Posted on 05/16/2002 5:48:36 PM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
Accused priest apparently takes own life at Maryland hospital
Copyright © 2002 AP Online
By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press
SILVER SPRING, Md. (May 16, 2002 7:57 p.m. EDT) - A 64-year-old priest who resigned from his parish in Connecticut amid allegations of sexual misconduct apparently killed himself Thursday at a Catholic psychiatric hospital, church officials said. The Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., identified the priest as the Rev. Alfred J. Bietighofer, who was stripped last month of his priestly powers and ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Two men told diocesan officials Bietighofer abused them when they were boys in the late 1970s and early 1980s, church officials said.
Bietighofer was found hanged in his room Thursday at St. Luke Institute, according to Prince George's County police and hospital officials.
"I am profoundly saddened by the tragic death of Father Alfred Bietighofer," Bridgeport Bishop William Lori said in a statement. "To parishioners and to all those whom Father Bietighofer assisted during the course of his priestly ministry, I extend my sincere sympathy and prayers."
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You want a hint about car 'accidents' not being accidental: the back of your local phone book probably has it. Nobody would be suing anybody if 'accidents' were accidental.
Sometimes people are at fault and that is sometimes proven in court. The person at fault chose to be negligent. Their poor/negligent CHOICE caused them to lose control of their vehicle. You suggest that accidents aren't accidents but rather people chose to crash on purpose. You really are a hoot.
But hey, you were they one that made the straw-man false analogy. Mysticism is a cause that has nothing but negative effects. Mysticism is not an effect. A car accident is not a cause, it is an effect.
(I know I'm arguing with a joke anyhow.)
Okay, so you just proved again that you know how to hurl insults. Unfortunately you haven't come close to rational argument.
Speaking of which (or...witch?), what do you think of all the use of Myers-Briggs typologies?
Why do you try to paint yourself as "non-religious"?
I don't have to paint because I am not religious. As far as I'm concerned each person can do whatever the want to improve their life so long as they do not initiate force, threat of force or fraud against any person or their property. If you consider that to be religious then that is your definition and no one else's that I know of.
Your views are more "mystical" than anything in Christianity (which is based in reason).
What is mystical about never supporting, advocating or initiating force or threat of force against another person and/or their property? I suppose all those Christian "witch" burnings are your idea of reasoned acts that were not birthed out of mysticism.
Christianity (which is based in reason).
Wrong. It is far more faith than reason.
You are obviously into some New Age cult.
Not true and therefore not obvious. IMO, you used the word "obviously" to assert credibility.
Ending Lawyer-Like Dishonesties #4
Let's Call Neo-Tech a Cult
Perhaps the most-obvious, lawyer-like dishonesty archived throughout Internet search engines is the assertion that Neo-Tech is a cult. Neo-Tech is not only the antithesis of cults, but is the tool that vanishes them. ...Neo-Tech is based on wide-scope accountability and fully integrated honesty, while cults are based on narrow-scope restrictions and manipulated deceptions. Consider the following dozen contrasts between Neo-Tech and cults:
- Neo-Tech has no members or leaders. Cults exist through members and leaders.
- Neo-Tech requires crossing boundaries to generate ever expanding knowledge. Cults prohibit crossing boundaries to protect ever stagnant dogmas.
- Neo-Tech generates open-ended wealth for individuals and society. Cults dissipate wealth earned by others and society.
- Neo-Tech is anchored in factual reality. Cults float in imagined mysticisms.
- Neo-Tech holds the individual self and natural law -- one's own self and objective law -- as the only authorities to guide man's life. Neo-Tech (1) posits self-responsibility as a primary of conscious life and (2) rejects the concepts of political-agenda "laws", collectivist "leaders", and external "authorities". With Neo-Tech, conscious beings become self-leaders, allowing no outside "authority" to rule their lives. By contrast, cult members demand that their leader and his group-agenda "laws" rule their lives.
- Neo-Tech seeks out its errors in order to correct them. Cults evade their errors in order to propagate them.
- Neo-Tech yields productive interactions with others and life. Cults demand harmful withdrawals from nonmembers and life.
- Many people avoid or attack Neo-Tech because its integrated honesty exposes their own irrationalities and destructiveness. Cultists avoid or attack society because the real world exposes their cult's irrationalities and destructiveness.
- Neo-Tech brings growth, prosperity, and life to individuals. Cults bring restrictions, stagnation, and death to individuals.
- Neo-Tech spreads social benefits through integrated honesty and competitive business. Cults spread social harms by manipulating their victims through dishonesty and frauds.
- Neo-Tech propagates individual freedom. Cults propagate group oppression.
- Neo-Tech will prevail in the 21st century. Cults will vanish in the 21st century.
However interesting this philosophical debate may be, to the extent it has no bearing on the current Catholic scandals and intra-church problems (the subject of this thread),
Reading that I had an interesting thought. It is impossible for a crooked politician, a criminal or pedophile to hide behind Neo-Tech or use it as a shield. The corollary no initiation-of-force crime escapes Neo-Tech. To bad the same can't be said of current day politics and the Catholic church in America.
You stepped, and are stepping, in it bigtime. You blamed a host of ills on something (as you put it 'mysticism' or more accurately, 'supernaturalism') that can certainly be a means to evil, but is not an inevitable cause of it.
And yes I know that the conventional definition of "evil" doesn't play in the Zonnist worldview. (As if I care.)
At first I thought it was my friend Jerry (an extreme reactionary conservative Catholic Traditionalist monarchist)doing a parody of some atheist-materialist hedonic cult's gibberish. But it's not actually a joke, right?
Not a joke by any stretch of the imagination. Send out the hounds or whatever authority you follow, abide or look up to. But do send them quickly to crush Neo-Tech/Zonpower before it gets you and the religion and imagined God you cherish.
A word of warning, the IRS tried to crush Neo-Tech and failed miserably -- good luck to you. I don't believe in luck or faith but you should muster all that you think may help you, not that it will but at least you'll have the warm fuzzy feeling going in.
"The Catholic Church is mysticism."
"The Catholic Church is bad."
Amy insights on the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the Trial of the Knights Templar, Galileo, parish Bingo scandals, the papal porno collection, John XXIII's trans-Atlantic tunnel to JFK's Oval office, or the sacred flying monkeys of Oz in the Vatican gardens, you would like to share?
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