Pope urges breastfeeding in Sistine Chapel

[marmitecat]

news.sky.com/story/1194030/pope-urges-breastfeeding-in-sistine-chapel

Go Pope Francis

I have to admit I felt a bit awkward feeding in church with dc1 so this is pretty much the ultimate way of dispelling that worry.

Surely the clergy's 'celebrity status' in some communities is a compelling argument for democracies to be very careful about blurring the relationship between church and state. (Faith state schools blur the boundaries between church and state, for example.)

Clergy are already in a position of social power (obviously this varies from country to country, religion to religion, and region to region) - and to a greater or lesser extent tell people how to think and how to live their lives.

In many cases they are held in awe which makes it very difficult when their advice causes distress (eg if you have gay sex you'll go to hell/be an outcast/will offend god - or if your baby is unbaptised and dies it will go to purgatory - or if you don't dress modesty you will offend god).

And this social power/holier than thou/celebrity status makes it more likely that on the occasions in which crimes are committed, they will go unreported as people are fearful of speaking out. Of course the majority of clergy do great work for the community, but legal mechanisms and public awareness should be in place to prevent abuse of power.

So there was no silence about Jimmy ("...the young girls in question don't gather round me because of me – it's because I know the people they love, the stars... I am of no interest to them.") Savile?

How long did he host TOTP, and Jim'll Fix It, and how many teens were on the set of those programmes? What did the BBC do when anyone made a peep about him? And all those hospitals and children's homes? Two police investigations, beginning in 1958, came to nothing. Former colleagues had even walked in on him abusing a young teen. Esther Rantzen confirmed that it was an open secret that Savile was a predator. One person who made a complaint didn't go ahead because she feared a media circus. Are you saying there was nothing to stop his victims from speaking out at the time?

Newsnight compiled a programme in 2011 on his offences and it was shelved.

Smudgy -- In the case of Ireland, the dynamic involved the state co-opting the church in the quest for national identity just as much as the church horning in on the state. Each thought they had a lot to gain.

Cozy relationships between any large institution and the state should be avoided.

Often the reason to hold the clergy in awe was sheer poverty and lack of education of the majority of people. It's not a coincidence that speaking out against clerical abuse in Ireland happened when solid education had been available to all for a few decades and when general prosperity made everyone more equal.