It's like the Holocaust, no really

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

Wow. Pope Benedict's personal preacher Raniero Cantalamessa created a firestorm by comparing the scrutiny and pressure the Catholic Church has been experiencing lately in their molestation scandals to the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."

This just further illustrates why the Roman Catholic Church will never take real steps to stop abuse. They aren't concerned with the children that are getting raped, they're only concerned with their own reputation. They see themselves as being wrongfully attacked, and never does it enter their minds that their actions (and lack thereof) contributed to what they are enduring now.

I hope the pressure never lets up but sooner or later the mainstream media will give up on it, only to flare up again down the road after more children have been raped, and the cycle will repeat again.

Pope Benedict, the only way this is going to end is if you take real steps towards stopping abuse. First of all stop protecting priests who molest children and treat it like the horrific sin (and crime) that it is. Throw them out of the Church and/or turn them in to law enforcement.

To help prevent this from happening as much you're going to have to allow priests to marry. Stop making excuses, stop covering up, and make a real effort to end this abuse.

Comments

[a4honor.livejournal.com]

I agree with most of what you said, just not the dead wood part, God heals what cannot be healed. He made Ted Bundy a Christian!

[futurebird.livejournal.com]

Only Ted Bundy and God know if that worked. I think God wants us to keep the kids safe-- if we bar a truly reformed person from being a priest because of their past it will be fine in the end-- we can only judge people by their actions-- only they and God know the content of their hearts.

[a4honor.livejournal.com]

I cannot disagree. I would never advocate trusting a pedophile. But I do see one flaw: Does any one here know for certain, that this has been happening for 50 years and that the Church and the Pope has been hiding it, or are we simply repeating what we hear on the news. I only wish to make the point that these accusations seem to be conveniently timed, right after the arch-daisies denounced a liberal group of nuns, who supported health care. what does any one here really know.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

"Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles archdiocese, reacting in February to a federal investigation into his handling of the crisis, said: "We have said repeatedly that ... our understanding of this problem and the way it's dealt with today evolved, and that in those years ago, decades ago, people didn't realize how serious this was, and so, rather than pulling people out of ministry directly and fully, they were moved."
Source. (http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/bishops-were-warned-abusive-priests)

A failure to know "how serious this was" can be nothing other than willful blindness. A failure to report this to the police can be nothing but intentional obstruction of justice.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Or it can be exactly what they said, a lack of understanding, not willful. You want it to be willful because you don't understand how it could be otherwise, but you have the benefit of 50 years of hindsight that they didn't.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Call it what you like. There are cases where we can judge actions by objective standards. This is one of them. They had no reason to think that these people were any less dangerous, and they put them back in contact with children. That is, at the very least, reckless disregard for the danger these priests posed. The convenient fact that this widespread practice protected the Church and its higher-ups for so long is not insignificant.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Sure there was reason. Their investigations came to the answer that the priest wasn't guilty. But since the people in the parish were accusing him, he had to be moved. Now in hindsight we can say that sometimes they were actually guilty, but that's using that extra knowledge again.

[usekh.livejournal.com]

2005 the Ferns Report, 2009 the CICA. Yes we know.

[a4honor.livejournal.com]

Haven't read it. Where can I find it?

[usekh.livejournal.com]

http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ferns/

Bear in mind the thousands of cases detailed were just in ONE COUNTRY. And not a huge one at that. You have to be wilfully blind to the issue not to know about all this.

[futurebird.livejournal.com]

a_new_machine and usekh are right. The problem is real and it has not been addressed aggressively enough at ALL. To be honest, that makes me angry.

[a4honor.livejournal.com]

Um, to say that anyone is not angry at any pedophile is to say they are tolerant of them. I don't think Nazi's are tolerant of pedophiles, let alone anyone here.