Bishops urged to disobey Pope (Catholic Caucus)

German theologian Hans Kueng has urged bishops to disobey the pope and push for reforms in the Roman Catholic Church.

The 82-year-old former colleague and friend of Pope Benedict XVI says the church is in its deepest crisis since the Protestant Reformation after recent revelations of sexual abuse by clergy and the ensuing erosion of trust.

Mr Kueng, a veteran of the Second Vatican Council, said in an editorial in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that bishops should call for a new synod to discuss reforms.

He said it is legitimate for bishops to pressure Roman authorities if the pope blocks their efforts, adding that bishops should not be "actors without voice or rights".

I'm Catholic. The advice of allowing priests to marry is hardly inane. Since homosexuals make up such a small percent of the population but such a massive percent of the pedophiles, it seems reasonable (to reasonable people) that increasing the percentage of non-homosexuals in the priesthood would reduce the percentage of pedophiles. One way to attract more non-homosexuals to the priesthood is to allow priests to marry.

Don't get your vestments in a wad.

I’m Catholic. One of the churches I attended when I was younger brought in a new priest that me, my brothers, and all my friends could tell was a little bit off. He also filled the church teaching staff with some wierdos. We basically told my parents we weren’t going to be alter boys, and weren’t going to anymore CYO meetings or CCD classes. I can’t remember specific acts but it always seemed like he focusing on the less liked and less assured kids. He gave off a very creepy aura.

A few years ago, my brother told me about a newspaper article that said this priest had left the priesthood and become an advocate for NAMBLA.

The crises in the Catholic Church come down to four deadly words: "Good doctrine, bad discipline."

Here's how it worked in practice:

Ordination of active homosexual males has always been forbidden in the Catholicism: as doctrine, this considered definitive and unchangeable (Link). But liberal doctrinal dissidents (like Hans Kung), weak bishops, subversive seminary rectors and admissions officers for years ignored or quietly sabotaged the practice of Catholic faith and morals.

The background? Try Michael Rose's book, "Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption Into the Catholic Church" (Link)

The result? It's all over the papers.

The solution? It’s also summarized in four words” “To restore Catholic discipline.” Or even in three: “Become more Catholic.”

The bishops who transferred offenders around in the 1970’s and ‘80’s are now mostly retired or dead and gone, and during the “Ratzinger years” --- when Joseph Ratzinger was had of the Church’s doctrine office (CDF), or, as Benedict, Pope--- sexual abuse dropped dramatically. This chart from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Link) shows how reported abuse in the U.S has plunged:

(

The overall statistics support George Weigel’s observation in Newsweek (Link) that the Catholic Church is one of the safest places in the United States for children and young people.

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