Posted on 03/31/2010 4:48:14 PM PDT by presidio9
One by one, as I predicted, the pathetic excuses of Joseph Ratzinger's apologists evaporate before our eyes. It was said until recently that when the Rev. Peter Hullermann was found to be a vicious pederast in 1980, the man who is now pope had no personal involvement in his subsequent transfer to his own diocese or in his later unimpeded career as a rapist and a molester. But now we find that the psychiatrist to whom the church turned for "therapy" was adamant that Hullermann never be allowed to go near children ever again. We also find that Ratzinger was one of those to whom the memo about Hullermann's transfer was actually addressed. All attempts to place the blame on a loyal subordinate, Ratzinger's vicar general, the Rev. Gerhard Gruber, have predictably failed. According to a recent report, "the transfer of Father Hullermann from Essen would not have been a routine matter, experts said." Either that—damning enough in itself—or it perhaps would have been a routine matter, which is even worse. Certainly the pattern—of finding another parish with fresh children for the priest to assault—is the one that has become horribly "routine" ever since and became standard practice when Ratzinger became a cardinal and was placed in charge of the church's global response to clerical pederasty.
So now a new defense has had to be hastily improvised. It is argued that, during his time as archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany, Ratzinger was more preoccupied with doctrinal questions than with mere disciplinary ones. Of course, of course: The future pope had his eyes fixed on ethereal and divine matters and could not be expected to concern himself with parish-level atrocities. This cobbled-up apologia actually repays a little bit of study. What exactly were these doctrinal issues? Well,
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Christopher Hitchens’s bigotry offends me!
Hitchens is not above lying.
He’s good on some things, and absolutely miserable on others.
He’s another anti-church individual. Religion just angers him. He and Bill Maher are about the same on that account, sadly.
Here’s what you need to understand when gay liberal athiests like Christopher Hitchens and anybody who writes this sort of article for the NY Times attack the Catholic Church. They do do primarily because the Church is the largest and most powerful religious organization on the planet. It is also the most anti-homosexual, pro-life, pro-private charity, and pro-family organization on the planet. They do not do so to protect the planet and little boys. Catholic priests are actually LESS likely to sexually abuse anyone than the male population in general. And sexual abuse is actually LESS of a problem in the Catholic clergy than it is in just any organized religion you can name. Even one case of abuse is too many, but that’s not the real axe Hitchens has to grind here.
I know you already know this, just thought I’d get this in early for whoever else reads the thread. BTW, “pedophilia” is a misnomer when it comes to the Catholic Church. Virtually every case involved an ongoing relationship between a gay priest and a gay teenager.
See post 5
When the subject turns to religion, Christopher Hitchens is incapable of rational thought.
Once they have Ratzinger in custody perhaps they can extradite Cardinal Bernard “Bunny” Law from Rome back to face the music for all the cases of abuse he covered up in Boston.
Then again, perhaps not.
I think you are spot on!
Let’s see: Hitchens supported the Iraq War, and what else?
No cries of “Santo Subito” for this guy.
You are absolutely right. The Pope (a decent and honorable man) is being attacked because he is an orthodox Christian, and the Left realizes that he is therefore an obstacle to their advance. I pray that Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox recognize what is going on, and that the Left is our common enemy.
The sad part is that my generation is composed almost entirely of anti-church leftists who will eat up these false accusations without question.
He certainly had some odd ideas about Mother Teresa.
I think that the MSM is orchestrating a campaign against Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church, for the reasons stated. But Hitchens just knee-jerk hates anything Catholic.
Don’t get me wrong: The whole thing disgusts me. But any non-Catholic who offers an opinion on this scandal is by definition a hypocrite. Athiests, Baptists, Episcopalians, Jews, (definitely) Muslims, the problem is as severe or much worse in your own Church. And its worse in the public schools and day care. And there are a small number of examples of “supervisors” who were aware of a crime and did nothing. At the end of the day, if you’re a non-Catholic getting involved here, it’s not because you concerned about the corruption, or looking to protect children from future harm. Because you’ll find the problem much closer to home. And in greater numbers. No, people like Hitchens and the folks on FR who need to attack Catholicism are happy to have such a useful stone to throw and keep throwing. Human nature being what it is, this is a problem that will never completely go away. But the Catholic Church will continue to address it, as it has done with other more significant crises for almost 2000 years.
What did he lie about?
If you remember, the left hated Cardinal Ratzinger long before he became Pope.
Agreed, but when exactly IS he capable of rational thought?
It seems to me that the Catholic Church has much the same problem (as I have heard in the last few days) that the Boy Scouts of America does. They have not been judicious enough in taking action when they knew there was a problem.
That’s what makes me furious with both organizations. Some Priests transferred suspect priests, who went on to commit more acts. In the case of the Boy Scouts, they had dossiers on scout leaders, and sat on them rather than confront the problematic individuals.
Hitchens and others have trashed the church. I still say the church gave them lots of reasons to do it.
I consider attacks on the church to be an attack on all churches. You and I agree that this is merely a wedge for guys like Hitchens. Teachers, little league coaches, boy scout leaders, other sports coaches, they all have some problems in this area. The church (or churches) really look bad when something is brought to light, but those could be turned around if the church was shown to be absolutely vicious when the guilty were found out.
I’ve got to tell you, my opinion is the church brought most of this on itself, by not taking severe enough action when they knew they had a problem. And I would venture, that could easily be the case outside the church too.
It’s just very problematic when a situation comes up that requires a clear moral process, and that process doesn’t materialize.
It’s unfortunate, but the deviates infect everything. Society pays for it. It really bothers me to see young girls or boys grabby with other children. I at once wonder if they’ve had some problems themselves.
This world has many wonderful aspects, but there are other things that are just despicable about it.
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