Article: Belgian Catholic leader under fire for paedophile remarks

Political leaders slammed Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, a conservative close to Pope Benedict XVI who has headed the Belgian church since January, for saying retired priests should be spared what would be tantamount to "a sort of vengeance."
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This is a bit rich coming from a religious tradition that includes an infinite amount of suffering in hell.
 
"But do they (the victims) really want an 85-year-old priest, all of a sudden, pilloried in public?"
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If he paedofiled someone, then yes.
 
jes said:
The head of the Belgian Catholic church, reeling from a major child abuse scandal, came under fire Thursday for asking for mercy for elderly priests facing allegations of paedophilia.
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Mercy? Did they have mercy on the children?
 
blunomore said:
Mercy? Did they have mercy on the children?
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Exactly. Why should they be given any form of leniency? The Church seems to look at this as if it was some kind of petty offense instead of as a violent and despicable crime on children that will feel the effects for the rest of their lives.
 
jes said:
The head of the Belgian Catholic church, reeling from a major child abuse scandal, came under fire Thursday for asking for mercy for elderly priests facing allegations of paedophilia.
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I wonder if his thinking extends to excusing perpetrators for crimes committed during the holocaust.
 
ocleroux said:
Why does the church insist on being a safe haven for pedophiles? I just dont understand it! Gaan my verstand te bowe. *sigh*
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The church is not insisting on being a safe haven - if you believe this, can you show the proof that they are insisting on this? Certainly, this has not been handled all that well, but by the same token, I don't think that the entire church should be labelled the way that you have insinuated.
 
nightjar said:
I wonder if his thinking extends to excusing perpetrators for crimes committed during the holocaust.
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Excusing and asking for mercy are different things.

And are you comparing what these priest have done to the systematic annihilation of a race?
 
The archbishop caused an uproar earlier this month when he said AIDS was "a sort of intrinsic justice."
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Fugging hilarious. Do you suppose AIDS has mercy on the old?
 
hammell said:
The church is not insisting on being a safe haven - if you believe this, can you show the proof that they are insisting on this? Certainly, this has not been handled all that well, but by the same token, I don't think that the entire church should be labelled the way that you have insinuated.
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Um, didn't the Pope himself protect pedo priests? Didn't the church itself just propose treating pedo cases as internal matters instead of allowing priests to face the law of the land?

Seems to me if you don't want to label the entire church on this one we'd better stop talking about a church in general.
 
hammell said:
Excusing and asking for mercy are different things.

And are you comparing what these priest have done to the systematic annihilation of a race?
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No one is comparing anything. Raping children is still what it is, an evil crime that should be punished in accordance to law, not swept under a carpet like the Church has done for a very long time. And if you don't like the Church being labeled then show how the Church has done anything to insure that priests have answered to the law for their crimes. Last I checked pedophilia is a crime.

Really, the way people think that it's like someone pinched an apple off the next door neighbors apple tree just makes me want to cry.
 
hammell said:
Excusing and asking for mercy are different things.

And are you comparing what these priest have done to the systematic annihilation of a race?
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Men in their 80s & 90s are still being hunted down and prosecuted for their part in the holocaust; and quite rightly so.

Article quoted in OP.
The church has been reeling from a paedophile scandal after a church commission last month revealed nearly 500 cases of abuse by priests since the 1950s, including 13 victims who committed suicide.
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Thirteen suicides, quite apart from all the damaged kids and ruined lives, are not trivial except to those who are trying even now to shield the rapists.

As it happens one of the priests in my school was transferred after complaints to a mission school in Rhodesia. I guess the thinking was that black kids couldn't complain and, if they did, nobody would believe them. I was not one of his victims.

I wasn't comparing it to the holocaust but I might as well mention that in 1933 Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius Xll) played a key part in propelling Hitler to power. War criminals were provided with Vatican papers and assistance in escaping justice.
 
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