The Pope Covered Up Pedophile Priests

[manasecret]

I went to Catholic school all my life until university, and went to Saint Thomas High School in Houston, established by the Basilian Fathers in 1900. We had some odd rivalry with the other all-guys Catholic high school in Houston, Strake Jesuit. (Dear Bond: Damn Jebbies!)

But I don't ever remember talking about the sex scandals much in high school. Maybe the scandals weren't yet blown wide open by 2002? I've always wondered since then if any of the priest teachers I had committed any sexual abuse... there's at least one I wouldn't be surprised at all if he had. He was just... creepy sometimes.

[Typhoid]

First off, Bond - I'm not personally Catholic, but a large section of my family is, and my mom was raised it.

Now, just something I want to touch on:

Organized religion, on the other hand, I don't see how the world has benefited from it more than it has suffered.

That's because Religion doesn't exist to help the masses as a whole. It exists to help a person. Religion is a great thing.

Do priests molest kids? Yes. Is it wrong? 100% undoubtedly sickening.
Is it terrible that the Pope covered it up? Again - completely. However if you were the Pope, would you want to tarnish your entire religion, or would you want to do what you can to try and save face. Obviously it's wrong, and it didn't work out in the end. But I can see where the Pope was coming from. Just because he covered it up doesn't mean he's defending the people, or their actions; he's defending the religion.

This is from a post I made on another forum to do with a different topic, but the thread was on religion:

"Fathers shouldn't beat their children, and people shouldn't kill kittens.
Shit happens.
Religion isn't to blame.
People who let various things control their entire emotions are to blame.
If those people who 'hardcore' follow religion, were into something else - the world would be a shittier place.
Are there Zealots and Extremists? You bet.
But there are fucking marijuana extremists who riot in order to get it legalized.
There are people rioting and killing people for next to no reason.
So to say most of it rests solely on religion is fucked up.
Religions are old, and outdated. Completely.
They help people who need help, and they give hate to people who need hate.
But people are fucked up, and will do fucked up things. "

Now obviously I know that doesn't pertain to child molestation. I wasn't posting that as a defense to it, I was posting that as a defense to the existence of religion as a whole.


Edit:

I do think priests should be able to marry and have families. We're not meant to be celibate. Our entire purpose is procreation. Hell, even the Bible says that. Give everyone the freedom to procreate with human females of near the same age, and move on.

[Xantar]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

However if you were the Pope, would you want to tarnish your entire religion, or would you want to do what you can to try and save face. Obviously it's wrong, and it didn't work out in the end. But I can see where the Pope was coming from. Just because he covered it up doesn't mean he's defending the people, or their actions; he's defending the religion.

I would suggest that he's not defending a religion in that case. He's just defending a human institution, and it would be a mistake to confuse the institution of the Catholic Church with the Catholic faith.

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I do think priests should be able to marry and have families. We're not meant to be celibate. Our entire purpose is procreation. Hell, even the Bible says that. Give everyone the freedom to procreate with human females of near the same age, and move on.

Everyone? Even human females? Duuuuuuuuuude...if we gave human females the freedom to procreate with human females, the world would become a very interesting place very quickly.

[thatmariolover]

Originally Posted by Xantar

Everyone? Even human females? Duuuuuuuuuude...if we gave human females the freedom to procreate with human females, the world would become a very interesting place very quickly.

Change you can believe in. amirite?

Seriously, though, I have a couple girl friends that are don't lean to the bisexual end of the spectrum that would love to have each others children if it were possible.