Pope to resign Feb. 28, says he’s too infirm
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Declaring that he lacks the strength to do his job, Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday he will resign Feb. 28 - becoming the first pontiff to step down in 600 years. His decision sets the stage for a mid-March conclave to elect a new leader for a Catholic Church in deep turmoil.
The 85-year-old pope dropped the bombshell in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, surprising even his closest collaborators even though he had made clear previously that he would step down if he became too old or infirm to carry on.
Benedict called his choice “a decision of great importance for the life of the church.”
Indeed, the move allows the Vatican to hold a conclave before Easter to elect a new pope, since the traditional nine days of mourning that would follow the death of a pope doesn’t have to be observed.
Full Story Here:
Pope to resign Feb. 28, says he’s too infirm
There’s a lot of things I want to say, this being first and foremost:
I have seen some nice tributes to Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, for Catholics, the Pope is on some other plane of consciousness and is, supposedly, in direct contact with God. That’s the story I got as a child being raised in the Catholic Church.
I just never could understand how an entire religion could be so blind and so willing to hide the TRUTH regarding the perversions practiced within the Catholic Church.
This is one of the most recent cases:
On Sept. 6, 2012, Bishop Robert W. Finn was found guilty by a jury in Kansas City of failing to report suspected child abuse, becoming the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States to be convicted of shielding a pedophile priest. SOURCE
There are many well documented cases of physical and sexual abuse committed by the Priests of the Catholic Church, and I know, personally KNOW of several scandals involving Nuns.
Here are a few headlines that I found with a simple Google search.
A Church Made Up of Sinners and Saints
The Cardinal and the Truth
Catholicism’s Curse
Sexual Abuse Files Cast Shadow on Los Angeles Cardinal
Los Angeles Cardinal Hid Abuse, Files Show
German Priests Carried Out Sexual Abuse for Years
That is only a very small sample, according to the source there are 1967 article about abuse withing the Catholic Church.
Don’t move them to another Church across the country or in a foreign country, accept the idea that YOU have dirty laundry that needs to be BURNED, not washed.
As OregonBuzz stated above, I am sure there are many, many good and honorable priests and nuns in the Catholic Church. Men and women who are not deviants and want nothing more than to help the people in their churches.
The trouble lies in how these scandals have been so meticulously covered up and hidden from the light of day. That is never a good thing and always leads to more trouble. As you said at the last of your post, some things need to purged, instead of whitewashed and put back into service, albeit at a different location.
I was born into a Catholic family, went to Church, never knew a homo priest until I was 17 years old and the bastard tried to put his hands on me… It didn’t end well for him…
I was working at a Catholic hospital my Senior year in HS and it was run by a bunch of Irish Nuns that had a reputation as *party girls*, and they lived up to that name…
The Priest that tried to make a move on me was the Chaplain at that same hospital… I left the Catholic Church, have never gone back as a worshipper, only to attend a funeral for family members…
I guess I was luckier than most, I didn’t encounter the perversions until I was old enough to resist and say NO, and mean it… Sure messed up my mind on Church and organized religion…
My mother was one like Buzz, never saw the abuse or perversion, but she didn’t see it when it happened right under her nose… She was told that the Priest was a perv, by me, and it was “Oh NO, Father would NEVER do that…”
My mother was a nurse at this hospital and even when the Nun she worked with came up pregnant she just didn’t buy it, “Sister MUST have been raped…” and most of us already knew who the sperm donor was, a prominent orthopedic surgeon… He was operating on something besides her bones…
There is none so blind as he who will not see…
I hope you put the fear of God into the sorry outfit that tried that with you.
Your last sentence is so very true.
That Priest DRANK his dinner through a straw for the next 6 weeks, his jaw was wired together… I broke it when I punched him…
Legally? Nothing ever happened… My folks would not believe it was a possibility that such could happen and I was kinda/sorta told that I was saying he tried it in order to smear his *good name*…
The knocked up Nun could NOT be denied, the Order shipped her off to the *Mother House* and so the story goes, some good Catholic family adopted the child…
I too was raised as youngster in the Catholic Church, and never a hint of impropriety as well. I do not pretend to know the answers as to where the church went South. Hiding pedophiles is simply wrong and now it seems they are paying the price for their actions. It is a behavior I jsut do not understand. The perversion of it all is beyond sick. May God Forgive them, I can not..
Every religion, every faith, every Church has its share of Pedophiles and idiots. In fact wasn’t there a mega-church in Colorado whose married Pastor had gay lovers? I don’t see everyone condemning Protestant Christianity.
What happened to you Fred was wrong, and your mother was wrong too. But the fact that nobody spoke up about either the Priest or the Nun and they both “got away” with it, is telling more about the times and the code of silence among people than the Church.
God knows you love him Fred and that is the only thing that he needs.
Apparently you know little about the Catholic Church…
That *code of silence* IS the Catholic Church, and has been for as long as I, or recorded Church history can remember…
Raise and practicing Jewish. Catholics are a mystery to me as are Buddhists. I understand Muslims though. Very easy to.