a pilot project.

The media today,here in Canada is carrying a rather fascinating tale about the Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal.It seems they have instituted a pilot project in some of it's churches,but not in others that requires priests and other church employees from being alone with children.

While I can understand the reasoning here,it causes no shortage of head scratching, on my part  at least.Recent history,and perhaps not so recent history as well would seem to furnish an obvious need for such a policy on the one hand.On the other hand,it seems that the church is simply responding to the society that it finds itself in,that society tending to have a cynical and increasing litigious orientation towards religion in general and to Catholicism in general.So I  wonder,is the thrust of this pilot project more about protecting children,which you would think would fall under the direction of normal,scriptural Christian morals as a matter of course,or about offering a belated and indirect acknowledgement of past wrongs and of trying to cover ones's own...well,bad analogy aside,you get the picture.

And while I'm being my cynical  self,let me ask this.Why is the Eternal,infallible Church undertaking "pilot projects"? Pilot projects seem to be the product of an organization that is not entirely clear on it's theology.But,way back on the other side of the flat earth,so long ago that I don't remember it,the Catholic Church began another pilot project,one that has clearly not stood the test.It was called celibacy.Of course,it became entrenched church doctrine,though it's scriptural basis is not nearly so clear as to make it a moral imperative. It does produce the illusion of moral elitism though and has for a time allowed the church to borrow an undeserved legitimacy based on that illusion.But it was all a house of cards.

So here is the bottom line,short and sweet.I like the new ,common sense "pilot project".But why it's a pilot project,rather than iron -clad church policy is still a mystery to me.I'm also not averse to the protective function of such a project.Cameras tend to keep people more honest than perhaps they would otherwise be. But,as for that centuries old pilot project,surely it's time it was abandoned in favor of granting Catholic clergy the right to marry and a more normal outlet for sexual desire.Clearly it has outlived it's usefulness and our children will all be safer once it is allowed to fall off the edge of the known world.

                                                                                      Blyndpapaya