Resignations for everybody!
The AP covered Easter mass in Rome: "Holy Father, on your side are the people of God," Cardinal Angelo Sodano told the pontiff, whom victims of clergy sexual abuse accuse of helping to shape and perpetuate a climate of cover-up. Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, dismissed those claims as "petty gossip."
So the rest of us are not the people of God. The rest of us who would stand up for abused children, who demand justice for their abusers, and accountability from those who covered for the abusers.
Bullshit. "We are deeply grateful to you for the strength of spirit and apostolic courage with which you announce the Gospel," said Sodano, who sought to assure Benedict that the scandals were not costing him credibility among his flock.
There is no courage in protecting sexual predators. There is no courage in defending those that do.
Petty gossip? Fuck you, Cardinal.
Catholic World Report editor George Neumayr rants in the Moonie Times: The truth is that Pope Benedict has done more to address the abuse scandal in the church than his predecessor, whose tenure never excited anywhere near this level of calls for resignation.
Wrong again, asshole. He's done more to cover it up. As pope, he did little to reform the hierarchy's handling of abuse cases--and he all but condemned demands for accountability from the American bishops. But I've yet to see any documentation that Karol Cardinal Wojtyla covered for clerical abuse when he was out running a diocese. But Josef Cardinal Ratzinger? He was knee-deep in it both as Archbishop of Munich, and while in charge of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. And in that last case, there's the foundation of an argument that he is guilty of conspiracy in an American jurisdiction. That means an arrest on the ramp at JFK to stand trial in an Arizona state court. (If you believe he'd delegate these things out, and might have been shielded from the full truths, it looks like you'd be wrong.)
This is not idle fucking gossip. This is serious. And it demands an enormous round of resignations, public statements of account, and jail time. It would mean a huge shakeup in the Catholic Church, the likes of which probably hasn't been seen since the Reformation. Yes, the leadership hierarchy would be left in tatters. But the hierarchy is not the Church, its people are. (Even Ted Baxter properly recognizes that!) Cut out this cancer, and the rest of the body will in time heal itself.
So the rest of us are not the people of God. The rest of us who would stand up for abused children, who demand justice for their abusers, and accountability from those who covered for the abusers.
Bullshit. "We are deeply grateful to you for the strength of spirit and apostolic courage with which you announce the Gospel," said Sodano, who sought to assure Benedict that the scandals were not costing him credibility among his flock.
There is no courage in protecting sexual predators. There is no courage in defending those that do.
Petty gossip? Fuck you, Cardinal.
Catholic World Report editor George Neumayr rants in the Moonie Times: The truth is that Pope Benedict has done more to address the abuse scandal in the church than his predecessor, whose tenure never excited anywhere near this level of calls for resignation.
Wrong again, asshole. He's done more to cover it up. As pope, he did little to reform the hierarchy's handling of abuse cases--and he all but condemned demands for accountability from the American bishops. But I've yet to see any documentation that Karol Cardinal Wojtyla covered for clerical abuse when he was out running a diocese. But Josef Cardinal Ratzinger? He was knee-deep in it both as Archbishop of Munich, and while in charge of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. And in that last case, there's the foundation of an argument that he is guilty of conspiracy in an American jurisdiction. That means an arrest on the ramp at JFK to stand trial in an Arizona state court. (If you believe he'd delegate these things out, and might have been shielded from the full truths, it looks like you'd be wrong.)
This is not idle fucking gossip. This is serious. And it demands an enormous round of resignations, public statements of account, and jail time. It would mean a huge shakeup in the Catholic Church, the likes of which probably hasn't been seen since the Reformation. Yes, the leadership hierarchy would be left in tatters. But the hierarchy is not the Church, its people are. (Even Ted Baxter properly recognizes that!) Cut out this cancer, and the rest of the body will in time heal itself.