Damned Catholics

[thesummerqueen]

I'm not sure what the saint had to do with anything.

The Pope's apology is hardly adequate response upon finding out that people knew the cover up was happening.

[downbeatplumb]

Pope Benedict XVI met on September 18 with a group of British victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

The Pope “was moved by what they had to say, and expressed his deep sorrow and shame,” the Vatican press office said in a release made public after the meeting. The Holy Father prayed with the victims for healing and reconciliation.

Would that be because of the recent bad publicity do you think?

[Minimalist]

he Pope “was moved by what they had to say, and expressed his deep sorrow and shame,”

What he was "sorry" and "ashamed" about was getting caught. He's as guilty as any of the other fuckers.

[dqualk]

Minimalist you have no proof that he is guilty. Please do post some proof thanks.

Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. (Dutch: Pater Damiaan or Heilige Damiaan van Molokai; January 3, 1840 – April 15, 1889), born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,[1] a missionary religious order. He won recognition for his ministry to people with leprosy (also known as Hansen's disease), who had been placed under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the island of Molokaʻi in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.[2]

After sixteen years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, he eventually contracted and died of the disease, and is widely considered a "martyr of charity". He is the ninth person recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church to have lived, worked, and died in what is now the United States.

---

I just thought since we were throwing all Catholics under the bus with this "damn catholics" post i would demonstrate who we were throwing under the bus with a few bad bishops and priests.

[thesummerqueen]

No, you're just missing the point.

[dqualk]

The USSR and China did not kill people for being "religious," you fool. They killed them for opposing "communism" as you more or less acknowledge.

Your fucking church murdered millions because they were not "catholic" or "pure-enough catholic." See the difference?

Probably not. You are a hopeless case.

Do you really believe that the USSR did not kill people for being religious? Chine still does to this day. If I need to I will glady post many stories of how people were killed for their faith in the USSR and China.

Show me the documented evidence of "millions." Or are you attributing every kings evil desicions on the Church? The Church may have called for a Crusade but it did not call for the killing of innocents. America went to war with the Nazis and many thousands of innocents died. Do we say that America is to blame in a direct way for the killing of these innocents?

---

Oh sorry. What is the point?

[Ashendant]

The USSR and China did not kill people for being "religious," you fool. They killed them for opposing "communism" as you more or less acknowledge.

Your fucking church murdered millions because they were not "catholic" or "pure-enough catholic." See the difference?

Probably not. You are a hopeless case.

Do you really believe that the USSR did not kill people for being religious? Chine still does to this day. If I need to I will glady post many stories of how people were killed for their faith in the USSR and China.

Show me the documented evidence of "millions." Or are you attributing every kings evil desicions on the Church? The Church may have called for a Crusade but it did not call for the killing of innocents. America went to war with the Nazis and many thousands of innocents died. Do we say that America is to blame in a direct way for the killing of these innocents?

---

Oh sorry. What is the point?

The Inquisition and the Crusades are good points, it called for the murder of people of other faiths which are also innocents

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

The Inquisition and the Crusades are good points, it called for the murder of people of other faiths who are also innocents

Indeed. In one infamous incident ( during the persecution of the Cathars) a bishop said "Kill them all, God will know his own". So they did that.

In recent years,it has emerged that the Catholic Church is and has been more corrupt at an intsitutional level than ever suspected by most people.

There have of course been a few people in history who saw the Church as it was. EG Martin Luther,Voltaire,Carl Marx, to name a few.

If our resident Catholic apologist thinks I'm exaggerating, I refer him to the little book "The Case Of The Pope" by Geoffrey Robertson (QC and respected International jurist)

The book examines the sordid issue of the Church and its protection of pedophile priests as a matter of church policy. The justification is idiot simple:the church places canon law above civil law,period. Unless of course it simply can't get away with it. A good example is the lapsed practice of burning heretics,gays and other undesirables. The last time a pope actually executed someone was in 1848.

I've said this before; one needs a degree of cognitive dissonance to be a practising Catholic..To be a Catholic apologist, this disorder needs to be severe,or the person needs to be exceedingly disingenuous. (ie a barefaced liar).

[Minimalist]

Do you really believe that the USSR did not kill people for being religious?

Yes.

Do you really believe a dead fucking carpenter came back to life?

Which of the two is more absurd?

To be sure Russian orthodox types were killed but it was because they opposed the new regime not because they were 'religious' per se.

[dqualk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution....80.931921

The Orthodox church suffered terribly in the 1930s, and many of its members were killed or sent to labor camps. In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to fewer than 500. 1929 was a watershed year in which Soviet policy brought much new legislation in place that would form the basis for the harsh anti-religious persecution in the following decade.

And yes I beleive that death is not the final destiny of my life.

---

Padraic, it is sad that you have such little respect for so many intelligent well meaning people.

I have a book you can read too if you want to read the other side, Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church.

The Church has a policy and its a good one. Maybe you believe there is some other policy they keep hidden, or an oral policy handed down by tradition, but that would be like a conspiracy theory.

Once again many bishops and even Popes have made bad decisions, but there evil actions are not binding on the whole Church in my opinion. In the same way, when one atheist does something evil, even a really well respected atheist, I do not bind it on all atheists.