The Pope has formally apologized to the native people’s of Canada for some of the churches crimes against their children. Some. Don’t count on more.

Those incels have a long way to go to make up for 2000 years of celestial dictatorship and atrocities sold to us as the “church’s blessings.”

The Catholic Church has been on a bit of an apology tour for the past few decades. For killing people, for raping children and for supporting Nazis. The further you look back in history, the longer and worse that list gets.

Sure, any institution that has been around for a few thousand years is going to do things it needs to apologize for. Imagine the list Exxon, General Motors, Facebook and Google could amass by the year 4000. Sure, the US Government and other countries have their share of murders, mistakes and mismanagement that all deserve an apology or two. Reparations to native Americans and African Americans will never make up for the genocides and slavery.

But the Catholic Church has been special.

Any time you claim the ability to speak to the creator of the Universe; to possess the secret knowledge of our purpose on this planet; the answer to the Big Question: the meaning of Life, The Universe, Everything. (Sorry Douglas Adams fans, it’s not 42) it carries a special responsibility to “do no harm.”

But from the beginning, the Catholic Church has done nothing but harm… and fleeced its flock to keep paying for it.

From burning libraries of knowledge, suppressing science and medicine and actively killing non-believers, it’s an institution that has set back humanity by at least 1000 years.

There’s almost no part of the western world that the Catholic Church has not wrecked with unnecessary wars, purges, political dirty tricks and pushing bullshit doctrines like the divine right of kings.

As soon as it became accepted, Christians and Catholics began undermining the very institution which had flipped from oppressor to protector. It wasn’t the only factor in finally killing the Roman Empire, but it usually makes the top three.

When a 1000 years of Pax Romana was pushed off most of Europe, did the church step in as a force for stability and strength? Nope. It pushed feudalism, serfdom and service to its non-existent God.

It profited from the power vacuum and accumulated land and wealth. It created a labor force of priests, brothers and especially “nuns” with forced “vows of poverty.” to maximize returns to the “Church.” It built cathedrals and suppressed thought. Go to any museum with the history of European painting, and there’s 500 years of reptitive religious idolatry. Wall after wall of perfect “thought control” through “patronage.”

Without the dictates and corruption of the church, how much sooner would people have looked back to the Roman Republic and Greek Democracy to move toward rule of the people? My guess is within a generation or two. Strip away the certainty of a secret god, and people realize they are on their own. Often the path to salvation (in the sense of creating a functioning society that saves humans from the unforgiving ravages of nature — especially human nature) is structured cooperation — see Norway, Japan, New Zealand as recent examples.

It’s not a panacea, and it wouldn’t happen everywhere. But the Catholic Church was there to make sure it happened no where. What followed was 1000 years of the “Dark Ages.” That’s what we call it when the religious were in control.

In our own time, the church has horded wealth and insured it doesn’t pay taxes to support our society. It has lobbied against human rights. It has suppressed the rights of women, gays and minorities of all pigmentation. It has killed and raped children (hence the recent apology). It was at the forefront of European colonization and domination over the rest of the world — spreading its influence like a plague to Asia, Africa and the Americas.

And in the last 150 years it’s been on this bullshit anti-abortion kick.

No it’s not the only religious institution that has hampered human development — Muslims, Hindus, fundamentalist Christians and others could spend years on apology tours too.

But it is the most obvious. With it’s cross-dressing, all-male college of cardinals, and it’s famous post-smoke selection of Pope, it’s the easiest to see who should apologize and how.

Beyond the photo-ops and kind words, maybe it’s time to start selling the church’s massive piles of gold, land and art to actually repay the people it has hurt. But that won’t happen. We are talking about the Catholic Church… They only take — they don’t give.

And the worse thing the church has done is convince most of us religion and “faith” are good and made us donate and support the oppressors. Changing their ways and apologizing for that would be the first moral thing the church has done, and that’s why it won’t happen.