From the Office of Keep Your Trap Shut, You Pesky Victims’ Activists:
Pope Benedict yesterday espoused the virtues of silence:
Ah, the irony. I am honestly surprised I didn’t receive a signed copy of the speech in the mail with a gift-wrapped roll of duct tape.
Here’s my favorite:
I could say so many things … but apparently, I need to remain silent and let the utter irony scream for itself.
The pope sounds just like my mother who raised 6 noisy kids. “Remember – silence is golden!” she would yell at us. The irony wasn’t lost on us kids. However, she was also a good listener and silence is necessary for listening. As the Archbishop of Dublin said on 60 Minutes last weekend, listening carefully to victims of abuse is necessary to understanding the pain they suffered at the time of the abuse and for decades and decades as a result. So, it that context, silence is golden and the pope should listen carefully to his Irish Archbishop!
Oops… please correct my post: “could NOT have protected pedophiles and put their own interests ahead of children.”
Was the Pope’s article written about child abuse or was it about silence? If it refers to silence itself, then I see merit. It sounds as if the Pope also means that we need to listen to what another person is saying and to actually listen, rather than being self preoccupied. I don’t think everything the Pope says should be considered as being related to child sexual abuse.
I think you are missing the point with all of this Catholic hating. You can’t condemn an entire religion because some people do the wrong thing. If an ordinary, non-religious person, or a non-demoninational Christian raped someone, people wouldn’t condemn that entire sect. That is what we spend so much time trying to teach our kids not to do. In fact, modern society is all about avoiding profiling. Racism, homosexuality, and sexism are all hot-button issues. Any small comment taken the wrong way can spark scandals, yet you condemn the whole Catholic church for the wrongdoings of a few men?
The ‘broad brush’ you complain of is not against a religion, nor the Catholic lay people who practice their faith, but rather the church’s administrators. It is the church’s top executives – the Pope and the Curia who make the rules and the bishops who follow without question – that are guilty of protecting pedophiles and covering up their crimes systemically.
The ‘broad brush’ you complain of has actually been used by Catholics against lawyers who represent victims. They have been brainwashed to believe that EVERY priest, bishop, archbishop, cardinal and of course the Popes could have protected pedophiles and put their own interests ahead of children. Why? Because they have been taught the Pope is infallible and that priests, as Fathers, are above reproach. This is the reason parents could not believe their children, doubling down on the pain they suffered.
It isn’t the lawyers who brought this fiasco on, it is the church heirarchy by not dealing with the criminals in their midst honestly to begin with. By doing so, they harmed not just the children, but all the honest, caring priests who did no harm.
Silence is GOLD in the Vatican Bank. He’s not telling us how much. is he Joelle? Yes, let everyone else be silent, and let the old rascal ramble on. The main business of the RCC ought to be to find the victims and share the Vatican gold until it is gone. I imagine all we have to do now is to wait for the big Mexican show as his gleaming jet touches down and the papal flag suddenly appears from the cockpit window. And he will ramble on.
First quote: Many aspects of clergy life are doubled: double standards, double lives, double dose of self-indulgence, etc.
Second quote: Pope Benedict tenderly reflecting on his relationship with his personal secretary, Georg Ganswein: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/georg-ganswein-pope-papal-secretary
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