Pope admits failures on visit

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I would agree. It pains me to state that, but I totally agree. I used to bury my head in the sand and call all of this a witch hunt, but I just can’t do that anymore. How can I keep calling this a witch hunt, when stories about this whole abuse/cover up thing keep breaking on a seemingly every other day basis. I recently started a thread on here stating my anger on this whole issue, and within minutes, the angry hate filled comments started coming my way. I had people on here telling me things like how dare you, and others on here calling me Martin Luther and a heretic. The thread I started was then deleted within hours. It almost caused me to erase my account here. I know that the secular media loves to use the Catholic Church as a punching bag, but I also think if it wasn’t for the media holding the church’s feet to the fire over all of this, much or all of this would still be being swept under the carpet. This whole thing sickens me.

And I am sickened by the bile spewed by the anti-Catholic media. It is not their job NOR their place to ‘hold the Church’s feet to the fire.’

They lie, they lie, and they lie some more. You need a translator for these tools of the enemy and how they distort the truth.

Here is just one example:

What was really said:

(A Vatican spokesman) Deplores Violence In Middle East

What the media reports:

Pope calls Israel Threat to Peace and Security

 

[Saint_wannabe]

And I am sickened by the bile spewed by the anti-Catholic media. It is not their job NOR their place to ‘hold the Church’s feet to the fire.’

They lie, they lie, and they lie some more. You need a translator for these tools of the enemy and how they distort the truth.

Here is just one example:

What was really said:

(A Vatican spokesman) Deplores Violence In Middle East

What the media reports:

Pope calls Israel Threat to Peace and Security

Yeah, this whole abuse & cover up thing never happened and its all a big lie. We as Catholics need to wake up. I don’t mean to sound harsh here, but how could you ever look someone in the eye who was molested as a child by a priest and scarred for life, and tell them its all a big lie?

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Yeah, this whole abuse & cover up thing never happened and its all a big lie. We as Catholics need to wake up. I don’t mean to sound harsh here, but how could you ever look someone in the eye who was molested as a child by a priest and scarred for life, and tell them its all a big lie?

And why would you ever have blind faith in a media that is clearly working against the Church, and not faith in the Church Herself?

 

[Saint_wannabe]

And why would you ever have blind faith in a media that is clearly working against the Church, and not faith in the Church Herself?

I don’t understand why you have such a hostile attitude about this. Why would you state something like that? Why would you accuse me of having a blind faith in the media? And most of all, why didn’t you answer the question that I asked you?

 

[Charlotte408]

Yeah, this whole abuse & cover up thing never happened and its all a big lie. We as Catholics need to wake up. I don’t mean to sound harsh here, but how could you ever look someone in the eye who was molested as a child by a priest and scarred for life, and tell them its all a big lie?

Well, not that their experience is a lie, but what the media is saying happened surrounding the experience, a lot of it is.

It sounds like you can’t compartmentalize your thinking and look at it as two different things.

 

[Nordar]

Yeah, this whole abuse & cover up thing never happened and its all a big lie. We as Catholics need to wake up. I don’t mean to sound harsh here, but how could you ever look someone in the eye who was molested as a child by a priest and scarred for life, and tell them its all a big lie?

No one is saying that the kids who were molested are lying, what do we as Catholics need to wake up to?

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I don’t understand why you have such a hostile attitude about this. Why would you state something like that? Why would you accuse me of having a blind faith in the media? And most of all, why didn’t you answer the question that I asked you?

Why didn’t you?

And what makes you think this is personal?

 

[JReducation]

I believe that what bothers many Catholics is the wording that the media uses, especially the term “cover up”.

Cover up implies malice or malicious intent. We used it for Watergate, for example. What the bishops did was really ignorant, not malicious. They mishandled a very bad situation. But their intention was not malicious. They were terrified of the scandal. Others were confident that what they mental health community was telling them would work. If you sent a man to therapy, he would be fixed and he could go back to work. They trusted the promises that these men made that this would not happen again. None of this implies malice or the intention to do evil or to hurt others. The result was that it did hurt others. That cannot be denied and should not be denied. If we deny that, then we condemn ourselves to repeat the same mistakes.

The media has not given the bishops the benefit of the doubt. It has treated them as common politicians. This angers people.

Did the bishops mismanage this situation? Yes.

Did the bishops make horrible choices? Yes.

Did the bishops trust when they should have been more astute? Yes.

Did the bishops minimize the effects on the victims? Yes.

Did the bishops set out to do harm? No.

This is an important distinction. We have to look at people the way that Christ looks at them and see what Christ sees.

Our journalists are human beings. They have become so secularized that they write as if they had never heard of faith, justice and virtue. In other words, they are ruthless in their writing. I feel sorry for those journalists who are ruthless. Journalism has a moral obligation to tell the truth. Therefore, it is good for journalists to tell this story. But the individual journalist has a moral obligation to practice heroic virtue. Heroic virtue is never ruthless. A journalist who practices heoric Christian virtue uses words to tell a story, not to attack. Many journalists have forgotten that they have a primary responsibility to be saints. They need to take lessons in journalism from the first Catholic journalist of the 20th century, St. Maximilian Kolbe. His writings about the Nazis pale by comparison to what some journalists write aboiut the Church today.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[unafraid]

What question should Sailor respond to? All I read from you are lies. You are not concerned about the victims of abuse, nor do you care about the Roman Catholic Church. You are just another fraudulent poster pretending to be one of us. We have read your tripe before, and we recognize you more easily now.

The darkness awakens the sinner to purport to suffer grave injury, to gain nefarious advantage. They are base liars. I believe that their malice injures, by subterfuge and falsehood. Yet, they are always exposed by the intensity of their hatred, and the force of their righteous indignation. We must pray for you, because our Lord instructs to do so, but it is never easy. That we do it at all is a sign of grace. Shame on all frauds and hypocrites.

 

[JReducation]

What question should Sailor respond to? All I read from you are lies. You are not concerned about the victims of abuse, nor do you care about the Roman Catholic Church. You are just another fraudulent poster pretending to be one of us. We have read your tripe before, and we recognize you more easily now.

The darkness awakens the sinner to purport to suffer grave injury, to gain nefarious advantage. They are base liars. I believe that their malice injures, by subterfuge and falsehood. Yet, they are always exposed by the intensity of their hatred, and the force of their righteous indignation. We must pray for you, because our Lord instructs to do so, but it is never easy. That we do it at all is a sign of grace. Shame on all frauds and hypocrites.

Your anger sounds like hatred. Be careful that the enemy does not use the energy of your anger against your soul.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

My problem is not with Holy Mother Church (under which a MINUTE number of priests went astray—check it against, say, schoolteachers).

My problem is with the media, proven to have been caught out in many lies, and without which could probably sell a mere handful of papers. (And they’re in financial trouble even with their sensationalized and false ‘reporting.’)

This was not always the case. At one point in the history of the USA, for example, the media was actually on the SIDE of the USA.

Now they are mere knee-jerk dissenters and troublemakers.

 

[unafraid]

Brother JR, you are wrong to call my anger hatred. It is righteous indignation in a time of open and rampant blasphemy. Jesus was angry when he confronted the moneychangers on the temple steps; John the Baptist was outraged at Herods adultry. St Francis’ timidity and meekness are certainly admirable, but his way is not the fundament of my religion: Jesus Christ is! Testicularity has a place in Catholicism, as has been evidenced throughout its history.

I prefer a priest like Father Corapi, who is charitable yet forceful, to the effeminate priests that have in modern times usurped the masculine identity which is a great asset to the Church. Ascribing hatred to someone is slander, and it is beneath you.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

What about priests whose lives have been ruined by false accusations? Where is the outrage there?

 

[Charlotte408]

What about priests whose lives have been ruined by false accusations? Where is the outrage there?

Idk myself personally- and I say this in honesty and humility, I’ve always been a pretty judgmental person. I was really mean before converting- it was like, He touched my heart and now I just LOVE everyone…

But it wasn’t always that way, and sometimes, every now and then, I struggle with those mean and malicious, judgmental thoughts…
I would think, if anyone was going to pass a judgment, harshly- lol, it’d be me. Even now- that I don’t do it, if something I percieve as wrong happens, I notice it, but choose not to give into those thoughts-

I’m saying this because even I, with this issue- don’t have so much inflamed outrage against the Church. In fact I’m almost sympathetic! I feel very sadly about the state of affairs the CC is in. Like a baby if I could coddle it…and love it, nurse it back to health. It really makes me wonder, what the underlying unresolved issue REALLY is when you talk to people, and they get all red faced and shaky-upset talking about the CC.

Because I watch the news, I hear horrible stories all the time. That teacher that was caught having sex with her student- That daycare guy who was caught with all the child pornography- but when I talk about these issues, or when I talk about schools/daycares MONTHS later- there’s not all this hatred and resentment towards those establishments…

Its a trip, how people really look right past each incident, and directly at Mother Church.

 

[unafraid]

Amen, Sailor, that is a great point. How many beautiful, holy priests have been stained by false accusations, or guilt by association. The priests who formed me were men of strength and honor; one was a former boxer, the other was a war chaplain. I grew up on the streets and the neighborhoods, and we all went to church, served mass and helped out the sisters with chores and what not. But, we also lived rough lives, and we protected our turf, and sometimes we fought. Our priests, when they caught us, would put the gloves on us and let us duke it out in the ring. We loved and respected our priests, but these men were not shrinking violets. They taught us to defend our family, our nation…and yes, our religion.

So, if I’m on a business trip to San Fran and I, by chance, encounter some radical homosexuals urinating, defecating and spitting on a cross in the middle of the street, I would rescue the icon without hesitation, and if they tried to stop me, well…And I know that every guy from my old neighborhood would do the same. Now, you might condemn us all to hell, BR JR, for our “angry hatred”, but our old priests would put their arms around our shoulders and take us for a nice bowl of soup.

I will always be a vigorous man in all aspects of my life, and that includes responding to blasphemy, and the defamation of my faith. I make no apologies for doing so. I have two little girls who pray for their daddy every night, so I feel good about my spirit. If you don’t like what I say…ignore it.

 

[illmatic]

Aye, its turned into a pecking party.

A friend of mine has fell out with me because I went to see the Pope. Truth.

 

[Charlotte408]

Aye, its turned into a pecking party.

A friend of mine has fell out with me because I went to see the Pope. Truth.

Crazy!

But I’m so jealous that you got to see him…your lucky, and I’m glad you took that opportunity. Wonder if the Pope will ever come out to NorCal?? It seems NO ONE ever comes out here. Everytime I see some convention of some sort its in Idaho or…some buckwheat state…

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Amen, Sailor, that is a great point. How many beautiful, holy priests have been stained by false accusations, or guilt by association. The priests who formed me were men of strength and honor; one was a former boxer, the other was a war chaplain. I grew up on the streets and the neighborhoods, and we all went to church, served mass and helped out the sisters with chores and what not. But, we also lived rough lives, and we protected our turf, and sometimes we fought. Our priests, when they caught us, would put the gloves on us and let us duke it out in the ring. We loved and respected our priests, but these men were not shrinking violets. They taught us to defend our family, our nation…and yes, our religion.

So, if I’m on a business trip to San Fran and I, by chance, encounter some radical homosexuals urinating, defecating and spitting on a cross in the middle of the street, I would rescue the icon without hesitation, and if they tried to stop me, well…And I know that every guy from my old neighborhood would do the same. Now, you might condemn us all to hell, BR JR, for our “angry hatred”, but our old priests would put their arms around our shoulders and take us for a nice bowl of soup.

I will always be a vigorous man in all aspects of my life, and that includes responding to blasphemy, and the defamation of my faith. I make no apologies for doing so. I have two little girls who pray for their daddy every night, so I feel good about my spirit. If you don’t like what I say…ignore it.

In the name of ‘tolerance’ we have thrown God, country, and family into Moloch’s pyre.

 

[Saint_wannabe]

Why didn’t you?

And what makes you think this is personal?

You do realize how childish this sounds, don’t you? I asked you an honest, non threatening question, which then lead you to accuse me of blindly following the media, and not answering my question whatsoever, but taking a verbal cheap shot (more like a sucker punch) at me, and following my question up with another question. I then asked you why you took such a hostile tone with me and disregarded my question that I asked you, and this is the response you gave me. Really?

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

You do realize how childish this sounds, don’t you? I asked you an honest, non threatening question, which then lead you to accuse me of blindly following the media, and not answering my question whatsoever, but taking a verbal cheap shot (more like a sucker punch) at me, and following my question up with another question. I then asked you why you took such a hostile tone with me and disregarded my question that I asked you, and this is the response you gave me. Really?

Again—what gave you the impression that my response was personal?