Confession without acts of penance is simply poetic camouflage. What appropriate penance should accompany the confession and apology is the real concern.

Anything Benny would say would be “lip service”. He needs to get his butt in gear and punish those men who molested the children. After kicking them out of the church (IMO that should happen) then the police (who in Ireland helped the cover-up) should prosecute them and send them to jail. Also the police involved should be prosecuted. It is totally outrageous that this has gone on forever, not only in Ireland but the USA and I’m sure other countries. Where was JP2 when this was happening….and now Benny who is “in charge”. That’s a joke.
I know…Benny can tell them they can’t take communion! After all, that is what the bishops & archbishops tell the common folks or politicians when they support a woman’s right to choose! Isn’t that the ultimate punishment for an RC? That’s the impression one gets. If hell exists, all those involved belong there…along with their boss, Benny.

There is only one response to abuse cases, that is prosecute to the full extent of the law and the church should throw the full force of it’s strength into the prosecution. That would certainly be an deterrence strip them of their position and throw them into jail. It’s a shame the sins of a few affect the lives of so many.

Ok we know it’s happened in the US and in Ireland and been swept under the rug. We can confidently predict that wherever it happened they’d have tried to sweep it under the rug, starting with the current pope.
I see three morals:
1. The Roman Catholic Church has zero moral authority and will not have any until after some decades of transparently good behavior, which have obviously not started yet. And the theology they teach, while it may not make people worse than they would be, it very clearly does not make them better than they would be.
2. Where a church and a government work hand in glove bad things are bound to happen. There’s just always too much darkness there so some people’s worst behavior will emerge into that dark. That goes for Catholic countries, for Islamic countries, for the Jewish country and for the evangelical country some powerful people would make of America.
3. The RCC needs to put all its efforts into cleaning its own house and stay the heck out of our government and everything else till they have cleaned their house(s) and opened their records so we know they have done so.

“After kicking them out of the church”
That’s rarely the best response to anything. The church, after all, is a church of sinners, no matter how bad the sins they commit are. Abusers must be made to do serious penance, and they must be removed from any position that would allow them to commit he same crimes again, and they must be allowed to be dealt with according to the laws of their country, but throwing them out of the church doesn’t do anything other than undermine the heart of the Gospel of God’s forgiveness.

Just out of curiosity Nate what do you think the guilty would need to do to be absolved by their confessors of these heinous and often-repeated sins?
And just who is the pope’s confessor?

NateW., you really believe it is OK to just “confess” their sins and then all is fine???? They can stay in the RCC? Putting them in jail (so the folks there can take care of them) is at least a start to punishment. THe church may be full of “sinners” but this isn’t just a “sin”, whatever that is! If it isn’t one of the worst things that a person who claims to represent some god can do, then I don’t know what is. The RCC is a farce…a joke…telling it’s members what to do, and when to do it and telling them they are “sinners” if they don’t. Well guess what…that bull is a joke, because while those priests were teaching that stuff, they were taking advantage of children in the worst way. I’m sorry, on crimes like this I have absolutly no sympathy for the men who committed them. None. Actually hanging them by their private parts sounds good to me. And as asked above…who does’t Benny (and when he was alive, JP2) get forgiven by? If it is there god…then I question that god.

Nate pearls before swine, nnmns knows nothing of the gospel of forgiveness. I with my limited knowledge only faintly understand because of God’s tender mercies that help me repent. I do think that pedophiles gravitate to places they can practice their preferred sexual desires they gravitate to places like amusement parks to priesthood (if that’s a actual word). These people are a minority that influence how some of the masses think about the good majority. That being said I totally understand the gospel of forgiveness and I have seen it practiced by priest I have known it is a quality to be admired. I have seen some priest friends of mine forgive things that I could not and these unique people are consistent in this gospel of forgiveness.

cknuck throws “swine” around so easily.
But yes, of course pedophiles gravitate to places where they can practice their perversions. That’s why parents need to overcome their tendencies to trust church people and instead protect their children from them, because they cannot know which of them is a pervert. If a church person wants to be alone with your child, or a few do repeatedly, beware. If your child acts strangely look into it. And trust your child more than someone you only know through church; that person may be the pervert cknuck is talking about.
Let your child know you will respect what they say to you more than you respect your church members or leaders. That trust may save your child a world of grief some day.

I’m in no way attempting to minimize anything the other posters say but I can only speak from my own experience. I went to Catholic schools for ten years and never heard of the sexual abuse of any classmate. No one ever bothered me. That was in the ’60s.
As for the forgiveness of sin, no one gets away with anything. I’m a big believer in the saying, “The sins you commit two by two, you pay for one by one,” either in this world or the next. Guilt is a terrible burdon to bear for life. But if you feel no guilt, your sins are not forgiven.
But I also believe in the God’s forgiveness of sins when the person is truly remorseful and truly intends to not commit his sins again. This is an essential tennant of Christianity. I have recently returned to the Church and I do believe in the sacrament of Confesion, i.e. “What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, what you loose on earth will be loose in heaven.”
However, the safety of children and the prosecution in court are what’s immediately important. The religious of the Church, from the Vatican down, failed in both regards. This makes them morally as guilty as the abusers.

Apology? How many times can someone (or some entity) say, “I’m Sorry” and still expect to be believed? It is no longer a matter of “Regret”, but rather, Honesty, Accountability, Transperancy and Remuneration to those who have been so viciously and monstrously harmed. And if that means that Our Church is left with only one Altar on which to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, IT WILL BE WORTH IT. The Anointed Roman Catholic Clergy and Hierarchy have allowed themselves to be seduced by the myth of false divinity showered on them by a mindless and foolish Laity.

This article is about how the Priests and others involved with the Homes (Catholic) in Ireland abused their charges, or children. It’s about the Vatican’s Pope not showing a personal comment or the one closest to Him. It’s about all holy religious sick-minded men who take advantage of their children or other peoples children in positions of care. Not long out of the news, the Amish, whose father admmited to his minister and his Church his abuse of his children. He was shunned by his congregation, that was his punishment, and told to repent and not to do abuse anymore. A year or so later it came out he was still abusing his child or children. He was arrested and haven’t heard anything since. These people are mentally unbalanced, and very little seems to help them. Haven’t got a clue how to stop this, but it would seem science should come up with something fast, as it is in every religion or no religion. Interesting No Name that you went to Catholic schools for ten yrs. and never had abuse happen to you or friends. If Ted Kennedy were here he would have said you were fortunate. At one of his many schools he had to hide under his bunk when he was only seven or eight yrs., scared to death the man who led his group wouldn’t call for him after the lights went out! Read “True Compass”, interesting life.

YN it may well be none of your schoolmates was molested; obviously many, maybe most kids weren’t. But it’s also possible some were and said nothing about it.

What god would “forgive” a man (or woman at times) who preys on children…some start with babies! I couldn’t revere any divine being who forgives those who do so. To me that behavior is unforgivable.

I’m certainly glad that God has more compassion for the wicked than the people here do. There’s no doubt that child abuse is a heinous sin, but that doesn’t mean that the sinners are beyond the scope of compassion and forgiveness. Such forgiveness will come with hard demands; the sinners will have to confront their own sins head-on and be moved to genuine repentance. A good God, and good people of God, will extend compassion to the sinner and work to encourage that repentance and the moral transformation that may follow it. A God who doesn’t do this, a God who doesn’t forgive the seemingly unforgivable, is nothing more than a projection of human vengeance and altogether not worth worshiping. The only true God must be the one who at first repulses us with a flagrant display unconditional love that shatters every human conception of justice.
Like I said, there must be severe penance for these sins, as well as legal ramifications. But writing such sinners out of the scope of divine forgiveness is a blasphemy that no human being has the authority to commit.

YN December 1, 2009 2:15 AM makes a very good point. First of all these people are everywhere the Catholic Church gets the most press, second my kids and my sister’s kids had no trouble what so ever in catholic school and got a great education to boot. So that’s not to say this thing is not going on but I in my gut doubt the numbers and I think some reports may be motivated by greed. I know that’s sort of off topic but I do think the church is faced with weeding out the real cases from the opportunist.

The RC school I taught in had very strong rules about being alone with a child….you weren’t and if you were…in the classroom or where ever, the door was ALWAYS open. IF folks followed the rules, the opportunity wasn’t there. They did and there were never any alligations while I was there.
Nate, sorry, no forgiveness here for the guilty. AM glad you like your god, but he/she needs to punish, not forgive. The ones who do that kind of behavior have no remorse and will continue it until they die unless put away. Too many secular child abusers gave been turned loose, only to re-offend. Guess I’d make a lousy RC, or other religion who has a Being that thinks anything can be forgiven.

So you prefer a God who simply destroys his wayward creatures rather than prodding their hearts to repentance? Why does justice for the victim have to involve God victimizing the victimizer? Doesn’t that disgrace all of those people who have suffered terribly at the hands of others and still found the courage to pray for the forgiveness of those who have victimized them?
The only real justice comes with the healing of souls. After all, criminals don’t just hurt their victims; they hurt their own friends and families who have loved them and invested themselves in them. Justice for ALL demands nothing less than the remaking the criminal so that ALL the lives he has broken can be healed. The Christian God, the God of Cross and Resurrection, is a God who promises such healing for all, especially for those of us who believe in the ancient doctrine of apokatastasis, the restoration of all things–even Satan will finally be forgiven and redeemed by the overwhelming power of God’s mercy and love.
Do I want the perpetrators of heinous crimes to go free? No. That’s not the issue here. The issue is whether or not God has the power to heal lives broken by evil. A god who cannot restore all the lives affected would be an impotent god, a god not worth calling God. What would you rather have? A mother eternally mourning the fact that her son is irredeemable even by the power of God’s love?

Pedophiles are sick individuals and need to be kept away from children…for life. That said, I don’t know what it’s like to be attracted to children and I don’t think pedophiles asked for that attraction; it just happened. The evidence for people being relieved of this sickness is nonexistant. Anomalies are just part of the human condition and while it’s important to hold individuals responsible for their behavior, I don’t think it’s appropriate to judge their destiny in the universe.
And a god who would create a human and then damn them to eternal damnation doesn’t seem very believable to me but humans creating a god who would does seem very, very believable.

I think the real issue here is that this kind of thing is known to have happened among Catholic priests, bishops, archbishops and popes in multiple countries and each time it was covered up. The good of the Church was held by those in charge as far more valuable than the good of the children charged to it. So as far as morality is concerned, it would be foolish to look to the Roman Catholic Church for any guidance. They’ve been repeatedly shown to totally lack it themselves.

There is so much that is good about the RCC, what people are incensed about is their handling of their sexual problems. If they don’t change some of their man-made laws about what could be the reason for all of this happening they will continue to get the same results. They are losing credibility because they are not using logic and looking for the reasons, and how to correct them. None of what is happening has anything to do with God, and our Christ being a myth, it has everything to do with the high Roman Catholic’s mishandling of what Christianity is about.

The god of the OT seem be a little less compassionate. Maybe he/she needs to return, Nate. He pulled some stunts on “his people” who didn’t do as he said to do…the old 40 days and 40 nights of flooding, eye for an eye, turning folks into salt for turning around and looking back when told not to, etc.(if indeed any of that stuff is actually accurate). Maybe that god should be in charge of pedophiles. They are beyond redemption, as far as I’m concerned. Too many cases of repeating the actions if they are unfortunately released by some idiot judge!

ps it’s not religiously correct to point out those are different gods.

nnmns what different gods?
YN quote, “And a god who would create a human and then damn them to eternal damnation doesn’t seem very believable to me but humans creating a god who would does seem very, very believable”
You according to you are unique in your thinking and people who believe in God are not only not unique like yourself but fairly naive.

Y’all think we are wrong and we think you are wrong. Are we not allowed to think you are wrong?

Cknuck would get further by pointing out how the poster is “not unique” and pointing out that the poster is “naive” because name-calling is rather childish without evidence to support it.
It goes like this, “Cknuck, you are not unique and rather naive.” Gee, that inspires confidence. What a brilliant comment. I’m blinded by your brilliance. *cough*
At least Nate tries to explain where he is coming from in his beliefs.

confess instead of trying to give me a grammar lesson (I admit I might need one from time to time) but re-read my post and I’m sorry if I got a little to complicated for you.

What different gods, cknuck? OT one and NT one. OR does the one god have duel personalities? Reading the different testaments seems to me he/she wasn’t the same personality wise. One is totally rathful, the other…a little less so. Maybe having a kid softened him/her a little. But then he had him killed rather painfully. Great parent.

I guess it’s how you read the bible pagan, I see God’s plan almost from the begining with the same compassion. Perhaps you ought to read a little closer.

cknuck, I’m more concerned with your reading comprehension than your grammar. My comment does not apply to your incorrect use of grammar; certainly it could have, but I’m no grammar nazi and my abilities to make mistake-free comments is null. It is you who needs to re-read my comment and probably most comments before responding. You are forever not responding to the arguments put before you.

It is all interpretation of how you understand God to be. I think that is what Your Name is saying. God is blamed for everything that goes wrong, but it is the people themeselves who do this to themselves, and to each other, and to our world, as well.

confess don’t give advice you aren’t willing to take yourself. You need to reread.