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US bishop says Church's credibility on abuse is 'shredded'
CathNews ^ | September 06, 2012

Posted on 09/07/2012 7:31:05 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

The US Catholic bishops' public face over sexual abuse matters has said the hierarchy's credibility on fixing the problem is "shredded" and that the situation is comparable to the Reformation, when "the episcopacy, the regular clergy, even the papacy were discredited," according to a Religious News Service report published on NCR.

Bishop Daniel Conlon of Illinois, last month told a conference of staffers who oversee child safety programs in American dioceses that he had always assumed that consistently implementing the bishops' policies on child protection, "coupled with some decent publicity, would turn public opinion around."

"I now know this was an illusion," Conlon, chairman of the bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, said in an address on August 13 to the National Safe Environment and Victim Assistance Coordinators Leadership Conference in Nebraska.

His talk was published in the August 30 edition of Origins, an affiliate of Catholic News Service.

Conlon said the conviction of a high-ranking church official in Philadelphia for covering up clergy abuse and the upcoming trial of a bishop in Missouri on charges of failing to report a priest on suspicions of child abuse have contributed to a widespread impression that the bishops "have failed to keep their commitments."

The bishop disputed that view, but said even close friends "turned almost hostile" over dinner recently when he said the hierarchy has adopted "an entirely different spirit of openness and accountability."


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholic
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To: Natural Law
Penance and atonement, sure, but no apologies

ROTFL

41 posted on 09/07/2012 12:28:17 PM PDT by Alex Murphy (At the end of the day, you have to worship the god who can set you on fire.)
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To: Antoninus

To a point, you are right.

If you look at the articles posted about teachers abusing students, many of the comments are positive (the various “guilty/not guilty tags”).


42 posted on 09/07/2012 12:40:44 PM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: Alex Murphy
"ROTFL:

I pray that you may come to understand the concept of penance and atonement. Those of you who giddily display schadenfreude with every new victim discovered are not owed an apology. Do you consider yourself in that group? Do you not consider yourself a sinner?

Peace be with you.

43 posted on 09/07/2012 12:41:54 PM PDT by Natural Law (Jesus did not leave us a Bible, He left us a Church.)
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To: Just mythoughts

Here’s an interesting list of the occurrences of the word “abomination.”

The site is obviously a liberal one, but that doesn’t invalidate its argument unless there’s something wrong with the argument itself.

Here are some of the things the Bible lists as abomination: arrogance, lies, bearing false witness, cross-dressing, dishonest trading (the most frequently cited), love of money, divorce, adultery, eating lobster, eating bacon, men lying with men.


44 posted on 09/07/2012 1:56:34 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Just mythoughts

Sorry, forgot to post the link.

http://www.dragonlordsnet.com/abomination.htm


45 posted on 09/07/2012 1:57:50 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins all the battles. Reality wins all the wars.)
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To: Sherman Logan
I use a Strong's Concordance, which tells me where the word abomination is used. Is there any doubt about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? This happened before Moses walked this earth in a flesh body and was given the Ten Commandments. How much worse for the perpetrator that abuses a child calling himself Father. And there is no hair splitting as to the ‘age’ of that child. God records all deeds, good and bad and there are some sins He expects an immediate face to face with the perpetrator.
46 posted on 09/07/2012 3:06:55 PM PDT by Just mythoughts (Please help Todd Akin defeat Claire and the GOP-e send money!!!!!)
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To: redgolum
If you look at the articles posted about teachers abusing students, many of the comments are positive (the various “guilty/not guilty tags”).

Yep. As a case-in-point, I posted an article about sex abuse in the public schools in the News Forum this afternoon and it got about 6 responses other than mine. Compare this to any of the Catholic Church-related sex abuse stories and I think my point is made quite clearly.

I say it again--those who harp most sanctimoniously on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church don't give a d@mn about sex abuse of children. They only do it because they hate Catholics.

47 posted on 09/07/2012 5:23:33 PM PDT by Antoninus (Sorry, gone rogue.)
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To: Antoninus
“I say it again—those who harp most sanctimoniously on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church don't give a d@mn about sex abuse of children. They only do it because they hate Catholics.”

That is utter nonsense. It is the Catholic church that claims a priest undergoes an ontological change by ordination and anointing as a priest.

It is the Catholic church that claims a priest stands between man and God as an intermediary.

“The second degree belongs to the priest (presbyter), who is also a sacerdos, but of the second rank (”secundi sacerdotes” Innocent I ad Eugub.); by his priestly ordination he receives the power to offer sacrifice (i.e. to celebrate the Eucharist), to forgive sins, to bless, to preach, to sanctify, and in a word to fulfil the non-reserved liturgical duties or priestly functions.” (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Those who showed a profound lack of concern for children were the Catholic Bishops that sent molesting priests to prey on unsuspecting parishes.

48 posted on 09/07/2012 6:39:10 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: Antoninus

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.


49 posted on 09/07/2012 8:02:16 PM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: A.A. Cunningham
Do not make this thread "about" individual Freepers and do not carry disagreements from prior threads.

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.

50 posted on 09/07/2012 8:03:57 PM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: Antoninus
Yep. As a case-in-point, I posted an article about sex abuse in the public schools in the News Forum this afternoon and it got about 6 responses other than mine.

Most of us have no idea about anything to do with that particular school district, it doesn't live under a Pope, and teachers, janitors, construction workers, are just run of the mill people who look to religious leaders (or not), they don't expect to match them in living a sinless life, they are not handpicked, trained, appointed, religious leaders in a single Christian denomination.

Nobody even asks what religion child molesters are because it isn't relevant, but if the leaders of a particular national church are identified as having a serious problem, then public awareness will make their flock aware of the perversion, and that in turn can lead to forcing their leaders to end the corruption.

51 posted on 09/07/2012 8:07:48 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Aug. 27, 2012-Mitt Romney said his views on abortion are more lenient than the Republican Platform)
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To: Alex Murphy

there were stupid people in the church then....there are stupid people in the church now....neither changes the church.


52 posted on 09/07/2012 8:43:46 PM PDT by terycarl
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To: old and tired

It is not irrelevant . The bishops have been corrupted by falling in line with the thinking of the leaders of our society. In short, they have let the majority of Catholics be assimilated to an increasingly pagan view of the world. Not the first time, as was pointed out. It happened before the Reformation. Unfortunately the reformers let the same thing happen to them. Luther became a tool of the German princes, and even Calvin embroiled his movement in the politic of France (His French name was Cauvin). Knox used politics to establish the Kirk, and Cranmer did the same to reform the English Church to his image of Christ. Only a few sects, such as the Mennonites, kept their skirts clean. So we get to a religious tyranny under Cromwell.


53 posted on 09/07/2012 9:07:25 PM PDT by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: ansel12

The individual schools districts is not in fact so disconnected with others as you suppose. The days are long gone when the school board members actually set policy for the schools. Today we have a national public school establishment which which spend more than the US Military collectively, and whose values and ideas dominate the thinking of school board members, administrators and teachers ever bit as much as Catholic teachings dominate the Church. No Child Left Behind was an effort to standardize public education in the United States. Right now the Secretary of Education is working to create a uniform curriculum for the whole country. One reason why the school are irreformable is that no one wants to admit the insanity of expecting a child in Maine to obtain the very same education as a child in Southern California. The great goal of public education is conforming national thinking to ideals of that Establishment.


54 posted on 09/07/2012 9:18:47 PM PDT by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: RobbyS

I’m well aware of that, but teachers and school districts are just regular folks with no commonality, or relationship other than being in education and unions, they vary widely and are not handpicked spiritual leaders of a single church, with a single belief, a single relationship with each other, a single religion, a Pope, etc.


55 posted on 09/07/2012 9:34:30 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Aug. 27, 2012-Mitt Romney said his views on abortion are more lenient than the Republican Platform)
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To: ansel12

As a former teacher, I must tell you, that they are much more liberal in general than their friends and neighbors. Most have become teachers by getting degrees in education. It is, by and large, an inferior schools and basically they are being trained to conform to the dominant mind-set of the schools. Not to say that there is not a significant minority who differ, but they have little influence in the “profession.” Progressive education is more than just a name. If you want to know why increased spending produces so little result, you need to know that the same ideas keep getting recycled in public education with new labels. Ultlmately they derive from those of John Dewey, for whom the schools were an instrument for instilling “democratic thought” in the students. Dewey was also a political liberal and a founder of the AFT.


56 posted on 09/07/2012 9:53:49 PM PDT by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: RobbyS

I know all that as well, I think you might be on the wrong thread to talk about education and where it went wrong.


57 posted on 09/07/2012 9:59:13 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Aug. 27, 2012-Mitt Romney said his views on abortion are more lenient than the Republican Platform)
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To: ansel12

No, the Catholic schools are also dominated by this. Anytime you hire a certified teacher, you get someone trained to be a public school teacher.


58 posted on 09/07/2012 10:18:41 PM PDT by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: RobbyS

You should start a thread on that subject, or post to someone who wants to read your posts about the education system.


59 posted on 09/07/2012 10:23:57 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Aug. 27, 2012-Mitt Romney said his views on abortion are more lenient than the Republican Platform)
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To: old and tired

The coverage, that which I have seen, also ignored the homosexual aspect, which seems central to me. Penn State, like all academia, is gay-friendly. I say also, the bishops are afraid of touching the issue except tangentially. In the past forty years, they gave up trying to keep homosexuals out of the priesthood. They drank the same juice as the colleges, that the practice is harmless.But it is only one aspect of the Sexual revolution. Long-gone are the days when they actively discouraged unseemly behavior between boys and girls, Gad, as I wrote the word “unseemly,” I realized how old I am!


60 posted on 09/07/2012 10:30:22 PM PDT by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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