Pope: sex abuse revelations were a 'shock'

[KootenayFlamesFan]

More shocking to me is that he is trying to convince the world he was shocked. Unless he meant when he heard about it when he was a kid or a teenager, that would make more sense.

Probably go over better with a lot of people if he dropped the 'shock' card and instead told everyone what they were actually going to do about it. A lot of people's lives have been damaged or destroyed form these sex abuses, it's appalling that he's trying to convince us that was shocked to find out about it.

"These revelations were for me a shock and a great sadness. It is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible," he told reporters aboard his plane to Scotland. "How a man who has done this and said this can fall into this perversion is difficult to understand."


He added, "It is also a great sadness that the authorities of the church were not sufficiently vigilant and insufficiently quick and decisive in taking the necessary measures."

"It's disingenuous to say church officials have been slow and insufficiently vigilant in dealing with clergy sex crimes and cover ups. On the contrary, they've been prompt and vigilant, but in concealing, not preventing, these horrors," said Joelle Casteix of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.


"How many times will we let the world's most powerful religious figure just talk about child sex crimes and cover-ups and not insist that he do something about child sex crimes and cover-ups?

The pope used relatively strong language in a speech delivered after the meeting, reflecting on the "sobering lessons of the atheist extremism" of the 20th century.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe...ex.html?hpt=C1

[HotHotHeat]

He also compared Atheists to Nazis.

He became even more irrelevant today, if that's actually possible.

[Thor]

He keeps digging a bigger hole, he's the Catholic church's anti-marketer.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Shocked huh?

Since he clearly shuffled around pedophile priests to different locations, I guess he's shocked that word got out despite his best efforts.

Sinead O'Connor was right

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Leviticus 20:13 - "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."


So...............now what? These men have committed homosexual acts. They should be killed. When is this going to take place, and where?

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Leviticus 20:13 - "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."


So...............now what? These men have committed homosexual acts. They should be killed. When is this going to take place, and where?

Is it a loophole if it's with boys instead of men?

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

He also compared Atheists to Nazis.

He became even more irrelevant today, if that's actually possible.

Here's a bit on that.

He said: "We can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews.

"I also recall the regime's attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives.

"As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the 20th century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society," he added.

He said Britain was striving to be a "modern and multicultural society" but called on it to resist turning away from religion.

"May it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate," he said.

A statement from the British Humanist Association said the Pope's remarks were "surreal".

"The notion that it was the atheism of Nazis that led to their extremist and hateful views or that it somehow fuels intolerance in Britain today is a terrible libel against those who do not believe in God.

"The notion that it is non-religious people in the UK today who want to force their views on others, coming from a man whose organisation exerts itself internationally to impose its narrow and exclusive form of morality and undermine the human rights of women, children, gay people and many others, is surreal."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11332515

[4X4]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Leviticus 20:13 - "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."


So...............now what? These men have committed homosexual acts. They should be killed. When is this going to take place, and where?

That's Old Testament, bro. The New Testament came along and relegated the Old Testament to "we get to interpret this however we want" status.

[peter12]

The Pope is a very smart man and his comments are taking people aback because frankly, most people don't want to or can't seriously consider what the Pope is actually saying. They'd rather drag out the old red herring of the sex scandals and use it as an ad hominem against a man who despite his enormous failings brings forward some very good points. Anyone actually interested in what the Pope thinks should read this book:
http://www.amazon.ca/Dialectic-Secul...4660408&sr=1-1

Or this article:
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/20...rmasvsthepope/

I am not at all friendly to the Catholic Church. The sexual crimes are heinous, but it's also allowed people to become too easily prejudiced against the moral teachings of the Church by buying some sort of silly liberal atheist nonsense and not actually engaging with the ideas.

[peter12]

"The notion that it was the atheism of Nazis that led to their extremist and hateful views or that it somehow fuels intolerance in Britain today is a terrible libel against those who do not believe in God.

The BHA is totally out to lunch on this one. The Pope is saying that today's atheists are too wishy-washy and frankly, too stupid to have any sort of real contribution to moral debates.

[Thor]

To me I've always wondered why Catholics don't think to themselves, would Jesus approve of the institution they so eagerly follow.

I mean to me it feels like the opposite of his teachings and is the worst outcome of what he would have preached, well not worst but close to it.

[SeeBass]

^^.....and we are off.

[northcrunk]

HA! "The Pope is saying that today's atheists are too wishy-washy and frankly, too stupid to have any sort of real contribution to moral debates." Really, I am an athiest and an anti-theist and my I.Q is 140. Lets do a quick sample of athiests vs. the religious.......Richard Dawkins vs. The Pope. Who do you really think is the more intelligent of the two? A man who is the head of evolutionary biology at Oxford? or a man who lives his life for a imaginary person in the sky and claims to speak for him? I would say Richard Dawkins is smarter and more moral than the Pope who may very well be smart but is a controller and turns a blind eye to abuse in his church and reality.

[Traditional_Ale]

[peter12]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

HA! "The Pope is saying that today's atheists are too wishy-washy and frankly, too stupid to have any sort of real contribution to moral debates." Really, I am an athiest and an anti-theist and my I.Q is 140. Lets do a quick sample of athiests vs. the religious.......Richard Dawkins vs. The Pope. Who do you really think is the more intelligent of the two? A man who is the head of evolutionary biology at Oxford? or a man who lives his life for a imaginary person in the sky and claims to speak for him? I would say Richard Dawkins is smarter and more moral than the Pope who may very well be smart but is a controller and turns a blind eye to abuse in his church and reality.

Holy smokes, you should be in charge!

[Day Tripper]

Nazi motto:



Translation: God with us.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Really, I am an athiest and an anti-theist and my I.Q is 140.

Hey sweet, a website said my IQ was 140 too! We should be buddies.

[Day Tripper]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Really, I am an athiest and an anti-theist and my I.Q is 140.

You're way smarter than Feynman, who had an IQ of 125. Feynman was a genius, but you're a whole SD above Feynman!

[Thor]

Originally Posted by peter12

I am not at all friendly to the Catholic Church. The sexual crimes are heinous, but it's also allowed people to become too easily prejudiced against the moral teachings of the Church by buying some sort of silly liberal atheist nonsense and not actually engaging with the ideas.

I know you say this a lot about the 'new atheists' since they obviously by being part of this recent upswing in disbelief are obviously not smart because they haven't read enough philosophy or become deep thinkers like theologians... But I'm so curious as to what do you mean by the atheist nonsense and not actually engaging the ideas, specifically?

The moral teachings of the church? You mean no condoms for AIDS ridden Africa, the cover up of pedophiles/abuse, the anti-gay stance, the backwards treatment of women being denied positions of power, celibacy, etc..

I mean if nothing atheists tend to be very much specific about what they don't like where as the church tends to be the one demonizing broadly those same atheists.

I always get the feeling you feel that most of the new atheists (hate that term) aren't sophisticated enough to have arrived at their position or that they have no business debating it since they haven't been reading theology or philosophical takes on the issue of God. I don't imagine you hold those who deny the existence of unicorns as harshly, considering I myself am a a-unicornist without having read deeply the books pertaining to these mystical creatures nor have I pondered deeply about their meaning and existence.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by Thor

I know you say this a lot about the 'new atheists' since they obviously by being part of this recent upswing in disbelief are obviously not smart because they haven't read enough philosophy or become deep thinkers like theologians...

What I've noticed is that theists are invariably well-read on theology, and can intelligently articulate the arguments for belief in God without exception. It's only atheists that have no real grasp on why they think as they do; it's quite perplexing to me how this could be so. Seriously, have you ever met a theist who couldn't explain an example of an ontological argument for God? I know I haven't.