Posted on 03/16/2010 7:25:56 AM PDT by Pope Pius XII
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest attack on the pope by the New York Times:
Once upon a time there was a homosexual priest who was accused of molesting boys in Germany. That was 30 years ago. At the approval of Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger (now the pope), he was sent away for therapy and was later reinstated; years later, under a new archbishop, there was another incident and more therapy.
We know this because the New York Times (which does not like to report on molesting rabbis in 2010), told us about this on Saturday in a front-page article. Today, it ran a front-page article on the same story. Was there any difference? Yes. On Saturday, the Times was only able to identify the priest as bearing the initial "H." Today, it has real news: his name is Hullermann. And now "H" has been suspended.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicleague.org ...
Let's all please stop with the:
"percentages are extremely small," "yabut, Protestants are worse,", "What about them Jews?," "The NYT is anti-catholic... (No Shiite, Sherlock),...." "Psychiatrists mislead the Church," "Look at all The Good...." Inf ad naus, folks.
This has been brought to the attention, of for example, the American Bishops, upon quite a few past occasions. They continued the cover-up.
The 2,000 year history of the Christian faith is replete with lecherous straight and queer Popes, Bishops, Cardinals, Abbots, Priests, yes, Virginia, even Nuns, chariot drivers, church janitors, Protestant Divines, Missionaries ... you name it, they have done it. Some were caught. Some were punished. Penance, Imprisonment, Castration, Death, re-assignment to Detroit.. been tried. Doesn't mean a damn thing. The religious organizations have STILL not developed a good way to deal with it. The bigger the org, the worse the problem.
This being 2010, I suggest the HRCC in particular go first to the cops and demand public secular punishment ... or whatever the courts recommend. On strictly the religious side, public de-frocking on the first hint of the first offense, AFTER CALLING THE COPS. Has to be that way, or else the church in question is in for a world of hurt on the civil penalty side. And, my fellow Christians, rightly so! Rip that damn collar off the SOB bastards,and kick'im in the ass,on TV. Put their picture up in every parish. Let them be Anathema or whatever the hell they call it nowadays. Did I mention, "Call the friggin' cops?"
Save us all a lot of time and money, not to mention the reputation of the religious body in question.
Just FYI, Your Excellencies:
In re handling any of your priests, nuns, or brothers accused of child molestation:
Please keep these important phone numbers handy. Use them at the first sign of trouble! I won't be mad, OK?
Important Phone #s:
Make sure you call the cops first, OK?
Regards,
Benny,
PS: The cops' and my number work 24/7! So, don't be shy.
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Likewise.
Most of it comes down to an issue of " agree to disagree".
Fair enough. It's been more pleasant than not.
WRT the Pope's apology, it's true. I'd reccommend some research in the area if the possibility of an apology on his part intrigues you.
I don't doubt you. It does speak well of him. These things aren't as absolute as we might like. A person can do the wrong thing, believing it to be right at the time. Later they may realize their error and be contrite. We've probably all experienced that to some degree.
"Why do I spend so much time focusing on the Catholic scandal?".
I thing there are a couple reasons. The RCC makes claims to a special status and powers. The response to this problem and prior history show this to not be true. Also, it's the only church I know of where it's members so vigorously defend such terrible behavior (the cover up). Every instance where an Evangelical or Reformed church has this problem it seems to be confronted in the open.
I think the response is influenced by the polity.
Do we move on with forgiveness, or hold on to our hate for the perpetrators?
Forgiveness is great if it's coupled with responsibility and changes to ensure it doesn't keep happening.
No Grace Romanist.
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The RCC makes claims to a special status and powers = croiser envy.
No Good Response.
(Your turn.)
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In some fairness to the Church, many accusations were made many years after the fact, many of the accusers had personal issues which made their complaints less than credible on face value, and the Church has ALWAYS been the target of those who wish to discredit it.
None of this excuses, in my mind, the mistakes that were made when the evidence WAS timely and reliable.
The Church does things very differently now, and anyone who claims that the Church, today, takes this issue lightly or wants to continue an institutional cover-up, is lying.
As I said on another thread, every adult who wishes to work or volunteer undergoes criminal background checks, at least in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. I had to submit to a criminal background check just to drive my daughter and some classmates to some missionary work.
Bingo!
Claims way after the fact may be from bad therapy, a lack of good therapy, greed, or may be true. We really don't know. It's the cover up in real time that gets everybody 10x's madder.
The Church does things very differently now, and anyone who claims that the Church, today, takes this issue lightly or wants to continue an institutional cover-up, is lying.
On the surface that seems to be true, but I think it might be because of the members of the church rather than the leadership. Something doesn't seem right with George Bush granting your Pope immunity.
Have you seen the movie "Deliver Us From Evil"? I DVR it yesterday. I hadn't watched it because it sounded like it was just a hatchet job. It wasn't and it raised some points I was unaware of. If you see it let me know what you think.
As I said on another thread, every adult who wishes to work or volunteer undergoes criminal background checks, at least in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. I had to submit to a criminal background check just to drive my daughter and some classmates to some missionary work.
Same thing
I doubt I will.
Unlike some, I don't expect any more competence out of the Vatican bureaucracy, when dealing with worldly matters, than I do from any other bureaucracy.
The fact is, the Church will always be a target for some, no matter how good it does its job. If one seeks always to ascribe the most sinister motives to its behavior, no amount of "reform" will be sufficient.
Non Gracious Retort
These threads are full of people still railing against what they perceived the Church to be 500 years ago and are prepared to refight the European Religious Wars over the Papist's sins. What makes you think they give a damn about changes in the last 40 years?
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I post for the lurkers, LOL.
I no longer assume good faith, where the Church is concerned, in any conversation.
Sad, really.
The problem in the Roman Catholic church is that pedophile priests usually do not have criminal records because the church has carefully hidden their indiscretions for years and even decades.
And as far as this being a problem of the past, every day there are new accusations against offending priests. The abuse continues because the abuse is kept within the church hierarchy, away from police authorities, because CRIMEN SOLLICITATIONIS is STILL in force.
30 years ago and before that it was not so widely accepted as now..that therapy is of, at best, limited and most likely no help in “fixing” these men.
Not until fairly recently did we have a focus on this problem, TV shows about it, stricter laws mandating reporting for medical and mental health licensed professionals, and registering sex offenders.
I do not condone putting this person back with children, but lets just be fair. You can’t judge someone by what was ‘accepted” response 30 or more years ago. And it is also unfair to criticize ONLY the roman catholic church and leave out of these articles, or even raise the issue with other religious groups:Jews, Baptists, etc.
Moreover, priests fall within the “average” statistics of “men who are pedophiles.” Its just that it is more sensational when a Priest is guilty.
It is a very convenient, and wrong, way to avoid dealing with pedophilia by focusing on ‘priests” and ignoring the fact it is still a very common problem in general society.
That way, we can avoid the REAL problem in its entirety..lets just bash Catholics...why deal with a kid’s uncle, father, neighbors,teachers or mom’s boyfriend.?
If one seeks always to ascribe the most sinister motives to its behavior, no amount of "reform" will be sufficient.
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