I’m charro and I approve this timely message.

And don’t say no other denomination is being made fun of when it isn’t true. It’s just that the Catholic Church has provided us with enough fodder to last a lifetime.

How about dealing with it, huh?

Frozen water, THEN HOW DID PETER SINK?

Also, If the Church was a cult, it would have fallen by now. But it’s still standing. Where do you get your info?

as for the whole ‘Don’t pick on my religion’ stuff:

“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.”

- Steven Weinberg

‘Nuff said…

benedict is an evil wanker

And this picture could be interpreted in a few ways…

Seems pretty simple to me.

If one is supposed to be chaste to enter the priesthood, why should homosexual priests feel a “risk” of being caught? I don’t expect an answer because this is a long done topic.

The only way one runs a risk of being caught would be to have sex and BE caught. Anyone caught having sex while being a priest would be, I would hope, removed from their status, regardless of sexual orentation. The idea that homosexual priests couldn’t keep their pants on like straight priests is rather insulting to gay priests who serve their chosen god in their own way and do so with reverance.

I also take issue to your use of the word “resort” as it relates to your sentence of prison sex. It’s rape. Prison inmates resort to rape. Homosexuality isn’t rape. The deviant priests resort to trickery and rape, not homosexuality.

Your first paragraph in this reply is also rather insulting. Stating that it’s homosexuals that resort to raping altar boys because their sexual “frustations” aren’t being met is extremely homophobic. In many of these cases, the rape is a result of what’s the easiest to obtain. They are, by any stretch of the imagination, ALL homosexuals. If there were altar girls, I’m sure we would see the SAME thing happening to them. It’s opportunity, not homosexuality, that’s getting the best of these priests who want their cake and eat it too.

Homosexuality isn’t about SEX, much like Heterosexuality isn’t about SEX. Sex isn’t something that’s necessary in a relationship. Get past the hangup that gays and straights function differently and then work on the idea that gay’s don’t join the priesthood to rape boys.

How about actually kicking out the priests who were involved, huh?

You do realize this is the same Pope who is on record as saying that warfare and capital punishment are lesser evils than abortion and euthanasia when it comes to deciding who gets to eat communion wafers, right?

See for yourself: http://origin.ewtn.com/news/blog.asp?blog_ID=2.

Sadly, there are probably few jokes that come close to the offensiveness of the Catholic church as an organization throughout history.

As for the rest of the Christian denominations, the religious reich is its own joke, and the rest of them aren’t so insufferably arrogant.

And please, spare us the “we’ve been wronged” nonsense. Ever hear a Jewish joke?

I’m an ex-Catholic and a lapsed Unitarian. I can tell you UU jokes all day. It’s just that UUs don’t have things like Inquisitions in their past. Karma. She slaps.

you want me to not make fun of a situation that holds close to you and your religion.
All I ask is that you ignore it and let us have our fun since this is the hot topic of religion.

Like I said, YOU DONT LIKE IT? WALK AWAY!

Oh….by the way…that whole “You know, ignoring the problem didn’t help in grade school either. It just made the teacher’s job easier cause they had less to do.”

Teachers have A LOT to do. Make no mistake. Teachers have a lot on thier plate. the last thing they have to do is keep the peace becuase some kid cant handle being made fun of once in his entire life. besides, what CAN they do? tell them to stop so they can turn around and make fun of that kid for being a sissy or wuss? get over yourself. they cant shelter kids from being made fun of anymore than the internet can protect us from ranting and raving bigots who seem to apply thier one sided laws upon me. TAKE A JOKE AND WE WILL MOVE ON!

And wasn’t the pope criticized for ignoring problems?

BTW, if you Google this topic up, what do you come up with. Oh right, my bad, priests blessing kids. You’re right, we should take this joke as it’s meant, as a simple image of the pope blessing a kid, cause their certainly isn’t any controversy going on right now pertaining to any other possible interpretation.

BTW, saying that people need to “laugh with it or ignore it. just don’t complain about it…or else we will keep it up =P”

So, we, meaning those you disagree with, need to not say anything contrary, or you’ll keep it up… We need to be quiet, and not disagree with you?

Right.

Does this count?

I really don’t know where to begin.

First off, where do you get the idea that these men who have committed these crimes are still out there and nothing is being done?

Many of these crimes took place in the 70′s and 80′s. Many of the people who committed these crimes are either very old or deceased. The ones that are still alive are either in jail or have been removed from any contact with children, period. If you think any clergy or religious are going around today molesting children, you may be right, but they would have to be EXTREMELY bold (and by bold, I mean stupid, but I don’t like to call people stupid .

Every Catholic Diocese has adopted strict policies about making environments safe for kids. Every person who works with youth, whether you are an ordained minister (bishop/priest/deacon) or lay person (us) MUST take classes and sign documentation that they understand the necessity of keeping children safe.

In my Diocese an FBI background check is required for all people working with youth.

I cannot even drive a senior in high school, a 17 year old man who is bigger than I am and could kick my ass easily, to his home to drop him off without another adult unless I want to be in complete violation of the rules, which could result in my never doing youth ministry (which I love) again. All simply because he is “under 18.” As you can tell, I’m a little bitter about it only because the wrong actions of a few have made our jobs as ministers increasingly difficult, but it is what we are asked to do to make things safe.

So am I saying a situation like this never arises, or people don’t break the rules? No. All I am trying to show is that the Catholic Church is serious about preventing this from happening again. I don’t think many other Christian denominations can claim the same. (You do know that other denominations are dealing with this too right?)

I don’t know what you believe should be done to these criminals, but we believe in forgiveness.

Now as for this current Holy Father, who was voted into this position only 3 years ago, which was after this whole ordeal began, you are wrong to label him as “responsible” for these actions. He walked into the office to a hand that was already dealt.

In the Church each local Bishop is the primary shepherd of their given See (or Diocese). Therefore it is up to the Bishops in the US to deal with this nation’s problems, not the Holy Father himself. It is up to the Pope to urge them to continue to do something about it, as he did strongly last week and as John Paul II did when the problem first arose. We cannot be so small minded to think that this is the only issue the Pope must deal with; the United States is but a small part of the Church, albeit an important part.

The Pope is no more responsible than a father is when his son shoots someone. Unless he handed his son the gun or a plan, he has no involvement and cannot be held responsible. The Pope certainly hasn’t given anything to these men to make him responsible for their actions.

My girlfriend has been reading this also and has asked that I say something about celibacy because it bothers her (a woman, obviously) that people cannot accept this discipline of the Church. It bothers me too. Yes, this is a discipline of the Church, not a rule. There are some priests, even in the Roman Rite in the US, who are married (approx. 100). This is because they were converts from another church (usually Episcopal) and the Catholic Church has allowed them to stay in this form.

Celibacy is NOT made up by the Church in the Middle Ages though for its own benefit. Please consider this:

~ But he [Jesus] said to them, “Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.” ~ Matt 19:11-12

and the promotion of celibacy by St. Paul:

~ I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. If any one thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry — it is no sin. But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. So that he who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better. ~ 1 Cor. 7:32-38

Therefore, it is for the benefit of the Church and for themselves that clergy remain unmarried, and honestly it is NOT a hot topic in the seminary; seminarians understand fully what they are agreeing to and are glad to do it.

In closing I want to address your feelings that the Church does things as political power plays and that “the devil is playing second fiddle to an inner struggle created by the artificial restraint of a basic human drive and urge.” You never really state what these “natural urges” are, but since you compare them to the devil I’d have to assume they are urges to do evil? Please clarify this for me.

In the meantime, open your eyes. This world is not about my or your personal struggle with doing right or wrong. I deal with people all the time who cannot get past this because they are too focused on it.

Christ asked us to be charitable, and from this all things will come: peace, justice, joy, love, contentment, fulfillment, and eventually salvation. Put your focus off of your own struggle and on being charitable and your inner struggle will lessen greatly. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Prayers, peace, and love,
Tom
twilson@salesianym.com