In which the reptiles do their best for the frock-lover ...

The pond is shifting over to PC and thought it might try this experiment late on a Sunday, at a time when the reptiles save all their best bits for contemplation.

Not sad Adam, poor pitiful him, wailing and renting his sackcloth and ashes, it being obvious that the reptiles are so poor, so suddenly ... cry the pond a river, the pond says ...

The pond thought it titillating to include him as a footnote, wringing his hands, and doing his ongoing impression of Chicken Little, when at least he has a job, and there's a lot of poor buggers doing it really tough.

But the pond has had more than enough of killer Creighton, so what sayeth the reptiles on the Pell matter?

Can he be redeemed? It has to be said that Fergo gave it his best shot, and the pond held out hope for the frock-lover until the final line.

Usually the pond would insert some kind of illustration as a distraction, but fathoming the depths of stupidity produced by Bill Gates - as opposed to the relentless price gouging by way of upgrades offered by Apple - means that the pond will just have to carry on with Fergo …

Oh what the hell, can one cartoon hurt?

Speaking of asymptomatic types with an aversion to carrying any great load of ethics and morality, now it's back to Fergo doing his best ...

Oh dear, the reptiles used that photo again, with a picture conveying some squillions of words ...

The pond wondered if Fergo really was doing his best ...what on earth would the Bolter think?

What an awful oversight?

Suffer little children to suffer under me, in that bedrock of Catholicism - forgiveness and redemption for errant priests, and who really gives much of a flying fig for the victims, provided the reputation of the compassionate church isn't harmed, and the payouts don't get out of control, because after all the Vatican Museum has hordes of treasures, and it would be a shame to have to sell off a few, because never mind what Jesus said about money lenders and such like, it's all property, property, property (remember to get a hill spot in the best part of town) and possessions, only the best silverware, and a devotion to finely made frocks ...

Not to worry, the pond has made it to the last gobbet, and eventually to that last, fatal line ...

Admirable really of Fergo. He gave the frock-lover every break, what with talk of contested accounts, and somehow managing to drag the onion muncher and Malware into the fray ... but then came that last line ...

Based on today's standards, Pell's position was utterly unacceptable.

Actually, there's no need to talk of today's standards. There was talk a few thousand years ago of standards ... talk that hinted that the Catholic church's behaviour, let alone the behaviour of Pell, was utterly unacceptable.

How did Matthew put it?

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 18:1–10)

But the pond recollects that in its day, the church was always much bigger on mindless, repetitive recitation of the catechism than actual reading of the bible ... what with King James being a deviant heretic, and possibly one of them …

When someone from the Anglican side of the family gave the pond a copy of the King James version at a very tender age, the pond read it from cover to cover. The language was much richer than the anodyne stuff peddled by the Catholic church, enough to generate a zillion great titles for writers, and with great yarns that could keep Monty Python and Cecil B. de Mille going for years. Yes, there were boring bits (all those begats the pond ploughed through, to comic effect) but there were also saucy bits, at least for someone from Tamworth.

And there were the unedited bits, like the rampant Pauline misogyny and all the other stuff the Catholic church liked to pretend didn't exist.

You know, like the standards. The standards that made the behaviour of the Christian Brothers, and the angry spiteful unhappy nuns utterly unacceptable. The standards even the reptiles at the Catholic Boys' Daily seem unaware of, to this very day ...

All that said and done and noted, it really is an ancient thing, this rough beast presumably slouching back to Rome.

We now have rough beasts of a different kind slouching hither and yon, as noted by the immortal Rowe, with more Rowe here ...