It's amazing to me how the same folks who talk passionately about sacred nature of life (abortion talks) would condone child molestation. This pope has so much baggage and poor PR. from his Nazi association to his Islamic and anti-semitic utterances, I wish they had picked another person -maybe Cardinal Arinze, not going to happen with his skin colour. This pope is a bad crisis manager who seems to be losing support among his followers.

^^^^
Good points

just be careful of your utterances about religious Leader. The Pope has come under a lot of bashing lately. Know that when we come before the almighty on the judgement day, it will be all man for himself, not the Pope trying to convince God who should make heaven or not. The Priest who indulged in the abuse will be held responsible for their actions not Pope Benedict. Please let the man be.

One thing i know for sure is that the Catholic church has survived worse scandals, even attacks from more "ebullient" atheists. I may not pride myself as an exemplary catholic these days but during the last holy week, I was amazed at the outpouring of the faithful who trooped to seek God during the holy week.

I thought to myself, that irrespective of the media-hyped scandal, the church continues to be an imperfect body of 1 billion faithfuls seeking perfection in the body of Christ. There may be holy popes, there may be political popes, there are different kinds, but the work of the holy spirit remains with the church as it has for over a thousand years.

If you read the history of the catholic faith, trust me, you will find worse scandals and if God is not with the church, the church would have crumbled ever since. On this particular scandal, the pope is in no way culpable as they were not his personal offenses. He has urged the priests to "submit to justice but never despair". The secular media would hardly understand the pastoral nature of the papacy.

Child molestation did not start in the church. It's in all aspects of society so condemning that bestiality should not be mixed with attacking the church.

Wow. . . atheists are officially doing too much.

Freedom of speech allows you to say what you want to say, but mind what you say about ANY man of God.

Jesus i cant believe my ears.Why is dis tin happening in the church of God,meant to uphold the vices and verture.

Jesus i cant believe my ears.Why is dis tin happening in the church of God,meant to uphold the vices and verture.

I am highly baffled at the rate some people choose to expose their ignorance. Some of the posts here are prejudicially predisposed while some are embedded in inconsistency with the thread's topic. We must not misappropriate our intellectual potential for want of irrelevant contribution to a post.
On the issue at hand, it is a well known fact that the catholic church is a very strong force to reckon with when it comes to power. Whether u like it or not no nation on earth can attempt to test the supremacy of the catholic church. The pope can never be arrested and i can bet my life on that not withstanding the fact that i am not a catholic.
Lets wait and see what will happen.

sulad82i:

Whenever it comes to Christian leaders, pple always make it seems those leaders are being attacked. Lets all put our self in the position of one of those kids parent or put urself in the position of the kids. Lots if pple have physiological problem for the rest of the lives cos of what was done to them.
The pope had the opportunity to punish the pple who were perpetrating those cruel acts but chose to ignore them and let them go without punishment. Thereby condoning the act, releasing the priest, and encouraging him to do more. The pope is not a good leader.

Ohhh!! Shut up!!!! this is what happens when small and close minded people are given a bit of information. The pope did not condone anything, he appealed for caution. This sort of thing happens, fine, this also means it is easy to make such claims even if they are untrue for a particular priest. So should we ruin a priests career just because other priests are in the cess pit of sin? No,so yes, caution needs to be applied. same thing happens in a secular court where burden of proof is always on the rape victim. where do you get off saying the pope is not a good leader!!!!

Bunch of losers! They do worse things,just because d church tolerates:all suckers can open thier mouths!!!!!!!!!!
His Holiness has got immunity. Fact is the church is troubled by the acts of it's priest's,i can assure all that it's doing everything withing it's reach to curb the menace. As such a call like this is only meant 4 cheap popularity.

arrest Pope? , they want to start the 3rd World War?

Arrest the Pope? NOT IN THIS WORLD

Before you go ahead and bash me, i really don't support him!  However, arresting the Pope is almost the last thing that can ever happen!

Some folks due to their status in the society are somewhat seen as "above the law", now in as much as this is not right, it is just plain reality check!

If the Queen breaks all British laws in one swift move, she'd still NEVER be arrested. why? Because she's above the law, that's why!

And hey, even if that happens, you, a private citizen might even be arrested for talking about it

violent:

Arrest the Pope? NOT IN THIS WORLD

Before you go ahead and bash me, i really don't support him! However, arresting the Pope is almost the last thing that can ever happen!

Some folks due to their status in the society are somewhat seen as "above the law", now in as much as this is not right, it is just plain reality check!

If the Queen breaks all British laws in one swift move, she'd still NEVER be arrested. why? Because she's above the law, that's why!

And hey, even if that happens, you, a private citizen might even be arrested for talking about it

The difference is British law, not Iranian, or Saudi, or Nigeria, or Ukranian laws.

Priests are humans and as humans they do have the sexual libido. I don't know how the issue of priest not marrying started. I candidly opine that such should be abolished and this would help curb some of these abuse. Secondly, women should stop seducing priests. As for arrest of the pope; i believe there's no immunity to that but the catholic population is so wide and it spreads across apex positions in almost all walks of life; thus caution should be taken if the pope is to be arrested so as to prevent religious war.

Anyone agreeing that the pope should be arrested is DAFT !!

In that case arrest the leaders of Saudi, Yemen, Syria etc where paedophilia is legalised.

What utter rubbish I hear here.

Every individual is responsible for his or her own actions and not the other way round.

Only the stupid left wing liberal perverts in the UK will initiate such a silly idea, just like they want Christian adoption agencies to allow gays adopt children. Disgusting people.

I can assure you that if they try it, the UK is finished, and the Pope still has worldwide political clout and he can arrange for the UK to be put in her rightful place.

akwaowoudo:


Priests are humans and as humans they do have the sexual libido. I don't know how the issue of priest not marrying started. I candidly opine that such should be abolished and this would help curb some of these abuse. Secondly, women should stop seducing priests. As for arrest of the pope; i believe there's no immunity to that but the catholic population is so wide and it spreads across apex positions in almost all walks of life; thus caution should be taken if the pope is to be arrested so as to prevent religious war.

You were doing well until you said women are to blame for seducing priest. It's like the doctor blaming the patient for his inadequacies.

When these types of idiot lawyers called for the arrest of Al Basheer of Sudan, I said it was just a case of seeking attention and the continued insult on Africans,

how is the arrest of a man that engineered a genocide and insult on africans?

I read about pope’s cover-up, I couldn’t help but accent the fact that child molestation is awful, even worst in the context of Christianity. I do not know if it actually happened, if it did regardless of the persons involved a proper and confidential investigation has to be conducted.  

With respect to the call for arrest, Richard Dawkins is one of the world's most prominent atheist intellectuals. His book "The God Delusion " tell a lot about him, so am not surprised he wants the Pope arrested. As for getting over the threshold of immunity, i find it appalling discussing this in the first place

See, Am not bordered at all cos its even in d bible that at endtime the gate of hell will rise against d church but d bible says that their wil try all ther ve but d church which is christ him self will never be destroyed. Its written

Why should they arrest pope.They should go and arrest Jesus.whether na pope go Bleep or abuse children.did pope restrict the law enforcement agency from arresting the concerned priests? what did Govt do to those redeemed pastors and some other penticostal pastors who engage in sex scandals.what about ordinary men, not even clerics, who engage in such an act?
Idiots.mshwwww

well,let d catholic priest start marrying.

this cant be possible

the church should bring the bad priests to book and offer an apology.
we are all human beings.

the pope should realise that dealing with the guilty priests will not dent the image of his empire{or church?}
rather it will give credibility.

generally ,adults should stop molesting children na! abeg!

@sagamite, am not a catholic, I don't like most of their doctrines but wat am telling you now is from the bottom of my heart, if you are actually an anti-christ, anti-pope, anti-christians and you don't feel remorse and ask God for forgiveness before tomorrow by 6:00pm, something very nasty, bad and absurd will happen to you that u'll choose better to be dead. try God and see!

He who has no sin should cast the first stone. you are all fools. why should you talk abt the catholic church like that. some of you even MASTURBATE AT NIGHTH. Then u come and say silly things. pray for them not criticising them. we would all be judged some day.

Arrest Pope? they certainly must be day dreaming!!

its all about 'who will bell the cat?'

For those who have contributed on this topic, i sincerely appreciate your contribution. Left for me i will suggest that celibacy in the Catholic church or other religion that still practices it to be made optional. Although i appreciate the reason for adoption of celibacy as criteria to become a priest ( for reference read  Matthew 19:12, Numbers 1:48–53). But St Paul in his teaching while encouraging celibacy did not see it as must for every priest instead this is recommended to all those who can abide by it (Note: If being celibate will encourage adultery then get married). According to him (St Paul), this is not to say, of course, that the married state is bad.  Marriage is a good state when observed properly, but the celibate state is better.  In 1 Cor. 7, St. Paul clearly encouraged celibacy.

1 Corinthians, Chap. 7- “Now concerning the thing whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.  But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband… But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment.  For I would that all men were even as myself [unmarried]: but every one hath his proper gift from God; one after this manner, and another after that. But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they so continue, even as I…

But if any man think that he seemeth dishonoured, with regard to his virgin, for that she is above the age, and it must so be: let him do what he will; he sinneth not, if she marry.  For he that hath determined being steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but having power of his own will; and hath judged this in his heart, to keep his virgin, doth well.  Therefore, both he that giveth his virgin in marriage, doth well; and he that giveth her not, doth better.”
In reaction to the above, celibacy should be made optional for priest or nuns.

Let me remind all the christian  on this forum that it is obvious that the world will soon come to an end.  This is the time for all us (Catholics and Protestants) to pray unrelentlessly. Last two years in Anglican homosexual was ordained a priest, this year it is the turn of the catholic church. This is excluding numerous crimes committed previously under cloak of being a christian. Pray! Pray!! Pray!!!

Again, those in authority in catholic church need to carry out a major reformation in the church. How?
1. Candidates or seminarian intending to be priest should be screened properly to identify their background.
a. There activities in the seminary should be monitored strictly.
2. The church should make their activities more open (although there are improvement already)
3. Women's (nuns alone)  roles in the catholic church should be elevated (although in catholic church today women now give holy communion).
4. On the issue of child molestation, the catholic church should be open to investigation while those found guilty should be punished. (The issue of protecting priest by other priest could be liken to cult activities too). Note: The children  or families affected are also catholics.
5. You suggestions are welcomed.

For critics i am also a catholic (liberal).

all i fit say na body no be firewood

they need to warm up but not on all those poor innocent kids

infact,
, i rest my case

Movingcoil:

@sagamite, am not a catholic, I don't like most of their doctrines but wat am telling you now is from the bottom of my heart, if you are actually an anti-christ, anti-pope, anti-christians and you don't feel remorse and ask God for forgiveness before tomorrow by 6:00pm, something very nasty, bad and absurd will happen to you that u'll choose better to be dead. try God and see!

Baba nla ODE!  

Is that the kind of stupid thing they feed you monthly so you can add more of your money into the donations bag for salvation?  

You got me laughing though.