Losing their religion? Catholicism in turmoil,,MSNBC, AP

[Stuart G]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36094806/ns/world_news-world_faith/


WARSAW, Poland - An Austrian priest avoids mention of Pope Benedict XVI in his Masses. A Philadelphia woman stops going to confession, saying she now sees priests as more flawed than herself. British protesters call for the pontiff to resign.

As the faithful fill churches this Holy Week, many Roman Catholics around the world are finding their relationship to the church painfully tested by new revelations of clerical abuse and suggestions Benedict himself may have helped cover up cases in Germany and the U.S.

There are fears that for those whose commitment is already wavering, the scandal could be the final blow, and a growing chorus is clamoring for the church to embrace full transparency, take a hard line against pedophiles, and reconsider the rule of priestly celibacy

Experts say the church is facing a crisis of historic proportions.
This is the type of problem that arises really once in a century, I think, and it might even be more significant," said Paul Collins, an Australian church historian and former priest.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This story points out, for the first time, that because of this scandal, people are turning away from the leadership of the Catholic Church.. A protest was held, the first one in 700 years..And it is about time.

[golddigger]

1. Good. n/t

[customerserviceguy]

6. Exactly

Since there's no policing method for a pope (I presume they can't 'impeach' one) the longer Pope Ratzo stays alive, the more people do what I did: open their eyes and get out of that crazy old religion.

[SharonAnn]

9. As historian Gary Wills says, they need to get over their "pelvic issues".

And nearly all the Catholic dogma and issues I disagree with are related to these "pelvic issues".

Women's right to be priests, right to birth control, and right to abortion.

Homosexual's right to equality and to marry.

Priests' right to marry.

[zbdent]

2. hmm ... a comparison of standards ...

you have one guy who made a threat against Cantor ... arrested for "terrorism" (apparently, all the other threats he had made against Obama and other left stuff was unnoticeable ...), he's a "Democrat", because he donated to Obama ... constant calls that he's a "lefty terrorist"!!!

but then, you have the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope, pretty much trying to hide all the sexual abuse back in his day ... all those priests committing these acts are "rogues" or "isolated incidents" ...

[Stuart G]

3. Yes, "isolated incidents"...like thousands..not so isolated...

[zbdent]

5. and this "Cantor Terrorist" ...

his threat against Cantor was an "isolated incident" ... isolated from all his threats against hundreds of other people, many of which were against a bunch of lefties ...

[get the red out]

4. Just capitalism

If your product is flawed and you can't cover it up anymore, people may stop buying it. They can't just burn people at the stake for speaking out at this point.

[fasttense]

7. I was once a Catholic

I was raised in a Catholic family, went to Catholic school, was taught by Catholic nuns. But since the 1st scandal broke in the US over child sexual abuse, I stopped going to church. This just put the nail in the coffin.

I no longer consider myself Catholic. I despise the priest and what they did to the children. But I despise the people who covered it up even more. Pedophilia is a sickness. A never ending desire to hurt and abuse the weakest among us. Most pedophiles are created by other pedophiles. Victims become abusers and they create more victims who become abusers. It is a never ending cycle.

Though there are some very special children that once they are abused, do not go on to recreate their 1st sexual experience. NOT all abused children grow up to be abusers. Some of children seem to have a stronger moral understanding and refuse to turn into the very monsters that hurt them.

But at a minimum, the pedophile priest has an excuse. He is deeply twisted and sick. He has very little control over his horrific desires. The people who covered up for him do not have any excuse. They should have known better.

They should have understood their moral obligation to the victims and to preventing future victims. The people who covered this up allowed the pedophile priest to mangle and torture more children. These experts at hiding pedophiles were people who represented morals and values every day of their life. They represented the Catholic religion. If their religion was NOT strong enough to overcome the instinctive need to hide the ugly truth, than I want no part of that religion.

If an abused child can overcome their abuse, not turn their anger, disgust, hurt and betrayal onto yet more victims, than a Catholic Bishop should have as much moral character. But in the end, these Bishops, priest and religious leaders had less moral understanding than a simple child.

[patrice]

8. If the Catholic Church is successful in its mission, members become Real catholics & no longer NEED

religion.

[formercia]

10. So, how is Ratso going to buy new threads?

If 'Real Catholics' don't contribute, after all, he is a stylish, if not garish little troll. it's like a Nose Job and braces, superficial. The ugly is still in the genes.

[elocs]

11. Like the Protestant Reformation, maybe it is time for another Reformation.

The members of the Catholic church would not be leaving it because it has already left them when it expects them to offer their children as a sexual sacrifice on the altar of pedophile priests.

Really, the leadership of the Catholic church must be atheists because how can they possibly believe in a God knowing that one day they will have to appear before that God and justify their actions. An interesting dialog would be how they would explain this away to Jesus.

[formercia]

13. They know it's all bullshit and don't care.

Keep the unwashed masses, poor, stupid and pregnant.

[Cobalt-60]

15. They really do consider us domestic animals

Since the industrial revolution the catholic church has functioned as stock breeder for the wealthy.
Their idiotic opposition to effective family planning makes sense from one angle.
They're trying to maximize the supplies of cheap labor and cannon fodder for their wealthy masters.

[formercia]

17. It's cheaper than slaves

Master has to provide for a slave. If you buy a bad slave, too bad. Bad employee: Hit the road jack.

[ccinamon]

12. I'm surprised it has taken so long....

I thought when I first heard of the priests molesting children 35 years ago that there would be major reprisals back then. Sad that catholics believed more in their religion than in justice for the children.

Just one of many reasons why I do not believe in a god...who would allow such atrocities to go on using his name?

[troubledamerican]

14. Time to choose the One True Religion: J E D I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_census_phenomenon

[Stuart G]

16. I wonder if the world really understands the following:

A large organization employed people that molested children.
That organization covered up those acts, and refused to punish the people that did those acts.
One of the investigators of that punishment, and refusal to punish.. is the current head of the organization.

Question:

How do we treat an organization that acts like this?..especially one that claims the high moral ground?


This is one ugly story.