What are the new parameters on the abuse scandal?

[JackVk]

Let me first start by saying I do not want any claims of the Pope condoning of such horrendous acts committed by the clergy. The Pope has said there are new policies in effect to stem the problem. But what exactly is being done? There has to be more than just “cover up” and “blaming the media”.

 

[rskempf]

The work done has been tremendous. Evidence of success is this. There were six accusations made in 2009. This is an incredibly low number.

Candidates for the priesthood are screened very carefully and with more effective methods today.

What has been done… To begin, this pope, while cardinal Ratzinger, changed the handling of cases to respond very quickly when accusations are made.

The media however, is relentless at the smear campaign. After all, this is the church that stands agains: contraception, abortion, divorce/remarriage, etc. The press will be against the Catholic Church for some time.

Would you like to guess who will win?

 

[Lutheranteach]

sigh…play #1 in the guilty as hell playbook: Deny. Play #2; blame the media. I’ve no real problem (other than the obvious) for the scandal. What the problem was (is) has always been the response. The Catholic Church has no one or no thing to blame other than the Catholic Church for this mess and never has or will have anything else to blame.

 

[jpjd]

sigh…play #1 in the guilty as hell playbook: Deny. Play #2; blame the media. I’ve no real problem (other than the obvious) for the scandal. What the problem was (is) has always been the response. The Catholic Church has no one or no thing to blame other than the Catholic Church for this mess and never has or will have anything else to blame.

Oh please. The Church is past the point of denial. The Church has acknowledged the problem. Have you not read ANY of what the pope has said???

The pope has apologized repeatedly.
Action has been taken by the Church.

Here in my diocese, they periodically put an announcement in the Catholic newspaper that says if you have been abused by someone in the Church to contact so and so. We have cards and a poster in the entrance of the church and our parish hall with the same information.

All parishes in the diocese must implement the Safe Environment program, which is audited for compliance. (And believe me, we take that program seriously. As my parish’s festival chairperson, I am very familiar with the requirements, and we work hard to get everyone to go through the program so that we have enough volunteers.)

The media IS in the business of hammering on the Church to bring it down. The Church stands for everything they are opposed to. Some elements of the media would like nothing better than to see the Church disintegrate. At the very least, they are using this time to push for other changes: women priests, married priests, homosexual marriage, abortion, etc. The media is not simply an innocent do-gooder reporting on a scandal. If you think the media doesn’t have an anti-Catholic agenda, you are naive.

 

[Melek]

There has been talk that psychological studies have found that people who suppress sexual urges or in other words practice celibacy, tend to develop these sort of bizarre sexual fetishes such as pedophilia.

I don’t know how true that is, but is it really necessary for priests to practice celibacy? Weren’t priests allowed to have wives up until the 1500s? Could the Church at one point declare that priests no longer have to practice celibacy?

 

[Lutheranteach]

Oh please. The Church is past the point of denial. The Church has acknowledged the problem. Have you not read ANY of what the pope has said???

The pope has apologized repeatedly.
Action has been taken by the Church.

Here in my diocese, they periodically put an announcement in the Catholic newspaper that says if you have been abused by someone in the Church to contact so and so. We have cards and a poster in the entrance of the church and our parish hall with the same information.

All parishes in the diocese must implement the Safe Environment program, which is audited for compliance. (And believe me, we take that program seriously. As my parish’s festival chairperson, I am very familiar with the requirements, and we work hard to get everyone to go through the program so that we have enough volunteers.)

The media IS in the business of hammering on the Church to bring it down. The Church stands for everything they are opposed to. Some elements of the media would like nothing better than to see the Church disintegrate. At the very least, they are using this time to push for other changes: women priests, married priests, homosexual marriage, abortion, etc. The media is not simply an innocent do-gooder reporting on a scandal. If you think the media doesn’t have an anti-Catholic agenda, you are naive.

I stand by what I said. Having worked for the media for 20-plus years I can tell you I never EVER in that time met or worked with anyone that had an anti-Catholic agenda. I think you mistake those who don’t care about the Catholic Church or will not bow before it or give it some kind of special soft touch treatment as being “anti-Catholic.” As for what has happened it was known for a long long time and the response was…shut up the victim in the fastest cheapest way possible that allows the church to keep its reputation and lets put our priest first and the damage done to the victims…oh well. Have things changed. Yes. Thank God. But don’t for an instant think those changes came about because someone woke up one day and suddenly realized it was wrong. It was because THE MEDIA put a flashlight on the vermin that were committing these crimes…the one thing the almighty vatican just couldn’t seem to do. Quite frankly I’d burn St. Peter’s to the ground if it would undo the pain and suffering brought upon children which has been brought to light.

 

[jpjd]

I stand by what I said. Having worked for the media for 20-plus years I can tell you I never EVER in that time met or worked with anyone that had an anti-Catholic agenda. I think you mistake those who don’t care about the Catholic Church or will not bow before it or give it some kind of special soft touch treatment as being “anti-Catholic.” As for what has happened it was known for a long long time and the response was…shut up the victim in the fastest cheapest way possible that allows the church to keep its reputation and lets put our priest first and the damage done to the victims…oh well. Have things changed. Yes. Thank God. But don’t for an instant think those changes came about because someone woke up one day and suddenly realized it was wrong. It was because THE MEDIA put a flashlight on the vermin that were committing these crimes…the one thing the almighty vatican just couldn’t seem to do. Quite frankly I’d burn St. Peter’s to the ground if it would undo the pain and suffering brought upon children which has been brought to light.

The media I’m talking about is the media that can influence Millions of people: the network news, the news talk shows, the news magazines. Let me give you specific examples: look up Newsweek magazine issues April 5, April 12, and April 19, for starters. The “reporter” who wrote the church articles in those issues is undeniably biased. Can you really justify the sentence that described Archbishop Timothy Dolan as a “looking like a well-fed Fortune 500 CEO”?

You accuse the Church of blaming the media. I say you are of the opposite fault: you see no wrong in what the media has done, the wrong not being reporting on the scandal. They shone the light, yes (and that was needed), but then they also used the scandal as an open door to further their agenda of attacking the Church. That is what I blame the media for, Lutheranteach, and just because the Church had the scandal and they exposed it, does not give them license to kick and spit on the Church and further, to try to change it to conform to their secular ideas of what the church should be.

 

[JackVk]

There has been talk that psychological studies have found that people who suppress sexual urges or in other words practice celibacy, tend to develop these sort of bizarre sexual fetishes such as pedophilia.

I don’t know how true that is, but is it really necessary for priests to practice celibacy? Weren’t priests allowed to have wives up until the 1500s? Could the Church at one point declare that priests no longer have to practice celibacy?

This is another anti-Catholicmyth cooked up by…who knows? Married priests, are essentially, adultery. The Church is personified as a “she”, and the priest is “married” to the Church. Therefore, married clergy constitutes polygamy.

The same principle applies with women. They can’t be priests because it would constitute a lesbian union, which is against Church teachings.

And those certain priests who are sex offenders were ordained in the 1970s, which was a sexually laid-back era. Those priests aren’t “venting” their “needs”, they are just gay. Is it so hard to believe that someone can think about something other than sex?

 

[Melek]

This is another anti-Catholicmyth cooked up by…who knows? Married priests, are essentially, adultery. The Church is personified as a “she”, and the priest is “married” to the Church. Therefore, married clergy constitutes polygamy.

The same principle applies with women. They can’t be priests because it would constitute a lesbian union, which is against Church teachings.

And those certain priests who are sex offenders were ordained in the 1970s, which was a sexually laid-back era. Those priests aren’t “venting” their “needs”, they are just gay. Is it so hard to believe that someone can think about something other than sex?

Priests having to practice celibacy is not doctrine though. For the first few hundred years of the Catholic Church, the Popes, Bishops, and Priests frequently got married and even had kids sometimes. For the record, St. Peter had a wife.

I believe eastern Catholic priests are allowed to have wives but it’s rare for a married man to be ordained.

 

[tammy57]

The work done has been tremendous. Evidence of success is this. There were six accusations made in 2009. This is an incredibly low number.

Candidates for the priesthood are screened very carefully and with more effective methods today.

What has been done… To begin, this pope, while cardinal Ratzinger, changed the handling of cases to respond very quickly when accusations are made.

The media however, is relentless at the smear campaign. After all, this is the church that stands agains: contraception, abortion, divorce/remarriage, etc. The press will be against the Catholic Church for some time.

Would you like to guess who will win?

ZERO. Zero is the only acceptable “incredibly low number.”

t57

 

[JackVk]

ZERO. Zero is the only acceptable “incredibly low number.”

t57

Ideally, yes. But the sad reality is that this is not an ideal world. That is called heaven. Jesus even said that our enemies will plant weeds in the midst of our crops. Metaphorically, what the Church needs is Weed-B-Gone