I think they need some feudal era penance. _____ Pope: Church must do penance for abuse Pope Benedict XVI broke his recent silence on the clerical abuse scandal Thursday, noting recent attacks on the church and the need for "we Christians" to repent for sins and recognize mistakes. Benedict made the comments during an off-the-cuff homily at a Mass inside the Vatican for members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Victims of clerical abuse have long demanded that Benedict take more personal responsibility for clerical abuse, charging that the Vatican orchestrated a culture of cover-up and secrecy that allowed priests to rape and molest children for decades unchecked. Those demands have intensified in recent weeks as the Vatican and Benedict himself have been accused of negligence in handling some cases in Europe and the United States. "I must say, we Christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word 'repent', which seemed too tough. But now under attack from the world, which has been telling us about our sins ... we realize that it's necessary to repent, in other words, recognize what is wrong in our lives," Benedict said. "Open ourselves to forgiveness ... and let ourselves be transformed. The pain of repentance, which is a purification and transformation, is a grace because it is renewal and the work of divine mercy," he said. It was Benedict's fullest allusion to the scandal since he sent a letter to the Irish faithful March 20 concerning what Irish-government inquiries have concluded was decades of abuse and church-mandated cover-up in the country. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi confirmed that Benedict was indeed referring to the scandal. "That's a legitimate reading," he said. "You can apply (his comments) to the current situation." In his letter to the Irish, Benedict chastised Irish bishops for failures in leadership and judgment. But he took no responsibility himself or for the Vatican, which many victims have blamed for being more concerned about protecting the church than children. On Monday, the Vatican posted on its Web site what it claimed had been a long-standing church policy telling bishops that they should report abuse crimes to police, where civil laws require it. But critics have said the guidelines were merely a deceptive attempt by Rome to rewrite history, designed to shield the Vatican from blame by shifting responsibility of dealing with abusive priests onto bishops. link
Incredible. Pope B enedict's point man on the abuse cases Cardinal Levada is a priest long known publicly for being involved in covering up these cases in the United States before he was transferred to the Vatican. Now a Cardinal, Levada was successfully sued by a priest who reported a fellow priest for abuse. Levada threatened to relieve the reporting priest of his duties when he would not cover up and smeared him publicly in a newspaper. Enraged the reporting priest filed a successful whistle blower suit by the reporting priest against Levada and the Catholic Church. Levada has gone so far in the past as to appoint committees to investigates matters headed by a known sex-abuser priest!! Keeping such priests in control of the Church's response to sexual abuse of the faithful does not show any serious by Pope Benedict. This stuff is not going away and the Church can not hide behind traditonal appeal to authority and obedience as folks like Twhy urge Catholics in nearly all matters. http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/0...nt-man-in-risky-vatican-strategy-against-the/
Just stating the facts, the number of cases/accusations compared to the number of parishes. I wish I could get into the mind of some of these clergymen though, I mean you represent God, the Good, all the that is right in the world, yet you do this to a child? I just don't understand humanity anymore...
That is because they are people. You do not somehow become divine by attending seminary. Living in a constant state of suppression will cause one's inner freak to demand to be let out for a walk. Add in the ready availability of those least likely to blab (kids)...you have a recipe for disaster.
This is an appropriate reaction to the horror these poor children suffered. I'm encouraged that the pope is beginning to understand their pain and humiliation. _____ Pope 'cries with Church abuse victims' in Malta Pope Benedict XVI has held an emotional meeting with alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in Malta, pledging to "bring to justice" abusers. The Pope had tears in his eyes and he also "expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered", the Vatican said. The meeting, in private, took place at the end of the Pope's visit to Malta. Three priests are accused of sexually abusing orphan children on Malta in the 1980s and 1990s. In Malta, 10 men have testified that they were sexually molested by Catholic priests at an orphanage during that time. They had asked to meet Pope Benedict to close what they have termed a "hurtful chapter" in their lives. 'Spiritual courage' "The Holy Father met a small group of persons who were sexually abused by members of the clergy," a Vatican statement said. "He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future. "In the spirit of his recent Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, he prayed that all the victims of abuse would experience healing and reconciliation, enabling them to move forward with renewed hope," the statement added. It provided no further details of what measures would be implemented. One of the alleged abuse victims in Malta later said the meeting with the Pope - which lasted about 45 minutes - had given him huge spiritual courage. Speaking on local television, Lawrence Grech sobbed as he described the meeting. "It was very emotional. Everybody cried," he said. He said he was now a lapsed Catholic, after his childhood experiences. But he added that he thought the Pope should not carry on his shoulders the guilt of others in the paedophile priest scandals. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the Pope was deeply moved by the victims' stories, saying that he "had tears in his eyes". Reservations This was the first time the pontiff had met with alleged victims since the worldwide clerical abuse row erupted this year. Ahead of the Pope's visit, Father Lombardi said that the pontiff would not agree to any meeting in the full glare of media publicity, and that the crowded programme during the 26-hour visit to Malta was unlikely to leave a window for such an opportunity. On Saturday, the Archbishop of Malta, Paul Cremona, told worshippers at a Mass attended by the Pope that the Catholic Church must recognise what he called the failures and sins of its members. The Pope had hitherto maintained silence on the abuse crisis, which has overshadowed his visit, the BBC's David Willey in Malta reports. On Saturday, the pontiff was greeted outside the presidential residence by several thousand Maltese children singing happy birthday to the pontiff, who had just turned 83. The Pope is making a pilgrimage to the Mediterranean island in the footsteps of St Paul. link
Empathy. I'd suspect most of the priests involved in the cover ups also harbor similar thoughts, and therefore less inclined to do anything about it.
Could you by any chance paint with a broader brush? Substitute any other group of people for "priests," and you have just made a very racist statement. And yet, when applied to priests, you somehow think it is ok to essentially say they are all pedophiles. Really dumb statement. What you have said is the same stupid argument that some people have made that homosexual males should never adopt kids because they will "recruit" them. It is just dumb...and reprehensible. You could take the more reasoned approach of looking at the culture of religion. The basic thought is forgiveness and (hopefully) the sinner to repent. Add to that the administrative nightmare of a growing shortage of priests...and viola...the conditions are ripe for a cover up. Instead, you go to the lowest common denominator. Since they are priests, they must also be pedophiles. Prejudice knows no boundaries.
Read my post again. I didn't say all, or even most priests... just some of those involved in the cover up. How else do you explain covering up such a nasty deed, and exposing the pervert to other kids. Lets play your game though... substituting any other group for priests, would you be so willing to forgive, forget and move on? Would you substitute penance for justice if it were your child that was molested? I like your anger though, and I urge you to direct some at your pope... someone ought to show the hypocrite what it really means to be immoral. And no, I don't care that you are offended, since you obviously aren't offended at how the church handled this.
I was raised Catholic and was a ministrant as a kid, never experienced any abuse or anything like that. But I do think that the Catholic church has some serious issues. I think that its leaders are basically incapable of accepting criticism or any kind reformation, and the way it is structured contributes to that. It is a club of old men with a very isolated and inflexible view of the world. The pope is probably a nice guy at heart, but he and his old boys club have an attitude that they would rather cover up and ignore cases of abuse out of a false sense of solidarity with the perpetrator rather than the victim than bring the perpetrators to justice. This is one of many reasons that I left the Catholic church already more than 10 years ago. I think you can be a good person and have a value and belief system without being a member of an organized church with all its implications of association with idiots and paying for idiots. There is a bishop in Germany called Mixa who was accused by former foster children of having brutally hit them 20 years ago or so (7 of them made statements under oath independently from each other). The guy vigorously denied this for weeks and threatened to press charges, etc. A few days ago, because of the mounting evidence and realizing that he would not be able to keep lying his way out of this, he said "oh well, maybe I gave some of them a little slap in the face here and there, but this is not violence, everyone did it 20 years ago". First, he is trying to downplay what he did - a slap in the face is violence and not what is expected of a catholic priest. Secondly, he has openly been lying for weeks (he now says "no, I wasn't lying, I said I was not violent and a little slap in the face is not violence"). So he basically committed at least two sins and violated the 8th commandment. Now, the really sad part of this is that the Catholic church IMMEDIATELY when the allegations came out, without even verifying whether there was any truth to them or not, came out and defended the bishop and said this cannot be true, etc. etc.. They have a cover-up mentality, which is shameful. And even now that it is CLEAR that he has been lying, they will still not dismiss him. It's a travesty. The guy is basically a major-league ******* - not only did he hit those children and lie about it, also, when he was in charge of their foster home, he took money that was meant for the children and bought some dubious artwork from a friend for like $ 100,000 - with the money that was supposed to be for the children. He embezzled several hundred thousand dollars during his tenure and nowadays, he just says "oh I wasn't really in charge of the finances and didn't look at them in detail" and gets away with it. This is part of why I cannot support the Catholic church. And many people in Germany think the same way - they are mass-defecting from the Catholic church. And under this pope, certainly nothing will change.
Unfortunately I feel that with religious leaders, many think they deserve to get a "break" because of their occupation. I'm a religious person, even if not in the traditional sense. I think everyone should be held equally accountable unless there is concrete proof that their life's work is God's direct command. Since there is no such thing (direct proof) that God told each and every one of them to do what they do, I feel they shouldn't be held to a different standard at all, even if I respect their choice of occupation. I've seen the behavior time and time again. It manifests itself differently with different religions, but the pattern is the same. With "islamic leaders", it's usually the taking of multiple wives, mistreating them all, resorting to physical abuse too frequently, having hoards of children knowing that they can not afford to take care of them properly, etc. Taking money as charity - which is, to me, unacceptable from an "Islamic leader" - and using the money for stupid reasons. All these transgressions but if their wives show a square centimeter of skin, a beatdown will ensue. If you are religious, you know God demanded justice. If you are chillin in Brazil while a pothead is in prison for years, that's not justice. If you're chillin in Malta and a divorced father is fighting poverty to pay for his kids which he can't see, that's not justice. If you're chillin in Argentina and there are children who will be mentally scarred for life due to being abused by YOU, that's not justice. You failed. Man up, hand in your badge, and when/if you are able to correct what caused the problem in the first place, then you can re-apply. Hint: it's not the devil, and it is not typical human nature. For F's sake.
WTF? Ratzinger was the one who authored the bill which ordered all priests to maintain absolute secrecy regarding pedophilia among the priesthood. The strides he made resulted in cover ups and the victims of molestation being fooled into signing non-disclosure contracts about the way they were abused. Personally I think he should be held accountable for the **** he did and get defrocked, but unfortunately Pope Palpatine will never face justice for his crimes. He'll just have to live everyday of his life being one of the most unpopular popes in recent memory.
Please do not act as though you would have said the same thing had they not been priests. Since they are priests, you assumed that they are pedophiles. You cannot backtrack from that. I explained it very well in the latter part of my post. Pity you felt no need to read it. I never said that I was ready to forget and move on. You might want to peruse the BBS for my thoughts on the subject. I have opined on this in multiple threads recently. I was explaining how this happened...other than...you know...the sheer genius of assuming that they are all pedophiles. Lowest common denominator. I never said there should not be justice. I have made this abundantly clear many times on this BBS. I am explaining how the Church came to cover it up. You have managed to totally misread my post. Good job. I am offended by the Church's handling of this as I have stated many times on this BBS. What offends me about your post is your attribution of pedophilia to people that you have no credible knowledge that they are pedophiles. It is little use to debate this with you if you insist on being so small minded and play to the lowest common denominator.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1620638/infographic-the-catholic-churchs-international-sex-abuse-coverup A single, jaw-dropping graphic that illustrates the scope of the scandal--and the organization-wide attempt to sweep it under the rug. It's easy to think that amid the all of the allegations of sexual abuse currently scarring the Catholic church, the cover-ups that have followed have been locally driven. But as the current Pope Benedict scandal suggests, the church cover-ups appear to implicate its highest ranks--a point shown by this startling infographic. You'd probably expect a couple cases like this. But when you see the entire story--and its globetrotting scope--laid out in one chart, it speaks to something far greater. The graphic encompasses over 30 cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic church; in each case, the offender was relocated internationally. (You can click on each link to get details of each case.) Put together the fact that some of the transfers come from the highest ranks of the church with this sprawling visual array, and you have shocking evidence of a systemic problem which so far hasn't been solved in the church's culture and governance.
If you cover up pedophilia repeatedly, over decades, and would rather expose children to it than disgrace a fellow priest, it is fair game to wonder how offensive you consider pedophilia to be. There is nothing small minded or ridiculous about it. I think the pope and other high ranking officials should serve some jail time for being accessories to a heinous crime. Anything less can be considered "forget it and move on".
If it can be proven that any of the Church officials, from the Pope on down, had credible knowledge of specific priests that committed offenses against specific kids and did nothing...I would have no problem with them being charged and tried for aiding and abetting a known felon.
