Pope Benedict XVI said the Catholic Church must reflect on what is wrong with its message and Christian life in general that allowed for the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests. "We were going to go with 'the devil made me do it,' but that was already taken," the pope told reporters. "Turns out using god as an excuse to do whatever we want really seems to have a downside."
While accepting responsibility for the scandal, Benedict said the abuse must also be seen in the broader social context, in which child pornography and sexual tourism are rampant, and where as recently as the 1970s pedophilia wasn't considered the absolute evil that it is today.OK, now we're not lawyers or anything, but is, "it's my fault except for the part that isn't," and "it was all right in the 70's" really the best defense you can come up with?
The pope made the remarks to Vatican cardinals and bishops gathered for his traditional Christmas party, an eagerly anticipated celebration featuring semi-nude acrobats. "They were all above the age of consent," said one vatican official who asked not to be identified.
While stressing that most priests do good, honest work when they're sober, Benedict said revelations of abuse in 2010 reached "an unimaginable dimension" that required the church to accept the "humiliation" as a call for renewal. "It was like the freakin' wikileaks around here for a while," said a spokesperson for the Vatican Office of Diverting Attention.
"We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustices that occurred without it costing too much money," Benedict said. "We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our cover-up, with our entire way of configuring the whole perverts for Christ thing, that allowed this to occur. We must find a new determination in deflection and obfuscation."
Benedict has previously acknowledged that the scandal was the result of sin within the church and that the church as a result must repent for it and make amends with victims. But Monday's comments suggested that there might be some intrinsic problem with the way Christianity and its message was understood in the modern world that allowed for the abuse to fester unchecked.Oh sure, shoot the message. It wasn't the message that was schlepping the holy rod of salvation to the kiddies your Pradaness, it was the people responsible for administering the message.
"We know of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and our corresponding responsibility," Benedict told the prelates gathered in the frescoed Sala Regia of the Vatican's apostolic palace. But he said the crimes of the priests also had to be looked at in today's context, where child pornography, drug use, sexual trafficking are to some degree considered normal even though an entire generation of children is being harmed.Yeah, normal. That's why perverts, druggies and pimps get arrested when they get caught. Hey your drapiness, when's the last time one of your deviants went to jail, huh?
He said the underlying ideology of such rampant excesses stemmed from the 1970s, when "pedophilia was theorized as something that was in keeping with man and even the child," where nothing was considered good or evil in and of itself but only relative to the circumstances.Hmm...didn't realize cadets in a seminary got a full curriculum of moral relativism and secular humanism, oh wait, it must have been that blasted disco. That stuff could make Chuck Norris gay right there.
4 comments:
4,267 is nothing compared to what the Pope publicly stated for all to see and hear.
"If" your local authorities need to know, Bishops should report abuses by Priests. Isn't that the entire reason why children are abused today and yesterday?
Of COURSE one should ALWAYS report sexual ,emotional or physical abuse because it is against the law! And above all, the child can never protect his/herself unless there is a parent, or elder who takes responsibilty and HELPS!
How dare the Pope minimalize, once again, and capitalize on something which the Catholic Church should be absolutely "out of business" for hiding and assisting! Only with zero tolerance and zero forgiveness can you move on and EDUCATE!. Do the time for the crime. There is nothing "holy" about sodomy or rape!
How dare he.
When the Vatican is still hiding behind not only its racism and pedophilia, but how they make money on both, you would think there would be an international outcry of investigations regarding the Vatican's money-laundering! It's not bad enough they have the same tactics as the Mafia, but they have the same agenda as the Nazis? And we are still waiting for the Pope to go to jail?
What is wrong with our society?
32 million dollars US has been laundered by
"His Holiness"?
And through even more criminal associates involved with exterminating Jews?
What country is asking his help?
Well, the Duke, for one.
The Pope visited England last month and it certainly had to be either about little boys or girls, or the hatred the Queen has for most of her "subjects". They both have the same precise agenda.
Enrich their "Kingdoms".
Pedophilia wasn't considered evil in the 70s? Really? Is that why no one talked about it? Because it wasn't evil?
What a load of crap.
That is the first time BTW I have heard a Conservative Clergyperson use "Relative Morality" as a defense for sex crimes.
Shame on you. And right before Christmas. Shame, shame, shame. Funny? Yes. But still shamey.
"He said the underlying ideology of such rampant excesses stemmed from the 1970s, when "pedophilia was theorized as something that was in keeping with man and even the child," where nothing was considered good or evil in and of itself but only relative to the circumstances."
Strange. I was alive and kicking during the seventies. I don't remember it that way. Maybe because I wasn't at seminary.
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