POPE resigns Now who do I follow on Twitter?

He can take Sarah Palin's place as a Fox commentator

After scores of new pedophilia accusations, and cover-up allegations, surfaced in Europe in 2010, the spotlight focused on Benedict’s own management of a case involving a German priest and sex offender while he was bishop of Munich in 1980. Despite promises to the victim’s family that the priest would not work with children again, the priest was allowed to return to the ministry, after which he molested more children.

Accusations also surfaced that a Vatican office Benedict had headed in the 1990s failed to defrock an American priest who allegedly molested 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin.

10b4me....I saw the Pope yesterday skiing....He didn't look frail or weak and had that wry grin going....I forgot to kiss his ring and genuflect...RJ

Finding the right line between those core beliefs and how to operate within our society proved to be difficult, and wrong choices were made.

But until then...let me cheerlead the indictments and burial...a wee bit of finger pointing makes me feel more elevated and pure than I really am....

Also.. the schools didn't have a program that started at the top to hide abusers and transfer them to other schools.

a concept seemingly skipped over in these mud-slinging fests.

Jennie I have a question for you. Shouldn't you be more outraged than most, considering how the church leadership has betrayed and corrupted your faith?

I'm not Roman Catholic, Mr Kay. But I'm vexed by the panorama, here, villifying a huge and far-flung priesthood of (predominately) moral individuals and blackening a faith of many millions as sequel to the covert actions of a limited collection of deviants and the improvident actions of some leaders.

If Catholic people came to realization that the institution was indeed brimming with predatory priests and surfeit with clandestine maneuvering and arcane corruption...couldn't we foresee a critical mass in which members left en masse? That doesn't seem to be happening...

Let there be women priests and let priests marry. I am just speculating, but those two issues would help a lot towards predatory male pedophile priests. Maybe I am wrong.

But the pope did not require that Roman Catholic leaders be disciplined for past mistakes as some victims were hoping, nor did he clarify what critics see as contradictory Vatican rules that they fear allow abuse to continue unpunished.

Last week, a psychiatrist who treated a priest decades ago in a German archdiocese run by the future pope said he had repeatedly warned that the priest, who was accused of sexually abusing boys, should never work with children again. The priest was re-assigned to parish work almost immediately after his therapy began, and one of Benedict’s deputies at the time has taken responsibility for that decision. Less than five years later, the priest was accused of molesting other boys, and in 1986 was convicted of sexual abuse.

The pope did not address that case in his letter to the Irish, nor did he call for Cardinal Sean Brady, the head of the Irish church, to resign. Cardinal Brady said last week that he would step down if the pope asked, after revelations that he took part in a church investigation in 1975 in which two children were forced to sign secrecy oaths.

...

“There’s a strong tendency to approach this as a problem of faith, when it is a problem of church management and a lack of accountability,” said Terrence McKiernan, founder and president of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks church records on abuse cases.

It is somehow OK for many to have a feeding frenzy because it is about Catholicism.

Yes. It is by examining our weaknesses and addressing them that we get stronger. There is a difference between justice and vengeance, fixing institutions and destroying them. It is somehow OK for many to have a feeding frenzy because it is about Catholicism.

The practices within our church have changed radically in the last 10 years. Anyone who has any contact with a child for church activities must undergo a background check and attend safe training. That doesn't erase sins of the past, but it is action to prevent sins in the future.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

Weird..don't old Popes usually hang on by their fingernails until they pull the pointy hat from their cold dead hands..literally

Your wrote... The practices within our church have changed radically in the last 10 years. Anyone who has any contact with a child for church activities must undergo a background check and attend safe training. That doesn't erase sins of the past, but it is action to prevent sins in the future. end quote..

How exactly does this stop pedophile priests who are sanctioned by the church? The fox is guarding the henhouse. You have done nothing about the fox. You have a serious problem which you haven't addressed yet. The pope is a prime example. He helped create the the system of hiding pedophiles.

True pedophilia occurs most often within families. And the most common perpetrators are married laymen and non-affiliated males.

Sinners are Sinners were all Sinners at all levels.

My take-away: you acknowledge the catholic church has hidden and protected known or suspected pedophiles from the law, but since 'those other people' are worse the catholic church is not deserving of the condemnation its receiving.

I could not have said it better myself. It makes me sad and angry to see this behavior.

My take-away: you acknowledge the catholic church has hidden and protected known or suspected pedophiles from the law, but since 'those other people' are worse the catholic church is not deserving of the condemnation its receiving.

My take-away: you acknowledge the catholic church has hidden and protected known or suspected pedophiles from the law, but since 'those other people' are worse the catholic church is not deserving of the condemnation its receiving.

Do you deny the holocaust as well?

....BTW your broadstroke condemnation of public schools needs some fine tuning as far as documentation reaching the level of the pandemic perversion in the Catholic church. A few teabagger articles from the provinces are not even remotely comparable. If so, every school distict in the US would be suspect. Show me the proof. This revelation is on the order of FOX NOISE reporting and not worth the breath.

The 2004 U.S. Department of Education report reported that "the most accurate data available" reveals that "nearly 9.6 percent of [public school] students are targets of educator sexual misconduct sometime during their school career.

Institutions and people are never close to perfect and full of flaws. Pedophilia is a horrible crime. I am objecting to condeming all. Yes I know that there have been pedophiles as priests, ministers, teachers, coaches, boy scout leaders, politicians, many occupations and walks of life. They should be brought to justice. Yet I have committed no act that makes me complicit in any of that activity. And I want to see the church continue, clean from that past. Perhaps you feel that the doors of all catholic churches, schools, and charities from each parish, diocese to the vatican should be shuttered and sold for reparations. Catholicism will survive, rich or poor. It has survived many awful times and unholy events. The power does not lie in the gold in Rome.

Jennie, if the Catholic Church hierarchy were to be found guilty and brought to justice for their crimes of conspiracy, collusion and obstruction of justice, how could that be a bad thing? Such could only be considered a good thing - correct? If this is true the ones most interested in seeing justice through should be the members of the church - correct?

Indicting the entire clergy...

How about just indicting the administration (you know, that Pope guy and his buddies) that did the hiding and protecting?

"Indicting the entire clergy and/or denigrating innocent lay Catholics for their membership is not civil response."

"You must be misunderstanding me by a long stretch. I meant ( and stated) that prosecution should be directed at those who are incriminated by evidence. .I'm puzzled where you got that idea.

You are right to think a great deal of my criticism is leveled at the entire Catholic congregation, just like I level criticism at the whole Muslim world for not leading the charge against Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. Their tribal defensive posture is indefensible. All Catholics should be demanding prosecution. Don't you agree?

Religion is a sensitive subject for some individuals. A live wire. Any reasoned and documented accusation cannot possibly be supported and is immediately relegated to conjecture or mean spirited attack. This is the problem with internet forums.

One wonders.... when will this demand manifest itself?

It has...and hopefully will continue to

Are there no real blue blood Catholics here that could provide insight into this question?

I have zero interest in religion, hold zero affiliation to any church .......never have, never will

Molesters look to Catholic employers because hiring is less stringent than at public schools. My college track coach (I went to a Catholic college) was molesting our top runner since she was thirteen. He went from Catholic school to Catholic school coaching girls teams. I testified against the bastard who was found guilty in a civil case. Last year he was coaching kids in Indiana. Because of a google search by some parent that turned up the court case from so many years ago, the guy was fired.

I don't expect you'll explain the real reason for this long term impassioned defense of the catholic church, now will you jennie?

Molesters look to Catholic employers because hiring is less stringent than at public schools. My college track coach (I went to a Catholic college) was molesting our top runner since she was thirteen. He went from Catholic school to Catholic school coaching girls teams. I testified against the bastard who was found guilty in a civil case. Last year he was coaching kids in Indiana. Because of a google search by some parent that turned up the court case from so many years ago, the guy was fired.

I hear Ivan Greene has a lot of new followers. Give that a shot....

by Thomas Doyle | Mar. 2, 2013

VIEWPOINT

Way back in 2004, in the early days of the seemingly endless struggle for justice by the victims of several priests from Los Angeles, I had a conversation with one of the attorneys who represented several of these men and women. He said, "By the time this is over we are going to find out just how much Roger Mahony's cardinal hat is worth." I suspect that neither of us realized that this was truly a prophetic statement. In the end, the cost was calculated in dollars, trust, respect and faith.
The cost must also include the loss of truth.

The media responses to the final order to disclose all the files of predator priests and descriptions of the 10-year saga that preceded the court's decision on Jan. 31 do not come close to telling the full story of the nightmare that led up to that day. The last major act, Archbishop Jose Gomez's meaningless censure of Mahony and Mahony's whining retort on his blog, is all about them and not about the real core of this almost incredible decade of events. At the heart of it all are the victims of Los Angeles priests, several hundred men and women. Yet the legal battle that went on and on not only overlooked them but continued to heap pain on their already scarred souls.

The media could not possibly recount the massive toll this took on so many people. The price of Mahony's red hat is certainly steep in dollars. He retained an army of expensive lawyers to defend his intentional mishandling of reports of sexual abuse, and then to create legal roadblocks to the disclosure of the culprits' files. The real cost of his hat was in people.

There were 508 victim/survivors as plaintiffs in the cases that eventually were settled in 2007 for $660 million. They had been put through agony during the months and years they were manipulated, lied to and revictimized before any of them went to court. Then the first phase of the nightmare began.

The settlement process was long, tedious and so byzantine that no one could possibly describe it with any accuracy. All the while, the lawyers retained by the cardinal were doing their utmost to prolong anything resembling a just solution. When the bishops' cheerleaders throughout the country accuse the victims' lawyers of being greedy, they should take another look at the dozens of attorneys who made up Mahony's brigade, all of whom were high-priced and none of whom worked pro bono for even an hour. Whenever the cardinal appeared for a deposition or meeting involving the cases, at least six and often 10 lawyers accompanied him. Who paid the legal fees? The "people of God" of the Los Angeles archdiocese. Who else?

How many of these people of God could have benefitted from the money diverted to the lawyers and to the public relations firm as well? We will never know.

The process took its toll not only on the victims but on their lawyers, all of whom were working on contingency, which meant they were looking at financial doom if the whole venture fell through. They worked far above and beyond what was required for what they earned. Some were so disgusted with the never-ending antics of the church in court and at the mediation table that they left the practice of law when it was all over. A number who had at one time been practicing Catholics lost all respect and trust in the institutional church. One lawyer spoke up at a gathering after the settlement and said, "I don't believe in God anymore." This man had not only represented victims in Los Angeles and elsewhere for years, but he had provided for many the emotional and spiritual support so essential after their experiences with the church. He told me once that he had to make 70 cross-country plane trips to Los Angeles for the case.

As part of the 2007 settlement, the archdiocese agreed to disclose the files of the perpetrators. The ink was not dry on the settlement before the cardinal launched what would become a seemingly endless series of legal objections and procedural delays that at one point went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The core of Mahony's legal claim to prevent the disclosure of what he had already agreed to was the idea that all communications between a priest and his bishop are privileged in the sense that they cannot be disclosed without violating the First Amendment. He and his legal crew based this on what they called the "formation privilege." Priests are always in formation and their bishop is like their father, guiding and teaching them along the way, or so their story goes.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office asked me to write a declaration in support of their request to get the files. I did and in it I presented documentary evidence that the "formation privilege" was a fiction of the cardinal's imagination with no basis in canon law, theology, church history or custom. The archdiocese lost. Naturally it appealed, and I became one of its targets. A significant part of its opposing brief was not a serious challenge to the content of my declaration but a detailed, invasive personal attack on my character, credentials and motivation. It got them nowhere; a special master overruled just about every objection lodged against the declaration.

From there the cardinal's appeal went to the California Supreme Court where, on July 25, 2005, it was again denied. Mahony and his lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On April 17, 2006, the Supreme Court refused to review the lower courts, hence their rulings stood.

That battle involved the files of two priests. One would expect the cardinal and his team to get the point, but they did not. The fight continued until this January. Even then, with final defeat looking them in the eye, the cardinal's lawyers planned yet another strategy for yet another postponement and more time to spin, twist and delay. It was not to be. On Jan. 31, the judge ordered the trove of about 30,000 pages of documents released and that they had to show the names of the cardinal and his aides.

Shortly thereafter it was discovered that the archdiocese had released only around 12,000 pages and that many of those had the names of church officials blacked out, contrary to the judge's order. The public response was swift. The cardinal's lead counsel, Michael Hennigan, said he had no idea why the documents were missing, and promised more would be forth coming. More spin and roadblock right up to the wire!

The saga is not over and probably never will be. The damage extends beyond the victims, their families and the key players in the legal debacle, to the church itself. The cardinal, in his self-serving obsession to first shortchange the victims and then to protect himself and the archdiocesan administration from the exposure of their despicable actions in sacrificing the innocence of children for the clerical image, has severely damaged any possibility of healing. This nearly decade-long nightmare has plunged the hierarchy's barely existing credibility into a tailspin.

From the papacy on down, the Los Angeles abuse history is marked only by narcissistic efforts to save a terminally shattered image. There is little doubt that Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor knew the score in the archdiocese. Unconfirmed reports say Vatican representatives were in on the settlement negotiations. After all, $660 million is not small potatoes even to the Vatican.

How much is the cardinal's hat worth and who paid the bill? In the end the dollar costs are astronomical but pale by comparison to the costs incurred by the people of God who have paid the price of this colossal betrayal with their faith.

[Thomas Doyle is a Dominican priest, canon lawyer, addictions therapist and longtime advocate for clergy sex abuse victims. He worked as a consultant to lawyers representing abuse victims suing the Los Angeles archdiocese.]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A newspaper known for unflinching coverage of the Catholic church scandal was rebuked by a bishop in its own backyard after calling for his ouster in a battle that illustrates tensions between U.S. bishops and groups that call themselves Catholic but aren't sanctioned by the church.

The National Catholic Reporter, an independent Kansas City, Mo.-based weekly, called for Bishop Robert Finn's removal or resignation in September, after he was convicted of failing to report suspected child abuse.