Posted on 03/20/2010 8:02:34 PM PDT by marshmallow
A malicious storm is being stirred up over the Pope's alleged failure to deal with abusive priests, says Damian Thompson.
After a week of disastrous publicity for the Roman Catholic Church, it's a fair bet that if you conducted a word-association test in the average British high street, the results would be as follows:
Catholic priest? "Paedophile."
Pope? "Nazi."
The reputation of the Church internationally has never been lower. On Wednesday, St Patrick's Day, Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of All Ireland, apologised for helping to persuade two boys – aged 10 and 14 – to sign letters agreeing not to tell the police that a priest, Brendan Smyth, had abused them.
This was 35 years ago: Brady was just one priest involved in the internal church process, and the story has been in the public domain for years. But what difference does that make? Smyth, now dead, went on to be exposed as a notorious sexual predator. Cardinal Brady said last December that he would resign if he was implicated in decisions that led children to be abused. Now he says he'll go only if the Holy Father orders him to.
Pope Benedict XVI will have to make up his mind what to do about Cardinal Brady. But it won't be easy to find the time, because clerical child-abuse scandals – previously mainly confined to the English-speaking world – are bursting out all over Europe. And sections of the media are doing their best to implicate the Pope in one of them.
Did Joseph Ratzinger, when he was Archbishop of Munich in 1980, enable a priest already facing allegations to work in a parish and subsequently abuse boys? A headline in The Times on Saturday left readers in no doubt: "Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with............
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I’m really wondering about all these cases. I’m certainly not sticking up for anyone who would do such things to children, but was this level of secrecy about such matters really confined to the Catholic church? I suspect that society in general didn’t speak openly about child abuse 35 years ago. In my memory, it’s only been in the last decade or maybe 2, that this topic was even mentioned publicly. Was the percentage of “hidden” pedophilia in the general public as common 35 years ago, as was apparently the case in the RCC? Just wondering...not making excuses. I certainly can’t fathom what would even make a priest consider doing such things, but I know Satan will attack hardest those who draw closest to God, especially those in spiritual authority. What easier way for Satan to destroy the Church, than by destroying its reputation?
The most probable pedophiles in order are:
Fathers
Teachers
Coaches
Protestant ministers
Priests are way down on the list.
So if a Father is a teacher of mid-high history, coaches the girl’s basketball team and is a youth minister at his church on weekends/Sundays — watch out! He would be much more prone to pedophilia that any priest.
No, it's not. There is as much, or more, abuse within other faith communities, and even in public schools. The media concentrates on the abuse that occurred in the Church, because she stands against much of what they support, like abortion and homosexuality. They want to discredit the Church in any way they can, even though it's clear that she is working hard to make sure abuse doesn't re-occur.
Who’s standing up for what is right and true? Just the Catholic church. Everyone else has caved to the agenda, be it contraception, or abortion, or homosexuality.
They are trying to destroy everyone who publicly declares themselves to be Catholic.
Of course Jesus was right; the Church has been through much worse and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Never.
But... But they love Muhammad and his 9-year-old wife?
The attention of the media would be much reduced if tommorow the Church announced she supported abortion on demand and if she approved same sex marriage, praised Planned Parenthood and put condoms in all holy water fonts.
Make no mistake I am not dismissing the seriousness of the abuse or the coverup or the pain and suffering of the victims. But I am cynical enough to know that if the Church danced to the world’s tune this savaging would not take place.
Well said. I agree.
Sorry if I worded the previous post wrong.
I saw this from the outside, and I asked myself the question. Why does modern society hate the Catholic church so much. Is it because they are wrong, or because they are right? People are far more likely to hate that which is right.
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