Homophobic homosexuals. Homosexual-friendly heterosexuals. This obsession with perverts is boring.

The church lost all moral authority when it went from being the creation of Jesus to one essentially created by pagan sun worshiper, Constantine

. And driven even further away by sword-wielding bishops and popes at the head of bloodthirsty armies, converting via the sword (holy orders) and inhuman torture.

Then became (the great whore and sty in the eye of God) little more than a power-hungry political body determined to rule the world by ruling those that rule it.

Consider how many kings and queens bent their knee before their churches. And to further that (fundamental fanatical) power-hungry ambition, invented the MAN MADE sacrament of the confessional and its BS holy seal some 700 years ago or, if you will, 1300 odd years after the event.

Ditto marriage which is hardly 400 years old as a presided over, MAN MADE church institution!

CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL! And by (you will obey) clergy that has a very large minority? Of homosexuals in its ranks and too many in key positions deciding direction and outcomes!?
Alan B.

Christianity is not a product of Jesus. He was a leader of a Jewish cult, and his followers were almost, if not all, Jews. Paul was an apostle to the gentiles and changed the Jesus cult into something else. Jesus, as is reported in the New Testament, said nothing about homosexuality or abortion which are concerns of many present day Christians but not, so far as we know, of Jesus. The Last Supper as depicted in painting and story was an affair attended solely by men. If it truly was a Passover Seder, a Jewish ceremony, there would have been women there. The depiction of the Last Supper is an indication of the homoerotic element in Christianity. Although Judaism, like Christianity, is also a male dominated religion it gives greater role to women. Deborah, in the Jewish Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament, is both a judge and a general. Although many women are prominent in Christianity, their role is different. Mary is just a womb with no memorable quotes or sayings attributed to her. Other women are noted for their virtue or holiness, not for their leadership. Various virgin births are prominent in pagan mythology but none in Judaism. Christianity is Judaism modified by pagan mythology with an overtone of homoerotism added. In my opinion Christianity and Judaism have passed their useby dates.

Pope Francis has assured us all cases of sexual abuse will be reported to clerical authorities. That indicates to me he is not serious about the crimes, and they are crimes. If he were serious about the crimes he would have them reported to the police. It is the obligation of all citizens in a law abiding country to report crimes to the police.

Here, here and well said, David f.
Alan B.

david f.

And Islamists were a break away sect, from a another break away Christian sect.
And the world goes around!

Dan

The Catholic Church, the umbrella organisation of gay rights?

Frederic Martel says that “in Europe and America, since the 1990s, we have moved from the criminalization of homosexuality to the criminalization of homophobia [expressed in hate crimes]” (page 51).

This little fact passes over the heads of most. It's not such a long bow to draw to connect the dots is it!

Dan

.

Dear Peter,

.

Ever since their early beginnings, religious orders, particularly those of Christianity, have been perceived by all sorts of sexual deviants as the ideal vantage point for preying on their victims with a maximum of success – in all impunity – homosexuals, paedophiles, rapists and predators of various other forms of paraphilia.

Another distinguishing feature of Christianity is that it bears the stigma of sadomasochism :

• the gratification, joy and exhilaration that the image of the sacrificial Christ nailed to the cross procures for its devotees;

• the tortured personality of Saul of Tarsus, Christianity’s principal founder, theologian and proponent (2 Corinthians 12:7 - 2 Corinthians 11:25-27);

• the practice of auto-flagellation by fervent devotees (c.f., Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians);

• the doctrine of atonement through suffering and sacrifice;

• the symbolic cannibalism of feasting on the flesh and blood of Jesus of Nazareth during the sacrament of the Eucharist …

In addition, the Church has been a partner in crime, right down the ages, in more ways than one : with official State authorities, with Mafia type organisations, in condoning the slave trade, money laundering, aiding and abetting the Nazis, as well as offering a safe haven and cover-up for all its own sexual predators and other profiteers.

Nothing new on the horizon really …

.

Banjo,

My own distant relative, the late Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty (The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican) is credited with getting some 4,000 people out of the clutches of the Germans whilst he was an official in the Vatican during WWII.
He could not have done his great work without the support of Pius XII the then Pope, tacit though it necessarily was.

Hugh's character is best summed up by the fact that he was the amateur golfing champion of Rome at a time when priests were forbidden to play golf.

.

Dear Is Mise,

.

That’s interesting. I saw the film “The Scarlet and the Black” on one of the BBC channels a couple of times with Gregory Peck as your illustrious relative, “The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican”. An excellent film.

I think it bears out what I read somewhere that the “Catholic machinery” was pro-Hitler but some individual members of the clergy did what they could to save the lives of Jews and allied soldiers. As you suggest, they seem to have been more dissidents than mainstream.

It’s also possible that the reigning pope during World War II, Pius XII, supported your illustrious relative’s resistance efforts. Perhaps we’ll learn some more about that when the historians have finished digesting the tons of secret Vatican archives Pope Francis has promised to allow them to have access to as from 2nd March 2020.

Apparently, 20 members of the Vatican's archives department have been “working on the secret files” for the past 13 years to “organise” (sic) them. I’m not sure what that means, but I hope it doesn’t mean they’ve been “cooking the books” as it were.

We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, Pius XII’s canonisation as a saint is being held in abeyance until the historians confirm that he is clean so far as his reputation as Hitler’s pope is concerned.

Unfortunately, in view of the immensity of the task, I’m afraid the historians have a lifetime job ahead of them. I doubt that you and I will be around to see the results.

It might be a foregone conclusion anyway. It’s amazing how some things tend to disappear after three quarters of a century – a few missing pieces here and there.

I even have trouble finding my glasses these days.

.

Peter,

An interesting review of a book (that I knew of but did not read) spelling out explicitly what most contemporary educated Catholics have known for quite a while, namely the damage caused by a traditionally naive approach to human sexuality, and even more so, to celibacy when understood as abstinence from sexual contacts with females alone. This in addition to cover-ups, erroneously justified as institutional self-defence, thus betraying, often in a criminal way, its Christian and humane foundations.

So it is sadly understandable that the topic calls for sincere - although mostly irrelevant - personal confessions of anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, or even anti-religion positions.

Is Mise,

>>He could not have done his great work without the support of Pius XII the then Pope, tacit though it necessarily was.<<

Who was in a better position to judge Pius XII on this?

Israel Zolli (1881-1956) was from 1939 to 1945 Chief Rabbi of Rome. "Zolli is noted for his admiration of Pope Pius XII during World War II, who gave support and shelter to Zolli and other Jews during Nazi Germany's occupation of Italy from 1943 to 1944."(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Zolli). After the war, he converted to Roman Catholicism, taking the name Eugenio in honor of Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli).

What a great summary of this big book! The author Frederic Martel is speaking in Sydney tomorrow night, 6.00pm Wednesday 5 June at the Pitt Street Uniting Church, 264 Pitt Street City, with Geraldine Doogue. His only Sydney appearance.

The great question for all of us, victims, Catholics, appalled observers, is how the hell could this have happened? Martel has a theory worthy of discussion.

Bookings via www.badsydney.com, or just turn up.

Michael Duffy