Posted on 07/19/2025 3:21:11 PM PDT by ebb tide
“Twenty years of scandals, and the Vatican - to be more specific, the Vatican Secretariat of State - has learned nothing”, writes Phil Lawler on CatholicCulture.org (July 17).
He comments on the case of Rev Carlo Capella. The priest was imprisoned in Vatican City for possessing and distributing child pornography, yet he has returned to work in the Holy See’s diplomatic service — first without an official title, and now with a formal senior designation.
An official labelled the scandal as 'an act of mercy'.
Lawler asks: “Mercy? Not mercy toward the teenagers who were exploited by perverts to provide the images that were found in Rev Capella’s extensive collection. Not mercy toward the faithful Catholics who, doing their best to uphold the honor of the Church against increasingly caustic critics, have found themselves once again defending the indefensible.”
Lawler recalls that Rev Capella was not handed over to secular prosecutors and that “the Vatican” resisted an American bid for his extradition. Capella was allowed to flee back to Rome, where he evidently expected more sympathetic treatment.
In the canonical trial he was demoted from “Monsignor” to “Rev,” but remained an active priest.
Lawler explains why the treatment was lenient: “For the same reason that Marcial Maciel escaped scrutiny for years, the same reason that Cardinal Law was named archpriest of a Roman basilica, the same reason that Theodore McCarrick was sent abroad as a Vatican envoy, the same reason that Rev Capella is now back at work: Because the Secretariat of State takes care of its friends.”
He has another more sinister explanation: “Maybe so many Vatican officials have been morally compromised, over so many years, that no one is prepared to attack the problem; everyone feels vulnerable, and thus determined to keep the lid on. Maybe sexual misconduct is so widespread that—despite their public protestations—Vatican officials still take it lightly.“
It is abundantly clear to Lawler — and not just in cases of clerical abuse — that the Secretariat of State writes its own rules.
Ping
Not a gay joke but still pretty good.
Priest was consulted by a tormented, young, new priest.
“I am struggling every day. I have desires and wish I had not even become a priest.”
“Don’t worry. It will not last forever. You will be released from your sexual desires about three days after you die.”
Sorry; I don’t find it funny.
Not my joke. A highly respected EWTN host on Open Line told it yesterday.
“I come to report, not to convince”
—Saint Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes.
I still think it was in poor taste.
What I don’t find funny is the large house on the campus of my local Jesuit college that houses defrocked pedophile priests.
I went to a Jesuit collebe in a different city and my only problem was that the Jesuits resented my success as a student because I was a girl. It was totally obvious. “We have two perfect paper.s You, my son,” with a big smile, and “You” no smile, barely looking at me.
Poor taste. You’re right, of course.
Sorry to offend anyone.
No problem. You did not offend me, the joke did.
Dominus tecum.
et ipse tibi
Lawler....
how long to we bite our tongues oh Lord?
We are mad as hell at what satan’s minions are doing to our Church. The hands are grinding, the eyes are really flirting with that rope. My Jesus is up on that cross gor this too, and tomorrow’s, and tomorrow’s, and tomorrow’s.....does everyone who feels like Peter in the garden have to just let it keep happening? Did God devolve our spine after the Christ’s birth?
A huge scandal and not a sound is heard from the media. The enemy of the people is the media, obviously.
Satanic child-molesting Faggots!
They're not "men of God".
Catholics....get them out.
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