Why Are Pedophilia-Hiding, Child-Abusing Church Fathers Allowed to Write Laws About Women's Bodies?

[babylonsister]

Why Are Pedophilia-Hiding, Child-Abusing Church Fathers Allowed to Write Laws About Women's Bodies?
The moral authority granted the Catholic Church in the secular world is the most repellent aspect of the current crisis.

April 3, 2010 |


My favorite moment of the whole child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was when Father Klaus Malangré suggested that Peter Hullermann, the redoubtable German pedophile priest, might be sent to work in a girls' school. No boys, no molestation. Or, in churchly language, no occasion of sin. Problem solved! Plus, the good father would spend his life warding off female cooties. Malangré must not have heard about priests -- and they do exist -- who abused both male and female children. Nor had he learned the lesson of Watergate: the cover-up is worse than the crime.

The church has yet to learn that lesson. There is a positively Nixonian smarmy truculence in the response of church hierarchs to the ongoing scandal, which now involves Pope Benedict XVI himself. On Palm Sunday, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan urged worshipers at St. Patrick's Cathedral to show "love and solidarity for our earthly shepherd now suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob and scourging at the pillar, as did Jesus." On his blog, Dolan explains that what gets Catholics angry is not just the molestations themselves but also that "the sexual abuse of minors is presented as a tragedy unique to the Church alone." Oh, really? Does the name Mary Kay Letourneau mean nothing to him? This man needs to read the tabloids, which have for years featured an endless parade of molesting teachers, doctors, dentists, therapists and scout leaders. To go by the news, looking at child pornography on one's office computer is so common, it's a wonder anyone finds the time to abuse real kids. At this late date I doubt anyone is unaware that the sexual abuse of children is a widespread phenomenon.

The difference is, when other professionals who work with children are caught out, justice takes its course. People are fired. Licenses are lost. Reputations are ruined. Sometimes jail is involved. No human institution is perfect, and it would be foolish to suggest that incidents are always investigated and that abusers who don't happen to be priests are never protected by colleagues or superiors. Still, it's probably safe to say that if a principal was accused of overlooking a child molester in his classrooms or recycling him to other schools, nobody would compare his suffering to Christ's.

And nobody would be asking for his views about sex, reproduction, women, homosexuality or healthcare either. The moral authority granted the Catholic Church in the secular world is for me the most repellent aspect of the current crisis. In the succinct words of Jodi Jacobson, editor of RHRealityCheck.org, "Why is a pedophilia-ridden, pedophilia-hiding, child-abusing Church allowed to write laws controlling women's rights?" To which one might add: what gives a church in which celibacy is equated with holiness, in which males have almost all the power, the right to a place at the table where laws are made about women's bodies? The same institution that has dealt so indulgently with its ordained pedophiles had no problem excommunicating a Brazilian mother who sought an abortion for her 9-year-old daughter, raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather, or pushing for laws in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chile banning abortion even to save the woman's life.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/story/146287/why_are_pedophilia-hiding%2C_child-abusing_church_fathers_allowed_to_write_laws_about_women%27s_bodies?page=entire

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Because.

[RKP5637]

2. Oh, they are special. We are all supposed to bow to them, they tell us so, over and over

and over. They will interpret everything for us so we don't have to think, just follow. What a bunch of BS IMO.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. The Pro-Pope PR squads are out in fool farce, especially this weakened.

"The pope is suffering as much as the jews under hitler?" Really? Having stopped in at a concentration camp, and seeing with my own eyes, even 50 yrs after the fact, the horror inflicted on people, I have a wee problem agreeing with this one.

"The pope has been the biggest defender of abused children in the church's history." Really? That's why he transferred known pedophiles to other locations, rather than turn them over to the authorities, or even to defrock the bastards? This one earns a "r i i i i g h t "

"The pope represents the lord on earth, and has a special relationship with god." Uh uh. Does that mean that, as a child, god was a Nazi Yute member, and when god's brother ran a place filled with pedophiles, god covered that up, did he? Or when the richest most powerful South American priest turned out to be a serial child abuser, rapist, and generally, a corrupt thief, his financial success outweighed his few, minor character flaws? Wow, that is some god.



The real problem is the "frame" which the church applies to the rest of us. Their god, and their prince of princes, are infallible. All laws come from god, not men. Ergo, men's laws simply do not apply to the church or its flock of priests, be they child abusers, financial frauds, or lying cheats who talk elderly ladies out of their fortunes.

That last point always cracks me up. When a family member or friend "comforts" a rich, dying elderly person, the state is very concerned that no untoward pressure or manipulation is down, in an effort to inherit the riches. When a priest does that, the state completely ignores their actions and the undue influence they exert. I have personally known of family members (grandsons and daughters) who were beneficiaries in an original will totaling millions, only to see the entire estate go the Archdiocese, because the priest talked the dying grandma into "getting an indulgence" and buying her way into heaven. I am sure this is not a rare occurrence.

I've written before that I view the catholic church as a criminal organization to which RICO should be applied. The only time it was tried, in the early 1990s, neither the courts nor the public were aware just how widespread the abuse, the cover-up were, nor the control over litigation exerted by the vatican to maintain a cover-up.

[bulloney]

6. Recently, our priest took a jab at Clinton for his affair with Lewinsky during his sermon.

The following week, he asked us to pray for Pope Benedict, who is "going through a very difficult time right now."

It would be one thing if Ratzinger was in the wrong place at the wrong time when all of this was going on, but there's evidence that he had a hand in shuffling the offending priests in an attempt to cover the problem up.

This is why I'm becoming increasingly cynical toward this "abortion is everything this election" and "the Vatican's scandals are none of your business" attitude that prevails in the Catholic church.

When Ratzinger was being considered for Pope, didn't they vet him and check for any questionable or scandalous things that happened under his watch? Or, are the cardinals that select the Pope that detached from reality that they think the church is above laws that apply to other people?

[snake in the grass]

8. Ratzinger appointed Cardinals...

...to the Conclave, which would later select him. When I was living in Germany, it was clear to everyone that he would be the next pope, and this was years before Karol Wojtyła died. I found it so ridiculous, when he became the pontiff and said he prayed the chalice would pass him by. Utter bullshit. Anyone paying attention would have quickly recognized the fact that he spent years fixing the game so that he would be 'chosen'. Such repulsive sanctimoniousness makes the bile rise.

[stray cat]

4. The legislature meaning the congress and senate make law; all anyone else does is vote for candidate

[Demeter]

5. How Many Supremes Are Practicing Catholics?

I rest my case, your Honor.

[flyarm]

7. because there are many in our military involved too? perhaps?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8079067


and remember Bush went into the Vatican Catacombs..

And how about the Franklin coverup and Scandals...

HOW ABOUT FATHER FLANNIGAN'S BOYS HOUSE in Omaha Neb.

How about Pap's Bush's connection to MKULTRA?


How about Gannon/Guckert..

Our CIA and our government is up to it's eyeballs in this shit!

Look up "THE DREAMHOUSE"

wake the fuck up America..both our political parties and the leaders of those parties are up to their eyeballs in this shit!

[troubledamerican]

9. Because you let them.

[flyarm]

10. Yes indeed +10,000!!!!!..because some people here let them !! some people need a mirror..

because some sell themselves to the highest bidder...and seriously need a mirror!!

Now this type of question after so many were basically told to stfu when they warned of this????????