Recent coverage of sexual crimes committed by Catholic clergy against children is not shocking because of the nature of the crimes. It is the institutionalized response, that of defensiveness and bluster and protection of the church in the face of threat, that is appalling. The Church has responded with wrath directed at the airing of these horrific crimes. Implicitly, then, we should all be silent on this issue. No more. The Church is now an institution of the twenty-first century, and it can no longer harbor and protect child molesters. The permissiveness that the Pope decries is misdirected toward sexual permissiveness; the real threat to the Church is the ability of humankind to examine the offenses of the Church openly, to discuss them, and to question the Church’s authority on moral matters after revelations make clear that the Church has turned its back on humanity.

The liberals in the world press are trying to get rid of Benedict XVI in the hope that their Spirit of Vatican II allies within the Church will regain the ground they have lost during the pontificates of John Paul the Great and Benedict XVI. Ironically, it is the Spirit of Vatican II culture that created the fertile ground for the infamous sexual (mostly homosexual) abuse scandal that has so much damaged Christ’s Church. If they hate Benedict XVI, it is because of his dedication to the hermeneutics of continuity (vs. the hermeneutics of discontinuity) when interpreting Vatican II.

Both Erin Kelly and Rene (post above) have it right. Benedict XVI will agree with both of you. I hope you two - and many others always commenting here - have read all his writings and speeches over a period of almost forty years (and longer.Stop this bickering, please.
We all have work to do. The Pope, the Vatican, the bishops, the priests, the lay people, our Protestasnt brothers and sisters and the so called “secualr world” in which we live and breath.

Errors in my post: Forgive typing errors in my comment above, please! cataracts in my eyes getting worse by the day….

He should step down and spend the rest of his days in prayer for the children whose lives were destroyed.

Mary Nolan and any others who would dare ask the Pope to step down are so far off base. Your injustice and arrogance with which you flaunt it are revolting.

This Pope is a blessing to the Church.  The Devil and his forces are in full attack. In such times it is best to pray and to be careful of whose side you are taking.

The Catholic church is NOT a democracy,it is not up to us to decide whether or not the Pope should be the Pope. That decision belongs solely to HIM alone.

How will the resignation of Benedict XVI help any of the victims? Which of the bishops or cardinals likely to be elected have done more in being open? For those who think he should end his days in penance, I believe being pope can be considered his penance. He has wanted to retire for a long time but has accepted God’s plan for his life instead. I find it ironic (and sad) that those who are calling for his resignation seem to be the same ones who complained when he directed that men with deep-seated homosexual tendencies were not to be ordained to the priesthood and supported those religious orders who proudly refused to participate in an attempt to assess the state of religious life.

The call for the pope to resign sends a clear message that the people, not only of UK, but evrywhere are tired of the church not doing anything tangible about this problem.  I wonder who will be elected if the current pope resigns, as all the bishops are not seen to be doing anything about this horendous sin.  The Roman Catholic Church must do an introspectoion of its policies and descernment processes before the pope as the accountable person is arrested.

The Catholic Church does not “harbor and protect child molesters”; nor has the Church “turned its back on humanity”.  Pedophiles exist in every religion, every religious institution, every race, gender, nationality, etc.  Pedophiles are heterosexuals, homosexuals, married, and single.  It is a universal problem.  The Catholic Church is the only one of these groups to be singled out by the media because it is currently fashionable to be anti-Catholic.  The media does not make negative comments about pedophilia in other religions, does not attack races, genders, or nationalities in connection with this topic.  The media focuses on the Catholic Church because it is completely acceptable to discriminate against Catholics.  Incidents of pedophilia in Muslim, Jewish, or other communities certainly exist, because this problem is part of humanity.  But these crimes in these communities never come to light because the media would rather attack Catholics.  The Catholic Church doesn’t harbor or promote these crimes - it is simply the only organization in which the media chooses to expose them.  These crimes are committed everywhere.

Why do the bishops speak up so vocally to defend the pope when they are active but wait to retire before they will offer any criticism?? Did Paul retire before he called Peter on his shortcomings??

Benedict:

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The Infallible Emperor Has No Clothes! That’s what these children are telling us!

Joy Volpi - It’s the COVERUP! You say, “The Catholic Church doesn’t harbor or promote these crimes,” but that’s EXACTLY what has happened becvause of the COVERUP.  The media doesn’t have anything against the Catholic Church. But the media can sure smell a COVERUP. The media can sure smell ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES. And so can the People of God. Many of us are disappointed and disheartened. It needs to b fixed. It needs to be fixed by the people who were involved. It needs to be fixed by an open process that trusts the power of GOD, GOOD, and RIGHT ACTION. And it needs to be fixed soon. If everyone is innocent, then there is nothing to fear. If some are guilty, they must be held accountable. Anything less and the Roman Catholic Church will surely lose its moral authority - all of it.

Leslie Hittner:  The Catholic Church is not the only religious institution to be involved in a COVERUP or ILLEGAL ACTIVITY.  Where is the media coverage of Muslim coverups or Jewish illegal activity?  where is the media coverage of Baptist sexual misconduct, or Lutheran crimes?  You still don’t see the point.  The media focuses solely on the Catholic Church.  Catholic clergy aren’t the only demographic that has pedophiles.  Pedophilia is, unfortunately, everywhere.  Where is the media coverage of that?  The media purposely singles out the Catholic Church to show its unfortunate crimes; what about all the other clergy of other faiths who have committed the same wrongs?  Yes, we are all disappointed and disheartened.  But the Catholic Church is not the only perpetraitor of these crimes, and is not the biggest perpetrator of them, either.

Joy Volpi – It does not help to blame the media.  The Church has not demonstrated that it does not habour these criminal priests.  In my country, I have not heard anything being done to the culprits.  Priests even bishops are having sexual relations and even have babies even though they have vowed before God to be celibate.  With regard to pedophiles, it is true that it happens everywhere and that it is a societal problem but the Roman Catholic Church has not done much if at all to deal with it.

Sibusiso:  Your statements are incorrect – “The Church has not demonstrated that it does not habour these criminal priests,” and “the Roman Catholic Church has not done much if at all to deal with it.”  The Church has done much to deal with it.  In the U.S., those who committed the crimes have been exposed.  Those who covered it up have been exposed.  They have been reprimanded by two popes, and countless bishops.  They are being legally prosecuted, stripped of their vows, and dioceses are being made to make financial restitution to victims.  The Church in Rome has made public apologies to victims throughout the world.  And all of that is just.  I teach religion classes at my church; I am now required to be fingerprinted, have FBI background checks run on me, and I have to go to child protection classes in order to teach children.  All of this I agree with.  I think it’s an excellent idea.  I had to have the same things done to volunteer in public schools – this is completely acceptable to expect when volunteering in parochial schools.  The Church does not “harbor” pedophiles, whether clergy or laity.  We all agree that abuses were committed and covered up in the past.  That is no longer the case.  And you can argue with me that there are probably still some abuses going on, and I would agree with that, too.  Which segment of society is free of sexual abuse?  Which segment of society has completely eradicated this crime?  There is none.  The Church is currently trying to do the best it can to clean up its mess, heal the wounds it has created, and ensure – to the best of its ability – that these wounds will not happen again.  What else would you have Her do?  The Church has apologized, exposed, sentenced, made reparation, and instituted mechanisms to prevent this from occurring again.  If the Church had not done these things, then you would have an argument.  As it is, you do not.  AGAIN, I will make my point, since you all are ignoring it:  which church, of any denomination, is free of these incidents?  Which faith has not committed crimes and covered them up?  Tell me.  And let that church, media group, or segment of society that is without sin cast the first stone at the Catholic Church.  And since there is NO faith that is innocent of these exact, same crimes, why is the Catholic Church the only one being demonized by the media?  It is very acceptable to be prejudiced against Catholics, so the media are gorging themselves on these incidents – even as child sex abuse continues MORE FREQUENTLY in other areas of society.  If the media were interested in covering child sex abuse stories as a problem of our times, there would be more of an effort to expose this crime wherever it exists.  It DOES NOT exist solely in the Catholic Church.

I have one question:  Why is the NYTimes Paper and the Media continually running down the Pope and the Catholic Church abt. this pedophilia?  Pedophilia is in every group in the world, church, scouts, school, homes,  you name it, where there are children there are pedophiles.  So why pick on only the Catholic Church??  I just read an official document from the school system of another State. Pedophilia is rampant in grades one to twelve. Much more that the Catholic Church and other churches put together.  Much of it is hidden by the Teachers Union. (basically because of the money costs)  This “official paper” is on the internet for all to see. If one State has it you can be sure the rest do also.  Again, why focus on only the Catholic Church and the Pope?  The Pope apologized and is doing much to stop it.  So why does the news media lie about it?

Sue- For me it does not really matter what the media says. It also does not matter if this problem is a societal one.  What matters for me is that the church is an institution that is trusted by the society and is supposed to be the one providing exemplary moral behaviour.  The Roman Catholic Church should, in my view, use this opportunity to prayerfully go back to the drawing board; look at the criticism and come up with the strategy to deal with the problem.  It is clear that the Church has a problem and the leadership of the Church should provide leadership and convince society that they are doing something about it.  The whole community in the World must support the Church in prayer.  The church must consider reviewing its screening process of its clergy.  I have a lot of friends who are priests who have various sexual relationships even though they have taken a vow of celibacy even though they may not be pedophiles but that is still wrong.  They are supposed to be spiritual leaders but they lie in manner in which they conduct themselves, which is very unfortunate indeed. Most of them even abuse alcohol.  This is not expected in the Church.  These are the things we need to pray about.

You are right that these things are not to be expected from the Church.  But I think that all the signs we are receiving from our Holy Father right now our showing an absolutely sincere desire to prayerfully seek solutions and to act to implement them.  The Pope is consistently speaking out and acting to halt and seek to prevent these actions in an unprecedented way, and if the radicality of his actions has even visibly grown in the recent years, it is all the more reason to see that his dedication to reform is real and to support his action rather than attacking one who is in fact bringing us in a positive direction.  “If a house is divided against itself, how will that house be able to stand?”  It is far better to continue building on the good beginning to be done, to encourage and contribute to that good, than to shoot it down because it has not yet rooted out all of the problems.

O most holy and sinless judge Mary Nolan, O great and Innocent Blessed Mary Nolan, pray for me a sinner when you mount your own kingdom of righteousness.

One of the greatest problem in the Church today is that many of her children have given up prayer and contemplation and become mere activists. That is the root of all sex abuse… and the root of the present ceaseless media loquacity.

I agree with Jen.

What I understand from all news and criticism is that peadophilia is very common in the West and America. The only organisation in the world that hold it sinful and unlawful is the Catholic Church. Though some of the clergy are guilty, the Church is not denying that it is sinful and unlawful. It agrees to get them punished under rules by the civil authorities. Then why so much cry against the Church ? Simply because the media and dissidents want to propagate their ideology of freedom of sex and sinlessness attached to premarital sex and adultery

It is definitely a sign of the latter days and when the Pope fails to be more vigilant in removing and the pedophile/homosexuals fail—we all fail. Then the stronger of the body as Jude says must pray more, fast and remain faithful and become the Light in the darkness, praying for the Holy Spirit to move and remove the ones that shouldnot bein authority because the scripture says that We will be held responsible for our choice of authority.

GWilson:  Who is the “stronger of the body”?  Is it you?  Do you have all the answers?  I believe St. Michael, the Archangel, already asked this question:  Who is like God?  The Pope has not failed.  The Church has not failed.  This argument is old, and it is tiring.  No one has responded to this in six months.  You should move on.  Interesting, that you choose to reference St. Jude, when you should be referencing Jesus - He said that no one knows the day or the hour when the Son of Man will return.  How would you know that these are the “latter days”?  And yes, we all will be held accountable for our actions - but we do not have a “choice” of authority.  The Holy Spirit chooses the Pope.  You, on the other hand, will be held responsible for what you write here.  Jesus also said, Judge not, lest ye be judged.

We are parents who were betrayed by the same private “Christian” school that betrayed John Kasich. John Kasich has clearly shown that he does not have the leadership abilities, courage, common sense, or good judgment necessary to be Governor of Ohio; nor does John have good judgment in regard to the education, safety, and upbringing of children, and for protecting consumers. See www.NotKasich.com and www.ABCsOfBetrayal.com for details.

As reported in the Columbus Dispatch newspaper series THE ABCs OF BETRAYAL, the administrators at Worthington Christian Schools (WCS) and Grace Brethren Church (GBC) were secretly recorded during one of their cover-up meetings in which the following statement was made about one of the school’s child molesting Teachers/Coaches (and Youth Directors for elementary-aged children):
 
“We understand that if something happens between Dwayne and a student, we will be big-time liable,”
executive pastor Jim Augspurger said on the recording.
“That’s a risk we take. I think before God we did the right thing and it may not be the worldly, may not even be the most prudent thing, but it is something we have done,”
he said.
“We’ve wiped the slate clean. I understand the situation it puts us in.”

Several months after the administrators got caught committing those serious crimes: a 10-year Conspiracy of Criminal Negligence, Deception, Fraud, and Cover-Ups against we parents (including John and Karen Kasich), a participant in those crimes publicly stated the following (as also recorded):

“I was a Lead Pastor here for eight years and a Director Of Junior High Youth Ministries in the past. This is a Watergate. The church covered it up. I was in the meetings. I’ve known all these years that it was a student. And I was told to get back to wiping noses and not to let it out.”

We parents learned that the school and church administrators had been deliberately putting the students in danger with several known repeat child molesters for many years while the administrators, their attorney, and some teachers, staff, and parents conspired to cover up their crimes against us.

John Kasich remains silent and refuses to do anything about those serious crimes. John actually continues to send his very own daughters to that private school where those administrators remain in power, remain as a serious threat to unsuspecting consumers, and remain as horrible examples to all students (including John’s daughters Emma and Reese) on how to treat your business customers and your fellow man.

This clearly demonstrates that John Kasich does not have the integrity, leadership ability, courage, or the common sense needed to be a suitable Governor for Ohio; nor does John have good judgment in regard to the education, safety, and upbringing of children, and for protecting consumers.
Please refer to the irrefutable and overwhelming evidence at www.ABCsOfBetrayal.com and at www.NotKasich.com.