What's the most face-palm-worthy statement you have ever heard from a priest/preacher

[Thumpalumpacus]

If they have donated money, yes.

Like most Christians, we take up a collection at every mass. Some of that money goes to care for old priests who are now retired. Guess we're all guilty.

You're now free to hate all of us, PT, because we're all in collusion with the pedophiles we're harboring.

Not all Catholics continued donations after the scandal broke. Some even broke from the church altogether.

You chose to keep donating, though. When will you own that decision?

I don't hate all of you. I don't hate most of you, for that matter. But I do heap scorn and calumny upon those like yourself who continue to argue that the hierarchy of the church acted appropriately. You knew they were sheltering molesters, and not only did you continue your donations, you took to the Internet to justify the support of an institution which deliberately sought to shelter molesters from the justice they'd earnt.

I notice you still haven't answered my questions above, too. Make your next reply pertinent, mouse.

[Randy Carson]

You agree that the Huffington Post is not known for its conservatism, correct?


So, John Paul II was skeptical of the allegations because he had seen priests victimized by false accusations of the communists in Poland. But Ratzinger moved as quickly as he could to remove the priests - defrocking hundreds of them in the process.

Get your facts straight.

Wow and all that is intended to make the church look better?

Of course.

Pedophile priests committed horrific crimes against young people who trusted them. Ratzinger took action to STOP the bishops from merely moving them to new assignments and to get them out of the priesthood.

It's not a good thing that the priests were committing the crimes, but it is good that the future pope started the reform.

Now, how does that square with what you wrote:

"You know pope Benedict was shown to be shuffling and protecting molesters as the bishop of munich."

[Lemonvariable72]

Makes it look worse randy as he didn't turn the cases over to police. Oh and ABC news also squares nicely with what I said http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4656143
So does the guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...hild-abuse
The guardian is willing to give that he did centralize the law which is a good thing but he also protected 19 bishops and even refused to accept the resignation of raymond lahey after he was convicted and served his time.

[Randy Carson]

Makes it look worse randy as he didn't turn the cases over to police. Oh and ABC news also squares nicely with what I said http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4656143
So does the guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...hild-abuse
The guardian is willing to give that he did centralize the law which is a good thing but he also protected 19 bishops and even refused to accept the resignation of raymond lahey after he was convicted and served his time.

Thank you for the links.

Though dated, the articles provided some interesting background.

[Pyrrho]

And as for the Huffington Post, it does not matter if they are liberal or not, they have been shown to an accurate and good news source. Moreover America doesn't have any liberal political party. You have moderate right wingers and nutjob right wingers. Come to Canada and see the handy work of people like Tommy Douglas and Pierre Trudeau and you will see more liberalism there then the US has seen since Carter. And guess what? We are better off in a whole lot of respects. :
- Universal healthcare that is comparable to most us paid healthcare.
- lower murder rates
- lower national debt
- lower personal debt
- better contraception access
- better education, by a large margin. (Canada is consistently in the top 15, us is in the 50s)
So yeah I know I went off topic but seriously don't lecture me about how conservatism Is better.

You are a bunch of goddamned commie atheist bastards up there north of us.  (By the way, how can my wife and I retire to Canada?  Is that possible, and if so, do you have any advice on how to do that?)

[Randy Carson]

And as for the Huffington Post, it does not matter if they are liberal or not, they have been shown to an accurate and good news source. Moreover America doesn't have any liberal political party. You have moderate right wingers and nutjob right wingers. Come to Canada and see the handy work of people like Tommy Douglas and Pierre Trudeau and you will see more liberalism there then the US has seen since Carter. And guess what? We are better off in a whole lot of respects. :
- Universal healthcare that is comparable to most us paid healthcare.
- lower murder rates
- lower national debt
- lower personal debt
- better contraception access
- better education, by a large margin. (Canada is consistently in the top 15, us is in the 50s)
So yeah I know I went off topic but seriously don't lecture me about how conservatism Is better.

How many people live in Canada?

How much money does Canada spend on its national defense every year?

Do Canadians benefit from living under the blanket of protection provided by the world's leading military superpower without paying a dime for it?

Has it really been 22 years since a Canadian team won that hockey trophy cup thingie?

[Lemonvariable72]

And as for the Huffington Post, it does not matter if they are liberal or not, they have been shown to an accurate and good news source. Moreover America doesn't have any liberal political party. You have moderate right wingers and nutjob right wingers. Come to Canada and see the handy work of people like Tommy Douglas and Pierre Trudeau and you will see more liberalism there then the US has seen since Carter. And guess what? We are better off in a whole lot of respects. :
- Universal healthcare that is comparable to most us paid healthcare.
- lower murder rates
- lower national debt
- lower personal debt
- better contraception access
- better education, by a large margin. (Canada is consistently in the top 15, us is in the 50s)
So yeah I know I went off topic but seriously don't lecture me about how conservatism Is better.

How many people live in Canada?

How much money does Canada spend on its national defense every year?

Do Canadians benefit from living under the blanket of protection provided by the world's leading military superpower without paying a dime for it?

Has it really been 22 years since a Canadian team won that hockey trophy cup thingie?

If you think Canadians don't pay at all for American military your wrong. We are the source of nearly all of your: Uranium, Nickel, potash, and home heating oil. All those nukes you have? Uranium was Canadian. With a little from the Colorado river. I would not be surprised if even some of the gold in fort Knox was Canadian. So do say we get your help without paying a dime.

To answer your other questions. 34 million, the federal defense budget is at 1% of GDP ( a bit low. I feel it should be around 2-3%) and actually but around half of the total players in the NHL are canadian (I think)

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

I would still like to know why Randy thinks people could enter priesthood "for a number of reasons".

The "for a number of reasons" and also how he came to know about it.

[abaris]

I would still like to know why Randy thinks people could enter priesthood "for a number of reasons".

Totally unscientific and only based on personal observation, but I do think, Randy's got that right. Some may enter the priesthood for protection, to be taken by the hand, since they're not well equipped to survive the daily struggle. Especially joining an order offers alll kind of protection from the outside.

There's that saying about never to judge a book by it's cover. But it's hard not to notice that especially the young priests often give the outside appearance of timid boys. Remembering my own school days of which I'm not too proud of, they would have been natural targets for all kinds of bullying by the more popular kids.

[Randy Carson]

I would still like to know why Randy thinks people could enter priesthood "for a number of reasons".

The "for a number of reasons" and also how he came to know about it.

Off the top of my head...

1. They have a genuine desire to love and serve God (but not an actual vocation).
2. They want to "do good in life", and the priesthood seemed like the best way to fulfill that desire.
3. They are pressured by family who expect some of their children to enter religious life.
4. They have an older brother who was also a priest and they felt like they needed to "keep up" with him.
5. They experience a traumatic event (near death, death of a friend) and make a rash vow to God (like Martin Luther did).
6. They have latent homosexual tendencies and decided to suppress it by joining the clergy (to avoid questions about why they aren't married).

I'm sure there are others.

I learned about vocations and the discernment process when I was a candidate at a Trappist monastery many years ago. Needless to say, in the end, I did not become a monk (for reason #1 above).