You can find the "God Helmet" on YouTube. Additionally, there are 3 (there should be 4 or more though I think) in depth interviews with "Dr Michael Persinger", the developer of the apparatus in question.

Really rather fascinating! I'd encourage both Believers and Non-Believers alike to have a listen. Enjoy!

History repeating itself?
The Return of the Nazis:
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/how_the_nazis_engineered_a_paedophile_priests_scare/

Proxy,

Great find! There are many uncanny similarities but also enough differences that the Catholic Church can hardly expect it to blow over so quickly.

The Nazi cases were constantly revisited and any excuse was used to keep it in the public eye. However the Nazi cases didn't dig back as far and major newspapers didn't report things in one country with immediate (presumably pre-organised) protests appearing in another country. They didn't have the power to orchestrate such a spectacle to enhance its visibility. Also, Nazis fell out of favour. They did more than propaganda. That of course helped the Catholic Church recover no end (perhaps too much as complacency obviously later settled in). However it is hard to see the same ending happening in the current situation.

Situations are misrepresented to make the Pope look bad, it is major news to speculate whether his previously unknown brother knew (or still remembers many decades later) about paedophile activities that occurred in an organisation that he took over prior to his involvement in it(anything to very publically denigrate him and thus the Pope by association), cases going back 50 years are dug up and everything constantly rehashed as per Goebell's strategy, but noone is slaughtering Jews at the same time.

All the Church can really do is a zero tolerance policy doing everything possible to avoid ordaining paedophiles and removing any existing ones together with apologies and caring for past victims. In spite of all that I would predict a long cold winter and there is nothing the Church can do to avoid it (other than of course abandoning all orthodox Christian teaching and embracing the extreme liberalism that it offends). In the meantime we will keep hearing about old cases periodically and every time the Pope apologises it will be said to be his first time ever or not sufficient for some excuse or another.

Proxy,

I think you are oversimplifying to label it as simply a homosexual problem. The youtube video makes reference to that (admittedly emphasises it) but also refers to other factors. That homosexual statutory rape constituted the largest part of the scandal is an artifact of both the media lumping it with paedophilia to bulk up the scandal and the high age of consent formerly required for homosexual sex. If it were otherwise it is likely that homosexuals wouldn't be roped in. It is analogous to the unique reporting of German sexual abuse cases where it is uniquely referred to as the physical and sexual abuse scandal. Why? Because the Pope's brother participated in corporal punishment when he headed a boys choir and they want to expand the sexual scandal to include him. Whatever makes the Church look worst determines the framing of the reporting.

Also, that a homosexual subculture and statutory rape arose at the same time as the actual paedophile cases doesn't mean homosexuality in the priesthood resulted in paedophilia. I would suggest the post-Vatican II embracing of secular liberal values enabled both to be rationalised by certain members of the priesthood. That paedophilia is now rejected by even the most politically liberal doesn't change the past in which Kinsey normalised paedophilia and homosexuality at the same time for enlightened liberals.

Opinionated2,

"And for all you Pell haters….http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/cardinal-pell-tipped-to-tackle-churchs-sexual-abuse-scandal/story-e6frg6nf-1225846184576

Is Pell the right man for the job?"

I would think so. I recall some abuse victims organisation saying that the program he came up with for victims was better than the standard Towards Healing program that entails an apology, independent investigation, compensation and free ongoing counselling.

"Is his own record that good?....http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/08/2297082.htm"

Yes I believe it is good. Australia was fortunate to avoid the problems faced by many overseas countries. We did have the sexual abuse in the 60s but without much of the other baggage.

There was a discussion of Pell's choice of words in a previous thread. I understand that he was writing to someone who could have been and presumably was uneducated and didn't speak the same version of the English language and that he should have chose his words more carefully. It might be described as a blunder. However if Pell had sent the letter to me I would have understood it exactly as he said he meant it and it is easy for us to throw stones with the benefit of hindsight. There was a good article regarding that victim here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24040493-7583,00.html

I note that the Pope keeps plugging away trying to sweep out the filth.

http://www.mail.com/intl/Article.aspx/world/europe/APNews/Europe/20100601/U_EU-Church-Abuse-Ireland?pageid=1