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Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia

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posted on Jan, 8 2008 @ 08:08 PM
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I respect and know clergymen that honour their vows.

But the Pope calling for prayer to rid the priesthood of paedophilia is ludicrous. Paedophiles are criminals, the worst worms that society faces, the answer to this horrendous conduct is punishment, real physical punishment, not prayer, the Church as a principal institution of society has to respond to a higher standard than the rest of us, covering up criminal conduct and expecting that prayer will solve the issue is ridiculous.


[edit on 8-1-2008 by Camilo1]



posted on Jan, 8 2008 @ 08:09 PM
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reply to post by FlyersFan
 


I would actually wager that the priests become morally corrupt. I doubt many pedophiles decide to sign up for the priestly life (though between the "where's the pedo?" shell game and being punished by having people pray for you, I think that might change.) Rather, I think that some of these men spend so much time subliminating themselves to reach some paragon of perfect morality, that it winds up twisting their actual desires. it's the same way so many anti-gay activists turn out to be having homosexual sex on the side. It's not that they're gay. But they get a thrill out of doing what they consider to be "Evil" as a contrast to their normal perception of themselves as being pure as the driven snow. It also gives them an excuse to beat themselves up mentally and try to make themselves even MORE "perfect."

It's an ego thing. These men have convinced themselves that htye are perfect. Of course, they are not. So when they go to one extreme, so do their darker sides. Eventually they reach a point where their perversion becomes justification for their self-righteousness. On the other hand, if you look at the people who have historically been considered upstanding and moral, what you will find is that they freely acknowledged and strove to overcome their darker sides, rather than pretending it never existed.



posted on Jan, 8 2008 @ 08:49 PM
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I'm not a Catholic, but if a Priest violates his vows(and the law), he should be excommunicated, and prosecuted. They shouldn't move them to another church, to be somebody else's problem. I understand they're trying to show forgiveness, but there can still be punishment along with forgiveness. That'd certainly do a lot for their PR.



posted on Jan, 9 2008 @ 05:22 AM
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I'm no expert, but I was under the impression that this type of sex crime is similar to rape in that it is more about power than sex.

To me, the loss of trust is the biggest problem that the RCC faces - another reason why people are leaving and why congregations are down.

Prayer will only work for the faithfull - for the people who don't pray, the RCC needs to be seen to be doing something tangible, and unfortunately this is not it.



posted on Jan, 9 2008 @ 05:57 AM
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reply to post by budski
 


I would hardly welcome this as any "gound-breaking" move by Rome. A call for PRAYER, to rid the church of priests who rape children??? Yeah, that sounds like he has the answer..I don't think. Those rapist preists have been praying all their lives, a few more prayers now is hardly going to stop them!!!



posted on Jan, 9 2008 @ 06:01 AM
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reply to post by iezuit
 


I think you may have missed my point - I never said it was the answer.

What I have said, more than once, is that for the church and the pope to admit that the problem exists and needs addressing is a breakthrough.

Perhaps reading the whole thread may help.



posted on Jan, 9 2008 @ 10:48 AM
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I think it's good that the Pope is finally recognizing this is a serious problem and is taking steps to rectify it but he's going about it the wrong way. Let's get real for a second, we all know that prayer is not going to change a priest who prays every single day, yet still molests children. What they need is to make a big example out of these guilty priests and show that they won't tolerate this kind of behavior instead of handling it with payouts. IMO the RCC is losing any credibility they've left with their Banking Schemes, Molestation Scandals, ECT, ECT, ECT...

I hope they really take this to heart and do something about it. There should be DIRE consequences for destroying the sanctity of their church and children of the congregation.



posted on Jan, 9 2008 @ 02:36 PM
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I'm glad that they're finally trying to do something. Everyone knows there's a problem. There's been more effort put into making up jokes about priests abusing kids than the Church has put into stopping it. I can't understand how a supposedly Christian organization has let this continue.

The priests who abuse are protected and moved, and as far as I know there's not much done for the victims such as counseling.

I found a video about it on Google.
Sex Crimes And The Vatican

Google Video Link


[edit on 9-1-2008 by LazyGuy]



posted on Jan, 9 2008 @ 05:29 PM
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reply to post by LazyGuy
 


This is what I referred to when I spoke about Crimen Solicitationis - ratzinger (now pope) enforced this for many years, but now appears to see the problem from the public perspective, if this press release regarding sex crimes is to be believed.

I don't think we'll ever know just how sincere he is about this, at least until we start seeing offenders in court.
To be honest, I'm not going to hold my breath, but that's just my suspicion and dislike of the RCC hierarchy speaking.

Needless to say I would love to be proved wrong.




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