Pope's child porn 'normal' claim sparks outrage among victims

Originally posted by crazydaisy
I think people are taking what he said out of context (no I am not Catholic). It would have been better had he not even touched on the subject now everyone has taken it wrong and up in arms - and no one hates child molesters more than I.

I don't see a good alternate context here what other context do you think would apply? Is there something I am missing? I can't see any context that does not somehow mean he is trying to portray pedophilia as if it is a mild flaw rather than a horrible crime.

The way I took it was that people (especially in the 1970's) became complacent regarding pedophiles and looked at it as normal. I think this could be true, a lot of people just don't seem to care about what happens to others (especially children) so they view it as normal so they don't have to feel any responsbility for what happens. He wasn't saying this was the right way to be.

When I was a child, child abuse was not frowned upon - people did not report children being abused and they looked at it as normal and believed there was nothing they could do about it. Thank goodness that changed - too late for me I'm afraid. Was using this as an example as to how people react in order to not deal with issues.

that reminds me of the cardinal from V for vendetta....makes sense, the Catholics and Europeans are pedophiles

Well, won't is become true? We already have 18 year olds boasting of having sex with 14 year olds. I believe if we continue on the path we are now, in the future pedophilia will be legal.

Well, he seems a bit whacko.Were I a more extreme man, which I am, I would call for his flogging for this retarded statement.

Seriously has ATS lost its collective mind?

There was a time on here people actually read articles and actually had individual objective thought.

Instead of thinking for oneself, people here have become no different than those who watch FOX news. They let the news bearer think for them while completely ignoring any objective and rational thought.

The Pope is right. Pedophilia has exploded in the world, especially since the advent of the World Wide Web. Look at the entertainment industry, underage teen celebrities grinding on stripper poles on national televison, sexualization of underage girls by Disney, and the trafficking of underage sex slaves from the third world.

Now back to your regularly scheduled disinformation.

It hasn't "exploded" it merely has finally been noticed, and not dropped again due to people assuming that it isn't their "business."

reply to post by HomerinNC


I am saying it about the priests.
not the people who go to church.
it is a warring to people with kids who go to church.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


Ancient greek, ancient rome.

Probably a couple of others too.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


I don't want to be that guy.

But uh, do we know what he REALLY meant?

These days, anyone under 18 can be considered pedophilia at least in several parts of the US.

a couple hundred years ago, it was completely normal for 13 year old girls to be married and have children. Today thats considered pedophilia.

Originally posted by Miraj
reply to post by DimensionalDetective

 

a couple hundred years ago, it was completely normal for 13 year old girls to be married and have children. Today thats considered pedophilia.

It was NOT.

Go look at records about marriages. Anywhere, for the last thousand years that you can dig up.

The ages of marriage for females is consistently over 16, and closer to 21. Males tend to be consistently over 21 to 30 for first marriages.

I know that this "fact" is very popular right now - however, it isn't a fact at all.

Well if doesn't show how out of touch with the modern day Christian the Vatican really is, then I don't know what will convince people that they are a mere shadow of what once was.

It's unfortunate that people still claim allegiance to these old farts when they continually put their foot in their mouths.

Sure, if you're a male hooker, use condoms. But don't do so in Africa, cause it will make AIDS worse.

Now Pedophilia is apparently something that is "accepted" among the general population. I think he mispoke on this one, I think he meant to say among members of the clergy, it's become accepted.

~Keeper.

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
Wow, did anyone bother reading the article?

He's condemning it, by saying the world has become more accepting of it and they, the Church, can no longer be silent while the world continues to get worse.

I'm not remotely Catholic and I can understand what he's talking about.

What I gathered was a contradicting statement saying we must not remain silent on the issue of child pornography while the world progressively accepts it as normal.

The reason I say contradicting statement is that the Vatican continues to cover-up the sexual abuse commited by their priests. He went on to say that the world is increasingly accepting child pornography. All I can say is that it's not accepted here in the United States and I truly doubt that it's accepted in any developed or developing nation.

It just may be accepted in the Vatican since the Vatican is the "World" to him and other heads of the church.

I'm still standing by my first statement. the Vatican is full of "protected" pedophiles and Europeans are just child molesters

It is not widely disseminated information, but before Ratzinger was Pope he had a private discussion about North American issues of child molestation in the church with John DeCamp. DeCamp is a lawyer and was the first one to ever file a lawsuit against the Catholic church regarding pedophilia and sex crimes. He represented many victim-witnesses involved in child porn and prostitution rings, and many of them were plucked out of Catholic-run orphanages. He went to the Vatican for "an audience with the Pope" to bring this up - and Ratzinger came out as a representative. Ratzinger said that he was entirely aware of the problem and that he had tried many times to do something about this and he knew that something big would happen if it were not taken care of. So he encouraged John DeCamp to do everything he could to deal with this issue. DeCamp mentions this in a 2007 videotaped interview that can be seen on YouTube and Google Video.

Originally posted by Aeons
It hasn't "exploded" it merely has finally been noticed, and not dropped again due to people assuming that it isn't their "business."

It exploded and it wan't conventional, it was nuclear.

The Internet has heralded an age undreamed of in child porn and pedophilia. Before it was isolated but now there are networks of them all over the world. Crime syndicates in third world nations cater to them. It is a freaking mess.

It has become a nightmare for law enforcement trying to contain and stop it.

Sounds like you are taking his comments slightly out of context, not that I am defending him.

For example, in the Roman empire it was considered normal for men to have sex with boys.

And in our society its not considered normal to be a paedophile or for abuse to happen to children, but its accepted that these things exist and we are much more aware of it - which means that in a way (which were his words) it is becoming more normalised.

“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.”

so then what does that say about Abortion? Homosexuality between consenting adults? The use of birth control within any context.

This guy has an odd way of applying that tenet of Romans 14:14 only when it suits him.... that's the thing about that passage, you cant just use it when it suits you, you have to apply that across the board.

which means the pope is using this scripture solely for the purpose for defending the Church while at the same time not affording the same theology to gay marriage, abortion, the use of contraceptives etc........

The romanized Christian inside of me is appalled at this amazingly heretical application of the Gospels... it is, dare I say, demonic....


For a much better representation, take how the Amish dealt with the man who open fire in their school house... they openly forgave him, because they do that... no matter what.

This church has historically had a rigid representation in regards to many topics, but to now show understanding for Pauls theology, seems very disingenuous given the accusations.

Somebody best be checking that man's head and I don't mean for lice!

I think the man's a criminal that goes beyond pedophilia. Murder of a true pope maybe.

Never trusted him, he's Rat Slinger.

The Pope should be honored to be first recipient of my newly created Meat Head Award:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0cbe228c4d51.jpg[/atsimg]

What an absurd... wait...
I'm actually beyond speechless.
(goes in the bathroom to vomit)