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By Dennis Byrne
March 27, 2006
For many Roman Catholics, the latest round of disclosures about pedophile priests in the Chicago archdiocese is the end of their patience with an institution that is incapable of or unwilling to change.
For other Catholics, it is further confirmation of a sad reality that has frustrated their attempts to wake up a hierarchy that is too deaf, smug or self-serving.
For non-Catholics, the failure to move against men who still victimize children, years after allegations against the clergy became widely known, is as much of a mystery as an outrage.
For Catholics who have tried to deny these sins of their fathers, it's time for them to examine their own consciences.
Here we are, years after church leaders promised reforms, and a new report surfaces accusing the archdiocese of, as the Chicago Tribune put it, "botching" the job of protecting children from clerical pedophiles. The independent and expert report, commissioned by the church (at least give it credit for that, as well as hanging its dirty linen out in public), enumerated shocking failure after failure:
Not watching suspected priests closely enough, not requiring them to report their activities daily, not imposing consequences on priests who fail to report, not adequately training monitors, not being alert to misconduct of seminarians before ordination, insufficiently following up on allegations of misconduct, and so on. Just one incredible example: One accused priest last year took three minors on a Labor Day weekend trip in the absence of another priest assigned to monitor him.
And this: failure to properly inform civil authorities, as the law requires, when the evidence is sufficient to believe a crime may have been committed. Normally, the practices of a religion are beyond fair game for secular columnists. But pedophilia is a criminal offense, and all of us are entitled to wonder why more of these perverts aren't behind bars.
For Catholics, these sins are a direct assault on the community of the faithful called the "mystical body of Christ." This violates Christ's injunction: Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.
Cardinal Francis George is showing proper remorse and seems now to be doing what is necessary. But why should he be believed? How many times does an institution get to say it is sorry before its words have no meaning? The clergy knows what I'm talking about, from administering the sacrament of reconciliation: How many times can a penitent ask for forgiveness for a constantly repeated sin before his sincerity becomes suspect and absolution is withheld?
The recommended reforms are precise, so there can be no more excuses. But they are procedural only; the abuses have been so persistent, it's reasonable to ask if they are the result of something systemic about the church. Here the church must be willing to look at fundamental questions that are empirical, not necessarily theological, in nature: Are clergy more prone to child abuse? Are they more prone to same-sex abuse? Do other denominations have this problem and to what extent? If they don't, is there something specific about the Roman Catholic priesthood that leads to greater incidence of child sexual abuse? Is the something related to the vow of celibacy? Does it have something to do with the priesthood's male-dominated environment? Is it an institutional problem, flowing from the authoritative, hierarchical structure of the church?
The church hierarchy has steadfastly refused to acknowledge that issues of celibacy and female priests have anything to do with these questions. (We're told that "church tradition," not theological certainty, already has provided answers.)
Maybe so, but the lay members of the mystical body of Christ--in the face of such resistance--have a moral obligation of their own to pursue these questions to their logical conclusions.
For the many of us who were born, raised and educated Roman Catholic, the failures of the clergy are beyond the shame they bring down on the church; beyond even the horrible damage they have inflicted on children.
For many of us, it is reminiscent of a church that may have ignored the evils of the Holocaust. This has gone far beyond whether the church effectively adopts some procedural changes recommended by a consultant. It is whether the church still has the moral authority to speak for Christ.
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Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
69 comments:
Dear Dennis,
In your article in the Tribune, you say:
"Are clergy more prone to child abuse? Are they more prone to same-sex abuse? Do other denominations have this problem and to what extent? If they don't, is there something specific about the Roman Catholic priesthood that leads to greater incidence of child sexual abuse? Is the something related to the vow of celibacy? Does it have something to do with the priesthood's male-dominated environment? Is it an institutional problem, flowing from the authoritative, hierarchical structure of the church?"
Couldn't you have done some research to figure this out? It isn't a secret. Here's what I found out in 10 seconds of googling:
PRIESTS
According to a survey by the Washington Post, over the last four decades, less than 1.5 percent of the estimated 60,000 or more men who have served in the Catholic clergy have been accused of child sexual abuse.[iv] According to a survey by the New York Times, 1.8 percent of all priests ordained from 1950 to 2001 have been accused of child sexual abuse.[v] Thomas Kane, author of Priests are People Too, estimates that between 1 and 1.5 percent of priests have had charges made against them.[vi] Of contemporary priests, the Associated Press found that approximately two-thirds of 1 percent of priests have charges pending against them.[vii]
Almost all the priests who abuse children are homosexuals. Dr. Thomas Plante, a psychologist at Santa Clara University, found that “80 to 90% of all priests who in fact abuse minors have sexually engaged with adolescent boys, not prepubescent children. Thus, the teenager is more at risk than the young altar boy or girls of any age.”[viii]
The situation in Boston, the epicenter of the scandal, is even worse. According to the Boston Globe, “Of the clergy sex abuse cases referred to prosecutors in Eastern Massachusetts, more than 90 percent involve male victims. And the most prominent Boston lawyers for alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse have said that about 95 percent of their clients are male.”[ix]
In a database analysis of reports on more than 1,200 alleged victims of priests identified by USA Today, 85 percent were males.[x] In another study by USA Today, it was determined that of the 234 priests who have been accused of sexual abuse of a minor while serving in the nation’s 10 largest dioceses and archdioceses, 91 percent of their victims were males.[xi]
Much has been made of a survey done by the Dallas Morning News which claims that two-thirds of the nation’s bishops have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working. But the problem with the survey is its definition of abuse—it includes everything from “ignoring warnings about suspicious behavior” to “criminal convictions.”[xii] Thus, the survey is of limited utility.
MINISTERS
The data on the Protestant clergy tend to focus on sexual abuse in general, not on sexual abuse of children. Thus, strict comparisons cannot always be made. But there are some comparative data available on the subject of child sexual molestation, and what has been reported is quite revealing.
In a 1984 survey, 38.6 percent of ministers reported sexual contact with a church member, and 76 percent knew of another minister who had had sexual intercourse with a parishioner.[xiii] In the same year, a Fuller Seminary survey of 1,200 ministers found that 20 percent of theologically “conservative” pastors admitted to some sexual contact outside of marriage with a church member. The figure jumped to over 40 percent for “moderates”; 50 percent of “liberal” pastors confessed to similar behavior.[xiv]
In 1990, in a study by the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics in Chicago, it was learned that 10 percent of ministers said they had had an affair with a parishioner and about 25 percent admitted some sexual contact with a parishioner.[xv] Two years later, a survey by Leadership magazine found that 37 percent of ministers confessed to having been involved in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a parishioner.[xvi]
In a 1993 survey by the Journal of Pastoral Care, 14 percent of Southern Baptist ministers said they had engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior,” and 70 percent said they knew a minister who had had such contact with a parishioner.[xvii] Joe E. Trull is co-author of the 1993 book, Ministerial Ethics, and he found that “from 30 to 35 percent of ministers of all denominations admit to having sexual relationships—from inappropriate touching to sexual intercourse—outside of marriage.”[xviii]
According to a 2000 report to the Baptist General Convention in Texas, “The incidence of sexual abuse by clergy has reached ‘horrific proportions.’” It noted that in studies done in the 1980s, 12 percent of ministers had “engaged in sexual intercourse with members” and nearly 40 percent had “acknowledged sexually inappropriate behavior.” The report concluded that “The disturbing aspect of all research is that the rate of incidence for clergy exceeds the client-professional rate for physicians and psychologists.”[xix] Regarding pornography and sexual addiction, a national survey disclosed that about 20 percent of all ministers are involved in the behavior.[xx]
In the spring of 2002, when the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was receiving unprecedented attention, the Christian Science Monitor reported on the results of national surveys by Christian Ministry Resources. The conclusion: “Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers.”[xxi]
Finally, in the authoritative work by Penn State professor Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests, it was determined that between .2 and 1.7 percent of priests are pedophiles. The figure among the Protestant clergy ranges between 2 and 3 percent.[xxii]
See here for the original document.
I believe that celibacy and the male dominated priesthood are partly to blame for these problems ...but the real one that sets the Catholic Church apart from most others is the hierarchy. Other faiths don't have this problem because there isn't a central body pushing priests around from one location to another protecting its "reputation" and assets.
Most other faiths have priests who are hired by the local congregations so if there are misdeeds, that community fires them. It is as simple as that. It is only where there is an overarching "authority" supervising the placement of clergy that we see this problem.
When priests don't have to answer to the community they serve there is an inherent problem.
This is not unique to the Catholic Church but because it is the largest example, the numbers are simple staggering. The Jehovas Witnesses and the Mormons have similar structures and problems but the penalties for speaking against elders are far more severe for the families of the victims who have the courage to speak out.
And to answer the question, No the hierarchy does not have the moral authority to address these problems.
When did they forget about some of the key things that define what it is to follow christ?
-Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
-Pride is still a deadly sin.
-Cast the money changers (lawyers) out of the temple.....
-Beg forgiveness and you MAY receive it.
A little bit of humility (rather than hubris) on behalf of the bishops would probably go a long way.
As a not very active protestant, it is refreshing to see at long last those in the Catholic Church finally coming around to question the very system that has produced this result.
It is natural for a any type of community to close ranks when under attack from outside. However, we must remember that a church is a religous community, not religion itself and questioning the church is not the same as questioning one's faith.
Unfortunately, it appears "church tradition" is currently inclusive of pedophelia.
Dear Dennis.... in your column, you say....
'How many times does an institution get to say it is sorry before its words have no meaning? The clergy knows what I'm talking about, from administering the sacrament of reconciliation: How many times can a penitent ask for forgiveness for a constantly repeated sin before his sincerity becomes suspect and absolution is withheld?'
...Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Am I missing something? You can forgive while you incarcerate....
Thanx for listening.
We need to drop the entire notion that if priests could get married or are allowed to "associate" with women the pedophilia would cease. These priests are not going after grown women their own age, they are preying on young boys. This is not an issue of pent-up sexual energy, this is criminal molestation.
"Are clergy more prone to child abuse? Are they more prone to same-sex abuse? Do other denominations have this problem and to what extent? If they don't, is there something specific about the Roman Catholic priesthood that leads to greater incidence of child sexual abuse? Is the something related to the vow of celibacy? Does it have something to do with the priesthood's male-dominated environment? Is it an institutional problem, flowing from the authoritative, hierarchical structure of the church?"
A tremendous amount of research and scholarship has been done on this -- and it points to all of the above, in spite of what Karl said. Read the work of former priests Eugene Kennedy, Richard Sipe, and others. The information is very damning of the specific formation of priests and the culture of silence and obedience on which the worst of the all-male society depends. (For centuries the church has considered it less problematic -- and less a threat to the institution -- for priests to be involved with boys rather than "daughters of Eve" -- er, ah, women.)
The church's distinctions between pedophelia and homosexual sex with adolescents is ridiculous: both are illegal (the age of consent is 16)and any form of sexual expression is prohibited for a Catholic priest, making his transgressions more reprehensible than teachers or clergy who have not taken vows of chastity/celibacy.
What Karl also fails to note is that he is comparing pedophelia in the Catholic church to sexual contact with parishioners in other denominations. He is not factoring in the number of Catholic priests who have sexual contact with adult females, keep "housekeeper-mistresses," sexually raid religious orders of nuns, etc. As far back as 1971-72, a church-sponsored study of priests showed that 50% were sexually active. I can only imagine that number is higher today.
Where is the other denomination/professional organization that has 50% of its members engaged in inappriate sexual activity?
You did a good job saying what many folks are thinking. Of course, it ought to go a step further. Many of the clergy in the Catholic church, and a fair number of bishops, as accessory to the fact, belong in jail had they not been successful in avoiding the rules of civilized and law-abiding society that the rest of us, Catholics and non-Catholics, must live by. Historically, the R. C. Church is probably more corrupt than it has ever been.
I am glad to see both your article, and a few of the comments made here, approach the question not of HOW these abuses occurr (which the church seems to want to focus on, the process), but the reasons WHY they occurr and are allowed to continue. If the RC spent more time on the WHY, they wouldn't have to worry about HOW.
The other aspect that bothers me, besides the Cathloics proclivity to forgive transgressions, even against children, is the failure, once you have taken responsibility, to also take the consequences. People like Cardinal Law and Bishop Imesch should be in jail, or assigned work with abused individuals, instead of a cushy job in the Vatican or an easy retirement. Where are the consequences of their actions or inactions? "Responsibility" is not enough.
way to go dave now will you help list have all the catocic prist put in jall
lest kill the cristts jest like we used to
lest kill the cristts jest like we used to
It amazes me that Fr. Andrew Greeley gets away with obstructing justice. He stated in his book "Confessions of a Parish Priest" that he has information on a group of pedophile priests in the Chicago area that he keeps under lock and key. One would think that he would come forth with this information as it might put other children at risk.
Karl in his comment chastises Dennis, “couldn’t you have done some research? Karl then reveals what he was able to discern within 10 seconds of googling. Without a doubt, it appears that Karl’s estimate of the time he spent researching is accurate.
Without delving into ALL of the other misleading statistics, Karl claims in his “lead off” statistic that the Wash. Post revealed in a survey spanning the last 4 decades that less than 1.5% of an estimated 60,000 priests in the Cath. Clergy have been accused of child sex abuse.
Here is but a brief intro into that article ….the number is NOT 1.5% BUT 4%
By Alan Cooperman and Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, February 28, 2004
The study found that 109,694 priests have served in the United States since 1950. Of the 4,392 -- or 4 percent -- who were accused, a majority are alleged to have abused a single child, though in many cases the abuse is said to have occurred repeatedly.
It is impossible to know whether the 4 percent figure is higher or lower than the percentage of offenders in the general male population, because no such studies have been done.
Karl cites a survey by the Dallas Morning News claiming two-thirds of the Nation’s Bishops have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working and concluded that the survey is MISLEADING and therefore of limited value as the term abuse as used in the survey included everything from “ignoring warnings about suspicious behavior” to “criminal convictions”.
This statement by Karl ignores the USCCB’s (United States Conf. of Cath. Bishops) own 2004 audit that found credible allegations of abuse by 5,148 priests resulting in 11,750 victims and these numbers were noted by the USCCB as certainly without a doubt low as Bishop Fabian Bruskewicz Lincoln Nebraska refused to partake in the audit and the USCCB noted that many cases went unreported by victims or were not finalized in their investigation by reason of the death of the abuser.
One would have to agree…some telling numbers, especially considering that the USCCB found 46,254 priests in 2000 only 36,730 in active ministry the other 9,524 being retired!
Then while commenting on Dennis’ Op –Ed piece concerning the failure of the Cath. Church to forthrightly and with transparency deal with the sex abuse scandal with action and deeds instead of words, Karl digresses to data on the Protestant Church noting that it tends to deal with sex abuse in general with all age groups of the Protestant congregation as opposed to sex abuse with children revealing significant statistics of over-all abuse without segregating what % of those numbers in the Protestant community represent abuse with children.
After comparing apples with oranges ( gotta love Karl’s mind ), ie: sex abuse to children vs. sex abuse with all age groups of the congregation, Karl argues that most of the American churches being hit with child sexual abuse allegations are Protestant and most of the abuser are not clergy but volunteers.
Way to go Karl. You get a “D” but probably deserve an “F”. Hey Karl, adults can fend for themselves…children cannot!
Finally, not content having revealed what a vacuum exists in some cranial anatomies, Karl cites the book, “Pedophiles and Priests” by Professor Philip Jenkins of Penn State labeling it an authoritative work offering the statement of the author Jenkins that only somewhere between .2 and 1.7% of Priests are pedophiles. Karl the offers a “link” to the Jenkins work …but the “link” is not to the Jenkins’ book but to a “review” by William Donohue, president of the Catholic League who is a strident and rabid defender of anything Catholic and an irrational adversary to anyone disagreeing with the Church.
For those who have not read the Jenkins book, its central tenet is that most abuse by Priests occurs with adolescents not pre-pubescent victims and therefore cannot rightfully be labeled pedophilia.
Jenkins offers no support for the statistics cited and his laughable attempt to distinguish between the label to be accorded the behavior toward the victim on the determination of whether the victim has a few pubic hairs is astounding… given the great weight of psychological research that clearly reflects that maturity of homo sapiens does not arrive necessarily with the onset of adolescence and the growth of a few pubic hairs…in other words 12, 13 and 14 year olds can be considered the victims of pedophilia and not the recipients of “garden variety statutory molestation” or “uninvited advances of a sexual nature”.
Dan B
Wow...powerful column. The questions you pose are insightful and need to be answered.
Thank you, Dennis Byrne for your column. I dearly hope Cardinal George and Bishop Imesch read it, and then turn in their resignations. My beloved church is a mess and not once have I heard this issue addressed at Mass. We in the pews are hurting and right now my parish's biggest concern is a capital campaign! I quit all my volunteer activities and will not contribute a dime until this issue is properly addressed and corrected. What do you think the chances of that are happening? My guess is slim to none!
Dennis wrote
"Just one incredible example: One accused priest last year took three minors on a Labor Day weekend trip in the absence of another priest assigned to monitor him."
That is a misleading way of describing a horrific incident. This makes it seem like this is one example of something that happens all the time. In fact the Fr McCormick case that he is referring to is the only recent case of sexual abuse that has been brought to light in the Archidiocese of Chicago. Thats like referring to JFK as "just one incredible example" of a US president being assasinated in the 1960s. The horror of the one situation isn't lessened, but don't write in a misleading manner which seems to indicate that this happens all the time.
I also think it is completely unfair to ask for Cardinal George to resign. His mistake was to trust the people who worked for him. He assumed that midlevel staff members in the Archdiocese were keeping him informed about and abuse situations. They weren't. Cardinal George has made sure that all allegations he is made aware of are thouroughly investigated. In a March 24 column in the Sun Times
http://www.chicagosuntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel241.html
Fr Andrew Greeley, who I am not a big fan of, talked about a young man who made abuse allegations against Fr Greeley himslef, Cardinal Egan of New York, and Dennis Hastert. This claim is about as credible as an Iraqi insurgent claiming he was personally tortured by John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Colin Powell while being detained by US forces. Cardinal George passed this man's allegations onto the state's attorneys office. If Cardinal George was willing to push for this case to be investigated don't you think he would do so in any situation?
Ryan Larson
Dear Mr. Byrne;
You have spoken for millions of Catholics today. On Ash Wednesday,I led a Prayer Vigil at my parish, St. Francis Xavier in LaGrange to pray for change. Much of the media covered it. We signed petitions calling for reform to the internal Review Board. Then the revelations of the Defenbaugh Report--I felt like a fool! Here I was, asking for reform to Archdiocesan procedure whan the Reports show that the Archdiocesan officials are not even following state law. How can thay get away with flouting the civil authorities?
Yet, it is only those in the Archdiocesan system that have lost moral authority. My parish and its priests have retained their integrity. Our old pastor, Fr. Bill Stenzel and our new one, Fr. John Hoffman, have both denounced the sex abuse scandal from the pulpit. And I thank God for them.
What the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, "It would be hard to find 100 people in the world who hate the Catholic Church, but there are many thousands who hate what they "think" is the Catholic Church."
This describes who has written this article and who has responded to this blog so far.
All of you have erred to some major degree.
The basic relevant truths are some same-sex-attracted-priests=bad actions, Imesch=bad actions, George=good actions, Trib columninst=bad writing, bloggers=confusion.
Thank you Lisa Krepps for standing up for the safety of children at St. Francis Xavier in LaGrange. You stated that your priests have denounced sexual abuse from their pulpits. This is all well and good but have they called for Bishop Imesch or Cardinal Geortge to resign? Do they think they ought to resign? If they do then what will happen to them in terms of not supporting the boss i.e. Cardinal George? My guess is that after this all simmers down and is out of the public's consciousness then they will be consistently punished for standing up for the safety of children.
Dan B. should read more carefully. I was quoting a document I found on the Catholic League website, which I documented.
Kenneth in an earlier comment said:
I believe that celibacy and the male dominated priesthood are partly to blame for these problems ...but the real one that sets the Catholic Church apart from most others is the hierarchy. Other faiths don't have this problem because there isn't a central body pushing priests around from one location to another protecting its "reputation" and assets.
When priests don't have to answer to the community they serve there is an inherent problem.
I agree in part.
Today, the Catholic Church is at the crossroads of insignificance and lost identity, struggling for relevance in a culture it once defined with its churches, excluding those not sold to pay for sex abuse settlements and judgments, in danger if not destined to become museums of Christianity, more likely to be visited by tourists with guidebooks than parishioners with prayer books.
The reaso? The church is run by conservative ignorant men whose intellectual thought processes gravitate to preserving the status quo of values which are more concerned with form than substance and which are deeply rooted in tradition, and whose leaders are motivated by an unwillingness to question past practices to determine if they comport with Christian concepts on the one hand or represent comfortable familiarity with the ignorance they represent and innate human reluctance to change on the other......all to protect their "turf" as Kenneth says
Ever question the practice of Cardinals, Bishops, and priests kneeling before the Pope and “kissing his ring”?
This is a church that hangs on to “trappings” of monarchy as Cardinals and Bishops genuflect before the Pope kneeling to kiss his ring like medieval Earls, Barons, Knights and Courtiers paying homage to their king, where the emphasis is more on form an appearance than on substance and where symbolism and religious pageantry pays lip service to religious sophistry.
If I see one more Cardinal, Bishop or priest genuflect and kneel before the Pope and “kiss the ring of the outstretched hand” of the Pontiff like some “courtier” paying homage to his king......I think I will throw up.
Ever wonder how church vestments and symbols of church power and leadership came into existence?
They certainly were not the product of Christ’s direction. Witness:
1. The Humeral veil used in benediction, a cloth of rectangular shape about 8 ft. long by 1½ ft. wide, edges of which are usually fringed, adorned with the name “Jesus” or a cross in the center, worn so to cover the back, shoulders and humerus bone of the arm—hence its name, with its two ends hanging down in front fastened across the breast with clasps or ribbons to prevent its falling from the shoulders as the celebrant raises the Monstrance containing the enlarged host representing the body of Christ held by hands beneath the humeral veil as if it were disrespectful to hold the Monstrance with “bare hands"....and Muslims climb Mt. Arafat and throw stones at pillars symbolizing the devil celebrating the feast of Eid al-Adha to commemorate Abraham’s supposed(?) willingness to sacrifice his son....and we are to bow our heads upon hearing the name Jesus and they recite, “peace be unto him” upon hearing the name of the world’s last self-proclaimed prophet from this area, longitude 31.71 N, latitude 35.10 W, the middle East.
2.Bishop’s Crosier or shepherd staff some of which have been made or adorned with gold, silver or ivory, Pope’s ring, the bright colored liturgical garments of various shapes and sizes.
3. Bishops Mitre hat
All of which neither Jesus or Christ ordained but which are entirely contrived by man, not unlike “neon signs” which all serve to adorn the “peacock” prelate.
Necessary?
A little bit of majesty maybe?...elevating a shepherd of sheep to....well a shepherd of a different flock? A Shepherd that wears a Mitre hat, an episcopal ornament for the head whose origin lies in Greek symbolism, that a high pontifical hat that swells outward but rising to a “peak” conveys importance...but is “dutifully removed while praying”...well, because when a man prays, he shall pray with “uncovered head” Corinthians, xi 4.
These accouterments adorn the peacock prelate who by the way who does not struggle like his flock on the journey traversing life’s path, navigating secular, moral and ethical dilemmas among which include birth control, education, employment and layoff, spousal relationship or abuse, commitment, finances, with income always being chased by never ending debt, and child rearing hardships to name but a few.
No, the Church has become and is centered more on tradition and ceremony, indeed more on pomp and circumstance than upon intrinsic values celebrating a divine belief.
Did Peter or Christ need or use a mitre hat, a crosier staff, and colorful vestments?
Did Peter kneel before Christ to kiss his hand? Indeed, just the opposite, with Christ supposedly washing the feet of his apostles.
Can you imagine a Bishop showing up without these accouterments and for once, being like just one of us, instead of “one of them” moving down life’s path in the long line of succession to St. Peter” hoping to receive his hundred fold as reward for a lifetime of service to the Lord?
I suspect though HE, already, surveying the pathetic landscape of Cardinals, Bishops and priests changed HIS mind and gave it all, the ‘hundred fold’ for every roman catholic cleric, to some obscure woman by the name of uh..uh..oh yah, Mother Teresa!
Another example:
Maintitaing control over the "faithful" despite all logic to the contrary.
Do you think Christ would care if some little girl, seeking to make her first communion with her class, requested a host made of rice in lieu of a one made of wheat because she had celiac sprue disorder with its serious adverse health consequences involving an allergy to wheat with the inability to digest gluten contained in wheat?... problems which can include osteoporosis, tooth-enamel defects, nerve damage, internal hemorrhaging, organ disorders, and a greater likelihood of gastrointestinal cancer.
The request by Haley Waldman’s mother to the ignorant archbishop John Smith of Trenton New Jersey was denied in 2004 because rice is not wheat and only wheat could serve as the appropriate intermediary, the Bishop maintaining only unleavened wheat was use at the ‘last supper’. Can you believe it? What a jerk!
Maybe the bread was rye, barley, or some other ancient ‘pulse’ like spelt that He used, who knows? It wouldn’t be the first time Scripture says that He used barley loaves....“There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves , and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” (John 6:9)...”Therefore they gathered together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.” (John 6:13)
Were any of the Church’s current eminent thinkers and scholars there....the “all important last supper”? More importantly, who cares what He used? Christ wouldn’t! Only a male idiot like archbishop John Smith of Trenton New Jersey would!
Heck, the doctrine of “transubstantiation” ie: consecrated bread becoming the body of Christ, was not declared until the year 1215 by Pope Innocent III after the Fourth Lateran Council and until then the bread and the words were considered only to be symbolic of the request of Christ to do this in his memory. So much for the importance of what type of bread is the intermediary.
Ever wonder why the priesthood attracts so many gays, weirdoes, pedophiles and psychological misfits instead of the best and the brightest?
The answer is: because of the very construct of the priesthood - being open to men and only men, it does not seek the best and the brightest but rather appeals to a sizeable segment of misfits among the male population who see in it an opportunity only too good to be true…like putting the fox in charge to guard the hen house…a ready made stable of ‘boys’ to prey upon.
Ever wonder how it is that the church could have known of the sex abuse scandal for so many years (15 yrs at least) and did nothing to stop it, allowing the abuse to continue with the result that there were thousands of more victims from abusing priests whose abuses were “covered up” by silence, hush transfers and the like?
In 1985 Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest and Canon Law Lawyer, was sent by Rome to Lafayette Louisiana to investigate and prepare a report on the sexual abuse investigation of Roman Catholic priest Gilbert Gauthe who eventually was convicted of molesting 35 children. Check it out type in the names of thomas Doyle and Gilbert Gauthe and the wirds sex scandal into google and it will give you all the resources to examine
Canon law lawyer Doyle reported 20 years ago that the Gauthe case and others then known were likely but the tip of the iceberg and that priest pedophilia, if left “unchecked” would likely mushroom in terms of numbers of abusers and victims and in financial cost to the Church, estimating back then upwards of a billion dollars.
Nothing came of it.
Where was Church leadership? From the top down, from the Pope to the Cardinals, there existed an 18 year cover-up and as a result the abuse continued for another 18 years at least.
Those who permitted these crimes to continue are equally guilty when the power to stop abuse rested with them by:
• not instituting reforms
• failing to defrock priests
• protecting abusers and not victims
• not turning criminal priests into prosecuting authorities
• not financially aiding victims who were in need of psychiatric or psychological counseling.
In failing to take action, leadership from the top down, from the Pope through the Cardinals and Bishops chose to cover-up, not only protecting the guilty in their own ranks through “hush transfers”, but worse, abetting the abuse, allowing it to continue, adding to the ever growing number of victims!
The Pope, instead of dismissing Cardinals, and himself taking responsibility and resigning for having failed to take action since 1985, when he knew of the abuse, but choosing to protect the reputation of the Church over concern for victims, thus permitting the abuse to continue, was guilty of the gravest omission!
Officers of the Third Reich did not escape judgment pleading, “I was only following orders”. Crimes against humanity are crimes against humanity; that was established at Nuremberg. Crimes against children are crimes against children; that needs to be recognized!
The only reason it is not..is because children are powerless, no money, no vote!
By covering up and transferring pedophile priests, allowing the abuse to continue for 15 years with more young victims, the leaders including the Pope cannot duck responsibility…they are as guilty as those in Nazi uniforms executing the orders of the Third Reich!
Those who profess belief in Scripture citing it chapter and verse as they lead their lives or abiding in the mind numbing and boring recitation of two readings thereof each Sunday separated by a Psalm sung in verse, cannot “pick and choose” those passages to which they subscribe, dismissing those which they choose to ignore.
“But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and [that] he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
Christ will have to perform a miracle, there will not be enough millstones needed for all the necks, the 5,148 abusers and 108 transferring Bishop and Cardinal prelates protecting their turf, their image, their fellow priests and the Church from scandal rather than protecting "one of these little ones" who were defenseless.
Like to know what some of the Church’s leaders who on John Paul’s watch have had to say regarding the Sex Abuse scandal.
“This overblown scandal is the result of the American news media and the American legal system. Bishops who pay these settlements are timid. American Bishops are wrong for reporting these accusations to the authorities” Archbishop Julian Herranz Casado Vatican Council for Interpretation of Legislative Texts.
“Bishops are not morally responsible for what priests do....and they therefore need not make priests take psychological tests but above all Bishops should handle abuse allegations internally as this is a Church matter and should not involve civil authorities....there is no need or requirement to inform parishes of transfers of priests alleged to have abused if the Bishop believes appropriate counseling to have taken place.” Gianfranco Ghirlandi S. J. Dean of Canon Law Pontifical Gregorian University in Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica.
“For me it would be a tragedy to reduce the role of a pastor to that of a cop. I’d be prepared to go to jail rather than harm one of my priests”. Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga head of the religious order Salesians of Don Bosco.
It should be noted that Salesian priest Rev. Frank Klep was ‘transferred’ by Oscar Rodriguez to avoid prosecution from Australia to Samoa…but has since been deported back to Australia and re-arrested once the Samoans found out…but who, when in Australia had a ready made stable of victims in Rupertswood at Sunbury Australia, a youth home for boys…gratis the Salesians of Don Bosco! Thanks Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga !
“If you had a child who was an altar server, wouldn’t you be concerned that the priest they were saying Mass with had been convicted of sexually molesting children?” “I don’t have any children.” Smugly and with contempt in his voice, so replied Joliet, IL Bishop Joseph Imesch in a deposition….instead of a compassionate response like, ‘Yes, I would be concerned’.
“I personally know of several instances where sexual abuse did no permanent damage to the victims.” From a letter written by Bishop Joseph Imesch Joliet, IL revealed in a deposition written to worried parents hoping to allay fears of ill conceived transfers.
No permanent damage? What a mope? Pedophilia is not a traffic offense, not some ‘white lie’, not some ordinance violation…it is a monstrous crime, life altering in its effects...a felony of class x proportions…and this moron Bishop says that it causes no permanent effects? What a chump! Bishop Imesch would have been better served had he chosen to remain silent not saying anything so contemptuous and perhaps be thought a fool at a loss for words rather than by opening his mouth, removing all doubt. He truly is a jerk!
Would you tolerate this from your congressman, senator, mayor, school superintendent, chief of police? Harry Stonecipher resigned as CEO from Boeing in 2005 after his affair with a staffer was revealed. Why is it only in the Catholic church these guys get away with it and continue to be supported by the “faithful” such as yourself?
Why are there not others out there calling for resignations like me?
Incredible isn’t it?
108 Cardinals and Bishops transferring abusers and or covering up abuse for 5,148 abusers resulting in 11,750 pedophile victims – both USCCB statistics - and NO ONE in the CHURCH did anything about it!.....including the Pope.
Do you really believe that Christ would countenance the diatribe that has thus far emanated from the Bishop’s conference?
I think he would be turning over the tables and throwing the rascals out……to paraphrase Scripture Matthew 21:13. Sound familiar?......rascals who allowed this to go on and who now duck responsibility.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. This scandal, the cover up, the lack of accountability in the leadership from the top down...no firings, no demotions, no dismissals....well it simply takes your breath away because in any other company, corporation, organization...they would be gone with this record!
If the U. S. President were:
• 84 years of age
• Unable to talk publicly since 2003
• Unable to walk in public since 2002
• Had Parkinson’s for the past ten years
Would you have confidence in and be guided by a President so frail? What about the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U. S. Armed Forces?
Wouldn’t you have expected that a person in such condition to step down or retire, and allow another in better mental and physical health to exercise the post or position?
Rare is the 84 year old who has not noticeably slipped in abilities at all levels, strength or the lack thereof termed frailty, attention, clarity of thinking, stamina, ability to recognize deception or avoiding being duped or controlled by others - witness the amount of scams perpetrated upon the elderly.
Pope John Paul II in a letter to the world’s elderly released on October 1 1999 par. 17 thereof stated:
“ It is wonderful to be able to give oneself to the very end for the sake of the kingdom of God. At the same time, I find great peace in thinking of the time when the Lord will call me: life to life”.
On other occasions he likened his continued stay upon the throne of St. as a trial undertaken willingly, accepting suffering not unlike Christ on the cross. Enduring the suffering, he was likening himself to Christ, but at the expense of the Church, which he had long since been unable to lead, his advisors calling the shots.
If Christ would not abandon the suffering of the cross, neither would he abandon his suffering. No, he forged on…..unfortunately, at our expense and the expense of the Church as a whole!
Kind of reminds me of the story of the grandson, who shows up at work with a sad face. Upon being queried by co-workers as to the source of his apparent distress, the grandson relates that he just returned “from a funeral having buried his grandmother”.
Displaying appropriate empathy, the co-workers offer their sympathies while also inquiring as to the age of the grandmother. “She was 91”, comes the reply.
“How did she go?” “ She died in her sleep”, the grandson replies. Hearing this, the co-workers reply: “Well if you have to go, that’s the way to go…in your sleep!”
The grandson replies: “Yah, good for her; but not for the other 3 passengers in the car”.
John Paul II died in his sleep somewhere starting ten years ago…not good for the rest of us in the car……who he was driving (leading).
The culture of the Church starting with recruitment, lack of vetting procedures, to remaining exclusively all male, to the the scriptural based defense of witless policies that defy all good reason and common sense is the problem.
Dan B
Mr. Byrne,
Thank you for your article, again. I hope you will continue to follow this issue. Pls focus on the WHY these abuses continue to occur, not just the HOW.
One other take on this story would be the deafening silence from the "good" clergy. Where is the righteous indignation, the outrage at their superiors who allowed this to happen. Do you think Imesch would still have a job if every priest and deacon in the Joliet Diocese refused to answer to him? But don't waste your time listening.......it's not there.
Dear Mr. Byrne,
I am saddened that you desire to pour more gasoline onto a fire where it is not needed. Still worse is your attack on the moral authority of the Church which is, in a word, heresy. It is a grave matter to do this and then, via this editorial, to draw others into the same error. Needless to say causing such a wrong to happen is not only very sinful, but also, at the very same time, just outright poor journalism.
The issue of sexual abuse is tragic, but the hue and cry against the Church, based soley on this issue, is even more so. Condemnation of the Cardinal and other Bishops, withholding of money to the Church, verbal attacks on everything the Church is, etc. are not in proportion to the sex abuse crisis alone.As usual, the first thing that comes along that paints the Church in a negative light is the trigger needed for all the knives to come out. Anyone and everyone with an agenda against the Church is primed for the attack. Sad.
It is my hope that you will stand aside from such scandal in the future. Rather than attacking the Church, and giving ammunition to her enemies, you should pray for the Church and for strength for priests. In this way you will win more than readers.
Thank you.
To the Anonymous writer at 9:21 today,
If you were the parent of a child abused by a pedophile priest, transfered to cover his previous transgressions by a bishop more interested in protecting the church hierachy than the children, I doubt you would consider the publicity given this issue "not in proportion". As a long time Catholic, I realize The Church consists of its people, not those assigned to serve the Church and its people. Mr. Byrne is not throwing gasoline on a fire, he is exposing the faults, not of the faith, but of some of its leadership, to sunlight. His article was illuminating not infamatory. Shame on you to suggest otherwise.
In your article, you ask: "Are clergy more prone to child abuse? Are they more prone to same-sex abuse?" I read something a few years ago that really seemed to make sense to me. I cannot remember who wrote it (I think it was in the Chicago Tribune). He or she wrote that priests do not become child molesters. Instead, child molesters became priests. In the past, I think that pedophiles saw priesthood as an opportunity and safe haven.
I have two questions, if anyone can answer them: Has the church changed its procedures for hiring priests? And, what happened to the priests who left the Catholic Church because of child molesting? Are they just out there in society, looking for another victim? As a parent, I am concerned.
Comment: I am appalled at the number of people who continue to try to defend the Church's actions toward criminal sexual abuse. Even one case is too many. Our hierarchy preaches rules to us always: their rules. Even Jesus respected the laws of Rome as long as they were just. Does our Cardinal consider the public laws regarding sexual abuse unjust, or just not applying to the Church. We need to ask oursevles: What would Jesus do? Let's take off the robes and jewels and put the sandals of Jesus back on and try to serve the needs of God's people. Church has become such a business and removed from all,except followers no matter what, that the christian focus has been lost. Our institutional church remians silent and secret. This is the only answer the archdiocese has for us. We are not going away. It is time to sdtand up like an adult and deal with this mess. This goes for the Cardinal, as well as, the Silent majority.
Dear Mr Byrne,
You hit many nails on the head in this insightful article. An interesting question to consider:
What are the statistics of married women clergy abusing children?
Upwards of half of the new graduates in some denominations are women. Catholics who are outraged at the various forms of institutionalized perversion of justice the Roman Church perpetuates may wish to consider checking out the Independent Catholic movement. Same apostolic succession,same sacraments, but many married, (often female) priests serve, and are as fed up with the lies and injustice as you are.
Why should the Church atone for their sins when they can file for Bankruptcy instead?
Just think, 20 years ago, would any of us have thought that (1) the pedophilia be as rampant as is being disovered; and (2) that the church would file bankruptcy to avoid paying damages?
Somthing is really, really, wrong.
To Mr. Murphy and Ms. Chodera,
I am sure Mr. Byrne did not mean for his blog page to become a battlezone, so I ask his forgiveness for replying to your posts about my anonymous post rather than adding any new insights on his piece. That being said:
Mr. Murphy: Yes, Mr. Byrne, in his last sentence, did attack the faith by questioning the moral authority of the Church. If he did not mean this then he is free to say otherwise. You find his op-ed piece "illuminating"-Why? Unless you have been off planet for the past month, there has been more than enough published on this topic to which this piece added nothing. This was published to "stir the pot" period. Finally, thank you for saying, but I do not feel any shame about what I wrote. If it was misconstrued, then I apologize for that. Clerical sex abuse is a terrible thing and the laity are correct for voicing their disapproval of the handling of many of the cases. Attacks on the Church and its teachings are a no-no. Sorry.
Ms. Chondra: Once again, I apologize if what I said was misconstrued. I did not accuse everyone who posted here or is affected by the scandals of being heretics. Some things said by some posters is indeed heresy. Many people are using the scandal as a jump-off point to attack Church teachings and that is wrong.Period. I must say I disagree wholeheartedly with your statement about the days of "pray and obey" being over. In matters of faith and morals the laity is indeed bound to pray and obey. Human failings of the Church may be addressed, of course, but the Church is not a democracy. The laity being more educated and intelligent is debatable. Maybe in the ways of the world, but the Faith ? Hmmmm? To say "more caring" is insulting to all past Catholics. I don't think you need to be told that this is not a great age of Faith for many reasons.
In conclusion, I, like everyone else, am disappointed by this latest round of scandals and am not against people saying so. However, facets of Mr. Byrne's op-ed and SOME of the respondents are flirting dangerously with outright heresey. Stating dissatisfaction with what has happened is fine, but using it as a "cause celeb" to attack Church doctrine is dead wrong.
We must not lose faith in the Church because of any of this--that is the bottom line.
Apparently the church Catholic did not learn one thing from the Reformation. Perhaps another one is forthcoming? I was not a victim of priestly abuse; however, I feel my mind, heart and soul have been raped by the actions or inactions of the RC Hierarchy. I have all I can do to get myself into church. I feel somewhere in time a great evil has crept into Our Lord's church. I refuse to donate any money until this mess is totally cleaned up. Maybe the Holy Spirit is trying to get us to make some moves against this disgusting page, ah, er chapter in our history. I'm glad to read I'm not the only one who questions the "finery" worn by the hierarchy. How many other denominations have a fabulous art collection, jewels, gold, etc? I have wondered where all the trappings come from. I can't find anything in Scripture that shows Jesus dolled all up when he spoke or appeared anywhere. The Church has long forgotten that is REPRESENTS Christ--it is not Christ.
I couldn't agree with you more. As a convert, I can't believe what is going on in the church. If I had known then what I know now, I never would have become a Catholic. I am now ashamed to be one and want OUT! The real sin here is the hierarchy which is nothing but a "good old boys' club". Their real reason for keeping women out of top positions is that women would not have allowed this to go on. It is disgusting. You are right...they have no moral authority over us. Trouble is--they think that they still do!
Mr. Byrne,
Wow! You nailed it just right! I am an active Catholic who is outraged more by the pathetic behavior of the hierarchy in this country than I am with the abusers. At least, the abusers are sick and need drastic help. I weep for the victims. The hierarchy, which sheltered and covered up for their offending priests, continue to support fellow bishops who placed the Church above the victims. What a disgrace to Our Lord and his Gospel. They have covered-up, lied, and distorted the truth to the point of criminality and immorality. I recently attended a ceremony at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, in which five bishops processed down the aisle at the beginning of a liturgy. I felt nauseated at the sight of them. As my courageous pastor said in a sermon, to the delight of the congregation: the whole lot of them should resign and let's start over. I and my fellow Catholic worshippers broke into applause. Thank you, Mr. Byrne, thank you so much.
My Jesus, my Saviour, Lord, there is none like You!
Blogger Dan B. is making huge rational errors that are leading to grave sin as equally as same-sex attracted priests abusing themselves and those innocent ones that the same-sex attracted priests have a leadership role over (until they are removed from that role). Dan B. should be removed from the role of blogger to this article due to his errors. So, who is in the leadership position and has the jurisdiction to do that? Are you going to do that? Let’s see? Will similar “problems and actions” perpetuate here as well?
The key error blogger Dan B. makes (among the literally hundreds of errors) is in pointing out exactly where THE source of the same-sex attracted priests errors come from and what has happened in each unique situation of same-sex attracted priests violating older boys.
You have to start at the root cause and go on from there in this crisis. Dan B. indicts just about everybody and everything in an intellectually irresponsible diatribe with real name-calling that sounds, well, young boyish, instead of staying focused on the issue of the moral authority of some same-sex attracted priests, and that means some same-sex attracted bishops, as well. Keep reading…I provide examples of what I mean. This is not a crisis of the whole Church, nor of heterosexual, i.e. normal, priests and bishops who are by and large great persons and would make excellent fathers of families in the physical sense if they weren’t sacrificing themselves serving the kingdom as priests.
This is a struggle in leadership between those who act properly with the gift of sexuality, that all of us have been given, and can understand, if we have the eyes to see (…and some don’t), and those who abuse the gift of sexuality.
Those who recognize that THE source of the problem is same-sex attraction acted out by those who have “stolen” a leadership role in the Catholic Church (they should not be in leadership positions of any kind--it does not belong to them due to their condition of mind, but in reality—look around—it’s everywhere in our culture/world), and for that matter, any corporation, Hollywood, TV, media, or any family, as I must say in homage to Dan B. indicting basically everyone, for example.
Pope John Paul II’s mental ability (his mind) remained intact until he died nearly exactly a year ago, so Dan B.’s attack on wonderful, holy, saintly JPII is completely lacking (just read the progression of any of JPII’s writings from 1960 up until the end—I dare you to, or do you think someone else wrote his work? Please look at the deeds of the man, including the fine example of his last ten years. Plus, there are many witnesses to has last few days and how his mind was still very sharp minutes before the urinary-tract infection complications ended his life on April 2nd, 2005, at 9:37 PM.). I wonder what Dan B.’s final ten years will look like? What his mind will be like? And that is no “ad hominem” argument, Dan, I say that in compassion towards you.
Dude, your words are indicative of what you think, just like mine are and Dennis Byrne’s are, and your words show you are fighting Christ Himself! Not a good idea, but look what happened to St Paul, maybe you will be struck blind and fall off your horse, then become a super Catholic! That is what I hope, and the same hope goes for Dennis Byrne, for he, too, in ignorance of his argument and ignorance of his understanding of the Catholic faith has attacked the person of Jesus Christ Himself. I will explain this later. We have to love the sinner and hate the sin.
Those who are designated leaders in the Catholic Church who have same-sex attraction and act it out in any way whatsoever, you read that correctly: any-way-whatsoever, either by committing any act (even in thought [for example, to look lustfully], word or deed—i.e. touch) or by allowing any act to be committed “to the degree of their jurisdiction, and knowledge of” are the root cause of this current crisis.
Now, let’s ask, did I just use the word “pedophile?” No. Why? Because I am not a member of the liberal media like Dennis Byrne is. And I won’t miss the point like Dan B. did in trying to change the focus on the problem. This has nothing to do with the clothes anyone wears; it has to do with the clothes some same-sex attracted priests try to take off older boys.
Those designated leaders “of leaders” who decide not to yank these perverted leaders (who pervert the gift of sexuality for that which is obvious God did not intend) out of their leadership role immediately increase the root cause problem. For example, Bishop Imesch is perverted in his jurisdiction of decision-making to the point where we need to have him yanked immediately. Dan B., Don’t you wish all corporations, schools, Hollywood, TV, media and families did the same? That is, yank out all who have same-sex attraction, and act on it, yank them out of leadership roles now, and not allow them to pervert their gift of sexuality for that purpose not intended by God? How many older boys are being abused on the streets of Hollywood or San Francisco at this hour? How many girls?
Should I go off topic and indict all leaders in all organizations including all family members that abuse their gift of sexuality?
Let’s go further to the root of the problem: Satan is a “Christ-killer” (Satan decided that…as each of us has the responsibility to decide, and ever since Satan has been a “Christ-killer”) and Satan is still attacking families (mainly boys as related to this crisis, but girls are being attacked by boys just as ferociously in larger numbers) and with tacit approval in our culture of death due to contraception in all forms, in so called “sex education” which is in reality giving a green light to teens to have “mutual sex abuse,” and as a result, abortion which is worse than what the Nazis did—don’t neglect to mention this attack on innocent human life (Dan B./Dennis B.) at the root of two of our greatest gifts: free will in making decisions, and in the gift of our sexuality.
Same-sex attraction in lustful thought, word, or deed (homosexual acts) and lack of decision-making to prevent it “by many” of us, Dan B., is the problem, let’s get a closer look at that in the article.
The article makes glaring errors in the beginning:
“For many Roman Catholics, the latest round of disclosures about pedophile priests in the Chicago archdiocese is the end of their patience with an institution…”
First, why use the word “institution?” The whole “institution” is not at fault. This is a fallacy of the part for the whole—a logical error in the beginning. Even though your grandiose conclusion is going to indict the whole moral authority of “the Church” I am going to show how your article is, in fact, poorly argued, poorly written most likely due to your defective understanding of the teaching of the Church, in the first place, so you should get a full refund from your balloons, banners and collage catechism class tuition that failed to teach you the truths about the Catholic Church.
Here is another error at the beginning: The hierarchy is not “too deaf, smug or self-serving.” The hierarchy is made up of some priests who were/are similar to Fr. McCormack.
It is an error to liken good bishops with bad bishops. There are many good bishops, and a few bad bishops. It has nothing figuratively or literally to do with deafness (don’t think good bishops don’t hear us who want justice), smugness (please, good bishops and priests are not at all smug or self-serving, in fact, the opposite, the same-sex attracted priests and bishops are self-serving to the worst degree, and I literally mean worst, as there is no worse degree imaginable when you are a leader in the Catholic Church committing grave sin with older boys—so unnatural as to be completely evil, twisted and demonic).
Then Dennis Byrne says the following: “…as much of a mystery as an outrage.”
Exactly what is the mystery here? We are all stocked up on outrage. Define what you mean by, it is a “mystery.” It is not a mystery to me. I understand exactly what the problem is. Let’s look into it and why this article is poorly written some more.
Is it as you state: “…a failure to move against men who still victimize children?” These same-sex attracted priests and bishops are “moved against,” but it is “how” they are moved against by those who know how they are victimizing. And it is not against (…your use of the word) “children,” it is against “older boys.” That is the problem, so you need to define the problem more closely to reality to have it make enough sense in your article. Otherwise you get lame responses from cafeteria Catholics who will read your mess and then “show up” at Easter Sunday Mass expecting to hear something because they have missed going every Sunday to Mass as they are obligated to go to, and the last Mass they went to was at Christmas and they didn’t hear anything then either.
Also, please, all of us, stop calling it pedophilia, (did you read that liberal media?), stop calling it pedophilia, it is same-sex attraction, you know, homosexuality, not with children, (in your generic use of the word), but with boys around 10-14 years-old, not baby boys like one to four year-olds: it’s those who can be “commanded/coerced/lied to” not to tell what has happened, so they are not baby boy “children.” This is one of those instances when the generic word “children” is almost always used by the liberal media instead of the gender-specific and much more accurate “older boys.” I don’t want to read the word “pedophilia” related to this again, because it is a red-herring word designed to take the spotlight off the real issue, but those who are inaccurate and prejudiced with a liberal agenda still will, apparently including Dennis Byrne.
Hmmm, why are the liberal media so very selective with the word “pedophilia” almost all the time when it defies reality and logic? It is not a crisis of pedophilia! It is a crisis of homosexual attraction and action with older boys and how to get that priest who is afflicted with that problem, whether bishop or not, out of the ministry after they have lied to get in. This happens in marriages, too, but let’s stay laser-focused on the article.
Every time that you see the word “pedophilia” or “children” related to “this” crisis, substitute in your mind the words “same-sex attraction in pervert priests acted upon with older boys,” and you will have a more direct notion of the real problem and its consequences and who is responsible for this behavior being written about. The liberal media from the beginning of this crisis have thrown you off track, so don’t be fooled again. They are looking for a “disgust” factor counter to their agenda, but it is more disgusting if you describe the action that is being perpetrated accurately, because it counters nature itself. Oh yeah, and God designed nature. The liberal media design of their agenda is also unnatural.
This poorly written opinion of Dennis Byrne is the latest example of the years of liberal media bashing the Church Jesus founded. None of us want an older boy to be abused, that is the goal, no more same-sex abuse of older boys by perverted priests/bishops, but don’t let Dennis Byrne fool you with his writing.
For example, he could have decided to write better without using “children” when he should have written “older boys” and not writing “pedophile” (or pedophilia) when he should have written “same-sex attraction in pervert priests acted upon with older boys,” but he published what he did, just as I am doing. Dennis Byrne is following the liberal media’s agenda. I am writing it as it is. I am calling the sin as it is. Love the sinner, but hate the sin, but you have to name the sin precisely.
If you, me, all of us, don’t move against these grave sinners “properly” you, me and all of us are part of the problem. They are being yanked out as soon as they can be when those actions occur that can take them out. It must be done properly. There were many opportunities to stop the actions of Fr. McCormack by both lay people and religious, but if any of them had/have a same-sex attraction, too, why would you hamper someone like yourself? You would rather boost them along, or hide them. Why didn’t the police find a cause to arrest him when they had a chance? That was a mistake, a botched job, or Fr. McCormack had demonic help in avoiding arrest. But, it has to be done properly without violence, even though what they do is sexual violence.
Someone has to actually attack the problem in the person. The problem is same-sex attracted priests who act out in any way whatsoever in lustful thought word or deed, and the problem is those who know of this, and don’t get the job done in yanking them out. Even genuine attempts by parents and religious sisters in recent cases are too feeble.
Cardinal George is very good at yanking out these pervert priests, once someone else takes the effort to get them “outed.” Some people don’t take that effort, or their efforts stop too soon.
Bishop Imesch needs to be yanked out because he is one of them causing the problem. I don’t know if he has ever had a same-sex attraction, but it sure seems like he has. That is the kind of person who protects a same-sex attracted priest or bishop, one who himself is same-sex attracted. That is the “old boys club” who protect their own. Do you think solid bishops like those in St Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee and Green Bay are going to cotton to a same-sex attracted fellow bishop who is known to have caused sexual abuse of older boys? They are, and we are, called to love the sinner, but hate the sin, so why didn’t this article explore how an errant priest or bishop is removed? How do they take proper action to yank out the bad apples? What is the proper action: yank out pervert priests/bishops starting yesterday. How do you know if you are talking to one? Just listen to them: it can’t be hidden if you hear them and see them. Then properly yank them out. It’s too bad Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee wasn’t yanked out sooner. Who was he protecting?
Here is the other glaring error: “For Catholics who have tried to deny these sins of their fathers, it's time for them to examine their own consciences.” I am not denying the sin, it is actual sin, and if I had any real indication, and I mean any real indication, there was a priest who has a same-sex attraction who would or does act it out in lustful thought, word, or deed, I would (as I stated) have him yanked out immediately—that is the proper action. They have no right to remain in the priesthood ministry, because it was a mistake to ordain any person with a same-sex attraction who would have a lustful thought, word, or deed: it is totally disordered. That’s it—no sinners allowed with that kind of totally disordered sin in that leadership role.
Those who don’t have same-sex attraction, or don’t act on it in thought word or deed (in other words when the thought comes up they very quickly dismiss it as disordered and take no action on it—none, no fantasy or words), are doing great! Keep up the good deeds, and yank out any pervert priests, whether a bishop or not! But don’t let a Tribune columnist write a poorly written article that says Catholics are denying the sin involved here: nobody has stated a denial of sin. An act of perversion such as this is sinful, and anybody who doesn’t stop a known abuser is committing a sin, or a sin of omission in cowardice. What can you state is Cardinal George’s denial of the sin? He is really a good Archbishop who you need to not confuse with any bad Archbishops or bishops.
Those are the glaring errors in the article in the beginning, but there are many others.
As the article states: “Just one incredible example: One accused priest last year took three minors on a Labor Day weekend trip in the absence of another priest assigned to monitor him. And this: failure to properly inform civil authorities, as the law requires, when the evidence is sufficient to believe a crime may have been committed.” There was a call to the police who did investigate and they did not find enough evidence to arrest McCormack that time. If I am not correct on those facts, let me know, and the priest assigned to monitor McCormack, why didn’t this Tribune writer go get a few quotes from him on why he let this happen. When you are talking with him, does he exhibit a same-sex attraction in any of his mannerisms, or is he a coward? Get to the root of the problem.
This is not necessarily an error, but more a self-admission: “Normally, the practices of a religion are beyond fair game for secular columnists.” You do display your own secular view of the Church indicating your poor understanding--as you are most likely a “cafeteria Catholic” who picks and chooses which teachings you will “…find interesting enough, but not enough to not learn very well.” This makes you on par with secular columnists.
More Dennis Byrne errors: “But pedophilia is a criminal offense, and all of us are entitled to wonder why more of these perverts aren't behind bars.” Why is it a wonder when those who would do this same-sex attracted crime with older boys are protecting those from being behind bars? (…and stop using “pedophilia” —be precise— “But any sexual abuse with minors, in these cases: same-sex, homosexual abuse with minors who are older boys are criminal offenses…)
And there are more errors:
When Dennis Byrne states, “The church hierarchy has steadfastly refused to acknowledge that issues of celibacy and female priests have anything to do with these questions. (We're told that "church tradition," not theological certainty, already has provided answers.)” he is neglecting thousands of statements that show--using valid arguments--that celibacy is not the issue, same-sex attraction acted out is the issue. Celibacy is a form of chastity which we all live in heaven. We are not married in heaven. Chastity which all of us are called to live faithfully now on earth, whether in marriage periodically, or completely at all times outside of marriage.
Dennis Byrne clearly doesn’t understand Church teaching, nor does he give evidence in his writing of living his own sexuality faithfully, or he wouldn’t have written that this has anything to do with celibacy and “female priests.” (…again as regarding Dan B., this is not an ad hominem statement, Dennis Byrne’s understanding of The Theology of the Body is coming out in his article: he clearly doesn’t understand the Theology of the Body. “Female priests” doesn’t even make sense any more than having a man act as the Virgin Mary makes sense. The person of Jesus is revealed and is male (because God chose to do that and Jesus called God his Father—do you have a problem with that, too? Jesus never made his own mother a priest!), and the person of the Virgin Mary is female: don’t mix that up, it doesn’t have any relevance at all to same-sex attracted priests abusing older boys. This is just another red-herring argument meaning it throws his readers off the trail of the real problems, the problems related directly to same-sex pervert priests abusing older boys, and those who have the same proclivity in leadership roles protecting them.
Then, Dennis Byrne goes on to state, “Maybe so, but the lay members of the mystical body of Christ--in the face of such resistance--have a moral obligation of their own to pursue these questions to their logical conclusions.” Well, I already have shown that these are not the proper questions if you know the Catholic faith, and as far as logical conclusions, I wouldn’t trust Dennis Byrne with coming to a logical conclusion based on his mistakes with the Catholic faith thus far, but there are more mistakes to bring out of his darkness and into the light of truth.
Dennis Byrne states, “For the many of us who were born, raised and [“defectively”] educated Roman Catholic, the failures of the clergy are beyond the shame they bring down on the church; beyond even the horrible damage they have inflicted on children.” Are you comparing the personal pain and personal damaged inflicted on these older boy victims from same-sex attracted perverts with your own pain in your misunderstanding of the issue? Let’s review again, what is the issue: “failures of ‘the clergy’” or failures of same-sex attracted priests and bishops who protect other same-sex attracted priests and bishops. You see the corollary is that those priests and bishops who don’t have a same-sex attraction don’t protect those who do have a same-sex attraction because they loathe the sin and want all abuse of this kind never to happen when they know about it and can do something in their jurisdiction about it. You, too, can do something in your jurisdiction about it, but don’t distort Catholic teaching in the process, except that for you that is would take a miracle, because you haven’t learned true Catholic teaching yet, but one day, my friend, we all will and that day is coming sooner than you may know.
And finally, here is the last major problem in Dennis Byrne’s poorly written article: “For many of us, it is reminiscent of a church that may have ignored the evils of the Holocaust. This has gone far beyond whether the church effectively adopts some procedural changes recommended by a consultant. It is whether the church still has the moral authority to speak for Christ.”
Okay, the church did not ignore the evils of the Holocaust, where did you get that idea, from some same-sex attracted ex-priest/author? There are a few who have in the past five or six years written poorly researched books, basically total lies about Pope Pius XII. If you want proof, check out Rabbi David Dalen’s excellent refutation of those who have attacked the Church that way in his book, “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope,” (very well researched) and especially non-ex-priest David Goldhagen who has the same conclusions as the group of same-sex attracted ex-priests, so count him in the group as well as they are the ones who are only in it for the money, not intellectual honesty. This whole crisis is far beyond “some procedural changes.” Those who have been trained by “some procedural change” know what to do when they find out about a same-sex attracted priest poised to harm an older boy: yank; or get someone else to yank immediately.
Why do you belittle the Church in your poorly written article? Why do you fall into a slippery slope argument with this crisis—in your particular time on earth—when Satan is attacking through time in a perversion of the God-given gift of sexuality which is intended to treat a man for a woman and a woman for a man in marriage with the gift of new life, new souls, new persons with a conclusion that the Church no longer has the moral authority to speak for Jesus Christ? I suppose that given that logic to reach that conclusion this same-sex attracted disordered action is going to lead to the defoliation of the planet earth, too?
Actually, I would accept that conclusion, if you would have been astute enough to direct your line of reasoning that way (because it is illogical to suppose that the Church—which is the bride of Jesus Christ, which was promised by Jesus Christ that the gates of hell would not prevail against her and that He is with her until the end of time—would lose moral authority, a fallacy of the part for the whole as well as a slippery slope fallacy—and by now, you know which part: the same-sex attracted part). The destructive power, the destructive intelligence that you and I, all of us, are battling, which, by its type, is acted out in evil that was committed by same-sex attracted Fr. McCormack, is the kind of destructive decision-making, a person’s will tempted into sin in lustful thought, word and deed that will, in time indeed, lead to the defoliation of the planet earth at the end of this age of immaturity we live in.
Problem defined accurately—problem solved accurately. Same-sex attracted and acted upon/yank out.
Anonymous said...
This is in response to the latest blogger who says "Anonymous said...
My Jesus, my Saviour, Lord, there is none like You!" who clearly contradicts himself because he is defending John Paul II and equating this most hypocritical pope to Jesus Christ. John Paul II was indeed "none like Christ". For 26 years he did NOTHING to STOP ONE pedophile priests. In fact he continued to elevate pedophile priests perpetrator - Cardinal Bernard Law back to the St. Mary Major.
John Paul II MUST NEVER be BEATIFIED because he was a "FATHER of LIES" for he hid within the secrecy and darkness of the Catholic Church all his 5,148 PEDOPHILE PRIESTS (USA alone, imagine the other countries)
Read the text when Jesus gave the keys to Peter, immediately he also called Peter 'Satan' -- "Get behind me Satan" and that is where John Paul II fits in as the SUPREME PONTIFF of 26 YEARS of PEDOPHILE PRIESTS.
Mathew 16:13-23
You the writer of this blog and the OPUS DEI can NEVER "rewrite" or "un-write" this history of "JOHN PAUL II, the POPE OF PEDOPHILE PRIESTS" -- for his track records have spoken and actions speak louder than words. So no matter how much you try to coat your words, the historical fact is: "Satan John Paul II, get thee behind me."
CA
To Anonymous poster at 10:29 a.m.:
If it were girls between the ages of 10-14 who were being sexually coerced and abused, would you write it off as "opposite sex attraction" that really isn't a big deal? Do you really believe that there is no such thing as spiritual rape, abuse of power and authority, and illegal statutory behavior associated with what you refer to as "same sex attraction?"
The church ties itself in knots trying to defend itself on this issue, and people who aren't drinking the kool-aid of delusion aren't buying it. The church doesn't really want to get rid of gay clergy, because if all clergy who know themselves to be intrinsically homosexual (est. at 30-50%)were to stand down tomorrow the church would implode. Even leaving aside the homosexual issue, well over half the nuns and clergy are in disagreement with one church teaching or another.
The difference between the Catholic faith and other Christian denominations is not necessarily what is right and what is wrong, but rather "who decides." Whether or not the faithful will continue to trust the decision makers in this day of access to information depends on the belief that the priests, bishops, and cardinals are worthy of that moral authority. It wasn't an issue in bygone years, because for the most part the chinks in the armor weren't visible to lay people who were less educated and had limited access to unflattering information. The bigger issue is this: if one undertakes a hard study of the history of the church, her leaders, her overtly political machinations, her expectation of unquestioning loyalty in the face of immorality and self-serving heirarchical moves, should one throw away all powers of observation, discernment, moral conscience, and common sense to say, "Yeah, you decide?"
Maybe for some people like you, who won't -- for whatever reason --use these powers, there is a comfort that comes from not having to make up your own mind. For others, who, like the boy in the Andersen tale, just can't keep watching the parade without even thinking that perhaps the emperor isn't wearing clothes from time to time, it is profoundly dishonest, immoral, and un-Christian.
If that is heresy, so be it. But don't kid yourself -- there are an awful lot of heretics running around these days. You may think the church would be better off without them, but the church could not survive in its current incarnation if they were to walk. No $$$ = No Church.
Here are the facts folks:
If you drive the “get away car” you are “Aiding and Abetting”. If you harbor or assist in hiding the fugitive or take other steps to hinder the apprehension and prosecution of the offender you are “Obstructing Justice”.
“Aiding and Abetting” is a CRIME. “Obstructing Justice” is a CRIME.
There are 187 Dioceses in the United States. Of that number 108 Dioceses or 58% were involved in the “transfer of priests” against whom credible allegations of sexual abuse had been made.
Here from the U. S. Conf. of Cath. Bishops own audit are the names of YOUR 108 transferring or covering up CRIMINAL Bishops and Cardinals who “Aided and Abetted” and/ or “Obstructed Justice”: all are Bishops unless Cardinal as noted
Gregory Aymond Austin Tx; Robert Baker Charleston SC; Robert Banks Green Bay Wi; Gerald Barnes San Bernadino; Eusebius Beltran Oklahoma City; CARDINAL Anthony Bevilacqua Philadelphia; Raymond Boland St. Joe, Mo; Anthony Bosco Greenberg, Pa; Robert Brom, San Diego; Tod Brown Orange, Ca; Alexander Brunett, Seattle; Edmond Carmody Corpus Christi; Matthew Clark Rochester, NY; Patrick Cooney, Gaylord MI; Alvaro del Rio Tyler Tx; Dan Cronin Hartland, Conn; Edward Cullen Allentown Ps; John Cummins Oakland, Ca; James Murray Kalamazoo; Wm Curlin Charlotte, NC; Eldin Curtiss Omaha; Thomas Daily Brooklyn; Joe Delaney Ft. Worth; Francis Dilorenzo Honlulu; Nicholas DiMarzio Camden; Dan Dinardo Sioux City, Ia; Thomas Doran Rockford, Il; Norbert Dorsey Orlando; Mike Driscoll Boise; Thoma Dupre Springfield, Ma; CARDINAL Ed Egan NY; John Favalora Miami; David Fellhauer Victoria Tx; Joe Fiorenza Galveston; Ralphael Flis Superior WI; Pat Flore san Antonio; Harry Flynn St. Paul; Dave Foley Birmingham Al; John Gaydos Jefferson City Mo; CARDINAL Francis George Chicago; Joe Gerry Portland Me; Gerald Gettlefinger Evansville, In; Joe Grossman Raleigh NC; Charles Grahmann Dallas; James Griffin Columbus OH; Jerome Hanus Dubuque; Dan Hart Norwich; Wm Higi Layayette In; James Hoffman Toledo; Howard Hubbard Albant; Alfred Hughes New Orleans; Joe Imesch Joliet; Sam Jacobs Alexandria La; Mike Jarrell Houma-Thibodaux, La; Wm Keeler Baltimore; Tom Kelly Louisville; CARDINAL Bernard Law Boston; John Leibrecht Cape Girardeau Mo; Wm Levada San Francisco; Wm Lori Bridgeport, Conn; George lucas Springfield IL; Rob’t Lynch St. Petersburg; CARDINAL Roger Mahony Los Angeles; Adam Maida Detroit; Henry Mansell Buffalo; Theodore McCarrick Wash. D.C.; John McCormack Manchester NH; Pat McGrath San Jose, Ca; John McRaith Owensboro Ky; Carl Mongeling Lansing Mi; Anthony Milone Great Falls Mont; Manuel Moreno Tuscon; James Moynihan Syracuse; Rob’t Mulvee providence; George Murry St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Is; Janes Murtaugh Palm Beacvh Fl; James Myers Newark; John Nevins Venice Fl; Tom O’Brien Phoenix; Ray Pena Brownsville Tx; Mike Pfeifer San Angelo Tx; Dan Pilarczyk Cinn OH; Anthony Pilla Cleveland; Ricardo Ramirez Las Cruces Nm; Dan Reilly Worcester; Justin Rigoli St. Louis; Tom Rodi B oloxi; Frank Rodimer Paterson NJ; Placido Rodriguez Lubbock; Rob’t Rose Grand Rapids Mi; Sylvester Ryamn Monterey Ca; Roger Schwietz Anchorage; Mike Sheehan Santa Fe; Rich Skiba Milwaukee; John Smith Trenton; John Steinbeck Fresno; Phillip Straling Reno; Walt Sulliva Richmond Va; Arthue Tafoya Pueblo Co; James Tamayo Laredo; James Timlin Scranton; Don Trautman Erie Pa; Ken Untener Saginaw; Wm Weigand Sacramento; Don Wuerl pittsburg; John Yanta Amarillo; and Paul Zipfel Bisnarck ND.
“But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and [that] he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
All should submit their “neck sizes” for their forthcoming and well deserved “millstone”.
A millstone earned because they all protected their turf, putting the reputation of the Church over the well being of the least able to protect themselves, assisting, aiding, abetting, obstructing and protecting their fellow priests and ignoring the plight of the victims and thereby enabling the ongoing and continued abuse of future victims. Absolutley INCREDIBLE!
The USCCB found 11,750 credible victims of 5,148 abusing priests “transferred, re-circulated” priests – covered up for by 108 Bishops and Cardinals – your caring Church at work!
Christ will have to perform a miracle, there will not be enough millstones needed for all the necks, the 5,148 abusers and 108 transferring prelates.
In 1993, a former seminarian reported sexual abuse and exploitation at age 18 by Fr. Michael Yakaitis who was then ( you are going to choke on this ) a “spiritual director” and Dean of Students at St. Mary of the Lake seminary in Mundelein, Illinois.
He reported it to NO LESS THAN seven church officials.
COUNT ‘EM 7, including:
(1) Fr. John Canary former Vicar for Priests and current Rector - St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein; (2) Fr. Larry McBrady former Vicar for Priests in the administration of Frances Cardinal George; (3) Fr. Jerry Kincanas former Rector - St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein and current Bishop of the Tucson Diocese; (4) Fr. Cletus Kiley former Rector - Niles College Seminary and current assistant to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; (5) Joseph Cardinal Bernardin former Archbishop of Chicago; (6) Fr. James Presta Rector - St. Joseph College Seminary, Loyola University of Chicago; and (7) Fr. Michael Foley former Rector - Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary High School.
None of the above deny it with Fr. John Canary admitting on February 7th 2005 in an on-air interview with television reporter Jay Levine of WBBM channel 2 Chicago the earlier reporting of the abuse by the seminarian.
Nothing happened! I guess the ‘blue code of silence’ does not only exist in the police department.
Worse...want to know what Yakaitis did? Introduced the seminarian to pornography and alcohol when the seminarian sought counseling from “this spiritual director” over confusion about his own sexuality....preference included....then initiated the abuse and later to avoid any repercussions “threatened to expose” the seminarian’s sexual preference if he revealed what took place.
In 2000, the former nun principal of Holy Family school in Chicago reported to the Archdiocese that Rev. Daniel McCormack - the current offender - may have had inappropriate contact with a child in 2000. We may now change “may have” to probably did!
In 2001 Cardinal Francis George appointed the same Fr. Michael Yakaitis from the above 1993 episode, to be student Chaplin at the University of Chicago without checking Yakaitis’ background which was in the file of the Diocese clearly evidencing prior credible sex abuse allegations, to which abuse, Fr. Yakaitis has since admitted in 2005. Cardinal George and his staff did not even check Yakaitis’ file when sex abuse scandal was on everyone’s tongue!
In 2003 Francis George had the Rev. Kenneth Martin living in the Cardinal’s residence next door to an elementary school while “working” for the archdiocese knowing that Martin had previously been convicted after pleading guilty to abusing a boy for 3 years while a high school teacher in Maryland.
In 2006 with the McCormack case, we have an abusing priest who with a Masters of Divinity from the same Mundelein Seminary out abusing boys as late as 2002 when sex abuse was on everyone’s tongue proving* that his urges were far more powerful than his common sense, exposing himself to criminal prosecution when this behavior was such a hot button issue.
*The reason to keep these guys out of ministry and away from children and preferably behind bars….they cannot and do not control themselves.
Now on Saturday January 28th 2006 we have his ‘eminence’ Francis George commending the principal of Holy Family school for coming forward in 2000 and reporting Fr. McCormack and expressing regret that the archdiocese failed to respond sooner!
Reporting procedures? Gimme a break! What has changed in the past 13 years or indeed in the last 21 years since the Doyle report?
Like Barbara Blaine of SNAP said on the failures to report the abusers, “it is not a mistake…..It’s a pattern”!
You and your fellow priests need to set aside the reporting procedures issue and concentrate on the real problem at hand…..the church and how it is constituted, its culture, how it is administered and led.
Start with the recommendation that Francis George be removed and demoted….this failure to follow up has happened three times on his watch! Yakaitis, Martin and now McCormack.
That is what would happen in the real world ……and YOU Church apologists out there like Anonymous know it!
Want to know what Christ is doing about now?
Sitting with face buried in his hands atop his lap, softly weeping, shaking his head from side to side, uttering, “ I can’t believe they are doing this in my name”!
Dan B
Dan B's comments should be posted in ALL Catholic websites -- the facts are overwhelming. I agree with his recommendations "that Francis George be removed and demoted….this failure to follow up has happened three times on his watch! Yakaitis, Martin and now McCormack." However, don't be surprised, John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger 'elevated back' the demoted Cardinal Bernard Law to the St. Mary Major.
I also agree about the millstones: All should submit their “neck sizes” for their forthcoming and well deserved “millstone”.
We will need a new manufacturing company who will make the millstone to be tied around the necks of all these Cardinals, Bishops, prelates and pedophile priests.
CA
Here are more facts folks:
Jerry Murphy from Sugar Grove said
People like Cardinal Law and Bishop Imesch should be in jail, or assigned work with abused individuals, instead of a cushy job in the Vatican or an easy retirement. Where are the consequences of their actions or inactions?
He’s got it exactly right. If a boy scout troop leader, a teacher, a gym coach – like the recent Michael Cardamone Aurora, IL who in 2006 received 10 years in Jail, or ANY OTHER ADULT did what these priests have done ….they would be in JAIL.
Why does the Church get a pass? Why are not Bishops and Cardinals “on whose watch” the abuses occurred not fired?...or asked to resign?... Why are not Bishops and and Cardinals who transferred not themselves indicted?
However, in ADDITION to those cited by Jerry Murhpy ie :Cardinal Law and Bishop Imesch as prelates who should be in Jail, I would add Edward Egan NY, Thomas O’Brien Phoenix, Roger Mahony Los Angeles and Robert Banks Green Bay, formerly under Cardinal Law and the greatest transferer of them all of the greatest abuser of them all Father Paul Shanley and of course the other 108 transfering Bishops and Cardinals documented by the USCCB.
Bishop Robert Banks is now Emeritus of Green Bay WI, but as indicated above was formerly an aid to Cardinal Law in Boston when Banks issued a “referral letter” to the Diocese of San Bernardino CA on behalf of the most infamous serial priest abuser of them all, Father Paul Shanley, convicted in 2005, who was a founding member of NAMBLA, North American Man Boy Love Association, saying “there was no problem in Father Shanley’s background” which would be detrimental to his being transferred from the Boston Diocese to the Diocese in San Bernardino.
One of Father Shanley's victims?....a 10 year old boy whose father committed suicide...and whom following which, Shanley took under his wing ostensibly to "counsel" but in reality to seduce and abuse...which he did....the tormented youth eventually committing his own suicide in his early thirties leaving a note detailing a life of drugs, alcohol abuse and bewilderment centering around his father's suicide and his own abuse at the hands of "Father Shanley" who "served" and was "transferred" under Cardinal Law and Bishop Banks.
Today Bishop Banks explains his ‘error’ on lack of substantive information at the time in the file of Father Shanley….an assertion which is not only laughable but palpably incredulous, if not entirely disingenuous, in the category of…“ I was only following orders or I was not aware”….which would earn Bishop Banks, if he were in a different uniform, a 5:30 AM blindfold appointment with the ready, aim fire squad!
Anonymous said... Attacks on the Church and its teachings are a no-no. Sorry. In matters of faith and morals the laity is indeed bound to pray and obey. The laity being more educated and intelligent is debatable. We must not lose faith in the Church because of any of this--that is the bottom line.
Anonymous ….you are really a mope…what you urge is what lemmings do. Anyone who can sit idly by after what has transpired in this Church for the past 35 years is himself guilty for not speaking out against the gravest injustice preferring to ignore criminal behavior by the Church and its leaders
Anonymous said... Pope John Paul II’s mental ability (his mind) remained intact until he died nearly exactly a year ago.
Hey Anonymous, I saw the Pope in Rome in St. Peters personally in November in 2003 and he epitomized, reflected and acted every bit the senile, bedfuddled, puzzled, doddering octogenarian he was, unable to converse in audible tone, head bobbing and teetering, reacting “slowly and with late gestures typical of the elderly” to requests by his assistants and aides.
Anonymous said... The whole “institution” is not at fault.
Oh really? If not the Church who permitted this to continue through its FAILED LEADERSHIP from the TOP down - THEN WHO?
Please your quick decision to absolve the Church borders upon those who would accept the EXCUSE “the dog ate my homework”!
Anonymous said... Cafeteria Catholics who will read your mess ( Dennis ) and then “show up” at Easter Sunday Mass expecting to hear something because they have missed going every Sunday to Mass as they are obligated to go to.
You see that is the problem with you anonymous. You are the typical “ghetto Catholic” believing that showing up in the pews on a Thursday in the 6th week following Easter - Ascension, on January 1st – Solemnity of Mary known as the Feast of the Circumcision in my day, on August 15th – Assumption, on November 11th – All Saints and on December 8th – Immaculate Conception is the ticket to Salvation.
Well I am here to tell you Anonymous that “showing up in the pews”, standing, kneeling, blessing your forehead, lips and heart mindlessly with the other lemmings IS NOT where it is at in terms of salvation.
Those of your ilk who believe so are no doubt already saved because upon meeting St. Peter at the Pearly Gates and inquiring as to whether you made it….do you know what he is likely to reply?....
“Just come and take a seat….we cannot fault you on any account when it is clear to us you did not know any better anyway….we cannot judge you when it is evident you were too stupid to be guilty of any wrong”.
Yep…you have it made Anonymous…you will get there in spite of yourself.
Save me a seat!
Dan B
To be ADDED on the list to be JAILED are two most important persons on TOP of the Hierarchy -- Pope JOHN PAUL II and Cardinal Ratzinger, now POPE BENEDICT XVI.
This is in agreement with Dan B 10:20 AM
-----------
He’s got it exactly right. If a boy scout troop leader, a teacher, a gym coach – like the recent Michael Cardamone Aurora, IL who in 2006 received 10 years in Jail, or ANY OTHER ADULT did what these priests have done ….they would be in JAIL.
Why does the Church get a pass? Why are not Bishops and Cardinals “on whose watch” the abuses occurred not fired?...or asked to resign?... Why are not Bishops and and Cardinals who transferred not themselves indicted?
However, in ADDITION to those cited by Jerry Murhpy ie :Cardinal Law and Bishop Imesch as prelates who should be in Jail, I would add Edward Egan NY, Thomas O’Brien Phoenix, Roger Mahony Los Angeles and Robert Banks Green Bay, formerly under Cardinal Law and the greatest transferer of them all of the greatest abuser of them all Father Paul Shanley and of course the other 108 transfering Bishops and Cardinals documented by the USCCB.
-------------
Let us always remember, that John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger knew and hid all these CRIMINALS pedophile priests WITHIN their 26 YEARS of PAPACY.
CA
This is anonymous who wrote the long response to Dan B. and Dennis Byrne submitted it at 1:29 AM, beginning, "My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You!
Blogger Dan B. is making huge rational errors..."
I really like Dan B.'s FIRST response to my post and saw a huge change in his manner and reasoning in addressing the issue that is so welcome. Maybe we can actually get somewhere now?
But wait…
Well, it is going to be tougher, because while I was composing the following, he goes and falls back to his huge rational errors again, and adds more personal attacks that are indicative of immaturity. I will be the first to admit that he has some very good points in his second post, and now in his third there are some mention of names like we are getting some where here. But how can we make any progress between ourselves with the unholy hatred he is showing? He hasn’t described me as a person correctly, and I know it, and I am here to help him pursue the logical course here, but I am doing my best to help, not hurt. Dan B. is voicing from a source the same of which produces the crisis we are in. That doesn’t make any rational sense and borders on sin.
His FIRST response seems to have been submitted in a spirit of charity which means truly to care in a positive way. I truly care too, not only because I love Jesus immensely and I recognize the evil in these cases which have been and are being perpetrated which gives me a 'holy' anger to want to respond, but I want to contribute my efforts to stop this same-sex attraction abuse and leadership abuse in whatever ways my talents can that makes rational sense. Some bloggers have very irrational responses as we have seen. And I note that Dennis Byrne has not responded to his errors…take your time.
I can defend the faith from attack by focusing on where the real problem is and educating others to errors in logical reasoning, errors in understanding of the teachings of the faith, complete errors in understanding the person of who John Paul the Great is and focusing on what to do to make things better—in a realistic sense. These are all good things and do a great deal of good for many people here. These are some things Dennis Byrne was lacking terribly in his original article as I have shown.
Now I will copy and paste what I had written before seeing Dan B.’s SECOND response, which I will have to disregard any further for now.
…But let's move on from there, and make more positive changes. Let’s together create good from the evil of the same-sex attracted priests/bishops abusing older boys, and not do evil ourselves in our responses, as for example, someone stated that they gave up volunteering and contributing. That does not “create good,” nor does it prevent the specific evil, and shows a misunderstanding of what a mature response to this crisis can be. And you better hold on to your hat, when you see what I propose eventually, but that will await another post at another time, because it involves one bishop in particular losing his hat and how we can do that together, properly and peacefully, if it is God’s will. And whose side do you think He is on?
I totally agree with Dan B.'s response that Jesus Himself is "Sitting with face buried in his hands atop his lap, softly weeping, shaking his head from side to side, uttering, “I can’t believe they are doing this in my name”! I get what Dan B. is saying there, and it sounds true. Excellent response! I really appreciate that he came up with that. I am going to say a lot of encouraging things about Dan B.’s second post, but it will take me some time, so if you can speed your eyes along these words, it won’t take too long. Ready, get set, go!
I also know of an image of Jesus that is unique showing “kind of an authoritarian scowl” on His face which is a huge depiction of the final judgment at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., which is what I imagine He has on His face “now” when these acts are being committed in the hearts and actions of the perpetrators--knowing that He is their judge, and our judge, too, and they are in the act of deciding to “have millstones put around their necks” for all eternity. And they, indeed, will have millstones put around their necks for all eternity, unless they decide to stop, get help which is available, and repent (change their lives in time), as the opposite of Lucifer, the highest created of Angels who decided NOT to serve God and who decided NOT to honor and love Mary, a mere human being, as his Queen of Heaven and Earth, whom God decided to elevate in a position to be raised higher than himself (Lucifer), since God revealed in eternity to each Angel "in turn" (but it happened in an “instant”) since they have no physical bodies in time and space, beginning with Lucifer, that He (God) would Himself, a pure spirit with no body parts, the Creator, become a human being in time.
The creator would become one of His own creatures? (i.e. take on flesh from Mary’s pure, virginal DNA coursing through her 12-13 year-old body in her womb, but first through her heart in her decision-making to be the bearer of Jesus in the “Incarnation”--the greatest mystery of the three greatest mysteries of all time [one person Jesus, two natures: human like us, but without Original Sin, which weakened our intellects (logical reasoning) and wills (decision-making) and therefore our emotions (you know what they are, and that there are 11 of them); and divine, definitely not like us without His grace of adoption in Baptism—until we see Him “face to face” and get as close as we can lovingly get after death and become full of grace which is our goal in time, including any time in Purgatory, always increasing in grace through the sacraments well received and constant prayer—talking with God.
(Just as a side note, since good theology begets good responses in this blog, the other two greatest mysteries of all time are the revealed love in the social life of the Trinity (one God, three persons), and the mystery of God's knowing what we will do tomorrow, yet gives us creatures full freedom to decide for ourselves today and throughout the course of our lives, and therefore "hides Himself" subtly in order to do so, but with the gift of faith [grace in knowledge of things unseen] you have certain knowledge He is here in creation which we do see everywhere especially and hopefully in our hearts).
So, like Lucifer, who decided not to serve: glorifying, praising and worshipping God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and serving Mary the Queen of Heaven and Earth, who would not be worshipped, but venerated, honored, and blessed for her love, in the greatest humility, (the opposite of prideful Satan) and greatest service in working with the Redeemer, her Son, Jesus, (instead of against her Son) these priests and bishops who commit these same-sex attracted criminal violations (gravely disordered sins) and allow it to go on if they have the knowledge that it is actually going on in a particular case, or most likely will go on for a particular person in ministry (even despite their own same-sex attraction if they have it) will get the same punishment as Lucifer/Satan--an eternity without any trace of the love of God and the social life of the Holy Trinity. I will provide a striking real, physical example of this later. Are those selfish acts of disordered physical pleasure worth it? No, nor is it worth going to jail for what may be the remainder of earthly life, nor is it worth anything good. It is not good for us as persons to act out on any same-sex attraction because it is a disorder against God's creation of us as male and female in our human nature "procreating" and educating a new eternal soul who will hopefully grow to full term to glorify, praise and worship God, and honor Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth.
Can any of us, of our own power, create a soul in love, a real person in the form of a human body (a son or daughter), who hopefully is not aborted, from anything other than how a husband relates to his wife in a love that is a participation in the social life of the Holy Trinity? What sad and disgusting lowering of the gift of sex same-sex attracted acts are (you may have to re-read that last phrase). They are devoid of any good, and only contain an “apparent” good of physical pleasure (which is self-satisfying only in some perversion of logic, and are not in any way “self-sacrificing” as is the love a husband rightly shows for his wife). Not to mention as well, disordered “scientists” who violate the same principle in embryonic stem cell research when the same cells are available without destroying defenseless persons, and the principle of destruction goes on and on in parents, or anyone outside of marriage using contraceptives! I have no hatred of the person, but I hate the sin. So, these items are related in principle, but farther afield than I wanted to go to get back to focusing on someone we all know of who we don’t want to be like in any way because of the path known here, for example:
“Former priest John Geoghan, the convicted [sic: “older boy”] molester whose prosecution sparked the [sic: same-]sex abuse scandal that shook [sic: is still shaking] the Roman Catholic Church nationwide [sic: especially in the Chicagoland area], died Saturday after being attacked in prison. Preliminary indications are that Geoghan, 68, was strangled, Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte said. An autopsy will be conducted Monday.”
That is a real example of a personal path of destruction in this case. I can’t say former priest John Geoghan has a millstone around his neck at this “moment” because A.) none of us can, and B.) we are all still in time, not in eternity where it will be revealed to all of us—in the separation of the “sheep” and “goats,” but chances are certain, that those who continue and don’t decide to repent will meet the same or similar fate--not to disregard or lessen the focus on the harm, damage and abuse inflicted on the vulnerable older boys (and their families, and our Church) who are still suffering to some devastating degree, and those whose knowledge of the faith is weak and decide to act in ways inconsistent with a growth in grace, instead of trying to learn more about the true teaching of the faith and spending more time with Jesus in daily prayer, and developing relationships in their lives that help marriage and educate persons.
So, here is the question: if you were going to work to remove Imesch, in particular, what would you suggest to do it properly, peacefully (no violence), and in a spirit of charity, meaning for his own good as well as ours? Can you provide examples of those who have done this before?
That is all I have time for now. I pose the question and don’t expect a recitation of stats. We are beyond that now. After all, this weekend is the first anniversary of the birth into Eternal Life of John Paul the Great, and you will see in the media coverage the great deeds he did. And there will be coverage that shows his body suffered greatly as we all saw, but his (JPtG’s) mind, his words were sharp and loving up until his death.
Are you capable of great deeds and words now with your limited time? Do you know how the Catholic Church operates with local authority, and JPtG called those local authorities to get the job done. Did you expect him to personally go and yank out an abusive priest? Do I expect you to go and personally yank out an abusive priest? Please tell me how it is done and done properly, and focus, for example, on Imesch.
I will end with one response to someone who posed a question about what if the situation was changed and instead it was 10-14 year-old girls that were abused and not boys of the same age. The sexual abuse of a girl is of a different kind (though equally hideous and gravely sinful—read that again), because our bodies, as designed by God—and not altered by surgery—are male and female as distinguished by sex, and in the order created by God, the male body fits together face-to-face into the female body in a marital communion of persons in love that is the “one-flesh” union according to nature of God’s design, which begets in God’s natural time and way a third, a new person. A male sex act with another male is totally disordered in the full sense of reality in nature by design, so it is even worse than what you pose, and a male sex act with a female who is not one’s wife (therefore it can never be a 10-14 year-old girl) can never be done “in love” (maybe “they” think it is love and it is “apparently love in their emotions,” but it can never be real love which is sacrificial in nature and takes place in the will moved by honest emotions). You see, now you ask about the dictatorship of relativism, which in your mind could equate the sexual abuse of a 10-14 year old girl with the sexual abuse of a 10-14 year old boy, all other things being equal. Again, very hard to think about, you have to look at the reality, but it is worse when you go against nature which was designed by its Creator, God. And the same goes for abortion, very hard to think about, but the very worst thing we are living with now in our current culture of death based on the stats of how often abortion happens, how innocent and defenseless the person is who is aborted in its “own mother’s” womb [not its priest] where he or she dies, and therefore more worthy to fight against, against Satan—who lies incessantly, with our limited time, unless you are given the gift particularly to fight against same-sex attracted priests and bishops who act on those disordered attractions or allow others to. Choose your battle, and gird yourself in holiness, you will need it dearly!
You see, Dan B., I am not an unthinking, disinterested one who just shows up at holy liturgy as you say. I get fed and renewed. I will show up with you out where the work needs to be done at Imesch's door if that's what it takes, but I will ask you to show up at Planned Parenthood's door, too. I am very active in working for my faith as you can tell by what I write. You will know their faith by the fruits of their work. If you have no works, you have no real faith. Keep it positive and garner support which is not easy when the media distorts reality more towards a culture of death.
To the 2:33 PM Opus Dei writer who says: "My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You!"
Your language and vocabulary is definitely one of an Opus Dei member: "John Paul the Great", "culture of death", etc.
All that theology you are writing about at length - John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI and the thousands of pedophile priests are definitely well versed about. They also did and do all that kind of liturgy that you are "fed and renewed" from. But that goes to show that inspite of it all, they were so BLIND to the "sins of the fathers."
Funny, you should mention the Immaculate Conception Basilica in Washington, because next door is the John Paul II Center and it is empty and falling into the mire -- see: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-15-papal-center_x.htm
JPtG "John Paul II the Gutter" is more appropriate because he hid in the secret gutters of the Vatican his thousands of pedophile priests together with the then Cardinal Ratzinger of the Inquisiton. They were so busy canonizing the DEAD like Josemaria Escriva, the cohort of mass murderer Pinochet-- that they could not see the LIVE SINS of their LIVING PEDOPHILE PRIESTS.
CA
My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You!
In response to CA, who wrote:
"…pedophile priests are definitely well versed about. They also did and do all that kind of liturgy that you are "fed and renewed" from. But that goes to show that in spite of it all, they were so BLIND to the "sins of the fathers."
If you cared, you wouldn't use the word "pedophile" because it is a "same-sex attraction for older boys" in those deceptive priests, as the topic we are talking about, and the leaders who would allow that to happen in their jurisdiction, especially those leaders who have the same "same-sex attraction for older boys." Those are the culprits. So that point has been made, and you should follow that point. That is where the problem lies.
Those who don't have a same-sex attraction move to shut down and yank out the perpetrators, for example on a local level, Cardinal George. All those that Dan B. mentioned need to be questioned, not by Jay Levine, but by us who are willing to do something in a positive way without vindictiveness.
Secondly, anyone can receive the sacraments of the Catholic Church unworthily to their own condemnation. For example, any politician, or anyone really, who tries to go to communion and also supports abortion is receiving unworthily. That kind of blindness is not unique to those for whom "same-sex attraction for older boys" seems like a good thing, when clearly it is not in any way. To receive actual grace in a sacrament you have to be disposed to receive, you cannot receive in a state of mortal sin, so the sacrament of penance is necessary. I choose to receive in a state of grace, so that is an obvious statement about theology that is necessary for me to explain to you who doesn't understand even that very basic distinction. You have to judge a tree by its fruit. The most obvious example of this disconnect is a politician, because they choose public life and if they choose to support abortion and try to claim to be Catholic it does not make sense. You cannot both be a Catholic and support abortion, or else you are "Catholic" in name only, because your sacramental action has no good effect for you, in fact, the opposite is true, you harm yourself which is reality. So it is no wonder that Fr. McCormack can celebrate Jesus victory over sin in a "blind manner," and then abuse an older boy the same day, for example, last Labor Day weekend, because he was "living in sin" to begin with and what fruit did he produce? How many older boys just plain old felt bad to be around him in sports, though he hadn't touched them. It must have been sickening to be around him.
The theology is related to a refusal to do one's duty and service before God, and who does one's duty properly. And that theology is necessary because we are not fighting up against one or two individual persons here in the Chicagoland area, for example Fr. McCormack and Bishop Imesch. There are not only plenty of "bullies in the school yard" which have been around ever since children have been around, but there has also been evil in humans after the Original Sin when our intellects became darken, are wills weakened in the struggle against disordered sex, and our emotions out of whack with in our bodies. Without first addressing the spiritual intelligence who tempts those to do what they do internally in their disordered passions, where all this comes from, we won't end up getting the perpetrators in jail, which is our goal, unless they can stop which the research shows is not likely. This is a battle against Satan, first and foremost, and it will not end until we are safe in heaven. You have to have good theology to battle him. I trust Cardinal George has good theology, as I have heard him speak, as did JPtG who battled Satan in other areas. Were there any older boys in Vatican City abused in the past 27 years? Do you have stats on that? John Paul II was the Bishop of Rome, not Joliet, and before that he was Bishop in Krakow, that is where he had jurisdiction, not the whole planet. Same for Benedict XVI, he was a bishop in Bavaria, not Batavia, they do battle against the same enemy but on the turf they have jurisdiction. So, what you have pointed out here does absolutely no good in getting Bishop Imesch out, for example. Do you know what will be required to get him behind bars? I invite you to consider your own work in self-sacrificial love. You have to give of yourself with the same energy and maturity that mothers and fathers do in raising good children together. It takes tons of hard work and sacrifice, every day in whatever way you can. It takes the same amount of struggle to feed the poor, and prevent abortion, in addition to providing for your family.
Your reference to the JP II Cultural Center is true, but that doesn't help either. I've been there, and there is some good and some bad with that building, but I wouldn't have brought that up in this discussion, because I was referring to an image of Jesus and the look on His face across the street. That was in direct relation to Dan B.'s comment. If you are trying to relate its financial trouble somehow to Fr. McCormack's crimes, I don't get the point.
Your last paragraph is another slam that is unreasonable like all name-calling is. If you can get Pope Benedict XVI to come over to Imesch's chancery and yank him out by the ears, then do so, but that is not how this is going to happen. It is going to happen in a way we create here doing tough work in this blog and outside of it with more tough work. And I can only help so much, as I refuse to allow anyone to abuse anybody, but my jurisdiction is limited to my family, basically, and my parish, and I know I have good priests to work with, because I do almost every day.
So, please do your part, too. And do so reasonably, with no name-calling. This is serious work against a strong, serious enemy, and against weak, broken people.
To 6:09 PM Mr. Opus Dei who says: My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You!
1) From your comments – it is evident that you have a ‘mission’ within this blog —and that is to ‘sugar-coat’ the ‘sins of the fathers’ by calling it "same-sex attraction for older boys" when it is in fact PEDOPHILIA and which is a CRIME.
2) You of the Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ are very cunning in concocting new vocabularies like “culture of life”, “culture of death”, “civilization of live”, etc. and you made John Paul II say them. Abraham Lincoln once said: “You can fool the people sometime, but you cannot fool the people all the time.” So here you go again trying to fool the world that pedophile priests are men with "same-sex attraction for older boys". The Papacy and the priesthood are now infected, not with cancer, but with AIDS. No matter how much you try to sugar coat the 26 YEARS of PAPACY of JOHN PAUL II the GUTTER, you cannot hide the AIDS in the Church, neither can you un-write what JPtG has done as POPE of PEDOPHILE PRIESTS, not just one priest like Fr. Maciel, but thousands of ‘fathers’.
3) You are the one who started the name calling in the thread of this blog by calling him JPtG John Paul II the Great. Well, like in any word, there is an antonym, isn’t it. There are two sides to the face of John Paul II. The one that the Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ want to present, and the truth - the way that lay people see him, especially the way the poor victims of clergy sexual abuse see him as a total FAILURE as their “Holy Father.”
4) Stop wasting space in this blog with your theology. Remember, Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger and all those pedophile priests and their transferring Cardinals and Bishops -- were all well versed in theology – and look at how BLIND they were to the EVIL of PEDOPHILE PRIESTS within the Catholic Church. This EVIL was right under the nose of John Paul II – that there was a prostitution ring of poor defenseless little boys – by the very hands that consecrated the Body and Blood of Christ. Fr. Thomas Doyle warned him and the Vatican clearly, it had to take 1 Billion dollars to wake up the Pope and his cohorts – that there is AIDS within the Papacy and the priesthood.
5) One of the titles of the Pope is “Supreme Pontiff” of the universal Church – but in what you are saying he is actually VERY LIMITED. (Do you have stats on that? John Paul II was the Bishop of Rome, not Joliet, and before that he was Bishop in Krakow, that is where he had jurisdiction, not the whole planet. Same for Benedict XVI, he was a bishop in Bavaria, not Batavia, they do battle against the same enemy but on the turf they have jurisdiction.) And then when the time is convenient for you the Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ, you would claim that he speaks ex-cathedra and is infallible and that he is the “Vicar of Christ”. This is kind of rhetoric is precisely the HYPOCRISY of the Papacy and its cohorts.
6) I mentioned the John Paul II Center – to drive the point that he is NOT GREAT as you have started to name-call him in this blog. That center was meant to immortalize him in America, and it is turning out to be fiasco and going down into the mire – because people are beginning to see that he is not great – and there is nothing great about that center either. Don’t fool the Americans!
7) You said: “This is a battle against Satan, first and foremost, and it will not end until we are safe in heaven. You have to have good theology to battle him. I trust Cardinal George has good theology, as I have heard him speak, as did JPtG who battled Satan in other areas.”
This is where you are wrong. The battle is not with Satan but rather with a Papacy and his Hierarchy that “harbor and assist” the thousands of pedophile priests.
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As Dan B. said in 6 AM: If you drive the “get away car” you are “Aiding and Abetting”. If you harbor or assist in hiding the fugitive or take other steps to hinder the apprehension and prosecution of the offender you are “Obstructing Justice”.
“Aiding and Abetting” is a CRIME. “Obstructing Justice” is a CRIME.
There are 187 Dioceses in the United States. Of that number 108 Dioceses or 58% were involved in the “transfer of priests” against whom credible allegations of sexual abuse had been made.
Here from the U. S. Conf. of Cath. Bishops own audit are the names of YOUR 108 transferring or covering up CRIMINAL Bishops and Cardinals who “Aided and Abetted” and/ or “Obstructed Justice”: all are Bishops unless Cardinal as noted.
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And the most recent proof of this power of the Papacy and the transferring Bishops happened in Ohio yesterday with Senate Bill 17:
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"The influence of the Catholic Conference is so much greater than ours; that’s what it comes down to," said Barbara Blaine, president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/03/29/20060329-A1-00.html
"They gutted everything. Essentially, the church got everything it wanted," said Christy Miller, co-leader of Cincinnati's chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "The House leadership made a deal with the devil."
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060329/NEWS01/603290327/-1/CINCI
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Don’t use Satan as an excuse. The problem is with the head – when the head is sick, the whole body is sick and Pope JOHN PAUL II the GUTTER was sick and blind about this EVIL of his PEDOPHILE PRIESTS.
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AS Dan B wrote at 3:41 AM
In failing to take action, leadership from the top down, from the Pope through the Cardinals and Bishops chose to cover-up, not only protecting the guilty in their own ranks through “hush transfers”, but worse, abetting the abuse, allowing it to continue, adding to the ever growing number of victims!
The Pope, instead of dismissing Cardinals, and himself taking responsibility and resigning for having failed to take action since 1985, when he knew of the abuse, but choosing to protect the reputation of the Church over concern for victims, thus permitting the abuse to continue, was guilty of the gravest omission!
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History has spoken and you cannot un-write the track record of the top Pope JPtG John Paul II the Gutter.
CA
To Dennis: I agreed totally with your comments; as a lifelong baptized Catholic woman, I have always viewed the church as somewhat of an old-boy system. However, there were many good dedicated priests who did not fit that category, and the good done by the church overall outweighed the bad. I was a drop-out for a number of years, having had enough of the do-as-I-say, not as I do style of the clergy, as well as some personal experiences that turn one off to organized religion. This current scandal may cause me to retreat again; the first name listed on the additional 55 priests with charges against them happens to be one who was assigned to my parish in the 50's and who at that time was assigned to give sex education talks to our 8th grade class. Why are they all above the law?
Sins of the Popes, Sins of the Fathers
A) Dennis Byrne wrote:
For other Catholics, it is further confirmation of a sad reality that has frustrated their attempts to wake up a hierarchy that is too deaf, smug or self-serving.
For non-Catholics, the failure to move against men who still victimize children, years after allegations against the clergy became widely known, is as much of a mystery as an outrage.
For Catholics who have tried to deny these sins of their fathers, it's time for them to examine their own consciences.
B) Dan B. 10:20 AM wrote:
Hey Anonymous, I saw the Pope in Rome in St. Peters personally in November in 2003 and he epitomized, reflected and acted every bit the senile, bedfuddled, puzzled, doddering octogenarian he was, unable to converse in audible tone, head bobbing and teetering, reacting “slowly and with late gestures typical of the elderly” to requests by his assistants and aides.
Anonymous said... The whole “institution” is not at fault.
Oh really? If not the Church who permitted this to continue through its FAILED LEADERSHIP from the TOP down - THEN WHO?
C) Anonymous 3:00 PM wrote:
I was a drop-out for a number of years, having had enough of the do-as-I-say, not as I do style of the clergy, as well as some personal experiences that turn one off to organized religion. This current scandal may cause me to retreat again; the first name listed on the additional 55 priests with charges against them happens to be one who was assigned to my parish in the 50's and who at that time was assigned to give sex education talks to our 8th grade class. Why are they all above the law?
D) Associated Press today reports the continuing “self-serving” saga of Pope Benedict - as Dennis Byrne wrote a “hierarchy that is too deaf, smug or self-serving.” See http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/02/faith/17_34_514_1_06.txt
During speeches and a visit to the hospital where John Paul was treated over the years, Benedict has highlighted John Paul's "silent suffering," so acute in the last days of his life when he tried in vain to speak to the faithful during Easter week commemorations.
"No pope ever left us as many texts as he did; no pope in the past was able to visit all the world like he did and to speak directly to men of all continents," Benedict told the Roman curia Dec. 22. "But in the end, he was struck by the path of suffering and silence.
"The Holy Father, with his words and works, gave us great things, but no less important is the lesson that he gave us in the cathedral of suffering and silence," he said.
E) Here is my reply to “Why are they all above the law?” and why we are in this costly mess of pedophile-priests. It is because Catholics accept blindly the power and words of the Pope because they consider him as the “Vicar of Christ who is infallible”.
Therefore, the Pope with his “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” continues to manipulate on the Catholics and their ‘blind faith’ in him.
Let us remember that Benedict XVI as Cardinal Ratzinger was cohort with John Paul II for 26 YEARS in hiding and perpetuating the thousands of pedophile-priests within their powers and secrecy of the Vatican.
This latest strategy of Benedict to capitalize on the Pope’s health and to make him as the “cathedral of silence and suffering” shows how cunning the papacy is in manipulating the Catholics’ naiveté. In fact, as Dan B. saw him, JPtG (Gutter) was senile, bedfuddled, puzzled, doddering octogenarian he was, unable to converse in audible tone”, the fact and truth is John Paul II REFUSED to be silent.
Benedict also says: “…so acute in the last days of his life when he tried in vain to speak”. In vain indeed, because John Paul II stubbornly spoke gaga that God had to forcibly silence him with a tracheotomy!
CA
Here are two recent news that confirms this blog about "the shame" in the Catholic Church :
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There's plenty of shame to go around in the halls of state government after the watering down of legislation that would have given men and women sexually abused by predatory priests a last chance for justice.
First, shame on Ohio's Roman Catholic bishops, who won their fight to gut the bill. And shame on the dealmakers in the General Assembly, who helped the bishops prevail by meekly genuflecting before the altar of political expediency.
Catholicism is a top-down religion that too often considers the rights and interests of the flock secondary. But as we have said all along, the victims here are not the church and its clergy but the children who lost their innocence and sense of trust to predatory priests.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060402/OPINION02/604020307
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Church played part in bill’s final outcome
"When the bishop calls, you listen," said Rep. Chris Redfern, of Catawba Island, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, who said Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair called him Tuesday. "It goes to the respect we all hold for our churches, whether we’re Catholics..."
http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/04/02/20060402-A1-03.html
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It is this kind of church Bishops' power that harbors the predatory pedophile powers of the clergy. It is this power from the top down of JPtG John Paul II the Gutter and now Benedict XVI that sustains this priests' predatory power.
To my fellow bloggers :
The Catholic Church would have us believe it has a corner on the market of ideas for salvation.
I would begin by asking, what of the poor souls who preceded the coming of Christ, who were without prophets, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, Joshua, Samuel, Eli, or Moses, tablets, an Ark of the Covenant, Christ and his disciples and uh, ….well, you know the rest…. Saved? Doomed? Forgiven? Redeemed? Or, are they getting there on frequent walker miles… earned troding lifetime through their individual vale of tears?
What are these BC souls stained with ‘original sin’ going to plead? “Honest Lord, I was not aware of you or that you were coming. I did not have Judaeo-Christian law. Besides, if I had been born a Jew and had access to prophets and your Church too, I might have had a chance; but as an Eurasian, well, er, uh, I never heard of these theological concepts which when followed ensure salvation”.
To the faithful Joe Imesch and Francis George appear the part…..these humble pastoral shepherds adorned with that goofy pointed mitre hat, holding the seven foot long Crosier or shepherd’s staff, walking down the aisle blessing the “faithful” in their pews, sprinkling them with “holy(?) water” with the aid of a scepter dipped into a bucket held by one appropriately garbed prelate of lower rank and assisted by yet another appropriately garbed prelate of lower rank holding the “shepherd’s cloak aside to better allow the “throwing arm” to dip and toss the precious water…water which I guess has taken on a new quality when it was blessed by the hand that has committed sins against the seventh commandment.
These guys should not be wearing mitre hats but wearing the cone shaped hats reserved for the disruptive recalcitrant student made to sit silently in the corner upon the stool….the “dunce hat”!
Ever question the church’s stance on birth control?
Can you imagine the ignorance of a Church which maintains that artificial birth control, ie: some alternative form of contraception be it the pill, condom, IUD, spermicidal, or diaphragm is sinful while at the same time advocating birth control by a practice formerly known as “rhythm”, known these days as “natural family planning” ie: abstinence, which operates on the timing of the female fertility cycle, maintaining the latter is not.....when BOTH methods, “artificial” vs. “natural family planning - abstinence” depend upon intent not to conceive.
It is absolute sophistry to maintain that employing the practice of “rhythm” or “abstinence” is or could in intellectual honesty, be considered “open to life” if the intent of employing either is to avoid conception....which it is.
How can anyone employing any method, including abstinence, hoping to avoid conception, be considered as being “open to life”.....except only by mistake or error in timing is conception possible...and this is being “open to life”?
I guess intellectual honesty comes in all forms....I once believed that there was a universal quality to it....as in one truth.......the church’s view has demonstrated that indeed for some, intellectual honesty is in the eye of the beholder.
Just for the science, and in recognition of the concept of “free will”, can we agree that the initiation of conception is not in God’s hands....he is the facilitator....allowing humans “free will” in opting for either artificial means or the Church espoused “natural family planning method” – abstinence formerly “rhythm”.
The Church would have you believe that upon the failure of “abstinence”, God is there to “grant life” in response to “being open to life”, even if being “open to life” was a mistake by the participants…as in abstaining one day too early or one day too late… and that’s “open too life”….what sophistry!
You gotta love these Catholic theologians who “dream this stuff up” so some Pontiff can re-package it in two Latin words, like “Humanae Vitae” with the force of “infallibility”, whoa in an Encyclical no less.
Perhaps we ought to close our eyes for a moment and reflect...yep!, that’s Him - the guy upstairs we would see in our mind’s eye, smiling and amused at the circuitous route taken by we “faithful” at the behest of nitwit theologians to arrive at some measure of peace in following the “church’s teachings”, however misguided.
Ever wonder how is it that 3 times in 1500 years “the word of God” was revealed to MEN ONLY calling themselves either prophets or disciples and ONLY in that part of the world, eternal home of self-proclaimed prophets, longitude 31.71N, latitude 35.10W, the Middle East…hotbed of revelation!
Couldn’t have had female prophets back then…they were either “pushing and bearing down” or when not in labor, busy carrying water in amphoras from the village well, preparing meals or ‘dancing with seven veils’ before some king.
The prophets: Abraham Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Samuel or Eli all men of Semitic ethnicity who received revelations compiled in the Jewish Torah...the word of God
Of course this was followed 2000 years ago by the appearance of Christ whom Muslims believe to be a prophet whose life was memorialized biographically and whose words were supposedly written down for posterity by disciples ( all men ) and Gospel writers all of whom were men like Paul but also ethnic Semites resulting in the Christian Bible…again by men of antiquity….well after the fact, no doubt from their memory and from the memories of others interviewed for their recollections of Him, again without benefit of copier, laptop, fax, scanner, ‘live feed’ or after checking with ‘two fact sources’ to determine accuracy!
Lastly, this was followed by yet a third revelation to a 3rd male of Semitic lineage, Muhammad, who came from the same vicinity, the Middle East…that ‘hotbed’ of divine revelations, this time over a period of 22 years from 600 to 622 A.D resulting in the Koran, the Islamic Bible for Muslims, complete with references to the same Jewish personages of the Torah, Isaac and Abraham, the angel Gabriel and an account of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and of course Jesus, another prophet according to Muslims.
Why the emphasis on male and Semitic? It should be obvious that in the male controlled environment, ONLY males claimed to have received revelation, the word of the Lord, but were more likely sharing the same story like “neighbors over the fence” prompting an astute observer to ask...was it revelation or repetition of similar events and stories circulating for centuries in the same locale, separated by just enough generations without a recorded history, that in each reappearance thereof......well, it is a new revelation...but in reality looking at the three....more like a sharing of the similar story among people of the same locale...controlled by the same ethnicity and gender….all Semitic and all male!
How could any revelation or gospel be even close to being accurate when only males received or wrote them from their perspective without benefit of phone, fax, copier, Fed Ex or crystal ball….only tablets handed out on a mountain top? If we are to believe otherwise, I guess women ought to begin tracing their lineage to determine from which rib of Adam they owe their existence.
Ever wonder why we Catholics celebrate the Assumption, the first of two in “recorded belief ”. The second? Muslims believe Muhammad was assumed at the Dome of the Rock. Wonder where they got that one?
As Catholics, we were infallibly instructed by Pius XII in 1949, only 4 short years after the ending of the greatest conflagration to beset modern man, WWII, that the Virgin Mary was Assumed into Heaven. An infallible belief if you will, not a fact…but who cares or should care?
Don’t you love Papal infallibility. Prior to election he is a mere mortal, and a conniving political one at that, “jockeying” for position in the College of Cardinals angling for that all important vote….then in the instant of political election, “presto” is invested with infallibility…rivaling Johnny Carson as Karnack the Magnificent, prompting astute observers to question whether Carson and some Popes share the same ancestral lineage.…love to have the Pope pick my lottery numbers though.
I know, infallibility comes with the office not with the man…yah sure, but which also leaves unexplained many of the Church’s infallible missteps along the way over the years.
Mary was and is referred to as Virgin because of the Church’s preoccupation with sex “as sinful”, not being able to tolerate that the mother of God could have been impregnated by Joseph at the behest of the “Holy(?) Spirit” where both Joseph and Mary would be the Blessed “Mother and Blessed Father”.
Why does the Spirit have to be Holy? How about just the Divine Genie.
I mention that the Assumption was proclaimed by Pius XII in 1949, because the world endured a economic depression from 1929 to 1938 followed by a six year war ending in 1945…prompting one to ask, how the hell could the Church devote such resources, have supported the men, education, and research for that many years, to the esoteric topic of Assumption, when so much privation and genocide was in its midst?
If you are at all introspective, you have to ask yourself, is it really important to your salvation that the Blessed Mother was assumed? If she was the mother of the son of God, we would expect that she was ‘cut a break’, that she is no longer in the ground in either Jerusalem or Ephesus depending upon what you believe or never was in the ground ie: assumed into heaven upon the moment of death.
But….whether she got there -heaven in a Lexus, a Mercedes, a Cadillac or by Assumption does not and will not mean a rat’s ass in terms of OUR salvation if we do not recognize the larger picture of the poor, the homeless, universal healthcare, and equitable distribution of resources, etc.
That is what salvation is about…not how the Blessed Mother got to Heaven…BUT for the Church to have spent the resources $$ for numerous educated priests for 20 plus years, to arrive at the conclusion of the Assumption which is only but an educated guess at best is a travesty in the prudent allocation of resources…when the $$ and human energy allocated to this inquiry could have been better spent on the poor.
Ever wonder why we observe the feast of the Circumcision as it was formerly known but now known as the Solemnity of Mary as a holy day of obligation…..a rite of Jewish passage in removing the foreskin of the male which is now considered a “best medical practice”? How the hell is observance of this event going to bring anyone closer to salvation?
Ever wonder how a Church claiming infallibility could have embraced tenets like:
1. Purgatory a place premised upon of all things Scripture, finding therein support for the need to be purged and for a need for purification.
2. Original Sin premised again on Scripture, “we have all sinned”…Rom. 3:23 or “My spirit rejoices in my Savior”…Luke 1:47 because if you need to be saved…well it is because you have sinned through your forbearers if not through you.
3. Immaculate Conception because …well can you imagine a guy that would have his own mother stained? with you know what, besides didn’t the angel Gabriel** supposedly say, “Hail Mary full of Grace”. How could she be full of Grace before he was born and before he attained “our salvation” by dying on the cross except that she didn’t need what the rest of us did….“salvation” from someone’s original sin?....well, only because she was without sin! Da…da! ** I guess they had a “hidden mike” to capture the words of Gabriel !!!
4. Assumption because well, who would allow his mother to be put into the ground awaiting final judgment when she was without sin…not in need of purgatory…and when by periodic updating of her celestial/earthly passport, she could be the ambassador from the beyond appearing from time to time to members of the ‘faithful’.
5. Illicitness of Contraception completely negating a central tenet of catholic theology that intent is the gravamen of the offense….ie: one need not do the evil, only intend the evil and the sin was extant…but to intend not to conceive whilst practicing rhythm or abstinence….well that is not sinful because, by dispensation of sorts, this Church approved practice is considered as being open to life “Humanae Vitae”…Oh, yah, let me tell you the one about…..
6. Transubstantiation a doctrine of questionable value, disputed even today by theologians of considerable reputation, and only declared in the year 1215 by Pope Innocent III after the fourth Lateran Council, previous to which the words and intermediaries, bread and wine, were only symbolic of the request, “Do this in memory of me.”
7. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, only woman can be ordained - the foundation of which owes more to the reality of the Human experience well into the 20th century than it does to any intellectual substance feebly mustered by dim witted theologians past or PRESENT.
The whole of Human history bespeaks a world controlled by Men. Indeed, Christ could have hung it up had he chosen any women as a disciple in a society which did not recognize a woman other than as a child bearer, a child rearer, an amphora carrier, or a dancer with seven veils before some king….unless of course he was prepared to hand out some Prozac with the seven loaves and fishes when introducing the concept of equality to the sexes assembled.
Heck, men controlled everything from antiquity to the present.....thus men and only men were the prophets and disciples of old, women only gaining the vote in this country in 1920, and not by inalienable right, as one might philosophically think as equal human beings on this planet….but unbelievably by the passage of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution! Men actually voted to give women an innate right!
8. Limbo, a place for the blameless, which the Church’s most learned theologians have now agreed to do away with as a doctrine having in a manner of speaking consigned this belief to hell where it should have been all along, perhaps with a number of the other Church inaugurated dogmas listed above and accorded infallible status.
Ever wonder how the church can and does spend it resources without input from its stockholders? Cardinal Rodger Mahony just spent $200 Million in 2004 building the “Cathedral of…you guessed it…Our Lady” in Los Angeles, when a $5 million cathedral would have done just fine. Do you think Mahony accounts to Rome on finances?.....I doubt it! Don’t you think we ought to know as a Sunday contributors?......Where is it invested?…….Spent?....Are we to be dopes all our lives? Think Christ would have approved this expenditure?
Ever wonder why the priesthood attracts so many gays, weirdoes, pedophiles and psychological misfits instead of the best and the brightest?
The answer is: because of the very construct of the priesthood - being open to men and only men, it does not seek the best and the brightest but rather appeals to a sizeable segment of misfits among the male population who see in it an opportunity only too good to be true…like putting the fox in charge to guard the hen house…a ready made stable of ‘boys’ to prey upon.
I know of NO successful INSTIUTION in the world where the leader is permitted to lead into one’s eighties or hangs on to leadership while evidence of dementia and failing health impede that leadership except dictators and goofy Popes.
The Church needs to change; needs to include in its policy making one-half of its membership heretofore excluded….WOMEN ; needs to “term limit” the time that any one Pope can hold that position either by mandatory retirement age or outright term limit. No Pope should be permitted to occupy that position for more than 10 years, and any election should equally be term limited by age, all having to retire by age 70.
No Pope should be allowed to fill the ranks of the Church leadership with his intellectual, philosophical and theological clones; but Bishops and Cardinals should be appointed by the Pope with the consent of three quarters of the existing Cardinal leadership and an equal number of lay leaders forming an Ecumenical Congress elected by various dioceses world wide with each voting bloc of dioceses represented by a proportional number of Catholics within that Diocese voting bloc.
A Church so constructed would be intellectually “pollinated” by the experience of its leaders coming into contact with others from the cross section of humanity and would less likely be rendered lemmings by ONE GUY AT THE TOP appointing theological and philosophical clones supporting one point of view to the exclusion of all others.
One does not have to study Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, to have digested Pliny, Cicero or Aquinas, to have read Sartre, Descartes, Kierkegaard, Kant or Hume, to have listened to Eric Hoffer or Hans Kung to discern truth, recognize poppycock or verbal pandering, to distinguish reality from pretense and hyperbole from litotes, to recognize crap. It makes no difference if spoken by a bigot, a conservative religious ideologue, a Pope claiming infallibility or a Cardinal claiming it’s about reporting procedures….crap is crap no matter who says it.
This scandal is not solely about the abuse and the victims nor about the reporting procedures…it’s about the cover up…it’s about failure to take responsibility…about dismissals, demotions, removals, and firings, prosecutions all overdue and none of which ever occurred.
In the real world sex offenders have to register with the authorities ( Megan’s law), they are posted on Police and Sheriff department web sites, they must have no contact with children or they are subject to parole violation.
In the real world institutions that are prone to corruption are not permitted to “police themselves”. Thus Police Departments answer to civilian review boards; doctors here in Illinois to the IL. Dept of Registration; attorneys here in Illinois to the ARDC – Atty. Reg. & Disciplinary Comm. and the IL. Supreme Court.
Why does the Church get to police itself? It is obvious it does not. There have been no demotions, firings removals of Bishops or Cardinals. Maybe if the Pope had been doing his job, maybe had he retired and had a younger successor who saw and acted upon the problem, we would have had Bishops and Cardinals removed, demoted, fired!
In the Church world the sex offenders were rarely prosecuted and were instead “transferred”, referred for counseling”, and REMAINED ANONYMOUS.
Does anyone think these morons would be out there abusing our young people if thePope, the Bishops and the Cardinals had been doing their jobs and IF WE KNEW WHO THE OFFENDERS WERE – as we should have known ?
We the laity….the parishioners…are really like stockholders in a corporation. We are entitled to transparency, to accountability, to openness, to the truth. We should demand an annual budget by parish, by diocese, by country and by church in Rome….a list of the officers….a statement of assets and liabilities. We are entitled to call for the resignation of failed leadership!
We await the Bishop’s Conference to call for firings, demotions and dismissals.....leadership from Rome! We await thinking honest prelates to mandate that it happen!
Those who are content to continue to “bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing” are deservedly relegated to the “lemming routine” of Catholic theology where one stands, sits, kneels and bows, blessing oneself mindlessly with the thumb on the forehead, lips and heart, while dutifully listening to mind numbing words of antiquity in the Scriptures to lead our 21st century lives without EVER questioning these priests, Monsignors, Bishops, Cardinals and Pope, these nitwit men!
One man in Rome appointing philosophical and theological clones like Francis George does not have a corner on the market of ideas for salvation.
A Church mired in dubious theological precedents noted earlier which are routinely followed without re-examination and dialogue is a Church consigned to marginalization in an increasingly skeptical world by a better educated populace of God fearing people who have come to realize that salvation’s destiny is in their hands, not in the traditional drivel marketed by Pope clones walking down the aisle in their mitre hats and carrying crosiers whilst blessing the faithful in their pews…..sprinkling them with the use of a scepter dripping with holy water…..without ever taking responsibility for what has occurred….in other words, business as usual, “bow your heads and….”
Truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it. But, in the end, there it is.
What say you bloggers?
Dan B
What say you other bloggers? In a word you are WRONG. Instead of proving the ignorance of the Church you have just proven your own astounding ignorance. Less I be accused of Argumentum ad Hominem, I will just point out that your words condemn yourself. If you are a Catholic, and not someone pretending to be, I would say that you have neatly excommunicated yourself and should no longer bother posting against a Church you have left. Yes, thereis freedom of speech, but there is also a time to rmain silent--and you have just about hit that point.
What say you bloggers?
Hallelujah, brother! Hallelujah.
The sooner Pope John Paul II the GUTTER is exposed in the clear light of day to the whole world, the better. Instead of his hypocritical piety, he needs to be seen in his true role as a CRIMINAL in the cover-up and hence, perpetuation of his pedophiles priests within the gutters of the Vatican . Look at MSNBC voting for his canonization http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12095238/
MSNBC has sold its soul to the Devil.
The sooner the LIES of Benedict XVI is exposed to the whole world the better. He wants to make John Paul II a "saint at the speed of light" see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12083308/
Isn't Lucifer the Angel of Light? On whose speed of light is the new Pope Benedict riding on?
John Paul II MUST NEVER be BEATIFIED or canonized because he was a "FATHER of LIES" for he hid within the secrecy and GUTTERS of the Catholic Church all his 5,148 PEDOPHILE PRIESTS (USA alone, imagine the other countries)
And now, on the anniversary of his death, Benedict wants to FOOL the world that John Paul II the GUTTER was a "cathedral of silence and suffering." See http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/02/faith/17_34_514_1_06.txt
If there is anything John Paul II the Gutter refused to do, it was to be silent. As we all saw him on television and Dan B saw him : I saw the Pope in Rome in St. Peters personally in November in 2003 and he epitomized, reflected and acted every bit the senile, bedfuddled, puzzled, doddering octogenarian he was, unable to converse in audible tone, head bobbing and teetering, reacting “slowly and with late gestures typical of the elderly” to requests by his assistants and aides.
The doddering gaga Pope a "Cathedral of silence"? Gimme a break!!
Good Lord, give us a break! All these papal lies got to end soon. Christ did call Peter "Get thee behind me, Satan" it is time Christ rebuke the two "Father of Lies" of the 20th century John Paul II the GUTTER" and his successor Benedict XVI in the 21st century.
CA
This is a reply to Patrick who at 8:53 am said: "I would say that you have neatly excommunicated yourself and should no longer bother posting against a Church you have left. Yes, thereis freedom of speech, but there is also a time to rmain silent--and you have just about hit that point."
Who are you to tell anyone to "remain silent" and "excommunicate" themselves from the church and this blog?
You are the typical blind Catholic who "pay, pray and obey" and who would treat priests like "stars" like this one in Chicago http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/otherstates/il_accused_priest_rising_star.htm
You are the kind of dumb Catholic who as Dan B at 3:08 AM said: "Those who are content to continue to “bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing” are deservedly relegated to the “lemming routine” of Catholic theology where one stands, sits, kneels and bows, blessing oneself mindlessly with the thumb on the forehead, lips and heart, while dutifully listening to mind numbing words of antiquity in the Scriptures to lead our 21st century lives without EVER questioning these priests, Monsignors, Bishops, Cardinals and Pope, these nitwit men!"
CA
Dan B replies to Patrick
Patrick, your fears are misfounded. I have come nowhere near to self excommuication as you as you maintain.
Apparently I have however disturbed your comfort zone by qustioning the theology of certain Church dogmas to which you no doubt subscribe like many of the ‘ghetto Catholics’ whose beliefs mirror that of the Church…..a Church concerned more with form than substance.
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at the GIRM, the third revision of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal from ROME which took effect on March 9, 2003
When the faithful should be instructed to execute a profound bow:
The General Instruction calls for a profound bow, ie: a bow of the body from the waist in lieu of genuflecting when the Blessed Sacrament is not present in the church itself. Additionally, when the congregation stands to recite the Creed on Sunday, “At the words, By the power of the Holy Spirit … became man, all are to make a profound bow” except on March 25th, “the Annunciation of the Lord and on December 25th Christmas, when all should kneel instead of executing a profound bow.
Also those who cannot or do not kneel at the consecration ought to make a profound bow when the priest genuflects after the consecration”.
At the same time, however, the General Instruction notes: “Where it is the custom that the congregation remain kneeling from the end to the Sanctus until the end of the Eucharistic Prayer ie: before the Our Father, kneeling should be laudably retained.”
The instruction to bow one’s head before receiving the Sacrament when taking the host in you hand or receiving the Precious Blood was approved on April 17, 2002 by the Vatican:
Patrick, note the year…note the concern with the form, the format…..Patrick, the Church in 2002 was and is in the midst of the greatest scandal to confront any institution in modern times….and what are we getting from the Vatican?…..asinine rules when and how to bow!.....when we should have seen removals, dismissals, firings, referrals for prosecution, admissions of wrongdoing!
For those of you who would like to see more of the silly rules of the GIRM…. by the way….ALL adopted by the U.S. Conf. Of Cath. Bishops…visit the web site by clicking on the link…Ctrl+click www.usccb.org/liturgy/current/chapter4.shtml or paste it into your browser.
Then there is the Porta Sancta, the door to the “right” of the ,main entrance to the Basilica of St. Peter opened only once every 25 years through which the “faithful” may pass upon its opeing and receive by doing so, a plenary indulegence provided the “faithful” have also fufilled the other conditions requsiste to receiving such an indulgence accompanying passage through this ‘holy’ ie: sancta - door ‘porta’.
Thus on the evening of December 24, 1999 Pope John Paul II unsealed and opened the Holy Door, Porta Sancta, in St. Peter's Basilica, initiating the Jubilee Year of 2000.
Because many of the Faithful would not be able to make the journey to Rome and to take full advantage of the graces available to them by passing through the Holy Door, he asked the Bishops of the world to designate Pilgrimage Churches in their Dioceses, upon which he conferred the same privilege of the Jubilee Indulgence as available at St. Peter's Basilica.
Hey what do you expect in this age of modern telecommunications?…a wireless indulgence!...all the way from the Vatican….does it get any better than that?….and this in the midst of the greatest scandal to confront any institution in modern times.
Accordingly, in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the ever obedient but inept buffoon, Francis Cardinal George designated St. John Cantius Church as a Jubilee Pilgrimage Church.
He blessed and sealed the Holy Door at St. John Cantius on August 15, 1999 and it remained closed until Christmas Eve, when it was ceremonially opened before the beginning of Midnight Mass.
From then until the close of the Jubilee Year on Epiphany 2001, thousands of pilgrims made their way to St. John Cantius Church, where they were able to draw from the Jubilee graces and wireless indulgences conferred upon it.
To inaugurate the wireless indulgence the Holy (?) Father, his Eminence (?) Pope John Paul II in his inimitable stupidity and penchant to concern himself with minutia and form ignoring the greatest scandal to confront any institution in modern times issued a Papal Bull.
One wonders if the name Papal Bull derives its name from its origin, the Holy (?) See, the Vatican, Cesspool Central, or from its content…..as in, “here is some more bull”…..I suspect the latter…how about you Patrick?
From the Papal Bull:
"I decree that throughout the entire Jubilee all the faithful, properly prepared, be able to make abundant use of the gift of an indulgence, according to the directives(*) which accompany this Bull." (*) means read the fine print, no doubt for any warranties excluded!
"With regard to the required conditions, the faithful can gain the Jubilee indulgence: If they make a sacred pilgrimage to the Cathedral Church or to other Churches or places designated by the Ordinary of the Diocese, and there assist devoutly at a liturgical celebration or other pious exercise such as Holy Mass, other liturgical celebration, Lauds or Vespers, Stations of the Cross, the Rosary or spending some time in Eucharistic adoration accompanied by pious meditation ending with an Our Father.(*)”
(*)violations of the 7th commandment do not qualify as a pious exercise unless performed by or in the company of an ordained celebrant!
" The faithful will certainly wish to repeat these visits throughout the Holy Year, since on each occasion they can gain the plenary indulgence, although obviously not more than once a day." **
** almost sounds like “only one indulgence to a customer”….or “offer expires on April 1, 2000”
“With each indulgence, the repentant sinner receives a remission of the temporal punishment due for the sins already forgiven as regards the fault."
WHAT IS AN INDULGENCE YOU ASK ?
An indulgence is the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment due, in God's justice, for sin that has been forgiven.
The remission is granted by the Church in the exercise of the power of the keys, through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and of the saints, and for some just ( read lawful) and reasonable motive.
Regarding this definition, the following points are to be noted:
In the Sacrament of Baptism not only is the guilt of sin remitted, but also all the penalties attached to sin.
In the Sacrament of Penance the guilt of sin is removed, and with it the eternal punishment due to mortal sin; but there still remains the temporal punishment required by Divine justice, and this requirement must be fulfilled either in the present life or in the world to come, i.e., in Purgatory.
An indulgence then offers the penitent sinner the means of discharging this debt during his life on earth.
In granting an indulgence, the Pope acts in his official capacity as having jurisdiction in the Church, from whose spiritual treasury he draws the means wherewith payment is to be made.
Sounds like restitution to me accompanying a sentence of work release.
The Church herself is not the absolute owner, but simply the administratrix, of the superabundant merits which that treasury contains. NO KIDDING?
In administering these merits, the Church keeps in view ( balances ) both the design of God's mercy and the demands of God's justice. The Church therefore determines the amount of each concession, as well as the conditions which the penitent must fulfill to obtain the indulgence.
A plenary indulgence is the remission of the entire temporal punishment due to sin so that no further expiation is required in Purgatory. Whew! Glad of that!
A partial indulgence commutes only a certain portion of the penalty; and this portion is determined in accordance with the penitential discipline of the Church.
To say that an indulgence of so many days or years is granted means that it cancels an amount of purgatorial punishment equivalent to that which would have been remitted, in the sight of God, by the performance of so many days or years of the ancient canonical penance.
Here, evidently, the reckoning makes no claim to absolute exactness; it has only a relative value. **
** The Church ought to hire some Micro Soft engineers and programmers to write a program that would allow a Dell Laptop to compute the exact amount of days that are available in a Partial indulgence….don’t you think Patrick?
Finally, some indulgences are granted in behalf of the living only, while others may be applied in behalf of the souls departed. **
** Sounds like “if you act right now…you can get an indulgence for your departed…” Man, they have thought of everything!
It should be noted, however, that the application has not the same significance in both cases.
The Church in granting an indulgence to the living exercises its jurisdiction; over the dead it has no jurisdiction and therefore makes the indulgence available for the dead by way of suffrage meaning the Church petitions God to accept these works of satisfaction and in consideration thereof to mitigate or shorten the sufferings of the souls in Purgatory. **
** I knew it! A warranty exclusion!....on parts and labor!
Hey Patrick still think the Emperor wears no clothes? Do you still share in the collective ignorance of other like you and members of Opus Dei of the obvious fact that this Church has blown it!
Can’t see the elephant in the room can you!
The obvious truth which is self evident that this Church has committed through its Pope, Cardinals and Bishops crimes of aiding and abetting, crimes of obstructing justice.
For more on indulgences click (Ctrl+click) onto the link
www.newadvent.org/cathen/07783a.htm or paste it into your browser.
I must confess one mistake though Patrick. I checked my passport, it was in 2002 not 2003 I was in Rome.
They say if you want to know what goes on…check with the servants on the inside...they see it all on a daily basis.
Well that is exactly what occurred. We were with our tour guide inside St. Peters and after 45 minutes were about to depart when out tour guide announced in hush tones to our group that he had just received word from one of the Pope’s “advance men” that John Paul II would be arriving in approximately 15 minutes to grant a personal audience to a South American couple, a husband and wife, who he candidly admitted to us was described to him by the “advance man” as “heavy hitters”...his exact words...meaning big time contributors...who sought the “audience” and whom the Pope did not want to offend or disappoint knowing that this couple were long time big time donors.
Sure enough in about 18 minutes in comes the “old coot” wheeled in on an electric “Pope scooter”…an special electric wheel chair but with four wheels not two. Up a ramp to the altar and then he was assisted and lifted by three aides into his Papal Chair.
Soon after the couple appeared from the rear of the Basilica, the wife, her head appropriately covered with a white veil.
We were no more than 150 feet from the Pope seated in the pews to his right.
The audience lasted about seven minutes ending of course with a “blessing” administered I might add with the greatest of difficulty.
It said it all...Money talks...and bullshit walks.
Yes, patrick Nero fiddled while Rome burned and like Nero, John Paul II the second concerned himself with trivia while the greatest scandal to beset any institution in modern times was in full swing.
No Patrick, I do not have to show up in the pews on January 1st, August 15th, November 1st and December 8th nor on Sundays to be saved. That is for the lemmings like you.
Turn up you hearing aid Patrick I think I hear the sound of the flute...the Piper is coming....get ready.
Dan B
This is to comment on what Dan B. wrote: "Hey Patrick, Do you still share in the collective ignorance of other like you and members of Opus Dei of the obvious fact that this Church has blown it!"
Opus Dei now controls the Papacy, the Vatican and all Bishops Catholic Conference worldwide. They only MAKE the Pope appoint their own John Paul II and Opus Dei clones. No one is appointed by the Pope unless he has passsed through the scrutiny of the Opus Dei White Mafia within the Catholic Church. see: www.odan.org
They also assign an Opus Dei member to monitor all blogs, like this one, in the web. That guy in this blog ( My Jesus, my Saviour, Lord, there is none like You!
) who suggest to change the word "pedophile" into "same-sex attraction for young boys" is typical of their Opus Dei clone and is definitely one of them.
The Catholic Third Reich (that harbored those thousands of pedophile priests) that John Paul II founded is in full swing in the web and in the world. So beware. Da Vinci Code may be fiction, but the OD Opus Dei Albino murderer in many shapes and forms is ever lurking around us.
CA
Dan B. and CA:
Please don't be concerned about my "lemming" ways or about me challenging your rantings any longer. As I stated days ago, many of those who wish to harm the Church will come forward after the first attack( in this case the Byrne op-ed) and use it as a stepping stone to attack all Church Dogma, teaching and tradition. It was very predictable so I thank you for not disappointing me.
Your combined attacks on the Church, John Paul II and Opus Dei would be quite funny if they were not so tragic. I would imagine almost every Catholic has something, or a number of things, they wish the Church would do better, etc. but a true Catholic would not stoop to attacking Church Dogma and teaching. As it has been clearly stated the Church is made up of humans with all the failings of humans. Both of you have far exceeded making your disappointment about clerical abuse known to all and now are just endangering your souls and those of others with your misguided attacks. Voicing disapproval of the handling of this crisis is understandbale, but now you both are well off the range.
Dan B.- I think you rather enjoy being the modern day Martin Luther- even attacking indulgences. Sorry, but while you must think your arguments are so well phrased and insightful that they will trump anything anyone, like me, may say to you, you cannot be further from the truth( or further from the Truth the you have already strayed). I actually pity you. Martin Luther was eloquent, educated --and a heretic. At least he had the good graces to leave the Church rather than what you are doing. By the way, not going to Mass on Holy Days of Obligation is a mortal sin and very serious. I can say the moon is made of Swiss cheese, but that does not make it so. Believe what you want at your own peril.
CA- While I am not a member of Opus Dei( I am not a good enough person to be a member of that group), I find your attacks on them, and Pope John Paul II very disturbing. If Opus Dei "controlled" the Church as you say it does then maybe we would have a lot less of the problems we have today. Just a thought. When his Holiness JP II is canonized I hope I am nowhere near you since I think you may spontaneously cumbust. Just a joke, but seriously, you really need to chill out a bit.
I really wish I could be more of a challenge to you both, but, alas, the good Lord has not gifted me with an abundance of eloquence. I have only chosen to take a stand here so that others reading this blog, or posting here, would not find things too one-sided. We are all accountable for our actions at our judgment, so I hoped to point out your errors to you. While I have not been successful, it was worth the effort. I pray that you will become fellow lemmings soon.:)
This is CA's first reply to patrick said of 3:00 PM
Funny you would say : “When his Holiness JP II is canonized I hope I am nowhere near you since I think you may spontaneously cumbust. Just a joke, but seriously, you really need to chill out a bit.”
Funny, you would mention “spontaneously combust”. Well, I got news for you – mark this hour and date of this prediction – that the Vatican will be destroyed like the Temple of Solomon and not one stone will be left standing in it – because the blood of the thousands of little boys abused by the JPPP “John Paul II Pedophile-Priests” are crying out to Heaven for justice.
And who built the Temple? Herod the Great.
Tell this to Benedict, that IF, IF, IF he beatifies John Paul II, it will be the beginning of his own SWIFT demise.
FYI I didn’t make this up. More than two good holy religious persons told me this “vision” and “dream” they had during prayer.
Benedict like his predecessor is a “Father of Lies”. First he lied that he did not want to be elected Pope when in fact he and the Opus Dei orchestrated and campaigned his own election, now he is lying that John Paul II was a “cathedral of silence and suffering.”
Look at how Benedict reward priests who oppressed the victims of clergy sexual abuse, he makes them into Bishops. See the news today of the new Bishop of Cleveland http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/14260198.htm
and SNAP’s response to it. http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2006_statements/040406_lennon_named_cleveland_bishop.htm
Funny you’d say “you really need to chill out a bit”. Did you know that the worst US spy who sold us out to the Russians was an Opus Dei member?
See http://www.odan.org/opus_dei_in_the_media.htm
“It Takes Spies in From the COLD” who’d be most capable of lying like their own “Father of Lies”. See http://www.beliefnet.com/story/69/story_6980_1.html
About “spontaneously combust” – the John Paul II Center in Washington, D.C. is self-combusting. Here is a picture of it http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn020206.htm
When they were building it, everything had to be first class, like the Temple of Solomon, it had to have only the best, no expenses spared. But where did all those tens of thousands of millions of dollars go? To Smoke! Combustion! Funny you cannot see the speck in your own eye.
John Paul II may be “great” to the Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ and the Pope, the new trinity. But he is the GUTTER in American soil. His John Paul II Center or Temple is a sign of things to come for the Vatican. The St. Peter’s Basilica and the public St, Peter’s Square where he has canonized so many dead people like Josemaria Escriva and where he spread his lies will become the next Temple of Solomon.
Predicted: April 5, 2006
CA
This is CA's next reply to Patrick said at 3:00 PM about Opus Dei:
You said that: "While I am not a member of Opus Dei( I am not a good enough person to be a member of that group), I find your attacks on them, and Pope John Paul II very disturbing. If Opus Dei "controlled" the Church as you say it does then maybe we would have a lot less of the problems we have today. "
Well, Opus Dei foot-soldier Patrick, this is where you cannot sugar coat the truth and facts of the 26 years of papacy and Opus Dei “control” of the Vatican -- in John Paul's II own words - "the worst evil" of his own JPPP JOHN PAUL PEDOPHILE PRIESTS abuse on thousands of little boys occurred under their 26 years watch.
So far it has cost the church 1.5 Billion in payment for damages of this "Opus Dei "controlled" the Church" that you are boasting about.
There is a new trinity in the Catholic Church: Opus Dei, John Paul II and Legionaries of Christ.
(Not Saint) Josemaria Escriva was a cohort of Pinochet and Franco. see: http://www.odan.org/escriva_to_franco.htm
See: http://www.odan.org/tw_letter_to_pope.htm
Ever wonder why John Paul II never mentioned or bothered to beatify Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero? That is because Escriva dig is not social justice. He is more concerned with his own wealth and the wealth of his members. Here is his Escriva Empire in the United States alone. http://www.odan.org/foundations.htm
And to educate you further about this “Opus Dei ‘controlled’ church here are how they also control the governments of other countries. They also control the Senate of the USA – as in the recent Senate Bill 17 defeat in Ohio see: http://www.snapnetwork.org ("Church Played Part in Ohio Bill's Final Outcome")
There’s more about this “Opus Dei controlled Church” in http://www.mond.at/opus.dei/opus.dei.uo.faq.html
12.1 Q: Are they involved in politics?
A: Yes. A lot of Opus Dei members are involved in politics. Right wing politics of course. They try to get influence within institutions of the European Union, and even high members of FBI and CIA are known to have good??????
Here are some examples:
Peru:
From: http://users.cybercity.dk/~ccc17427/newsflash.htm
Cipriani (Roman Catholic Bishop), a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement in the Roman Catholic church, is one of Fujimori's closest friends and one of the few who have had access to him during the crisis, sources said. One of the hostages, Peruvian Foreign Minister Francisco Tudela, is also close to Opus Dei. ...
[...]
What about the relationship between the military and the Fujimori regime?
The support which both have given to one another in the past has only served to act as a cover for state terrorism and corruption. The government and high-ranking military officials are very corrupt...
From: http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp/intro/intro1.htm
In some regions of the jungle and in Ayacucho, for example, there are priests that train and lead the Army's paramilitary rondas. Among these paramilitary priests the most notorious is the archbishop of Huamanga "Cristiani" of Opus Dei, and the infamous U.S. born killer-priest known as "father Mariano".
Argentina:
From: http://www.ort.org/communit/jpr/AWRweb/Americas/argentina.htm
Another former ultra-nationalist in office was Rodolfo Barra, who became Menem's public works secretary in 1989. Barra also served as a supreme court judge from December 1993 to June 1994, and was minister of justice for the next two years. As a secondary school student in the 1960s, Barra joined the Union Nacional de Estudiantes Secundarios (UNES, National Union of Secondary Students), the youth branch of the right-wing Catholic organization Tacuara, and was in charge of UNES publications, according to the Buenos Aires weekly news magazine Noticias (22 and 29 June 1996). More recently, Barra has been identified with Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic organization founded in Spain, which has no extremist connections. Yet by June 1996, when he proclaimed his repentance regarding his Nazi youth, he had lost the confidence of a section of Argentine society.
El Salvador:
From: http://www.unix-ag.uni-siegen.de/aew/salvador.htm and http://www.latino.com/news/Pope0204.html
about Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle:
... The next paragraph contained a short report from El Salvador: there the Opus Dei Archbishop has assumed the title Brigadier General, in an army that has one of the most brutal track-records in recent history. Now, it transpires, he has banned public observances to commemorate the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero, felled in 1980 while celebrating Mass - executed on the orders of the military whose insignia the current Archbishop so proudly sports
Romero was a man in the middle: he had both affection for the left and the right wing sides of the church. (The Official Opus Dei site even uses him to advertise: http://www.OpusDei.org/romero.htm).
From http://www.rdrop.com/users/bortec/wip/elsal.html
Archbishop Oscar Romero had been a conservative until he was converted by the poor and the military attacks on clergy working with the poor.
Spain:
From: http://rs6.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html
During the late 1950s and the 1960s, Opus Dei members came to control the economic ministries, and they occupied other important cabinet posts as well. This was in keeping with the organization's aim of influencing the development of society indirectly. Opus Dei recruited its members from among the brightest students, which encouraged a sense of elitism and clannishness. Because of this clannishness and the secrecy that surrounded the organization, some critics termed it the "Holy Mafia."
---------------
So you’re right in saying ( I am not a good enough person to be a member of that group). Unless you have tons of money to give them and is cunning like a snake like them, you can’t qualify. You already “failed” in this blog in your mission to try and sugar coat the correct word “pedophile-priests” into “same-sex attraction for young boys” (like their concocted “civilization of love, culture of life, etc.”)
Have fun at the canonization of John Paul II and your combustion together with the Vatican aka the Temple of Solomon!
CA
There is a saying: All that is needed for the forces of evil to succeed is for ENOUGH good men to remain silent.
Likewise, all that is needed for the evil of the JPPP John Paul II Pedophile-Priests to triumph is for ENOUGH good Catholics to do nothing...and to be silent and not question Church teachings and the absence of moral authority of Pope Benedict and his clones Cardinals and Bishops.
Here is "How the Ohio Legislature Betrayed Child Victims of Clergy Abuse, and How We Can Stop It From Happening Nationwide"
See: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20060406.html
Here is an excerpt:
(For those who believe the bishops that there is a zero-tolerance system that requires such reporting, you will have to ask yourself why the churches worked so hard to get a reporting requirement that is so gutless if they were reporting already. Cardinal George of Chicago and Bishop McCormack of Manchester, New Hampshire, are just two recent examples of the continuing coverup.)
Notice to Ohio's citizens: There is apparently nothing anyone can do about the internal corruption of the Church's hierarchy when it comes to child abuse by its own, but it is possible to punish those elected representatives who are willing to choose the corrupt over the abused.
Speak out, in Letters to the Editor and in your community, and above all, vote these cowards out of office. In the meantime, should any of the representatives who made this evil choice ever claim to be "family values" conservatives, feel free to laugh in their faces.
.
CA
The JPPP John Paul Pedophile Priests is the new AIDS of the body of the church.
Here is the latest news from SNAP http://www.snapnetwork.org/index.html
Church hid abuse of client's brother
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-abuse07.html
Lawyers for a 31-year-old Chicago man who filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Archdiocese of Chicago and a former priest he accuses of sexually abusing him in the late 1980s say officials with the archdiocese hid the fact the man's older brother also was abused by the same priest.
CA
Here is a new book that speaks about JPPP John Paul Pedophile Priests and the role of the then Cardinal Ratzinger:
http://www.takebackourchurch.org/news/03.19.2006.php
An excerpt: Pope John Paul II was little more than Ratzinger's puppet, someone whose only use was to wave to the television-watching masses; Ratzinger, meanwhile, nefariously expanded his power over the Catholic Church.......
Talk about Absence of Moral Authority. Bishop Joseph Imesch recognizing ex Bishop Daniel Ryan of the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois at a holy week ceremony this past week. Ryan reportedly had sex with teenage prostitute boys.
Let us be brave and join SNAP and other Catholic groups in demanding Cardinal Francis George to resign as head of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
See this Good Friday night vigil protest at The Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0604130168apr13,1,2852471.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
We need to protest more loudly so that he will soon resign like Cardinal Bernard Law, that is if he got some self-respect left since he has no respect for abused victims.
Cardinal Francis George is cold-blooded and has no compassion whatsoever for any and/or all children abused by the JPPP John Paul II Pedophile Priests in his Archdiocese.
CA
Dennis Byrne
With reference to your commentary in the Chicago Tribune April 10, 2006, I competely agree with your comments regarding the immigration problem and your is the first I've read that really digs into the many complex issues and aspects this situation presents. Keep up the good work.
Matthew Sawyer
Wayne, IL
Here is some news to encourage groups and people to demand the resignation of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles and Cardinal Egan of New York and all other Bishops and Cardinals who harbored the post-WWII World War II criminals - the JPII PP John Paul II Pedophile Priests.
New York Times Editorial
April 19, 2006
http://www.snapnetwork.org/op_ed/cardinals_and_law.htm
CARDINALS AND THE LAW
After years of stonewalling, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles has run out of excuses for blocking the prosecution of rogue priests accused in the church's pedophilia scandal. While other bishops and cardinals cooperated with the authorities, Cardinal Mahony became a study in arrogance who only compounded the church's embarrassment. His lawyers concocted elaborate hypotheses that church leaders and priests — under the confidentiality of "the sanctification process" — somehow enjoyed shelter from their basic duty to cooperate with criminal law enforcement. The Supreme Court put an end to the evasions on Monday in refusing to hear the cardinal's final appeal.
The archdiocese must now follow lower court orders to yield church documents in the cases of two defrocked priests facing criminal trials. The diocese should have to make available similar material affecting the civil suits of more than 500 people who say they were sexually abused by priests in years past, beyond the criminal statutes of limitation. The archdiocese is just one shard of a national scandal that in the past four years has forced the church to promise reforms, pay hundreds of millions in settlements and dismiss more than 700 priests accused of sexually ravaging thousands of schoolchildren.
Cardinal Mahony's resistance to civil authorities is a reminder of the one factor in the scandal that has not been fully scrutinized: the misbehavior of ranking churchmen who fiercely protected and even reassigned guilty priests to prey again upon their flocks.
The church's own laity panel singled out Cardinal Mahony and Cardinal Edward Egan of New York for criticism, but both have defended their past management of scandalous priests. The panel warned that "there must be consequences" for culpable prelates as well as for the priests.
CA
Cardinals, Eagen, George, Mahony, Law, and Bishops Banks and O'Brien,they all deserve and have merited a 5:30AM "blindfold" appointment with the "ready, aim, fire!" sqaud. Failing that,these mopes need to send in their "neck sizes" for their forthcoming "millstone".
Dan B
Hi Dan B
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on!
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage
Where the grapes of wrath are stor'd;
He hath loos'd the fateful lightning
Of His terrible swift sword
for Cardinals, Eagen, George, Mahony, Law, and Bishops Banks and O'Brien, et al
Pope John Paul II
Pope Benedict XVI
they all deserve and have merited a 5:30AM "blindfold" appointment with the "ready, aim, fire!" sqaud.
I'd like to ask you a couple of questions about the millstone and I'd appreciate it if you could email me at:
hit_jp2pp@yahoo.com
CA
Priest as God on earth
Pope as Vicar of Christ on earth
These titles have committed more crimes than any other title on earth.
-------
Brian Guarino said he was a 10-year-old altar boy at his Roman Catholic Church when the priest took him to dinner after a Mass, fed him a little scotch, drove him to a wooded spot at a Westmoreland County seminary and forced him to have oral sex.
The priest forced him into sex almost weekly for about two years in the woods behind the Greensburg church and in the sacristy, sometimes keeping him after class at the diocese's private school, Guarino said.
The clergyman told him, "This is what God wants," said Guarino, now 42, and he said he believed him. "When I was little, I saw the priest as God on Earth," Guarino said.
As the number of encounters increased, so did Guarino's self-loathing.
"I would say to myself, 'I'm bad -- I'm dirty,'" he said. "I would pray every night to God that I would die, for him to take me. I felt like my soul was dead."
Read more about it here: http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1145957027113500.xml&coll=1#continue
John Paul the Great
or
John Paul the Gutter
CA
There were thousands of little boys abused by thousands of JPIIPP John Paul II Pedophile Priests -- but there were also some girls who w ere abused and here is one of the worst ones - in the news today.
Folks, if you can, please support SNAP http://www.snapnetwork.org.
The Robinson case - this girl was "abused by (several) priests in bizarre rituals, often involving candles and altars from the time she was a preschooler until she was 14."
Where was the "Holy Father", the "Vicar of Christ" during all these? And today, what does the "Vicar of Christ" care about her?
John Paul the Great
or John Paul the Gutter
who hid all these thousands of pedophile priests?
The John Paul II Pedophile Priests are the worst criminals since the Nazis.
Folks, I've let these posts run long and passionate. As much as I appreciate your enduring interest, I think it's time to go easy on the name-calling and take a more moderate tone. I'm starting to screen the posts before publishing, and if they don't meet these standards, they won't be posted. Thanks for your understanding.
The Church has been infiltrated by those who hate everything she stands for. These pedophile priests are the antitheses of Catholic priests. The bishops who moved them, did so upon doctors' orders, after psychologists assured them with all the assurance of modern science, that these abusing priests were "cured." If they had not obeyed the psychologists, the AC
LU would have sued them as homophobes. It sounds like, when you wrote this post, you already had your mind made up that the Church was guilty and should be abandoned.
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