Le Notti Brave Dei Preti Gay...

In a follow-up piece to last week's story, and as I surely predicted, there was more to Cardinal Ratzinger's recent resignation than stated. In another totally laughable (for some if not all) affair, it now transpires that the Catholic church under Ratzinger is not only going to be remembered as having sponsored the most horrific pedophile network in clerical history, but it now appears that they have a swinging gay priests club on the go, right under their noses at Rome HQ. 

I say laughable because what else can you do but laugh? An organization that has made it's living out of public and holy distaste for sex (in and of itself), contraception, abortion, homosexuality, sodomy, pedophilia (and basically anything else in life involving flesh) is officially outed as having been indulgent in some of the very sins that they supposedly eschew. The Catholic church has gone from being so-called keepers of the faith to being exposed as one of the most hypocritical and two-faced religious groups that ever existed. They should be told to close up shop, as their raison d'etre no longer exists.

Who would want to pledge allegiance to an organization that is unethical, hypocritical, sneaky, twisted and perverted, and one which conspired to allow and cover-up systematic abuse of "God's" most sacred of creatures - children. Who could possibly say that they want to be associated with that? Don't give me any nonsense about a few rotten apples doesn't ruin the barrel, blah blah, because the rottenness seeped all the way to the top. Or maybe it was always at the top, and simply dripped down onto those below.

In any other public company, a fraction of what has transpired under the Catholic church's tenure would have resulted in both criminal charges and jail terms for the executives, and enormous pressure to incinerate the company. It is one thing to claim that the priests who carried out the abuse were in far off lands in the USA or Ireland, and the Vatican cannot be blamed for that. But it is entirely another thing when the senior management of said organization systematically and criminally covered-up child abuse and sheltered the perpetrators from justice. Talk to a lawyer - they will tell you what the law says about that and who can/should be prosecuted.  

In any other form of organization, at the very least, the CEO would be summarily fired and removed from the premises (and maybe incarcerated). The coach has to take the fall. Whether big business or sports or education or religion, the top man (or woman) steps down or is kicked. Whether Ratzinger got squeezed or whether he felt the noose tightening around his aging neck is unclear, but he sure as holy hell had to go. Especially given that he clearly had more on his mind than we all realized when he announced his resignation. 

Now we hear, again under Ratzinger's watch, of yet another sleazy, sickening story involving the supposed sanctimonious of the Vatican. There are new reports in Italian newspaper La Repubblica and the magazine Panorama that as part and parcel of the "Vatileaks" investigation over the papal butler Paolo Gabriele, an even sleazier underbelly to the original story was discovered. In another sorry state of affairs, it seems that there is a powerful faction inside the Roman clergy "united by sexual orientation" (in Catholic terms, that can be read as despicably sinful orientation) who have been living the high (night) life in some type of sexually active secret gay insider's club mere steps away from the hallowed cobblestones. The existence of a gay network was probably no surprise to anyone, but the fact they carried on out and about in Rome, involving male prostitutes among others, probably raised a papal eyebrow or two. Or ten.

This in and of itself is of course a disgrace to the holy order, but it was only a matter of time until it became a bigger problem. It seems that some (or maybe all) of the participants in the shady shenanigans are being blackmailed and that some of those who have gotten together to extract their penance might be a collective of gay prostitutes in Rome. This exposes the church as a whole to all sorts of horrors, but I somehow feel that this time, the usual Catholic response to their own sleaze and filth - the classical "cover it up" - was considered a bit too risky. Given their track record.

Having said that, what has been exposed now is that Ratzinger received this news mid-December (2012) as part and parcel of the top secret "Vatileaks" report delivered personally to the Pope, comprising some 300 pages in two volumes bound in red. That report was buried in a safe in the papal apartments - no shock there. But what is as interesting as the report itself is that the public could not have imagined that Ratzinger had read it, months before his sudden "revelation" that he would resign. The report has apparently remained buried in the safe, for his successor to deal with, which just about says it all. In typical Ratzinger (or even Catholic church) fashion, cover it up, or bury it so that someone else can take the heat and the blame.

I don't know what else to say. I could both write another five thousand words on the subject yet simultaneously feel incapable of writing anything more. More text would be superfluous as nothing could adequately express my complete, absolute and total mistrust and disdain for that unholy organization that dares to call itself some kind of church. Collectively, they are a shameful disgrace. The corridors of power in the Vatican should be flamethrowered. Followed by a serious disinfection. Exorcised. Cleansed of the sleaze, sin and crimes that cling to the velvet robes and curtains that line those pristine corridors.

The church has lost all of it's credibility in 2013. They collectively are seen as a joke by most. A pale, faded shadow of what they (apparently, only) used to be. When the preacher becomes the sinner, well, that's where the story ends. One small grain of comfort might be that given that they do believe in the existence of God and the concept of the Devil and his Hell, some of the guilty might actually spend a decade sweating over their fate when their judgement day actually comes. 

It may well be that for some (though surely not all) the Hell raining down on them today and in the future might be not so far removed from the concept of Hell that they have pounded the pulpit over for centuries. I am sure that the victims of abuse who have been forced to live in their very own private hell for their entire lives will not begrudge the handing over of some of that hell to the perpetrators or the organization that sheltered them. - Kevin Mc

[PS - Monday, 25th Feb., LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric resigned on Monday following allegations he behaved in an inappropriate way with priests, and said he would not take part in the election of Pope Benedict's replacement. Another (sick, sorry) story that just won't stop "giving". Talk about a sleazy, filthy mess - all supposedly in the name of some so-called "God". Yeah. Right.]

Mea Maxima Culpa, indeed - the silence is still deafening!

What a week it's been! Among the various stories buzzing around my head are: the unthinkable downfall of athlete-on-blades, Oscar Pistorius; another cruise ship adrift for days at sea with the stench of filth surrounding it; a famous actor (who plays garage owner Kevin Webster) in the iconic UK soap opera, Coronation Street, up on child abuse charges; and last, but by no means least, the almost equivalently unthinkable resignation of a sitting Pope. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but God himself (if he actually does exist) is the one who appoints a Cardinal to the top job in the Vatican, and I don't think a mere mortal is considered omnipotent enough to be able to unilaterally decide to resign as the de facto CEO of the secretive (and historically sleazy) Catholic church. No, it's supposed to be "till death do us part", right? Then again, when I think of the millions of people who have falsely spoken that oath in front of "God" and the world, then essentially it can be seen as simply a meaningless and outdated vow.

Ah, but wait, as the CEO of the entire church, one does have access to the special red phone and unique access to God's word, so I guess Benedict is saying that God himself asked him to step down, a move that is a first in basically 600 years?! Why would God decide that for this particular Pope? Hmm, that might be getting at the very crux of the matter. So, either his eminence decided unilaterally to step down (for reasons which we will get into) and/or God concurred and in his wisdom told the guy that he was going to be replaced as CEO  - so leave or be squeezed out. 

Why?! First off, I think I can safely say that this is the Pope I like the least from my own lifetime, and I wouldn't trust him to do the right thing for anybody except himself, and then only out of some ancient, distorted, perverted and occasionally pseudo-criminal "what is right for the church" type of thinking. When I saw him slap the hand of ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross in 2002, over a question about not pursuing sex abuse charges against a Catholic church leader, I felt nauseous. 

Cardinal Ratzinger, as he was then known, slapped Ross's hand like that of a naughty schoolboy, not a grown man. Acting God-like on a public street, and he wasn't even God's CEO at that point? It sort of says it all. What he should have done is shown some real sympathy for what had been transpiring for decades, under his watch, and at least offered a trite statement about some kind of real intent to sort it out. But the church always did have a thing for naughty schoolboys, or more specifically, being naughty with schoolboys, didn't it? It is sickening.

Ratzinger (he deserves no special holy title on this blog) was responsible for looking into sex abuse cases at the Vatican, and we all know what a magnificent job he did at that. Status quo. Business as usual. Cover it up. Smooth over the cracks (no pun intended!). Move the priests around but for "God's sake" don't create a fuss or get anyone charged. That's not good for our business's reputation, nor God's himself. And you know, one day I wanna be CEO, and I am sure I can rely on y'all to return the favor and vote for me in the big conclave board meeting when the time comes, right?! What?! The children? What about them? Leave them be, they will grow up and forget about it, like we also will. Praise be to He on holy high!

I concurred totally with film maker Alex Gibney's comments that he was glad Ratzinger was stepping down.

"I can't help but think that the sex abuse crisis must have been on his mind. There was no going forward on that issue while he was in office. I give him credit for resigning.  That brought a bit of modernity to the Papacy.", said Gibney.

Gibney is of course the man who made the 2012 film "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God", a groundbreaking documentary on a sex abuse case involving four deaf men, which represented the first public howl of outcry against clerical sex abuse in the United States. The abuse dates back to the 1960's and it became more famous ultimately as the "Lawrence Murphy case". This "priest" who would more accurately be referred to as a "criminal" or "pervert" or in fact both terms, is estimated to have abused as many as 200 deaf boys up until the 1970's. Yet the Vatican (under Ratzinger's watch) did not move to defrock the priest, and even though the authorities knew of the abuse claims, they also did nothing. It is both bone-chillingly shocking and an absolute unholy disgrace.

But of course, that particular story is but the tip of the iceberg as we all know today. As a Cardinal and leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles such cases, various stories have emerged of Ratzinger's unwillingness to rock any boats while continuing the cover-ups. One story involves a priest convicted of child abuse in 1985, but Ratzinger signed a letter refusing to defrock the criminal because of his relative youth (he has his whole career ahead of him!) and for the sake of the church. I saw another piece on the news this week of another priest, someone very high up in the organization who was close to Ratzinger, who apparently was a pedophile, abused his own children, and had two wives on the side. Are you kidding me? It's the Vatican City soap opera or reality TV show!

The stench of filth during this guy's reign makes what people endured on that Carnival cruise ship (Triumph) this week seem almost tolerable by comparison. I can  just about support some holier-than-thou proselytizing from the truly devout, but when it comes to these bible thumping evangelists (usually in the USA) who are exposed as all sorts of sleazy perverts or actual criminals, well, it sickens me. How twisted must you be to be laying down the law and speaking of "God's word", when you then go offstage to indulge in the very sins you spout fire and brimstone over? It is both pathetic and despicable. The Catholic church's historically clear and definitive unwillingness to address clerical sex abuse negates the church's entire credibility and even existence in my opinion. 

I went to Catholic church as a schoolboy in Ireland, and being young and naive, I could never have imagined what was going on in the ante-chamber. Thank God that I retained that naivete and it was not yanked mercilessly out of me by some criminal pervert and pedophile. But I am one of the lucky ones, for so many more this was not the case. By all their actions, and decades of inaction, the Catholic church under Ratzinger was exposed as hypocritical, unethical and about as far away from "God's word" as it is possible to be. Aren't children supposed to be the most sacred of all creatures under God's watch? Uh-huh. 

So, to summarize all of that, it is no shock to me (like Gibney) that the Pope now wants to step down, in principle to allow another to take over (and thus take the heat), nor that he will now retreat totally from public life, and become embroiled in prayer in the newly renovated four story quarters that he nicely arranged for himself pre-retirement. That he wants to go away and not be anywhere near the conclave is also nothing to boast of or claim some credit for - given his own record and association with sleazy cover-ups of repeated criminal child abuse, if he didn't suggest it, I think someone should have told him that they don't want him or his stamp anywhere near the decision over who will replace him. We sure as holy hell don't want a Ratzinger buddy!

But you know? If he was to come out and state that it was actually God's words that told him to step down because God's church could no longer exist in the state that it is in, and God wanted to cleanse it of all the shame it has been drenched in, well, you never know, you might just be able to almost convince me that a God might in fact exist after all! - Kevin Mc 

NB - The choice of a photo of the Vatican rather than a photo of the main subject of this story was entirely intentional. One represents what must be left behind in the past and distanced from the institution, while the other might just represent what comes next, and maybe a brighter future.

Cellular social media - it's way more exciting than I thought!

In our increasingly transparent lives, scientists are beginning to perfect the ultimate transparency - peering into the goings-on inside the most fundamental components of our lives: our own cells. While the transparency that we currently live with due to social media's pervasiveness (invasiveness?) in our daily lives can be seen as both a benefit and a drawback, this form of transparency is considerably more awe-inspiring and will ultimately lead to major new discoveries related to human diseases and their treatment. 

In an extremely elegant piece of work, chemists at MIT have combined two stalwarts of biochemical analysis, the electron (or fluorescent) microscope and the mass spectrometer, to create a new tool that can actually allow determination of the co-localization of as many as hundreds (if not thousands) of proteins in a particular subcellular location, which will ultimately change our knowledge on various cellular processes.

Previous studies were able to do this for maybe 30-40 proteins in a cell, but in the recent study published online in the prestigious journal "Science" (Jan. 31 edition), as many as 500 proteins were mapped in the matrix of the mitochondria, our cell's very own powerhouse that produces our energy and performs many biosynthetic reactions. 

“That’s a holy grail for biology, to be able to get spatially and temporally resolved molecular maps of living cells,” said Alice Ting, the Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor of Chemistry at MIT.

Without wanting to get too technical for a layperson audience, effectively such studies were previously limited by the number of proteins that could be tagged without overloading the readout and losing discrimination. Additionally, techniques were messy because the cell had to be opened to allow mass spectrometry analyses of the cell's contents, which meant mixing occurred and spatial data could not be reliably obtained. 

This development involves tagging of all the proteins in a chosen location, in advance of making the cell permeable (or leaky), which thus allows spatial location information to be recorded before taking the cell contents for mass spec examination. This means that a reconstruction of the contents at a given moment can be performed using the location tags that labeled the proteins inside a functioning living cell. It is a spectacularly exciting step, and one which will surely necessitate some rewriting of our beloved old standard biochemistry text books!

In fact, this is already the case. The researchers found that an enzyme required for synthesis of the "heme" component of hemoglobin (which carries oxygen in our blood) is not located where scientists thought it was, and its presence in the matrix now implies that there are heretofore unknown transporters that bring heme precursors to the mitochondrial matrix. 

"Just relocalizing things causes people to have to rethink these biosynthetic pathways and how intermediates are moved around.. The molecular understanding of that pathway has to be rewritten now, based on our data." said Ting.  

The possibilities are endless, and of course, one of the most fascinating things will be comparison of normal cells and their various subcellular protein players at a given location or organelle, with abnormal cells such as cancer cells or cells from diseased tissues. We will unquestionably gain an abundance of new information about the normal and diseased cell phenotypes using this new tool, and at some point or another such data will lead to a better therapeutic intervention of human disease. 

If there's one thing I can say about science, it sure ain't boring. As much as electronic technology and the new media they run (well, more and more it is social media that runs the device/runs our lives!) have changed our lives in an interesting way, this type of scientific advance that allows peering down into and inside of the living cell is just explosively exciting by comparison! Spoken like a true scientist, I guess!

It's a small difference between social media's capacity to run one's life or ruin it. What a difference an "i" makes?! But in a sense, this new breakthrough will allow a form of cellular social media to be elucidated. Instead of seeing a diagram about how one is connected to a whole bunch of contacts (direct or indirect) on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, and various interactions between them all, we will now be able to look at the connections (direct and indirect) between a whole slew of proteins in various cellular compartments. We will have a much greater understanding of who interacts with who, and who stays away. 

Hmm, so maybe cellular social media isn't so bad after all? It all depends which type of cellular turns you on, I suppose! ;)

One of the hardest things about science and its pursuit is that one rarely gets to stick around long enough to see the massive transformative breakthroughs that answer the big questions. I can only imagine the smiles of legendary Dutch scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek (who died in 1723) at being able to see this discovery, having been the pioneer who first created the microscope and saw aspects of our life too small to see with the human eye. In his day, it was exciting to see mircoorganisms or blood flow in capillaries, and here we are today talking about "seeing" hundreds of macromolecular (big molecules) proteins interacting at a subcellular level. Amazing!

I suppose I shall just have to work harder at discovering the elusive elixir of life, a potent life-extending potion or pill, so that we all may get a chance to stick around longer and be able to witness where medicine is going to race to in the next 100 years. Speaking of potent potions, I am done and it's time for a mug of that intense Peruvian dark roast "Emperor's Blend"! ;)  - Kevin Mc

[PS - Due to a combination of personal and professional reasons, I was on a form of hiatus for most of January, 2013, but in response to various queries that came in, I want to underline the fact that I am back, and will be blogging (on a perhaps less frequent basis) at least weekly from now on. Thanks for sticking with me, and thanks to those who dropped me a note demanding that I post some blogs as I was unusually quiet in January. Be careful what you wish for! ;) ]