The Catholic Diocese of Austin is investigating after a priest called about 15 children to come forward during evening Mass so he could prick them with an unsterilized pin to demonstrate the pain Jesus suffered during crucifixion. [...] No one reacted strongly during the incident at evening Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Corn Hill on Wednesday, said Helen Osman, communications director for the Austin diocese. Osman said that the priest pricked both adults and children. [...] Osman said workers at the Williamson County and Cities Health District will conduct confidential interviews with the Mass attendees to find out whether they have any communicable diseases and whether skin was broken. Officials will then determine whether the children might be at risk for exposure to diseases such as HIV or hepatitis and whether a blood test is needed. [...] "I didn't think it was that big a deal," Michalka said. "I can see the point now. I'll see to it that it doesn't happen again."
[Germ theory saves more lives every day than the lives saved by all religions in all of human history combined. The little germies can't be seen but if you break skin they can get inside your body and make you sick. And if you get one person's blood in contact with another person's blood then the germies can make you sick that way too. But that's all just intellectual mumbo-jumbo science-talk and not that big a deal - not when you've got an invisible monster that lives in the sky telling you what to do. What would happen if an old man stuck pins in children in the name of Star Trek, or the Parent Teacher Association, or for fun? You'd better believe that old man would be in a cage for the rest of his life. But stick pins in children, exposing them to who knows what, to better serve an invisible monster that lives in the sky and even the people watching you do it will not react strongly. Religion is a public mental health crisis and it's time we started treating it that way.]
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