35 Comments

• michellep | Jan 10, 2011, 03:47 PM EST

  Those poor CHILDREN!!!! ALL OF THEM....I wanted to say.

• michellep | Jan 10, 2011, 03:46 PM EST

  This is another SAD SAD view of the human race! That POOR CHILD, this man should be removed from exsistance. GOD would not and will not EVER forgive this!!! SICK!!

• Monsoonman | Jan 03, 2011, 10:44 AM EST

  Here in the USA, a young boy had been molested by a local pedophile, the man was arrested. The wheels of justice grind very slowly here in cali, many say that the "justice" system is neither fair nor just. The basic fact is that judges are only lawyers with a black robe draped over them...The mother brought a pistol into court and shot the pedophile, justice was accomplished in the courtroom that time.

• IRISH45MAN | Jan 02, 2011, 09:28 PM EST

  RYAN AND WALSH SHOULD BE IN THE SAME CELL WHAT DIRT BAGS ONE WORSE THAN OTHER IF THEY DID THIS TO MY KID I WOULD TAKE CARE OF MY WAY !!!!!

• biggles008 | Jan 02, 2011, 09:17 AM EST

  Years ago the clergy could do no wrong, but that has changed.

• John O'Brien | Dec 31, 2010, 02:40 PM EST

  Send the dispicable bastard to the moon to be safe!

• McNamara31 | Dec 28, 2010, 09:13 PM EST

  2BorNot2B...Yes we are all sinners as the Bible has documented through time, however the sins you have mentioned where acted out by adults. The fact that time and time again you fail to grasp is that these horrific sins were acted out on children and then enabled by a Vatican who acted more like a corporation protecting it's interests than a body of Christ. This Pope has to be held accountable for the evil perpetrated on the young during his tenure as we are accountable for our own individual sins.

• cuisle1st | Dec 28, 2010, 08:51 PM EST

  wrong is wrong. From the bishops and all the way to the pope they should face criminal charges. Aiding and abetting - for starters.

• eileend | Dec 28, 2010, 12:56 PM EST

  2BorNot2B--The point of the discussion, especially in Ireland right now, is not the abusers themselves; yes, there are abusers in every field.I do pray that now that a spotlight is being focused on the problem in the Church, that it is decreasing. The problem is how the Church responded to not only the initial abuse, but the revelations and accusations. Time and again during the long history of our church(yes, I'm Catholic, too), has repeated one mistake over and over again in overseeing its responsibilities. It has consistently protected the heirarchy and institution of the Church over its members. I don't understand how anyone can blindly give obedience to an organization that blames the victims, who happen to be children, in protecting predators, who happen to be the authority figures appointed by the church to minister to and PROTECT the children. Do you really, really think that Christ would follow the kind of logic that kept vulnerable victims accessible to one of the most evil and pernicious predators I've ever heard of?(and I am an ED nurse. Sadly, I saw a lot of predators). It is not a betrayal of faith in God to question the humans who administer His church. It is an obligation. If it weren't, Christ would never have thrown the money-changers out of the temple.

• adrienrain | Dec 28, 2010, 12:31 PM EST

  Celibacy is as virtuous as constipation. It is also the most artificial form of birth control imaginable. I believe that the culture of celibacy corrupts.

• barneyjo | Dec 21, 2010, 04:58 PM EST

  I'm kind of surprised not to find a rebuttal of my views from anyone who have rushed to dismiss my views. I wonder if it could be anything to do with people having to think again in view of the recent remarks made by the Holy Father on Monday evening in Rome. In a pre-christmas address to members of the Curia in which he referred to the Clerical Abuse issue, he had this to say; "We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen." Now it would seem to me that in that statement, the Pope is clearly stating that he is now viewing the causes and course of Clerical abuse across the Catholic world as being more than just the actions attributed to a "minority" of priest offenders. He went even further in his address. Quoting the vision of the 12th-century saint Hildegard of Bingen, the pope said that “the face of the church is stained with dust”, adding: “We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal . . . We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred." To those that post on this site and suggest that priest abusers within the church form only a small "depraved" rump using the Church for cover, the Holy Father to my mind is clearly saying "we have to think again about this!!"

• barneyjo | Dec 20, 2010, 06:48 PM EST

  Two further points; I am assuming that neither you any of your family have ever been victims or otherwise affected by Clerical Abuse. You should be thankful for that. If you have not done so already you should also read the Murphy Report, especially the just released chapter 19. If you are so certain of the ultimate infallibility of the Church Institution, you shouldnt have a problem in doing that. Mind you, I counsel you to read the actual document itself, and not the edited commentaries or hilights of it. It wont make you any less a Catholic if you do this!!

• barneyjo | Dec 20, 2010, 06:24 PM EST

  contd; I have no hesitation in saying that I believe that those who have permitted such awful things to happen will be called to account in the ultimate court, before Our Lord. And I also have hope for the Church; not as it is now, but in what it can be once again. This last summer I attended the ordination of my cousin as a Priest. He is NOT tainted by the scourge of all that has gone before. He will NOT stand idly by and let others suffer at the hands of fellow clerics, or for that matter, fellow human beings. One final thought, this is MY FAITH and MY CHURCH, as much as it is yours. I wont be driven from it. I will challenge anyone, any view or any action by another in which I see the absence of Christ, be they Cleric, Layman or whoever. Its because my faith and my church are precious to me that I can do no less!!

• barneyjo | Dec 20, 2010, 06:12 PM EST

  @2BorNot2B - At the risk of falling foul to your totally unwarranted vitriol against me and my viewpoint (which I accept you are entitled to do by the way) I will reply to your negative points by simply saying the following; I am a Catholic, an Irish Catholic, and a practicing Irish Catholic. I am proud of the fact that one of the great influences on my life was my late uncle who died just short of celebrating the 75th Anniversary of his ordination. I honour him and the entire scope of his Ministry, both here in Ireland and abroad in Missionary work in South America, Australia and the Philippines. Yet I have still been confronted with the unpalatible truth that during his tenure as a Senior Administrator within his Missionary Order in Ireland, he had to have knowledge of one of the Priests named in the Report of Clerical abuse in the Dublin Diocese. More specifically, I have been faced with the prospect that he had direct responsibility for the management of this individual and for the failure to prevent his continuance as a Serial Abuser for many years. That does not sit well with me. And no, I do not as you suggest, literally swallow everything that is written on this issue here on IC, or elsewhere. I have had to ask myself ( and I believe ALL Catholics SHOULD also ask this) in all that I have read about the actions of Cardinals, Bishops, Priests in respect of Clerical abuse and its cover up; where is Jesus in their actions?? It is part of my shame now as a Catholic that I now realise that God was not at the centre of the decisions and actions of many senior Churchmen across the world. And by their actions (or inactions) countless lives were damaged immeasurably when they need not have been.............

• 2BorNot2B | Dec 20, 2010, 02:44 PM EST

  "they are my beliefs and as such, they are both legitimate and authentic for me, as I feel these beliefs, and the truths they contain, very personally and very profoundly!!" ------- PS to barneyjo: There are some 30K proddy sects in the US alone founded by men who can describe 'their beliefs' exactly in the same way you do. I'm sure Henry VIII, his daughter Lizzie, Calvin, Melanchton, Luther et al were just as convinced as you are. So... if 'faith' is about seeking 'the TRUTH' and living it... who exactly has it? -- It's like the framers of the US Constitution.. they wrote it but then left it up to anyone's interpretation! I'd call that a recipe for chaos.

• 2BorNot2B | Dec 20, 2010, 02:31 PM EST

  @barneyjo: YES, very, very, very few! Out of something like 1/2 million clergy worldwide only around 300 cases have been actually proven. Some only by nullifying established law codes regarding the statute of limitations in order to dig up their cases from half a century ago. Others by counting either the molesters or witnesses already long dead. --- This has not been done with those of any other religion... so tell me that there isn't here just a mite of tendentiousness in the application of so called 'justice' exclusively against the CC, plus desire to deal a mortal blow to an institution that not only preserved Western civilization for the world, but through its canon law provided the basis for the laws that rule the civilized world presently. You're right, it ain't over yet, Jesus warned His followers about persecution, slander and hatred that would follow them: "If they hated me, they will hate you even more..." and "You are not fighting against mere men.. you are fighting against powers and principalieties..." Rather than bathing yourself in self-anointed 'grace' and crowing about your 'relationship with God' you should be taking a DEEP look not only at the book written through His inspiration but at the history, development and documents written by so many Saints, including Popes and Councisl of the Church He built.

• Monsoonman | Dec 19, 2010, 07:28 PM EST

  In the spirit of balance, which is hard to find here, I would like ic and Niall to turn their editorial firepower for a close look/expose at the silly/violent/repressive/woman abusing religion known as islam. Lets here you heroically expose this cult for what it is too. tia. Oh you better up your fire insurance and life insurance first. The islamos don't take criticism lying down.

• 2BorNot2B | Dec 19, 2010, 05:45 PM EST

  Bottom line, No honest Catholic absolves the actual perpetrators, but we at least do not blind ourselves with political correctness and/or are persuaded by the arguments put out by people at IC who would like nothing more than to see the entire Church first eviscerated, and then destroyed. --- Those who say that "Jesus is no longer in the Church" sin against the Spirit who came to sanctify the Church and therefore DOUBT His power to regenerate it by keeping a core of righteous within it (Remember: "Only those who persevere until the end will be saved?). They are in fact also calling Jesus a LIAR, because before His departure He assured His followers "And lo, I will be with you until the end of time!" ---- It is obvious that starting by O'Dowd, the founder of this virtual rag, to the majority of people he employs, they are all on a crusade. They know a lot of Irish people are Catholic, therefore any sensationalist article regarding the Church will bring not only readers, but the vultures as well, those who hate Catholicism anyway and are chomping at the bit toget a chance to vent. -- They say that there's no worse anti-Catholic than an EX-Catholic.. and you prove it well.

• 2BorNot2B | Dec 19, 2010, 05:31 PM EST

  Let me remind you as well that Jesus was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton. He was despised for eating with sinners and prostitutes! Haven't you met Mary Magdalene from whom seven demons were expelled? ---- The moral of the story? Well... if you had any smarts, rather than painting the entire Church and ALL its ministers with the broad strokes YOU DARE USE (because, really... who the H do you think you are... so absolutely free of sin, so righteous, so clean as to feel capable of pronouncing judgement upon others?). --- So, rather than taking as 'Gospel' the skewed and tendentious tales the anti-Catholic and flat-out anti-religious commentators of IC, you should busy yourselves with having the audacity of finding out the REAL story behind this crisis, but of course, that would be too much to ask of those who come to this site armed with torches and pitchforks. cont'd

• barneyjo | Dec 19, 2010, 05:25 PM EST

  @2BorNot"B - "Very few"!! you think so?? Interesting how you can quantify that so easily. In response can I suggest you search on the internet for a link to the recently published final chapter (chapter 19) of the Murphy Report; the investigation of Clerical Abuse in the Arch-diocese of Dublin. On the face of it, there may be one Cardinal,at least three Bishops and several senior Clericals who could be facing criminal indictment, for perversion of the course of justice; and thats just in Ireland. This aint over yet........not by a country mile!!!!!!!!

• 2BorNot2B | Dec 19, 2010, 05:05 PM EST

  Let me see... uh, NO.. He was so proud of His own heritage He had one of His followers write it to inform future generations, in the Gospel of Matthew to be precise. --- Then guess what... He, who was GOD and MAN at the same time, and therefore knew the mind of those He chose to guide His Church, compounded the 'error' by choosing a thief, criminal and traitor among the original twelve. He also chose a coward who denied Him in His hour of need; He chose a tax collector and usurer, whose profession His own people counted as the most sinful, vile and hated because he extracted money from his own to give to the pagan Romans! And even after His death... He shows up on the road to Damascus to Paul a Pharisee, not only from the sect of the very people who had put Him to death, but the most fierce persecutor of those of the Church He had just founded. How crazy was He? cont'd

• 2BorNot2B | Dec 19, 2010, 04:45 PM EST

  What about Jacob, the man God chose to name His people 'Israel 'for? Did not he cheat his own brother out of his inheritance by having his blind father anoint him by disguising himself as the rightful heir? Then, Jesus is called 'The Lion of the Tribe or Judah.' Wasn't Judah, along with his brothers, guilty of selling his brother Joseph as a slave to the Egyptians out of jealousy because their father favored him? And Rahab... was not she a prostitute? What about Solomon who had something like 1000 concubines? And even Betsheba, whose name is not actually listed in the genealogy but simply implied --a woman who personifies seduction and evil-- the priest explained was also among His ancestors. And WDJD? (that's What Did Jesus Do, for all you hypocritical, judgmental, whining jerks...), Should not He had sent as much fire and brimstone over them as you people are doing? Should not He, the ONLY SINLESS ONE disown, them...? cont'd

• 2BorNot2B | Dec 19, 2010, 04:20 PM EST

  For you 'holier than thou' people, amazed at the news of sin within some (very, very, very few in the Church); for you hypocrites yourselves, as though you could lay claim to sinlessness and perfection... rending your garments, wringing your hands, wailing in utter horror, donning the mantle of judge and jury against an institution... THE institution, the ONLY CHURCH founded by Christ! Can you honestly feel entitled to cast the first stone? ---- Let me pry your eyes open for a moment: Your problem is that you don't know the Bible! Just the Mass readings yesterday would give you pause for thought. They dealt with the 'genealogy' of Jesus. Curiously, Jesus' counted among his ancestors criminals, cheaters, adulterers, murderers and prostitutes. The founder of Christianity came from the line of David... and didn't David fall in love with a married woman whose husband he sent to the front lines so he would be killed and out of the way of his adultery? cont'd

• Monsoonman | Dec 19, 2010, 02:12 PM EST

  Correction: A used, high mileage Tata Motors Nano. But I'll bet it would run like a finely tuned Swiss watch under Jesus's care....Never a flat tire, or a breakdown.

• Bonniekara | Dec 19, 2010, 12:52 PM EST

  Jesus is not in our Church any more. HE would not have put up with this. Where is HE ? Well, not in the Vatican. I'm done with them.

• Monsoonman | Dec 19, 2010, 12:20 PM EST

  I had a "friend" years back who used to be an "escort", somehow she ended up working for the vatican in Rome. One of her duties was to go to Germany once a year and get a top of the line Mercedez Benz, directly from the factory and drive it back to the Vatican for the use of a certain Vatican official...Yes that's where your tithing money goes to. if you feel the need to tithe give it to an institution that is good, such as the Salvation Army, I have heard nothing bad about them over the years and have actually seen much good works by them. WWJD(What would Jesus drive?): A Tata Motors Nano.

• marsman | Dec 19, 2010, 07:33 AM EST

  That report again adds a lot of sense to the advice of Jesus: “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room, shut the door and pray to your Father, who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not use empty repetitions as the Gentiles do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, (Matth. 6,5 ...) Like this, it is easy to avoid getting deceived, cheated, whatever, in God's name. Not to mention the independence of one's mind and thinking. Also very interesting is that the Lord had only harsh words for hypocrisy and that hypocrisy is actually a big sin. In case the RCC forgets to mention that.

• barneyjo | Dec 18, 2010, 09:40 PM EST

  Oh and your points about the history of he RCC are as well made as they are documented!!

• barneyjo | Dec 18, 2010, 09:34 PM EST

  @Pacifist - re your question abou the authenticity and legitimacy of my beliefs; they are my beliefs and as such, they are both legitimate and authentic for me, as I feel these beliefs, and the truths they contain, very personally and very profoundly!!

• pacifist | Dec 18, 2010, 09:05 PM EST

  barneyjo, I commend you in your belief that you have a relationship with God. But hasn't the evidence proved beyond doubt that the RCC is not the Church of God. Have you ever checked the history of the RCC ( that is well recorded - the historical history ) and compared it to what is related to us about Jesus Christ, His diciples - later apostles - through the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Acts of the Apostles ( or the Book of Acts ) and the letters/espistles? Have you ever compared the behaviour, actions and ideas of Christ and His disciples and apostles to those who claim to be Christian today? If you haven't read and compared the claims made to confirm historical accuracy - thoroughly investigated your own beliefs - you can't claim that your beliefs are authentic and therefore legitimate. W

• barneyjo | Dec 17, 2010, 07:42 PM EST

  @TonydeNewYork - Like yourself, I am proud and glad of my relationship with God. Unlike you, I am thoroughly ashamed of my Church. In all honesty, I have to feel sorry for you if you are so blind to the truth. I can only assume that the sin and crime of abuse has not been visited upon you or your family; if it had, you would not or could not justify your support for a church that has been negligent in preventing broken lives, broken bodies and broken souls. I can only pray that the Lord will open your eyes to the truth as he has done for me. I love my faith, and the MANY good religious,but in all conscience I cannot love an institution that has caused so much damage, through bad management and decisions that were taken for the worst of reasons; namely to protect the good name of the church before the safety of children.

• teddybear | Dec 17, 2010, 06:19 PM EST

  Why are these atrocities allowed to happen???

• TonydeNewYork | Dec 17, 2010, 06:02 PM EST

  I AM PROUD 2 B CATHOLIC!=========== ========= There is NOTHING wrong with the church, the sin of the homosexual priest have to be clean out.

• greenferrett101 | Dec 17, 2010, 02:40 PM EST

  I am embarrassed to be a Catholic since the 'powers that be' basically let this happen. So many lives ruined... and he only gets a couple years in jail. Hope the inmates ruin him behind bars.

• Monsoonman | Dec 17, 2010, 11:48 AM EST

  Anyone with a lick of sense would run away from this criminal enterprise as fast as possible. It is so far off message from what Jesus spoke of, it will never get back. WWJD? Sell off all of the assets and distribute them to the worlds poor and needy, directly not through politicians....Keep the vatican/sistine chapel as an art museum with proceeds directly to the poor.