It has been known for some time that the Roman Catholic Church has been a haven for pedophile priests in many countries. Well, it turns out that 'Gods' dress wearing representatives on our lil planet also enjoy other kinds of kicks. Christian Frederico von Wernich, a police chaplain no less, couldn't resist laying hands on allegedly left-wing guerillas during the years in which Argentina suffered under a fascist military dictatorship. Von Wernich was convicted of having undertaken multiple acts of torture of prisoners and was sentenced this week by an Argentinian court to lifelong imprisonment.
The Church hierarchy initially denounced the prosecution as an attack on Catholicism itself. The trouble for our dress wearing 'God' rep began when eye witnesses confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that von Wernich participated actively in the kidnapping, torture and murder of left-wing opponents of the dictatorship. Von Wernich, in the past, busily defended torture as a legitimate means to protect the fascist regime against its critics. Naturally the Church hierarchy didn't see it necessary to reign in his activities when it should have.
The one question that remains, given the criminal history of the Roman Catholic Church, is why anyone would still want to give credence to any Church pronouncement on matters ethics. What's kinda puzzling is also why their good, all powerful, and all knowing 'God' didn't think it might be a good idea to put a stop at least to his rep behaving like ... well, a torturer... but that really brings us full circle to the question of why folks continue to believe that there is such a being to begin with.
