In his closing remarks at this week’s Vatican “summit to protect children,” Pope Francis referred to members of the Catholic clergy who abused vulnerable boys and girls as “tools of Satan.”  In the penitential liturgy at the end of the conclave, he  added, “We must say, like the prodigal son: ‘Father, I have sinned'”.

Excuse me, Your Holiness, that may have worked for Flip Wilson’s alter ego Geraldine Jones, who passed off her less than lady-like behavior by telling us, “The Devil made me do it!”  It does not apply here.  In fact, it is an affront to scapegoating, a term which first appears in 1530 A.D. bible involving the sacrifice of a ruminant beast on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, to purge congregants of their sins.

The art of scapegoating precedes its name.  Among the earliest marks for the world’s ills were women: Eve for having tempted Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and Pandora for having released all the evils on earth by opening a box.   History is littered with scapegoats.  Some as seemingly insignificant as  blaming Steve Bartman’s interference of a foul ball at Wrigley Field which possibly kept the Chicago Cubs from advancing to the World Series.  Others, of historic proportions, such as Hitler’s  attacking Jews and a global Zionist conspiracy for conditions in Germany after their defeat in World War I.

At least in the latter two cases, the scapegoats were real people.  It’s hard to blame outside forces when you live in a closed society.  There is no Harold Hill-like travelling con-man to proclaim, “There’s trouble in Vatican City.”  Desperate to point a finger at anyone but themselves, the Church created an imaginary bogeyman.  The Devil!  Beelzebub! The Prince of Darkness!  If he did not already exist, would the villain have been Pennywise the Clown?  “IT made me do it!”

Much is being made these days about using RICO–The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act–to prosecute Donald Trump’s role in the decades of potentially illegal activity conducted under the auspices of the Trump Organization, Foundation, Campaign, Inauguration Committee and White House.  The case against Trump University (Art Cohen v. Donald J. Trump), filed in 2013 and settled out of court in 2016, was a RICO class action suit.

The law has two features which make this possible.

• It provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
• It allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes they ordered others to do or assisted them in doing.

Perhaps it is time for a second round of RICO legislation or what I would call the Religion Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.  The Catholic Church is a corrupt organization under the RICO definition and deserves investigation, and if appropriate prosecution, by external entities, not its own hierarchy.  Consider the following.

• Confession is a system of self-imposed justice and punishment.  A few Hail Marys can be exchanged for a hail storm of sexual abuse.
• It does not hold itself to societal standards.  According to the Pope, priests sin.  Society calls their actions crimes.
• They determine punishment.  Cardinal McCarrick was defrocked, “dismissed from the clerical state.”  He is currently living in a friary in western Kansas, which is located (drum roll) one block from the Victoria Elementary School.  I wonder if the only difference between the Church and a crime syndicate is the latter would have suggested McCarrick go on a fishing trip to Lake Tahoe?
• Do not tell me the leadership of the Catholic Church has not “assisted” in these crimes.  Destroying records of misconduct and moving predators from one diocese to another, putting other children in danger, is the definition of aiding and abetting criminal activity.
• And finally, Pope Francis promised the Church would clean up its act, “We want all possible measures to be taken so that similar crimes aren’t repeated.”  I’m sorry, but you had 2,000 years to do just that.

Maybe this is the reason the fastest growing religious denomination in America is former Catholics.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP