Wretched headline de l’heure
By 
Who is this an unwelcome distraction for? Who is this an unwelcome distraction for, motherfucker?
Here are the paragraphs that come before any mention of Pope Francis.
When a panel of experts read aloud some of the harrowing accounts they had collected from recently discovered victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church, the country’s senior bishops squirmed in the auditorium’s front-row seats.
During a live television broadcast, the experts reported in February that at least 4,815 boys and girls had been abused since 1950, most aged 10-14.
Before the stunning findings, senior Portuguese church officials had maintained there had been only a handful of cases of clergy sex abuse. They lost even more credibility with a response so clumsy and hesitant that victims were inspired to form Portugal’s first survivor advocacy group to press for compensation.
The Catholic Church in Portugal stuck to the church’s playbook for responding to claims that it has rapists in the ranks. This despite the fact that the playbook pisses off the victims and makes the church look even worse, which is a near miraculous accomplishment when the starting point is decades of adults who sexually abused children.
Church officials decided to treat victims like an annoying inconvenience that they could stall, fob off with false promises or lie into non-existence. It is safe to assume they wanted this “distraction” hanging over their heads when the Pope comes to town.
Maybe he should bring some accountants to check the books.
