If you corrupt the people, you can do anything

If you corrupt the people, you can do anything. That idea isn't new of course, but it popped into my head this morning when I looked again at the ugly and according to the artist, deliberately erotic painting in the cathedral of Terni-Narni-Amelia, Italy. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who commissioned this thing  and had himself included, naked and embracing a another naked, pert bottomed man was not  called to the Vatican and asked "Vinny, what the heck is wrong with you?" Instead, he is now the head of the  Pontifical Academy for Life. What does the Academy do?  It reaches out to the scientific world and talks about bioethics from a Catholic perspective.  Way back in 2007, Archbishop Paglia looked at his odds and gambled that he could have this abomination painted in a cathedral and get away with it because both his superiors and his people were too mired in laxity that most wouldn't say a word about it.  He won but what pray tell, does a man who spent his parishioner's money to have himself painting naked and to have Our Lord painted with visible genitalia, really care about fighting abortion, eugenics or euthanasia? To put it bluntly, he knows nobody is going to stop him so what is he up to at the Academy?

Many people looked at the Synod on the Family and the upcoming discussion of the priesthood and saw a sly attack. Now I've started to wonder if the end game all along was just to destroy the morals of the people. If the guy and gal in the pew believes they can leave their spouses, get a cheap, quick annulment and prance up to Communion* and the fornicating couple who didn't even bother to marry in any form can be fawned over at Mass and receive Communion then maybe... maybe most of them will mutter something about mercy and say nothing when they read that  pope has reduced the punishment for some priests who enjoy pedophilia.   

In the Protestant and secular world this has already happened. The divorced and remarried, unrepentant adulterer are welcomed and even lead churches. The unchurched man who is unapologetic about being  "married" again  or a shameless lothario has little serious  to say about other people's sins. He may crack a nasty joke among friends but he's not making any real objections lest he be seen as hypocritical. Hollywood, and all of the mainstream media glamorized sexual sin and the people followed. Now we gasp impotently at where it has all led.



*I suspect that devout divorced Catholics are being used to further an agenda. How many people who ditch a spouse and marry a new lover really care about going to Mass and receiving Communion, without fanfare anyway?