This priest, father Doyle claims the Pope knew about the abuse cases: Pope knew

Taken from this article linked above:

During a question-and-answer session, an audience member asked the Rev. Doyle if the pope knew about the abuse scandal, which involved moving accused priests from parish to parish rather than removing them permanently.

The Rev. Doyle said he informed the pope of the abuse as early as 1985, when he sent his report to all the bishops.

‘‘The pope has known all along,'' he said. ‘‘And the response of the Vatican has been sinfully inadequate.''

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonval@yahoo.com), March 22, 2004

Answers

What do younthink?

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonval@yahoo.com), March 22, 2004.

Elp

this scandal belongs with the other scandals in the protestant treasure chest of meaningless attacks on the Church.

the whole thing was mishandled -- by human beings -- in the same way as Our Lord was let down by all the Apostles, human beings.

do you remember Doubting Thomas.

the Church does not claim that its personnel are infallible. it claims, based upon clear Scripture, that its teaching on faith and morals is infallible in certain circumstances.

i hope the victims get adequately compensated, if that is possible. i hope that the guilty rot in prison for a long long time.

but this is all irrelevant in the arena of theological debate.

-- Ian (ib@vertifgo.com), March 23, 2004.

St Matthew 16:

18 And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

19 I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

....

22 Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."

23 He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

you see Elpidio, you get given the Keys to the Kingdom but you are still a foolish human being at the end of the day.

-- Ian (ib@vertifgo.com), March 23, 2004.

Ian, the question is also theological:

Jesus disciples were married as stated by Paul in Corinthians:

1Cr 9:4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?

1Cr 9:5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and [as] the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

Also Timothy states that bishops should be married. (That is what is stated here, Ian. Personally I believe that marriage of pastors(priests), bishops, should be optional. Celibacy should not be madatory).

1Ti 3:1 This [is] a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

1Ti 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

1Ti 3:4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;

1Ti 3:5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

Now, by having married priests, then it is possible that we may have less adults molesting youngsters, but it is also possible that affairs with older adults(females) may occur.

The Christian Yahwist

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonval@yahoo.com), March 23, 2004.

Elpidio

theology

you show Scripture that the Apostles were married. but St Paul wasn't and in an ideal world would have advocated that none were, but he saw that some might need to be married to resist sexual urges. therefore he accepted that there were men that could lead celibate lives. those were the ones he would prefer for the priestly life. that's in the Bible.

anti-Catholic bigotry/ propaganda

paedophiles and gays join the Church because they think its discipline will keep them on the straight and narrow. history shows that many of them give in in the end to their satanic urges. having optional celibacy will get you nowehere. they will join under the celibacy heading.

priestly celibacy is about being as close to Jesus as possible, living the same life. its a tough life, sure, but the vast majority of priests stay on the straight and narrow.

finally

you should read SACERDOTALIS CAELIBATUS here: http://www.catholiclinks.org/encysacerdotisccaelibatus.htm

you will understand the theology of priestly celibacy and the motivation for this rule of discipline.

every large organisation has its perverts. Catholic doctrine has not changed to accommodate perverts. that's the rel theological point -- and it never will.

-- Ian (ib@vertifgo.com), March 24, 2004.