I was talking to a coworker a couple days ago and we somehow got on the subject of the Pope, which precipitated an outburst from the coworker about how come Pope John Paul II didn't do anything about the child-molestation cases regarding Catholic priests here in the U.S.
My answer to him at that moment was that the bishops tried to coverup the incidents, but one would think that some type of news would have reached the Pontiff.
What do U think?
2007-02-02 21:50:43 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I think the cover ups of molestation went all the way to the top. We know that many of the cardinals were involved,we know that at least one cardinal resigned because of it,Cardinal Bernard Law.Too bad he wasn't prosecuted as he should have been. And to assume the Pope didn't know is folly,it's just that when it's a choice between what's right and what's good for the Catholic church the church comes first.
AD
2007-02-03 01:00:37 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is a saying that goes,` A little knowledge can be dangerous` and it certainly applies in this case,people hear the minimum of information and automatically start forming stubborn views that no matter how wrong they can be will hold on to them forever and a day.
There is a structure of offices in the Vatican that deal with all sorts of problems and most of the time these problems never even reach the Popes ears,this particular problem was under the office for the doctrine of the faith and they ran for cover at the implications of this,they had no plan or strategy already in place and therefore they hoped that it was just one or two isolated cases and would literally dry up and go away, the Pope was not informed at the time, and when the situation got worse they then had to inform the Pope hoping that He could deal with it,in a way that they could not, by this time however the storm had broken.
2007-02-02 22:25:02 · answer #2 · answered by Sentinel 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Your co-worker's outburst was fueled by misinformation, even ignorance.
As soon as the scandal broke in early 2002, John Paul immediately summoned the US cardinals to the Vatican to hash out what to do about the problem.
Most of the cases of sexual abuse involved homosexual abuse of post-pubescent boys by priests.
This would not have happened if John Paul's exhortations not to admit gay men to the priesthood had been heeded.
So, it's not his fault that this scandal was overwhelmingly the result of his exhortations being ignored.
.
2007-02-02 22:09:56 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
It isn't the fault of the Catholic Church this people hide their true colours upon entering priesthood to be able to perform their king cobra style. Some enter Priesthood to to gain support of the public and once they're popular to the followers they will tackle politics. People have their individual intentions they join in an organisation to reach their target.
2007-02-02 22:29:10 · answer #4 · answered by notProudatAll 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Do you understand how these things go?
I don't really think that the Pope could have known very much. He doesn't have a magic Pope-o-scope to spy on everybody you know.
He would have found out just like the rest of us.
You know he went to a lot of places, was kinda busy too.
2007-02-02 21:55:04 · answer #5 · answered by great gig in the sky 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Study the history of the catholic church from a non-catholic point of view. You will see why "the church" protects priest who prey on those entrusted to them. This organization has been corrupt for about 1400 years, or nearly all its life. It is evil to the very core.
2007-02-02 21:57:41 · answer #6 · answered by DATA DROID 4 · 3⤊ 3⤋
the catholic church have a lng history of nastiness - supporting nazis - spanish inquisition etc - their policyt seems to be deny den y deny
2007-02-02 21:54:22 · answer #7 · answered by mr_soapytitwank 3 · 3⤊ 3⤋