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At age five, 1954, "the Bishop" (Card. Stritch) stood over me and said, "Stop babbling about what Father Horne did to you." It took me 40 years to talk about it again. Now, I babble. - ke
**********The City of Angels is Everywhere*********
in 2009 our ongoing coverage of the pedophile epidemic in the Catholic Church will be at City fAngels5. in 2010 at CityofAngels8

Monday, April 21, 2008

When the pope mentioned growing up in a sinister regime, did he mean Nazis or Catholics? Readers respond to the papal visit

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By Kay Ebeling

Here are reactions to the pope’s visit you won’t read in mainstream media, plus Bill Maher’s New Rule About Catholics in the video box above. (He sees FLDS and Pope as similar, except 'altar boys can't get pregnant.') First email: Mary Pitcher writes, “To those who so want the Catholic Church to be what it claims to be.”

I am truly pleased that the pope has mentioned the abuse and the victims so often on his trip. I think people have become tired of the topic and want it to be over. And it is so not over…and if we pretend it is, it is such a disservice to all of us, most especially those who had the courage to step forward, and to those who have not yet had found their voice.

And also to those who so want the Catholic Church to be what it claims to be…..a worldwide community example of Christ’s love. Until this scandal is confronted in all its ugliness and complexity, the church’s very existence is at risk. So having him highlight it, allows it to remain front and center. That’s a very good thing.

I am also so pleased that the pope has actually said that the pain and suffering of the survivors cannot be put into words. I have not heard ANYTHING like “get over it.” It seems to me Benedict has gone so far as to suggest that listening to the survivors is important and necessary for all in the community. I do wonder about the people he chose to meet. He didn’t meet with any of the leaders of the survivor’s groups. That’s a problem. It’s like a leader only wanting to surround himself with those who see things his way.

I have heard the words “Scandal in America, US scandal, US crisis,” too many times in his speeches. This is NOT a US problem. It is a worldwide problem. It is a worldwide problem that is deeply, deeply embedded in the structure of the church.

And all the pomp, the adulation by the press, the adulation by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, adds to my concern this is part of the problem. The elevation of the priest, bishop, pope, as someone who stands above us in all ways, but especially as the one who mediates between us and God, created and perpetuates the sickness of the structure.
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Requests for young boys as companions by priests based in Rome during John Paul's visit. . .
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Instead of adulation from the press I’d like to have Richard Sipe offer his commentary. Sipe is a former Benedictine priest, who in his 35 plus years after the priesthood as a therapist/author, has studied the priesthood and treated priests in trouble. www.richardsipe.com. In his book, Celibacy in Crisis, on page 242, he describes two horrible scenarios.

“I have already recounted the story of the young priest who was hospitalized with a severe depression. Mute for weeks, he finally confided his unbearable secret. His bishop-mentor-friend used him to procure young sexual companions from the streets. Evil, not illness, morality, psychology or situation, dominates this behavior.”

And then…this paragraph from Richard Sipe flew back to me as I thought about the pope’s visit:

“John Paul II has visited the United States on several occasions during his reign as pope. The preparations for his visits take years. Even the color and type of his vestments as well as each detail of his schedule are orchestrated by a team of emissaries, mostly priests from Rome.

"A diocesan team headed by the local bishop or cardinal coordinates the myriad details. I have fielded complaints from local workers that they had to respond to requests for sexual companions---usually young boys---from priests based in Rome.”

(On a personal note…when I first read these words a few years back I sobbed for what seemed like hours. My heart was breaking…..I no longer cry like that…..but I also no longer hold out hope that the church can be saved. I truly believe it has already collapsed. And some people simply aren’t aware of it as of yet. I also believe that what is emerging from the ashes what Clarissa Pinkola Estes talks about as the “church beneath the church.”

The pope talks about not letting pedophiles into the seminary….what about those who are the administrators and the teachers? What about those perpetrator administrators and teachers who know where they bodies are buried…..Those who have something to hold over the men currently in power.

In two years in the mid 70’s, more than 30% of the St. John’s Seminary graduating class were credibly accused perpetrators. We have not gotten graduates of that seminary still currently priests to admit that they saw or heard anything. I wonder if statistical analysis from classes in the 80’s and 90’s will show similar percentages of perpetrators….as more and more victims come forward as they reach the age when they can admit what happened to them as children.

I truly believe that the structure of the church hierarchy, with a basis is patriarchy, is evil. There is no resolution to this scandal, this manifestation of evil…. unless the structure is addressed.

And the pope’s very visit to the UN, the fact that the Vatican is considered to be a Nation State flies in the face of being able to topple the structure.
-- Mary Pitcher
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JAY NELSON WROTE:
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This from the Pope this afternoon:

"My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers," he told the crowd at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.

"Its influence grew, infiltrating schools and civic bodies as well as politics and even religion before it was fully recognized for the monster it was," the pope said.
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The horror of the destruction recounted for generations. . .
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"Many of your grandparents and great-grandparents will have recounted the horror of the destruction that ensued. Indeed, some of them came to America precisely to escape such terror."

So what was he talking about? Growing up Catholic?
-- Jay Nelson
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And Frater G contributed this copy and pasted from a political website:
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The papal visit had one major institutional crisis to deal with—the long-running scandal over the sexual abuse of children by thousands of Roman Catholic priests. This dimension of the visit brought another display of media adulation and ideological reaction.

The press portrayed Benedict—who adamantly rebuffed sex abuse victims for years while serving John Paul II—as deeply moved by their suffering. In his initial remarks about the scandal, however, as he flew to the US on board his personal jet, the pope bemoaned only the damage done to the Church, not to the victims themselves. The US Catholic Church has paid out more than $2 billion in legal settlements to some 13,000 victims, including $660 million in the Los Angeles diocese alone, and several dioceses have been compelled to file for bankruptcy.

The pope's closed-door meeting with five sex-abuse victims was presented by Church officials and the media as a major breakthrough, although the five had been carefully vetted by the Boston archdiocese to ensure a relatively harmonious session.

A spokesman for the archdiocese said the five had "ongoing relationships" with archdiocesan officials, and had "stayed engaged with the office"—i.e., they had remained loyal to the hierarchy despite the Vatican's continued defense of Cardinal Bernard Law.

As Boston archbishop, Law protected priest-abusers and allowed them to transfer from parish to parish when exposed, rather than removing them from the priesthood.

Benedict even sought to blame the sex-abuse scandal on the excessive sexual permissiveness of modern culture, rather than the repressive practice of priestly celibacy which the Catholic Church, alone of major religious institutions, continues to enforce.
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Priest rape reports in Poland, Mexico, Ireland, Austria, and Germany suggest common denominator not US loose morals
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Similar sex-abuse cases have been reported in countries as diverse as the United States, Poland, Mexico, Ireland and Austria. The common denominator is not the culture of the specific countries, but the atmosphere prevalent within the Catholic Church as an institution.

As the World Socialist Web Site noted when the sex abuse scandal in the United States first came to widespread public attention, some six years ago, "Every aspect of the sexual abuse crisis—the pain and suffering of the victims, the misery and sexual dysfunction of the priests, the callousness of Church officials—suggests a diseased institution whose practices and beliefs run counter to elementary human needs and inevitably breed the unhealthiest of psycho-sexual climates. The Catholic Church's essential being flies in the face of modern society."
-- World Socialist Web Site
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BONUS: This quote circulated Saturday, from Tom Doyle:
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They are probably going to make a couple of minor changes in the process and maybe even add to the years before the SOL runs out. On the other hand his remarks about the bishops are typical....he claims some bishops told him they didn't know the score etc. His sources for any information about this nightmare have been the bishops.....the guys who caused it. That's like the blind leading the blind. One lies and the other swears to it. They don't get it. They won't get it. They can't get it.
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ME: I’m glad it’s over. I have a jury trial to cover and don’t need distractions like the raging anger I felt all week because of the pope’s visit.
-- kay ebeling


Onward. . .

Papal visits to me are just a bunch of pap.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is But one solution; the laity must stpp donating all monies until all guilty miters and most especially red hats (Roger Mahony), are each removed from office, canonically censored, and each placed under life time house arrest, at a minimum, like pedophile founder of the Mexican culy The Legion Of Christ, or alternatively, each irrevocably EXCOMMUNICATED.

STOP DONATING LAITY!

North Hollywood Insider
(aka "NoHo")

Anonymous said...

Actually, I am joking.

Anonymous said...

NoHo, no, you're not! You mean it. Or you SHOULD mean it.

But even THAT's too good for those child murderers, rapists, sodomizers, molesters, abusers, and their enablers.

Shams 93 said...

There's always the other Catholic Church, the Ecclisia Gnostica Catholica, not Christian, its based on Thelema, and really is a nice bunch of people. Funny how being founded by the supposed "world's wickedest man" Aleister Crowley turns into this nice bunch of people, while really nice guy Jesus leaves behind this vicious institution in his wake.

Anonymous said...

No, I really was joking, hrh. Where's your sense of humor?

North Hollywood Insider
(aka "NoHo")

Anonymous said...

It would seem some pro pedophile enabling hacker, no doubt from Roger Mahony's Criminal LA Archdiocese, is blogging/hacking into the City Of Angels blog site falsely impersonating me: "North Hollywood Insider".

Do I really mean for all laity to STOP DONATING any monies for any reason to the Roman Catholic Church, and in particular to force the resignation, or forced removal, of Rog Mahal Arch Pedophile Enabler Mahony from office? YES.

Disregard the hacker comments saying that North Hollywood Insider is 'kidding', I am NOT!

STOP DONATING LAITY!

North Hollywood Insider
(aka "NoHo")

PS - There is a viral effort by the pure lies and spin LA Archdiocese occurring in the ads of theis site also, www.LA-ClergyCases.com, which is a pro pedophile enabling and Mahony criminal cover up web site, funded out of laity monies, popping up in the left hand column, BEWARE VICTIMS, of contacting theses EVIL CRIMINALS.

Kay Ebeling said...

You should donate to the church you go to, as your presence there uses the electricity and you probly ate a donut or two there. I am used to these small Christian churches that barely make it from month to month, yet they are truly delivering Christ's message, dressed in street clothes, with regular jobs during the week in many cases. THESE are the churches that need money. CITY OF ANGELS NETWORK official position is find a church in your town that fits your beliefs and needs, and go there, and yes, donate, to keep that church alive. It takes money to do anything. Just find a church where you feel at home, it takes time and looking, but there is probly another church not Catholic out there for you -- AND IN THE PROCESS -- discover the joy of pure Scripture and prayer without all the ceremonial BS. kay ebeling

Kay Ebeling said...

PS. Sorry about the person using another person's name. This comment section is wide open and you have to trust your instincts as you read, to tell who is telling the truth. Isn't that the way it always is???? The ads are computer generated based on word search by a non-human thing...it's the world we live in. At the la-clergycases site they never attribute anything, no article is signed, no contact information. So you are on your own to read it and believe who you want to believe, the ones who give theier names or the ones who lie.

Anonymous said...

"And the truth shall set you free."

St. John

The REAL North Hollywood Insider
(aka "NoHo")

Anonymous said...

TRUTH or not, you are right 'NoHo' (the real one); Mahony is the biggest yet to be prosecuted crook in the history of the American Roman Catholic Church; but boy oh boy(s), does Mahony have a great deal of competition among the felonious ranks of the curia, right here in Southern California (Brown, Brom, Curry, etc.).

Yeah, laity should never be donating to this ongoing pedophile ring, and pedophile enablers, in the LA Archdiocese.

The real reason the Pope showed up was for damage control, and try to stave off the nose diving of their over $8 Billion Dollars per year they collect, (fleeced), from the laity, in the USA (tax free).

Just watch these guys operate, it's like a real drag queen show (only with a better budget and costuming).

Agnostic In Anaheim

Anonymous said...

This may sound horrible to you, but Benedict took a big step in meeting with victims. If he helped one victim to come forward or one victim to begin the healing process, then it was worth the entire visit.

Anonymous said...

Bostonpadre if you are correct, maybe he should consider coming back without the pomp and publicity and help a bunch start to heal. There sure is a bunch in the US who have suffered enough. Hopfully he will leave the advance men(?) and the PR in the Vatican.
CER in TN

Anonymous said...

L.A. aside, he did meet with victims without telling anyone beforehand. He didn't seem to have any advance men, like the other bishops do.

Agnostic in Anaheim

Anonymous said...

Hey Boston Padre, did you ever get the $14.3 million dollars that suddenly 'disappeared' (in the real world we call this a "HEIST") from the Boston secular ordained pension funds, within days of Bernie Law going of to be Arch Priest (more like Arch Enabler, Aid & Abetter) at Santa Maria Maggiore in Roma, only 1 of 4 designated Papal Basilica, with a $144 grand base (tax free) salary, plus expense account of up to $25 grand per month, and reserved tables at several of Rome's finest restaurants, spas, resorts, etc. as well as 'hide-aways' for 'R&R' along the Appian Way?

Just asking, since you think the curia and Prada wearing Ratzy is now walking on water.

Actually Padre, Benedict XVI th is now walking on water, on your and other rank and files ordained's heads...

The only question remains, from Bill Cosby's classic line from God: "NOAH! How Long Can You Tread Water?"

Anonymous said...

Check my other posts, "Pissed." I am a victim. His visit helped me. I am not naive, nor a nodder. Don't be such an insensitive jerk.

Kay Ebeling said...

It takes all kinds...I'm not even Catholic, but writing this blog, I'm having to interact with priests first time since my early teens. My dad let me quit the church when I was 13. However, the pedophile problem is in the Catholic Church, inevitably some of the victims and advocates are still in the church. I'm having to open my mind in order to do something more important than being angry about small things. I mean, don't sweat the small stuff.

We'll see if the papal meeting was just an appeasement or genuine. My guess is it was somehting he had to do and it was the least amount he could do and get away with because the news was hounding him about the crimes.

I doubt we'll hear another word from him or any of his cohorts. They're back in Rome with their sherry glasses. . .

CALL: Target Crimes, LA DA's Office, to report sex crimes in the Catholic Church: Phone: (213) 974-5985

City of Angels Lady