Do you think the Pope should resign?

I wouldn't be too certain about the Pope never resigning.

Anything is possible however my guess would be that if a lot worst dirt end up turning up on this Pope God will shortly be calling him home.

What would Peter have said?

Joe(leave gracefully)Nation

Do you remember the Pope for a month, I think he was John Paul II? There was some buzz that he might have been assassinated. There was also that terrible joke that the first pope was John Paul and the second was George Ringo.

I left the church years ago but I am appalled.

Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, always readable (and possessed of a good Irish name), says today

Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope?

It doesn’t seem right that the Catholic Church is spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin.

Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused " and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged " children.

The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.

This week of special confessions and penance services is unfolding as the pope resists pressure from Catholics around the globe for his own confession and penance about the cascade of child sexual abuse cases that were ignored, even by a German diocese and Vatican office he ran.

If church fund-raising and contributions dry up, Benedict’s P.R. handlers may yet have to stage a photo-op where he steps out of the priest’s side of the confessional and enters the side where the rest of his fallible flock goes.

Canon 1404 states that “The First See is judged by no one.” But Jesus, Mary and Joseph, as my dad used to say. Somebody has to tell the First See when it’s blind " and mute " to deaf children in America and Italy.

The Vatican is surprised to find itself in this sort of trouble. Officials there could have easily known what was going on all along; archbishops visiting Rome gossip like a sewing circle. The cynical Vatican just didn’t want to deal with it.


article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/opinion/31dowd.html?th&emc=th

Sinead O'Connor had plenty to say about this to a bishop's spokesman last night on "Newsnight". Did you see it?

Lawyers are busy on this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_the_vatican_s_defense;_ylt=A0LEaoNyi7JLXAoAPgCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNvNW1qNmtiBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMzMwL2V1X3RoZV92YXRpY2FuX3NfZGVmZW5zZQRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzgEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3ZhdGljYW5vZmZlcg--


VATICAN CITY " Dragged deeper than ever into the clerical sex abuse scandal, the Vatican is launching a legal defense that it hopes will shield the pope from a lawsuit in Kentucky seeking to have him answer attorneys' questions under oath.

Court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press show that Vatican lawyers plan to argue that the pope has immunity as head of state, that American bishops who oversaw abusive priests weren't employees of the Vatican, and that a 1962 document is not the "smoking gun" that provides proof of a cover-up.

The Holy See is trying to fend off the first U.S. case to reach the stage of determining whether victims actually have a claim against the Vatican itself for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about Roman Catholic priests who molested children.
.......
"If Pope Benedict XVI is ordered to testify by a U.S. court, foreign courts could feel empowered to order discovery against the president of the United States regarding, for example, such issues as CIA renditions," Lena wrote in a 2008 brief.

I remember that Pope and the rumors that he was murdered. What a medieval cabl thr vatican is

So did Pinochet.

Joe(How's it hanging, Saddam?)Nation

If, and again I say if the RC church/pope is this dirty on this, it leads one to think just how dirty dirty goes. It may end up being just like the USA, so I can easily see the USA arguing that the pope is head of state stuff and he can't be ordered to testify.

So did Reagan, Bush, Bush, ... .

Osso, I hope you realize that I was NOT implying that Homosexuals were also pedifiles. We agree that many become priests because they seek safety from homophobia abuse.

BBB

Sure, I realize that. I wanted to clarify that I didn't equate the two.

Ross Douthat had an interesting column about all this today..
http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/the-pattern-of-priestly-sex-abuse/

I've never seen any evidence of that and seriously doubt it.

it was john paul I, and there was a big vatican money scandal he was about to blow the whistle on

This was dramatized in the movie Godfather, Part 3.

I said I thought homophobia drove some homosexuals to become priests. I'll amend it to saying it helped - an entry to the priesthood was an open door at a time when homophobia was very strong, a way to go that offered respect at the same time it was a way to lead a religious life. Douthat's commentary on what may have happened in the sixties and seventies made sense to me.

well I'm delighted it makes sense to you, however there is still no evidence to support your theory.

Douthat's commentary re changes in the sixties and seventies made sense to me, as I said.

On homosexuals finding a place/career where they would be respected - but not expected to date and marry - those are my observations, thus opinions, particularly pre '69.

Talk about having the best of both worlds. Sit up there in the Vatican and tell everyone what to do, but disavow responsibility since bishops are not employees.