laurent that? Given Laurent’s comment history there’s no reason to lie about him and pretend that he’s some kind of right-wing Catholic.
It would be tragic if someone like Laurent weren’t welcome here.
democommie
March 22, 2012 at 7:29 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Chris from Europe:
You are correct about Laurent Weppe being a generally thoughtful commenter. I definitely disagree with him on the subject of catholicism. Having been raised and schooled with lots of religious nonsense (by obvious hypocrites) I have a decidedly–and, I think, justified–dislike of and distrust for the RCC.
Many otherwise good people are strong catholics, republicans and yankee fans. The “otherwise good” part is what I generally look at.
Kraut is a Krank.
swans
March 22, 2012 at 7:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The parliamentary court investigating the child abuse by the RCC is led by a former representative of the Christian Democrat party. When this special court found out about the castration of kids, they didn’t feel the need to investigate this any further due to a ‘lack of evidence’, how convenient…
dingojack
March 22, 2012 at 9:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“I don’t see how stealing JPII’s corpse and desecrating it, helps to convince anyone that he was a really bad person”.
Oh the irony.
:) Dingo
laurentweppe
March 22, 2012 at 10:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@kraut
Why, but thank you for confessing publicly that you are a murderous son of a bitch (apologies to Sex Workers and They Who Give Us Puppies) whose forsaking of religion did not turn into a better person.
***
@swans
I’m not sure the Deetman commission can be blamed of complacency toward the Catholic Church: after all, it aknowledges that several tens of thousands of children were sexually abused by priests in Holland since the end of WWII: that’ hardly complacent.
Anyway, there are more details about what happened in this article: it’s actually difficult to read without feeling sick.
kraut
March 22, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Desecrating corpses has nothing to do with secularism. It’s just a way to express hate of your enemies.”
If you were able to read properly – that is just what the twerp had done. He claims clearly in his post that the desecration of graves is an outflow of secularism.
“Why, but thank you for confessing publicly that you are a murderous son of a bitch ”
First, thanks for your affirmation that the catholic church is a murderous institution. As such she deserves no protection and is at par as an institution with the Fascists of various colour and only deserves elimination.
Again, if your reading comprehension was not impaired by your apologetic rage you would have understood that my target is not the member of the catholic church, but the church as an institution that deserves destruction.
So labeling me as what you have done is par for the course for you, given your propensity to throw secularist into the same pot as racists and whatever calumny you can throw at them. An excellent scholar of the Donahue school of apologetics you are.
Dr X
March 22, 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dingo @ 32,’
Heh… I was actually thinking of the papal cadaver trial when I wrote that.