Pope says clergy sex abuse was very badly handled but blames secularism and the media
Like the Chinese government sent the Olympic torch on its goodwill trip around the world, so the Catholic church has sent the Pope to America, to spread good cheer among the faithful and offer a few platitudes and cheap excuses to the victims of the Church’s own rapist priests:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Feted at the White House on his 81st birthday, Pope Benedict XVI praised Americans for their deep religious beliefs Wednesday but later told the nation’s bishops that the scourge of clergy sex abuse had sometimes been “very badly handled.”
Benedict’s comments, his toughest critique yet of the U.S. church’s worst problem, marked the second day in a row that he addressed the abuse scandal. They came as he addressed the nation’s bishops at the imposing Immaculate Conception shrine.
He also reminded the prelates that religion cannot only be considered a “private matter” without any bearing on public behavior.
The pontiff questioned how Catholics could ignore church teaching on sex, exploit or ignore the poor, or adopt positions contradiciting “the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death. Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted,” he said.
Which is incredibly funny – and perfectly well-timed.
Or ill-timed, when you’re a run-of-the-mill (i.e. morally corrupt and hypocritical) politician:
Benedict’s remarks came on a day when all of the five Catholic justices on the U.S. Supreme Court approved the most widely used method of lethal injection, and congressional representatives who support abortion rights said they planned to take Holy Communion on Thursday at a papal Mass.
And then it was back to the child abuse case again.
Which is quite understandable, since it did cost the Church a Hell of a lot of money:
Benedict returned to the clergy sex abuse scandal that has cost the American church more than $2 billion, most paid out to victims in the last six years, calling it a cause of “deep shame.” He decried the “enormous pain” that communities have suffered from such “gravely immoral behavior” by priest.
Cool.
An honest, no holds barred excuse was well overdue. Too many other types of excuses have been made already, so it’s good to see that the current pope…
… is, of course, as bad as all the rest of the corrupt Vatican lot:
Benedict addressed clerical molesters in the wider context of secularism and the over-sexualization of America. “What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?” he asked.
Ah, yes, of course. There we go again…
“So, you see, M’lud, it wasn’t us poor priests who raped these kids for years and years and then tried to hide the facts from the world, it was that evil secularism that did it – and the media, of course…!”
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April 17th, 2008 at 20:15
I grew up Catholic attending Parochial school up thru the 4th grade, all the while being both physically and verbally (tho not sexually) abused by nuns and lay teachers. I refused to be an “Altar Boy” lest give up part of my Saturdays. Now I know I did the right thing, otherwise I might’ve had to fight off sexual abuse as well! Besides that, what about the pope (and the popes before him) going to Latin American countries and railing against condoms and birth control? It’s ok to have 14 kids you can’t afford to feed? The Catholic church doesn’t tithe so I guess they feel they have to do volume business. Most organized religions are just businesses (who don’t pay taxes) anyway, the a$$holes.
April 18th, 2008 at 00:56
Nikolai, thanks for the comment,
J.
April 18th, 2008 at 20:51
I went to catholic school for 12 years. I never met a nun who wasn’t a total hypocrite. To me the pope is just an old man in a silly looking suit. If the pope really cares maybe he should put all that Vatican money where his mouth is. But that wont’ happen so I leave you to make the obvious deduction.
April 19th, 2008 at 09:41
Thanks for the comment. Yes, it is easier to tell the people in Africa to use condoms and to risk starving children and AIDS than it is to invest money in agricaulture or health clinics.
J.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:13
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