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O Benedict

Started by Recusant, February 01, 2022, 05:45:22 AM

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Recusant

Benedict the Fucking Sixteenth, to give him his rightful title. AKA Joseph Ratzinger the Holy Creep. I expect most here have heard the sordid latest, but it should be noted anyway. From his rise to prominence it has seemed to me he was a rotten bastid. Before he put on the big hat he was the chief of the modern incarnation of the Inquisition, after all. These revelations are not particularly surprising, but remain eminently galling nonetheless.

"Pope Benedict Willfully Let Children Be Raped: Lawyer" | The Daily Beast

QuoteThe last thing most people will now remember about Pope Benedict XVI is not likely his legacy as head of the Roman Catholic Church or his historic resignation in 2013.

Thanks to an investigation conducted by the German law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl, it is likely going to be that before he became pontiff, Joseph Ratzinger knowingly allowed rampant clerical sex abuse to continue when he was head of the Munich diocese. "During [Ratzinger's] time in office, there were abuse cases happening," Martin Pusch, who headed the investigation ordered by the German church, told reporters. "In those cases, those priests continued their work without sanctions. The church did not do anything."

That global systemic sex abuse at the hands of priests went on unchecked for decades is well known by now. The German church had found that more than 3,600 victims had been raped and sexually abused by priests between 1946 and 2014, which led to the report.

What makes this case so important is that Ratzinger, before he became pope, also led the Holy See Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic Church's watchdog on policy. He was appointed to that position after his work in the German church, which is now clearly under question. Many victims of sexual abuse have long thought he did not do enough when he was head of the church's doctrine office, which could have stopped the abuse from happening from the top, rather than ignoring reports.

[Continues . . .]

And . . .

"Pope Benedict: I Did Know About Priest Who Molested 23 Boys" | The Daily Beast

QuoteThe retired Pope Benedict XVI has come forward with an unusual confession. Rather than sticking with a highly contested denial that he knew nothing about the scores of predatory priests who were moved around German parishes when he was in charge of the Munich diocese, he now says he did know about at least one of them.

In a statement issued over the weekend first to German media outlets and then to the Catholic News Agency, Benedict's personal secretary Georg Gänswein sought to correct the record for the ailing ex-pontiff.

Gänswein admitted that Benedict did tell independent investigators hired by the German Catholic Church that he had no recollection of his proven attendance at a hearing about Father Peter Hullermann, a priest accused of abusing at least 23 boys aged 8 to 16. Gänswein says Benedict "would now like to make it clear that, contrary to what was stated during the hearing, he took part in the ordinariate meeting on Jan. 15, 1980." Hullermann went on to allegedly abuse children until he was finally pulled from active priesthood in 2010.

"The statement to the contrary was therefore objectively incorrect," Gänswein said in a statement about what the former pope told investigators. "He would like to emphasize that this was not done out of bad faith, but was the result of an error in the editing of his statement. He will explain how this came about in the pending statement. He is very sorry for this mistake and asks for this mistake to be excused."

[Continues . . .]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Bluenose

Excused?  EXCUSED?  Fuck off!  I am so sick of these pricks who think that all should be forgiven.  Never, not ever...
+++ Divide by cucumber error: please reinstall universe and reboot.  +++

GNU Terry Pratchett


Tank

And what's to say these bastards stopped abusing children once they were no longer priests? Stopping them from being priests would not have stopped their drives it would just have removed one ready source of victims.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Icarus

Catholic priests are not the only child abusers among the clergy or clergy wannabes.   Protestant, often hard shell Baptist, Youth ministers across this land are just as guilty.  Male youth ministers, most of them are male, have a prime crop of pretty young girls, or confused little girls who are not so pretty, to seduce, in the name of Jesus of course.

Most of my HAF friends are too young to remember the Erskin Caldwell novels of the 1940s and 50s.  Gods Little Acres was one that I can vaguely remember. Another was Tobacco Road.  These books were set in the poor south regions. The preacher man was regularly banging the local housewives as well as unmarried maidens. His persuasion was that if he could cause the woman to have an orgasm, it was Jesus blessing to them.   He named the process "coming through" and claimed that it was the gift of Jesus' generosity.  Of course, there are some female ministers who take liberties with both boys and girls.



   

billy rubin

tobacco road!

with ellie may seductively scooting across the dooryard on her bottom!


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Tank

Quote from: billy rubin on February 04, 2022, 03:51:33 PM
tobacco road!

with ellie may seductively scooting across the dooryard on her bottom!

I've never read it, but I've ordered a copy.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Icarus

Pulp fiction Tank.  Widely sought by the high school kids of the day. Read in secret hideaways so as not to cause apoplexy to the god-fearing parents.

The dunderheads who are on a current mission to ban certain books from libraries are not very clever.  Sure as hell, when Toni Morisons books, and others, were banned, the sale of her books increased noticeably.

Banning books is a dumb exhibition.  Damned near any kid can use search engines to find hard core porn sites on their computers.  Hard core stuff can also be accessed from a bit of manipulation of I-phones. Every kid with a pulse has a cell phone of some sort.  Try to take away their phones or play stations and there will be a youth revolt of major proportion.

hackenslash

Banning books is the doctrinal protection equivalent of prayer. It's how to do nothing and make it look like you're doing something. Unfortunately for the protectionists, it's also the psychological equivalent of 'DO NOT PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON!' and manifests as the Streisand Effect.

But yes, Herr Ratzinger is a special case. He didn't just not do enough when he led the congregation of the doctrine of the faith, he actively penned the policies that covered up and relocated abusers and ensured that getting to the truth was difficult. He's a criminal.
There is no more formidable or insuperable barrier to knowledge than the certainty you already possess it.