“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.
http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2010/12/13808/
facepalm

Saoirse wrote:Even my neighbor the nun called this pope an asshole...and she's married to Jeebus!
Did you follow the link within the link?Seth wrote:Of course, that's not what the Pope actually thinks or says, and the linky is to a Catholic-bashing blog site that's cherry-picking and quote mining, but don't let that stop you from being all indignant and junk.
Said what? That "child buggery isn't so bad?" That's a flat-out lie by the OP. More importantly, the story, from 2010, that was cited, is a gross distortion of what the address contained by the reporter.JimC wrote:Did you follow the link within the link?Seth wrote:Of course, that's not what the Pope actually thinks or says, and the linky is to a Catholic-bashing blog site that's cherry-picking and quote mining, but don't let that stop you from being all indignant and junk.
Leads to a very clear statement by the pope.
He clearly said it; an unwise move, amongst his many others (remember his big anti-Islam serve - mind you, I kinda agreed with that one, but it was politically unwise...)
The quote-mining conflation of the red and blue statements BY THE REPORTER makes it appear like the Pope is arguing that paedophilia is neither "good or bad in itself," but this is clearly not the case. What he ACTUALLY SAID in the address is:“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said. “It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than' and a ‘worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”
...
“We cannot remain silent about the context of these times in which these events have come to light,” he said, citing the growth of child pornography “that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society” he said.
So, as we can see by actually referring to original sources, not the maunderings of lying reporters or anti-catholic bigots here who fail to do their homework, that the Pope was saying exactly the polar opposite of what the OP claims.We were all the more dismayed, then, when in this year of all years and to a degree we could not have imagined, we came to know of abuse of minors committed by priests who twist the sacrament into its antithesis, and under the mantle of the sacred profoundly wound human persons in their childhood, damaging them for a whole lifetime.
...
In the vision of Saint Hildegard, the face of the Church is stained with dust, and this is how we have seen it. Her garment is torn – by the sins of priests. The way she saw and expressed it is the way we have experienced it this year. We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal. Only the truth saves. We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred. We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen. We must discover a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good. We must be capable of doing penance. We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again. This is also the moment to offer heartfelt thanks to all those who work to help victims and to restore their trust in the Church, their capacity to believe her message. In my meetings with victims of this sin, I have also always found people who, with great dedication, stand alongside those who suffer and have been damaged. This is also the occasion to thank the many good priests who act as channels of the Lord’s goodness in humility and fidelity and, amid the devastations, bear witness to the unforfeited beauty of the priesthood.
We are well aware of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and of our corresponding responsibility. But neither can we remain silent regarding the context of these times in which these events have come to light. There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society. The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times. From Bishops of developing countries I hear again and again how sexual tourism threatens an entire generation and damages its freedom and its human dignity. The Book of Revelation includes among the great sins of Babylon – the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities – the fact that it trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities (cf. Rev 18:13). In this context, the problem of drugs also rears its head, and with increasing force extends its octopus tentacles around the entire world – an eloquent expression of the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind. No pleasure is ever enough, and the excess of deceiving intoxication becomes a violence that tears whole regions apart – and all this in the name of a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it.
In order to resist these forces, we must turn our attention to their ideological foundations. In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children. This, however, was part of a fundamental perversion of the concept of ethos. It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a “better than” and a “worse than”. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist. The effects of such theories are evident today. Against them, Pope John Paul II, in his 1993 Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, indicated with prophetic force in the great rational tradition of Christian ethos the essential and permanent foundations of moral action. Today, attention must be focussed anew on this text as a path in the formation of conscience. It is our responsibility to make these criteria audible and intelligible once more for people today as paths of true humanity, in the context of our paramount concern for mankind.
Not if you read the ENTIRE statement in context. Doing so reveals deep sorrow and sadness at the scandal and a strong resolve to correct the wrongs and never let them happen again.JimC wrote:Fair point.
However, my contention still remains that the statement was politically unwise; it gives the wrong impression...
Which again is not true. No organization on the planet has done more to initiate programs, training, regulations and other safeguards to ensure that such things do not happen again. Whereas after Vatican II, the scrutiny of priest applicants became lax, nowadays the requirements to become a priest include extensive psychological examination to weed out potential pedophiles, among other strict safety and security measures. Every lay person in the Church who has anything to do with children, even being present among them during church activities, is required to submit to a criminal background check and attend a child protection class prior to being allowed to so much as pick up a child from Sunday school as a non-parent. I know, I had to go through the process just to be authorized to pick up my nephews at the church.More to the point, the churches's actions in recent times have been ineffectual, and have not matched any rhetoric of "how terrible this is, we're so sorry"
That's all they need to do. That and stop standing in the way of investigations. It's like they don't care the pews are emptying, that no one wants to be a priest anymore. That the Irish government is on the verge of separating church and state (not that I mind the last bit but from their standpoint). Even older people who were literally brainwashed in school and had it drilled into their heads are becoming disillusioned and cursing them.JimC wrote:Fair point.
However, my contention still remains that the statement was politically unwise; it gives the wrong impression...
More to the point, the churches's actions in recent times have been ineffectual, and have not matched any rhetoric of "how terrible this is, we're so sorry"
Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 20 guests