How many times have we heard this sort of thing? Why are they not condemned from the highest level? I just don't understand and it sickens me.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7075237.ece

Why are they not condemned from the highest level? I just don't understand and it sickens me.

Musn't hurt the Pope.

Either because Ratzinger is the sort of dimwit who thinks that problems go away if you ignore them or – whisper it – he's a paedophile, too.

Mr Woppit – as a catholic, my feelings arent hurt by this at all, and I'm not a poor sensitive little monkey. I find paedophilia as abhorrent as the next person, and am disgusted by the churches repeated attempts to sweep this under the carpet. Target your anger at Ratzinger by all means, but dont tar us all with the same brush, please.
ps, I posted this before you edited your post, so I'm sorry if it no longer appears as relevant.

You are all a bunch of dogma-brainwashed victims who believe in things that aren't there, and the rest of it about stuff that never existed in the first place. ie: The alleged Nazarene and so on.

How's that for a properly-sized brush?

Cheers for that Mr Woppit, you certainly put me in my place!

All catholics have been abused IMO

I suspect that, generally, embarrassing problems are often not dealt with terribly well within large organisations. It may be right that the catholic church basically exists to **** kids, but if that's right then I think we'd also have to accept the possibility that Barings Bank existed basically to be bankrupted by out-of-control traders. But yes, not good. 🙁

"All catholics have been abused IMO"
Care to explain?

Where does one sign up for the University of Woppit?

barnsleymitch – Member

Cheers for that Mr Woppit, you certainly put me in my place!

Nope. Your cult did that to you.

In all likelyhood by some of the "sinister, hysterical virgins" who run it. And your parents, of course…

He should give up one of his jobs really.

I CBA – work it out for yourself?

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

I come here for the intellectual engagement, mostly. 😀

"All catholics have been abused IMO"
Care to explain?

I think it's probably a fair argument that inflicting 'catholic guilt' etc on children is a form of child abuse. That's before you get started on actually molesting kids.

I find it amazing that senior people in the Catholic Church seem to think they can just go, 'oh sorry we made a few mistakes' – no, you systematically covered up child abuse and threatened people who tried to uncover it with excommunication. That makes you complicit in the crime surely.

Target your anger at Ratzinger by all means, but dont tar us all with the same brush, please.

Every Catholic is responsible.

inflicting 'catholic guilt' etc on children is a form of child abuse.

How about inflicting "middle class politically-correct lactose-intolerant angst"?

Slippery slope… 😉

"The indoctrination of children into religious dogma, is a form of child abuse" – Richard Dawkins.

How about inflicting "middle class politically-correct lactose-intolerant angst"?

Yes that's exactly the same as convincing them that they are basically evil and that there is a magic man in the sky who will punish them if they don't repent their horrific sins.

grum – Member

How about inflicting "middle class politically-correct lactose-intolerant angst"?

Yes that's exactly the same as convincing them that they are basically evil and that there is a magic man in the sky who will punish them if they don't repent their horrific sins.

… who is all-powerful and set the game up in the first place so you couldn't avoid it.

Riiiight…

Being a priest Id like to dispel this myth that all catholic priests are fascists. Fascists dress in black, and order people how to live, whereas priests… oh shit.

Catholic priests putting the 'Fear of God' in children.
Or buggery as the rest of us call it.

I really hate it when other people force their religion down your throat..catholic priests are especially good at doing this..

"Every Catholic is responsible."
How does that make any sense? I've already stated my position on this, and I will not accept that simply by being a member of the catholic church I am in some way condoning the acts and omissions of other members. By that argument, would you also state that all muslims are responsible for 911, etc? This is a long standing problem that has long been ignored /condoned by the vatican, which desperately needs addressing, now.

I cannnot work out what is worse here the actuall abuse itself or the way the Church wholeheartedly failed to deal with abusers in an appropriate manner. There seems to be examples in many countries now of know paedos where the Church has not alerted the authorities and in some cases willfully protected perpetrators whilst neglecting abuse victims. It is like some kind of institutional peadophillia if you can have such a thing?
Trully shamefull – not sure it has anything to do with their religous views per se but if this was say an International charity that looked after children or a group of Social workers in an Inner city what would we and the papers be saying then and what would be happening. I think we need to seriously act to regulate the Church as they seem incapable of doing it themseleves and we MUST prevent more children being harmed
Trully horific.
Please note I am not quite as rabid as Whoppit in my aetheism [ is anyone? and not sure if religion is a part of this story or not but clearly the pope himself is implicated in mor ethan oine example of cobver up /inaction

Elegant sidestep there, barnsleymitch.

"get in there!"…..
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
……….. said the priest to his willy….

9/11 was perpetrated by extremists, not the head of the religion.

You can sit there wringing your hands saying how terrible it is and needs addressing now, but you should be lobbying your priests, bishops, cardinals, pressing for action to be taken.

Without the followers the leaders are nothing. Every catholic gives the church it's power and so every catholic is responsible.

Religion is filth.

Rabid? Me?

Trully shamefull – not sure it has anything to do with their religous views per se but if this was say an International charity that looked after children or a group of Social workers in an Inner city what would we and the papers be saying then and what would be happening.

Indeed – this is an organisation that is allowed to run schools, adoption agencies etc.

Also makes their constant pronouncements on the evils of condoms and homosexuality etc seem particularly ironic – not anywhere near as evil as molesting kids and then covering it up presumably? But you can stay a Catholic priest even if you're a paedophile, as long as you're not a gay.

Edit: Sorry, don't admit publically to being gay.

I was at church the other day and when the collection came around I put some Monopoly money in the basket. The priest said to me, "What are you doing? That's not real money!"
"Much like this 'god' of yours…."

By that argument, would you also state that all muslims are responsible for 911, et

Or all members of the Hitler Youth are responsible for the Holocaust.
Some just joined because they liked dressing up in uniforms 😉

The jokes would be funny if religion existed only in the history books.

The priest in a small Irish village loved the rooster and ten hens he kept in the hen house behind the church.
One Sunday morning, before mass, he went to feed the birds and discovered that the cock was missing.
He knew about cock fights in the village, so he questioned his parishioners in church.
During mass, he asked the congregation, "Has anybody got a cock?" All the men stood up.
"No, no," he said, "that wasn't what I meant. Has anybody seen a cock?" All the women stood up.
"No, no," he said, "that wasn't what I meant. Has anybody seen my cock?"
Sixteen altar boys, two priests and a goat stood up.

😆 @ IanMunro

That wasnt what I was trying to do Mr Woppit – You can no more hold every member of the catholic church responsible for this than you can blame all muslims for commiting acts of terrorism – I'm struggling to get my point across here, I know, but I'm certainly not trying to sidestep or deflect 'blame' onto any other religion. Live and let live, please.

By that argument, would you also state that all muslims are responsible for 911, et

Or all members of the Hitler Youth are responsible for the Holocaust.
Some just joined because they liked dressing up in uniforms

Well played sir

Some just joined because they liked dressing up in uniforms

Or being called Mosley……..

barnsleymitch – Member
That wasnt what I was trying to do Mr Woppit – You can no more hold every member of the catholic church responsible for this than you can blame all muslims for commiting acts of terrorism – I'm struggling to get my point across here, I know, but I'm certainly not trying to sidestep or deflect 'blame' onto any other religion. Live and let live, please.

You follow the people who commit these crimes, you follow the people who actively cover up these crimes and in doing so YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.

Terrorist acts are committed by extremists, NOT THE HEAD OF A RELIGION OF A BILLION PEOPLE.

barnsleymitch – Member

That wasnt what I was trying to do Mr Woppit – You can no more hold every member of the catholic church responsible for this than you can blame all muslims for commiting acts of terrorism – I'm struggling to get my point across here, I know, but I'm certainly not trying to sidestep or deflect 'blame' onto any other religion. Live and let live, please.

I'm more interested in you responding to the idea that the only reason you're a catholic, is because your parents placed you in the instructional care of the cultists when you were a child, who brainwashed you before you were old enough to examine the argument independently.

There was a shocking article in the Guardian the other day, from a Catholic, who was saying that the abuse statistics amongst priests weren't too bad, compared to the population as a whole and that hence they are no worse than any other profession. Which is basically wrong – as he is missing the point that almost all abuse is by parents, who obviously have most access to children, and that abuse from people outside the family is incredibly rare. Compared to teachers, Catholic priests are many orders of magnitude more likely to be abusers. The "we're not too bad really" tone and the misrepresentation of statistics in that article really made me angry.

By that argument, would you also state that all muslims are responsible for 911, etc?

Islamic terrorism is hardly on the same scale though. No one sensible has ever suggested that anything other than an extremely tiny minority of Islamic leaders are active terrorists. Whereas 4% of US Catholic clerics have been accused of being child abusers – that is 1 in 25 of them.

It is hard to understand how anyone can claim to take moral leadership from an organisation with such an endemic problem of buggering children. Or can go to church and worship with the knowledge that there is a 1 in 25 chance (or better if there are multiple people running the service) that one of the people teaching them how to be good is also buggering kids in their spare time.

Joe

You can no more hold every member of the catholic church responsible for this than you can blame all muslims for commiting acts of terrorism

Except that in this case the leader of the catholic church is actually complicit in the crime.

An old lady passes a young boy crying outside his house

"whats wrong young lad" she says

"me ma and pa have both been killed in a car crash" says the boy

the old lady replies "Oh thats terrible, do you want me to get the Priest father O'Malley" "

the boy looks up confused and says "sex is the last thing on me mind right now"

anyway an organistation with so much ingrained hatred toward gays, unwed mothers, sinners etc should have no place in moder civilized society