tags: Mexican Bishops Ask for Forgiveness, catholicism, religion, sex abuse, child rape, pedophilia, social commentary, cultural observation, Al Jazeera, streaming video
As the Vatican tries to defuse growing anger over child abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops in Mexico have released a statement asking victims for forgiveness.
Church authorities in Mexico have now admitted that one of their priests, Marcial Maciel, had over a 40-year period, preyed on nearly 200 young seminarians and children, including two of his own.
The Vatican has continued to deny allegations of a cover-up, and that Pope Benedict XVI once turned a blind eye to abusive priests when he was still a cardinal.
Al Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez investigates one such abuse case in Mexico City.
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As this blog is entitled Science blogs and as scientists are supposed to be objective in their examination and explanation of the evidence, your entry above seems to fit the "member of the left wing conspiracy" description. Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, did not turn a "blind eye" to the sex abuse scandal. One might say he was slow to respond or too bureaucratic or many other interpretations supported by the evidence. And while, the Vatican has denied that their was a cover-up, there still is no evidence that there was a "cover - up". There is evidence to support multiple different reasons why local bishops acted the way they did. There is evidence to support a culture that was too secretive. There is no evidence that supports anyone ordered a cover-up. The documents used to promote this are the same type of documents that allow you and I to have due process in our legal system. I doubt Al Jezeera is a credible source. Should I now conclude you are not a good scientist based upon your evidence and interpretation? Or is it more complex?
not sure about a cover up per se, but the evidence clearly shows there was blatant denial of the facts. regardless of whther there was an organized cover up or an institutionalized desire to pretend things were not as they are, the end result remains the same: millions of children were raped by so-called "men of god" while the establishment looked the other way in their quest for more money, more power and yet more money. really pathetic, short-sighted and fucking disgusting.
and actually, al jazeera is often recognized as a credible news source. don't let your own biases blind you to the facts: the catholic church is no friend to children.
Mary @ # 1: Google Fr Lawrence Murphy for just one example of explicit child-rape coverup in which "His Holiness" was personally involved.
Then look up Cardinal Bernard Law for an explicit case of the Vatican harboring a fugitive from US justice regarding multiple coverups of multiple child rapists.
Then go do penance - something real that actually helps a living human being, not just a la-la-la ritual groveling - for aiding and supporting an international criminal conspiracy that preys on children, oppresses women, and defrauds the gullible.
Yeah sure..forgiveness.
That's just the thing that will stop these animals
from continuing to harm the kids.
Does anybody stop to think that 'forgiveness' for these
types of evil doers is just a disguised free
'Get out of jail card?'
The church and this Pope have been playing this game
for a long time now.
People need to wake up!
GOD doesn't go around molesting children!
These men do not represent GOD!
Kick 'em out!!!
Put them in jail where they belong!
The whole idea of forgiveness is flawed - at least as it seems to be practiced by the RC Church. If someone is truly repentent then they should surely accept that they did wrong, and take the punishment they deserve.
Not say a few magic words and move to a new parish.
Tim Minchion's Pope Song is an excellence reply to people like Mary@1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz78OmzHSGs (Warning: as per lyrics above, NSFW!)
@Grr/Scientist: Millions of children were raped by so called "men of God'....etc. Really? MILLIONS?
I think you're right about the figure. Millions were abused and raped, but not by "men of God" in whatever relgious tradition. Milions are still being abused by their own family, their fathers, uncles, friends, TEACHERS, psychologists, police officers etc.etc.
As a so called scientist it is time you get your statistics in order. Are you people at all worried about the horrifying state of affairs outside the Catholic Church and other churches? Not at all. You focus on exactly one single group of people in an obsessive-compulsive manner.
Ever thought what THAT signifies in terms of psychology??
PS. I am not a Catholic.
1Ti 4:1-3
"doctrines of devils"? Imagine that!
Yes. The Rape Children Cult has been in existence for somewhat less than 2000 years, and there's no known reason to believe the behaviour in this matter has changed (even if they have been forced to change behaviour in other matters, such as openly torturing and executing people). Over that period of time, it's fairly easy to conclude there is a distinct possibility that millions have been raped.
Milions would seem to be a conservative estimate. Based on the Catholic Church being around for 2000 year, a fair enough figure, then one million would mean the molestation of 1000 a year on average would get you to two million.
"Marcial Maciel, had over a 40-year period, preyed on nearly 200 young seminarians and children, including two of his own" breaks down to five a year for one priest. And this is an estimate from a guy who has every motivation to low-ball the figure. If he goes to six a year he diddled 240. And that is just counting the numbers of children abused not the numbers of times each has been abused.
It also seems that father Maciel was not the most active of the molesters. Several in the US seems to have molested several a day for years and maintained large groomed harems of children. Sometime molesting the children of the children they molested years before.
But I digress. Back to the point. If you figure this monster is your average monster five children a year means you only need two hundred such monsters doing their thing to get to one million. Accounting for fewer priests in modern times, and fewer priests when the church was just starting out, Then applying that to the proportion of priests accused presently it seems that two million would be quite low.
The Church appeased the Nazis, something I doubt Jesus would have approved of. In fact, I strongly doubt Jesus ever intended to found a new religion.
Anyone interested in learning about Jesus would be well advised to pick up a copy of the 'Revised English Bible', which is written in modern English, and without a political agenda.