20 Comments

• olovely | Jan 24, 2013, 08:26 AM EST

  Mortimer74, I can hardly believe your arrogance when you write that the international child abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is a 'quickly fading anti-Catholic narrative.' As if discussing what happened - the rape and abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide - was simply an opportunity to knock Catholicism. Your attitude explains why the Church has lost its moral authority.

• Mortimer74 | Dec 10, 2012, 06:20 PM EST

  2TwisttheTruth, people are free to watch any film they want. Or read any book they want. You know, like Kathy's Story for example. Please go ahead and watch the film if you have nothing better to do. There is a wonderful comment on the Amazon site regarding Kathy's Story that says, who cares if it's not true, so long as it's entertaining. So yes, if it's entertaining and provides a little more oxygen for the quickly fading anti-Catholic narrative, then please go ahead and watch it. Don't worry about the truth. The filmmakers didn't.

• eiriamach | Dec 10, 2012, 06:17 PM EST

  I see Mortimer wrote four more jaundiced posts, spun out several more insults and gratuitous smears like "infected," and more claims of "bogus." But Mortimer never replied to my challenge about his first claim of "bogus." At Dec 10, 2012, 08:55 AM EST earlier, I asked for specific evidence: "WHERE is the "bogus" in [Goodstein]'s 2010 article, as follows, about the case of Wisconsin priest Lawrence C. Murphy?" Mortimer, you're losing all cred here and becoming tedious in your tirades.

• mairint | Dec 10, 2012, 05:41 PM EST

  We see most of the molestation of children and youth that was done under the cover of the church was on boys. It is clear that that was the penchant of the men who entered the seminaries. They simply used the church as a means to an end. That will not be shown however in the stories and accounts which will still make money for their authers. The salacious public devours such material. The more ignorant (and hate mongering) the more lapping up of the anti-Catholic diatribe while the fact that the abuse is just as evil wherever it is committed, within families, in secular or clerical environs, whether hetero or homo, all are wrong. However honesty hinders sensationalism and therefore balance will be evaded. It is a known fact, more abuse happens within families than outside. The use of the cover of clerical status (around which youth should be safe) is repulsive as is the case of the uncle or father or family member who abuses sexually. Children are the victims, many from before they are born.

• 2TelltheTRUTH | Dec 10, 2012, 03:57 PM EST

  Why Mortimer74, why are you afraid that people will watch the film? People, just see the film and decide for yourselves. I trust the majority will come to the conclusion our church has and continues to deliberately keep much about child sexual abuse hidden in darkness. Yes sunlight is the best disinfectant. Don't take our words for it, just see the film.

• 2TelltheTRUTH | Dec 10, 2012, 03:47 PM EST

  Mortimer74 why you sound just like Pierre ??? from the media report or perhaps you are Bill Donahue. But that doesn't matter because you really are an apologist for clergy who molest children. You mentioned SNAP, no one else and you directly attacked SNAP leaders. There are 8 other comments besides yours and this is SNAP infested site, so why did you bother to try and sow your misinformation here? The truth will set you free...problem is you are not the one telling it!

• Mortimer74 | Dec 10, 2012, 02:52 PM EST

  "But the facts—and the selective way they are dealt with in too much of the mainstream media—do suggest that the story line declaring the Catholic Church a uniquely perverse institution is a LIE; those who perpetrate it are either ignorant BIGOTS, or people with AGENDAS other than the protection of young people, or both." (George Weigel, firstthings website, Dec 5th 2012) George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

• Mortimer74 | Dec 10, 2012, 02:49 PM EST

  “MEA MAXIMA CULPA” IS A FRAUD Bill Donohue destroys "Mea Maxima Mendacitas" in a recent posting at the Catholic League website. Check it out, my friends, and, remember, the truth will set you free.

• Mortimer74 | Dec 10, 2012, 01:41 PM EST

  Warning, folks, this is a SNAP-infested website. The issue of child abuse would appear to be just a pretext for the group’s hatred of the Church. Here's a very recent quote from a claimed abuse victim, on a well-known website: "There are too many of us out in the world who trusted SNAP had our backs, only to be decieved yet again by an institution who claimed they had the victim's best interest at heart....as for the organization itself and its three main leaders – they will never again be able to earn my respect! I have no time for liars!"

• Mortimer74 | Dec 10, 2012, 12:57 PM EST

  Oh, wait, there's more. stanJames introduces yet another red herring in a rather bizarre attempt to embellish the "Catholic Church as a dark-and-evil force" loony media caricature. Not the "Hitler's Pope" again? Sorry, also bogus. Do your homework people.

• JuneAnnette | Dec 10, 2012, 12:26 PM EST

  eiriamach . . Thanks for setting the record straight and for your concise presentation of the FACTS and your accurate recap of the particulars regarding the case of Wisconsin priest Lawrence C. Murphy. The Roman Catholic Clergy Abuse SCANDAL and the reprehensible cover up of their crimes by the RC "hierarchy" is as murky and convoluted as that of Enron, which Mr. Gibney some years back also exposed in his acclaimed documentary. RC apologists are under the misguided opinion that they have even an ounce of credibility in these matters. The fact is . . the so-called "princes of the church" neither inspire trust nor instill confidence. They are nothing more than con men!

• jim treacy | Dec 10, 2012, 12:21 PM EST

  GOD I HOPE THIS FILM WINS AN OSCAR. I CAN'T WAIT TO READ THE POPE'S FIRST TWITTER AFTER THE STATUE IS PRESENTED

• eiriamach | Dec 10, 2012, 11:05 AM EST

  At Dec 10, 2012, 08:55 AM EST, I mis-spelled the author's name, but quoted the now-historical article that Mortimer calls "bogus." It was "Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys," NY Times, Mar 24, 2010, by LAURIE GOODSTEIN. Cardinal Lavada called Goodstein's reporting of facts "attack mode" (See also "Abuse Scandal's Ripples Spread Across Europe," March 25, 2010, and "The New York Times and Pope Benedict XVI," Mar 30, 2010).

• Portia777 | Dec 10, 2012, 10:43 AM EST

  Irishphotograph. Patrick= Patriarch and he did not found any church in Eire. We had our own spiritual church with priests and priestesses.We did not have a religion imposed upon us until Roma wanted to destroy and enslave the Irish- for their own good of course.....just like Indigenous Americans etc.The Bible was written by men to suit their own patriarchal agenda. Our equality was a massive issue for Roma and so the female energy of Eire and her people was demonised using the serpent as the symbolism. The serpent river - the Boann still flows and the divine feminine now rises in men and women who remember what it is to be whole/holy

• Irishphotograph | Dec 10, 2012, 09:37 AM EST

  Anyone would study the Bible and Irish history. Would know that Roman Catholicism never had a place in Ireland. Rome imposed itself in Ireland and did away with the Celtic Christian church Patrick founded. Learn the history of Romes Spiritual Imperialism.

• eiriamach | Dec 10, 2012, 08:55 AM EST

  Mortimer, I grow weary of your misrepresentations. WHERE is the "bogus" in Goodman's 2010 article, as follows, about the case of Wisconsin priest Lawrence C. Murphy? "But it is only one of thousands of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican office called the CDF, led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger. It is still the office that decides whether accused priests should be given full canonical trials and defrocked. In 1996, Card. Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters about the case from ... Milwaukee’s archbishop at the time. After eight months, the second in command at the doctrinal office, Card. Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican’s secretary of state, instructed the Wisconsin bishops to begin a secret canonical trial that could lead to Father Murphy’s dismissal. But Cardinal Bertone halted the process after Father Murphy personally wrote to Card. Ratzinger protesting that he should not be put on trial because he had already repented and was in poor health and that the case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations." Specifically, Mortimer, what in this excerpt is "bogus"?

• eiriamach | Dec 10, 2012, 08:17 AM EST

  Not believing "they are able to change" has become the insurmountable problem. To deal with the scandals, the RC Church needed a thorough structural reform, returning to Christian foundations, the essentials of Christ's teaching. They needed to cast aside all inessentials like their bishops' misguided efforts to control the politics of sexual orientation and gender roles, contraception, marriage as social institution, exclusion of women from liturgy both in language and participation, abortion, and progress in medical science. As long as the pope and the CDF see political activity and power, control through censorship and media manipulation as the paths to defending their institution, it will flounder and decay in its medieval structures, the odd fossil preserved but no longer recognizable because creatures of its kind are now extinct.

• 2TelltheTRUTH | Dec 10, 2012, 06:12 AM EST

  What an incredibly powerful and accurate film! A must see for all, it clearly shows how powerful institutions will do all possible to protect their own self interests over those sexually abused by clergy. I have no doubt Bill Donahue and Pierre what's his name from the media report are doing cartwheels they must be so upset, how are they going to spin this one. This truth is coming from several survivors first hand, their stories are compelling and powerful and the actual footage from years ago shows this documentary is accurate. It is high time the actions and omissions of the Catholic leadership at the highest echelons of our church be exposed to the light of day. I do not believe any longer they are able to change.

• stanJames | Dec 09, 2012, 10:54 PM EST

  I will post this video parts of it on my website. It will further cause the destruction of the church of molestation the church of hitler and the church of Mengele, Goebbels, Eichmann and Himmler. the church that gave the western world the 1000 year dark ages of zero social and economic progress. The church that killed ten million or more Muslims during the Xtian crusades - no wonder they have their own nutcases it goes on and on. Including the endless hidden molestation of children.

• Mortimer74 | Dec 09, 2012, 03:38 PM EST

  Hilarious. What's next, a serialization of that important work of art, Kathy's Story, which duped over 300,000 gullible Irish souls. Currently listed as "non-fiction" on Amazon! This drivel simply simply rehashes the bogus attack on Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010 by the New York Times' Laurie Goodstein. One review of the movie said, “All the reports of sex abuse in the church since the 1960s went directly to the current pope, Benedict XVI, to the time when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.” WRONG. There was no central command center until 2001 when Ratzinger took over. And facts and statistics show that’s when things really began to change—just the opposite of what Gibney would have us believe.