Their ad makes a lot of sense to me.

Abuse? What Abuse? What transfer of pedophile priests to other parishes? “I know nothing”, with the voice of Shultz in the TV show, for those old enough to remember it…Stalag 17. (which took place in a German POW camp).
Benny 16 probably won’t address it, and if he does, charming man that he is, he’ll probably say everything has been taken care of.
Notice he isn’t scheduled to go to Boston. Making Boston even more of a tragedy is Cardinal Law got rewarded for his transferring pedophile priests, by being sent to ROME (the article said he moved there…sure! he was told to go there!). Now bing punished by being sent to Rome had to be really rough. I’m sure he hates it. Why was he even allowed to stay in the priesthood, never mind continue to be a Cardinal!

Correction: Should be Stalag 13 (not 17)and the camp wasn’t for the Germans, but was run by the Germans, for the younger ones who don’t know the OLD TV show.

They could start with Bishop Henry in Calgary Alberta.

“How can our Church be a moral beacon when so many bishops who repeatedly transferred known predators remain in office?” the group asked in the ad. ”Pope Benedict should call for the resignations of those bishops.”
How can Bene16 call for the resignations of bishops and cardinals that simply did what bishops and cardinals have done for years? How could those bishops and cardinals have done anything to stop the priests….such a change would have had to come from the top.
Lets put this in perspective. The abuse scandal was only a scandal because our society and culture has continued to evolve. And, it has done so much ahead of the Catholic Church.
The abuse is often discussed as though it has only occurred for the last ~40years. I suspect this is because until the 1970 child molestation was not really discussed. The feminist movement of the 1960 not only raised the status of women…but, also of children. Prior to the 1960′s women and children were in many cases the property of a a man. Object if you will…but, this is still the case today in many groups. 416 children were removed a few days ago from a compound in Texas for being abused and used as as property by the men of the group. This is far from the only group in the USA doing this.
Last year, a group of Baptists in Missouri were doing the same. The incest in rampant in the Amish communities with girls being used for sex by their brothers, fathers, grandfathers, uncles, etc.
Looking back, prior to 1900….children had no rights in the USA. In 1900 children gained the rights of domesticated animals. The first several child abuse cases were prosecuted under cruelty to animal laws.
Up until the 1960′s few states had laws against husbands raping their wives.
I am not saying that any of this is right….I am simply pointing out that it is.
I am glad that times have and continue to changed in the USA. This is certainly not the case in many parts of the world….Congo and Dafur come right to mind.
I am in no way defending what the priests, bishops, cardinals have done. I am simply saying that it is systemic as well as a tradition within the church.
We are looking at this through our 2008 eyes…..not all people see this the way we do. I will suggest that many within the hierarchy of the church certainly don’t.
Peace!

Well put, JohnQ. I agree we need to put things in perspective. However I find if hard to agree with sending Cardinal Law (and perhaps others) to Rome, after what he did was found out..transferring priests, not calling the police to investigate situations. That is just wrong. I have Catholic friends who wouldn’t hear “bad” things said against priests or the nuns from their children. Those guys were practically worshiped…as stupid as that was. Yes, all the above situations you mentioned are still happening…the “Dark Ages” are still around…women and children are still oppressed and mistreated…much still in the name of religion. Incredibly sad.

You’ve painted a clear and logical picture of what is happening JohnQ, and with the FLDS collapse in Texas showing the perverted, sick problems they all face we should all have Ministers and people in high office speaking out about this more than is showing up in the news. It really is past time for everyone to catch up with Scientific findings, and where mistakes can be rectified instead of accepting old outdated and disgusting handling of subjects: women, children, sexual orientation; respect for everyone. The Church needs to catch up to where society is now, not where it was back when it began.

Do you really think he is coming to America to issue and apology? There is no mea cula coming from b16′s lips. If anything he is coming to assert his authority. My hope is he meets Cartman from South Part (Respect Mah A-thor-i-tah!). Now there is a duel – uh, dialog that is worth listening to!

Apparently the White House is putting on a big dinner for Pope B. Wednesday night, with lots of high Catholic mucky mucks and so forth, but they say the Pope won’t be there. This could get interesting.

Think about it, nnmns…isn’t this typical of “W’…throw a party for the Pope and the Pope won’t even be there? No one has ever claimed “W” was intelligent and this continues to prove it.
At least we hope no one will die from this mistake.