Comments on: Vatican Scandals and the Scandal-Loving Press

By: bill bannon

bill bannon — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:31:09 +0000

Disagree. I think we always give long term credit to every papacy but if that were the case, there would have been no sex abuse scandal because the long term benefits of Popes who preceded it would have prevented it….and Pius XII and his long term benefits would have prevented Sr. Farley’s book. Benedict should be administratively working on having Sr. Farley’s book removed from every Catholic institutional library that bought it unawares now that the CDF warned of it 6 years after it was published. I’ll bet he is not. You have recurring moral problems in Jesuit schools like a gay, bi, transgendered group on campus group at Georgetown but the Pope is writing bestsellers which will have long term benefits? He’s doing what he likes… period…and if Popes use the papacy to do what they like, don’t be surprised if millions do what they like.
We are drowning in self flattery. If a man allows others to call him “Your Holiness”, don’t blame the press for expecting things under him to be perfect. Can you imagine living in 1494 and having to call Pope Alexander VI “your Holiness” while he was living an awful life of both fornication and adultery…with the help of the mother in law in question. End the self flattery.
Read section 42 of Verbum Domini. Benedict doesn’t even believe in all the first person imperatives of God regarding the ancient dooms in the OT ( see entire chapter 12 of Wisdom for an opposite view). John Paul II did the same historico- critical comment on the OT death penalties in section 40 of Evangelium Vitae. Let’s talk long term harm to the traditional concept of inspiration.

By: Frank Pray

Frank Pray — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:28:09 +0000

This post seems to dance around a definite position: on one hand media exposure is cleansing, and on the other hand it has a salacious appetite for scandal. What I can say I appreciate is that the post addresses the fallacy that Benedict is a detached academic who doesn’t know the details of this matter. The evidence is to the contrary. One of the documents released includes a letter addressed to Benedict asking that he intervene to stop the retaliatory transfer of a high-ranking whistleblower. The transfer proceeded. It’s difficult for Benedict to claim no involvement. It is useful to remember that the Vicar of Christ is not Christ and that he needs confession and forgiveness as much as those he serves.

By: Francis Thomas

Francis Thomas — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 01:28:40 +0000

Nicely put Liam. I’m new to this site but if this is another forum for simply stating that the hierarchy is always right, the media always wrong, and anyone who dissents should just leave, then I won’t be a repeat visitor. These days it seems we just want to gather in our (cyber) coffee house, speaking only to those whom we with whom we vehemently agree while telling everyone else to hit the pavement. Sad that it is true about our politics, a tragedy and grave disappointment that we are that way too in conversations about faith.

By: Liam

Liam — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:16:37 +0000

Well, I am thankful this media, for all its ills, compelled the Church to at least take steps towards the scandal of how its bishops handled abuse allegations. Making a scapegoat of the media is no more virtuous than making a scapegoat of the Vatican; both are vices masquerading/rationalized as virtues. There is an old proverb that God permits the Evil One to send evils in pairs, so that we may flee from one to cling to the other. It’s always worth remembering when we try to right wrongs.