The Pope Covered Up Pedophile Priests

[Xantar]

Originally Posted by TheGame

Once again, the problem is you're making large generalizations. Yes, normal families do cover up pedophiles. There are MANY stories out there about dads/step-dads molesting children, and the mother knowing and doing nothing about it.

Look, instead of going back over everything step by baby step so that you get what I'm saying, let's just do this:

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict) was assigned the task of covering up pedophile priests, moving them to other jurisdictions, hiding evidence and so on. To do this, he had to think that it was ok for little boys to be traumatized for life with no possibility of justice.

Now, would he have been more likely to do this if he was a father or less likely? I know it's still possible he would have done it, but my question is do you think that makes him more likely or less likely?

Now consider that there are hundreds of Cardinals in the Catholic church. So go through each of them and ask the same question: is that man more or less likely to stay silent about pedophile priests if he is himself the father of children? Remember that all it takes is for a few of them to blow the whistle on the church.

I'm not saying that all fathers are saints. I'm saying that if Catholic priests had all been family men, they would have been less likely to try to hide pedophiles from justice. Yes, it's a generalization. That's why I use words like "more likely" or "less likely" instead of "will."

[Professor S]

Just to clarify MY opinion on this...

I don't think that the Cath Chirch incentivizes or recruits molesters. What I said was that the priesthood is attractive to people with sexual compulsions that are beyond the norm exactly because of celibacy and the promise of handing one's sexuality over to God.

They view it as a means to cure themselves of these desires that they hate and keep secret, but in the end many fail (many may succeed, but we don't hear about them). This is why I think we hear about so many instances of molestation in the Cath Church as opposed to other faiths.

They want to be good and godly, but in the end perhaps they are setting themselves up for failure.

[TheGame]

Originally Posted by Xantar

I'm not saying that all fathers are saints. I'm saying that if Catholic priests had all been family men, they would have been less likely to try to hide pedophiles from justice. Yes, it's a generalization. That's why I use words like "more likely" or "less likely" instead of "will."

I don't know if it is more or less likely... has a study been done on that?

I'm kidding by the way.. Though I don't think him having a family would have solved the problem, this is a top down problem caused by them chosing to keep immoral action secret opposed to openly punishing people for it.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict) was assigned the task of covering up pedophile priests, moving them to other jurisdictions, hiding evidence and so on. To do this, he had to think that it was ok for little boys to be traumatized for life with no possibility of justice.

I that he could have thought that way, but somehow I don't think he's that sick...I think that he probably thought that allowing that information to get out would do more to hurt the catholic church then it would to help their cause. Just because you're the one who hides the evidence doesn't mean you're that you agree with the crime. Some people just simply feel that letting things get out on the table, even if it's the right thing to do, can hurt their cause more then it can help it.

I'm sure the priests were slaped on the wrist, in a very secret way.. but they weren't about to let someone else handle it.

Just like the whole torture situation in the US. They didn't want to release certain pictures. certain information, and did not want to prosecute the people who gave the orders. Is that because they agree with the crime? No.. It's because some of those pictures, and some of that information can destroy america's reputation and anger our enemies/allies further, even if we do the right thing and put the people who allowed it in jail.

That's just how I see it.. yes little things could change up how much the molestation occurs, but the thing that needs to change the most is how they handle people who commit the crimes. Because as I pointed out a few times, the crimes will still happen no matter what incentive structure surrounds a person.