They're not "rogue priests" if they have the complete backing of the most powerful representatives of the church in the entire country.

Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner. Sometimes I feel like my only friend is the bishop who farks me in the City of Angels. Lonely as I am, I never cry.

And I always wondered why the ignorant, townie Catholics I went to school with in the Northeast were such ignorant, cliquey losers.

Turns out they were around Catholic priests twice a week, it seems: CCD on Wednesday, and five o'clock mass on Sunday. Yaaah.

Literally its on the front page of the LA Times today

I could launch into a terrible anti-catholic rant, but I think Tim Minchin can do it so much better than I:

Link

Not safe for work, catholics, or those offended by the F word..

"next"? Hasn't Mahony been in the news for covering up child rape for years? It's just a matter of how far the down his pile of muck we have to dig to find corpses of lost childhood.

fusillade762: Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted specializing in the rape of Latino immigrant children

Msgr. Peter Garcia, Specialist Pedophile.

Everyone has as least one thing that they're good at.

unlikely: /don't even try to tell me The Church is anything other than a mega-fundie republican outfit. I will laugh in your face.

They were full of scorn for Romney's and Ryans attitude to welfare.

I'm not a fan of religion in general, but you'd think that after 20 years of this sort of embarrassment they'd make meeting rooms more visible.

A confidential confession is done verbally, but the pedophilia is a visible action. So... glass booths, and meeting rooms with "one way" mirrors so things aren't being done so sub-rosa a priest can stick his dick in kids.

But I guess if they could learn anything they wouldn't be religious.

Sgt Otter: As a non-Catholic, I have to ask. Do they ever ex-communicate pedophile priests

Excommunicate? Are you kidding me? They promote the assholes.

First Amendment.

Look it up!

Ugh. Please leave little boys alone, pedos. You are sick and need help.

Oh, and subby, this guy has been in legal trouble over litigation for boy rape for more than a decade. This is probably the 20th time (a low end estimate) that a "breaking news" story on fark declares this to be "another" cover up.

um, the reason why this is news is that the internal church documents were finally made public.

Well, they are the same folks who brought us the Inquisition.

/"the Inquisition's here and it's here to staaaaay!"

wildcardjack: I'm not a fan of religion in general, but you'd think that after 20 years of this sort of embarrassment they'd make meeting rooms more visible.

There are a lot of churches that have taken steps to prevent child abuse. The Catholics just aren't one of them. In the wake of the Catholic Church scandal, my (Unitarian) church, implemented policies to ensure it never happened at our church, including criminal background checks of anyone who works with children (like Sunday School teachers), never allowing one adult to be alone with children, and special training for church leaders.

It's a real shame that the Catholics haven't decided to adopt similar policies that protect children from predators. How many children have to be hurt before they stop believing their own bullshiat that they have some sort of moral high ground and don't need the same failsafes as other organizations?

darwinpolice: They're not "rogue priests" if they have the complete backing of the most powerful representatives of the church in the entire country.

This.

Also... what happened to RICO? This guy should be being charged as an accessory in literally every criminal case resulting from molestation on his watch, minimum. Honestly my inclination would be to classify the diocese's Priesthood as a criminal organization given how widespread this was and just charge the Cardinals with every count in the first place.

Protecting the perpetrators? Fine. The buck stops with you, then. Everyone's happy.

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: wildcardjack: I'm not a fan of religion in general, but you'd think that after 20 years of this sort of embarrassment they'd make meeting rooms more visible.

There are a lot of churches that have taken steps to prevent child abuse. The Catholics just aren't one of them. In the wake of the Catholic Church scandal, my (Unitarian) church, implemented policies to ensure it never happened at our church, including criminal background checks of anyone who works with children (like Sunday School teachers), never allowing one adult to be alone with children, and special training for church leaders.

It's a real shame that the Catholics haven't decided to adopt similar policies that protect children from predators. How many children have to be hurt before they stop believing their own bullshiat that they have some sort of moral high ground and don't need the same failsafes as other organizations?

i recently applied for a substitute teacher position at a catholic school (K-8). as part of the process i had to attend a class about child abuse. see VIRTUS

honestly i think it's sad that this screening process is necessary, but i understand why.

at the catholic church my parents attend, even ushers are required to take this class and they have to get a background check as well.

geometric poop, get yr shiat straight.

Insurgent: at the catholic church my parents attend, even ushers are required to take this class and they have to get a background check as well.

Yeah, individual Catholic institutions have taken steps, but the Catholic Church is one of the most impressively hierarchical institutions on Earth. The people sitting at the Vatican have remarkable power to make positive changes, and they have been inexcusably reluctant to do that.

Insurgent:
i recently applied for a substitute teacher position at a catholic school (K-8). as part of the process i had to attend a class about child abuse. see VIRTUS

honestly i think it's sad that this screening process is necessary, but i understand why.

at the catholic church my parents attend, even ushers are required to take this class and they have to get a background check as well.

geometric poop, get yr shiat straight.

I don't really see how a "don't abuse children" class and a background check would have prevented any of the abuse or will prevent the inevitable future abuse. Clearly the priests already know it's wrong. And they didn't have criminal backgrounds. And the reason most of them never got criminal backgrounds was because the church hid documentation about the crimes.

And that is the critical part. And it hasn't changed. Benedict even now is fighting to keep documentation of priests' criminal activity under wraps. He had an army of lawyers go to Belgium to squash dirt from the police raid on the church headquarters. He fights tooth and nail to prevent dirt from around the world from hitting the press and attacks the press when they write about it.

So the church has made ineffectual motions while preserving the very behavior that historically promoted an environment where children were molested. Now, in the past, and in the future, the Church is a sick organization concerned more with its own public image than with the safety of the innocent.

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: Insurgent: at the catholic church my parents attend, even ushers are required to take this class and they have to get a background check as well.

Yeah, individual Catholic institutions have taken steps, but the Catholic Church is one of the most impressively hierarchical institutions on Earth. The people sitting at the Vatican have remarkable power to make positive changes, and they have been inexcusably reluctant to do that.

definitely in agreement there. my hope is that the downfall of The Church will be ushered in by regular catholics. people that understand that institutionalized pedophilia is indefensible.

ultimately, people will realize that the threat of "Hell" is not necessary to be a Good Person. i know so many good, real people in The Church. what they don't realize is that religion is redundant if you're not an asshole.

i'm rambling but i think you get the picture

Insurgent: Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: Insurgent: at the catholic church my parents attend, even ushers are required to take this class and they have to get a background check as well.

Yeah, individual Catholic institutions have taken steps, but the Catholic Church is one of the most impressively hierarchical institutions on Earth. The people sitting at the Vatican have remarkable power to make positive changes, and they have been inexcusably reluctant to do that.

definitely in agreement there. my hope is that the downfall of The Church will be ushered in by regular catholics. people that understand that institutionalized pedophilia is indefensible.

ultimately, people will realize that the threat of "Hell" is not necessary to be a Good Person. i know so many good, real people in The Church. what they don't realize is that religion is redundant if you're not an asshole.

i'm rambling but i think you get the picture

A 'reformation', so to speak?

ShadowLurker: Insurgent:
i recently applied for a substitute teacher position at a catholic school (K-8). as part of the process i had to attend a class about child abuse. see VIRTUS

honestly i think it's sad that this screening process is necessary, but i understand why.

at the catholic church my parents attend, even ushers are required to take this class and they have to get a background check as well.

geometric poop, get yr shiat straight.

I don't really see how a "don't abuse children" class and a background check would have prevented any of the abuse or will prevent the inevitable future abuse. Clearly the priests already know it's wrong. And they didn't have criminal backgrounds. And the reason most of them never got criminal backgrounds was because the church hid documentation about the crimes.

And that is the critical part. And it hasn't changed. Benedict even now is fighting to keep documentation of priests' criminal activity under wraps. He had an army of lawyers go to Belgium to squash dirt from the police raid on the church headquarters. He fights tooth and nail to prevent dirt from around the world from hitting the press and attacks the press when they write about it.

So the church has made ineffectual motions while preserving the very behavior that historically promoted an environment where children were molested. Now, in the past, and in the future, the Church is a sick organization concerned more with its own public image than with the safety of the innocent.

you make some good points. that VIRTUS shiat i mentioned is basically an insurance company covering liability. the idea is to discourage pedos by making them take a class. i recall thinking, "wow, if i were an actual pedo i could learn some good strategies to avoid suspicion.

the classes are symbolic at best, and won't eliminate systematic cover-ups of child abuse.

AverageAmericanGuy: Insurgent: Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: Insurgent: at the catholic church my parents attend, even ushers are required to take this class and they have to get a background check as well.

Yeah, individual Catholic institutions have taken steps, but the Catholic Church is one of the most impressively hierarchical institutions on Earth. The people sitting at the Vatican have remarkable power to make positive changes, and they have been inexcusably reluctant to do that.

definitely in agreement there. my hope is that the downfall of The Church will be ushered in by regular catholics. people that understand that institutionalized pedophilia is indefensible.

ultimately, people will realize that the threat of "Hell" is not necessary to be a Good Person. i know so many good, real people in The Church. what they don't realize is that religion is redundant if you're not an asshole.

i'm rambling but i think you get the picture

A 'reformation', so to speak?

lol

used to be episcopalian. the priest (dunno if that's the correct term) was a lesbian. her partner attended every mass.

the real reformation will happen when religion ceases to exist and we all just treat each other as human beings.

The wife and I were just conversing yesterday in regard to our disappointment that our respective sisters have decided to raise their children in the christian faith. It disturbed my wife to the point of tears that her nieces and nephews would grow up questioning logic/reason/sanity/science just so they would "fit in" with the majority of ignorant people around them. We have no children of our own (and don't plan to) but, we both questioned whether it was purely them (our respective sisters) avoiding future conflict at a cost of rationality.

Why do so many people turn to religion after having children or getting older? I always thought the older a person got, the less likely they were to believe in fairy tales?! Does having children somehow delude people into thinking that a miracle must have ensued for them to have said children? Getting pregnant and having a baby is no more miraculous than eating a cheeseburger than taking a dump the next day. It's actually pretty simple biology in both cases.

The catholics have their little mitts into everything and have for thousands of years. If it weren't so profitable to be powerful, it wouldn't interest them.

namatad: farkers need to be put on the terrorist organization list

What the heck did we do?? We're just posting on a message board.

SquiggsIN:

Why do so many people turn to religion after having children or getting older? I always thought the older a person got, the less likely they were to believe in fairy tales?!

a child is a miracle from god. old people are afraid of death. it is quite simple.

Insurgent: SquiggsIN:

Why do so many people turn to religion after having children or getting older? I always thought the older a person got, the less likely they were to believe in fairy tales?!

a child is a miracle from god. old people are afraid of death. it is quite simple.

not sure if that's sarcasm or not. But, i'll play along... why fear the inevitable?

Fox News/The Pope blaming this on Homosexuals in 3...2....1.....

fusillade762: Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted specializing in the rape of Latino immigrant children

Msgr. Peter Garcia, Specialist Pedophile.

He will uncork no whine before its time?

SquiggsIN: Insurgent: SquiggsIN:

Why do so many people turn to religion after having children or getting older? I always thought the older a person got, the less likely they were to believe in fairy tales?!

a child is a miracle from god. old people are afraid of death. it is quite simple.

not sure if that's sarcasm or not. But, i'll play along... why fear the inevitable?

you're asking the wrong person. fear of death, The Unknown, is a great incentive for religious folk. inevitable as it may be, most people don't want to die and it is comforting to know that Heaven awaits the deceased.

SquiggsIN: Insurgent: SquiggsIN:

Why do so many people turn to religion after having children or getting older? I always thought the older a person got, the less likely they were to believe in fairy tales?!

a child is a miracle from god. old people are afraid of death. it is quite simple.

not sure if that's sarcasm or not. But, i'll play along... why fear the inevitable?

Because people still want to avoid the inevitable, particularly religious people, who tend to have ambiguous feelings about the afterlife, particularly if they've cornholed children.

Valiente: SquiggsIN: Insurgent: SquiggsIN:

Why do so many people turn to religion after having children or getting older? I always thought the older a person got, the less likely they were to believe in fairy tales?!

a child is a miracle from god. old people are afraid of death. it is quite simple.

not sure if that's sarcasm or not. But, i'll play along... why fear the inevitable?

Because people still want to avoid the inevitable, particularly religious people, who tend to have ambiguous feelings about the afterlife, particularly if they've cornholed children.

yet some of the hyper-religious seem more than willing to embrace death so they can "meet their maker" that much sooner... whether that be extremists/terrorists/fundies/culties/etc.

SquiggsIN: Valiente: SquiggsIN: Insurgent: SquiggsIN:

Why do so many people turn to religion after having children or getting older? I always thought the older a person got, the less likely they were to believe in fairy tales?!

a child is a miracle from god. old people are afraid of death. it is quite simple.

not sure if that's sarcasm or not. But, i'll play along... why fear the inevitable?

Because people still want to avoid the inevitable, particularly religious people, who tend to have ambiguous feelings about the afterlife, particularly if they've cornholed children.

yet some of the hyper-religious seem more than willing to embrace death so they can "meet their maker" that much sooner... whether that be extremists/terrorists/fundies/culties/etc.

they're still afraid of dying. perhaps afraid enough to take a bunch of people with them.

Well it's nice to have more info and attention, but we've known that about Mahoney for at least a decade. Last time the heat was really on was when he suddenly decided he was a huge supporter of illegal immigrant rights - and given the huge Latino population in his archdiocese, it worked, as planned. The man has always been a conniving, political scumbag. That's how you get to be archbishop, like any other high mucky muck in a big rich evil corporation.

Atheist friend of mine married a Catholic girl in a Catholic church in St. Louis last year. He jokingly asked her before the wedding if the priest had ever molested any kids. The response he got?
"Not this one. The one before him was little girls, though. And the one before that was little boys".

And she wasn't joking.

Oh great. As if we don't have enough self-righteous, bible quoting clerical pylons in Hell already.

It isn't even worthy of noting anymore. Can't we just label them a criminal enterprise and be done with it?

Insurgent: most obvious conflict of interest is the death penalty.

John Paul II's revised catechism originally included explicit support for the death penalty.