Pope Francis Says Devil is Behind Clergy Abuse Scandal

Guairdean

It's interesting to see the Pope say that Satan is more powerful than Christ. Aren't the priests supposed to be able to resist the urgings of Satan? Isn't "The Power of Christ" supposed to protect them? What about their victims? Where was this power for good when lives were being destroyed? Where was the Vatican's concern for "the least of our brethren"? "The devil made me do it" was a great comedy routine back in the 70's, but it's a poor excuse for ignoring the problem for decades while children suffered. When priests are defrocked and locked away and not just shuffled to new hunting grounds, when real change is made, when the problem is addressed as a failure of the Vatican to address the issue and take REAL action, when all of these things happen I'll believe there is genuine concern for the victims. Until then, it's just more lip service and shell games.

Gerry

A Church in crisis and it needs to address the sexual abuse issues head on while reconsidering the role of the clergy taking the dominant role within it. It needs the laity to have equal say in the Church's future and bring its teaching on personal morality to be more inclusive, less judgemental, respectful and compassionate to the real issues facing catholics today.

Rev. Rene

Like any modern P.R.Firm, the leader of the church of Rome has a good story to tell us: it's NOT their fault, or responsibility, it's satan's!!! So instead of fixing the problem, (Hint; the Bible says nothing about priests having to be celibate) he can now go on having "addressed" the problem and leave it behind! Well done! Big kudo's.

Lionheart

Yes, let’s blame the Devil and take away the responsibility of human beings.

“Sorry officer, it wasn’t me it was the alcohol”

“Sorry officer it wasn’t me it was the drugs”

“Sorry officer it wasn’t me it was the Devil”

Maria

Satan is definitely alive and stronger then ever! Both don’t forget God have us the ability to choose right from wrong! So we do have the option to turn away Satan!!! Choose to do right!

Barry

Here we go again, blaming some entity For the disgusting behaviour of his Holy men.Admit the fact that these men are sick Pedifiles and they know as well as chose to do their dirty work.

Lock them up !

The Devil made me do it went out many years ago.

Take responsibility !

Frank Villari

Child abuse, not clergy. Nobody is abusing the clergy, though it might be said they're abusing themselves. Faith in God has always encouraged evil to step up. One always hopes that clergy is up for the challenge, only to find many falling short of our expectations. There is not one righteous among us. Not one.

Ben

The devil made me do it, worked in the courts back in the burning times. And that was cause for execution. So, let's execute these priests, like they did witches.

Gary Hynous

According to some accounts, man was given free will by God and blew it by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and man's use of free will has been a problem ever since vis-a- vis the recent events in the church. How deep pedophilia goes in all religions and in this case Catholicism is still to be determined. Why not let priests marry and raise a family and end this nonsense about being married to the church. Parents can sin as do we all...mortal or venial..take your pick. Of course Catholics can sin for 5 days. go to confession on Sat., church on Sunday and, being forgiven, begin the cycle all over again in the next week.This is a universal problem but when priests or any spiritual leader is involved it shakes our faith and perhaps our beliefs.

flugo

The pope is full of crap! The Church pedophile problem is due to the priests CHOOSING to abuse the vulnerable.

'THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT?' I thought these religious leaders represented a higher/stronger force in the form of Jesus and/or Holy Spirit. Why didn't they employ the services (if they really wanted to) of these divinities to help them keep from abusing the innocent? What a crock!

And, NO where in the Bible is it meant for religious leaders to be celibate. NOWHERE!

Pastor Dsve

I left the Catholic church many years ago. As a kid I didn't know these nuns were feeding me a BS line. No Meat on Friday? Try and find that in the Bible.. You won't even find it in your Funk and Wagnel.

They made up stuff, rules if you will. And now they are making up this Devil made me do it crap.

Pastor Dsve

This is why I have my Ordination with the UNIVERSAL LIFE CHURCH. Being Multi denominational I can minister to inmates and others of ALL FAITHS. I RESPECT A PERSONS RIGHT TO WORSHIP THE GOD HE OR SHE FEELS RIGHT FOR THEM. I WAS RAISED CATHOLIC BUT LEFT THE CATHOLIC CHUR H BECAUSE I FOUND OUT THEY DIDN'T TEACH ME ALL I NEEDED TO KNOW.

I ONLY GOT THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY, NOT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS.

ANYWAY. WORSHIP AS YOU SEE FIT. JEWISH CHRISTIAN OR WHAT EVER.

Lionheart

Religion appears to be a neurological disease that only afflicts homo-sapiens who are either ignorant, or have low intelligence. The worst, and dangerous, kind are those that are afflicted with both traits. The only cure for them is an open mind, and education. Sadly, if they are heavily afflicted, their minds are pretty well shut tight. All we can do is love them as best we can. You have to have been where they currently are, in their head, and in remission yourself, to properly understand them. Otherwise, don't even try!

On the brighter humourous side, my dog is safe from the illness and so of course doesn't have a god in his life (apart from me) and is still a very good boy.

Lori

It's only observation, but I think the look on the Pope's face kind of has a devilish way about it. Perhaps the devil is more involved than we know. The Catholic Church is going down. It's long over due. All this BS is for those who are weak minded and can be sucked into the whole devil thing. There are so many that eat it up. It's time for them to grow up and become people of thought instead of parroting bible scripture, with insane and destructive interpretations.

Pastor Dsve

GLAD TO SEE WE ARE DONE WITH THE BIRT AND ERNIE BEING GAY TOPIC LOL. NOW MAYBE WE CAN TALK ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE GUNS IN THE WRONG HANDS.

James

The devil dies and can tempt us. When we follow that lead , we commit sin Then it can be a crime. Then we would be held accountable for our actions. Actions are physical and we are punished for physical sin. Whether it is desease, jail, bankruptcy, divorce addiction, or our families taking apart, all the way to to countries burning, the devil running wild, and sin being openly accepted.. So are we really not believing that Satan is /was real? Is the soul real, is the spirit real, is there a God? Isn't this a church and a church must believe in a deity of some sort. So again I point out that the devil /Satan leads us to temptation and then we choice to follow. Free will and all!!

Pastor Dsve

Ok we all had our say on this but did we come up with a way to prevent the abuse from happening again? How can we make sure it doesn't happen again? Is there something we can do? I myself don't have an answer that would solve this problem nor do I think I ever will at this point. I just don't know how to make it stop, but I wish I did. I would love to hear from anyone out there who can tell me how to make this stop once and for all.

Alan J Meunier

There IS no “Satan” nor "Devil". “He” is a scapegoat for when folks do not want to take responsibility. “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

Ken Dixon

The LDS leaders have told members to cease using the term "Mormon" because it pleases Satan.

Maybe if the Catholics adopt that name, Satan will stop messing with them.

Pastor Dsve

Just go out and have a good day. Try to make some one happy. Spend time with your children and grand children. Life is too short to worry about things we can not control.

Stan

Hail Satan!

Daniel

It could be said God created the people and the people created the devil. During the times of the Christ the definition of sin was ANYTHING that was used to try and separate yourself from God. Many other definitions have been used various religious leaders. Even the term hell was something later created, well been loosely based on the name of Oden’s daughter “Hel” Who was the gate keeper of the Nother room. So it becomes fairly obvious that blaming Satan is a sin because it acts as a method or excuse for trying to separate oneself from God. for those who insist on believing in the devil I think of another saying are used to here: The devil can’t force you, and God won’t force you.

Daniel

Blaming the Devil is a simple diversion tactic that the pope is using to try and silence the victims. I thought that the pope was supposed to of had some big conference to address the problem. Is blaming the devil the only result of their conference? It’s not as simple as just letting the priests marry and raise a family. There are lots of kids who are abused by their parents or other family members, so that, in and of itself, would not solve the problem. I think it would help to address where the problem stems from: the Roman catholic church is the last remnants of the Roman empire where these sorts of abusive practices were considered “Normal”. Thus, The Catholic Church should start by acknowledging it’s long standing cultural tradition of continuing the Roman practice of men having sex with boys. By Acknowledging how These abusive traditions were part of the cultural foundation of the Roman Catholic Church, There would be more of a chance of preventing it from continuing.

Preacher Man

I think most of us would agree that the Bible forbids all forms of sexual perversion. I think it is also fair to say that the Bible prohibits these perverse activities regardless of age and/or gender. Taking this into consideration, how can anyone support the LGBT angeda and turn right around and condem the Roman Catholic Church? One is no less of a sin than the other.

Reverend Sheila E Johnson

This human experience is one of day and night, good and evil, love(all things positive) and fear(all things negative). We each have this duality in us, we have the good and the bad. Yes, each person (and priest) must take a 100% responsibility for their actions whether it was a positive loving action or a negative unloving action. If one embraces their darker side and bring it to the light, you heal that darker part of yourself and become more light and love.
If you look at the consciousness scale, you will see that there are the darker lower energies, such as shame, guilt, fear, (which is what many refer to as Satan) and then there are the higher vibrating energies, love, then gratefulness, top of the list enlightenment (which many refer to as Christ). It is truly our own journey and which end of the scale we choose. Again, the ego (or sin mind) will trick us that this darker part of us is outside of us, when in fact it is within us. Although sometimes, one may have a hard time accepting love as well.
In the end, we truly are one, one with and of God/Universe/ Spirit/Divine that created ALL, the good and the evil, love and hate. if we judge, and STAY angry and continue to hate, we just throw more energy in the negative energies.
Love is the greatest of these, forgiveness is the most difficult but will help to create more love in the world. Forgiveness and moving into love will help heal this world and all the atrocities that we see and witness (and some have actually gone through).

Reverend Elizabeth Ivy

Beautifully written, Reverend Johnson!

Bill Fox

If Satan had the power to "make" us do evil, we would all do evil. No, wait. We all do evil. If Satan had the power to "make" us do the most evil things, we would all do the most evil things. That said, we are accountable for own conduct, regardless of the temptation or the tempter. In the Judgement, we will stand alone. Satan won't be there.

CRAIG

I look at the Devil/Satan/etc as metaphorical and symbolic of the human psyche. Everyone has the potential of giving into "evil" and behaving along said immoral acts. If the Pope literally means another being is influencing the priests and making them commit acts against their will, then we've got a whole other problem which needs addressing and I'd be of the mind of this argument being a cop-out as opposed to trying to fix the real problem.

Otherwise, we're looking at the priests giving into the metaphorical Satan and not having the morality and willpower to deny these terrible and life scarring acts.

Personally, I always thought it was silly for priests to try to maintain celibacy throughout their lives. Priests are human like everyone else and say what you will, denying primal urges and needs more often leads to an eventual outburst. I do not and never would consult a priest for marital advice considering they have no real fundamental understanding of what married life is all about because they've never experienced it.

This is just one more arena in Christianity where it's time to embrace change and get into the 21st century...physically and metaphorically.

Mike Williams

Satan is alive and well in the guise of the "Clintons", Pelosi, Feinstein, Schumer, Cuomo, Sanders and the rest of the Progressive Socialist Democrat movement. Pray to your GOD that he smites these demons !!!

Pastor Dsve

ok, can we move on now? Why do you harp on a subject for weeks? We have been over this so let's talk about something better now

Pastor Dsve

How about doing something nice for someone today. HAVE YOU?

James j

There have been many stories of how the churches became rittled with these evil doers ! So by the churches allowing them to remain, it also allowed them to become holders of influential positions! Most often this leads to them being delt with by the church rather then excamunication or casting them out! At this point I feel the churches need to decide to acknowledge that their exposure to the teachings has done little to reform them and remove them!! There will always be evil that will not be turned around and will do it’s best to deceive you!! Beware!!!!

Paul

Very disappointing but unfortunately not surprising. I saw a video of a deposition of the higher ranking person I don’t remember what office they held and they sounded like a mindless zombie. prosecutor was asking them about whether they knew that pedophilia was wrong or not and they were saying that they didn’t know whether it was wrong or not at the time. Prosecutor says well what about now and the guy responds something like he thinks it’s wrong but he’s not sure...

Blaming things on the devil is the ultimate and not taking responsibility for personal behavior .

It’s been around from day one and it’s still a worthless and empty excuse.

I’m pretty sure there should be some kind of get out of hell free card for anyone who experienced any kind of abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy. Pretty sure the church would never grant that, But since they’re in the business of making up rules maybe they could make one up that would actually benefit someone who is hurt at the hands of their leadership.

The other thing I don’t get is how so many Catholics remain locked into this sham.

Daria

The Catholic church will continue it’s abuses as long as it survives because it’s founded entirely on the paradigm of extreme hierarchy: pope over clergy, clergy over laity, men over women, “christians” over indigenous peoples, humans over every other living being on Earth. It is the rule of fear over love. The institution can only maintain this hierarchy with continued abuse and violence, which in the end WILL bring down the abusers with the abused, one way or another. Time for a complete paradigm shift if we want something better, healthier, more beautiful and equitable.

Lutherans Pray for Everyone

I pray they Change their training, and promote good clean healthy legal normal behavior in all their employees.

Most USA corporations have annual training & retraining to prevent all forms of sexual harrasment or worse behaviors.

As one of Planet Earth's largest church-corporations, they need to work with modern solutions to improve performance and reduce incorrect behavior.

Much larger corporations put every employee through ethics training, etc...

Preventing problems is good for everyone. Set aside mythology, use current training, and even the employment contract should explicitly spell out what to do and what Not to do. Businesses do this with their employees, priests can also benefit from such techniques.

Also, there exists a far larger pool of married men with families, all wanting to work in ministry...

Take this time, Right now, and learn from the dozens of other branches of faith how to promote successful healthy families as ministers, reverands, elders etc. Being a minister's wife or family is a good experience for most people.

The protestant churches are more than willing to share their training and practices that are more effective.

They won't demand Copyright payments for their training and planning of married ministers. It really does work, as thousands of churches in America and across the world demonstrate everyday.

The singles only priest restriction WAS an idea. They Tried that idea.

Now learn from every other church and Try something new!

It will benefit everyone when the Church becomes even MORE pro-family, and supportive of all wives & husbands, mothers and fathers.

DO BETTER by changing the system. Lutherans, Methodists , Presby, etc all have demonstrated for hundreds of years YES, THIS WORKS !

Believe in God, Believe in Families. and everyone is happier.

Pastor Dsve

I was raised Catholic so my advise to you is stsy far awsy from the Catholic Church. Too many things they teach don't line up with the Bible. In what book, what chspter is it written THOU SHALT NOT EAT MEAT ON FRIDAY.

Let me know if you find it. They make up stuff. Holly Water? No such thing my friend.

And that little waffer is not now nor will it ever be anything but a little waffer.

Father Sarducci can't forgive your sins.

Pastor Dsve

The Pope Trump the dope I think we are over run with fools these days. Does anyone pay attention to anything either one of then have to say?

Daryl Stangl

Pope Francis is right on. In 2003, I encountered this evil he refers to when my daughter accused me as her father of sexual molestation which was completely untrue. It was by the leadership of the Angels of Light that I was led to uncover the real perpetrators. It is now my life mission to educate the world about the real actions of the fallen angels to discredit many who are trying to fight the evil they do.

Pastor Dsve

We as ministers of the Universal Life Church can change the World for the better if we all band together for the same cause. If we feel strongly enough about the abuse in the Catholic church, gun control, or any other topic .As long as we all feel the same way on any subject we should do more than just SPEAK about it. We should contact who ever we need to in order to bring about change. United We Stand.

Karen

ok, just saying your a believer, a holy man or layman, does not protect you from evil(satan). It also does not obsolve you of wrongs. God is a forgiving God, when you do wrong or wrong is done to you Faith should help you deal with it. Prayer is to help us to be strong in the face of evil. Wrong is wrong and punishment should be equal to all.

Pastor Dsve

Saw in todays news where police shot a BLACK security guard at a bar shooting because they mistook him for the gun man. What? are you telling me they shot him because he was a black man with a gun? So that makes him the suspect? He had a suspect in custody. He was holding him at gun point for the police AND the cops shoot HIM. Trained professional law enforcement officers my foot. Too dam gun hoo. Shoot first ask questions later caused this poor man his life. WHY? Maybe we should not take guns away from American citizens but take them away from stupid cops. If the man is not shooting at you or anyone else maybe just maybe he's not the shooter. Did this cop even order him to drop his weapon before he blew him away? And then why shoot to kill? He couldn't just shoot him in the leg or somthing? There is more than one way to handle a situation and this cop picked the wrong way. Shoot first doesn't work when someone dies who shouldn't have.

Pastor Dsve

Now for the 64 thousand dollar question. DID THE DEVIL MAKE THE COP SHOOT THIS GUY OR WAS IT THE DEVIL WHO MADE THE REAL GUN MAN GO IN AND SHOOT PEOPLE IN THAT BAR. AND WAS IT THE DEVIL WHO MADE THOSE PEOPLE GO TO A BAR IN THE FIRST PLACE. Time to stop passing the buck. We blame the devil for everything. And when that doesnt work we blame Trump.

James Shoup

I think the Catholic Church is at fault and with its unrealistic expectations causes priest to fall. People are sexual, there are people attracted to the same sex yet you fault those who love the same sex instead of faulting the churches ignorance for creating shame based people who are forced to lie. The blood of the children and the priest who fall is on the leadership of the church.