Pope Benedict hit by new Church child abuse allegations

Pope Benedict hit by new Church child abuse allegations

news.bbc.co.uk

Pope Benedict XVI has become embroiled in new revelations over child sexual abuse, over a letter he is said to have signed in 1985 before he became Pope.

Cardinal Ratzinger said the "good of the universal Church" needed to be considered in defrocking, AP reported.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The plot thickens. I wonder, how damaging this revelation could be?

Is it possible that he could be forced to relinquish his role as the head of the Catholic Church?

The pressure is surely mounting.

It's unforgivable in my eyes for a member of the Church to abuse his position by abusing young children, and for those in charge to brush it under the carpet, well that's disgusting.

Church Pride before Justice?? easy choice IMO!

All the best ATS, Kiwi





news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Child abuse is pure evil. Anyone who participates in excusing, hiding or covering up such activity becomes complicit. They also increase the likelihood that other children will suffer the same fate.

The only appropriate response to this issue is ANGER. If the Pope says the RC church needs to protect its reputation above the safety of children he has no understanding of what a church is.

Christ himself spelled it out plainly: you can tell his real disciples "by their fruits" (i.e. their actions):

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:16-18

Those who practice child abuse are spiritually diseased; they are not Christ's disciples. That the Irish bishops and even the Pope should side with the perpetrators over and above the safety and interests of children says a lot about their spiritual state...

Anyone with a strong sense of justice — whether Christian or not — will be furious that these so-called religious leaders have knowingly harboured practicing pederasts. It's time to see through the fancy gold-laced clothing and pointy hats to see these people for who they really are.

reply to post by pause4thought


I was talking to a friend who is a cannon in the Anglican Church, he seemed to think that it was the Catholic vow of Celibacy that was mostly to blame.

I agree with you on all counts by the way, just wondered what you'd make of that idea!

All the best, Kiwi!

reply to post by kiwifoot


Star and Flag. Good Job

So the church NOW says that church law will no longer override civil law? Nice try. It should've been that way from the get go. Too little too late in my book.

And now the pope wants to offer moral support to victims and their families? He should've offered moral support years ago by "defrocking" the sex offenders when he had the chance and before they could do any more damage then they already did. That's not offering moral support IMO, that's a half-hearted attempt to say I'm sorry.

The spokesman for the church should never have said anything so absolute as " we will never consider a papal resignation". This ball is rolling downhill fast and gaining steam towards the majority of the worlds' population WANTING a papal resignation. Remember that little thing he said about putting the people in front of the church? Civil law over church law?

Be careful what you wish for buddy, you just might get it.

This institution and the hierarchy within it are still delusional and backwards in their thinking. It's just a matter of time before they fall. Hard.

Maybe the little people in the church can pick up the pieces after the dust settles, who knows. But the freakshow at the top has to go. Now.



Peace

Originally posted by kiwifoot
reply to post by pause4thought

 

I was talking to a friend who is a cannon in the Anglican Church, he seemed to think that it was the Catholic vow of Celibacy that was mostly to blame.

I've heard that too but I don't buy it at all.
Where is it proven that celibacy causes pedophilia?

I chose to be celibate for a few years in the late 90's (it wasn't easy) but I never lost my attraction for the opposite sex, much less gained an attraction to children.

It would be different if they were having affairs with adults but since it's kids...nah I don't buy that one.

- Lee

These things have to covered up and swept under the carpet if the church is to survive. This peadophile ring is not that much different to peadophile rings in the community outside the church, but we dont get rid of the rest of society just because there are peadophiles at large in it. Same goes for the church, just because it has and does have an organised peadophile ring, is no reason to destroy the whole thing.

It needs treating like any other organised child abuse, investigate it, arrest and interview all those who knew about it or covered it up or forget it and move on. All this fannying around and throwing about accusations aint gonna do anything, its just hot air.

The popes position at the moment is a bit like when Clinton got that blow job, apart from she was a consenting adult, but never the less, just so long as he apologies then his wife can still run for pope or vice pope or something. I can see history repeating itself here.

reply to post by kiwifoot


I'm afraid I have to disagree — that is not the heart of the matter. The crux of the matter is that a man who habitually rapes a child to gratify his lust is simply showing his true colors. Except he knows that what he is doing is shameful and downright evil, so he goes for the most vulnerable children who are "under his care", abusing the trust of the children's guardians.

If it were merely a matter of the vow of celibacy, and the perpetrators were actually men of integrity, then they would sooner relinquish their vow than practice the sexual abuse of children.

Consequently there is absolutely no excuse for this behaviour.

If we wish to delve a little more deeply I believe we would find not so much that these men can use their vow as an excuse, but that they more often than not chose the priesthood as a profession for the express purpose of gaining opportunities to practice their malevolent profanities.

Enough of an 'understanding attitude'. It's time to turn over a few tables in the temple. And imprison these vile people.

Anyone found to have deliberately harboured them should also face prosecution.



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8a1668a34c20.jpg[/atsimg]



(Anyone who thinks I'm kidding should see me shaking with anger.)

The Catholic church is scrambling to cover their bases.

Recently Bill Donohue of the Catholic League when on Larry King and said that the Priests were not pedophiles but rather homosexuals since a lot of the kids were no longer pre-pubescent. His solution was to keep Gays out of preisthood. I thought the tactic of blaming "Gays" for these heinous crimes was shameless. There are people out there who are attracted to children. It is a sad truth. It doesn't suddenly happen when you abstain from sex, it is inherent in their personality. Many of the ones who have gone through prison or treatment will attest to this.

Bill Donohue could have easily stated that these men were "child molesters" instead of making it appear that gays naturally want to molest boys but to give Catholics a target for their outrage, he produced the Gay factor which is an easy one for religious folks.

Another point here is that some of those male priests molested girls which would mean that heterosexuals need to be kept out too.

Maybe that is the solution: NO MORE PRIESTS.
The church is really in turmoil but honestly it is long overdue.

- Lee

he should step down as pope. it would be a good pr move. then the governing council or whatever could clean out all the bad apples. then find some squeeky clean lowly priest or better yet nun to be the next pope. great way to restore faith in this church as a institution. because this pope is begining to look like this guy...

see link

beyondthecurtain.files.wordpress.com...



but how do you give up that much power?

[edit on 9-4-2010 by gaurdian2012]

reply to post by gaurdian2012


"good of the universal Church"

That may really come back to haunt him, I hope it does!







[edit on 9-4-2010 by kiwifoot]

Could the abuse of childern be of a secretive ritual? There are rumors on numerous threads here at ATS about the Illuminati (sp?) supposedly abusing women and childern as sexual sacrifices/rituals. So might that be a secret ritual that the RC priests might be participating in? We all know how the Vatician likes to keep secrets.

Originally posted by kiwifoot
reply to post by pause4thought

 

I was talking to a friend who is a cannon in the Anglican Church, he seemed to think that it was the Catholic vow of Celibacy that was mostly to blame.

Nonsense. Seriously, you believe that celibacy causes you to be sexually attracted to children? REALLY? You believe that?

That is almost as preposterous as the Church trying to convince everyone that gays are attracted to children.

Originally posted by Wobbly Anomaly

The popes position at the moment is a bit like when Clinton got that blow job, apart from she was a consenting adult, but never the less, just so long as he apologies then his wife can still run for pope or vice pope or something. I can see history repeating itself here.

That's a little like saying, "Other than than Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"

You can't say. well it's kind of the same thing except in one case it involved a child and in the other a consenting adult. THAT IS A HUGE DISTINCTION.

And yes, there are pedophiles in all areas of society but the difference is that the rest of society doesn't conspire to keep the abuse charges secret and then foist the molesters on other innocent children.

If child molestation happens a couple of times inside of a large organization it could be considered law of averages - out of X number of male priests you would likely have a couple who are pederast.


If child molestation happens more than a hundred times within any large organization this is the point where someone should recognize that there is an issue and that an abnormal number of occurances are taking place. Houston we have a problem.


If child molestation happens literally thousands upon thousands of times inside of a large organization - one must then begin questioning the organization itself. What is it that causes this widespread culture of pedophelia amongst men who are sworn to an allegiance with God?


My answer is this. The Catholic church has for centuries now been a haven for homosexual pedophiles. It has been the perfect hunting ground for child molesting boy lovers who were not only provided with a fertile flock of young boys to exploit, but also a parish and a clergy who were all too willing to mask such behavior, and in many cases disguise and cover up all together.


Whether this is a result of child molestors simply recognizing opportunity and gravitating toward priesthood or if it is part of a much larger hidden and sadistic agenda within the church itself - who knows.

But one cannot deny that pedophilia is and apparently has been rampant and overwhelming amongst catholic clergy, and if any or all of the higher ups within the ranks of the church are found to have aided and abbeted such sick and deplorable criminals, they too should be defrocked and sent to prison along with the perpetrators.

And why is it that the Federal government was allowed to raid the Davidian compound in Texas, murdering and displacing hundreds of people on an accusation that child abuse was happening.

Yet there are thousands of confirmed boys and young girls who have been raped and violated by these Catholic priests and yet noone inside the legal system even seems to want to prosecute them?

Originally posted by kiwifoot
I was talking to a friend who is a cannon in the Anglican Church, he seemed to think that it was the Catholic vow of Celibacy that was mostly to blame.

That's one of the problems I have with cases like this one, most opinions are from people that are on what can be called an "opposite camp".

Why are all these cases from countries that have a high protestant percentage of the population?

If this was a celibacy problem where are all the other cases from all the other countries? Hidden? Or just not important from a public opinion point of view?

And I see no reason for someone that was elected for a position in what is a sovereign nation resign because of the actions of some of the people that are now under his orders.

Could he be considered an "person of interest" in the cases in which he had a direct connection? Yes, but not on those for which he had no responsibility at the time, that would be the same as asking Obama to stand trial for crimes committed by US troops in the first Gulf war.

This doesn't mean I don't think that this should be thoroughly investigated and that's not important, it just means that the fact that some people did some despicable things doesn't mean we should punish other people just because they share the same religion/political party/soccer club/whatever.

Edit: does Catholic church law overrides civil law in any country?

[edit on 9/4/2010 by ArMaP]

reply to post by ArMaP


If you read the article upon which the OP was based you will see the Pope has a lot more to answer for than simply being the figurehead. Solid evidence of complicity in a cover-up is presented.

Originally posted by gaurdian2012
he should step down as pope. it would be a good pr move.

I don't think so, it would show that they are easily affected by outside pressure.

then find some squeeky clean lowly priest or better yet nun to be the next pope.

If my memory serves me well, according to their rules, any man can be chosen as pope, it doesn't have to even be a lowly priest, but it cannot be a woman.

Originally posted by lee anoma

Originally posted by kiwifoot
reply to post by pause4thought

 

I was talking to a friend who is a cannon in the Anglican Church, he seemed to think that it was the Catholic vow of Celibacy that was mostly to blame.

I've heard that too but I don't buy it at all.
Where is it proven that celibacy causes pedophilia?

I chose to be celibate for a few years in the late 90's (it wasn't easy) but I never lost my attraction for the opposite sex, much less gained an attraction to children.

It would be different if they were having affairs with adults but since it's kids...nah I don't buy that one.

- Lee

In Ireland, nearly all priests chose their vocation when they went to college. They chose celibacy and agreed to abstain from it for all of their lives. This choice was made as young men in their early 20's.

Then they spent the next 30 years listening to all the sins of the community in confession.

It was a rule imposed for being part of the church and the only volitional aspect of it was made at such an early age. The stigma attached to leaving the order in previous decades for the love a woman. That was seriously frowned upon by both church and the society.

To attempt to understand is not to excuse.

Peace.

Oh, yeah wow, he recommended that the Church hold off on defrocking the priest until a full investigation was done and all the facts were in.


Lets hang him.