Pope Denies Knowledge of Pedophiles

As an American Catholic it is not only my obligation but my responsibility to stand up to ignorance of criminal behavior by my church leaders, criminal acts such as rape against children by members of my church, and scream at the top of my lungs that I am not putting up with this SHIT anymore! There is one hell of a serious problem inside the Catholic church where everyone is passing the buck as fast as they can when child molestation, rape, and pedophile acts are committed by people that are supposed to be servants of God. There is not one single phrase in all of the teachings of Jesus Christ that says it is okay to rape his flocks children. NOT ONE! Why is the Pope not fast tracking that rape of children is not okay? Why is the blame game being passed around as to who is not to blame? YOU OWN IT AS THE POPE! Belly up to the bar Benny!

How can people that are declared to be the leaders of the faithful even live with themselves knowing that a rape of a child occurred under their watch, ignoring and passing off that rape of a child to protect themselves or the “Church”? Cardinal Bernie (the wink and walk away) Law ran for the exit when his ass was on fire for pushing pedophiles off to new parishes when Massachusetts was ready to prosecute him for illegal crimes against children. He’s now a top servant to the Holy See. This is NOT acceptable in any Christian religion where you are supposed to be the teachers of Christ word! How many of these monsters disguised as priests confessed their sins against children to a fellow priest and NOBODY said a damn word? Rape is a crime against humanity, rape of a child is a crime not forgiven in the eyes of men like me that still call themselves a Catholic. How is this behavior of ignoring the acceptance of blame and ownership still acceptable within my Catholic church? This is a deep routed problem that the church needs to investigate and fix instantly! Not in a month, not in a week. TODAY!

Common sense tells me that if you have a fire in your church where the raping of children is actually happening you put the damn fire out. You make sure that EVERYONE that works in that church knows that you do not rape kids or your ass is going to jail because your direct report will dial 911 as soon as he or she hears of it. The investigation will happen by the proper authorities, you will be tried, you will be jailed if guilty, and you will be defrocked from the church. SIMPLE! Jesus would be happy because the child was spared REPEATED rapes because somebody said something.

Being a priest does not make you immune from the laws of man. Church and state law in the United States is sometimes vague but if a crime is reported to authorities then those separations go bye-bye. Investigate, arrest the pervert that is raping children, try him, convict him, put his ass in jail where you would put anyone else raping children. Why is the job of a priest immune to prosecution when numerous complaints are filed? Let me tell ya why! People file complaints with the church and not the police. CALL THE POLICE if your child has been molested by ANYONE!!!

That is the lesson that the Vatican needs to send LOUD AND CLEAR to not only every diocese but to the media. The Pope needs to make a stand for the children as Jesus Christ would do, rape of children is not acceptable by anyone, you will not be transferred to another parish, you will be reported immediately to law enforcement, you will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in your nation.

I refuse to give up my faith because it has been hijacked by assholes that are pedophiles and managers of the church that think it is okay for children to be raped and move them on to other families in another parish. Maybe the Holy See should listen to those of us actually practicing the faith.

Clean house Pope Benedict and get your act together! Policing yourself is never going to work and you my friend need to follow the words of Christ and not suffer the children. Send the word out loud and clear that 911 is the only number for local management to call when a crime is committed by your staff anywhere in the world!

My last word, I’m ashamed to be a Catholic because of this shit. It just scares me that generations of children will be lost or further abused because one single man refused to lay down the law of God to which he is actually entrusted with to uphold. That one man is the religious leader of over one billion practicing Catholics and the people that preach daily to them. Cowardice hides behind a Sheppard’s seal in Rome when it comes to ridding MY CHURCH of pedophiles. Why is this so difficult to understand?

Enough, I’m pissed.

Papamoka

Pope Benedict’s Shoes

Picture courtesy of the Vatican

One of the things that I love about the Catholic faith is the work that the church does for not just the poor and homeless in America but around the world. Pick a city in America and many of the charitable organizations that are providing many of the basic services to be a human being are provided through churches. Not just the Catholic church but many others as well.

Here in Worcester the Catholic church subsidizes many programs for families from day care so a single mother can work, to providing meals for the homeless and the elderly. There isn’t a sign bragging about it, they just do it. Not for just a day or a week, they provide free services to the poorest amongst us year round.

What it costs the Catholic church to do this amazing work for their fellow man will never be known. When they serve a hot meal to someone that his homeless they do not need or ask for payment. When they deliver a meal to a shut in elderly person and spend the time it takes to eat the meal with the shut in they do not need or ask for payment. Caring for our fellow man is the path that the faithful follow and the many volunteers that provide many of the services of the church do it not for a paycheck but for their faith.

Over at the Washington Post they have this uplifting story on just another Catholic following his faith…

Homeless Get to Walk in the Pope's Shoes
The Associated Press
Monday, September 24, 2007; 6:05 PM

MINNEAPOLIS -- Some homeless Minneapolis residents are walking in the pope's shoes. That's after two big boxes from Rome arrived at Sharing and Caring Hands, a homeless mission in downtown Minneapolis. Recently, the Rev. Joseph Johnson, the rector of the Cathedral of St. Paul gave some friends from the Vatican a tour of the facility while they were visiting the Twin Cities.

Sharing and Caring Hands has an on-site shoe room, but director Mary Jo Copeland didn't know what was in the big boxes when they arrived.

"Father (Johnson) says, 'That's from the Pope.' I said, `What do you mean? The Pope,'" said Copeland.

She opened them to find several dozen pairs of handmade Italian shoes to give to the poor. - Washington Post

If you read the whole piece then you would have to sit back and say to yourself…Wow! My first thought was that he is no longer walking in the shadows of the footsteps of John Paul II. He is walking in the footsteps of Peter and in doing so on the same path as Jesus Christ. When is the last time you heard of some President, King, or Queen doing something like that? Auctioned off for charity does not count.

Thank you Benedict XVI for bringing the humility of Catholicism back to this faithful son of the church. While it is easy to scream about the evils of the church in the past, nobody in the Catholic church is screaming at the top of their lungs what good the church does day in and day out. The mission of the church continues as it should and the simple act of boxing up some shoes and shipping them to America from Rome for the homeless speaks volumes.

Papamoka

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Are all Fatwa Declarations Legitimate?

Picture courtesy of Guide Instanbul

Over the past few years we have herd of the term Fatwa from the Muslim people of the middle east and it intrigues me to learn what a Fatwa really is. Step in and correct me if I am wrong and please comment if I am wrong!

My former line of thought was that a Fatwa was similar to Jihad and yet now I find that they are two very different things. Seeing that we are at war with a nation and I presume an entire region I would think that it might be a good idea to educate ourselves as to what these terms that are thrown around by our so called enemies mean.

I don’t have anything against someone that chooses to be a Muslim or was born a Muslim. I don’t have a problem with someone born in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia or any other Muslim based theocracy and nation. Reading up on the faith that is Islam it is a very proud and non violent faith. Much like the Christian Bible, the Koran can probably be interpreted ten ways to Sunday and none of the interpretations is correct.

Take for instance the first Commandment of the Christian faith. Thou Shall Not Kill. If America is a religious Christian Faith society then according to this Commandment we should not have an army to defend us? No offense to all of my friends in service to our nation in the military intended. No pink slips will be issued to those in the military based on this post… Trust me on that one. My interpretation is very wrong but could the same mistake be made with the Koran?

Over at the Washington Post they explain what a Fatwa is from someone that should know…

Sheikh Ali Gomaa: When each person's unqualified opinion is considered a fatwa we lose a tool for reigning in extremism and preserving balance of Islamic law.
Almost two years ago the citizens of London were victims of a great atrocity. Those who perpetrated those crimes would like you to believe that they were inspired by the religion of Islam. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is nothing in Islam that could ever justify these blatant acts of aggression. Islam calls on Muslims to be productive members of whatever society they find themselves in. Islam embodies a flexibility that allows Muslims to do so without any internal or external conflict. This is why we see a vast variety of cultural, artistic and civilisational phenomena all of which can be described as Islamic, ranging from the Taj Mahal in India to the winding streets of Fez to the poetry composed by English converts that represents not only the rigor of English verse, but also encompasses the beauty of Islamic piety.

This flexibility is not just present in the cultural output of Muslims; it is an integral part of the Islamic legal tradition as well. In fact, you could say it is one of the defining characteristics of Islamic law. Islamic law is both a methodology and the collection of positions adopted by Muslim jurists over the last 1,400 years. Those centuries were witness to no less than 90 schools of legal thought, and the 21st century finds us in the providential position to look back on this tradition in order to find that which will benefit us today. This is one of the first steps in the issuing of a fatwa (religious opinion/ruling). - Washington Post

So I’m a little bit wiser today than yesterday. Fatwa is a religious opinion and or ruling on the religion of Islam. Islam is a religion that changes over the course of time and its history is relevant to the changes declared with a Fatwa.

So now I have to find out who is the equivalent of the Pope to find out how these Fatwa’s are issued and made part of the permanent Islamic law. Can anyone that is a Cleric issue a Fatwa? According to the article that is not the case. I’m wondering if the same rules apply as to all of those Jihad’s that everyone talks about in the Middle East?

My main point of this post is to think more about who we as a nation are as a target of Islamist misunderstanding of Americans as a people. If we can find the common links for change so two people can exist with understanding of one another then that is for the good of all people.

Papamoka

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