Benedict 16th and Mea Culpa

[Mole]

"Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God", is a 2012 documentary film directed by Alex Gibney. The film details the first known protest against clerical sex abuse in the United States by four deaf men.

The film show that Cardinal Joseph Ratsinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Inquisition), and later Bendict 16th, received all reports of child child abuse within the church and so knew more than anyone what was going on.

It may be sheer coincidence, as suggested by [MENTION=10757]Nicodemus[/MENTION], that Benedict 16th resigned just after the film was released.

The movie is out today and I am going to see it.

 

[Mole]

The Documentary and the Royal Commission

I saw the documentary, "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God", by renowned documentary maker, Alex Gibney, yesterday.

It is an excellent documentary which confirmed all I knew about catholic child abuse, and which confirmed all my suspicions, particularly that the coverup was ordered by the Vatican.

I am though alarmed that catholic child abuse continues in poor countries in Africa, Asia, the Philippines, and South America, because the catholics in those countries don't dare say the priest has done anything wrong. And if they do say their priest had done something wrong, nobody believes them.

This is a documentary to be seen by all catholics of good will. And nicely complements Australia's Royal Commission into Child Abuse which started hearing evidence today and which will be webcast.

 

[Mole]

The Five Thousand v the Church

Five thousand (5,000) victims of child, sexual abuse are expected to give evidence before the Australian Royal Commission into Child Abuse.

The Catholic Church is expected to fight every inch of the way with the modus operandi they have used in the past: the church will be adversarial and legalistic.

 

[Mole]

The Three Great Moral Issues

The first great moral issue tackled by liberal democracy was institutional slavery. And institutional slavery was first abolised in 1833 by the House of Commons, and then the Royal Navy was sent into the Atlantic to sink any American slave ship.

The second great moral issue tackled by liberal democracy was the emancipation of women. And women were emancipated for the first time in history in Australia and New Zealand in the first years of the 20th century.

The third great moral issue tackled by liberal democracy is the sexual abuse of children. Ireland led the way with the first Judicial Enquiry into child abuse in 2009, and as I write Australia is following suit.

And it is interesting that Australia is making this third great moral step forward under an atheist who is a woman living in sin. Look to your left to see our first women Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, the atheist living in sin.

And look around you at the great religious countries of the world, from the United States, to the Philippines, to Indonesia, to Saudi Arabia, and we see that child sexual abuse is not transgressive, rather it is an accepted part of social life.

 

[Mole]

Cardinal George Pell and Child Abuse

Yesterday, at the Victorian Parliamentary Enquiry into Institutional Child Abuse, Cardinal George Pell, Australia's leading Catholic, as well as holding a high position within the Vatican, testified that the Roman Catholic Church put paedophile priests above the Law.

In other words, the Roman Catholic Church is an international criminal organisation, committing crimes against children.

 

[Nicodemus]

Same old, same old.

 

[Mole]

Same old, same old.

The movement against child abuse is as important as the movement against slavery and the movement for women's emancipation.

Your very own Alice Miller explains why.

But what is interesting on the ground is that we have two State Parliaments holding Enquiries into Child Abuse, and we have a National Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse, yet to come.

And already, at this very early stage, Cardinal Pell has shown he is more interested in power than the suffering of children.

Roll on, the Royal Commission.

 

[Typh0n]

Same old, same old.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Everytime I hear the name Benedict XVI, I get really hungry. I don't think enough people understand how awesome Hollandaise sauce is. I like to buy packets of Hollandaise sauce mix and just pour them over things sometimes.

Also, Australia's liberal democracy didn't seem to prevent them from massacaring the Tasmanian Aborigines. Not that I'm claiming that we were any better in the U.S., of course.

 

[Stanton Moore]

Everytime I hear the name Benedict XVI, I get really hungry. I don't think enough people understand how awesome Hollandaise sauce is. I like to buy packets of Hollandaise sauce mix and just pour them over things sometimes.

Also, Australia's liberal democracy didn't seem to prevent them from massacaring the Tasmanian Aborigines. Not that I'm claiming that we were any better in the U.S., of course.

I know, right? It's a sauce made of eggs, THAT YOU PUT ON EGGS! GENIUS!

 

[Mole]

Also, Australia's liberal democracy didn't seem to prevent them from massacaring the Tasmanian Aboriginees.

When we arrived in Tasmania there were at most 5,000 aboriginees. Geneticists tell us this was too small a genetic population to survive. And to all of them the common cold, influenza, measles, whooping cough and other common infections brought by the settlers were lethal.

This was before the germ theory of disease was discovered so no one, not us nor the aboriginees, knew what was happening.

Nonetheless I invite you to visit Tasmania today and talk to Tasmanian Aboriginees about their genocide and they will laugh at you.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

^ I dunno, reminds me of the Turks and the way the Armenian genocide didn't happen, apparently.

They weren't all killed off by disease. I also fail to see how the size of the population is relevant at all.

Or maybe they aren't genocides if they're done by liberal Western governments? I'd be willing to leave that in the past, except for the fact that it's my observation that people convinced of moral certainty, with no room for doubt, find it very easy to justify things that are immoral.

You also seem to be suggesting that it can't be a genocide because there are survivors. If you are actually claiming that, than the Holocaust wasn't a genocide either.

 

[Mole]

^ I dunno, reminds me of the Turks and the way the Armenian genocide didn't happen, apparently.

They also weren't all killed off by disease, which is what you seem to be claiming. I also fail to see how the size of the population is relevant at all.

Or maybe they aren't genocides if they're done by liberal Western governments? I'd be willing to leave that in the past, except for the fact that it's my observation that people convinced of moral certainty, with no room for doubt, find it very easy to justify things that are immoral.

You also seem to be suggesting that it can't be a genocide because there are survivors. If you are actually claiming that, than the Holocaust wasn't a genocide either.

To find out what happened rather than lazily repeating stale propaganda, you might like to read, "Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies", by Jared Diamond, as well as, "The Fabrication of Aboriginal History", by Keith Windschuttle in 3 volumes.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Stale propaganda? Stale propaganda from whom?

Guns, Germs and Steel is on my reading list. I'll have to get back to you when I'm done. In the mean time, I apologize if I offended you by insinuating that Australia is less than perfect.

I assure you that if flag-waving amnesia was fashionable in the U.S. right now, as it was ten years ago, I would call people on that, as well.

 

[Mole]

Stale propaganda? Stale propaganda from whom?

Well, from the doyen of historians, Manning Clark, who was awarded the Order of Lenin for services to the Soviet Union, and who proudly wore his Order of Lenin to cocktail parties at the Russian Embassy across the road from me.

 

[Mole]

As the National Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse approaches the Roman Catholic Church is starting to panic. For two Catholic bishops have started a petition for Catholics to sign, to ask the Pope to deal with systemic child abuse within the Church.

Of course it is too late. We are dealing with institutional child abuse with a Royal Commission.

The Church has covered up child abuse for centuries and the only thing to do is to let in the light.

We should be asking our governments all over the world to have a Judicial Enquiry into institutional child abuse, following in the footsteps of Ireland and Australia.

 

[Cellmold]

Why are people attached to countries?

 

[Mole]

Why are people attached to countries?

Citizenship is of a particular country. There is no international citizenship.

And if we don't have a citizenship of a particular country, we are stateless. And this is not a fate I would wish on anyone.

And of course countries are sovereign. Only countries can make sovereign decisions, no one else can.

Good countries protect the vulnerable and the weak. Good countries protect women and children.

Liberal democracy only flourishes in particular countries.

And of course our country is our home.

 

[Cellmold]

Citizenship is of a particular country. There is no international citizenship.

And if we don't have a citizenship of a particular country, we are stateless. And this is not a fate I would wish on anyone.

And of course countries are sovereign. Only countries can make sovereign decisions, no one else can.

Good countries protect the vulnerable and the weak. Good countries protect women and children.

Liberal democracy only flourishes in particular countries.

And of course our country is our home.

What about the evils of overt national pride to the point of nationalism?

 

[Mole]

What about the evils of overt national pride to the point of nationalism?

Yes, we might say Nationalism had something to do with the last two European wars. But then the European Union had overcome Nationalism and war between European Union members is now unthinkable.

At the other end of the scale, Nationalism has failed in the Middle East and we now see they are not defining themselves by nation but by religion.

However we are seeing the rise of Nationalism in Asia with the rise of China.

Of course we must keep in mind that Nationalism says my country is the best, while patriotism is the love of country.