The Roman Catholic Church - Articles - Zimbio

Belladonna Propositions Pope

Sat, 20 Jul 2008 13:20:00 GMT

posted by cfarnham
CATHOLIC priests need some "street-level" sex education to prevent abuse cases, porn star Belladonna says. She is advising Pope Benedict XVI to let priests watch porn and has offered 300 of her own films to the Catholic church in Australia for distribution to priests.
more HERE

More Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal News

Wed, 17 Jul 2008 01:25:00 GMT

posted by michaelinnorfolk
As the disingenuous Pope Benedict XVI feigns sorrow (yet refuses to give a formal apology) for the sexual abuse of children by priests in Australia, the Roman Catholic Church continues to receive deservedly bad news coverage. First, in Denver, Colorado, the Catholic Archdiocese has been hit with yet another lawsuit by the victim of a priest who was to to superiors to be a sexual predatory, but nonetheless allowed to remain a priest and shuffled off to another parish where he molested more children. Then, there are the parents of two Australian girls repeatedly raped by a Catholic priest - one girl later committed suicide - who are questioning the role of Bishop Anthony Fisher as coordinator of World Youth Day since he fails to have any regard for the victims of abuse or their families. Personally, I find the hypocrisy and false piety of Benedict and pretty much all of the Catholic clergy to varying degrees enough to make one vomit and want to become an atheist. *One would think some lay Catholics and laity controlled organizations would wake up to the cesspool the Church has become and demand change and that the Pope clean house of the bishops and cardinals who enabled or covered up the sexual abuse of children. Instead, we see the increasingly servile Knights of Columbus worrying about gay marriage and giving $250,000 to support passage of Proposition 8 in California. The Knights are allegedly - and I use the word allegedly deliberately - a fraternal organization with a goal of protecting widows and children. One would think the molestation of children by priests would be a more serious threat to families than gay marriage under the civil laws. Yet now fawning over clergy who enabled and/or covered up the sexual abuse of children has become a "family value" under the lunatic leadership of the Knights. Neither they nor the Church hierarchy give a rat's ass about children or truly protecting families from sexual predators and their enablers. Moral bankruptcy dose not even begin to describe the situation. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:*DENVER -- A man sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver on Tuesday over sexual abuse after seeing documents released as part of a big settlement last month that name the same priest he says molested him as a teenager. The accuser claims he was abused by the late Harold White, an ex-priest who was named in the bulk of the cases that were settled this month. White was removed from the ministry in 1993 and died in 2006. The lawsuit claims the abuse occurred in 1969 or 1970 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Loveland when the plaintiff was 14. *
According to the suit, the documents _ posted on the firm's Web site _ show White had admitted in February 1961 to sexually molesting five or six children. That was seven years before he was moved to St. John's. . The archdiocese has settled 43 sex abuse cases since 2005 for a total of $8.2 million. Under the settlement reached this month, the archdiocese agreed to pay $5.5 million. Two other lawsuits besides the new one remain unresolved. *
Then from the Sydney Morning Herald come these highlights:*
The father of two girls repeatedly raped by a Melbourne priest has questioned the credibility of Bishop Anthony Fisher and his role in the Catholic church and World Youth Day (WYD). Bishop Fisher, who is WYD coordinator, yesterday said media attention paid to the abuse of sisters Emma and Katherine Foster was detracting from the positivity of the massive Catholic youth festival under way in Sydney.
*
The couple is seeking an audience with Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell to discuss the church's handling of priest Kevin O'Donnell's rape of their daughters when they were in primary school. O'Donnell died in prison about 10 years ago, and the Fosters have accused Dr Pell of stalling their compensation claim. Emma Foster committed suicide this year at the age of 26, while her sister Katherine drank heavily before being left disabled when hit by a drunk driver in 1999.
*
In the statement he prepared for media waiting at the airport, Mr Foster said Bishop Fisher should be ashamed. "I would like to address the outrageous comments and attitude of Bishop Anthony Fisher, which we have found to be endemic to people unaware of the impact of sexual assault," he said in the statement. "The ... 'old wounds' he speaks of, never heal and victims of sexual assault suffer all their life.
*Truth be told, the Pope and the hierarchy care only about three things: money, power and good PR. The welfare of children and/or their families are nowhere on the radar screen.

US Catholic Church Becomes a Testing Ground As The Anglican Communion Begins To Split

Sat, 20 Jul 2008 20:11:45 GMT

posted by Semp

Years ago, the Catholic Church has developed the “Anglican Use” liturgy, which resembles a mix between the Tridentine Mass and the Old English language. It was designed to welcome disenchanted Anglican Protestants back into the Catholic Communion, but its use has been strictly limited to parishes in the United States in communities where the Bishops have deemed appropriate. To date, there are only a small number of Anglican Use parishes, but those parishes have been thriving.

With the entire Anglican Communion about to shatter, the Catholic Church is positioning itself to absorb as many traditionalists as possible in order to prevent further disorganization and chaos in Christianity. According to a senior Catholic Archbishop, the use of “Anglican Use” is going to expand greatly in the United States in order to welcome as many American Anglicans back home as possible.

If the “Anglican Use” experiment works well on a large scale, it will likely be used in England where talks of a split have reached a fever pitch.

Through “pastoral provision,” the Catholic Church may decide to bring back entire traditionalist Anglican dioceses to the Roman Rite, which will be incredibly difficult. Typically, the pastoral provision is used to bring individual or small groups of clergymen into the Catholic Church. There are bound to be complications with the logistics, but the real challenge is going to be making the momentous change as comfortable as possible for such a large number of parishioners. Having an “Anglican Use” liturgy tested and proven here in the United States is an important part of that.

An added bonus of this is that since most English communities have both Catholic and Anglican churches, merging potentially hundreds of priests into the Catholic Church there will make a good sized dent in the global priest shortage crisis.

But that’s still years away. In the meantime, we’re looking one of the most exciting moments in Christianity since the reunion of the Russian Orthodox Church last year.

Women Bishops

Fri, 12 Jul 2008 18:10:00 GMT

posted by adamg73

Once again the Roman Catholic Church has left me dumbfounded. It certainly isn't the first time and I very much doubt it will be the last time, so I probably shouldn't be surprised. As a whole, the Catholic Church probably causes me more heartburn than any one individual or group in existence (the likely exception being the religious radicalism, hatred, and intolerance promoted by Focus on the Family).

On Monday, I, learned that the governing body of The Church of England had voted to allow the ordination of women as bishops. My reaction to the news was mixed to begin with. I definitely support and agree with the decision but at the same time a little voice in the back of my head says, "Yeah, great, wohoo, welcome to the 20th century. Now we'll try to get you into the 21st!" It's hard to feel too proud of the decision because of how ludicrous it was that women were not allowed to be bishops in the first place.

The "tradition" of only allowing male clergy is as old as Christianity and supposedly stems from the 12 disciples all being male. There are also pieces of scripture that sum up along the lines that since a priest is supposed to be like the head of the house, and the head of the house is supposed to be male, priests are supposed to be male. The practice wasn't questioned back in the day (probably because a woman who questioned church doctrine in such a manner would likely have been labeled a heretic and subsequently stoned to death) and so in the last century as women have finally been able to work toward some measure of equality, the Church could hold on to the practice as a "tradition". How many abominable practices in human history have been held onto for the sake of tradition; basically saying, "well, we've always done it this way so that means it's the right way"?

Then, later in the week the Roman Catholic Church came out with their reaction and, surprise, they don't like it. I can't imagine why an organization built on sexist ideals packed full of powerful old men would have any objection to sharing their power with women, can you? Yet again the Catholic Church is fighting progress tooth and nail and I for one am sick of it. Frankly, I've been sick of it for a long time.

I can't comprehend why a group claiming to want only to spread the message of Jesus Christ would be picky as to who relayed that message. Scripture says that Jesus didn't care. Supposedly, upon arising from the dead on the third day the first person he appeared to was Mary. He told her to go ahead of him and spread the word. You'd think that would be enough to quell the argument but then again, this isn't really about Jesus. It's about power. It's about a male dominated hierarchy clinging to power, willing to use anything: tradition, scripture, whatever, to keep it. They should be ashamed.

Thank you for reading.

Bible Challenged in New PBS Documentary, Says Exodus Not Real

Mon, 22 Jul 2008 22:50:00 GMT

posted by tmrfiles
Holy Moses! PBS Documentary Suggests Exodus Not Real Rewriting the Bible?

PBS documentary is now challenging the story of the Exodus by the children of Israel out of Egypt with Moses. Like all of the documentaries that have challenged Jesus Christ and his resurrection, this story has the aroma of a political agenda, where the Bible itself is being challenged since it was Moses who wrote the story of the Exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and Jesus Christ himself , in his rebuke of the Jewish pharisees said: For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words. John 6:46,47 The closer we get to the retun of Jesus Christ, the more you will see satan and his minions, working through worldly minded men, attempting to discredit everything written in the Bible. It will never be done. Jesus Christ Himself said, Heaven and earth shall pass away but words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35

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Holy Moses! PBS documentary suggests Exodus not real

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Abraham didn't exist? The Exodus didn't happen?The Bible's Buried Secrets, a new PBS documentary, is likely to cause a furor."It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says archaeologist William Dever, who specializes in Israel's history. "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down."The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association. More here
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This isn't the first time the Word of God has been attacked....The Bible: what is it good for?The Roman Catholic Church has instructed the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true, and that they should not expect 'total accuracy' in Scripture. More

Tags: Bible, Exodus, Moses, Israel, Egypt, Jesus Christ
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