arrest the Pope

[Pearl]

I find it appalling for the Vatican to compare criticism to anti-Semitism. It's just like what I said before, some Catholics think any rightful criticism is a conspiracy to destroy the Church.

Seems here that the Vatican is again not taking any responsibility for what is going on or realizing just how serious this is. I guess it shows just how insular the Catholic Church can be from the rest of the world.

[corianderstem]

Can you imagine if a school principal or school board was aware of teachers molesting kids and then just shuffling the teachers around to other schools?

No one would stand for that.

how exactly is this any different?

[The Sad Punk]

Originally Posted by deep

Pope's preacher: Abuse critique like anti-Semitism -

As absolutely disgusting that is, I think there might be something in this:

David Goldberg, of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London, told the BBC the comparison between criticism of the Pope and anti-Semitism was an inept analogy, but he did not think it was ill-intentioned.

"It rather struck me how out of touch so many people in the Vatican are in terms of either understanding the Jewish psyche or in actually dealing with the outrage that so many people, Catholic or otherwise, throughout the world feel," he said.

(BBC News - Outrage at anti-Semitism comparison by Pope preacher)

It's a ridiculous incomprehensibility of the situation nonetheless.

[AliEnvy]

If Bush and friends will not be held accountable for war crimes, why would the Pope be held accountable for obstruction of justice?

When you're above the law, all you need is a good spin doctor. Someone in the Vatican dropped the ball on that one.

[INDY500]

Not to be outdone in the "inept analogy" department.

[Salome]

in a way the thing that amazes me most about this is that we now pretend we didn't know about this before
is there anyone here who is honestly surprised out to find out the disgusting things that took place?
there must be Benny Hill sketches around with a priest licking his lip while checking out the new altar boy

not that the fact we've all known about this makes what has happened any less severe
quite the opposite
it makes it even more disturbing it went on for as long as it did

[AliEnvy]

I think the issue now isn't that those terrible crimes took place and were mishandled, it's that someone who had a direct hand in mishandling them has become the boss.

It's about the accountability of leaders in positions of public trust. Is that an inept analogy, INDY?

[corianderstem]

Cardinal tells Pope not to be distracted by 'petty gossip’ - Telegraph

"Petty" is the word you want to go with here? Really? And "gossip" as well? Really?

I'd say "petty gossip" would be hushed rumors about whether or not Herr Pope's shoes were really Prada or not, not, you know, years of coverup about child abuse.

But that's just me.

[deep]

corianderstem

this is the evil of rumor mongering

suggesting that the Pope is wearing knock-offs

[corianderstem]

Eh, it's okay. I'm already going to hell anyway. I'll just add "Pope shoe questioning" to my growing list of sins.

[Irvine511]

oh, look, we're now playing smear the queer:

Gay Cover-Up Must End
Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, catalyst@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, April 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on two news stories released today by the Associated Press:

One of the AP stories on priestly sexual abuse admits that "The overwhelming majority of the victims were adolescents. That means very few guilty priests were pedophiles, a term mental health professionals reserve for those who target pre-pubescent children." Fine. But then it says something which is positively remarkable: "Even though about 80 percent of victims were boys, the John Jay researchers and other experts on sex offenders say it does not mean the perpetrators were gay." So what would they be? Heterosexual?

The AP article relied on the extraordinary remark by Margaret Smith, a professor who worked on the John Jay study. She said that while Donohue "quoted the study's data correctly," I nonetheless "drew an unwarranted conclusion." What? That most of the molesters have been gay? Here is what she said: "The majority of the abusive acts were homosexual in nature. That participation in homosexual acts is not the same as sexual identity as a gay man." So if two men sodomize each other, no one really knows if this qualifies as gay sex. Now I must admit that when I was studying for my doctorate in sociology at NYU, they never taught me such logic.

Both AP stories say the reason why there were so many male victims is because the priests did not have access to girls as altar servers. Nonsense. There have been girl altar servers in some U.S. dioceses since 1983, and almost everywhere since 1994. The statistics actually show that the more priests have access to girls, the less likely it is for girls to be abused.

Here's the tally. As reported in 2004, between 1950 and 2002, 81 percent of the victims were male; in 2005, it stayed the same; in 2006, it dropped to 80 percent; in 2007, it climbed to 82 percent; in 2008, it jumped to 84 percent; and in 2009, it stayed at 84 percent.

In other words, even though priests have less access to males, homosexual priests are molesting them at a higher rate. It's time to end the gay cover-up once and for all.

Gay Cover-Up Must End - Christian Newswire

[corianderstem]

Oh, fuck off, Bill Donohue.

[Diemen]

It irritates me that the press seems to flock to Bill Donohue for the Catholic opinion. That guy is a douche, and hardly representative of mainstream Catholic thought.

[corianderstem]

Seriously!

[PhilsFan]

Originally Posted by Diemen

It irritates me that the press seems to flock to Bill Donohue for the Catholic opinion. That guy is a douche, and hardly representative of mainstream Catholic thought.

I feel the same way about the Pope, honestly. I never thought about the Pope at all when I was a member of the Church. Most never referenced him or thought about him. Most never acted as conservative as he did, even the priests.

[deep]

Originally Posted by deep

Pope's preacher: Abuse critique like anti-Semitism -

this was a bit ironic

this Pope was a member of the Hitler Youth, sure many were back in the day.

but, also this Pope let a Holocaust denier Bishop back in the Church.

Bishop Richard Williamson, Holocaust Denier, Reinstated By Pope (VIDEO)

[coolian2]

it was the middle of the night at the vatican when all of the support staff rushed into the pope's bedroom. they hurriedly shook him awake, telling him they had "astonishing news". as the pope began to wake up, he asked what it was, and they replied "it's jesus christ, the second coming...he's on the phone!"

the pope leaps out of bed and demands his robes and hats. everyone stops and looks at him before one man says "that isn't necessary, your holiness". the pope is aghast, and asks "why not? don't you realise what this is?"

a bishop replies "we know, but we said we had astonishing news, but not good news. you see, jesus christ has come again, but he's on the phone from salt lake city".

[AussieU2fanman]

There is simply too much molestation in the Church right now. As a Catholic, I feel I have to put forward solutions so that my Church can heal. There needs to be a new scheme in order to drive down these cases of molestation throughout the church.

I would propose a new "molestation cap and trade" deal which caps the amount of children every priest can molest, because clearly the current levels of molestation are unnacceptable. Every priest will be able to molest a MAXIMUM of 5 children (or 15 deaf children as they are less likely to tell the authorities) per financial year. Now, these are tradable omongst other priests for a price determined by the market. Eventually, market forces and irrepressible sexual disfunction will drive the price up to very high levels, which will naturally result in preists investigating and trialling new and more efficient ways to molest and keep the kids from running to the authorities. This "kiss and tell" policy that more and more kids are adopting is a disease which has plagued the Church for a while now and that must/will be erradicated.

Hence, of course there will still be the traditional molestation, but children will remain silent due to more efficient and streamlined molestation methodologies (quid quo pro deals such as offering ham sandwiches and blueberry muffins post-rape session could be investigated and tested for viability and effectiveness). This new molestation cap and trade deal will result in the appearance of a much more cleaner and unquestionable Church that deserves its share of the frequent but above all quiet molestation, in exchange for your salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Any opinions ?
Thanks guys,
Stefan
(a concerned Catholic)

[Irvine511]

Pope Vows To Get Church Pedophilia Down To Acceptable Levels | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

[corianderstem]

It's a modest proposal.