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Archbishops of Canterbury who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
Posted on Saturday, April 03, 2010 at 12:17 PM
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Talk about kicking someone when he's down...
The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has taken inter-religious rivalry, and even prejudice, to a new low, attacking the Irish Catholic Church as it (and the entire Church) struggles to deal with a terrible and longstanding child sex-abuse scandal.
"I was speaking to an Irish friend recently," Williams told the BBC of a conversation with a likely non-existent person, "who was saying that it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now.
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin was so infuriated — and proper;y so — by Williams' outburst the he was compelled to release a statement about how Williams' "unequivocal and unqualified comment... has stunned me. Those working for renewal in the Catholic Church in Ireland did not need this comment on this Easter weekend and do not deserve it."
Well said. Perhaps the golden-throned Anglican leader should have consulted his own church's records before throwing the first stone from the glass house of his faith.
An Internet search of the words "Anglican" and pedophile" hardly comes up empty.
Here's just one story of many, and from this year in which a judge was "astonished" the Anglican Church allowed a priest jailed for sexually abusing three altar boys to re-enter the ministry and commit "strikingly similar" offenses.
"Judge Sydney Tilmouth today said he found it remarkable that Wilfred Edwin Dennis was left in a position by the Anglican Church to commit the abuse, after being found guilty of molesting three altar boys in the early 1970s.
"Outside court, Dennis' sister said the Anglican Church had allowed Dennis back into the ministry because they had trusted him."
Yet another case, this one involving an Anglican priest's "indecent assault" on a young girl, "caused a furor when it was learned that senior Anglicans knew of the allegations years earlier."
Then there's last year's case of the remorseless Anglican Church pedophile and Church of England Boys Society youth leader Andrew William Dawson-Ryan, who systematically abused boys "hundreds of times."
Between 1972 and 1988, he abused a number of boys entrusted into his care, and plied them with cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and pornography.
There's a lot more, but you get the idea.
None of the much-smaller Anglican Church's shame excuses, in any way, shape or form, the criminal behavior of Catholic pedophile clergy or child-abusing priests, and certainly not the equally criminal cover-ups of those cases, which have both gone on in Ireland and other countries for decades. Like a small leak, the mounting charges have burst the dam, and it certainly can seem to the layman that "Catholic priest" and "pedophile" are one and the same.
But the Archbishop of Canterbury is not a layman, and should know better. His vicious comments amid the holy Easter season are so bizarre, ill-considered and horribly timed that they could only have come from the mouth of an anti-Catholic bigot.
As they did.
The Catholic Church, because of its size and far-reaching ministries, may well be the unfortunate flag-bearer of religions with the highest number of sex-abuse crimes and cover-ups in its closet. It's not any "honor," to be sure, and my readers are well-aware of my own thoughts on the sheer evil behind it all.
But there is nothing to be gained by self-righteous bigotry. A man of faith like Williams should be shoulder-to-shoulder with the MANY Catholics who are working for justice for God's Innocent Children, and for those who betrayed them.
God bless you all, and may you have a glorious Easter!
— Father Tim
16 Comments
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jacersisityourself | Apr 11, 2010, 07:32 AM EDT
My 'post' of yesterday wasn't posted. What's with it with IC's postmen and postwomen? An uncivil servants strike?
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McNamara31 | Apr 10, 2010, 08:22 PM EDT
Also, The John Jay Study stated: “ scathing criticism directed at the bishops who failed to recognize the horror of sexual abuse of children, ignoring the human needs of the victims and mollycoddling abusive priests.”
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McNamara31 | Apr 10, 2010, 08:16 PM EDT
@JoanHugh As a Catholic mother, I don't care about a study that is now being used to rationalize the sexual encounter of a grown man upon a boy under the age of 18 in a religious institution, school or rectory.
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Watereskhill | Apr 09, 2010, 10:54 PM EDT
The Church of England is a parlour Religion vis a vis Afternoon Tea with the Vicar. It's adherants have no muscles in their arms on meeting them. They flop about and sway with "How are you" like rag-dolls. Eddie Izzard has them to a tee. Check him out on Youtube. And Monty Python 'Every Seed is Sacred'. Slainte.
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Joanhugh | Apr 09, 2010, 09:42 AM EDT
I don't know about the scandal in Ireland but in the United States it was not pedophilia.(5%) It was homosexual activity with adolesant boys. No one will print that but look it up. The investigation was done by the John Jay College. On another point last Saturday night 150,000 people came into the Catholic Church in the United States. You won't read that in the newspaper. I read it in the Bosron Catholic newspaper "The Pilot"
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battlefront | Apr 07, 2010, 03:12 PM EDT
What the Archbishop of Canterbury said is true our Catholic Church in Ireland is in a complete mess.because of secrecy and cover ups. Even though the abuse scandals are out in the open they are still covering some of them up, even as late as last month they have tried to stop one woman from giving her story.
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barneyjo | Apr 06, 2010, 03:39 PM EDT
Apologies for a typo error in my earlier post; COI should of course be "COE" (Church Of England)
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EvelynDavey | Apr 06, 2010, 12:11 PM EDT
Father Tim is a voice of reason. I am glad to hear someone say it is not only the Catholic Church who have problems, but because of its size the problems of other religions become overshadowed. Thanks, Father Tim, for your common sense.
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barneyjo | Apr 06, 2010, 06:20 AM EDT
He is no more a bigot than anyone else who is posting here. He may have his own agenda for sure, however he has accurately reflecte what the majority of the church-going Catholic Faith Community in Ireland genuinely believe at the present time. Lets face it, the Vatican and the Holy Father had no scruples about exploiting divisions in the COI by offering a home to congregations who object to the ordination of women or gays as priests. Who's stones; who's houses??
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starwatts | Apr 05, 2010, 03:07 PM EDT
Pedophiles come from all walks of life. Not just clergy. There is not a denomination that is immune from these horrible crimes, but neither are doctors, teachers, principals, dads, uncles, brothers, or women. The parallel that all gays are pedophiles is not a fair comparison to gays anywhere.
As for the archbishop of canterbury. well the English Irish thing is an old one. And yes, he is a bigot. Maybe the Queen needs to step in and replace him.
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Padraig | Apr 05, 2010, 02:24 AM EDT
Well said Father Tim.
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teecee3467 | Apr 04, 2010, 08:48 AM EDT
to Southernpride
homosexuals are homosexuals, pedophiles are pedophiles. A homosexual is not always a pedophile, and a pedophile is not always a homosexual. . but you are right, pedophiles should be punished and confined.
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Southernpride | Apr 04, 2010, 03:23 AM EDT
Many priests in the Catholic church are homosexuals and paedophiles who sexually abuse young boys and have been doing so for thousands of years. They should be arrested and hung in a public square for all the people to see
The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams is 100% correct and is only stating what 90% of the Irish people believe about those pervert priests
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noozguy1 | Apr 04, 2010, 01:41 AM EDT
Barneyjo, do the words "confused," "baffled," and "bewildered" have any resonance with you in regard to your comment? "Dr." (he isn't, by the way) Williams has already admitted he took his foot our of his arse and put it in his mouth; you should probably do the same, as your comment shows you either didn't read Fr. Tim, or didn't understand what he wrote, or both.
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