"This is the tipping point"/Catholic Church scandal widens

[IWannaKnow]

Mercyneal--I'm not Catholic but I've sure watched this closely and I have to agree. There's just no way to save the ship at this point if he doesn't.

I don't have triggers, per se, but that photo of Rev. Pezzotti made me crawl out of my skin.

ITA Miss Izzy - you can practically hear him muttering "Precious, my precious"...

 

[IWannaKnow]

This is an improvement....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8622671.stm

Pope Benedict says Catholics must 'do penance'

Pope Benedict XVI has called on Roman Catholics to "do penance" for their sins, an apparent reference to the recent child sexual abuse scandal.

He said Catholics were "under attack from the world which talks to us of our sins" and should see the necessity "to recognise what is wrong in our lives".

 

[Francine]

I really admire these atheists for taking an extremely strong stance against the Pope and for the children:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7094310.ece

Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the “good of the universal church” should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys. It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases.

Benedict will be in Britain between September 16 and 19, visiting London, Glasgow and Coventry, where he will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century theologian.

Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations.

They have commissioned the barrister Geoffrey Robertson and Mark Stephens, a solicitor, to present a justification for legal action.

Good for them! I suppose Islamic clerics will be targets in Dawkins and Hitchens crosshairs next.

 

[Missizzy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100418...lYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDdGVhcmZ1bHBvcGVz

Tearful pope says church will better protect young

"Pope Benedict XVI met Sunday with a group of clerical sex-abuse victims and promised them with tears in his eyes that the Catholic Church would seek justice for pedophile priests and implement "effective measures" to protect young people from abuse.

Benedict expressed his "shame and sorrow" at the pain the men and their families suffered and prayed with them during the meeting at the Vatican's embassy in Malta, the Vatican said.

It was the first time Benedict had met with abuse victims since the worldwide clerical abuse scandal engulfed the Vatican earlier this year, and it marked his most personal and forceful statement on the spiraling abuse scandal since a letter to Irish faithful a month ago.

"He prayed with them and assured them that the Church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future," the Vatican statement said......."

more at link

 

[Mercyneal]

Excuse me for being callous, but boo-hoo. Where were his tears when he failed to protect the victims years ago, and didn't take action against numerous pedophile priests? He's just sorry he got caught.

 

[celticthyme]

Having been reared in the Catholic Church since birth, my family & I have had many, many personal relationships with priests and monks over 50 years, and I have loved my Church, because in part, of these wonderful men of God, who nurtured and supported my faith. I am heart sick. Some of us have had a discussions about this since some of this horror began to come into the light. Until and unless the LEADERSHIP of the Church begins to take full responsibility for what has happened, I fear for the consequences. Bishops, Cardinals and the Pope need to get down on their knees, admit responsibility and then beg forgiveness . . first from the victims, then from faithful Catholics. Finally there must be a zero tolerance policy enforced, criminal charges brought against offenders! And then, I don't know if any kind of trust will ever be restored in the Hierarchy of this very faulty Institution. Thank goodness that we can continue to have faith in a God who loves us, if not in the structure of a Church that was supposed to be Nurturing that faith.

 

[IWannaKnow]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101220/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_church_abuse

Pope: Church must reflect on what allowed abuse
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Nicole Winfield, Associated Press – Mon Dec 20, 11:42 am ET

"The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times," Benedict said.

He said that as recently as as the 1970s, pedophilia wasn't considered an absolute evil but rather part of a spectrum of behaviors that people refused to judge in the name of tolerance and relativism.

As an avalanche of cases of pedophile priests came to light, church officials frequently defended their previous practice of putting abusers in therapy, not jail, by saying that was the norm in society at the time. Only this year did the Vatican post on its website unofficial guidelines for bishops to report pedophile priests to police if local laws require it.

"In the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the pope said. "It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a 'better than' and a 'worse than.' Nothing is good or bad in itself."

"The effects of such theories are evident today," he said.

 

[Snoopster]

From the Pope's speech referenced above (my quotes are taken directly from the Vatican press website, as translated into English):

“.....Yet we cannot remain silent concerning the context of our time in which we see these events taking place. There is a market for child *advertiser censored* which, in some way, seems to be increasingly considered by society as something normal. The psychological devastation of children in whom human beings are reduced to the level of a market commodity, is a frightening sign of the times".

Say what???? If this was true, then why do you see increasing confidence of victims to come forward in the legal system? Why is there increasing coordination between LE organizations within countries and even between countries to track these people down and unprecedented anti-sex tourism laws enacted, which reach beyond borders? These are all signs of society as a whole saying that this is NOT, and never has been, acceptable! The fact that so many of these abuse cases are from as far back as the 1950’s and 1960’s, indicates it’s not just a sign of the times. This inappropriate behaviour has simply been brought out into the open, instead of hidden within the recesses of social organizations with some ‘authority’ over children (most notably family, education and religious organizations).

“In the 1970s it was theorised that paedophilia was entirely consistent with man and with children.”

Again, say what?? Who theorized this? Did the church agree with this theory? Is that why it was “o.k.” to have so many pedophilic preists and just shuffle them around? It’s just ‘normal’ and ‘consistent with man and children’?

All of this just reinforces my view that the Vatican, and the broader Catholic Church for that matter, is out of touch and 'doesn't get it'.

http://press.catholica.va/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/d4_en.htm