Hi

In my writings I have tried to limit myself to writing about subjects involving our current pop culture. In an ironic twist two news items came up which merit discussion.  I am referring to the retirement of Pope Benedict and the story concerning the alleged prostitution ring involving Senator Menendez.

What is the connection? There is a cloud over the papacy of Benedict involving the coverup of pedophilia and the child prostitution ring involving Menendez.  This leads me to question how the actions of two public figures can take place in modern society.  Before any one accuses me of being naive I recognize that we have had vice and sin since the Garden of Eden.  Even with this it still amazes me that this can happen.

The real problem is how to avoid this problem in the future.  Screening is not a viable option so we can rule that out. The problem can exist because the parties who are responsible for the enforcement of the policies did not do their job very well.

In the case of the church the local Bishops appear to have turned a deaf ear to the cases of misconduct and merely reassigned the errant priests to a different parish. These Bishops should have addressed the problem head on.  Therapy, isolation of the wrong doers and even excommunication. The result is that the Catholic Church got a black eye that will take years to pass away.  The final fault is on the Pope according to many. Let us pray that an apparent honest, moral and pius person is not judged by this incident.

Now as to Menendez, he is the typical politician.  Self serving, egotistical and condescending.  This one is on the electorate here in the United States.  We had an inkling with the Rangle mess but the main stream media swept that away. Remember his tax omission of income from off shore rentals, what was he renting?  Why wasn't this disclosed?  One of the biggest problems we have is the bias of the media. Unless and until we correct this we will always have the problems with our culture. We have to correct this at the ballot box.

Please pray for our beave people in harms way.

GOD BLESS