Can people say why julianna feels like Opus in a helmet or is it secret?

juliana got overwhelmed by the love and support that this community has shown her, especially now, when she's going through one of the worst and scariest times in her life, and so she wanted to publicly thank everyone. The people here just generally rock.

Timelies. brenda and Nilly (among others) are very wise people.

To me, the real scandal of the pedophile priest scandal was the reaction of the hierarchy whenever parishioners complained. No investigation, no action against the priest. Just move him to a new parish. Where he's free to continue his activities against a whole new set of victims. Among people who've been told by the hierarchy to trust his every word.

Because any group as large as the priesthood is going to have some bad apples. Not saying that's a good thing, just the law of averages. And as Brenda pointed out, Catholicism is set up so that the -- um, sexually unconventional, by which I mean anyone whose desires are other than what the Church has declared to be acceptable -- are going to be encouraged to see the priesthood as a way out.

In better news, Happy Birthday, Emeline!

wrod. But I can Hell, you know. I live in Arizona. (Not a typo. Just being West Balmer...when the dudes on the corner talk about serving time, they say they "can jail". They just bring their toothbrushes everywhere in case they have to. Juvie doesn't provide toothbrushes in MD apparently.) Toothbrush and 500 SPF sunblock and I can Hell. ETA: I was rather touched by their insistence on oral hygiene given that they sling crack and heroin. But I get affected by strange things, sometimes.

I woke myself up coughing! Because I'm an idiot who neglected to take any medicine before going to bed.

Nothing too dire happened in my absense, that I can tell. Waiting for things to crawl out from uder rocks.

Last evening's BBC news did a report on two women who'd traveled to the Vatican to present a petition related to their abuse (when children) by a priest.

Yep. I saw it, too. It was so frustrating to see those women who seemed to be saying, "Look, this awful thing happened to us. Can you just freakin' acknowledge it?"

And, re: JZ's post about the former priest--I hate the idea of someone good at a useful job (while I'm not Catholic I can certainly see the good in what many Catholic priests do), being driven out through an organization's wrongheadedness over those actively not doing good.

To interrupt this priestly talk with ...Monkeys! Monkeys with accents: [link]

Marking Sue's posts as I am on conference call right now. MONKEYS!!!

I do NOT, however, love Shrift's job.

You shouldn't love it. It's an abusive boyfriend who never calls unless he needs something, tells you that you're fat and stupid and incompetent, and then punches you in the face when you don't bring him his beer fast enough.

not to speak out of turn, but I am pretty sure there are safe houses all over the country (maybe world) where you could go stay until you found a new and nicer boyfriend.

Break the cycle.