tdekeyser

I have just about blew my top when I read this!

A new punishment proposal per CNN:
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/06/04/priest.abuse/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/06/04/priest.abuse/index.html</a>

They allow at least ONE child molestation before taking action! What kind of BS is this????!?

"It would allow priests and bishops to retain their rank if clerics have only one offense, have not been diagnosed as pedophiles and have had clean records since the single offense.

This proposal relies on the pope's guidance to trust in the power of "conversion" of those who have sinned."

Bible Humper

Unbelievable. Remember how they were proposing when this first became a big issue that they would defrock priests whom "become notorious"? They couldn't care less if your little boy gets raped by one of these old monsters if they don't get bad publicity(notoriety) as a result(bad at collection time).

I wonder if a legal case could be made that Catholic parents who send their children to them, and don't supervise what goes on, are being negligent. The Church has said that they will illegally protect these freaks as long as they don't get out of hand, so the parents should be expected to take reasonable measures to protect their kids from the fairly likely consequences of this, no? Children must not be left unsupervised with priests, plain and simple. Even long before this new publicity, catholic pedophilia has been common knowledge, so no excuses.

Better yet would be a political leader who had the balls to take on the church itself. Yeah right, eh?

Even better would be for the Pope to just tell the flock that the Lord himself told him that it is time to do away with clerical celibacy and replace these diddlers with humans, so no debates nor objections kthanxbye.

Best of all would be for Catholicism to choke to death on it's own dirt.

DieToDeath

I'm with you, brother!

Fastfalcon

This birdie agrees.
Here is what i think about the pedophiles:
<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

tdekeyser

FF,

Do you think that they should get more chances before penal punishment than regular people because they are doing God's works?

I would only get 1 chance, then be beat to a pulp in prison.

brighid

But what if God told them to molest these children? Would it be OK then?

Brighid

bonduca

The moment an accusation is made, they should be temporarily suspended from duty pending an investigation by the police. If found guilty, they should be dismissed, as well as facing all legal penalties.

Priests should not be above the law (especially where the safety and welfare of children are concerned). "Come on, it was just one itsy-bitsy altar boy" is not an acceptable defense.

This policy gives the impression that a)the Church is too full of child-molesting priests for them to punish them all, and b)the comfort of fellow priests comes before right and wrong, or the safety of any church member's child.

Is anyone surprised?

Fastfalcon

No. A sin is a sin is a sin. They've done evil and they shall be punished.

Hastur

The problem, FF is that this supposed 'punishment' so far has been reserved for the Fairy Tale Sky Daddy.

Meanwhile, they get to mow through their choice of tasty underage tidbits here on Earth.

I say one strike, game over right here and NOW. Same as it is with anyone else.

Captain Pedantic

While I don't consider myself an expert in the matter (and would therefore appreciate comments from anyone who does know a thing about the psychology of violent individuals), I have heard that anyone who attacks people sexually is likely to be a repeat offender. This means that one offence might not be the last one.

Besides, how much time should pass before the priest in question is said to have a clean record? Years, months, weeks? I have a feeling it's perfectly possible to leave gaps between offences.