Is The Papacy Threatened?

[DHK]

Church abuse scandal reaches pope's brother, threatens to throw papacy into turmoil
​

VATICAN CITY - Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself.

See entire article here:
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/WorldNewsArticle.htm?src=w0310115A.xml

 

[lori4dogs]

"Since then, Benedict has taken a strong stand against abuse by clerics in the Roman Catholic Church.

Just weeks before he became pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger caused a stir when he denounced "filth" in the church and among priests - a condemnation taken as a reference to clerical sex abuse."

 

[billwald]

Don't worry, the Catholic Church will survive. They have had many worse scandals in the past.

 

[steaver]

Don't worry, the Catholic Church will survive. They have had many worse scandals in the past.

Sure will, they are part of Revelations prophecy.

:godisgood:

 

[BobRyan]

Don't worry, the Catholic Church will survive. They have had many worse scandals in the past.

I agree. Ratzinger is actually a model Pope by comparison to what The RCC itself refers to as it's list of "Wicked Popes".

Catholic Digest Feb 1994 page 126
– Fr Ken Ryan

“And before attempting to explain why such delightful characters should be considered to be in the line of St. Peter, we should know what political life in Rome was like in the early tenth century.

The Pope was the King of the Papal States. Money and temporal power came with the office of Pope. The corrupt practice of giving benefices (income-producing positions such as pastor, bishop, or abbot) to laymen was a part of the influence-buying system of the Evil Times. The papal office itself was not immune to purchase and seizure, which would account for more than one claimant to the papal office at one time.

Election to the papacy was by the clergy of Rome, not the cardinals of the whole world as now, and rioting mobs could control the local decision. Historians have pretty well sorted out the true popes from the anti-popes but that does not mean that all the true popes were good popes. Why the Holy Spirit allowed sinners to assume a holy office we don’t know, any more than we know why God allowed Adam or Judas to sin.

The Church’s assertion of Papal infallibility had not yet been put forward in those times, but as a matter of fact those popes who sought money, power, and murderous revenge on rivals seem never to have bothered with theology Very Much and never to have decreed anything that would disprove infallibility of the Church as defined IN 1870.

The Church accepts that there were evil men in the line of successors of Peter because it believes that Christ founded a visible organization of men. Some of its leaders were sinner who brought on such surreal troubles that in surviving them the Church proved it divine mission and at least partly fulfilled Christ’s prophecy that it would last until the end of time.”

Eamon Duffy writes the following about some of the "legitimate" Popes in his Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes:

Like his uncle and immediate predecessor John XIX, Benedict was a layman, and was still in his twenties at the time of his election. He was both violent and debauched, and even the Roman populace, hardened as they were to unedifying papal behaviour, could not stomach him. He was eventually deposed in favour of Silvester III (1045). With the help of his family's private army, he was briefly restored in 1045 amid bloody hand-to-hand fighting in the streets
of Rome. He was evidently tired of the struggle, however, for he accepted a bribe to abdicate in favour of his godfather, the archpriest John Gratian.

 

[DHK]

Not to forget Pope Joan. :laugh:

 

[lori4dogs]

Not to forget Pope Joan. :laugh:

:laugh::laugh:

 

[donnA]

"Since then, Benedict has taken a strong stand against abuse by clerics in the Roman Catholic Church.

Just weeks before he became pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger caused a stir when he denounced "filth" in the church and among priests - a condemnation taken as a reference to clerical sex abuse."

Whats he doing about the sex abuse by priests(to stop it, to punish the offenders, to make sure they do not have anymore victims) in the Catholic church?

 

[DHK]

And since then:

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Saturday denounced what it called aggressive attempts to drag Pope Benedict XVI into the spreading scandals of pedophile priests in his German homeland. ...

Benedict is also under fire for a 2001 church directive he wrote while a Vatican cardinal, instructing bishops to keep abuse cases confidential.

http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/WorldNewsArticle.htm?src=w031329A.xml

--Such a kind understanding man, to protect the reputations of pedophiles, and keep their heinous sins hush, hush!

 

[steaver]

So what do you all think about these men who abuse children? Do you consider them true born-again Christians who are transgressing the Law as God's children? They do profess Jesus as Lord and they are theologians by rite. Really no different than Calvin or Luthur, right?

My former retired pastor use to say what a wonderful thing it would be if one of the Popes got saved! He said think about the impact that would be on the Catholic church.

:jesus:

 

[DHK]

Vatican defends Pope over abuse cover-up accusations


CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Fri. Mar. 26 2010 9:13 AM ET

Allegations of cover-ups of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests have now spread to the very top of the church hierarchy, forcing the Vatican to issue a strident defence of the Pope's role in the scandal.



Revelations this week that the Vatican halted the investigation of a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting some 200 deaf boys are now threatening to ensnare Pope Benedict XVI.



Documents obtained by The New York Times this week showed the priest was spared a defrocking in the mid-1990s because he was protected by the Vatican office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now the Pope.



The Vatican issued a strong defence of its handling of the case, announcing in its newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that there was no cover-up and calling allegations of papal involvement a "clear and despicable intention" to strike at Benedict "at any cost."



Gerry O'Connell, a Vatican affairs correspondent, told CTV's Canada AM that the church has decided to go on a public relations offensive over the burgeoning abuse scandal, which has also arisen in cases in Ireland, Italy and Germany.



"The Vatican reminds me sometimes of a fire brigade. The fire starts up in one place and they move there, then the fire starts up in another place," O'Connell said. "The Vatican feels it has to be more pro-active to deal with these problems."



Senior Vatican officials are determined to defend the Pope's handling of the issue, O'Connell said.



"There's a flat denial that he was responsible," he said. "They say that when you actually examine it case by case, he's the pope in history who's taken more action against child abuse … he's given instructions to bishops in every country to deal with the historical facts, to operate with transparency and honesty and avoid cover-ups."



And O'Connell said that calls for his resignation are unlikely to be answered: the only time a pope has stepped down was in 1294.



"Here there is not any thinking that the Pope will resign … they feel pretty sure in the Vatican that they can defend themselves."

Or can they defend themselves.
Maybe he will resign, or be forced to resign.

Things can only get worse.



See the rest here, plus a video:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...pope_defence_100326/20100326?hub=TopStoriesV2

 

[Thinkingstuff]

I think the Catholic Church is in trouble with so many people calling for Ratzinger's stepping down for keeping the abuse cases quiet. I think the Catholic Church is about to go through another Change.

 

[JTornado1]

The Catholic Church needs to stop focusing so much on institutional self-protection and care more about protecting children from abusive priests:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100327/OPINION12/3270318/1002/OPINION/Wrong-way-to-end-scandal

 

[Alive in Christ]

Originally Posted by DHK
Not to forget Pope Joan. :laugh:

:laugh::laugh:

I must be missing something. I dont "get" it.

 

[targus]

Thank goodness no Baptist pastor or youth pastor has ever been accused of such wrong doing.

 

[DHK]

I must be missing something. I dont "get" it.

The RCC tries to cover this up as myth, just as they do sexual abuse.
But history records it--a female pope!!

[FONT=arial,helvetica]Pope Joan is one of the most fascinating, extraordinary characters in Western history -- and one of the least well known. Most people have never heard of Joan the Pope, and those who have regard her story as legend. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica]Yet for hundreds of years -- up to the middle of the seventeenth century -- Joan’s papacy was universally known and accepted as truth. In the seventeenth century, the Catholic Church, under increasing attack from rising Protestantism, began a concerted effort to destroy the embarrassing historical records on Joan. Hundreds of manuscripts and books were seized by the Vatican. Joan’s virtual disappearance from modern consciousness attests to the effectiveness of these measures.

[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica]http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/popejoan.htm
[/FONT]

 

[donnA]

They'll make it through just fine, after all catholics will support the s*x abuse of children by prests, even when the pope is somehow involved no matter what, it's the rcc church above anything else, including children.

 

[DHK]

Thank goodness no Baptist pastor or youth pastor has ever been accused of such wrong doing.

They have. We treat it as a criminal offense. It is dealt with immediately.
The Bible has strict standards concerning pastors. They must be above reproach. One who has done any such wrong is automatically disqualified from holding the office of a pastor in the churches I am associated with. If the crime is serious enough he is locked up in jail, not just moved to another parish to commit the same crime all over again.

 

[donnA]

They have. We treat it as a criminal offense. It is dealt with immediately.
The Bible has strict standards concerning pastors. They must be above reproach. One who has done any such wrong is automatically disqualified from holding the office of a pastor in the churches I am associated with. If the crime is serious enough he is locked up in jail, not just moved to another parish to commit the same crime all over again.

as it shoud be.

 

[lori4dogs]

They have. We treat it as a criminal offense. It is dealt with immediately.
The Bible has strict standards concerning pastors. They must be above reproach. One who has done any such wrong is automatically disqualified from holding the office of a pastor in the churches I am associated with. If the crime is serious enough he is locked up in jail, not just moved to another parish to commit the same crime all over again.

Right! I gave you proof of Baptists cover-ups, but you won't even acknowledge that.

As far as the 'Pope Joan Myth'. When I was at Calif. Baptist College a favorite 'fact' of the students was that the pope wore a mitre that had 666 in roman numerals on it (proving he was the anti-Christ). I suppose you believe that one as well.