the Pope blames "clericalism" for the abuse crisis
when it comes to the abuse crisis.
but actually what it means is that you don't become a snitch on your friends, or if you work in the buraurocracy, you cover up for your friends, and even promote your friends because you are doing the same thing.
In real life, the danger is ostracizing whistleblowers.
Anthony Esolen describes how clericalism and group think destroyed his career for telling the inconvenient truth..
C.S. Lewis described the phenomenon in his essay, “The Inner Ring.” Lewis saw that in every human organization, there are going to be the few deep insiders who get most of the work done, for good or for bad. We are social beings, created for membership in bodies, especially the mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church.
Clericalism is sociability gone wrong. There may come a point, says Lewis, when you are near that inner ring, and you are called to do something wrong. It’s usually a little thing. So Mark Studdock in Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, writing newspaper reports for the National Institute for Coordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), comes to realize that for the first time he is writing something he knows is a lie.
Why would his superiors want him to do that?
It’s not simply that they want the lie to spread. They want to bind Studdock to them. They are tempting a capable but insecure man with what he longs for most, to be with those who know, who have power, who are important.
pray for the bishops, who seem to be blind or maybe just pretend to be blind to all the things going on in the Vatican.
I don't have the link, but the WaPo posted an article about an elderly woman who starved herself to death insisting it was her choice, and her "loving" daughter filmed the entire episode, calling it a sacrament.
We will see more stories like this in the future, because encouraging "useless eaters" to feel they need to kill themselves will save money, and let their caretakers free to go to work instead of spending time caring for their loved ones.
and if you think it will stop here, you are wrong. Soon it will be the handicapped, the depressed, etc. and no, it' won't just be the vulnerable who can be bullied into killing themselves: At least one case was an old lady who changed her mind, but the family and doctor killed her anyway, saying years before she said she'd prefer to be dead.
Feeding tubes are optional, but JP2 said they should be used because he recognized that pulling feeding tubes was just a way to kill people (who then forgot how to eat/swallow, and then of course, weren't fed when the tube was removed).
Sigh.
I told my son that I planned to stay here because they still honor the elderly, and he agreed, noting in Florida there was a push to legalize killing the elderly. He said maybe he and his wife will move back to Mexico or Colombia when they are older, so they will have family who care for them.
Sigh.
And it's not just the US/ Europe.
There is a bestselling manga in Japan called "stargazing dog" about a middle aged man who was fired from his job due to downsizing, had his wife and children leave him, and ended up dead of neglect in the middle of a field.
A manga titled “Stargazing Dog” starts with the discovery of the skeletal remains of the protagonist who lost his job and family and died in an isolated field with his dog at his feet.
However, Takashi Murakami, 54, author of the manga, said this is not a tragic story.
“He was not unhappy at all,” Murakami said of the protagonist.
Murakami objects to characterizations of people who die alone as sad “losers in life” who have not prepared for death.
Of course, the author says, people who do not want to die alone should receive help and support. What he objects to is the classification that all isolated deaths indicate the person has lived an unhappy life.
most of those who die, die alone in their own homes, neglected by their families.
The author feels society has unfairly attached labels to those who die alone and those who die surrounded by loved ones.
WINNERS, LOSERS OF LIFE
“The ‘winners’ might be the group of people who can disperse the risks and avoid living in isolation,” said Midori Kotani, 50, president of a research center for senior citizens who specializes in clinical thanatology.
Eight years ago, Kotani, who also teaches at Rikkyo Second Stage College in Tokyo, lost her husband.
His death spurred Kotani to form a group to help people maintain their lifestyles after their partners die.
“If you want to avoid isolation or a lonely death, it is important to connect to people other than family members who can be relied upon when you are still vigorous,” Kotani said.
Akihisa Kono, 50, who runs a surgical hospital in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, saw many lonely death cases when he was a medical examiner in the prefecture.
Kono said that Japan’s wealthy and convenient society helps to free us from the troubles of meeting people face-to-face.
But, he added, “The communication skills of people are worsening regardless of age, which widens the disconnect within a community and between generations and leads to isolation.”
Since the first half of the 1990s, the number of “muen botoke,” people who die alone and go unnoticed, even by their children or relatives, has been rising in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The number started surging after fiscal 2005.
Alarmed by the trend, the city four years ago started supporting “Shukatsu” (preparing for death) for people who live alone and are financially strapped.
Kazuyuki Kitami, a social worker at the welfare division of Yokosuka city, said changes in society are fueling the trend in lonely deaths.
“It is not about losing bonds but rather the environment has made it easier to sever bonds,” Kitami said.
He said sharp social changes can be traced back to two time periods: in 1990, when the average family size shrank to three members or fewer, and the 2000s, when the use of cellphones spread.
People now have fewer immediate relatives to connect with, and human relationships are maintained chiefly through smartphones.
Those who find themselves with few real-life connections may die alone, and their families or relatives might not care, he said.
“What generates such an atmosphere that even relatives don’t receive the remains? I think we need to think about that question,” Kitami said.
and it's not just the eldely who disappear
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related item: Strategypage says the military suicide "epidemic" is connected to the epidemic among civilians.
Military epidemiologists (experts on medical statistics) have long sought to convince people outside the military that the rise in suicide rates within the military has little to do with the stress of combat and mostly to do with the stresses of military life during wartime or peacetime. In other words, the increased suicides were not concentrated among the combat veterans, who make up less than 15 percent of those in the military but are more evenly distributed among all service personnel.
For example, during the last decade over 75 percent of suicides were among troops who had never gone overseas. The military, especially the army, has long documented all deaths and the Department of Defense in 2013 released a study of all suicides since 2001, when more troops saw combat, to 2008, when the heavy fighting in Iraq ended.
A similar study for 2009-2012 suicides found little change. The researchers also point out that the reasons for suicides in the military are quite similar to those for civilian suicides, especially when victims are of the same age, education, and other factors as their military counterparts. In other words, periods of intense combat for the military have little impact on the overall suicide rate because so few troops are exposed to combat.
These revelations were not well received by the mass media which makes much of the rising suicide rate in the military but pays less attention to rising suicide rates among civilians of the same age and education. That was 9 per 100,000 in 2001 but had risen to 17.5 in 2013 and by 2016 was 26 per 100,000 men aged 25-44, which is the age of most men in the military.
This was declared to be a health emergency, and to a certain degree, it was. What was missed in all the discussion was that the higher suicide rate in the military is usually below the rate for civilians of military age.
My diary of what I am thinking, since writing helps me clarify thought.
Mostly rants or thoughts about medicine, politics, and the whole damn thing of life.
Oh, Mahal na Birhen Divina Pastora,
Aba, napupuno ka ng grasya
Sa iyo’y nagpupuri at umaasa,
ang iyong bayan, buong puso at kaluluwa.
Dito sa iyong pambansang dalanginan,
Kami’y dumudulog, tuloy nagpupugay.
Aming ihahain, mga karaingan
Inang maawain, kami ay tulungan. (Cantabile)
Lubos ang pag-asa, Ina naming Birhen
Na ang aming daing at pananalangin.
Ay iyong tutulutan, sukat makarating
Sa Poong Diyos Ama, tunay na butihin
Maraming salamat mahal naming Ina
Sa mga biyayang aming tinamasa
Sa mga panganib kami ay iadya.
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