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Pope says pedophilia wasn't such a big deal in the '70s
By Peter SmithDecember 21st, 2010, 6:00 pmComments (11)
In a Christmas address delivered yesterday, the Pope claimed that "in the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children." Is something getting lost in translation here? Whose theory was this, specifically? He also said that child-abuse scandals had brought "humiliation" onto the Catholic Church, which reminds me a little of this classic Onion story. (So sorry for your tough year, buddy!)
In response, Barbara Blaine, the head of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told a Belfast newspaper, "Catholics should be embarrassed to hear their Pope talk again and again about abuse while doing little or nothing to stop it and to mischaracterize this heinous crisis... It is fundamentally disturbing to watch a brilliant man so conveniently misdiagnose a horrific scandal." Stay tuned for the inevitable Vatican "clarification" — they're on a tear this week.
Commentarium (11 Comments)
the very next sentence in the Pope's address is "This, however, was part of a fundamental perversion of the concept of ethos" In other words, you quote out of context.
He didn't say that he thought it was a good thing. He said it wasn't considered abnormal, which is not true.
He just keeps digging himself deeper and deeper, doesn't he?
So I guess it was no big deal when Benedict refused to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into sex abuse by priests, or that he was reportedly furious when the Murphy Commission of Inquiry attempted to questioned officials in Rome? Or that Ratzinger was in supreme command of canon law for almost 25 years, while guilty priests drew very little punishment, other than reassignment to someplace new. Nah, no big deal.
Ya gotta love a pervert who dresses like that.
This says way heaps more about the media than about what kind of moral leader the pope is. Nobody actually seems interested in what this man actually thinks or does.
Moral leader??? "Petty gossip" is how Ratzinger has described irrefutable evidence of serious crimes. His time as the Vatican official in charge of overseeing priestly discipline was the period when tens of thousands of children were abused by Catholic priests. Meanwhile his attention was fixated on "evil" homosexuals, sinful divorcees, deviate liberation theologians, planners of families and wearers of condoms.
@Austin...case in point. That's just what the media focuses on.
WHAT? Why yes, how dare anyone notice a criminal conspiracy to protect child molesters, or the growing money-laundering scandal involving the Vatican Bank and the possibility that the clergy may have acted as fronts for corrupt business men and the Mafia? Where does the buck stop?
Quoting out of context or not, it is undeniable that this man has protected and sheltered child molesters. In any civilized country this is known as "Aiding and a betting" and "Accessory after the fact." Both are felonies and this man should be in prison.
Like it or not, catholics and other theists, those a facts.
The Catholic Church is humiliated by the child-abuse scandals?! What about the humiliation and trauma of the young victims and their families. The priests that committed these horrific acts and those that defend them are the ones to blame, not the ones that were molested and abused. You know what they say: what goes around comes around. Payback is a b****.