The Science of Genetics

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer

At Conception There Was A 50-50 Chance That Bishop Aquila Would Be Father Samuel Or Sister Samantha–Or Archbishop Nienstedt Could Have Been Father John Or Johanna, The Flying Nun

Over the centuries right-wing Roman Catholic leaders have been preoccupied with sex about as much as porn moviemakers are now. Pope Benedict’s Vatican is presently losing Catholics by the millions because of sex abuse committed by priests. The final repentant bill for these crimes will likely be in the billions. The Catholic Church seems to have a St. Augustine “attitude” about sex pervading the Vatican. The celibates who dominate it seem possessed by sex.

Father Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei who served Spain’s Franco and later praised Hitler, wrote that marriage is for the rank and file, “not for the officers of Christ’s army.”  When a young priest, Excriva banned women and married persons from his association because they represented “the vile slime of the passions.”  Marriage was for people who couldn’t control their appetites. Escriva, an open Fascist, was a steadfast protegee of Pope John Paul II who canonized him as a saint.

In 1928 Escriva founded Opus Dei (“Work Of God”) that he claimed taught Catholics that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. Pope John Paul put the secret, fanatical group on the religious map in 1982 by becoming its “bishop.”

The Monk Silas And His Cilice

Opus Dei gained a lot of notoriety in the movie “The Da Vinci Code” with the smirky albino killer Silas. It has about 90,000 members in 90 countries. It is basically a religious cult governed by men, for men. All the domestic work in their “safe” houses around the world is carried out by female members who are second-class citizens of the organization. Opus Dei leaders emphasize that women scrubbing their toilets are doing“noble work!” The ultimate authority for Opus Dei rested with Pope John Paul when he was alive, thus ensuring that women would remain second-class scrubbers, maids, and cooks for all eternity. This is a perfect religious philosophy for the 14th century. It was claimed after John Paul’s death that he strapped on a cilice at times when he was old as an act of penance for his sins. The cilice is a spiked chain that Opus Dei members wear on the upper thigh for two hours a day. The blood often flows during such mortification.

Entering The Grand Puzzle——The Sexual Maze Of The Vatican

Opus Dei members whip themselves once a week with corded whips and commit themselves to celibacy like ordained Catholic priests do. The numeraries, lifetime committed members, take vows of celibacy and practice corporal self-punishment. They live in various Opus Dei facilities around the world–never lacking for money.

But Opus Dei is a kind of sadistic, brotherly fraternity compared to Pope John Paul’s fascination with the Mexican Legion of Christ founded by the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado. Research the history of the Legion and one discovers why Pope John Paul failed to stop the rampant child sexual abuse by priests. Young children providing sexual rest and recreation for his buggering priests were evidently a very low priority. He and Father Maciel went back 50 years, and when he became pope in 1978 he called Maciel “an efficacious guide to youth.”

  Here is what John Paul’s role model for youths did to them:
** In 1997 nine priests and seminarians accused Maciel of sexually abusing them when they were training for the priesthood. They filed a formal complaint with the Vatican but were called liars by leading churchmen and by the leaders of the Legion.

** In 2010 it was revealed Maciel had an illegitimate daughter born in Spain in 1986.

** Two Mexican men claim they are Maciel’s sons and that he sexually abused them as children.

** Not only was Marciel an aggressive pedophile, he also kept two mistresses and had three children.

** Juan Vaca, now 73, was a leader in the Legion of Christ for years, admitted that Maciel molested him for ten years, starting when he was twelve. Vaca said: “He destroyed my life. I dreamt of being a good priest. He killed all my dreams.”

John Paul died in 2005. He had to know something about his friend of 50 years–but he did nothing. Is this what a saint would do? How can you lead a billion Catholics for 27 years and be so ignorant of the sexual maze trapping Catholics in their search for salvation? Why did John Paul ignore the problem to the point that the Vatican has lost much of Europe?  Read the reports on how the Catholic Church treated children in Irish schools, juvenile centers, and orphanages. These are very bloody, grim, realistic tales. That’s why only one Irish seminarian will become a priest this year.

“Horror Stories And Brainwashing”

If you also are interested in the truth about Maciel, his cult, and his treatment of women, read “Vows of Silence” by Jason Berry and Gerald Renner published in 2004. One reviewer called it a book of “horror stories…of brainwashing, manipulation, pederast seduction rituals, character assassination, bribes, drug abuse, gulag-type threats.”

An interesting sidelight for Maciel’s Legion. He conned elite, wealthy people in 22 countries into supporting Catholic schools. He conned over 900 women into staffing these schools and living like nuns–except that they never achieved official Vatican status!  Carlos Slim of Mexico, the richest man in the world, is the main donor of the Legion and has sent his own children to Legion schools.

Maciel used tall, dark, and handsome seminarians and priests who parted their hair only on the left and wore expensive, double-breasted suits to “romance”  the wives of wealthy men to get contributions. No kidding. And Maciel had Pope John Paul II to back him up. Whether John Paul will make saint is still up for grabs, even with his revolting history of ignoring child abuse by his bishops and priests. Remember Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law? He ended up being “punished” with a basilica in Rome, a nice apartment, and a hefty allowance.  John Paul’s canonization is difficult to predict. Bill Maher, one of my favorite comedian- cynics, said that Pope John Paul and the Roman Catholic Church “was an international child sex ring.”  More truth than fiction.

Sainthood has some strange bedfellows. Saint Goncalo of Murtosa, Portugal made sainthood by curing people of hemorrhoids. In order to be cured, a sufferer must expose his behind to a statue of Saint Goncalo. It is also said that Goncalo can cure acne. His followers have not said where the acne is. The rumor is a badly afflicted woman tried to pray naked in the church because of a serious case, but the church priest stopped her just in time. They didn’t say what that “time” was. I’m surprised the Vatican is not selling Saint Goncalo statues. Sounds like a hot E-Bay item to me.

The Strange Worlds Of Biblical And Scientific “Truths”

Science has never been one of the strengths of the Vatican. Pope Benedict has mumbled on a couple of occasions he “believes’ in evolution, but that “God has played a major role in it.” OK.  We have to remember that it took the Vatican over 400 years to come around to the astronomical fact that Copernicus and Galileo were correct about the earth traveling around the sun. The Inquisition still hasn’t apologized for cutting out the tongue of Giordano Bruno, a colleague of Galileo’s, to keep him from talking about the orbit—then they killed him to make sure.

Medical and genetic studies indicate that all fertilized eggs start as females. So men are truly the second sex. I wonder if anyone in the Vatican has read the work of Steve Jones, a professor of genetics at University College, London. In his book “Y: The Descent of Man” he covers the development of life after conception. The fertilized egg just sits there being a female for about six weeks. Then a mix of testosterone and other powerful sex hormones begins to shape other possibilities.

An embryo at six weeks can go many different ways, not just “pure” female or male. It often depends on the strength of the dose of hormones.The embryo has two sets of ducts–Wolffian for male, Muellerian for female. If testosterone and other hormones are released and enter the Wolffian ducts the connection between penis and testes is made and the Muellerian ducts just wither away. That process might make a male. However, without testosterone the male Wolffian ducts die and the Muellerian ducts magically turn into oviducts, uterus and vagina, making a female. Got that?  If it were only that simple. Sometimes, like everything human, things get a little screwed up. In Psalm 139 the writer says about God: “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  But we have to face it: the science of genetics and the medical field is not one of God’s strengths. Sometime the fetus does not make enough–or makes too much– of certain required hormones and such. That’s how we end up with beings in a confusing sexual maze.

Sometimes A Boy Really Isn’t A Boy–Or A Girl Isn’t A Girl

Sometimes the fetus has the right chromosomes and the right genes but not enough hormones to make the right parts. That’s when a “boy” comes out of the birth canal and the presiding obstetrician triumphantly yells: “It’s a girl!”  Nope, not really. “It” is a boy with some girl parts. These children are normally raised as girls because no one knows any better. But then comes puberty and the “girl” doesn’t menstruate.  Exams will probably show that the tiny penis and testes are stuffed near the abdomen. Now trouble in River City really starts.

If you want to learn more about what happens to a “boy” with all his parts who wants to live his life as a “girl”, read “A Boy’s Life” in the November 2008 issue of The Atlantic. It’s a real eye-opener for Bible thumpers and “true believers” who digest every word in the Bible. And then there are some like me who think some of it was written by ignorant old men who wanted power over women. Brandon Simms, an eight-pound, two ounce male with all his parts at birth, loved his mother’s lingerie, high-heeled shoes, and blouses at three. At five he approached women at the mall and said: “I love your high heels.” At eight at K-Mart he would run to the Barbie dolls instead of the gravel trucks and tractors. Go figure. After thousands of years we may know why now.

Two Bishops Who Would Just Love The 14th Century

Fargo Bishop Samuel Aquila got a dose of testosterone when it counted, so as a grownup male he exhibits his religious power over women by campaigning against abortion and contraception. “Life begins at conception!” he preaches. So what? Medical authorities estimate that up to 25 percent of fertilized eggs end up in Kotex, Tampax, or the toilet. A viable life for a fetus outside the womb may begin at 24 weeks if everything goes right.

Some abortions are necessary for the life of the mother. Other abortions are necessary in overburdened families so the rest can survive. Some babies develop without brains or other organs. I am not attacking Catholic “truths.”  I’m looking at scientific and human reality. By the way, Catholic women use contraceptives at the same rate as all other women. What is the difference between a condom and a thermometer used in playing Vatican Roulette? Aren’t they both “contraceptive?”  Life begins at conception but extra fertilized eggs are often tossed in the garbage after invitro. Why not use them in embryonic stem cell research that may solve some of our most vexing health problems?

Archbishop John Nienstedt of Minneapolis is leading the forces who want a Minnesota constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Some Know-Nothings think homosexuality is only about sex. Evidently Nienstedt is one of them. But the reality is that homosexuality is multidimensional as is genetics. Gay relationships are based on mutual attraction, love, and affection. Gays, like heteros, want to hug, kiss, and spend the rest of their lives together. Opposing gay marriage is based on the assumption gays have a sexual choice. This is profoundly ignorant, proving that Aquila and Nienstedt know diddledy-squat about 400,000 people living in North Dakota and Minnesota. Their position violates everything we know about genetics and other sciences, and is certainly contrary to what Jesus Christ was trying to teach us.

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