This week, all eyes fall on the College of Cardinals in Rome as it prepares to choose a new pope to follow Benedict XVI. But the tableau is rife with Vatican rivalry and controversy.
The tone is somber as the princes of the church gather Monday for general discussions, and to begin deciding when to hold the conclave to elect the next pope. Most Vatican analysts believe it will begin by the end of this week or early next week, so prelates can return to their dioceses in time for Palm Sunday on March 24.
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if common sense were to enter, ten the church would shoose a progressive cardinal that will clean house of all pedophiles while exposing those they have protected by expelling them from the vatican. If Bernard Law is allowed to stand trial for his crimes then and only then can the church begin anew. A new pope with this agenda can reverse the mass exodus from the catholic church. But we all know thats a pipe dream. The catholic heirarchy would make the republican right look like the far left of the democratic party. They are so far right that Genghis Khan would be excommunicated for being too liberal. So they will elect another dark side cloaked leader who will tell everyone we can pray our way out of this mess. And so ...the mass exodus will continue until the catholic church is totally irrelevant.
dewitt needs to learn to distinguish clergy from politicians. Yes, all are men (and women in the case of Pelosi/Warren). What he fails to understand is that the Roman CAtholic clergy has held the cudgel of eternal damnation over its flocks for thousands of years. That cudgel is a portion of what is known as "faith', a most difficult concept to shed. While there are some, apparently including dewitt, who do flee the Church, even the smartest of the pols at least play at giving respect to organized religion, including the Roman Catholic church. Seems no doubt to me that such as dewitt see only one fault threatening the Church with oblivion, and that this worthy sees only one man responsible for all this chaos, that being Cardinal Bernard Law. One thing must be admitted, however, the Boston Globe has not mentioned Cardinal Law in all its stories about the current papal transition, as if it had an agreement to remain silent for mysterious reasons.
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When men are this full of themselves...well, I don't see much hope. Put away the pomp and circumstance and get real. Read the ninth (or tenth, my memory fails me) chapter of Les Miserables, where Victor Hugo got it right a very long time ago..the humble country bishop goes to a big Church meeting and is sickened by the display of arrogance and riches and goes back to his unlatched rectory home, accompanied by the scorn of his "peers." And still people think there will be change? Not on your life. The arrogrance and riches still are more appealing.
The church's history is indeed rife with similar times of scandal and corruption. The difference between those times and now may be that, by and large, the majority of the body of the faithful were not aware of the scandal and corruption. Now they are; in the age of mass media they cannot help but be aware. The news will penetrate even unto the depths of Africa and Asia, the places where the church is growing. And given the conservative bent of those places, I find it unlikely that they will, in the long run, be or remain forgiving of a priesthood, Curia, or papacy which is willing to tolerate that level of corruption. There have always been, and will always be, "sinners" as variously defined in the priesthood; becoming a priest does not confer perfection, or even excellence, on a person. But there is a difference between tolerating financial irregularity, or even tolerating forbidden sexual acts between adults, and tolerating pedophiles. People are sexual beings, and on occasion, despite vows of celibacy, temptation will prove overwhelming and a priest may stray from them. Pedophilia is abuse of power using sex as the weapon; any understanding of the pedophile as someone sexually misdirected fails to understand the underlying problem. A pedophile will take advantage of the weak and helpless in any situation, not just in the context of sexual desire. It's should be intolerable in any church, and especially so in a church founded on teachings of helping the helpless and safeguarding the weak. If the church fails to act firmly, quickly, and aggressively to cut out this cancer from its ranks, they will reap the whirlwind
This is part of the problem, an unwillingness of people to accept that the Church has learned it's lesson and is perhaps the safest place any child could be at this point and time.
keep smearing the Church
The church is doing a good job of smearing itself.
Is Deely delusional? Don't just think of the scandal? Isn't that what got them here? Isn't that what made Benedict abdicate? If the next Pope does nothing else but deal with scandals he will have served the Church well.
Discord_really? More than 100 men voting for a leader from within their elite group.
You forgot to add marching in lock step
There is a most interesting single sentence not far from the top of this Wangness screed.
"A major Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, reported that three cardinals investigating leaks of private papal documents had produced a red-bound, two-volume dossier for the next pope that showed a Vatican in disarray, including reports that some gay church officials had engaged in sexual exploits that had left them vulnerable to blackmail, according to The Guardian."
Would this possibly hint at a reason that the Church clergy should be freed from an across-the-board demand for sexual abstinence and that heterosexual marriage should be brought to the fore as the Church's way way forward? While there seem to have been some reports of priests who have assaulted females amidst the scandals of the past five years, most reports have emphasized male on male assaults. While discriminatory, perhaps prohibiting gays from becoming priests might reduce, if not virtually eliminate these horrid events. Allowing heterosexual marriage would be a strong relief valve for such a societal change.
I agree with you regarding allowing priests to marry but the big problem with the church is pedophilia. It doesn't matter whether they're gay or straight, pedophiles are monsters who prey on the most vulnerable. Imprison pedophiles for life as well as those who aid and abet their actions. Too many have gotten off the hook under the veil of the Church. The fact that Bernard Law is enjoying life as a free man in a palatial setting is disgusting. He should have never been allowed out of the country. How is it possible to respect the institution of the Catholic Church when they've been responsible for so many ruined lives. It's the furthest thing from religion.
I wonder if this crowd will threaten to "call down God's curse on the Press" a la Bernard Law.
Roman apologists always include the "you think it's bad now, you should have seen it before," argument. It implies that the pedophilia and financial scandals of the church are nothing to be concerned about because it could be so much worse. Such arguments demean the suffering of the young men who were sexually assaulted by those priests who abused their power and authority to inflict life long suffering on innocent victims.
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