Questions for our good Monsignors

My, the existential despair our beloved bishops must be going through in their unending fight against evil in the world. Look at the recent monstrosities they've had to do battle with.

Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, media affairs director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, chastised Manny Villar on Tuesday for getting celebrity endorsers who are alleged “womanizers”--Dolphy, Willie Revillame and Manny Pacquiao in particular.

For his part, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, chair of the CBCP committee on public affairs, slammed the Supreme Court for ruling in favor of the gay party-list group Ang Ladlad's petition to the Comelec to participate in the May 10 elections.

Accrediting the group would encourage “abnormality,” he said. Worse, “allowing them to have a chance to take a seat in Congress is approving and encouraging an abnormality which is unnatural.”

Ah, what abominations! Meanwhile, the central scandal of the times, the one that's threatening to engulf the Vatican and taint its current occupant, perhaps for life, for his sins of omission in criminal sex abuse cases now roiling the worldwide church?

Not a peep from our loquacious, incorrigibly opinionated bishops.

In the interest of breaking the ice, here are some pertinent questions for our so-called moral elders, courtesy of Christopher Hitchens--the first of many, but this should do for now, Their Excellencies can only take so much exacerbation:

Where was international law while the Vatican became a place of asylum and a source of protection for those who licensed or carried out the predation?... Where is it written that the Roman Catholic Church is the judge in its own case? Above or beyond the law? Able to use private courts? Allowed to use funds donated by the faithful to pay hush money to the victims or their families?