Top Vatican Official Praised Bishop Who Covered for Child Molester

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Politics Daily (politicsdaily.co)

16 April 2010 

David Gibson

VATICAN CITY — In a yet another revelation in the clergy sex abuse scandal, a French Catholic news service has published a 2001 letter from a top Vatican official praising a French bishop who covered up for a priest he knew had molested numerous boys.

In October 2000, Father René Bissey was sentenced to 18 years in jail for sexually abusing 11 boys between 1989 and 1996. Bissey’s bishop, Pierre Pican of the Diocese of Bayeux-Lisieux, had known of the abuse but refused to report Bissey to French authorities and instead sent him for psychiatric treatment.

Pican’s actions resulted in his own conviction in 2001 for “failure to report a sex crime against a minor younger than 15 years old.” The bishop was sentenced to three months in prison.

That sentence led Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, then head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy — the department overseeing Catholic clergy policies around the world — to write Bishop Pican a letter effusively praising his actions in shielding the abusive priest. At the time, Castrillon Hoyos was a colleague of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI.

“I congratulate you on not having reported a priest to the civil authorities,” Castrillon Hoyos wrote to Pican on Sept. 8, 2001. “You have done well, and I rejoice at having an associate in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all the others bishops of the world, will have chosen prison rather than speaking out against his priest-son.”

Castrillon Hoyos added that he would send a copy of the letter to all the bishops’ conferences “to encourage the brothers in the episcopate in this very delicate area.”

The French online magazine Golias published the letter on March 30, but it began making waves on Thursday, prompting a late evening statement from the Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi. Lombardi said the letter from Castrillon Hoyos underscored how important it was that earlier in 2001 all clergy abuse cases were ordered to come under the jurisdiction of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, which was then headed by Cardinal Ratzinger, who was elected pope five years ago this month.
Lombardi took the unusual step of effectively throwing Castrillon Hoyos — a once-influential prelate who retired from his last senior Vatican position in 2009 — under the bus to highlight Benedict’s actions.

The Castrillon Hoyos letter praising Bishop Pican “is another confirmation of how timely was the unification of the treatment of cases of sexual abuse of minors on the part of members of the clergy under the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” said the Vatican statement in a translation by National Catholic Reporter. That move assured “a rigorous and coherent management” of abuse cases, the statement said.

As a wave of revelations of past abuses swept Europe in recent weeks, Ratzinger’s track record on cracking down on abusers has come in for sharp scrutiny, with reports suggesting that he was slow to move against abusers when cases came before him from 1980 up through the early 2000s.

Many of the pope’s defenders in the hierarchy, especially here in the Roman Curia, have denounced such claims, and the Vatican has pointed to the late Pope John Paul II’s decision to consolidate all abuse cases under Ratzinger as evidence of Ratzinger’s effectiveness on the issue. They say that since his election as pope on April 19, 2005, Benedict has continued to be vigilant.

The Vatican has been scrambling to get ahead of a cycle of bad press that has raised serious questions about how it has dealt with abuse cases around the world, and what it plans to do in the future.

Earlier this week, the Vatican published on its Web site a list of papal statements and documents aimed at showing that the church has been active in ferreting out abusers. The documents included a guide to understanding Vatican procedures on dealing with abusive priests that for the first time explicitly stated that abusers who have committed crimes should be reported to the civil authorities.

The phrase on reporting was a last-minute addition to the list, and it was unclear how much weight the Vatican intended to give to the guidelines, though officials insist the church has always encouraged bishops to follow relevant civil and criminal laws on reporting.

But the Castrillon Hoyos letter on the French case shows that not everyone got the memo.

Whether Ratzinger himself was on board with mandatory reporting to authorities is also unclear.

In February 2002, Ratzinger’s top lieutenant at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, said new internal church norms he and Ratzinger just completed to help bishops deal with abusers would not compel them to hand over molesters.

“It seems to me that there is no basis for demanding that a bishop, for example, be obliged to turn to civil magistrates and denounce a priest that has confided in him to have committed the crime of pedophilia,” Bertone told the Italian Catholic monthly, 30 Giorni.

After Ratzinger was elected pope, he made Bertone a cardinal and named him his secretary of state, basically the second-in-command at the Vatican. But Bertone has continued to create more controversy, such as this week when he argued that homosexuality is a cause of pedophilia.

In a related development Thursday, Benedict himself seemed to signal a softer line as he delivered a homily at a Mass in the Vatican in which he said the church must do penance because it leads to purification:

“I must say that we Christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word ‘penance,’ which seemed too harsh to us,” the pope said. “Now, under the attacks of the world that speak to us of our sins, we see that being able to do penance is a grace.

“We see how it is necessary to do penance, that is, to recognize what is mistaken in our life.”

Benedict’s words, delivered without notes in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, were the closest he has come to addressing the scandal. And it was the most conciliatory note struck by a senior Vatican official of late.

Yet the pope also had some tough words for the church’s critics, saying that while the Nazi and Marxist dictatorships no longer exist as they did in the last century, there are other pressures on people to conform to a single worldview:

“A conformism under which it becomes obligatory to think as everyone thinks, to act as everyone acts, and the subtle or not so subtle aggression against the church demonstrate that this conformism really can become a real dictatorship,” he said.

………

pxamerican

12:25AM Apr 16th 2010
“Too many secrets” reminded me of a verse, that is, Numbers 32:23 that says, “But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.” Yep.
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knute9

7:34PM Apr 16th 2010
How do you get a nun pregnant? Dress her up as a alter boy.
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kbhmsw

12:51AM Apr 16th 2010
GOD DAMN THE POPE, all abusers, and all who SHIELD abusers!
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whymustIkeythis

4:11PM Apr 16th 2010
God is not in the business of damning people but of saving them. When enough things go wrong in your life, I recommend that you ask God to help. The benefit is well worth the cost.
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sarah

4:50PM Apr 16th 2010
I AGREE 100% !!!

If they also think that being gay is being a pedophile, then isn’t the opposite true, being a pedophile means your gay!! Then I guess the whole !@#$ing Catholic Church is GAY! BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL PEDOPHILES!!

AND NO, I’M NOT GAY, just thought that was an unusual comment coming from men you have sex with little boys…CUT OFF THEIR PECKERS..ALL OF THEM!!

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dd666

1:04AM Apr 16th 2010
The POPE says: “A conformism under which it becomes obligatory to think as everyone thinks, to act as everyone acts, and the subtle or not so subtle aggression against the church demonstrate that this conformism really can become a real dictatorship.”

Now THAT is the pot calling the kettle black!

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judygee

7:52PM Apr 16th 2010
The pope’s remarks on the dangers of conforming left me stunned. Pope, we’re not asking you to “conform” to some form of society – we’re demanding the you obey the law and desist from raping children. Blows my mind.
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rothomaha

7:31AM Apr 16th 2010
What a pack of liars and degenerates! There is about as much remorse for the victims of all this abuse as one would find in a stone. The lot of them belong UNDER the jail, and their worldly goods(of which they seem to have aplenty, despite a vow of poverty!) should be divided amongst all of the poor of the world. Benedict is as guilty as the rest, if not of perversion, then of cover-up! It will not stop until the secular laws of every country are applied directly and immediately, not only to those who commit these crimes, but to those who hide them, as well. If the guys who prance around in red dresses and little red hats were subject to Italian civil law, they’d see to ending this nonsense in a NY minute! Why don’t we, the people demand this – what’s wrong with all of us?!
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jwynn

3:46PM Apr 16th 2010
Come on now, you know the Church thrives on fear (of a vengefull god) and reprisal (if you don’t do as I say you will go to hell). You ask what is wrong? The’re all too afraid to come forward. The Church loves it! Cowards!
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Peggy B

4:40PM Apr 16th 2010
I agree 100% and I’m catholic. it makes me ashamed that something very harsh is not done about these friggin pedophiles. they hide behind the cloth and use it to their advantage. they are not religious, just evil. I feel that the pope has always known about this and so ashamed of him. this is SO degrading to the good priests that ARE out there. makes me so angry and sad that this continues to happen and they hide behind the religion.
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sarah

4:56PM Apr 16th 2010
To PEGGYB…WHERE ARE ANY GOOD PRIESTS!! FOR EVERY CASE WE HEAR ABOUT THERE IS 10 OTHERS WE ARE BLIND TOO!!
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Richard

7:50AM Apr 16th 2010
This arrogant attempt to cover up criminal behavior should come as no surprise to anyone. The Catholic Church has done this for centuries. Remember the inquisition, the letters of understanding with the Nazis just a few examples.
The only way to handle these people is put them in prison. We in the US have done a much better job of prosecuting these people than other countries. Ultimately it will be the parishioners who finally tire of these sexual predators that will bring about change or leave the corrupt institution. I think a lot of Catholics are living in denial at this time.
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ADMR

7:53PM Apr 16th 2010
Continuous Revelations
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rothomaha

7:57AM Apr 16th 2010
There is one avenue these creeps have not yet tried to use to excuse themselves – “Satan was in the accusers and made them entice these poor, innocent priests who are now being victimized”. I wonder, will “the faithful” be that willing to follow that they’d even accept that crap from these predators and abettors?!
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SMPTURLISH

8:57AM Apr 16th 2010
This is why there needs to be a housecleaning at the Vatican. Such individuals should be required to submit their resignations.

HOLDING CLERGY AND CHURCH LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE BEFORE THE LAW

Professor Marci Hamilton and Sister Maureen Paul Turlish on NPR’s Radio Times on WHYY Philadelphia 04/12/2010

http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2010/04/12/holding-clergy-and-church-leaders-legally-accountable-for-child-abuse/

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims’ Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

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ADMR

6:36PM Apr 16th 2010
WOW
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Marie Margarite

10:54AM Apr 16th 2010
another day of cashmanat2493 posting the same defensive comments…every day, week after week, month after month. what a boring, unproductive, sad life you must have.
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tim08

12:48PM Apr 16th 2010
It’s shameful that preist , cubscout leaders , coaches ect. are so often involved in this type of behavier it’s a sad fact that petifiles try to get jobs working with kids , of all the honest child mentors out there these few bad apples make the hole barrel look bad that’s unfortunate for the many good ones out there who would protect a child rather than hurt one.
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byjack007

1:04PM Apr 16th 2010
So, what does this have to do with the Pope? He didn’t write the letter! Hoyos wrote it. Why is the Pope even mentioned in the article…because Hoyos is a Catholic prelate too? Is that it?
The media keeps smearing the Pope for what other European priests did.
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bobby

4:43PM Apr 16th 2010
Because he is in charge and he takes the responsibility for the actions of the church. He should have fired all involved and excommunicated them all. Instead, he just talks about how sorry they all are.
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melvin polatnick

1:08PM Apr 16th 2010
The pope must stand on the balcony and confess his sins to the molested in St Peters Square. He must beg for forgiveness. The forgiveness will come more easily if the victims were generously compensated for his sins.
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Teri M

1:25PM Apr 16th 2010
and another day for cashmanat2493 to support the abuse of children by his priest
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cashmanat2493

1:36PM Apr 16th 2010
You’re lying Teri. I always said the guilty parties should be dealt with. I object to the relentless use of this situation as a means to discredit religion in toto. One only needs a minor education to know that this is standard procedure in communist revolutions. This story is not new, Catholics are not a high percentage offender, and yet every day it is the number one story. If you don’t see it you are wilfully blind.
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kalonih

3:33PM Apr 16th 2010
Why doesn’t anyone ever call this crime what it actually is?? It is CHILD RAPE, not molestation, not abuse. Rape is a felony, why aren’t these men being tried as the child rapists that they obviously are?
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rltballer

3:50PM Apr 16th 2010
kalonih, i agree with you totally. every priest that raped, or covered up rape, needs to be dealt with in a court of law. They need to be punished to the fullest extent and treated like a rapist the rest of their life. These are the worst kind of person in the world. Covering up for each other. I am so glad i am athiest. Catholic priest, many many of them, deserve to rot in hell for the rest of their lives. hypocrits.
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asmilepro1

3:56PM Apr 16th 2010
most priests are homos or sexally repressed, and join a system that has had a tradition of condoning child rape for centuries and centuries, and profess a religion based on manslaughter and genocide, just read the bible. how anyone can believe in all these stories and fairytales, of dirty old men in fancy robes and gold hats that control bilions in real estate and billions of zombie minds is appalling. the bunny rabbit or santa claus are more believable, and at least they dont go around raping kids.
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vbookish7

3:56PM Apr 16th 2010
From my experience, when you ask for help with a troubled priest, the higher up the hierarchy you go, the less help you get. You find intimidation along the way. People tell you to keep quiet, not upset things, people like the priest so don’t cause trouble. In my case, the priest that I did go to for help with another priest was exposed a few years later for raping three high school girls twenty-five years earlier. I had to ask my daughters if anything had ever happenned in a closed room with this priest. My family has left generations of Catholics and left the church.
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Jacquelyn

4:08PM Apr 16th 2010
I am so very sorry…this just gets more horrible each day.
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MICHAEL

3:57PM Apr 16th 2010
For every perverted, child abusing, rapist who wears the collar of the Catholic priesthood, there are hundreds who are dedicated, holy, trustworthy, who are being destroyed by the actions of the bad.It is my hope that the guilty are imprisoned, punished to the fullest extent of the law as would be anyone else. The church should not shelter these criminals as there is no place in the church for abuse and rape.
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mepsell

4:00PM Apr 16th 2010
I can think of nothing more vile and disgusting than the abuse of children by anyone, but even more so when done by members of the clergy. How can any member of the Catholic Church continue their worship in this institutiuon? While the number of preists abusing children is a small percentage of the whole, it is the entire Church that is guilty of the cover up. Good thing you believe in Hell…because you will all burn there.
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vbookish7

4:01PM Apr 16th 2010
I NOW CALL THE CATHOLIC RELIGION THE CULT OF PEDIPHILIA. HOW DO YOU SEE IT? THIS IS AN INSIDER SPEAKING, RAISED CHILDREN CATHOLIC, TAUGHT AT A CATHOLIC SCHOOL. IT IS FREEDOM TO LEAVE THIS RELIGION.
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bible truth

7:00PM Apr 16th 2010
To VBookish: Revelation 18:4 Says: “Get out of her my children that you do not share in her plagues. Yes! The time is to get out of the Catholic (false religion)
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KEITH

4:08PM Apr 16th 2010
If this was during the time of the inquisition, all of us who are yelling against the evil practices of the Roman Catholic Church would be hauled off to jail!! PLUS tortured and burned at the stake. Or more simply slaughtered in the streets!! Read “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs”
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FEsrigoHL

4:11PM Apr 16th 2010
WHAT is the Pope babbling about. He thinks society is forcing conformaty on people?? THAT is what the Church has always done. Priests. Bishops, Popes et al are ONLY human beings, period. They are fallible and sin like SO many. As long as people allow ANYONE to tell them what to think and beleive, there will be room for cruelty, brutality and etc.. NO one needs a priest in order to be a good person. NO one can forgive your sins except the person against whom you sin. Only people who can’t think for themselves need a “religion”. Those people will always be at risk to be duped. A German Pope!! PALEEZE!! They are all trying to cover their butts and look innocent. PLGGHH to all of them. Anyone who beleives in all the claptrap they espouse needs their heads re-programmed.
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sirboss

4:16PM Apr 16th 2010
I think the Pope is the Antichrist, what an evil man!!!
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David

4:21PM Apr 16th 2010
I haven’t posted here before but I find it funny that in any these sites there is always one person who runs around screaming frantically about how everybody else are a bunch of commies or bigots, etc. Cashmanat seems to be this board’s alarmist. For the most part the discussion is about the abusers and the people who covered up for them. The couple of posts that are against the church as a whole are pretty much stating truths. They really do little of any use but instead try to discredit others. I’d be willing to bet Cashmanat believes that 9/11 was an inside job by our own government.
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boeing4me

4:24PM Apr 16th 2010
What will it take for a Catholic to quit being Catholic? How much abuse? How many childrens lives need to be ruined?
Why doesn’t the POPE stand up and confess on behalf of the Catholic church?
Would christ be a Catholic?
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Brent

4:25PM Apr 16th 2010
Church and child abuse… is it “one bad apple can spoil the bunch” or is it “birds of a feather flock together”?

Then again what can one say about an institution that expects its members to defy the natural order of life and the continued existence of its species? Look at the prison system – lock a bunch of guys up together, what happens (Bubba)? Look at the military – 6 month tour at sea, what happens (dont ask don’t tell) ? Does anyone else see the pattern?

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ADMR

6:39PM Apr 16th 2010
SEE…
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nomadic1961

4:26PM Apr 16th 2010
And the Catholic church wonders why the catholic faithful are becoming so disallutioned and leaving the catholic church for other christian faith. Come clean, clean house and prosicute the guilty. Start with the Pope and work their way down the line. Do the crime…. Do the time. These were kids who were violated. The church should not be above the law. There is always the international courts at the Hague to prosicute. How about sanctions against the Church in Rome.
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Tight Scotswoman

4:27PM Apr 16th 2010
The RC Church is a place where pedophiles go to hide. The more abused people that come out and tell their story, the more the news journalists dig, the deeper this has been hidden within the ranks of the RC church.
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I wonder just how many really ‘felt’ God calling them to the ministry?

From the looks of it, not too many. The creeps and perverts are crawling out of the woodwork, left and right.

hollyboc

4:28PM Apr 16th 2010
That sends chills through my bones. And it should send chills through the bones of all of my fellow catholics who continue to support this church. I’m on my way out.
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Tena

4:34PM Apr 16th 2010
A Catholic for all my life, I am struggling with things like this going on in my church. The Catholic church is huge, and a few bad apples are spoiling the bunch. Too many secrets, and too much protection of pedophiles; I just don’t understand how my church has protected those guilty of these crimes against innocents.
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I have not lost my faith, but am slowly losing my faith in the leaders of my church.

Roger

4:42PM Apr 16th 2010
these preists are a bunch of perverts and the sooner you Catholics realize it the safer your kids will be.. All the Pope has to do is say NO MORE and then execute the criminals
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Ian

4:45PM Apr 16th 2010
And this man dares to speak out against homosexuality, specifically ADULTS who are in a committed relationship seeking the legal and spiritual bonding of marriage? Obviously he is creating as many smoke screens as he can to hide his own actions and his own past. The more I am learning about this Pope and the current state of the Catholic Church, the more I feel it is time to dissolve it completely. The RC Church is a disgrace.
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gwilkes2

4:51PM Apr 16th 2010
The vatican is as corrupt as anyone…..I made that statement before all this even came out….Time to wake up people…..
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bikerdad112

4:55PM Apr 16th 2010
Arrest anybody who committed the crimes and anybody who covered it up or had knowledge of the offenses…
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Georgie Boy

4:56PM Apr 16th 2010
All you good Catholics….Make sure to run to church on Sunday, listen to the good priest filling you head with man made stories about how Jesus was good and the devil was evil. Then drop your money into the collection plate so these SICK PERVERTS can continue to live their lavish pedophile lifestyles.
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Victoria

5:35PM Apr 16th 2010
Georgie Boy, How DARE YOU! I’m sick and tired of people trashing my beliefs! Not all priests have done this so enough of your ignorant blanket statements about Catholics. What some priests have done is horrible, but it’s not ALL OF THEM. Laura do you believe ALL black people are thieves, thugs and gang members just because some are…or ALL muslims want to kill everyone and strap bombs on themselves because some do? My gosh educate yourself people! and Jim…if you think we don’t need someone dressed in a colorful dress and a pointy cap telling us what to do, what in the hell makes you think we should be listening to you? I’ve really had enough of my religion being trashed and all the disrespectful comments.
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Laura

9:02PM Apr 16th 2010
Victoria, first of all you really need to re-read my comment, I actually said I believed that there ARE good priests out there, but unfortunately they’ve been tarnished by the abusers and the Vatican hiding the abuse for years. And it’s not just YOUR religion it’s mine and many others on here; honest, decent people who abided by our church for years, I CARE, that’s why I’m angry and questioning what happened and I’ll continue to do so.
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Since you misread my comment the rest of your blurb is null and void but I’d just like to point out that there are plenty of white people who are thieves, thugs and gang members and many who are terrorists as well, so why bring race into it?

phimi

4:56PM Apr 16th 2010
Not wanting to “break the seal of the confessional”, when a cleric is suspected of being an abuser, that should end is access to the public untill the internal investigation is completed. If the internal investigation turns up violations of civil law, the cleric should be turned over to legal civil authorities.
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If the cleric is “openly” accused by another to the bishop or another cleric, the matter is now public and should be turned over to legal civil authorities.

Multiple accusations or suspicions, especially over time, should terminate the cleric’s activities, even if cleared in an internal investigation.

PERIOD…

Jim

6:55PM Apr 16th 2010
“…conformism really can become a real dictatorship.” This coming from church that demands its members conform to its dictates without question upon threat of excommunication. Anyone else see the contradicion in that? Hypocrisy beyond belief is what that is.
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Laura

5:08PM Apr 16th 2010
Sinead O’Connor was right all along. She was vilified for tearing up the Pope’s picture because she believed he knew about child abuse in the church. The world wasn’t ready to believe it at the time, so it was much easier to ruin her reputation than the pope’s. And let’s face it THAT pope had to know it was going on, and they wanted to make him a saint!
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I feel sick to my stomach reading that letter; sure there are good priests, but how are we supposed to know who they are? Like many people I look at them all with suspicion now. And that’s the Vatican’s fault for not dealing with the abusers when they should have. The good and the bad are tarnished with the same brush….

JIM

5:16PM Apr 16th 2010
REJECT RELIGION. Live a clean, happy life ON YOUR OWN. Everyone can do it. You don’t need a judgmental (and apparently perverted) dude in a colorful dress and pointy cap tellin you what is right and wrong. Live your OWN lives and have fun!
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dmfischetti

5:17PM Apr 16th 2010
This isn’t another day of Catholic bashing. This is unfortunately another reason TO BASH PEDOPHILE, PRIESTS, BISHOPS, POPES , NUNS ETC. Really how dare they protect each others crimes. They must all be prosecuted for the criminals they are & I don’t care if it happened 60 yrs ago. I am sick of hearing about new stories about how a bishop or pope protected another pedophile clergy member. Let’s clean it up from Rome all the way down . Enough is enough. They completely disgust me. The Catholic Church is Sodom & Gommorah & must be dealth with.
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tharksketler

5:23PM Apr 16th 2010
Catholic bashing? It is Catholics that are suffering from this horrific indignity. As a Catholic, I am confronted daily with the knowledge that the leadership of the religion I have grown up with and have CHOSEN to belong to has institutionally protected the sexual abuse of children. If this doesn’t give a Catholic pause, I don’t know what possibly could. If they are willing to lie, cover up, and indeed promulgate the rape of children (by simply moving an accused priest to another parish) in order to protect the institution, WHAT ELSE are they willing to lie, cover up, and promulgate? Our church leaders have forever lost the moral highground! For us Catholics, there really isn’t a good reason to remain with such an institution.
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lindavegan

5:24PM Apr 16th 2010
What sickening, shameful human beings the Catholic church has fostered. I think it’s ridiculous that anybody would defend any of these monsters. The whole idea of anybody speaking for “God” saying what he forgives is silly. God forgives, but who was the one who caused the horrible things to happen in the first place? Was that God too? How come God is only responsible for good things? As a reformed Catholic – 12 years of a Catholic school education shed light on how ludicrous the whole idea is, I see no difference in this religion from any other religion that Catholics are so quick to condemn. They all lead people in the same direction – a life of following others based upon the fear of what will happen when you die and the idea that if you pray to “God” he will bring good things to you. Selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed people – that’s who Catholics are. Religious leaders who cover child abuse are vile and loathsome, 100% of the time.
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tdudz

5:38PM Apr 16th 2010
The Catholic church is corrupt and is wicked to the core. Destroying cultures and murdering people around the world in the name of Jesus. This is just more of the same. May they all burn in HELL.
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jb

5:40PM Apr 16th 2010
As a life long Catholic we muct drive these pedophiles out of our church or the church is doomed. The high level Vatican protectorate is the weak link despite what they say. For those of you that want to say Oh but we have so many good priests I say save for the ladies at the altar society. The layity has to step up to save the church because the Vatican will never do it because they are part of the problem. God help us and our children.
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BILLY

5:45PM Apr 16th 2010
The Vatican’s crimes are LEGION.And are NOT new!!!! The way they are adressing it is ….beyond pathetic!! It is detestable and unforgivable….AS are the rest of “Christendom’s” vile sins as well as Islam’s,Judaism’s errors and – or almost all of the rest of the religious world’s man made nutty gobbledeygook as well.
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We live in more superstitious times than Galileo did.

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