Catholic Church anyone?

.
It was meant to be the document that put a lid on the clerical sex abuse scandals that have swept the Roman Catholic world.
.
But instead of quelling fury from within and without the church, the Vatican stoked the anger of liberal Catholics and women's groups by including a provision in its revised decree that made the "attempted ordination" of women one of the gravest crimes in ecclesiastical law.
.
The change put the "offence" on a par with the sex abuse of minors.
.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, called the document one of the most insulting and misogynistic pronouncements that the Vatican has made for a very long time.
.
Why any self-respecting woman would want to remain part of an organisation that regards their full and equal participation as a 'grave sin' is a mystery to me.
.
Vivienne Hayes, the chief executive of the Women's Resource Centre, said the decision to raise women's ordination to the level of a serious crime was "appalling".
.
She added: This declaration is doubly disempowering for women as it also closes the door on dialogue around women's access to power and decision making, when they are still under-represented in all areas of political, religious and civic life.
.
We would urge the Catholic church to acknowledge that women's rights are not incompatible with religious faith.
.
Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: We are sure that the vast majority of the general public will share in our abject horror at the Vatican's decision to categorise the ordination of women as an 'offence' in the same category as paedophilia – deemed to be one of the 'gravest offences a priest can commit'.
.
This statement follows a series where the Vatican, an institution which yields great influence and power not only in the Catholic community but also wider society, has pitched itself in direct opposition not only to women's rights but to our equal worth and value.
.
We hope this is an issue that the government takes the opportunity to raise if it still feels the impending papal visit is appropriate.
.
The revision of a decree first issued nine years ago was intended to address the issue of clerical sex abuse.
.
Since scandals blew up in Germany in January, five Roman Catholic bishops have resigned as evidence has come to light of priests who raped or molested children, and of superiors who turned a blind eye to safeguard the reputation of the church.
.
Data from countries in which church membership is officially registered suggest tens of thousands of Catholics, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have abandoned their faith in disgust.
.
Guardian

Nothing much to add really
.
Religion of any persuasion has past it's sell by date