After three years, an independent inquiry into French Catholic leadership has released their disturbing findings – which is even more damning than many even imagined.
After thousands of interviews with witnesses and victims, the 2,500-page report estimates that since 1950, at least 216,000 children were abused by Catholic leadership. That number rises to an even more astonishing 330,000 when accounting for abuse committed at Catholic schools.
The independent commission was set up by the Bishops Conference of France, which estimates that the abuse was committed by roughly 3,000 clergy members over 70 years.
Victims and advocates say the report is long overdue, and are demanding accountability for the unspeakable crimes. How is the Church responding?
The Pope’s Response
A Vatican statement said Pope Francis “felt pain” upon hearing the report’s findings. It explained that the pontiff is praying for the victims and their “wounds,” and praises “their courage to speak out.”
"His thoughts also turn to the Church in France, and that, in recognising these terrible events and united by the suffering of the Lord for his most vulnerable children, it can take the path of redemption," it read.
Victims are now wondering just what kind of redemption the Church hopes to seek. The commission called for financial compensation for victims, but it seems the Church is instead offering... thoughts and prayers.
“By his prayers the Pope entrusts the People of God who are in France, especially the victims, to the Lord so that He may grant them comfort and consolation and the miracle of healing, with justice," said the director of the Holy See Press Office.
Pope Francis has often had to reckon with the Church’s abusive past. In 2018, the Church offered financial compensation to abuse victims in the United States following yet another bombshell report, offering a payout only if the victim waived the right to sue later.
Critics accused the Church of trying to buy off victims cheaply, in case the statute of limitations on childhood abuses is amended later.
As one lawyer representing abuse victims stated, it’s like trying to “put a Band-Aid on a situation that requires major surgery.”
The Ultimate Betrayal
Victims were treated with a "deep, total and even cruel indifference" said Jean-Marc Sauvé, who spearheaded the inquiry. "There was a whole bunch of negligence, of deficiency, of silence, an institutional cover-up."
The Catholic Church is responsible for "a betrayal of trust, betrayal of morale, [and] betrayal of children," stated François Devaux, the founder of a victims’ rights organization in France.
Tragically, many of these crimes are either beyond the statute of limitations, or the abuser is now dead. Out of hundreds of thousands of cases, only 22 are eligible to be prosecuted.
Because legal recourse is out of reach for most of the victims, many are seeking compensation from the Catholic Church. One 73-year-old victim named Martine told AP that the money is symbolic and punitive. “It won’t fix things,” she said. “But it means it will also cost them something.”
The commission itself is calling on the Church to offer financial compensation to the victims. But whether that will actually happen remains to be seen, especially given the Church's shaky record of making amends for past abuse.
What is your reaction?
61 comments
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John D. Partin
You don't read my posts because you are too afraid to do so, since they would shake up your whole little world, as I already told you, and you only come up with this "what you write is not worth it" to cover up your true reason for not daring to read it, as you conservatives usually do to disguise your actual motives. As usual, too, you have it all backwards and I have been baiting you into replying, which you have snatched right up every time, in order to keep you on the hook and get through to you, while you thrash around on my line and hook!! Let me know what more bait you want to be thrown!!!
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Karen M Butler
Many, many children have been abused in many ways and were slaughtered by the 'church' over a thousand years. It's an entity that doesn't hold the supposedly 'pure' for the crimes they commit. And yet, people still go to churches every week and turn a blind eye, donating to them to molest our children. When does it end?
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Lionheart
I fear you are indeed correct Karen. Religion has a lot to answer for in its abuse of children, not just physically, but mentally/emotionally as well. Telling children there is a Hell waiting for them if they don’t accept Jesus as their savior is mental abuse, and that’s just the Christian religion. Other religions have their own blackmailing psychological abuse to keep human beings in line. Those who are less intellectually gifted sadly continue to toe-the-line in fear of upsetting their mythical god.
Thank you for your post.
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Carl Bernard Elfstrom
I for one, expect you to receive three times good for that comment, Lionheart. Believe it or not, it makes no difference to me, sir.
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John D. Partin
Is telling and warning children that there is jail and prison awaiting those who break human laws and teaching them to obey the law "mental abuse", according to you, too? It is loving children to do so and desiring and working to keep them from getting into trouble with the law and being incarcerated and it is also loving children, not blackmail, to warn them about eternal consequences, not blackmail, for breaking God's laws. Your not believing that God is real doesn't actually make Him non-existent, since reality isn't dependent on beliefs and goes on being real even when people don't believe it. So, God's laws and the penalty for violating those laws that people bring upon themselves continue to exist, despite anyone's disbelief in them, and people only benefit themselves by admitting to and following those laws, the same as with human laws.
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Lionheart
Man's laws are very real John to provide health, and safety, for those of us living here. Telling children a bogey man will come and get them, or an ogre will haunt them for the rest of their lives, and even for possibly an eternity, if they don't abide by our laws would be mental abuse because we know for a fact that wouldn't be true, unless someone can prove bogey men and orgre's really exist.
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John D. Partin
Your or anyone else's denying the existence of the spirit in people and the spiritual world and their actually being non-existent are two entirely different and polar opposite things! There are spiritual laws as much as there are human laws and penalties for violating those spiritual laws as much as for violating human laws, even if you and others deny that those laws and penalties exist. Your mischaracterizing spiritual consequences for our actions as a "bogeyman" or "ogre" are as disrespectful and irrelevant as referring to human police officers as "badge heavy clowns" or "pigs", and no more invalidate those penalties than name-calling of human police officers invalidates their enforcement of the law or the penalties for violating those laws. The severity of the penalty for violating any law depends on who you are committing the crime against. Crimes against human beings deserve less of a penalty than crimes or sins against an eternal and loving God, which would, consistently, deserve an eternal penalty that people inflict on themselves, not one imposed on them by God or the Devil, and one that they keep themselves in (the door to Hell is locked on the inside, as C.S. Lewis wrote). You don't know that there are no spiritual penalties for violating spiritual laws or spiritual world where those penalties are self-imposed because you have never honestly tried to find out if any of it is real or educate yourself about it! If you can't find any evidence of spirits in this world, you aren't seriously looking or looking at all and are working 100 times harder at not looking for and ignoring the evidence than at looking for it. Because there are an overabundance of examples of paranormal activity in every State in the Union and every country in the world, where you can go and convince yourself that the spirit world is real, as other skeptics and atheists have done before you, and so you are without excuse for not knowing about it and it is only your laziness, indifference, and apathy that keep you in unbelief and ignorance. When you are sitting in a bar all by yourself and a beer glass or bottle comes flying at your head or chairs move with nobody that you can see moving them, as has happened to other people, that is certainly something far more than "imagination" or "people's lying or hallucinations". When you see shadow people for yourself, you won't disbelieve in them anymore. When you see a full body apparition in front of you and it stares you in your face, as they have to other people, all your thoughts and words about spirits' being "imaginary, lies, and hallucinations" will go flying out the window and you will be screaming and trying to get away, as others have, which would be your true reaction and not this cynical pose that you put on! There are no atheists in foxholes or haunted locations, for very long, anyway!! So, go and prove it yourself, but you won't because it would shake up your whole little world and make you rethink everything, and you are too afraid and unwilling to do that! Again, warning children and everyone about these spiritual consequences for violating God's teachings and laws is loving them and teaching them reality, not mental abuse!!
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John D. Partin
You are always saying that there is no evidence of the reality of spirits and the spiritual world, but that is because you have never even looked for that evidence and have worked 100 times harder not looking for it and ignoring it. There is an overabundance of examples of paranormal activity in every city in every State in the Union and in every country in the world and so anyone who isn't finding evidence of the spirits in this world isn't seriously looking for it and has only his own laziness, indifference, apathy, and fear to blame for his remaining in disbelief and ignorance. When you are sitting in a bar all by yourself and a beer glass or bottle comes flying at your head or a chair moves without anyone that you can see moving it, that is certainly something far different than just "imagination, lying or hallucinations", as many other skeptics and atheists have found out! When you see shadow people, you won't be able to doubt their existence anymore! When you see full body apparitions and they stare you in your face, all your talk of their being "imaginary" or "hallucinations" will go flying out the window and you will be screaming and trying to get away, as other skeptics and atheists have done, which will be your honest reaction, instead of this cynical pose that you are putting on! There are no atheists in foxholes or haunted locations, for very long, anyway! So, go ahead and prove it to yourself, but you won't because it would shake up your whole little world and make you rethink everything, which you are too afraid and unwilling to do! There are laws in this spiritual world, the same as in this material world, and penalties for violating those laws, the same as for violating human laws. It is loving children and everyone else to warn them about the penalties for violating those spiritual laws.
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Lionheart
Heeeeeerrrs Johnny!!!
I'm so delighted that I have spent so much time in your head with you putting all that together with whatever you said. I haven't bothered reading it of course, because what you write is not worth it. Let me see if I can throw you some more bait in other posts.
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Susan Claire Schloeder
The Vatican needs to pay for the sins of its clergy.
The evil that was overlooked is appalling.
(There are very good priests also. )
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Donald Zanghi
Does anyone else believe that the Catholic Church is the largest, oldest, and most corrupt Secret Society this world has ever known?
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Rory Heath
As I have always felt and I still do; priests and nuns should be able to marry. God gave us sex and made us sexual beings. Denying these urges or trying to in the face of public only creates the monster of abuse. The rule of them not marring comes from the Catholic church not anything mandated from God.
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Gerardo Salazar
Pray tell us, where have you read that Christians want to make a goddess out of Virgin Mary? I don’t believe lies are welcome in this forum. And as for Muslims getting together to write down the Quran due to corruption in the Church you should review your info because it is not as you affirm. I’ve been living in the Middle East for 25 years and assure you that your facts are wrong. Please read more.
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Reverend Gary
25 years, wow that is a long time. The manifesto publication that has been around how long? Since circa 650 BC and you can be assured there have been no changes, modifications, misprints, errors in copying this document since then, is that correct?
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Gerardo Salazar
Unfortunately it is not; the Quran was dictated by Archangel Gabriel to Prophet Mohammed, (as per Muslim beliefs), around the year 630AC, about 100 years after the beginning of the Middle Ages.
As you can see, the story is similar to the origin of the Book of the Mormon, in which Angel Moroni brings the book forward so nothing new. Jews took Mesopotamian beliefs and adapted them and at the end it has been a continuous remake of old teachings into new cults.
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Rev. Raven Cutrere (Geoffrey Middleton
This has apparently been a problem in the Catholic Church for years, not just what we saw in the 2000s and 2010s. These new findings tell us that the rabbit hole goes deeper than we knew.
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Andrew John Crowbridge
Abusing little boys, the 8th sacrament.
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Deborah Jean Howard
It is very sad, that the church covers this up. And that’s what it is a cover-up. It’s been going on for decades centuries Eons. But the church the higher-ups do not do anything about it. It needs to be brought to court, these priests these ministers these Rabbis. They all feel that they’re better than now. And all that the higher-ups do in the church or in the Vatican, they move these people someplace else so they can abuse more children and adults. It needs to stop. It needs to be brought to justice in front of the courts
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Richard Lee Cornell
That is the same excuse that it gave for knowing what was happening to those of the Jewish faith in WW2 in Europe. Since it was only killing of Jews it was alright since it was not the Catholic Church doing the killing but that of the Lutheran Church. The Catholic Church has use those in power to do their dirty work of getting rid of non Catholic or anyone who was different. The abuse of children was as common as it has always been in every country that there is a Catholic Church you will find children being attack. It is not only the males priest, but that of the nuns who being cruel is just as worst. Beating of a child is standard practice as children of that faith can attest to. Jokes about males being beaten by a nun after school were common and females being subjected to those beating by both nuns and priests. The other joke is where do Catholic boys learn about sex, from the young nuns who take them under their robes.
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James Pace
My question is, why is anyone even surprised anymore?
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Charles Jude Platt
If we want to 'blame' anyone, it should be God. He made is all the way we are. Why don't we pray for healing and (if possible) reconciliation for the victims and the sinners? Blaming won't help anyone heal. We all must continually look at our 'flaws ' before casting angry judgements on anyone. I believe Jesus of Nazareth once said, "Why are you looking at the splinter in your neighbors eye while their is a LOG in your own?" These Clergy were and are sick. Sick, sick people. "If we are without sin, we can cast the first stone" God bless these victims and their degenerate clergy.
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JPrime
The church needs to take accountability and face consequences before any true healing and reconciliation can happen. So far, nothing has happened except the Pope offering “thoughts and prayers”. That’s all well and good….but ACTIONS are required here. The very least that needs to be done is the defrocking, excommunication and prosecution of those that who CAN be found. Immediately. INCLUDING those involved in covering up the abuse. And support for ALL who were affected by the misconduct, not just the targets. Seems to me the absolute minimum isn’t even being met.
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Karen M Butler
God gave us a brain. We're supposed to use it, not abuse it.
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Rebecca L Tice
I've been reading the Quran lately..... and comparing it to the Bible. https://forums.somd.com/forums/religion.30/ I'm finding that we worship the same God... the Muslims just want no part of making Mary a goddess. That, in their mind, makes Jesus too iffy. Mary is not a goddess... and the same church that seems to make her one.... is the same one preying on our children. That speaks volumes to me. My church has a problem too.... there are a lot of Good Christian, Southern Baptist, women who are preyed upon by the preachers. Corruption in the church or synagogue is what caused the Muslims to form together and write the Quran..... and we are not surprised by the "good" pope saying he is sorry......
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Gerardo Salazar
Pray tell us, where have you read that Christians want to make a goddess out of Virgin Mary? I don’t believe lies are welcome in this forum. And as for Muslims getting together to write down the Quran due to corruption in the Church you should review your info because it is not as you affirm. I’ve been living in the Middle East for 25 years and assure you that your facts are wrong. Please read more.
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Robert Nicholas Stevens
Catholic church gets more leniency from their crimes than BLM and Antifa.
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Amy Varela
You forgot the GOP.
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John P Maher
CORRECTION THE G O Pigs !
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Lionheart
In reality it’s the way the Christian religion is, it’s led by an equally monstrous imaginable deity that many, for some really ridiculous reason, love to worship. I think it’s because they firmly believe they will go to hell if they don’t….totally conned by that blackmailing fallacy, and fearing their god.
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John P Maher
HEY LIONHEAD R U the FAMOUS RIKI the LIONHEAD BIGMOUTH KNOW IT ALL ???
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Lionheart
I wish I did know it all John, but thank you for the complement. I am constantly seeking and learning by using logic and reason, mixed with critical thought. How about you?
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Gwendolyn Lord
Isn't it about time that the sweeping abuses perpetrated by Catholic clergy in EVERY COUNTRY were addressed by an open mea culpa, and a formal act of contrition by church hierarchy up to, and including the Pope. (Granted he inherited this fulness, but ignoring the elephant in the room won't do any good.) The Catholic Church has been outdated for at least a couple of centuries, in terms of addressing the spiritual needs of it's congregations. Maybe it is passed time for them to roll up their rugs, and pack it in. Seems to me ALL organized religions have failed in their reputed "missions" and morals. Just look around you, watch the news, feel the energy shift. I think the see-saw has tilted into the negative zone, and chances of recovery seems slim. Our planet is the mirror which reflects the centuries of selfishness, greed, callous cruelty, savage behavior, fierce hatreds. Gaia SCREAMS, sends earthquakes and storms, strong winds, trying to get us off Her Body. If the meek shall inherit the earth, than maybe our animal brethren deserve to take over. We deserve NOTHING.
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Daniel Gray
If after investigation you find out they did it, then nail them to the wall. this isnt rocket science.
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Matthew Mastrogiovanni
It's time to abolish the hypocritical Catholic Church. The Vatican is a gigantic pedophile ring, that hides behind a religion.
How can they condemn the LBGTQ community, while promoting pedophilia?-
John P Maher
YOU KNOW WHATs MISSING from ALL CHURCHS, ?, GOD !
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Lionheart
As there is no evidence for one, do you have a particular man-made god in mind?
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John P Maher
HEY LIONHEAD, MY MEANING is THAT THEY TALK B S LIKE YOU ! YOU DO NOT NEED ANY GOD or ESPECIALLY A LEGEND IN THEIR OWN MIND AS YOU, SCHMUCK ! DO YOU KNOW WHY DONKEYs LIKE YOU DO NOT ATTEND SCHOOLS ???
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Lionheart
Thank you for your very literate and well meaning comment John. Perhaps we could share sometime as to which schools we attended to get our Doctorates? Mine was in Aerospace Engineering with an emphasis on Rocket Motor Stage Separation Systems. What was yours?
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flugo
'lyin' fart': Well, whoop-tee-doo! You've a Doctorate. So What?! To belittle someone you think lesser than you?!
There are lots of degreed 'fools' in our society today, for degrees do not equate with wisdom.
Your comments to John reveal your insensitivity and vanity. And your assertion of the absence of God proves you're a fool. Psalm 14:1
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Lionheart
Heeeeer's flugo. What took you so long? Thank you for quoting something from your old book of Psalms written by people who didn't know where the sun went at night. Let me see if I can find you something from it.
I am the lord thy god....open your mouth wide, and let me fill it. Psalm 81:10 🤪
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Gwendolyn Lord
Exactly. The hypocrisy and fulness is beyond....
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Gerardo Salazar
Comment removed by user.
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John D. Partin
Matthew Mastrogiovanni, is the Catholic Church really the only church that has pedophiles and pederasts in it or are they the overwhelming majority of the priests in the church, instead of just a very small minority? How, then, is the Catholic Church "a gigantic pedophile ring" with only a very few pedophile priests in it? They need to be gotten out of the church and the other problem priests involved in financial scandals and just men with rotten personalities, who are unfit for the priesthood, gotten out of the church, and the church to return to the teachings and Spirit of Christ and be led by the Holy Spirit, and then the Catholic Church would be again what it should be in the world: the Light of God to the Nations, instead of a disgrace and laughingstock to the Nations!! But your "solution" of just abolishing the Catholic Church altogether would be a major example of throwing the baby Jesus out with the filthy bathwater of all this corruption and perversion and a tragic mistake!! There are pedophiles and corrupt people in all other denominations, too, and so you wouldn't get rid of the pedophile rings and corruption by just getting rid of the Catholic Church, but would still have them spread among all these other churches!! They need to be cleaned out, too,and return to the teachings and Spirit of Christ!!
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Brien
I think we can all agree that this is horrible. We can apply any label to it we wish, but do not forget that this is part of our world history. It is not only the good parts of history that the world claims, but we must also claim the bad. Placing blame does nothing. Making sure something like that never happens again will. We must use the world history to learn from our mistakes, not repeat those mistakes, and evolve into better human beings. Peace.
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Rev Mark D
There's a reason Mark Twain had as much as he did to say about the French.
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Rev Mark D
This is the history of the satanist Catholic Church since it's inception. Not the Catholics...the Church.
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Amy Varela
A member of the Catholic church, upon hearing these stories of covered-up child abuse by a member of their clergy, who does not immediately leave the church is helping to protect the abusers. Their continued fealty to the international criminal organization that is the Catholic church is reprehensible.
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John D. Partin
Amy Varela, which organization has committed more cover-ups, deceptions, violations of people's rights and sovereignty, sexual and other abuses, treason, international and domestic crimes, and all varieties of wrongdoing: the Catholic Church or the U.S. government? The Catholic Church has been around far longer than the U.S. government, but our government has been making up for lost time and working steadily to come up to the Church's crimes!! If we shouldn't abandon America because of the corruption in the government, why should we, consistently, abandon the Catholic Church because of corruption in it, instead of staying in both of them to keep working on reforming them and bringing them back to righteousness. "Love it or leave it" doesn't work any more for the Church than for America, since it's because we love them that we don't leave them.
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Douglas Robert Spindler
When people are told to believe God's law and religion is above the law the brutal rape of kids, women and men can occur. Just another reason why young people today want to have nothing to do with the Christian religion.
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Rev. Elizabeth
It’s sad that I have to say that I am not surprised. The numbers are even higher. Not everyone reports the crime committed against them by parents who don’t want to upset their priest or children and adults are too ashamed. They blame themselves for being a bad person against God. They feel this is their punishment to be good. I could keep going on but I won’t. This is just the French. Thinks of all people who worship with the catholic priests and other clergy. The numbers are just to high to fathom. I pray the person committing the crime to be healed and the victims to be healed.
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Matthew Mastrogiovanni
You pray that the predator priests get healed?
I pray that pedophiles get crucified on Pay-per-view with the profits going to the victims.
I pray that Catholics wake up and realize that they're members of a depraved, death cult.
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JaZe
priest celibacy is part of the problem
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Gerardo Salazar
I couldn’t agree more with you; for centuries Catholic priests, all the way up to Popes themselves, have kept mistresses although unofficially they have remained celibate. Celibacy is the perfect refuge for perverts who join the Church without having to explain why they don’t mingle with women and in this atmosphere is very easy to predate upon the helpless and the innocent. In the Bible it says: “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Yet the Church’s does not follow this message.
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Matthew Mastrogiovanni
Nearly two-thirds of convicted child molesters and/or offenders were or had been married.
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Robert Wilson
I agree with everything that you just wrote.
Rev robert wilson
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Bishop William Dusenberry, DD
As a ULC BIshop, whose been twice “sainted,” I agree with the two “Rev’s” cited above
“Religiously-brainwashing” little children (aka Sunday School) is a very serious (perhaps, the most serious) type of infant child abuse.
Little kiddies, brainwashed into one kind of mythology, or other, are extremely attracted to demagogues who run for President — and in the process, they claim that they were chosen to do so, by their ineffable God (or, Gods).
No child should be indoctrinated into any religion (except one based purely and entirely on Nature) until they reach the supposed “age of reason” which to most never ever comes, as long as they eventually settle on an ineffable God — merely because all the other.members of their tribe do so.
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James Pace
Truth...
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Paul Johnson
We are being brainwashed if we believe all the things that people who hate the catholic church are saying. They need to get a grip on the truth he without sin cast the first stone. So sad to elevate ones self above others and want to be some kind of a judge. Try to be better tomorrow than you were today: trust God and pray for wisdom knowledge and understanding seeking counsel from God not from men who have and agenda. Jesus said to be a light and the salt of the earth. Practice on that for a while and see what changes can and will come about.
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Nicholas J Page
Always the same story Church people get found out about child abuse.What happens an apology from the church involved and that's it quite afterwards.Until the next time.Why are these people getting away with it Seems like the churches haven't got a clue what goes on inside four walls and the clergy gets away with again
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Rev Mark D
Oh they have a clue...nation by nation by nation. Centuries of pattern and practice speak for themselves.
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John P Maher
YEAH and, AND THEN THEY BACK tRUMP and CLAIM HIM JESUS, RELIGION DOES NOT EXIST ONLY BLATANT STUPIDITY !
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You don't read my posts because you are too afraid to read them and just cover over your true reason for not reading them with this "what you write is not worth it". I'm very happy that you have me so much in mind that you are trying to think of ways of wiggling out of reading my posts to you and am sure that you want the truth so much, since you secretly admit to yourself that you don't have it now, that you will keep scheming and planning on how to get more replies from me, in order to be released from the prison of your own "thinking". God will shine His light into your mind, in His time and way. Just keep coming back and we will bring you out of all your wrong "thinking"!!