Meaningfulness v meaninglessness; theism vs atheism;

[dqualk]

How about not simply moving such priests from one locale to another, where they can continue their behavior with a new batch of kids? How about paying attention to the letters that were streaming in to Vatican officials for several decades, warning about what was taking place and that the priests should be defrocked? How about letting your priests get married so they can satisfy their natural sexual desires in covenant matrimony (e.g., 1 Cor. 7:9)? And so on.

Some bad Bishops did evil things, this does not mean the Church as a whole is evil. The Vatican shut down many Bishops before this ever came out. I KNOW ITS A SHOCK!!!!!! But a lot of what the news reports are lies. The media tried so hard to make the Pope look bad and they wound up digging up the fact that he quickly and effectively shut down predators the moment he found out about them. The thing is the Vatican is not omnipotent. In the ordinary manner the local Bishops are supposed to take care of teh situation according to Canon Law. These Bishops did not do that, AND GUESS WHAT! They covered it up. What do you think a cover up is? They hid it from all of their brother bishops and from the secular crowd et al. The fact is MOST Bishops acted according to Canon Law and immediately defrocked etc the pradator priests. This is a fact. Further!!! The Church does not force anyone to make a vow to celibacy. These men do it of their own volition AND FURTHER they can leave anytime they want. The Church does not force them to stay and keep their vow to celibacy. The Church does not take vows lightly like you might perhpas, and is not going to say "sure just break your vows that you made directly to God." What a lame answer to the problem anyway! As if celibate people are more likely to be perverts. Grow up. Jesus was celibate. Paul was celibate. Did they molest? NO! I was celibate until I was 20 years old, I did not have an urge to molest. I dare say that I could have gone my entire life outside of marriage and I would have never had the desire to molest; I don't know about you.

First, don't lump me in with others. Second, that is not what I am doing. I did not suggest that the RCC should be blamed for what this or that priest did; the RCC should be blamed for what its Vatican authorities did or didn't do.

That's like saying all Amerians should be blamed for Bill Clinton get a head job while married and lying under oath. There are times when America speaks as one voice, and that is during elections, and during specific actions of are representaives. Not personal evil actions of our represenatives. In the same way the Church speaks as a whole in these follwing manners only, when the Pope is teaching on issues of faith and morals with an intention of teachings infallibly to the whole Church, when an Ecumenical Council is called and the Pope is presiding, or through our Tradition which can be found in the Bible, in our historical documents, and within the teachings of our magestirum, when those teachigns have clear precedent to being taugh always and everywhere. Short of that oyu can not blame the Church as an institution proper. The fact is when the cover ups came to light the Church and the vast majority of her bishops did everything they could to stop the abuses and make sure they dont happen again.

A claim Rome has made for years, and proven to be an outright lie in court in 2007. They had known since at least the 1950s.

Bull shit. When the Church finds out about a scandal it deals with it and applies damage control whenever possible. If damage control is not possible than its not possible. Only a small group of shameful bishops moved predators around. Most bishops would deal with it by removing the priest from ministry, have him go to counseling and give him some kind of accountability, and if teh offense was really bad, like say it was consentual, or it was a very young person then they would give him to teh secualr realm to put him in prison. This is the way the Church ordinarily deals iwth such cases. Teh Church has its own courts and lawyers, and she is her own State of sorts. The Church has legitimate ways to deal with criminals, just like the U.S. does and other nations recognize her as soverign. Occasionaly nations, as the Church, has a bad judge who does something stupid, shame on them. The Church does not have prisons however, and for this reason, when a man is exceptionally evil the Church will defrock him and hand him to the secular authorities. But the Church has legitimate ways to deal with offenses that don't necessarily deserve prison, they can restrain priests by forcing htem to remain in a place under watch for long durations of time, similar to jail, and they have some of the best physciatrists in the world.

Because you are doing what bishops and priests have done for decades—defending Rome and NOT the victims. And you are clearly not informed of the issues, since you are spewing Vatican talking points that are at minimum four years out of date and refuted by evidence in court. When you start showing more concern for the abuses than for the integrity of Rome, then I'll give you a break.

Bull shit. You have not done the research. If you get your news from sources hateful to the Church only then shame on you. Read both sides of the story. The Church has done everything it can to stop abuse. The Church defends the victims to the best of her ability. Look I call it like I see it, where there is integrity there is integrity, where there is abuse tehre is abuse. I just dont let some absue blind me into claiming a whole group of people, say the magesterium, are abusive. The Pope defrocked every priest and bishop he could that participated in these acts and he did it quickly. All Christian denominations deal with this problem, and so does all of soceity, including schools, univeristies, the President etc. If you want to say that certain memebers of teh Vatican were vile, I agree with you! if you want to say that certain bishops and priests were evil. I agree with you. But to bind it on the entire Church? No sir! That is a lie, and it is secualar propaganda. Most hypocritical as school systems have a worse record than the Church concerning such issues.

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I am mystified to how you have allowed atheism to blind you. The fact is when one atheist does something we do not bind it on the whole. When on teacher and student do something we do not bind it on the entire school system. When on police officer shoots a black man because he is black we do not say the entire police force is evil etc etc etc etc

The cover up of vile the sexual acts was institutional in nature.
Often with priests just being moved to other parishes when the abuse was uncovered.
As the cover up was regulated by the catholic churches hierachy it is not wrong to blame them for the continued abuse.

If a lone policeman kills a black person then he is to blame. If then the whole police force close ranks to ensure that the crime is covered up and that the perpetrator does not face the full force of the law because of this, then the whole police force is to blame. Especially if the cover up is repeated time and time again for centuries.

How many millions must have been raped by catholic priests over the millenia.

Oh and the chief cover upper now holds the position of pope.

Liar. Prove it with facts. You cannot. I have researched this extensively. You are lying. Have a greater respect for reason, logic and truth.