Vatican has made such an effort to select a Pope who would be untouched by pedophilia scandals that it forgot that Latin America has tragedies of its own.
And this isn’t just bad luck. There is no country, no continent where the Church could go to find a high official of Catholicism who wouldn’t be involved in something really bad. The Catholic Church has been a negative force for far too long. A string of scandalous Popes is only a symptom.
I could care less about the Catholic Church and it’s fairly obvious that my parents don’t really care either based on how they’ve reacted to the story. They believe in God, but they aren’t the type that go to service at all. Didn’t the Catholic Church used to have multiple popes at a time centuries ago? I have a feeling it’s nothing more than a racket like Scientology and again, I have nothing against people who want to legitimately and selflessly do things for their religion as long as it doesn’t harm others or they don’t force it on other people.
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“Didn’t the Catholic Church used to have multiple popes at a time centuries ago?”
This was not a systematic institution, but a consequence of the temporal power of the papacy; since the Pope had an awful lot of power, there were frequently pretenders to the throne.
Officially, however, there is only ever one “legitimate” Pope and the pretenders are called “anti-Popes.” In practice, however, it is not always possible to distinguish which, if any, had the more legitimate claim.
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I agree with Clarissa. The Catholic Church essentially cozied up to Mussolini during World War II after a long history of meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations. The one exception to the bad pope syndrome was John Paul who worked hard to help to bring down the Soviet Empire.
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And collaborated with Franco!
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Are you referencing la dictadura?
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Yes, one of them.
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I can’t get too worked up about this case. I’ve read (don’t ask where!) that this is largely a product of the cuckoo birds currently running Argentina (with whom Frances has often clashed) and those church insiders who don’t want any internal change. The complex topic of how an institution like the RC church should behave in country’s with evil governments is best left for another day.
Plus, the RC church is such an easy target now. The most eager to jump on the anti-church bandwagon remind me of the ditzy topless Ukrainki who also have learned to attack targets (with their breasts!) that don’t hit back. What about the child abuse going on in the Jewish orthodox community or the horrid abuse in Madrassas? But no one wants to be called anit-semitic or face the consequences of crazed violent muslims so it’s pile on the church.
I’m not defending the RC church (which desperately needs internal reform and oversight). Just making an observation about differential treatment.
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I haven’t heard of any pedophilia scandals in the Jewish Orthodox community. Of course, I think those people are all unhinged freaks so I wouldn’t put anything past them. If you write about these things, I will gladly reference you.
I think I have said enough times that I despise all organized religion to be accused of disliking one more than all others.
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I didn’t mean your dumping on the RCC (I realize that you’re an equal opportunity dumper)
But many people dump on the RCC because… it’s easier than dumping on other groups
quick start on orthodox jewish sex scandals (I’ve read, though can’t remember where, that these cases are basically the tip of the iceberg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_cases_in_Brooklyn%27s_Haredi_community
And in the UK police don’t intervene in sexual abuse of a massive scale because they’re too PC.
http://nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.ca/2013/03/racist-pakistani-moslems-gang-raped.html
Unsourced in a way but really disturbing if true (and physical abuse and torture is already well-documetned in madrassas)
http://1389blog.com/2012/03/05/child-rape-and-torture-in-the-madrassas-of-islam/
Again, the RCC desperately needs internal reform and tougher internal monitoring of sexual predators
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Sorry, the comments go into moderation if they have multiple links.
These are very good links, thank you! Interesting conclusions can be drawn here. I will write about this.
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Got a comment in moderation, would geatly appreciate if you could expedite it’s release (and then deleting this if possible). Thnx
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Not so closely related, but interesting:
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/03/diplomatic_row_looms_over_lesb.php
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Ther’s a bit of an argument going on about whether the new Pope of Rome is Hispanic or not. Some say he can’t be since he has Italian ancestry, while others say “Hispanic” is more a language and culture thing than a genetic one. Since you teach Hispanic literature, what say you?
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The definition of Hispanic is “Of or relating to Spain or to Spanish-speaking countries, esp. those of Latin America.” So, obviously, he is Hispanic. People’s ancestry doesn’t mean anything much in the Americas. We all agree that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Bush are American and not the wherever their ancestors originally came from.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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