This is fucking unbelieveable. He blames the waining faith in our country for the abuse!!


The Pope has told Irish bishops at a special summit in the Vatican that paedophilia is a heinous crime and that the Catholic Church must address the issue with resolve, according to a statement.

The Pope has urged the 24 Irish bishops to show unity in identifying concrete steps aimed at bringing healing to survivors of abuse.
Advertisement

He said he realised that the current painful situation will not be resolved quickly and he urged the bishops to address the problems of the past with determination and resolve and face the present crisis with honesty and courage.

The Pope's statement follows a two-day meeting with most of the Irish hierarchy to discuss the fall-out from the Ryan and Murphy reports.

The Pope also said that the weakening of faith has been a significant contributing factor leading to the sexual abuse of minors.

He called for an improved preparation both for candidates for the priesthood and religious life and of those already ordained and professed

Last night, the bishops stayed in Vatican accommodation that is reserved for Cardinals when they are electing a new Pope.

Over a working dinner, the visitors continued to discuss their advice to those who are drafting the Pope's forthcoming letter to Irish Catholics.

It is the first such Pastoral to be devoted exclusively to child abuse by priests and religious.

The Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady will give a news conference at around 3pm (Irish time).

Read the full statement here
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0216/vaticanpress.html

Are you really that surprised? When Cardinal Law covered up abuse in Boston he got a promotion and a palace apartment in Rome instead of a jail cell in Dedham or Walpole.

Yeah, I read about that too. From a purely legal point of view it makes sense becuase anything else would be admitting culpability. But as extremely poorly worded statements go, this is up there with the very worst. This is going to be a shit storm of epic proportions in our media hopefully.

''Ratzinger, as Cardinal ordered the declaration that Bishops had to keep quiet on all accounts. In fact, the document actually said that they had to keep any scandals secret until '10 years after the victim had reached adulthood'.''

Unbelieveable.

And you know what, nothing is going to happen to these people.

That's obvious. The Government here have promised full investigations and prosecutions but we all know it'll never ever happen. My question would be why? and how is it they get away with it? if a man living in an ordinary neighbourhood did it, he'd be tried and fully prosecuted. How is it they get away with it?

Um, it's the Catholic Church.

DADT

this is supposed to be NEWS and debate people

All the worst pedophiles have been atheists.

The best ones have been Catholic priests.

Brilliant.

Ba-dum CHING!

So, I gotta say I kinda agree with the Pope here. Now that most people don't really believe in heaven or hell, the priesthood is more of a job than anything else and so people are less likely to be afraid of eternal punishment.

to be fair, their faith is probably wained. on another note, listening to the pope seems to be like listening to news radio from 80 years ago.

So we need heaven and hell for people to behave?

I think it'd be tough to make the argument that the tens of thousands of incredibly pious men abused boys because their faith was waning. Atheists don't abuse children at a higher clip than religious people, in fact I'd bet the number are lower because atheists don't generally have ridiculous dogma like the church does regarding sex.

Of course not and I didn't say that. I'm saying that if you truly believed in heaven and hell, it would influence you behavior. As that faith weakens, so will it's hold over your decision making process, and you become more likely to 'sin'.

But you're still seemingly saying people who do not truly believe in heaven and hell, then, are more likely to do bad things.