Vatican's attitude to paedophilia

alan_simon

Hi all,

Now I know this is going to be a controversial post, so I want to make it clear that I am a baptised, communed and confirmed Catholic, albeit a none practicing one.

I was watching an old BBC panorama documentary, entitled Sex Crimes and the Vatican, and something pretty horrific came to my attention. The documentary was about victims of child molestation at the hands of clergymen, and a document, issued by Cardinal Ratzinger (before he became Pope Benedict XVI) entitled the 'Crimen Sollicitationis'. This was a secret document, sent to every Bishop in the world, detailing how to deal with molestation scandals, which was basically how to cover the whole thing up. This document was then re-released in 2001, although very few changes were made to it.

As if that wasnt bad enough, the programme then went on to talk to several ex-priests, including a Benedictine Monk who used to pay off the victims to keep it out of the media, and an expert in Cardinal Law. Both of whom left the priesthood in disgust at the manner with which these cases were being dealt with.

Now I for one would like to hear how a practising Catholic can justify supporting a Church that accepts that paedophilia is an unchangable part of its priets behaviour!

What kind of a God are these perverts (I know the vast majority of clergy aren't, but there is still a very evident population of perverts in the church) supposed to be representing!

Signed,

An Atheist

Asiaprod

alan simon wrote:

Hi all,
Now I know this is going to be a controversial post, so I want to make it clear that I am a baptised, communed and confirmed Catholic, albeit a none practicing one.
Signed,
An Atheist

Interesting, you are a baptised, communed and confirmed Catholic with a contradictory signature.
The issue of paedophilia has been debated here many times and every time it decends into an all out war. I see no point in debating it again. However, in the hopes that someone may indeed have something constructive to add I will keep this post open to debate the the following aspect:

alan simon wrote:

Now I for one would like to hear how a practising Catholic can justify supporting a Church that accepts that paedophilia is an unchangable part of its priets behaviour!

That is quite an assumption to make, and probably an incorect one too. While I can go with the Church hiding its sins, I cannot accept that the Church accepts that paedophilia is an unchangable part of its priets behaviour!

alan simon wrote:

What kind of a God are these perverts (I know the vast majority of clergy aren't, but there is still a very evident population of perverts in the church) supposed to be representing!

This aspect I failed to understand, [now I understand it]. Then my comment would be that if the God in question stood for good, these perverted priests in no way represent that God.

To all, please keep this thread on topic and civil and it will remain open.
Asia

Tzetze

Asiaprod wrote:

This aspect I failed to understand, when did these priests become gods?

If you look either side of the parentheses, it'll become clearer.

Asiaprod

Tzetze wrote:

If you look either side of the parentheses, it'll become clearer.

Thanks, I did indeed missread that one:)

kelly1

For anyone interested, here are some links about the Church's respone to these allegations:

http://www.sfarchdiocese.org/071504.html
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/timeline/2003-08-15-Allen-ExplainingCrimen.htm
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=71831

Regards,
Noel.

Talliesin

Canon law prohibited child abuse by priests for many centuries, quite pro-actively too.

I don't think this is a question of the Vatican's attitude to paedophilia but rather of it's attitude to bad publicity and scandal.