As per usual, the Vatican is incapable of any real self-reflection

And you get to own being a bigot.

 

Shrugs. If you want to stand by his lame joke about where the church recruits, then it kinda fits.

 

"Bigot" lost its shock value on message boards years ago.

 

Again, if you are comfortable hanging that kind of label on young priests based on what older priests have done, enjoy the title. You earned it.

 

oop, if I typed what I think about the ultra-Orthodox, and it somehow misposted under a Gentile's handle, 90% of it would have you convinced that person was a screaming anti-Semite.

I figure the Catholics are allowed to complain about their religion. Doesn't make them bigots.

 

At some point, the young priests (and the middle-aged priests) should have risen up and stormed into the bishops' offices and thundered, "get rid of these pervert predators, rip them out feet first, if you won't do it for the sake of the children you are supposed to be protecting, do it for the good name of everybody else in this church."

Instead of doing that, the higher-ups were more afraid of what they might find.

That tells you everything.

 

I'm not defending what the church has done. I am questioning you for the way you hold everyone responsible for the crimes of some of its members. Too damn many? No doubt. But that doesn't make every priest in the Catholic Church guilty, and that seems to be what you are saying.

 

Just as I hold responsible everyone at PSU who had suspicions (and worse, knowledge) about Sandusky's activities and looked the other way to protect the football program, I'm comfortable assigning scorn to all the priests who had a chance to step forward and protect kids but instead chose to protect the church.

Sorry, but that doesn't make me a bigot.

 

The only way things will change is if pressure on them is continually cranked up, and up, and up.

 

When you lump an entire group of people together that way, without really knowing them at all, it kinda does.

 

Hundreds, if not thousands of priests, diddling young children.

Can anybody supply the list of priests or cardinals who spoke out against it, turned priests in? Acted with an ounce of courage?


I am sure there were scores of these brave priests who bucked the molestation current. I haven't seen any of them.

 

Slightly old NY Times article, but just to balance out the thread, here's a piece about the great social justice work being done by Sister Simone Campbell. They have no problems taking the Vatican head-on:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us/us-nuns-bus-tour-to-spotlight-social-issues.html

There was also a more recent TIME article on Sister Campbell, but it's behind a paywall. From that story, I love this quote (regarding criticism from the Vatican):

More recently, she's taken on Paul Ryan's budget plan:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/02/paul-ryan-vs-catholic-nuns-on-a-bus/

It's people like this who still give me hope that Catholicism can be a force for good, even if it's not coming from the Vatican.