12,000 Reasons Why Church and State Must Stay Separate

12,000 is the number of Catholic church abuse victims in Ireland to whom the Irish government has already paid compensation, even before the latest damning report of systematic beatings and rape revealed last week.

(This Canadian article and this CSN article are just two from hundreds around the world covering this topic. Google News is packed with over 2,000 results on the subject, some of the most gut-wrenching being Letters to the Editor from victims in both England and Ireland.)

12,000 is number of Catholic church abuse victims in Ireland who had to waive their rights to sue the state or church to get that compensation. Well folks, that's what life is like when your country's constitution begins with these words:
"In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred..."
and continues...
"We, the people of Éire, Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ...Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution."
You cannot expect anything other than systematic sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of the citizenry by the clergy when you require all the people who live within your borders to live "under God," and then compound that error by defining god specifically, as in "our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ."

That is not a democracy, that's a theocracy. As such, Ireland gives Jesus Christ's representatives on earth way too much power and influence. It would truly be a miracle if that much power and influence didn't result in boys and girls being raped and beaten by priests on a massive scale while the police and the Department of Educaton just looked the other way.

BTW, I am not making up that "Jesus is our Lord" constitution stuff. Here's a link to the official version of the Irish constitution. Scroll past the amendments to get to the opening lines, bearing in mind that none of the amendments repeal Jesus--who above all people knew he didn't belong there. (Amazingly, there are some Americans who still don't understand why the people who live in the northern part of the island of Ireland don't want to be governed by the Irish constitution.) Go figure!
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