While it is only natural that people defend their faith it is paramount that those within the Catholic Church also openly and fairly assess the faults and past wrongdoings.

Asking any Church to make amends for past wrondoings and demand accountability and justice for the victims is not being a 'phobe'. It is when talk turns to this that I feel one of those cringe shudders coming on as if someone has missed the whole point.

The Catholic Church is not about peace and justice any more than any other Church and some of its preachings are of good intent even if misguided such as preaching the evil of contraception in the third world.

Anyway, I am not going to list the misdeeds of the Catholic Church, they are already well documented. It is a mistake to believe that just because an organisation is a religious body that it can do no wrong.

The Pope's recent visit to the UK and talk of radical secularism and atheism where in some places in the world the interference of radical religion has meant a disadvantaged life for many men, women and children.

Atheism is not a movement, it is an absence of belief in the supernatural. It is the religions who have promulgated radical movements and mission work with intent to convert. Now some atheists are writing books - so what - the Church has done it for years. It is just a different point of view.

Please try and keep an open mind with some fair analysis as much as is possible within a strict religious observance.

The Pope lost all credibility when he asked atheists to say sorry for Hitler. For one, it is well known that Hitler was a Catholic but that does not make all Catholics responsible and nor should Catholics apologise. Hitler did not kill innocents in the name of Catholicism or Atheism, he was a sick indvidual who made his decisions on political and economic basis - something that many religious and non-religious polticians are apt to do, religion seems to make no difference if the antics of past US Presidents are anything to go by.

Atheism is not a cult or a religion. It is a point of view.

It is a bit rich that the Pope asks atheists to apologise for Hitler when it took years for acknowledgment of child abuse allegations and justice for victims. It reeks of hysterical overreaction and rather than self-reflect it is seems the Catholic hierarchy has opted for attack mode.

I don't know how people can still support an organization that is embedded in pedophilia.

LOL

David f take note

The 'ophobia bandwagon is well and truly rolling

Speaking of Hitler, the nazis and the Holocaust, many right-wing "catholics" were open admirers and supporters of Hitler and the nasties prior to, during and after the war (they assisted Nazi war criminals to escape)

http://www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm

Plus everybody knows that the Holocaust was the culmination of many centuries of church sponsored anti-semitism which manifested in wide-spread persecution of Jewish people, and even dreadful pogroms. Oft times whipped up by the christian ecclesiastical establishment.

This toxic syndrome was also enhanced by the fact that "catholics" used to say collective prayers for the conversion of the (christ-killer) Jews to the "catholic one true faith". Some ultra right-wing "catholics" probably still do so.

Plus the "catholic" religion is in no sense universal, it is a power-seeking Semitic religion which originated in the Middle East and then via Europe became a Western religion. Which is to say that it was not an Eastern religion or a religion that originated and grew in Africa, the Americas, Australia, etc etc.

The only reason it became "universal" is because it was coopted by the Roman state and thus became an integral player in the Western drive to total power and control.

I think you're missing the point, the anger is directed at the catholic church, not catholics.
the roman catholic church has always, and is still, a political entity. Their scriptures and canons are about maintaining this entity.
Those who believe in the religion are a quite different thing.