Pope cuts penalties for paedophile priests - including one let off with just a lifetime of prayer

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 2/25/17 | Isobel Frodsham

[ColdOne]

Full title.......................Pope cuts penalties for paedophile priests - including one let off with just a lifetime of prayer for abusing five young boys .........................Pope Francis has been slammed by church officials and sex abuse survivors for cutting penalties for paedophile priests.

The Pope is said to be applying his vision of a 'merciful church' to sex offenders by reducing punishments to weaker sentences, such as a lifetime of prayer and penance.

It has been revealed by church officials that Pope Francis overruled advice given to him by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about two priests - allowing them to be punished by a lifetime of prayer.

[BwanaNdege]

...allowing them to be punished by a lifetime of prayer.

Punished?

All Christians are commanded to "Pray without ceasing"!

Prayer is communication with God; in what mindset would it ever be considered "punishment"? Is that a Roman Catholic euphemism for sackcloth & ashes?

"Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'"

[stylin19a]

isn’t that like sending me to my room ? That’s where all my stuff is....

[DuncanWaring]

At least one did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Geoghan

[metmom]

I know someone well who has a gay friend and this guy says that one of the reasons there are so many gays in the church is that since it was culturally not acceptable to be single and not have a family, *My son the priest* was a status symbol.

But he found it so bad in seminary that he quit seminary. As a gay, even he could not stand what was going on.

[NobleFree]

I see not many of the catholics are on this thread. You can’t defend this.

I haven't seen many - really, any - Catholics on FR defending this Pope for anything. He's a lefty boob.

[FredZarguna]

Celibacy did not come into the Roman Church until the Lateran Council, 1139. That is almost a century after the Great Schism. At the time the Eastern Churches broke with Rome, celibacy was not a requirement of clergy in either Church.

[metmom]

It’s ridiculous to blame him (and I despise him for what he’s doing to the Church), but fair is fair) for something that the police and attorneys should be taking care of.

It's absolutely NOT ridiculous to expect him to do something about it.

If he knows it's going on it's his responsibility to do something about it.

Part of the whole problem in the Catholic church is the amount of blame shifting that goes on.

*It's not may fault.*

*It's not my job, man.*

Yes it is.

When you are in charge, you ARE responsible for the behavior of your subordinates.

If the priests aren't to be held accountable for their behavior, it's disingenuous and hypocritical to hold the laity to standards that their leaders themselves are not expected to hold to.

Every church leaders who knew what was going on and refused to do something about it, passed the buck, whatever, is going to be accountable to God for it.

[MUDDOG]

Yep. Like Brian Wilson “in my room.”

[JesusIsLord]

The Pope's position is devoid of any consideration for the victim. Where's the justice?

We need to change the statute of limitations for certain crimes. Pedophilia cases need to be prosecuted criminally and civilly and with no statute of limitations.

[longfellowsmuse]

If the pope is sympathetic to homosexuasl than this is unsurprising. The reason why the church finds itself where it is regarding the pedophilia scandal is because homosexual men have been allowed into the seminaries.

[metmom]

there is no legitimate reason for forbidding clergy from marrying.

On the contrary, the Bible, that book that Catholics continually claim their church wrote and is responsible for, makes marriage to one woman a requirement of serving as a deacon or elder. The position that Catholics claims is the priesthood in the NT.

Scriptural qualifications for elder and deacon.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

That precludes taking communion with someone like that.

2 John 1:4-11 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Titus 1:5-16 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

1 Timothy 3:1-13 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

[FredZarguna]

The way the church has treated this pedophilia issue has been wrong for many years.

First of all, most of these priests are not pedophiles. They are ordinary homosexuals. The news media, etc, want you to believe these priests are pedophiles because they want you to believe that homosexuals are simply differently oriented sexually, but are otherwise normal people; so sexual assaults by priests cannot be ordinary homosexual rapes, but must be part of a "sickness" which has no connection to homosexualtiy.

They aren't.

Most males begin puberty around 10 or 11. Although there is no age requirement for altar servers, most are not 9 years old or younger.

Here is the psychological definition of Pedophilia from The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Fifth Edition [DSM V, as it's called by practitioners.]

Pedophilia or paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to PREPUBESCENT CHILDREN.

The Roman church simply refuses to admit that a large number of her priests are homosexuals, and homosexuals, especially in institutional settings, are extremely dangerous.

[For example: In 2014 and 2015, the first two years in which we had statistics the DoD reports that the majority of sexual assaults in the US military were by men against other men. They also believe these assaults are far more underreported than those by men against women. Thank about that for a moment: Homosexuals constitute about 2.5% of the male population, and account for MORE sexual assaults than straight males.]

A perverse culture that equates beauty with youth alone pervades homosexuality, so much so that there is a name for these priests among homosexuals; they're called "chickenhawks."

They aren't pedophiles.

[pa_dweller]

Related: Making Gay Okay

[Secret Agent Man]

Just stop at Evil.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Went to college with a dude who I suspected was gay. He became a priest 5 years after graduating.

[Mercat]

I’m Catholic. I’ll stay Catholic. We’ve had worse. We’ve been around for two millennium.

[onyx]

Perhaps a YUGE SURPRISE awaits Mr. Bergoglio?

Like, Hell?

[dila813]

If they really repent and mean it they can receive the eucharist even if they are still actively committing this sin

oh boy have times changed

[SaraJohnson]

You bet!

[Jacquerie]

Good.