[carlsberg21]

Figured at some point, The Devil would get dragged into this.

And what's this "Gentleman of his Holiness" all about? Never heard of it. Has the ring of "Lady of the Evening."

[Bonioners]

Demons seem to be running the show in every brand of organized Christianity these days, IMHO. Ditto Islam and most Judaism.


Oh, absolutely. That's what I love about gay Catholic men.... they're so butch. Hardly that! Catholic gay men usually end up the biggest "cha cha queens" around. All that silly repression early in life.

[soyclocky]

-

[halfstreet]

Lmao

[MARMELADINA]

I'm not saying it's true, but ...

CRUSH OF THE DAY: Monsignor Georg Ganswein

[Wvq9InTM]

And then there are his guards...

[rbVmVlQ2]

looks like a still shot from a Bel Ami video

[Mr Andrews]

Just to amuse myself (and hopefully the rest of you) I googled "Vatican Guard" "Gay" & "Porn" fully expecting there'd be a at least one hilariously titled something to link to.

But NOTHING.

Whatever happened to creativity?

[Reafnartefs]

Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession Is this like Wilt?

70,000/(25x365) = 7-8 cases a day, EVERY DAY.

If he only worked weekdays that jumps to 10-11. So we are probably looking at 1 demonic posession for every 2 waking hours throughout his "career".


Major BS. I hate when these guys make up numbers.

[AgindyMinnife]

He's off Sundays -

[deackatera]

Maybe he can exorcise a whole roomful of demonically possessed subjects with one blanket blessing ritual - that could get you to 70,000. So it must be true.

[BurdenRobert]

Kinda like that Chinese dude's wedding ceremony?

[Gulauur]

Warned About Abuse, Vatican Failed to Defrock Priest

Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit.

The internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, shows that while church officials tussled over whether the priest should be dismissed, their highest priority was protecting the church from scandal.
The documents emerge as Pope Benedict is facing other accusations that he and direct subordinates often did not alert civilian authorities or discipline priests involved in sexual abuse when he served as an archbishop in Germany and as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal enforcer.
The Wisconsin case involved an American priest, the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. But it is only one of thousands of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger. It is still the office that decides whether accused priests should be given full canonical trials and defrocked.
In 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters about the case from Rembert G. Weakland, Milwaukee’s archbishop at the time. After eight months, the second in command at the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican’s secretary of state, instructed the Wisconsin bishops to begin a secret canonical trial that could lead to Father Murphy’s dismissal.
But Cardinal Bertone halted the process after Father Murphy personally wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger protesting that he should not be put on trial because he had already repented and was in poor health and that the case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations.
“I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood,” Father Murphy wrote near the end of his life to Cardinal Ratzinger. “I ask your kind assistance in this matter.” The files contain no response from Cardinal Ratzinger.
The New York Times obtained the documents, which the church fought to keep secret, from Jeff Anderson and Mike Finnegan, the lawyers for five men who have brought four lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The documents include letters between bishops and the Vatican, victims’ affidavits, the handwritten notes of an expert on sexual disorders who interviewed Father Murphy and minutes of a final meeting on the case at the Vatican.
Father Murphy not only was never tried or disciplined by the church’s own justice system, but also got a pass from the police and prosecutors who ignored reports from his victims, according to the documents and interviews with victims. Three successive archbishops in Wisconsin were told that Father Murphy was sexually abusing children, the documents show, but never reported it to criminal or civil authorities.
Instead of being disciplined, Father Murphy was quietly moved by Archbishop William E. Cousins of Milwaukee to the Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin in 1974, where he spent his last 24 years working freely with children in parishes, schools and, as one lawsuit charges, a juvenile detention center. He died in 1998, still a priest.
Even as the pope himself in a recent letter to Irish Catholics has emphasized the need to cooperate with civil justice in abuse cases, the correspondence seems to indicate that the Vatican’s insistence on secrecy has often impeded such cooperation. At the same time, the officials’ reluctance to defrock a sex abuser shows that on a doctrinal level, the Vatican has tended to view the matter in terms of sin and repentance more than crime and punishment.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, was shown the documents and was asked to respond to questions about the case. He provided a statement saying that Father Murphy had certainly violated “particularly vulnerable” children and the law, and that it was a “tragic case.” But he pointed out that the Vatican was not forwarded the case until 1996, years after civil authorities had investigated the case and dropped it.
Father Lombardi emphasized that neither the Code of Canon Law nor the Vatican norms issued in 1962, which instruct bishops to conduct canonical investigations and trials in secret, prohibited church officials from reporting child abuse to civil authorities. He did not address why that had never happened in this case.

more


---
molesting little deaf boys. does it get any lower?

[Sertvfdnhgjk]

I was raised as a Roman Catholic and even went to an RC school where evolution was highly placed above the joke of creationism and we were taught to have an open mind. I've not been to chuch in probably 6-7 years but I have always held the belief that while I don't believe in God, heaven/hell and the writings of the Bible; if you are good, have an open mind, respect others and don't commit crimes or inflict pain or stress on others you would be more likely to find a potential 'God'.

For the Church, what these acts illustrate is that the entire organisation (from priest to pope) is corrupt and complicit in illegal acts that are downright disgusting. 200 deaf boys for (literally) Christs sake!

I doubt the Pope or anyone with authority within the Church will be held accountable in a court of law, but fortunately there will be a defined response: these acts will accelerate the contraction of the Catholic religion. All the other world religions will eventually follow suit as people realise that religion is a form of control.

[Pelefaifs]

"and even went to an RC school where evolution was highly placed above the joke of creationism and we were taught to have an open mind."

^ These are just among the reasons why many of us love the Church.

As a Catholic I seperate the men from the religion and it's spiritual teachings. Men are mortal and will sin. But this is a big one and will cause great damage. What there has to be is a complete investigation of this and treated as a criminal case under state law.

[Gudronich]

One has to realize that religion is a philosophy based on what many hopes to be a devine architect.

Regardless of whether or not this master planner exists, many religions offer a way to live harmoniously with others around you. Whether by fear or by love, they have all been workings of a societies base psycological makeup that in turn helps many deal with the unknowns in their lives in ways that makes life easier to handle.

Flood? It's Gods Way.
Fire? Yep, God again.
Death? God had a reason.....etc etc

But the key to many of the religions out there that have lead the most peaceful existance has been tolerance. The more tolerant and accepting one has been, the more open to discussion, the happier people have been living under its philosophy.

The more hatefull, xenephobic, retributive and punishing the religion, the more apt those following it would follow suit and live a more hateful, xenephobic, punitive and combative life.




The thing that really irks me right now is that the Catholic Church has become just what its "founder" would have dreadded. An Organization. An Institution. "The Man".

Jesus was a (holy) peace loving hippie that fed the poor, healed the sick and, lets not forget these two, overturned the tables in the market and forgave the sins of the people around him. He was not one to heap on pennances and punishments. He was not one to condemn, but yet that seems to be the "way" with an organized religion with so much heirarchy that they actually have an almost regal system of rule.


Oh, and dressing up your chief guy all in gold Mieter hats and the like is a real hoot too. I think people like Mother Terresa had it right, and so much can be learned by following HER example rather than what the leaders of that same religion profess to be The Way.

[goldeneggs]

The thing that really irks me right now is that the Catholic Church has become just what its "founder" would have dreadded. An Organization.

Whoa... wait a minute.... the Catholic Church has become an organization? Since when?

----------

"Oh, and dressing up your chief guy all in gold Mieter hats and the like is a real hoot too."

Actually the Popes daily dress is extremely modest. It's basically a tunic. The rest for mass and occasions has historic significance.

--

[Jenisoisy]

many religions offer a way to live harmoniously with others around you.

Not the norm, by any means.

[rbVmVlQ2]

Ninja wrote: "I think people like Mother Terresa had it right, and so much can be learned by following HER example rather than what the leaders of that same religion profess to be The Way."

Actually Mother Teresa was not without contraversy... but let's remember however: there are thousands of priests and nuns out there who do wonderful and selfless work for the benefit of others.

--

[Tibaveriafark]

Whoa... wait a minute.... the Catholic Church has become an organization? Since when?

----------

"Oh, and dressing up your chief guy all in gold Mieter hats and the like is a real hoot too."

Actually the Popes daily dress is extremely modest. It's basically a tunic. The rest for mass and occasions has historic significance.

--

Does not matter when Fab. Gold/wealth is considered a sin (or whatever appellation you want to assign it if you want to split hairs...) until you hit the top?

Nuh uh.

White frock him and ditch the pageantry.