Posted on 04/23/2010 1:25:04 PM PDT by NYer
How right you are! Many dine on a constant diet of 24 hour mainstream media. Others ingest whatever the local rag has printed, as gospel truth. Sadly far too many Americans have forgotten how to think for themselves. They rely on Oprah's guest for advice or simply pick up the "sound bites" and then switch to ESPN to watch their favorite sports program. When threads like this appear, they spout whatever vicissitude they were fed that day.
An uprising like the Tea Party Movement is our best chance.
Agreed! We need to retake our nation before it is too late.
Thanks for the post and ping! Enjoyed your comments very much.
See my post #10.
“I think there are numerous lessons of history, to be learned here.”
Yup, one which the Church hopefully learns this time around: DON’T cover for pedophile priests. That openned up this line of attack for both the Nazis and today’s LSM!
Unfortunately, people being people, they’ll probably have to be re-taught in 3 to 4 generations again. It’s sadly human nature...
If your hypotheses were true, the Church would have had a higher rate of pedophilia than other churches and similar organizations. It doesn’t (see link upthread about the spotlight leaving others in the dark). Celibacy is a red herring.
Homosexuality, on the other hand, most definitely isn’t. Even Kinsey’s /spit stats show that, as do numerous other studies.
You're right ... these priests should have been removed sooner. However, it is absolutely wrong to place the burden on Pope Benedict XVI. He is not responsible. He did nothing wrong. The majority of these cases took place decades ago and the offenders are either dead or close to it.
I would also suggest that you follow the money trail here. Who stands to gain from these lawsuits? The Wall Street Journal offered a brief but informative portrait of Jeffrey Anderson, the Minnesota-based trial lawyer "who's filed thousands of suits against the church in recent years, making tens of millions for his clients along the way." Anderson-- who has made ample fees for himself in the process-- is now a regular source of quotes for journalists joining in the criticism of the Pontiff.
An AP story claimed that only 20% of reported abuse cases result in full canonical trials. The truth is that in most cases, disciplinary measures are imposed without a full trial. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), then-Cardinal Ratzinger pressed for vigorous action and authorized diocesan bishops to proceed with their own disciplinary action.
Most people are of the misunderstanding that the Catholic Church is set up like an organization with the pope serving as CEO. Nothing could be farther from reality. Each bishop is responsible for his own diocese and makes all the decisions. The pope is not advised on these matters.
What makes the Catholic Church a good target of attack is its meticulous record keeping. These same offenses occur far more frequently in a free society with no centrality. Recently, an Albany NY rabbi was arrested on child sex abuse charges. You no doubt read about this in the NY Times (/sarc). Rabbi takes plea deal
Great post!
Just about every corrupt secular nation. Islam-ruled nations. Sadly, allegedly the Boy Scouts on occassion (which is what makes the leftist push to have gay scout leaders so repugnant - they just want to be able to demonize the Scouts more when more pedophilia happens). Some in Congress.
But to my main point (instead of your narrow strawman), see NYer’s #10 above: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2499240/posts?page=10#10
Just about every corrupt secular nation. Islam-ruled nations. Sadly, allegedly the Boy Scouts on occassion (which is what makes the leftist push to have gay scout leaders so repugnant - they just want to be able to demonize the Scouts more when more pedophilia happens). Some in Congress.
But to my main point (instead of your narrow strawman), see NYer’s #10 above: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2499240/posts?page=10#10
Sorry for the double post. Have no idea why my blackberry does that sometimes...
You apparently missed the point of the article ... perhaps you did not bother to even read it. These girls became pregnant as the result of sexual abuse. It is the legal responsibility of the abortion clinic to report these cases to local authorities. They did not!.
Celibacy has nothing to do with this. Were that so, then you would not find these problems in non-Catholic denominations.
Sex Abuse of Children by Protestant Clergy.
Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year
Rabbi takes plea deal- He admits having inappropriate physical contact with 2 boys
The high percentage of gay and pedophile priests suggest that the Church should be criticized, if not attacked, regardless of what the Nazis did.
The protestant prejudice against monasticism coms to the fore again.
There are a few useful idiots who post thread after thread about this subject that would make Herr Goebbels proud.
The number of gay priests is certainly higher than it was before. But why criticize the Church for this when society in general is so sympathetic to gays? Answer: they want the Church to drop its opposition to homosexuality. More than that, they the Church entirely to abandon traditional sexual morality, based on the idea that chastity is the desirable norm.
The other thing to remember is that handling of such crises is not necessarily part of a bishop’s training. Or it wasn’t. It is now and if you watched Bishop Stika’s press conference from last week you would see what proper crisis PR is. We’re seeing the back end of a learning curve, that’s for sure.
Actually, pretty much just the 30's. The all-time ultimate classic PR text is Propaganda by Edward Bernays and it wasn't published until 1928. Then Bernays actually went to Germany and trained Goebbels, a move he later very much regretted. PR developed VERY quickly as an arm of marketing and message control. Ivy Lee didn't develop the messaging for the Rockefellers until about 1914.
The Nazis papers were well done, and employed techniques developed by Pulitzer and Hearst, to sensationalize the news.
More Hearst than Pulitzer.
But, yes, the fascists, no matter where they were, went after the Church with a vengeance. Still happening. Same half truths and leaving out details to make the story more titillating. It's a pure matter of exploiting a scandal, which is why we're supposed to avoid them in the first place.
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