Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia

Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia

www.timesonline.co.uk

Pope Benedict XVI has instructed Roman Catholics to pray “in perpetuity” to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. All dioceses, parishes, monasteries, convents and seminaries will be expected to organise continuous daily prayers to express penitence and to purify the clergy.

Vatican officials said that every parish or institution should designate a person or group each day to conduct continuous prayers for the Church to rid itself of the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This, surely, is good news - the church has begun the process of cleansing and healing, and is looking to address one of, if not the, biggest problems faced by the modern RCC.
Hopefully.

I really hope this is not just another PR gimmick by Benedict XVI and that the problem is properly addressed.

My real concern, however, is that prayer is being put forwards as the solution.
This may work in some peoples eyes, but I would be more inclined to buy into this if the pope were to directly target known and suspected offenders whose crimes have been covered up as they were moved from one diocese to another in order to make this happen.

But as a first step (and maybe one of the few they can make publicly) I applaud this.


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

Why are they just now praying to fix this? Seems a little odd that the pope is just now relying on his main weapon in the battle against evil to solve the most damaging events that the Catholic church has been through in a long, long time.

To me it seems like they are just continuing to avoid the issue. I wonder if the police will allow us to pray our way out of any laws that we break?

reply to post by Karlhungis


Well, as I said, maybe this is information that they feel they can make public - who knows what's going on behind the scenes.

I certainly see it as a step in the right direction, but only time will tell.....

They need to start throwing them in jail, that will cure this problem, no prayer needed.
Does anyone know how many priests have been prosecuted and thrown in jail?

Unfortunately, the Holy Father has missed the mark just like his predecessors...

The Catholic Church needs to adopt a zero tolerance policy towards such things...If a member of clergy is accused of anything along these lines, instant suspension of duties for said member of clergy is a must...

As is notifying the police as to what has been alleged...

The police can obviously run their investigation, and the local church can do like wise...

This kind of thing can no longer be dismissed with either a complete denial, or after years of court action with a hushed up payment under the table...

If the Catholic Church was fair dinkum about this kind of thing, they would adopt an approach where the person in question was suspended ( with pay, if appropriate) and the matter was also handed to police for a parallel investigation

This would be a good way to investigate these claims, whatever church or community group they originate in, IMO...

Peace

Riiiiight. Make all the priests get together and start chanting about how naughty they are.

That'll make 'em stop diddling little boys.

If you're a practising catholic slap yourself in the face now please. It's for the children.

Damn, I broke my own trolling law

[edit on 7-1-2008 by Shar_Chi]

Originally posted by budski

Pope calls for continuous prayer to rid priesthood of paedophilia

Yeah coz that'll work.
They must have been getting advice from Michael Jackson.

Next they're gonna pray that the catholic church will relenquish all it's gold stocks,Zionists will present an unbiased Media network,Arabs will give their oil away for free and George Bush will complete a coherent sentence..
(slightly off topic but has about as much chance of working)

Originally posted by Ben Miller
They need to start throwing them in jail, that will cure this problem, no prayer needed.
Does anyone know how many priests have been prosecuted and thrown in jail?

Cases have been brought against 4,392 priests in the past 20 years.
How many convictions? I don't know, the church likes to settle with cash and send the priest off to another parish to rape some more.

Basically this amounts to papal child prostitution.

I think the pope should have his people praying that the rest of society doesn't just start shooting catholics to be sure our children are safe.

Oh great all the freaks are going to have a good pray. That should do the trick!
Nothing to worry about, go back home. Everything is safe now.

The Catholic Church is cleansed. Yeah right! Freaks

reply to post by paul76


I think it's a bit strong to label someone as a freak because of their religious persuasion.

I'm no fan of popes and the RCC hierarchy, but I don't see how the political shenanigans of a few of those with power makes over 1 billion people "freaks"

Originally posted by budski
I think it's a bit strong to label someone as a freak because of their religious persuasion.

I'm no fan of popes and the RCC hierarchy, but I don't see how the political shenanigans of a few of those with power makes over 1 billion people "freaks"

I think the poster meant the pedophiles and not Catholics in general.

I am no even convinced this is a good first step. I mean, what tangible results are we going to see from this? This is nothing but a sweeping under the rug proposal. Why even throw this out there, in the media that is? How much time are they going to pray for? Why not take that time and put everyone on some kind of educational program that teaches the consequences of such acts? This is nothing but a waste of time!

If things are going on back door, excuse the pun there, why not expose them to the media. What is there to hide in trying to fix this? There is nothing wrong with fixing this problem in the open, is there?

reply to post by budski


Not to belittle the power of prayer, but wouldn't excommunication be much more effective?

Not a one-line post.

[edit on 7-1-2008 by gottago]

reply to post by LuDaCrIs


This is why I put the word "hopefully" in the OP as well as commenting on the PR that the pope seems to be intent on.

I think this is a good first step in that even admitting there is a problem is huge for RCC hierarchy and powers that be.

But I still have a sneaking suspicion that the new pope has installed a PR department at the vatican which is in overdrive, trying to soften peoples view and trying to present the image that PP's (peado priests) are to be driven out.

Now let's see if they follow through on it, and what measures are implemented.

I wonder how many of these priests are true pedophiles (people with an ingrained sexual interest in preadolescent children) and how many are just opportunistic predators.

Not all people who sexually abuse children are pedophiles.
Pedophilia is a specific psychological disorder.

Some, maybe most, child molesters simply prey on children because they are easy victims, not because they are classical pedophiles.

Perhaps if this hadn't come to light, I'd be more inclined to believe him, but before he became pope, ratzinger enforced Crimen solicitationis for 20 years.

I couldn't remember the thread above, but eventually found it.

This looks more like a PR stunt every time I look at it.

They should practice what they preach and not be afraid to get rid of wolves in sheeps clothing.
Some just join priesthood like some school caretaker would to satify their needs. They need to be thrown out of the system, you can not cure this kind of problem.

But at the same time if thrown out they should be monitored and not feel open now to do as they please once they are sacked. Because of the rejection and then end up spiralling out of self destruction. You will not cure these people with this problem and they will only make the Church have a bad name that parents won't even allow their children near a church again. But I think they are using this prayer method to cover up the issue so that exposure does not ruin everything for them, as once you get a group of them in one place you know they will ruin everything from exposure. But the churches should not risk keeping these individuals in either it's too risky and should let them go even if no one knows. But if their faith is real and they can handle what ever sins they have then so be it, if not get the boot you wolves.

[edit on 8-1-2008 by The time lord]

Indeed Rilence. How about the Bishops do their job and notify the police instead of paying off victims and families and shuffling off offenders to different parishes?
In these cases, the courts and prison system would be better than prayer IMHO.

To borrow from Soujah's thread, here is some info about why bishops don't do this:

Crimen Sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope.
It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders.Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes.
Crimen Sollicitationis was written in 1962 in Latin and given to Catholic bishops worldwide who are ordered to keep it locked away in the church safe.

It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act ... with youths of either sex."

It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses.

Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church.

source

And an interpretation here of a vatican diplomat/lawyer who was sacked for critisizing how abuse was handled.

Considering that ratzinger was in charge of this, I'm finding the story about "praying" more far fetched by the minute.