Nick Cohen (a former Leftist) speaks of today's left.

On the contrary, Constance, I read what Pope Benedict had to say on the subject - and I agreed wholeheartedly with his sentiments.

I'm a leftie, so it's not so surprising, is it?

Hi Constance,

I apologize that in reacting to Arjay I somehow overlooked your earlier reply to my post. I found it very interesting, and, yes also insightful, where you describe Catholic Australia in the years before my arrival in Australia. You are obviously a well informed insider.

Indeed, Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno were two very influential encyclicals, now classics, superseded, (actually just essentially upgraded) by JPII’s Centesimus Annus and Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate, both social encyclicals, seeking a balance between leftist and rightist, socialist and capitalist models of society. Especially Centesimus Annus - that appeared during the years when the “capitalist” West triumphed over the demise of the “socialist” East, a demise that also JPII contributed to - instead of celebrating the victory of the “free world” criticized the excesses of capitalism, and was an eye-opener to many “pro-capitalist” Catholics.

>>I'd say people are fed up and looking for answers and inspiration. <<
I completely agree. In the West these answers and aspirations were traditionally provided by the Christian Churches, now - at least here in Western Europe - the religious vacuum is being gradually filled by Islam (and all sorts of ersatz-religions), although it was definitely not the Muslims who pushed the Church out of its traditional places, thus creating that vacuum.

Sorry, I never heard of Bella Dodd but now looked her up in the Wikipedia. There are many late converts to Christianity (mostly Catholic or Orthodox) in East-Central Europe and Russia. For instance, I have known a priest, the son of a high ranking Communist, baptized at, I think, seventeen, secretly ordained, who “outed” himself as a priest, actually a Salesian, only in 1989.

>>there has been communist infiltration in the Vatican<<
Some speak of communist infiltration, others of freemasons, etc. Benedict himself spoke of “internal divisions”, and I do not think he meant only dissidents of the We-are-Church kind. I think Paul VI’s symbolism or metaphor “the smoke of Satan entered the Church” is the safest - albeit non-factual - way to describe the problems (within the Curia).

Sorry, "In the West these answers and aspirations ..." should have been "In the West these answers and INspiration ...".

George see http://itccs.org/ This is The International Tribumal Into Crimes of Church and State.Aparently they have taken a lein out against the Vaticans assets because of this coverup of paediphilia condoned by the church.There must be a lot of evidence against Ratzinger or they would have otherwise supported him.

The truth will slowly emerge.

Arjay,

You probably know that there are all sorts of things on the internet pushing this or that cause loaded with emotions, conspiracy theories etc. Just google phrases like “science (or scientific) conspiracy”, “Jewish conspiracy” and the like. These campaigns are based on some facts (and the cover-up of pedophiles by SOME Catholic authorities is an undeniable fact) and thrive on the emotions of the like-minded, including actual or imagined victims.

As to this “tribunal” you are referring to, see e.g. the discussion at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130215004730AAHy9GM.

Your site contains a link to http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=5629&page=0, which, certainly not pro-Catholic, is a more balanced description of what it is all about.

For instance, you will read there that “Richard Dawkins asked authorities to arrest the pope to face questions over the Church's child abuse scandal”. Since Dawkins himself considers “bringing up the child Catholic” more harmful than sexual abuse of children (c.f. http://www.irishsalem.com/individuals/writers-and-journalists/richard-dawkins/CatholicismDubliner.php), shouldn’t he have asked for the arrest of all the thousands, actually, millions, of educators in Catholic schools, other institutions and families, throughout the world?

You will also read there that “in 2007 the Los Angeles archdiocese … reached a $660 million civil settlement with more than 500 victims of child molestation”. This is on average $1.32 million per victim! This, of course, does not vindicate what happened. Nevertheless, compare this with a contemporary European politician, who actually boasted about “aiming at children’s’ sexuality” or those who asked for the decriminalization of pedofilia (c.f. http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=14358#247576).