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Pope Denounces 'Grave' Sex Scandal

B

b0mbrman

Lifer
Bit of a continuation to this thread and this thread. This is the first time the pope has officially addressed these issues since those two stories broke. Your thoughts?

Source
---Start---

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II on Thursday broke his silence on the sex abuse cases rocking the Roman Catholic Church, saying the "grave scandal" was casting a "dark shadow of suspicion" over all priests.

In an annual message to priests worldwide, the pope said "as priests we are personally and profoundly afflicted by the sins of some of our brothers who have betrayed the grace of ordination."

The pope's yearly pre-Easter message has not previously dealt with such a burning issue. The letter typically expresses the pope's closeness to his corps of priests around the world.

He said they had succumbed "to the most grievous forms" of what he called, using the Latin phrase, "mystery of evil."

"Grave scandal is caused, with the result that a dark shadow of suspicion is cast over all the other fine priests who perform their ministry with honesty and integrity and often with heroic self-sacrifice," the pope said.

John Paul said the Church "shows her concern for the victims and strives to respond in truth and justice to each of these painful situations."
 
Where's the pope been for the last 20 years while the Catholic Church was using it's vast financial and political resources to sweep this under the rug? There is an easily discernable pattern of the church elders using influence to protect these criminal pedophiles from prosecution while doing nothing more than moving them from parish to parish so that they'd have a fresh batch of kids to prey on. The Pope taking a stand now is like Ken Lay denouncing what happened at Enron while denying any knowledge of what was happening under his nose.
 
His statement was, at best, a lame, gross understatement, and it's a few decades late in coming. I think somebody forgot to wind his sundial. :disgust:
 
As the forum's "Resident Catholic" I say this is a good, but small, first step. Now the Church needs to come down hard on anyone involved in the scandals and coverups - get these mofo's out before they do any more damage, especially to kids, but also to the Church itself.

They are like a cancer eating at the Church from the inside, while commiting horrible crimes or covering them up. We need to find them and get rid of them, turning them over to the authorities with all speed.

As far as the Church paying for legal defense, while I applaud the willingness to defend priests that might be wrongly accused, I think the Church should use its judgement first - if the priest in question seems innocent then defend them legally as any parent would a family memeber. But if it looks like they are guilty, then no - revoke their priesthood and let the legal system defend them instead (legal aid, etc).
 
Got NO use for the Catholic Church. This whole situation has been a horrible load of SH*T. When the same thing happened here in Omaha, they moved the friggin priest from one parish to another, while it kept happening. Then, when it finally hit the news, the church tried again to move him, (outta town this time). However, when a few Catholics wrote to the Archdioces (sp?) indicating their displeasure at these events, they received letters back from stating to the effect that he didn't need "disloyal Catholics" adding to the problem by not agreeing with the way the church is handling the situation. Now you tell me.... How pleased do you think God is with all this??? It's exactly this kind of thing that drives people away from God. Unacceptable.



P.S.
Please pardon the horrible spelling, I was a little torqued off. I'll edit it later... maybe....



[edit]
Bring on the flames, don't really give a damn....
 
<<Got NO use for the Catholic Church.>>

Actually you seem to feel compelled to talk about them, so in effect you have some unconcious link to the church.

<<However, when a few Catholics wrote to the Archdioces (sp?) indicating their displeasure at these events, they received letters back from stating to the effect that he didn't need "disloyal Catholics" adding to the problem by not agreeing with the way the church is handling the situation. Now you tell me.... How pleased do you think God is with all this??? It's exactly this kind of thing that drives people away from God. Unacceptable.>>

I am familiar with Omaha's hierarchy and rest assured there was more like four bad priests in the dioscese, not just one. The case with Harrick has been probably the worst mess for Omaha. The families settled out of court and did NOT pursue criminal charges in but two of the four cases. In all cases the victims were given monetary compensation over the accusations, and the church provided legal counsel for the priests during the trials. This is where the real shame is, the victim gets away with a payout for a promise to keep quiet. Justice is exposing the crime, not necessarily a reward to the victim. Sure the victim will never feel the same after being violated, but monetary compansation by the church is absolutely against the teachings of the church.

In the Lincoln dioscese there was a couple of bad ones, too. One of them had been repeatedly accused while he was a "brother", well before he was a priest. It wasn't until after his Holy Orders that he was finally prosecuted. No monetary compensation exchanged hands in this case, and the church did not foot the bill of the lawyer. This guy went to prison for HIS crime. It was the victims that allowed this guy to go on for so long, as none of them took the abuse to the authorities. The dioscese actually investigated him twice for private accusations but none of the victims came forward out of fear.

What you have is a total contrast in church leadership less than fifty miles apart.
 
Lets see, the Pope makes his annoucement the day after Bill O'Reilly demanded he speak out on the issue.

Coincidence? I don't think so 😀
 
"Coincidence? I don't think so "

I don't think the pope gives half a rat who Bill O'Reilly is or what he says about him.
 


<< "Coincidence? I don't think so "

I don't think the pope gives half a rat who Bill O'Reilly is or what he says about him. >>



Uh, it was a Joke, a ha-ha if you will.
 


<< His statement was, at best, a lame, gross understatement, and it's a few decades late in coming. I think somebody forgot to wind his sundial >>

Exactly, this is just the tip of the iceburg. The Pope is laying all the blame and responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the offenders, suggesting it is a bad few who are ruining it for the rest, conveniently negating that the entire church from the TOP DOWN has willfully protected if not aided these offenders for a half-century...or more. It happened under his papal watch, probably with his approval, and he should step-down in disgrace.
 
Come on tscenter, it is the fault of the offenders, they are ruining it for the rest. The church tried to hide and correct these people because of the damage they do to the image of the rest of the clergy. What type of spiritual leader is it if the laity believes he could be a pedophile? This is a lose/lose situation for the church, I can't say they did the right thing but I do know they're going to hurt because of it.
 
Further evidence from the man in charge that organized, institutionalized religion is the last in line concerning morality. They simply fail to "walk the talk". Among them, the catholic church is a front for practicing pedophiles that was concidered a priests gratuity. This errant behavior is well documented and a long standing practice of the catholic church.

<< all religion is a psychosis >>

 
I'm just proud that this all started right here in my home state of Connecticut
rolleye.gif
, welcome to Ground Zero of the Pontificating Pedophiles.
 


<< Come on tscenter, it is the fault of the offenders, they are ruining it for the rest. The church tried to hide and correct these people because of the damage they do to the image of the rest of the clergy. What type of spiritual leader is it if the laity believes he could be a pedophile? This is a lose/lose situation for the church, I can't say they did the right thing but I do know they're going to hurt because of it. >>



Who cares what who thinks about religion/clergymen etc, we are talking about sexual abusing children, there is absolutly no excuse or justification for covering up the actions of child molesters.


I dont buy it. Since all Muslims are terrorist, all Catholics must be Child Molesters. Thats how everything works? right ?
 
Who cares what that pope had to say since the Catholic Church has already proven they're more interested in protecting themselves than their parishoners. Anything they say at this late stage is obviously an attempt at placing the best spin on a situation spiralling out of control. The real question is "Where was the Catholics God while all this was going on?"

He either:
1) Wanted his priests to molest children
2) Didn't know about it.
3) Knew, but didn't care
4) Knew, cared and didn't want it to happen, yet still couldn't stop it.

Go ahead, pick one.
 


<< Actually you seem to feel compelled to talk about them, so in effect you have some unconcious link to the church. >>




Ummm, huh? What kind of logic is that?
 
No surprise to this. Priests have been doing this for quite some time. What I find most disturbing is that they don't directly address it, but instead "sweep it under the rug" as a previous poster mentioned. They even have a fund set up so that they can pay settlements to victims of abuse. What a shame. 🙁
 


<< Come on tscenter, it is the fault of the offenders, they are ruining it for the rest. The church tried to hide and correct these people because of the damage they do to the image of the rest of the clergy. What type of spiritual leader is it if the laity believes he could be a pedophile? This is a lose/lose situation for the church, I can't say they did the right thing but I do know they're going to hurt because of it. >>

Bullsh-t, when you are afraid of what an impropriety might do to the image of priests or the church, you sure as hell don't take an individual incident and make a church-wide scandal out of it by attempting to cover it up...at the risk of more incidents.

None of these priests were 'quietly' forced out of the church after the church discovered they had been molesting children. They were simply sent to different communities where nobody knew them, so they could molest again. The church has NEVER attempted to solve this problem nor eliminate these monsters from their ranks. That is how you protect the image of priests and the church, by taking a stand against pedophilia and not tolerating it.

The Catholic Church has not merely 'tolerated' pedophiles, it has SYSTEMATICALLY protected these priests and attempted to COVER-UP what they had done, giving them license to molest again and again, many moving through several different communities over a period of 30 years.

Sure, when a pedophile molests a child, it is the pedophile's fault. However, when the church not only tolerates a KNOWN pedophile, but it shields and protects them, and the result of that protection is that they are given license and freedom to do it over and again, then the church shares every bit as much of the blame as the pedophile. The Catholic Church and the Papal Pedophile Protector can NOT wash its hands and absolve itself of their responsibility for creating - WILLFULLY AND KNOWINGLY CREATING - a safe haven for pedophiles.

The Pope shouldn't just resign in disgrace, he should face criminal charges, or at the very least a class action civil suit.
 
a bit off topic, but I seriously want my own pope-mobile...

**PS
When I drive by in my pope-mobile, I want people to yell, "It's-a da Freak'n Pope!"
 
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