Johann Hari calls for the arrest of the Pope part 2

[kirked007]

Celibacy is not todays' issue. The critical point is that the Pope is head of an international conspiracy of covering up Paedophiles revolting acts to young trusting children.

[MrApikoros]

The best thing for Christianity will be the long overdue death of The Church. I feel that Religion is in its death throes, and will probably not last this century. The moral teachings of Jesus are immortal, and will survive intact, and the World will be a better place when evil men stop hiding behind good men in their dark unaccountable institutions. I look forward to visiting Rome on the day the Vatican becomes The Museum of Catholic History. Oh, and the pope oughta be skinned alive.

[rt36crazyfists]

The Catholic Church got away with the greatest massacre in history that can be named in two words, the Inquisition. We look back on it with disbelief but it occurred at the height of the church's power, people lacked any scientific understanding of the world, mental illness was demonic possession, witches prowled and no one could challenge the church. I can't believe that in this age of progress and mass media, we will let the church get away with its next atrocity. How will posterity see this?

[MorginWard]

LOL at the french dude saying the irish are coming out of the ressession! Check the headlines now, could not have been more wrong!

[ciaracustard]

@MorginWard Me and my dad were literally on the floor laughing the first time we heard him say that even before the headlines. I've got folks over there and it was obvious that things were bad - I don't understand how someone could actually be that wrong.

[Lukeeeeo]

fucking genereal election BORING

[ernesto7012]

1st Celibacy is not the cause of Pedophile behavior

2nd The local Bishops moved pedophiles not the Pope

3rd Cases reported where to be kept secret to safeguard the integrity of the victims and to protect wrongly accused priest.

[Sirstingray]

@ernesto7012

1st. You're correct in that there is plenty of evidence that a normal sex life is not a deterrent for pedophilia. However, what has not been determined is whether these priests were a) pedophiles, b) just getting sex wherever they could or c) power-mad rapist sadists.

2. The responsibility of moving the priests always comes back to the bosses. The bishops would only do what they thought was accepted by the cardinals/pope.

3. The cases were secret to protect rapist priests first.

[PhysicalsimForever]

Women cannot defend the Christians without being absolutely ignorant - the Christian doctrines associate all women as the accomplices of satan, who introduced sin to the human race - think of all those women burned as 'witches' - not to forget the poor wolves, who were considered as extremely evil familiars of the devil. And you think the modern church thinks ay differently? They don't.

[Sirstingray]

@PhysicalsimForever

You m be taking a glib and overly dim view of modern Christianity here. I don't agree with Christianity, but you can't say that the modern church has the "witch-burning" attitude... Christian doctrine is entitled to change and evolve.

[LiveVegan]

Celibacy has nothing to do with pedophilia. You need to get away from that idea. Pedophilia is about power abuse 

[ak99uk]

When this pope dies they can make him the patron saint of paedophiles.

[MilitantScience]

Can't believe Gideon Osborne made the credit card comparison. He should be shipped back to Ireland so that they can finish his ascendancy line off.

[PurushaDesa]

Bit harsh on Toyota.

[cleverfeller]

If ever proof were required that there is one law for the powerful and another for the rest of us....this is it. Here we have an 'educated' journalist who repeatedly defends an organistion which systematically rapes kids over a long period of time with written confirmation of a cover-up at its very pinnacle by a religious leader and Estler isn't only not asking 'hard' questions about it, he's actively making excuses for it.

Why is this bag of shite still working for the BBC?!!!

[Opera680]

Holy Father, I love you, I support you, and many many are with you, count on our prayers! The gates of hell shall not prevail against our Church!

[rmutt4]

@Opera680

defender of pedophiles is a hero to Catholics...how sad.

[victorious592]

If you haven't been convinced thus far, I 'm certainly not able. but just a question? if you ran a camp where many of your camp leaders confessed to sodomizing young (sometimes even deaf) boys would you as the chief leader be responsible?

[xtrashed]

@victorious592

Why should the chief leader be responsible for the crimes of individuals, unless the chief leader was involved in covering abuse; which there is no evidence for the Pope having done.

[xtrashed]

This man is talking nonsense. There is NO EVIDENCE that the Pope covered up any abuse, in fact Pope Benedict has done more than anyone to get rid of what he calls 'filth.' No one is going to arrest the Pope, because you can't! Why should an innocent man, be arrested, Johann is crazy!

[victorious592]

@xtrashed the evidence seems quite clear...the pope (then cardinal) was aware of these offenses while in charge of the board dealing with child abuse. he either looked the other way or was woefully inadequate. either way, i would have a hard time classifying him as innocent.

[xtrashed]

@victorious592

What offences do you mean? I've looked at the various news articles regarding the scandals, I've looked at the time lines and so fourth. No where have I seen any evidence that Pope Benedict looked the other way.

[sabergun]

@xtrashed ethiopianreview com / news / 61282

maybe if you watched something other than Fox News

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

Kiesle was removed from ministry and never again allowed to practice as a Catholic priest. When it was found out that he volunteered in a parish youth group the pastor was told to remove him immediately by the bishop. In his letter to the Oakland Bishop, Cardinal Ratzinger said that a careful review and more time was necessary for the removal of vows.

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

The bishop can remove his (a priest's) faculties from saying Mass, from hearing confessions, to acting in the parish immediately with no canonical trial and with no appeal to Rome, It's totally in the hands of the bishop. To say 'oh this priest is an abuser, he should be removed from the priesthood,' well, first of all, you can never remove anyone from the priesthood, You're always a priest.

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

What you're doing is saying, 'well you're no longer going to practice your priesthood,' which you can do without dispensing from the vows of chastity.

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

Priests are priests forever, and a question of whether or not a priest should be dispensed from his vows is a question which is on a different level from a question of how do we punish someone for abusing children.

[TruePolvora]

@xtrashed different level? i just hope you mean children abuse is higher priority than vows of priest, because if you do not you are sad sad person....

[xtrashed]

@TruePolvora

excuse me? what exactly did I say?

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

At the time of the Oakland case, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), of which Cardinal Ratzinger was prefect, was not responsible for dealing with sex abuse cases. In fact, it was at Cardinal Ratzinger's consistent urging that the CDF took on sex abuse cases in 2001, so that they could be dealt with in a more timely and efficient manner.

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

The only reason that Cardinal Ratzinger even wrote that letter to Bishop Cummins in 1985, said Fr. Fessio, was because it involved the dispensation of the vow of celibacy.

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

catholicnewsagency . com/news/ap _ guilty _ of _ bad _ journalism _ in _ oakland _

abuse _ reporting _ says _ ignatius _ press _ founder /

[MishaVargas]

On the Pope being arrested: "It'll never happen."

Well, not if people like you constantly dismiss the very idea of holding people responsible. I notice you didn't say it SHOULDN'T happen.

[infrabuse]

It's quite funny; many years ago I already thought the pope should be brought before an international peoples tribunal for his crimes against humanity. But this is madness! Hell, all organised religion should be banned, it would clear up 98% of all of the world's problems! Religion is a personal experience between an individual and his God. Who needs those sordid, corrupted, money-grabbing, perverted child-molesters as middle-men?

[82abhilash]

Criminals must be put in prison. It should not matter whether they wear frocks or funny hats. It is pure and simple cover up.

[mastershake99]

@82abhilash I totally agree. No secular organization could get away with this kind of shit for this long.

[Guaguanco11]

BBC news is far superior to anything one finds in the US

[BEAST636]

A peadophile doesn't join the church because he's (or she) sexually attracted to children. They're ALREADY in the church, in most cases. Just like a priest indoctrinates a child into the catholic church, they "indoctrinate" them into peadophilia too.

[rock9711]

a pedophile is a pedophile,, like a dog is a dog,, a man that is married may still be say gay and his wife not know it,, or be a pedophile ,, the thing is,, these maggot priest are pedophiles to begin with,,they like kids,, not woman,,, so marriage to these freaks of nature is out of the question to begin with,, and this was thought out in the beginning with the church,, they knew because they do not like woman,, so this scam of remaining celibate for the" lords work,",, worked for them,

[Darklordabc]

I love it how people still continue to respect religion in everday converstations, ffs, we need serious change

[AzerChristians]

Crimes committed against humanity by the Catholic church began CENTURIES ago.... remember Spanish inquisition?

Catholic Church and its century long criminal activities done to humanity MUST end now. God's wrath will be just & swift. Same to Islam & Tibetan Budhism too and ALL theocracies in this world !

[charlieiscool1000]

he will be arrested if he comes over here and what the hell is an american doing on the BBC

[DavidsIllustrations]

As if the government exists outside the realms of reality!

I would be only too happy for the government to openly identify thier keynesian economic base so that people would begin to debate its own fallacies.

Keynesian economics does not work.

it has been factually proven time and time again since, and historically demonstrated to undermine the value of currency and freedom of the market in American history since 1913 .

do us all a favour and read some Ludwig Von Mises

[noslensetax]

the pope should be arrested

[Opera680]

@noslensetax if he gets arrested he will be free in spirit, but you who are free and chained with your flesh

[AgenonTaeche]

All this indecision about arresting the pope is sad, he took part in the enabling of crimes and further crimes against children, children!. The hypocrisy of the church, not to say its head is sickening, He should be arrested, convicted and sanctions be brought upon the vatican, if we are to grow and learn from this blemish of human, not godly, filth.

[xtrashed]

@AgenonTaeche

You are lying! There is NO evidence that the Pope was involved in any covering up! There is he evidence that he helped to put in reforms!

[sabergun]

@xtrashed There are letters written by the Pope to many members of the church telling them to keep sexual abuse a secret. This in turn creates systematic sexual abuse. You are creating a series of assertions without properly explaining why you feel these letters don't constitute evidence.

[xtrashed]

@sabergun

That is not true at all! You are just making up that! I've been looking at the media for weeks now, every day, no evidence has come forward that Pope Benedict covered up any abuse! Think of all the lawyers that are working for the crappy New York Times and others, they've tried to indite the Pope but even they haven't succeeded because there is no evidence.