Pope quits

[jacee]

Its important to understand that this man is a great man of God who we should all respect. I find it hard to believe that he would have anything to do with hurting children. A few pedophile priests have been found to be hurting kids and have been dealt with.

The RCC says that the church made some mistakes in the sixties due to the hippies and allowed some homosexuals to become priests. This has led to the child abuse they say. They have now barred gays from the vocation afaik.

God bless and be well.

You sound just like Ratzinger.

Gay is not a crime.

Pedophiles are not "gay".

Pedophiles are child abusers ... heinous criminals.

[Peanutbutter]

You sound just like Ratzinger.

Gay is not a crime.

Pedophiles are not "gay".

Pedophiles are child abusers ... heinous criminals.

I was only reporting on what the RCC position is, not my own.

I'm quite sure that some pedophiles are in fact gay.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Peanutbutter

[jacee]

I was only reporting on what the RCC position is, not my own.

I'm quite sure that some pedophiles are in fact gay.

Well you did do the Vatican line.

Child abuse is child abuse, a crime.

[Peanutbutter]

Well you did do the Vatican line.

Child abuse is child abuse, a crime.

Of course and there is child abuse anywhere where children are. Sports, scouts and guides, schools. The priesthood isn't the only group that have had problems with sexual predators. Not all priests are sex offenders either. people seem to drawing conclusions like that which is unfair as I'm sure the majority of the priests are quite upset that children are being hurt.

[jacee]

Of course and there is child abuse anywhere where children are. Sports, scouts and guides, schools. The priesthood isn't the only group that have had problems with sexual predators. Not all priests are sex offenders either. people seem to drawing conclusions like that which is unfair as I'm sure the majority of the priests are quite upset that children are being hurt.

They're the only group with a policy of 'absolving' the perps of their 'sins', moving them around to avoid prosecution and threatening to excommunicate anybody who speaks about these crimes publicly.

Show me cases where the church has reported child abusers to the police.

[WIP]

Of course and there is child abuse anywhere where children are. Sports, scouts and guides, schools. The priesthood isn't the only group that have had problems with sexual predators. Not all priests are sex offenders either. people seem to drawing conclusions like that which is unfair as I'm sure the majority of the priests are quite upset that children are being hurt.

Except that up till now, the Catholic Church hierarchy has been above the law in almost every country where they have power. When the Scouts, public schools and football and hockey teams are found to be covering for sex offenders (I think you're making it up about Girl Guides, unless you can show me of an example where they've had sex scandals) heads roll.....unless they take the easy way out and die before the justice system has a chance to indict them, as in the case of Joe Paterno.

[Guest American Woman]

Of course and there is child abuse anywhere where children are. Sports, scouts and guides, schools. The priesthood isn't the only group that have had problems with sexual predators.

As far as I can see, the problem unique to the Catholic Church is that the powers that be have knowingly sent priests who have molested children on to other unsuspecting parishes. The Catholic church has definitely not done enough to protect children from being sexually abused, and that includes a failure to report such incidents to the police; the Catholic church has a long way to go in this regard.

Not all priests are sex offenders either. people seem to drawing conclusions like that which is unfair as I'm sure the majority of the priests are quite upset that children are being hurt.

I would wager a very small percentage of priests are sex offenders, but gone unchecked, even a small number can do a lot of damage over the course of their years in service in the church. As for the majority of priests being quite upset that children are being hurt, we don't seem to hear a lot of anger over this from inside the church; at least not that I'm aware of.

Edited February 25, 2013 by American Woman

[Hudson Jones]

Report after report point at the Catholic church's priests' high rate of homosexuality. I wonder why there are so many closet homosexuals who preach the word of the god who says homosexuality is wrong.

Here is Christiane Amanpour:

On my first day in Rome, a former friar tells me that homosexuality “the ticking time bomb” for Catholic Church and that at least 50% in seminaries "are gay."

Also Vatican journalist Marco Politi says that Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was “the last act of a series of crises.”

Link

[jacee]

Homosexuality is not a crime and I don't really care what the Vatican does about its stupid, pathological obsession with denying that reality

However, I do care that they are focusing on "homosexuals" to distract people's attention from the ongoing crimes of sexual predators against children, and the cover up of those crimes at the highest levels.

http://m.thespec.com/article/894365--pope-to-be-supported-child-abuser-in-85

Want an example of the Popes courageous cleaning-out of pederast clergy?

In 1985, Joseph Ratzinger (as he was known before being elected Pope) wrote a letter urging leniency in the case of Father Stephen Kiesle, who tied up and sexually abused two boys in California. Ratzinger was beseeched by Kiesles superiors to defrock this sexual predator.

Ratzingers response? The good of the Universal Church should be uppermost in the mind. In light of Kiesles young age, removing him from the priesthood might cause great detriment within the community of Christs faithful.

So much for the two young victims.

Kinda makes ya wanna hurl.

Ratzinger ... 2010:

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/pope-benedict-declares-pedophilia-was-n#sthash.mSguBDgq.dpbs

Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an absolute evil as recently as the 1970s. In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered normal by society. In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children, the Pope said.

It seems that the Vatican considers crimes against children less 'sinful' than homosexuality among consenting adults.

How sick is that?!!

Edited March 1, 2013 by jacee

[Peanutbutter]

You're taking his words out of context jacee and I'm sure you know that. That's not all he said. You're clipping his word to fit your agenda.

[jacee]

You're taking his words out of context jacee and I'm sure you know that. That's not all he said. You're clipping his word to fit your agenda.

I can't imagine that there's any context that makes that steaming pile of crap 'ok' ... Sexual abuse of children was and is NEVER ok ...but go ahead and try to prove your point.

Waiting ...

Edited March 1, 2013 by jacee

[g_bambino]

Sexual abuse of children was... NEVER ok ...

That depends entirely on your definition of "children". Sex with pre-pubescent children was frowned upon in ancient Greek and Roman culture; but, such relations with people age nine or ten and up, which we today consider children, was perfectly acceptable and common.

[jacee]

That depends entirely on your definition of "children". Sex with pre-pubescent children was frowned upon in ancient Greek and Roman culture; but, such relations with people age nine or ten and up, which we today consider children, was perfectly acceptable and common.

The pope was referring to the 1970's.

[Peanutbutter]

I can't imagine that there's any context that makes that steaming pile of crap 'ok' ... Sexual abuse of children was and is NEVER ok ...but go ahead and try to prove your point.

Waiting ...

No one's is saying that it is but you're clipping the words to suit your agenda of anti religion. Why not post the whole paragraph of what was said?

[jacee]

No one's is saying that it is but you're clipping the words to suit your agenda of anti religion. Why not post the whole paragraph of what was said?

Post what you think is important.

[Rue]

The issue of pedophiles in the priesthood is one of m any symptoms of how an institution when it becomes too large, powerful and secretive,is able to perpetuate, condone, cover up sex crimes against children.

The unaccounted, hidden pedopile rings are a blatant example of how those who should know better in the church, have protected pedophiles and betrayed their parioshioners under the pretense that denying and hiding sexual perversion protects the church and the church's reputation and that this protection is more important than the moral well-being of its individual parishioners. This is a fatal assumption and it is destroying the church. The church is fiction. It is nothing but the collective of parishioners.Betray those parishioners and you violate the church.

The issue of homosexuality in the church is an seperate issue. If a man molests a boy he is no more a homosexual than he would be a heterosexual if he molested a girl.

The actual clinical diagnosis of a sexual pedophile is not determined by the gender he molests but their lack of sexually pronounced

characteristics and the power and emotional imbalance in favour of the pedophile.

Consenting sex between adults in this day and age is no one's business unless it becomes violent, exploitative and someone is being forced to have sex. What two healthy adults do behind closed doors is not my business.If a bunch of priests want to play wackadoo with some male prostitutes in a sauna or some nuns want to have sex then deal with it. Deal with the issue of adults and the fact they have sexual drives.

Either come out and get with the modern ages and understand sex is healthy between consenting adults or continue to play this mentally bizarre game that a grown adult should not touch his or her pee pee parts and remain celibate and repress their sexual desires.

The message that sexuality an in fact any sexual part of the body or sexual function is dirty and unclean needs to stop because the church will not be able to deal with sexual deviancy like pedophilia, until it can first learn to know the difference between that kind of sexuality and healthy sexuality.

There is so much sexual repression going on so as to make healthy discourse as to sexuality impossible to raise.

A bunch of two faced cloistered old fools many with closet homosexual or closest heterosexual lifestyles making pronouncements that define sexuality in archaic ways while practicing exactly what they preach against shows the classic disconnect between the church and reality.

The church as it is today, is still an ideal place for a pedophile. It provides authority and a cover as well as access to children and then a hierarchy that hides it.

Many gay men go into the Priesthood seeking to repress their homosexuality thinking their robe will purify their sexual desires and they will go away.

That does not happen.

I have counseled gay and straight priests. Neither are criminals for having sexual feelings and drives. Pedophile priests are another story. They are deliberate and planned predators make no mistake about it.

For that matter anyone who uses their robe or authority to force sex on others is equally as guilty of a crime.

The church needs Catholics, not outsider friends like me to mend its ways. The solution is with and should be by Catholics who need to callout their leaders and demand accountability and create transparency in the church and bring to the courts pedophiles or priests who have forced themselves on others who are not children.

Either way these sex crimes must be brought out in the open. The church needs to expose itself to cleanse itself. Exposing its mistakes will make it stronger not weaker.

Catholics know what is wrong. They are not sure if their hierarchy will ever be reformed but something must happen.if another aged conservative is picked and the status quo remains like all sexually repressed behaviours, the repression will remain submerged only so long and then explode in full view and crisis and the Catholic church is on the brink of this explosion. I can see a grassroots movement of Catholics revolting and gaining strength from people of other faiths as well as young priests.

Catholics should not feel they are alone. All our religions have similiar issues. All organized religions and all closed societies have these issues.

Coalitions are often formed by people of vastly different religions and cultures that makes us appreciate each other's religions even more when we realize we bleed the same coloured blood and feel the same pain when are children are violated.

I hope Catholics are not afraid of change and the need to stand up and demand changes. They have a perfect right to worship their God in a peaceful, calm and forgiving arena and their church will not be weakened by confrontining and exposing their abusers or by reforming their policies to allow priests and nuns to marry but still leave the option open for others to remain celibate.

Edited March 2, 2013 by Rue

[g_bambino]

The pope was referring to the 1970's.

You said "never". Hell, people in some parts of the world were still marrying and consumating that marriage with barely pubescent girls in the 1970s.

[ed.: +]

Edited March 3, 2013 by g_bambino

[Wayward Son]

Its important to understand that this man is a great man of God who we should all respect.

The last thing that people should do is automatically respect others who are in positions of extreme power. The pope will receive my respect when he/she has earned it through their actions. Benedict XVI has not earned any from me.

[jacee]

You said "never". Hell, people in some parts of the world were still marrying and consumating that marriage with barely pubescent girls in the 1970s.

[ed.: +]

So you defend child rape.

Doesn't say much for you.

[g_bambino]

So you defend child rape.

Doesn't say much for you.

Is that you, Vic Towes?

Actually, no; that's insulting to Towes. Even he isn't as intellectually bereft as you've proven yourself to be.

[ed.: +]

Edited March 3, 2013 by g_bambino

[jacee]

The last thing that people should do is automatically respect others who are in positions of extreme power. The pope will receive my respect when he/she has earned it through their actions. Benedict XVI has not earned any from me.

Well said.

.

[Topaz]

There's a report out saying that the next Pope will be the last because the end of the world will take place. Now, the only way for that to happen is if we get into a nuke world among N. Korea, China, Russia and the US OR we get hit by a asteroid. Has anyone heard of this? http://abcnews.go.com/International/benedict-xvi-pope-irish-prophet-malachy/story?id=8499430

[Bonam]

There's a report out saying that the next Pope will be the last because the end of the world will take place. Now, the only way for that to happen is if we get into a nuke world among N. Korea, China, Russia and the US OR we get hit by a asteroid. Has anyone heard of this? http://abcnews.go.com/International/benedict-xvi-pope-irish-prophet-malachy/story?id=8499430

We're no sooner past the last prophesyzed apocalypse then doomsayers start to predict the next one. How some people remain gullible enough to listen to all such predictions baffles me.

[jacee]

There's a report out saying that the next Pope will be the last because the end of the world will take place. Now, the only way for that to happen is if we get into a nuke world among N. Korea, China, Russia and the US OR we get hit by a asteroid. Has anyone heard of this? http://abcnews.go.com/International/benedict-xvi-pope-irish-prophet-malachy/story?id=8499430

In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit ... Peter the Roman,who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations: and when these things are finished,the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people. The End.

I don't read it as the end of the world, but the end of the papacy, the Vatican, the power of the Holy Roman Catholic Church ... judgement and apocalypse for the corporate Catholic church.

And if demanding that the church stop victimizing children and protecting pedophiles is seen as "persecution", so be it.

In the secular world we call it prosecution of heinous offenders ... justice.

[Peanutbutter]

I don't read it as the end of the world, but the end of the papacy, the Vatican, the power of the Holy Roman Catholic Church ... judgement and apocalypse for the corporate Catholic church.

And if demanding that the church stop victimizing children and protecting pedophiles is seen as "persecution", so be it.

In the secular world we call it prosecution of heinous offenders ... justice.

The Church itself isn't abusing children individuals are. That's like saying education is hurting children or scouts are hurting children because some teachers or scout leaders sexually abuse children. Absurd.