"In celebrating Jesus' birth, he said people should think about children forced to serve "as soldiers in a violent world, toward children who have to beg, toward children who suffer deprivation and hunger, toward children who are unloved."

I notice that at no point did he say a nice place for the Catholic church to start would be to stop their own priests from raping young boys.

I do love the hypocracy of the religious sheeple.

Bullshit its not hypocracy, the church in recent years has put to trhe forefront the turning over of abuseive priests for prosecution. They have a no tolarancs stance now!!! If you ever look closly at the ones who did that crap they are all old and it had happened years before. There was some bishops who tried to cover it up but they are also now all gone. The church itsself has always condemed the abuse of childern it was a few very bad apples. Don't condem them all!!!

Not true Scooby. Cardinal Mahoney in Los Angeles, infamous for his role in covering up sexual abuse by transferring, not prosecuting, offenders and thus giving them a new crop to molest, continues in power.

Also, according to the documentary -- forgot the name of it now -- Mahoney was not "fingered" (you should forgive the use of that expression) for those things because the accused priest (who never did time and is now living free in Ireland) refused to testify in a civil molest suit that Mahoney knew what he, the priest, was doing.

It was, of course, only coincidental and in no way a reward for not so testifying, that the Church thereafter bought the priest an annuity which paid him a tidy sum per year.

And about 2 months ago I read that Benedict, the current pope, issued an official directive when he was high up in the church hierarchy but before he was pontiff, that the catholic clergy need not report sexual abuse to civil authorities for 10 years after learning of it, because until then it was a "church matter". Not, of course, that such a rule had anything to do with civil or criminal statutes of limitations.

Scooby,

You see the old priests getting pinched because the boys they used to rape have grown up and have come forward. I would think it rare that a 12 year old would tell the parents or go to the police, so this is the type of crime that will tend to go a while before the truth surfaces.

I think scoobies point is that the vast majority of priests are good roll models for the church. There is no arguing that the church buggled the entire affair and deserves the flack and lawsuits they get over it, but like everything else, it just taints the remaining majority.

I understand his point DM, but I think he's wrong when he says the church bigwigs are at the forefront in turning over the priests for prosecution. The leadership is playing the same old shell game.

For instance, just within the last two months in LA, the church finally settled about 65 million in cases that had been pending for years...but only after losing an appeal to the US Supreme Court arguing the diocese didn't own much of the property that was looked to to satisfy the claims.

IMHO, they are not about owning up and paying up, not before, not now.

I can't speak for LA, but Boston had a complete housecleaning. Point taken tho.

(Message edited by donmarco on December 26, 2006)

They now use 2 collection plates, regular and one for the legal fees!

Wow ! When did they cut back to only 2 collection plates ?
I guess it's been a hell of a long time since I was in a church !!

OK, you are now a canidate to burn in hell as you have not contributed your share of earnings for the Priests "special needs" fund.....lol

KM-Time to go to confression my friend...but don't tell all, OK?

Drop a $20 in the plate and they will absolve
you of all wrong doings with a few Hail Mary's on your part.

Cheap at twice the price,,,,,,LOL

The Catholic Church has been in bed with the Mafia, South American Dictators, The Apartheid Government and the Nazis among other less then holy bedfellows. Why does it come as a surprise to find they where in the bed with little boys as well?

I think I saw that on Dateline......no, wait , that was how to catch a Predator wasn't it!