Singer Lauryn Hill Blasts Church at Vatican Concert

Reuters ^ | Dec 14, 2003 | Philip Pullella

[jern]

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - American singer Lauryn Hill, from a stage used by the Pope, shocked Catholic officials at a concert by telling them to "repent" and alluding to sexual abuse of children by U.S. priests.

The broadside came during the recording Saturday night of a Christmas concert attended by top Vatican (news - web sites) cardinals, bishops and many elite of Italian society, witnesses said.

Hill made her comments when taking the microphone to sing at the concert, held in the same huge hall and stage Pope John Paul (news - web sites) uses for his weekly general audiences and other events. The Pope was not present.

"I did not come here to celebrate the birth of Christ with you but to ask you why you are not in mourning for his death inside this place," she said according to a transcript of her statement run by the Rome newspaper La Repubblica.

A spokesman for Prime Time Productions, the concert's organizers, said the newspaper's quotes were accurate.

"God has been a witness to the corruption of his leadership, of the exploitation and abuses ... by the clergy," she said.

This was an apparent reference to the scandal in the United States last year over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Hill told the crowd to seek blessings "from God not men" and said she did "not believe in representatives of God on earth."

A few feet away in the front row sat five cardinals, including Edmund Szoka, American governor of Vatican City.

Hill, 28, did not sing the song listed on the program but instead sang a song about social injustice.

Organizers said Hill's outburst and performance would most probably be cut from the show when it is aired on Christmas Eve.

Hill shot to fame in the mid-1990s with band The Fugees, whose album "The Score" sold 17 million copies, to become one of the biggest hip-hop chart successes of all time.

She went on to win five Grammy awards for her debut solo album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." She has a son and daughter by Rohan Marley, the son of Reggae legend Bob Marley.

[cyborg]

http://www.celebritywonder.com/html/laurynhill.html

More. Born here but has that dumpy scratchhouse mentality of the dump I deal with everyday in some of my clients. Some rastas are wonderful then there are the wannabes like Lauryn Hill.

[Gumption]

You don't want that.

[Ann Archy]

WHO the John F. Kerry hired this B#tch??? THEY should be taken out to the WOODSHED....and I.m GLAD she embarrassed them in a way. That;s just what they deserve.

[cyborg]

There's a time and place for everything. That was neither the time or the place.

[Gumption]

There's a time and place for everything

And it's called college.

(what's that from?)

[CounterCounterCulture]

Kind of like having Rosanne Barr singing the National Anthem. Just askin' for trouble.

[cyborg]

I don't know...lol

[WackyKat]

Sounds more like she's a practicing slut.

Maybe she is, but at least she hasn't protected and enabled child rapers

[montomike]

Pedophilia is evil but the way the Catholic priest thing was spun by the media and the anti-Catholic zealots (I think you qualify), you would have thought "all" priests were pedophiles when the percentage was less than the overall population's percentage of pedophilia.

Also a large portion of the perceived pedophila were queer priests who shouldn't have been Catholic to begin with going after young teenage boys.

Still the church covered up the what was happening to the young boys because they didn't have the guts to go after the queers in the priesthood because the queers had made their way into mid-level management.

The great majority of priests are good decent men that have given themselves to the church and mankind. Most of them are probably much more decent than the anti-Catholic zealots and media whores out there.

[George from New England]

Didn't know she was black until later in the thread. This is the Vatican trying to "reach out"...Reach out these days and you get bit!

[Rainmist]

Lauren Hill has basically said in the past that she hates whites. She's just a racist b***h has-been.

[TheCrusader]

"American singer Lauryn Hill, from a stage used by the Pope, shocked Catholic officials at a concert by telling them to "repent" and alluding to sexual abuse of children by U.S. priests."

Inspired by God, Saint Paul wrote: "As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate" (I Corinthians 14:34).

[q_an_a]

as an Anglican catholic protestant, I take exception to your comment. Like many who say the right thing in the wrong place, Ms. Hill should be admonished, but 80 million in Boston, 25 million in Dallas and hundreds of millions of Dallas spent on payments either in the open or undercover his a crime against the poor and the needy that the church should care for in this world.

That an underground group of homosexual priests have taken over various religions and caused so much grief is a crime against the church and even a pagan can point out the crime.

[Uri’el-2012]

.......................

"God has been a witness to the corruption of his leadership, of the exploitation and abuses ... by the clergy," she said.

This was an apparent reference to the scandal in the United States last year over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

Hill told the crowd to seek blessings "from God not men" and said she did "not believe in representatives of God on earth."

........................

1 posted on 12/14/2003 2:06:12 PM MST by jern

Is the Pope not a Sinner just like you and me ?
Is John Paul II washed of sin by the Blood of the Lamb ?

Should John Paul II not have stopped the sexual abuse of children.
Is John Paul II not guilty of permitting it's continuation ?

Are we not told by Y'shua to seek blessing from G-d through His Name ?

Are we not told by Y'shua not to seek blessings from man ?

Is John Paul II more righteous than any other saved sinner ?

It was rude but:

NAsbU 1 Timothy 5:19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. 20 Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. 21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.

NAsbU 2 Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

a bondslave to the Christ

chuck

[WackyKat]

The great majority of priests are good decent men that have given themselves to the church and mankind

I agree with that. The real issue is the criminal conspiracy of the some in the hierarchy to coverup and even aid these monsters for decades.

But I don't understand how some Catholics can continue to defend them and excuse them, and claim that any criticism of them is just "Catholic-bashing"

[Az Joe]

Wrong question.

You is she, or YOU for that matter, to lecture anyone?

[sinkspur]

But I don't understand how some Catholics can continue to defend them and excuse them, and claim that any criticism of them is just "Catholic-bashing"

Criticize all you want. There is a time and place for such.

Is it appropriate for some bone-in-the-nose rasta to upbraid Church officials on an occasion like this?

I think not.

[TheAngryClam]

It wasn't that part that the protestantism thing was relating to.

It was more the "no man, just God!" thing. It's a very common trope among anti-Catholic protestantism, too critical of the Church's reliance on tradition rather than utter biblical fundamentalism.

[Gumption]

even a pagan can point out the crime.

Hey! I resemble that remark.

[montomike]

I don't understand that either. The priests with sexual proclivities should leave the priesthood, normal and queer. They took a vow of celibacy to become priests. Its a job requirement and secularists and other religions shouldn't tell Catholics what the job requirements should be.