The Vatican is saying that accusations against the pope and the Catholic Church in the sex abuse scandal are like the “collective violence” suffered by the Jews. The Associated Press reported that the Pope defended the church against the current scandal.
The comparison is heinous. The Vatican is comparing criminal activity by members of their church to the murder of Jews during the Holocaust, the Inquisition and other periods of history.
Most disgusting part of the comparison is that another group targeted in large numbers during the Holocaust were priests and nuns. To compare those killed by the Nazis to those abusing children is unconscionable.
The Vatican continues to ignore one teeny little fact. Molesting children is criminal, as well as immoral. Sheltering those who committed those crimes is also a criminal activity. And no one is accusing ALL priests of doing these things.
Speaking for the Vatican, Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa continues to show his ignorance by talking about the “coincidence” that Passover falls the same week as Easter celebrations.
The Last Supper was a Passover Seder. The two holidays inextricably intertwined. But history seems to have to relevance to this Vatican.
Prosecuting child molesters is no different to this pope than slaughtering people because of their religion. I didn’t realize that child abuse was a Catholic value and that stopping it makes law enforcement officials in countries around the world anti-Catholic.
If the pope wants to make a comparison, he might trying comparing the surviving victims of abuse by priests to survivors of anti-Semitic hatred.
10 Comments
It is good to see that the Catholic Church has entered self-destruct mode. It is an institution whose time has come. It is full of criminals, perverts and downright evil and unhappy people. Good riddance. It has always been an abomination. If in fact the historic god-man, Jesus of Nazareth, ever did exist he would not have had then, now or ever anything to do with Catholicism.
Well, darn. Guess you missed this on CNN.com: “The Vatican is not trying to draw a parallel between the church and anti-Semitism,” Lombardi said. “The intention of the preacher was to express a Jewish man’s thoughts, his suffering and experience. He was not trying to compare the church with anti-Semitism.
“It is not the intention of the Vatican to compare the criticism it is currently receiving with anti-Semitism,” Lombardi added.
Cantalamessa, preacher of the pontifical household, made the remarks at a Good Friday commemoration.
What’s important about this discussion is that “the old guy at the top” probably should not be your target; he’s pretty much a figurehead much like the Queen of England.
Your anger and investigations should be directed at your local bishops, archbishops, cardinals, abbots, archabbots and seminary rectors. They’re the ones who do the “dirty work” moving the exposed pedophile priests around.
Steve – the pope should take a line from Harry Truman – “The buck stops here.”
And he should start with that moron Cantalamessa, who at the time, was speaking for the Vatican. It’s very convenient for them to send out messengers with trial balloons and then disavow them when they blow up in their faces.
He’s the only one who can order a fix to the problem with one simple order. “Anyone who works for me in any country who breaks the law will be turned over to the police.”
And as far as the Queen of England, I think the French got it right with their monarchy. I’m not a big fan of unelected dictators or monarchs who think an entire country owes them a luxury life style for generations.
Perhaps the pope can make Michael Jackson a saint.
Maybe if people started disrupting Catholic services by shouting, “Stop the abuse, prosecute the criminals the old queens in dresses back in Italy would listen. I think I’ll go to church TOMORROW!
Steve: While I’m glad that Ratzi is backing off from those antisemitic comments, that isn’t enough. First, he needs to apologize for the comments. Then, he needs to resign in disgrace for protecting child raping priests.
David, I agree. Good insight about a tragic situation that affects many people. I’d like to read more of your comments in a much longer article or series of articles.
Steve W., I learned years ago to not watch both CNN and FOX, and all of their products. They are severely inaccurate and biased most of the time. They are self-promoting all of the time.
It’s really simple. Many in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church are accomplices in sexual assault or accessories after the fact. In any case, priests, bishops, cardinals, and probably the pope should be arrested and prosecuted. All of the legalistic mumbo-jumbo coming out of the Vatican sounds just as horrific and ridiculous as George Bush trying to claim that torture isn’t really torture, and therefore legal.
The Roman Catholic Church is solely interested in protecting its wealth and power by subjugating women, forcing an unnatural lifestyle on priests, and persecuting gays. There’s actually no theological reason for priests to be celibate – it’s simply a way for the Vatican to control the priests and prevent money from being inherited by wives and children.
Clearly, the Roman Church still doesn’t get it. When a sexual assault is reported to someone in the Catholic church, there’s only one acceptable response: “Would you like to pray before or after we call the police?”
No decent Roman Catholic parishioner should donate a single penny to the church until it cleans house from top to bottom. To continue financially supporting the Roman Catholic Church makes those who do give money accomplices in criminal enterprise.
Go after them – financial supporters and all with RICO.
Why is the Vatican doing nothing? Well, because they can. Why are catholics around the world not doing anything? Because they are catholics. What will the rest of the world do about it? Nothng! Unfortunately that is why this will just keep repeating itself.
“Molesting children is criminal, as well as immoral. Sheltering those who committed those crimes is also a criminal activity.”
Yet in happens everyday. If one in four girls all over the world are getting molested, think of the number of children whose anguish is ignored? CHILD ABUSE IS A CRIME THAT EVERYONE ACCEPTS AS STATUS QUO!!! Some going as far as calling sexual attraction to children a SEXUALITY.
Even when this crime gets prosecuted most of these animals get to walk free again, free to rape another child. Only when this crime, this horrific, brutal, nauseating crime is treated accordingly, only when the people who perpetuate this crime are taken out of society and shunned, instead of venerated and exonerated IS THIS GOING TO STOP! There are cops and judges in Vancouver taking part in pedophile rings. Think anyone’s gonna stop them?
Humanity doesn’t care about children, period. Money and Power is the only thing it values.