Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

I see the NYT has written the closest thing…

Posted: April 12, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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…to a fair story on the pope that they will likely ever produce:

This isn’t an isolated case. In the 1990s, it was Ratzinger who pushed for a full investigation of Hans Hermann Groer, the Vienna cardinal accused of pedophilia, only to have his efforts blocked in the Vatican. It was Ratzinger who persuaded John Paul, in 2001, to centralize the church’s haphazard system for handling sex abuse allegations in his office. It was Ratzinger who re-opened the long-dormant investigation into Maciel’s conduct in 2004, just days after John Paul II had honored the Legionaries in a Vatican ceremony. It was Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict, who banished Maciel to a monastery and ordered a comprehensive inquiry into his order.

So the high-flying John Paul let scandals spread beneath his feet, and the uncharismatic Ratzinger was left to clean them up. This pattern extends to other fraught issues that the last pope tended to avoid — the debasement of the Catholic liturgy, or the rise of Islam in once-Christian Europe. And it extends to the caliber of the church’s bishops, where Benedict’s appointments are widely viewed as an improvement over the choices John Paul made. It isn’t a coincidence that some of the most forthright ecclesiastical responses to the abuse scandal have come from friends and protégés of the current pope.

I haven’t seen Morning Joe use any of the links I suggested, however this comes from the preferred source, the New York Times. Let’s see if it gets any play.

and another thing concerning Scandal and the Chruch

Posted: April 11, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news

from the coverage you might think this was a uniquely Catholic problem, you would be wrong:

…based on the surveys and studies conducted by different denominations over the past 30 years, experts who study child abuse say they see little reason to conclude that sexual abuse is mostly a Catholic issue. “We don’t see the Catholic Church as a hotbed of this or a place that has a bigger problem than anyone else,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “I can tell you without hesitation that we have seen cases in many religious settings, from traveling evangelists to mainstream ministers to rabbis and others.”

We have been told for weeks how greedy insurance companies are so of course their rates must reflect the difference in risk…oh wait:

Insurance companies that cover all denominations, such as Guide One Center for Risk Management, which has more than 40,000 church clients, does not charge Catholic churches higher premiums. “We don’t see vast difference in the incidence rate between one denomination and another,” says Sarah Buckley, assistant vice president of corporate communications. “It’s pretty even across the denominations.” It’s been that way for decades.

The fact that this article appears in Newsweek would shock me until you see it is a web exclusive. The media has a very loose definition of what is a scandal and story and what is not to wit:

“[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem?” she said. “The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”

So, in order to better protect children, did media outlets start hounding the worse menace of the school systems, with headlines about a “Nationwide Teacher Molestation Cover-up” and by asking “Are Ed Schools Producing Pedophiles?”

No, they didn’t. That treatment was reserved for the Catholic Church, while the greater problem in the schools was ignored altogether.

The ratio of one story to another? 500-1 in the papers.

Let’s see how much coverage the US swimming scandal gets in the press and how long it stays on the front page. It should be quite illuminating.

Why am I not surprised that Maureen Dowd…

Posted: April 11, 2010 by datechguy in catholic
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…compares Catholicism to the Saudi Government? Of course she does. What is really amazing is that people are going to give the comparison credence.

Dowd conclusions reminds me of what something someone told me yesterday. He had rejected the church because of the height of the liberal era, where many priests decided to go their “own” way, like many of the faithful he was rejected for the priesthood and seeing what priests were doing and were allowing rejected the church right back. I was discussing the sacraments with him yesterday and he insisted for example: “Why should I confess to these two faced … when they are worse than me?”, his view on the Eucharist was the same, yet he proclaimed that the Bible was true, when I attempted to point to scripture (John Chapt 6 btw) suddenly the scripture didn’t matter.

How many faithful potential priests, who might have been more willing to attack and address the scandals that rocked there system, were discouraged and rejected because of priests who wanted to remake the Church in their own image? How many like Dowd have fallen for as the Anchoress calls it; the myth of Held back Catholic Women? How many Cafeteria Catholics were created who don’t take their faith seriously? How many priests like the one above helped chase the faithful away from SACRAMENTAL GRACE?

Removing people from Sacramental Grace is what it is all about. If you actually believe Christianity, then you understand that this is the goal the other side (Satan) has. It’s all about keeping people away from things that might save them.

That’s because they forget the reason for being Christian in general or Catholic in particular. It’s not because you like a particular priest, or their style, it’s not because of an individual Bishop or an administrative decision. It’s not because you like one style of mass vs the other or don’t care for the music. The reason to be Christian in general and Catholic in particular is because it is true.

It is the removal of that emphasis that more than anything else is the legacy of liberal Catholicism and the suffering of those souls that could have been saved that were not, many a priest and Bishop will have to answer for.

Update: It is a hot air headline.

Photos from yesterday’s planned parenthood protest in Fitchburg

Posted: April 9, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, internet/free speech, local stuff
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If you think that things have quieted down because PP has gotten permits form the Zoning board around here think again.

It is worth noting that a Protestant Bishop Howard Shadd joined us today showing that this is not simply a Catholic affair. And the Pastors letter to the editor confirms it. The letter is available here. The Signatories were: (more…)

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