Cache of child porn found at seminary

How long can the Catholic Church keep going untill it collapses under the weight of continously breaking scandals???

"VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- A vast cache of child pornography and photos of young priests having sex has been discovered at a Roman Catholic seminary, officials said Monday, leading politicians and church leaders to demand a criminal probe and the resignation of the bishop in charge."

Bishop Kurt Krenn, who oversees the diocese, refused to step down, however, dismissing the images as a "childish prank."

Leaders of the Catholic diocese of St. Poelten where the seminary is located, about 50 miles west of Vienna, spent much of the day in an emergency meeting.

www.cnn.com...

The seminary's director, the Rev. Ulrich Kuechl, resigned along with his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, the diocese said after the meeting. It did not elaborate.

As many as 40,000 photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were found a year ago on computers at the seminary, the respected news magazine Profil reported.

Christianity is falling apart.
and these priests stand by and defy the God they have devoted their lives to.

Why are they even ordained?
- Tass *disgusted*

It's not Christianity thats falling apart, just the Catholic Church.

This is what happens when you deny a man the right to marry. You end up seeking sexual gratificatrion else where, often preying on the young.

I have to agree with Station on this one. The repression of natural urges only leads to perversion. The celibacy clause has long been the bane of the Catholic church. It's not that they're committing these acts more frequently, it's that they're losing the ability to cover them up.

I'm sure some people are going to have the knee-jerk reaction of "Christians baaadddd", and thats just one more reason why these cases are a disgrace.

if im not mistaken the bible says the catholic church will collapse because evil and such, which is going on and these corrupt priests and such will go to hell.

this is sickening. Unreal.....

You know I'd be like guys we need to chill out with all the porn man, we're hot right now, so chill!

I mean not only are they dirty bastards but they are apparently retarded.

its a damn conspiracy here how many catholic priests have done this i bet they all do it as some secret ritual .....................Maybe the anti christ is tied in.

I live in Vienna and this thing has been all over the news the whole day.
Basicaly, all the church does is look for excuses, they wont even admit that they might have a problem.
People feel they have been betrayed, thats the the most common description. They dont trust the church anymore, they are angry.

I too agree that the idea of celibacy is just not right. But I don't see that changing anytime soon.

There is an automatic assumption that the problem with proests can be solved by allowing them to get married. However, this wouldn't really help as there is a high percentage of homosexuals in both monasteries and convents, we will never have the exact figures on these - as if the catholic church would ever allow this kind of scrutiny. I believe that the vast majority of the priests enter the monastic life as an opportunity to serve God whilst running away from their sexuality. Unfortunately if you put a hundred gay men in one house .... hmmm wonder what would happen, or if you allowed straight monks and straight nuns to cohabit whilst remaining celibate.

If men/women are trying to escape their sexual tendencies one would assume that its either pressure from society or from their personal moral values. You can't hide anywhere from yourself, you can just come to terms with who you are. God wants people to assist in his work because they love him , not because they need somewhere to hide from themselves.

Celibacy is really stupid, didnt god say go out into the world and multiplay, or something like that...

I had a Catholic friend tell me once that priests long ago were able to marry but their widows ended up with all the 'spoils and land', so they made that 'celibacy' rule so they could keep the good stuff away from the widows

Who knows? Anyone?

I know there was a 'priest' that was written out of clergy history because a woman dressed as a male priest and went on to become the Pope and she gave birth one day during a procession in Rome. Shock of shocks! In fact, there is some kind of shrine at the exact spot... right next to a Pizza parlour! (I've seen pics and saw a documentary about it). Wild.

And talk about secretive! The archives in the Vatican hold allllll kinda secrets!



[edit on 13-7-2004 by PsiEye]

What have Catholics gone mad? They think they arent allowed to marry. God said in the Bible TO marry!!

We can not blame the entire Catholic Church body for the dysfunction of some of their members.
The problem is that the church historically has been known for covering these incidents, and keeps it secret in order to maintain his control of the people.

The reason they keep this secrets is because their believes and condemnation of sexuality as a sin. But as usual �He who cast the first stone���. and you know the rest.

The suppression of healthy sexual needs brings for some of these members of the cleric psychological problems and degrades of morality and the end we have abuse.

The church as been very slow on addressing this issues and for finding ways to help this peoples problems because morality should not be and issue in their ranks so prefer to keep the secrets and hide the truth, but in countries like US this secrets are becoming well known and the church Its getting in trouble.

The church has to recognize that they have a problem and is affecting not only their own members of the cleric but the innocent victims that happened to be in the path this sick people.

Consider this:
Whenever I got up to mischief at high school, home etc... most of the time I didn't get caught.

Imagine the number of catholic clergy men who havn't been caught. The numbers would have to outweigh the amount already exposed.

Let's be fair though - paedophilia within the Church isn't limited to Catholics. There have been many cases involving Anglican clergy too, and the true statistics within each Church are unlikely to ever be known.

Whether this is related to celibacy or not, I really can't say. Anglican ministers aren't celibate. What does strike me though, is that ther offences are generally against boys, which seems to indicate inherent pedophilia on the part of the offenders. It surely can't be mere opportunism.

What do you expect from an institution still stuck in the mindset of the Roman Empire?

I don't see how being allowed to marry will "cure" someone who likes having sex with children. It's a disgrace and the Catholic Church should be ashamed of their rejection of a Zero Tolerance Policy. It would be one thing if they were being discovered having consensual sex with other adults, be they same sex or not. But this is child abuse, and in the secular world it's not supposed to be tolerated, so why do these insects get a pass?

I have a friend who was in the Anglican Church and he said it was the same way. There were some guys you just didn't want to be left alone with because you knew what was going to happen. If there is a God and he does have such a thing as Judgement Day, I hope these people get a hot ticket to hell when they die.

What I really don't understand is the faithful who still support their churches monitarily and with their continued attendance. If all the Catholics stopped going and stopped the cashflow, these guys would HAVE to do some hardcore housecleaning and straighten up the situation. You can still believe in God and worship him while boycotting the church.