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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

The Catholic Church blasts contraception - ignores own failings in sexual abuse scandal

Posted on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:00 PM

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Such hatred is pouring out of the Catholics here! How do they get to be so hate filled? Still lashing out at others for the crimes of priests, Toronthab writes with really weird logic, "to think sex abuse and contraception aren't linked is to court madness." What can that mean? That rapist priests all use condoms? Not at all reassuring! Paranoid PiperMac52 imagines the Catholic Church is persecuted by people with "all manner of atheist, nihilist, hedonistic attributes." And Chris1791 wants to kick out anyone who criticizes the clergy. No need for that: a few words from these inmates are enough to scare away anyone who hasn't already fled from their RC cuckoos' nest.

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Chris1791 | Feb 28, 2012, 09:35 AM EST

seanomelb you cannot call yourself Catholic. You are NOT. You need to find a new religion and leave the Catholics alone. You are the true miniroty and what are you doing but forcing a 2,000 year old instution who held the world together for most of those 2,000 years along with 1.1 BILLION Catholics around the world what they can and CANNOT do and what the can and CANNOT believe in. You have NO RIGHTS to tell the Catholic church ANYTHING. Don't like the Church doctrine go elsewhere. Let me put it in clearer language GET LOST. FIRST OFF OBAMA MADE THIS A POLITICAL ISSUE BECAUSE HE IS A TOTAL FAILURE WITH THE ECONOMY. HE HAD TO DISTRACT Americans from that. Before a few weeks ago NO ONE was screaming for FREE contraception. NO ONE. If you want to use contraception YOU NEED to pay for it yourself. No one owes you free anything. And for the record you are NOT a Catholic. Find a new religion.

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seanomelb | Feb 13, 2012, 04:55 PM EST

I was born in the Rotunda hospital(Dublin) where they put the mothers life ahead of the unborn child or at least gave the woman a choice "it's you or the baby".The catholic hospitals never gave that choice as they looked upon it as "abortion". The Church and the Christian right wish to force their minority opinion on everyone else.If they make an election issue of contraception and abortion they will loose.

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SingleDonald | Feb 13, 2012, 11:46 AM EST

Well put, Toronthab. I have previously criticized the practice of attempted prosecution of old cases. We should concentrate on the present, and the recent past, such as the Jerry Sanduskys of the world. I know that some complaints against him are dated. Yet, the recent transgressions can be butressed by testimony from 1980's victims. This will establish a pattern of pedophilia, which should surely lead to the coach's conviction, on the recent cases. The one positive outcome of this scandal, as in the case of the Church, is the shedding of light on the subject. I do believe that the Church is indeed safe NOW, where kids are concerned. Likewise, greater scrutiny will be given to coaches who spend an inordinate amount of time with pre adolescents. So long as their time is spent out in the open, no problem. Once he starts inviting kids to sleep over, or spends time in the communal showers with them, that would be another matter.

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rainbowbrew | Feb 13, 2012, 10:48 AM EST

I feel that I have been damned by the RCC. My mom had an abortion in the 1940's. Catholics all around chastised her and made her feel less than human. This behavior by the catholics which I did not knwo about and then like a dunder-head joined the religion that hurt my Mom. She took this almost to her grave, after she told me I quit teh evil church. They damned her and said she should have died instead of the abortion. Therefore they damn me. RCC you can live your lies and be hurtful to otehrs but it all comes back to bite you. You are not a moral nor ethical instititution, you are a greedy institution. You started out as good but you forgot teh teachings of Christ.

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Toronthab | Feb 13, 2012, 10:05 AM EST

That a way to avoid the issue. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice was very clear that not only is the abuse scandal a western civilization issue, but that the church has done a remarkable job correcting her errors, a lot of which were in following bad secular psychological opinion on treatment. More to the point, it is you who are enabling the continuing trauma of sex abuse by focusing on the long since healed practices of the church. Rather than dig out 50 year old cases, to tout to deflect from the current issue of rights of consceince.. and to think sex abuse and contraception aren't linked is to court madness, you should be standing up for rights of conscience before your press is silenced. Hypocrisy indeed.

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IrelandNorth | Feb 13, 2012, 07:23 AM EST

Someone once said: "Hypocracy is the vaseline of political intercourse!" Try that for a Zen koan. The Holy Roman Catholic & Apostolic Church, (not unlike the Greek/Russian/Syrian Orthodox Churches(& 'High Church' Anglican Communion) are all counterfeit Christianities. The only distinction being that the latter are better quality forgeries. The real struggle is not between Protestantism & Catholicism but between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, something Catholics in the south, west & east of Ireland (and unionists in northern[ised] Ireland (as indeed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain (UKGB) have yet to fully appreciate.

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SingleDonald | Feb 12, 2012, 10:32 PM EST

Madeliene, I'm truly sorry that your sons had this pervert as a Cub Scout Leader, and am happy he was presumably caught. Yet, I must disagree with you & PiperMac52. There comes a time in life, usually during the formative years, when a boy/girl puts things into perspective. The nonsense we learned in Catholic Schools, that anything sexual outside of marriage (even "impure thoughts") are "mortal sins-damnable offenses" is scoffed at, and ignored. If one has to say, "I'm sorry Lord", every time he imagines a close encounter with Jennifer Aniston (or a girl with Brad Pitt), this leads to tremendous GUILT over something which is quite normal. If one then logically concludes that he/she has done nothing wrong, there is no need to go to confession over these matters! St. Augustine was an abject fool! His early promiscuity was replaced by a totalitarian mindset, which accepted no flexibility. Consider the shorter confession lines today! I have often said here that people no longer feel guilt ridden to have to confess these normal activities. Also, the Church (like any authorative institution) attempts to increase its power over its subjects, by preaching that a minor, or non transgression, is a grave matter! Smart people know that consideration for ones' partner is most important, in any close encounter, be they married or not, be they attempting to procreate or not. Intimacy IS NOT limited to procreation; it is also an act of sharing, communication & affection. Why should a man & woman, who love & care for each other, have to rush into an ill advised marriage, just to experience this?? Many marriages in previous eras failed, soley because the couple was fearful of what the Church would think, if they became intimate beforehand. Well, we had the social upheaval of the '60s-'70's, and are now in the 21st Century! Smart people will not have the clock turned back on them. It is time the Church grew up, where sexual matters are concerned!!

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St Bosco | Feb 12, 2012, 09:35 PM EST

Being the biggest hypocrit in the world, the catholic church gives lip service to morality. Well what did you expect from a cult that bows to graven images and has a long history of horrors.

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Madeliene | Feb 12, 2012, 05:35 PM EST

I know that if you were starving outside the doors of Catholic Charities , they would let you.. Birth control should be payed for but he person needing it, not the community! If you do not want to be we a Carholic do not be one- if you are and want to take birth conrol take it and ask God to forgive you on your deathbed, if it bothers you- He will. If you have children and send them anywhere where you feel you need to watch them, Do SO I did , thank God- as the Cub Scoout Leader was a murdering peodophile- and I was right there with MY sons, to protect them ( just in case)

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seanomelb | Feb 12, 2012, 04:28 PM EST

bishops should keep out of other peoples bedrooms after all some of them are only interested in childrens bedrooms.Cahirs article is "fair and balanced" The christian right are panicking,they are scared because they know Obama will have 4 more years to complete his programme to save The U.S from the disastrous mess the republicans left in '07. They lie and lie and lie.They would rather see the country fail than have a democrat succeed how unamerican.

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Heather911 | Feb 12, 2012, 04:23 PM EST

What the hell? Nothing wrong with birth control. I would rather have someone take the pill instead of aborting or dumping a baby in to some dumpster.

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PiperMac52 | Feb 12, 2012, 03:54 PM EST

The leftist ingrained thought is incapable of using logic it seems. First off: Approximately 3% of priests ans prelates within the Catholic church were involved in the sex abuse scandal in some form. It was an atrocious failing that has been condemned by many Catholics who follow the precepts of the faith, obviously those involved did not. Putting that aside, liberals presume that because of this obvious failure of those who did not follow Church teachings, in fact were totally in opposition to it, The church itself, which contains Christ's truths, should no longer stand for what is right? Natural law(set in motion by God)follows a definite set of rules. God intended sex to be a gift between married men and women in order to share in creation. Anything that subverts that law is in direct opposition. Because fallen man, in his selfish nature, redefines or cherry picks those precepts through his malformed conscience and lack of logical thinking does not make them right. Fallen members of the Church have had many failings throughout history yet the Church established by Christ and it's teachings survive against all manner of atheist, nihilist, hedonistic attributes.

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carlow98 | Feb 12, 2012, 02:39 PM EST

George Carlin, Irish American philosopher? Ahh, Cahir you are delusional.

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bunkerisland | Feb 12, 2012, 02:15 PM EST

Many churches in the US are down to 15-20% attendance, mostly elders looking toward the pearly gates. The remainder have said good-bye to this institution.

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