On Sunday in Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI addressed an estimated 75,000 Catholics and proclaimed that the reasons untold thousands of priests have abused untold thousands of children remains a “mystery.” Before he became Pope, he was Cardinal Ratzinger, and responsible for addressing the thousands of cases of pedophile priests.
“How are we to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord’s body and confessed their sins in the sacrament of Penance have offended in this way? It remains a mystery,” Pope Benedict XVI stated. “Yet evidently their Christianity was no longer nourished by joyful encounter with Jesus Christ. It had become merely a matter of habit.”
Irish Catholics are among the most hostile to the Vatican, and the pedophile priests tragedy has affected them immensely.
“By describing the decades of child abuse in Catholic parishes, schools and church-run institutions and parishes in Ireland as a ‘mystery’, the pontiff could further anger rank-and-file faithful in Ireland,” News 24 reports:
“Instead of showing them the path towards Christ, toward God, instead of bearing witness to his goodness, they abused people and undermined the credibility of the church’s message,” the pope said.
For more than a decade, advocates for those abused by clergy have been demanding that church leaders in Ireland and at the Vatican accept blame for protecting paedophile priests.
Four state-ordered investigations have documented how tens of thousands of children from the 1940s to the 1990s suffered sexual, physical and mental abuse at the hands of priests, nuns and church staff in three Irish dioceses and in a network of workhouse-style residential schools.
In Ireland, the United States and many other countries, bishops and other church leaders have been accused of systematically covering up paedophile priests, often by shuffling them from parish to parish without telling the faithful about the abuse.
Benedict’s evoking “mystery” disappointed the victims’ advocacy group Snap, or Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. A Snap official, Barbara Dorris, said the pope was speaking in “platitudes, refusing to even accurately name the crisis”.
“The pontiff’s wrong: There’s little mystery here,” said Dorris in an e-mailed statement.
She cited priests’ having “sometimes almost absolute power, over devout and defenceless kids”, as well as bishops who abuse power and “ignore, hide and enable heinous crimes against kids”.
Related:
Pope Tells Catholics To Ignore The Bible, Become Political
Vatican Declares Gay Marriage Holy War, Forms Worldwide Religions Coalition
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{ 6 comments }
How about emotionally stunted, illogical, irrational fascist religious indoctrination? That seems to cover it quite nicely.
I totally agree. Being raised in a strict Catholic household, EVERYTHING (especially homosexuality) was a sin. What is a young gay person supposed to do? They hit puberty and their world is torn apart. They have natural feelings of attraction, but are told relentlessly how they are morally bankrupt and are going to hell. So they say to themselves, "I can't be who I want so I'll become a priest." I think that environment makes them suppress their natural attraction. It stunts their sexual maturity. So, years later when they find themselves surrounded by boys that are the same age as they (priests) were when they first realized their attraction to males, the abuse begins to happen. Not saying that there aren't sexual predators and I'm not dismissing their acts of abuse. They need to pay for their crimes. However, I do believe that the Church is not only complacent in the abuse and cover-ups of abuse, they and their archaic beliefs are responsible for creating some of the problem.
I wonder if Nazinger thinks it's a "mystery" why gays were killed in the Holocaust, given that the Vatican signed the Reichskonkordat political treaty with Adolph Hitler, and the Vatican had a power-sharing agreement with Mussolini. Mussolini claimed that there were no homosexuals in Italy, but at the same time, he worked very hard with the Vatican to demonize gays, many of whom were shipped off to concentration camps. The Vatican has never expressed remorse for its role in sending gay Italians to concentration camps. And there's no "mystery" involved, because we have the documentation for what happened.
Well it seems that the pope thinks that it is a "mystery" why catholic clergy sexually abused children for centuries, "undermining the church"!!!!
Well let me enlighten him !
There is NO mystery why pedophiles abuse children, -that is what they do!
There is NO mystery why they enter the priesthood- that is where they are safe!
There is No mystery why they are safe- they are joining a narcissistic regime which see itself as inviolate, infallable, and untouchable by any laws.
It is NO mystery why they have got away with it for years- the pope and his minions see it as their prime objective to make sure they do not get punished.
It is NO mystery why everyone is disgusted with you- they are fed up with being fed lies and witnessing appalling cover ups.
They is NO mystery why the churches numbers are down- your sheep are now getting wise to your dishonesty, greed and subjugation of human beings.
There is NO mystery why your conspiracy of silence is getting on everyones nerves- the world is smaller now, lots of communications, you can no longer target isolated communities safe in the knowlege that they will not be able to talk to each other.
There is certainly NO mystery why survivors are getting stronger and more verbal- they are standing together after years of being afraid of you, and of being further abused.
There is NO mystery why you are not welcome in the countries you deign to visit in your aptly named plane "Shepherd 1".
There is NO mystery why those countries expect your criminals to adhere to the laws of the land, and not your man made canon law.
There is NO mystery why children who are abused by you and have suffered the worst betrayal of body and trust want an end to THEIR suffering.
What is a bloody mystery is why the hell anyone still listens to a word you say!
And it is a bloody mystery why you are not in jail!
"
There is NO mystery why pedophiles abuse children, -that is what they do!"
Fuck you! Fuck your demonization! This is like saying that "gays rape children, that is what they do" FUCK YOU!! Pedophiles are HUMAN BEINGS, not child molesters.
Pedophiles are HUMAN BEINGS, AND THAT IS NOT, NOT WHAT THEY "DO". No one should be discriminated or stigmatized for their sexual orientation. Many pedophile teens and kids feel demonized and ostracized just for having been born with a natural sexual orientation and its NOT ok!.
Abusing children is NOT "what pedophiles do" you BIGOT. How can you even say that? Do you have a brain? Do you know what a pedophile is? A pedophile is your BROTHER, your SISTER, your son, your best friend. Someone who is EQUAL to you and has the same rights as everyone else.
IT is MISTERY why "journalists" still manage to demonized and stigmatize pedophiles by confusing child moelsters with pedophiles
Bigotry against pedophiles is BIGOTRY. Doesnt matter who is the victim, BIGOTRY IS BIGOTRY. Pedophiles are NOT "child molesters" and this kind of "journalism" is heinous AND EVIL.
Many pedophile children, teens and young people who discover their sexual orientation are constantly being demonized, ostracized, stigmatized, vilified, degraded, told that they are "predators", "morally bankrupt", "monsters" just for HAVING BEEN BORN WITH A DIFFERENT SEXUAL ORIENTATION!
Please STOP and think! Stop demonization and vilification of people based on their sexual orientation. No one chooses to be a pedophile and many pedophile teens (14, 15, 16 years old) suffer this kind of bigotry every day of their lives.
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