[Longshanks]

If Rome is presently unwilling to act, perhaps God is now calling on laymen to fill the vacuum. Are you Catholics willing carry out mass protest/demonstrations at the chanceries until Rome is forced to act?

[Longshanks]

Ping.

[uncbob]

I have been poasting the same thing about the Pope

Several posters have attacked me for it

Well those with their head in the sand are part of the problem and it is going to take a schism by the faithful who have some backbone or at least as you say STRONG public protest because you are not going to get it from the Pope or hierarchy in this country

and as long as the socialistic cardinals can count on a sufficient number of laity to rally round the flag NOTHING of significance will happen

[keithtoo]

I have never had any respect for demonstrations. The Left uses them and they actually do nothing. Nothing has every happened on a person-to-person level because of a demonstration. They are like having a big pep rally for a really bad football team. If your team did not put in the hours of training when noone else was looking, they're still gonna lose.

What the Catholics need to do is pray.

Just like St. Paul says in Ephesians: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in high places". Do good Catholics still trust the Pauline Epistles?

[Aliska]

No, I don't want to demonstrate in front of any chancery. They would only get furious. They would have the police make the demonstrators leave and it would, in the end, make things worse.

[PFKEY]

If we are to believe that the Pope is infallible then logic would lead one to believe that his and his predecessor's near silence and inaction means that the RCC endorses such and that this is from God.

Most sane people would not follow this logic.

holy father...my foot!

And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

[Slyfox]

I have read many of the Pope's words. I have read his encyclicals, his Wednesday audience addresses, his speeches when he travels. The leadership has always been there. My question is, what does a parent do when his children, way past their teen-age years, do not listen to him? Does he clunk all their fool heads together? This Pope did clunk a few heads, Hans Kung for example, but each individual bishop is responsible for their own diocese. Most have been good. Some have been dreadful.

One bishop, in particular, was suspected of having homosexual leanings and would have boat parties with young men. What did JPII do? Well, when this bishop was called to Rome, for his once-every-five-year-visit he entered the papal office and sitting behind the desk on his chair was the Pope. JP asked him about his diocese and the bishop began to paint a flowery picture of how well he was doing, this campaign and that campaign. The Pope waited for him to finish. "Is that all, isn't there anything else you'd like to tell me?" "Nope."

JPII got up from his desk and began to put stacks of paperwork on his desk. When he finished the desk was loaded. The Pope told him that these piles of paperwork are all the complaints "I've been recieving about you." Then, he listed the complaints verbally to him.

The bishop was shamed and stripped of his position.

The liberals are having a field day pointing their collective finger at Our Holy Father.

[beckett]

My family knew the late Bishop McGann for close to 50 years. Drolesky's over the top slander of a good man --- slander "with love" to be sure --- is the kind of silliness that hyper-conservative Catholics are famous for, and which the enemies of the Church point to with glee.

[Ronin]

Although I am reading about this topic and have my own opinions concerning it, I think that it is an issue that the Catholics need to resolve themselves.

[sinkspur]

Demonstrations in front of chancery offices are a waste of time.

The Holy Father is a good and saintly man. He is leaving a comprehensive response to priestly pederasty to his successor.

Unfortunately, the American legal system grinds exceedingly fine, and there will be some significant financial exposure for the American Church in the short term.

[Cicero]

It's not possible for one man to root out all of the corruption in a Church that has a billion members. Most people would say that the Pope has done a good job. He has certainly made it clear that homosexuality is a disorder, that homosexual acts are sinful, and that priests have no business engaging in illicit sexual activities. The problem is that he must rely on the bishops and a large bureaucracy to implement these guidelines.

For whatever reason, the American bishops have tended to be a weak-kneed bunch, and their bureaucracies are full of liberal dissenters who undermine them whenever THEY try to clamp down. The Pope has replaced most of the worst bishops with better ones, but too many of them still lack the will to do what needs to be done. The Church in America was badly hit in the great countercultural revolution of the 1960s and thereafter, like all our other institutions. On the whole, it has done pretty well, considering the grave damage that liberals have done from within. Many of the Protestant denominations were similarly affected, and many of them have had more trouble recovering from the damage than the Catholic Church has shown. They also have homosexual problems, but the media ignores it, or applauds it, because they consider these churches to be too weak to be a threat to their desire for "sexual and reproductive freedom."

Of course, he could have excommunicated a bunch of people, but I'm not sure whether that would have been more productive than the course he has taken. You can't run a Church without the willing cooperation of the hierarchy, the priests, and the laity.

[ZULU]

The writer is being too harsh with the Holy Father. True, he appears not be acting as forcefully as he should in this matter, but perhaps age and illness is the reason. He may even come around yet. After all, he was in part responsible for the collapse of the "Evil Empire".

On the other hand, Catholics are sort of hamstrung when it comes to dealing with this problem and others involving the Church. The flawed ( and recent) doctrine of "Papal Infallability" is the reason. Even the Medievil Popes didn't claim that virtue.

[freedom9]

"(Pope refuses to lead) "

Maybe he has something to hide . . .

[Joe Boucher]

Come on, the pope is not capeable at this point, it is all being handled be assistants. Though they be high ranking within the catholic church, the assistants are in charge currently. Pope John Paul is a shell at this time in his life.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Yes. The Catholic Family Association of America (of which I am the VP) is working on organizing nationwide protests for May. I will post info as we bring the effort together.

[grumpster-dumpster]

Thanks for posting this.

I admit I have mixed feelings about the article. On one hand I agree that "the Vatican" has not done enough to curb those who would "politically and socially liberalize" the Church. Yet somehow, I still have a feeling this is an attempt to "paint" Pope John Paul II, as being a "willing stooge" to the liberal agenda. (Much like the attempts to label Pope Pius X as pro-nazi.)

As to your call to action: I am willing to defend my faith and make my opinions known... but I am not going to demand I be included in the decision making process within the administration of Canon law. In other words; I believe we as Catholics have a duty to address the problems and give practical advise based on our experience; But we do not have the right to dictate specific actions to the Church.

Praying for our Church leaders to have the strength to address these severe problems is, IMHO, the best solution.