Horrifying news from the Netherlands: the depravity of the Catholic church reaches a new low. In the 1950s, the church had a cunning tactic for dealing with pedophilia scandals. Rather than just paying off the victims and shipping the offending priest to a new hunting ground, they had a rather Jesuitical solution: the boys who were raped were clearly homosexual — after all, they had sexually gratified a person of the same sex, which is all a homosexual is, right?

And then what do you do with homosexuals? Why, you institutionalize them. Lock them up somewhere where they can’t complain about some man of god raping them.

And then, to make it all absolutely perfect and biblically excessive in its justice, what do you do with institutionalized homosexuals?

You chop their balls off.

At least 10 boys who were abused by Catholic priests were transferred to a Catholic psychiatric hospital in the Netherlands, and then physically castrated.

Two clergymen were convicted of abuse but Mr Heithuis, a victim, was nonetheless transferred by police to a Catholic psychiatric hospital before being admitted to the St. Joseph Hospital in Veghel later that year. There, court papers confirm, he was castrated “at his own request”, despite no submission of his written consent. Sources told Mr Dohmen that the surgical removal of testicles was regarded as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of sexual abuse.

Furthermore, this was done with the complicity of the government.

Evidence emerged on Monday that government inspectors were aware that minors were being castrated while in Catholic-run psychiatric institutions.

Minutes of meetings held in the 1950s show that inspectors were present when castrations were discussed. The documents also reveal that the Catholic staff did not think parents needed to be involved.

If you can read Dutch, there’s much more. As you might guess, this is a major scandal.

It’s also a truth. Catholicism is a horror, a nightmare, a medieval monstrosity that has ruined far too many people’s lives. It’s about time people woke up to it. You can tell me that there are good people who become priests, and I’d agree with you…but when do good people stop colluding with an evil institution, tear off the clerical collar, and refuse to further a cause so tainted with corruption and wrongness?