Sex abuse scandal. Guess the religion?

[Asher]

This is why I think you are a liberal. This is what a bleeding heart would say.

Dude, it's ****ing fact. Get a clue.

Add "basic human psychology" to the massive list of things you know **** all about.

[MrFun]

It makes perfect sense. When you are homosexual you can't control your sexual desires. Interesting hypothesis, and remember folks, this is straight from the horse's mouth.

Dear Bigoted Idiot,

There are individuals who have much less self-control over their sexual desires compared to other people among straight people as well as gay people. So whether or not one has self-control over their sexual desires has nothing to do with one's sexual orientation.

Thank you, and have a bad day.

Very Sincerely,

MrFun

[Ming]

Remember, that's 2 percent accused.

And what percent has still not been brought into the open. With the church actively hiding and trying to cover up these events in the past (and who knows, maybe they still are), that figure could actually be a lot higher. We may never know because the RCC made a concerted effort to make sure we never would. And the only reason why we know about the 2% is because people came forward... the RCC knew about it, and didn't come forword. And these scumbags think they have the right to teach morality to others... It's like going to the Devil and asking what's right and wrong.

[Ben Kenobi]

There are individuals who have much less self-control over their sexual desires compared to other people among straight people as well as gay people. So whether or not one has self-control over their sexual desires has nothing to do with one's sexual orientation.

Then you should reprimand Asher for his comment. He's the one making excuses for child molestors who are gay, saying that 'repression' caused them to abuse children.

Personally, I don't care what your 'excuse' is, you should be held responsible for your actions and not blame society.

Plenty of people have terrible lives, but rather then inflicting pain on other people, they choose to break the chain of abuse.

[MrFun]

you should be held responsible for your actions and not blame society.

Plenty of people have terrible lives, but rather then inflicting pain on other people, they choose to break the chain of abuse.

Who here is saying that individuals should not be held responsible for their actions?

Asher may have talked about social factors that can influence an individual's behavior, but that does not mean Asher thinks the person should not be punished for such illegal behavior.

[Ben Kenobi]

And what percent has still not been brought into the open.

These are not convictions. These are merely accusations. Unfortunately, there are some people out there who falsely accuse others.

With the church actively hiding and trying to cover up these events in the past

This was 30 years ago, Ming. I'd be concerned if it were recent allegations. While you are right that everything should be brought out into the open, I see nothing that convinces me that this is an ongoing problem.

We may never know because the RCC made a concerted effort to make sure we never would.

You are right that the individual priests and those who have a vested interest in this have covered it up, which is all the reason why the pope needs to houseclean the preists who have been involved in this scandal. The USCCB has been particularly bad at this, and unsurprisingly have been the most resistant to reform.

And these scumbags think they have the right to teach morality to others... It's like going to the Devil and asking what's right and wrong.

Let me ask you something, Ming.

You've been the manager of your corporation. If someone were to go through your entire organisation, top to bottom, would you find a few bad apples here and there? Would you consider them to reflect the values of the entire organisation? No.

I wouldn't gage you based on the actions of individuals of which you were unaware. Neither, should you gage me or the rest of us. Believe me, I'm angry that yet another one of the children of the 60's has brought scandal onto the Church.

[Ben Kenobi]

Asher may have talked about social factors that can influence an individual's behavior, but that does not mean Asher thinks the person should not be punished for such illegal behavior.

Frankly I don't care if your mother didn't love you enough. There's no excuse for child abuse. These 'social factors' are just hogwash.

[Asher]

Then you should reprimand Asher for his comment. He's the one making excuses for child molestors who are gay, saying that 'repression' caused them to abuse children.

No one is offering excuses, Ben.

Why the **** are you so mentally challenged? This is unbelievable.

There are factors that make people what they are now, but that doesn't excuse them nor are they the sole cause.

What is so difficult?

The reason you're ****ed up is undoubtedly because of a mixture of mental disabilities (potentially birth defects or genetic defects), obviously one ****ed up childhood, an aborted attempt at education from the prestigious University of Northern BC, and massive brainwashing by your Catholic overlords.

[Asher]

Frankly I don't care if your mother didn't love you enough. There's no excuse for child abuse. These 'social factors' are just hogwash.

No one is excusing anything, you ****ing tw@t.

Some of us are interested in finding out what contributes to this behaviour from people so we can try to stop it. Some of us are interested in stopping the proliferation of child molestation and sexual abuse.

The fact that you don't care is your own damn problem. Some of us want to protect children by finding out how we can stop this. You want to focus on damage control for the Church's image. You'd fit right in with the RCC's top brass, *******.

[Ming]

You are right that the individual priests and those who have a vested interest in this have covered it up, which is all the reason why the pope needs to houseclean the preists who have been involved in this scandal. The USCCB has been particularly bad at this, and unsurprisingly have been the most resistant to reform.

Let me ask you something, Ming.

You've been the manager of your corporation. If someone were to go through your entire organisation, top to bottom, would you find a few bad apples here and there? Would you consider them to reflect the values of the entire organisation? No.

Uhhh...

The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

The Panorama special, Sex Crimes And The Vatican, investigates the details of this little-known document for the first time. The programme also accuses the Catholic Church of knowingly harbouring paedophile clergymen. It reveals that priests accused of child abuse are generally not struck off or arrested but simply moved to another parish, often to reoffend. It gives examples of hush funds being used to silence the victims.

Before being elected as Pope Benedict XVI in April last year, the pontiff was Cardinal Thomas Ratzinger who had, for 24 years, been the head of the powerful Congregation of the Doctrine of The Faith, the department of the Roman Catholic Church charged with promoting Catholic teachings on morals and matters of faith. An arch-Conservative, he was regarded as the 'enforcer' of Pope John Paul II in cracking down on liberal challenges to traditional Catholic teachings.

Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis - Latin for The Crime of Solicitation - which laid down the Vatican's strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.

Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.

Patrick Wall, a former Vatican-approved enforcer of the Crimen Sollicitationis in America, tells the programme: "I found out I wasn't working for a holy institution, but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself."

And Father Tom Doyle, a Vatican lawyer until he was sacked for criticising the church's handling of child abuse claims, says: "What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.

"When abusive priests are discovered, the response has been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them from one place to another. So there's total disregard for the victims and for the fact that you are going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. This is happening all over the world."

The investigation could not come at a worse time for Pope Benedict, who is desperately trying to mend the Church's relations with the Muslim world after a speech in which he quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor who said that Islam was spread by holy war and had brought only evil to the world.

It's sounds like TOTAL INSTITUTIONAL INVOLVEMENT TO ME.

[Wezil]

So what happened in your family Wezil, to push you to these extremes?

It's called empathy Ben. Most normal humans feel it.

Most people I know don't hate the Catholic church.

That's not surprising in the least.

[MrFun]

Frankly I don't care if your mother didn't love you enough. There's no excuse for child abuse. These 'social factors' are just hogwash.

****! No one here is making excuses for illegal behavior.

You REALLY have demonstrated ignorance about basic human behavior and social behavior if you honestly think that society and social environments have NO impact on the behavior of individual persons. In college, did you ever take Sociology 101 or any kind of basic sociology class?

**** - you shouldn't even have to take a sociology class to realize the basic connection between social factors and individual behavior!

[Imran Siddiqui]

One Catholic on Apolyton continues to equate gays with pedophiles whenever possible. If a priest is a pedophile, it's cause them gays infiltrated the clergy...

Truth, which is why most other Catholics don't really jump on Asher for these threads because they feel Ben deserves it.

[Asher]

And plus everyone knows it's aimed squarely at one person.

The other Catholics even jump on Ben for it also.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I know who my friends are here, and they are all upstanding folks. I could care less what you think of me.

You have friends here?