Comments on: The legacy of Pope Benedict XVI

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:41:47 +0000

Silly, you can't say, "I'm more Catholic than you," that's like saying I'm more human and such. A Catholic is simply one who in communion with the Pope.

By: P Boire

P Boire — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:21:22 +0000

Well said Patrick. It is hardly possible to uderstate the ignorance of so many in our day who are truly western cultural illiterates. There are probably a million or so Canadians (very conservatively) who honestly believe, largely due to our media's fascination with US biblical fundmantalists, that there's supposed to be some kind of conflict between science and religion. How uninformed do you have to be to buy that one. It's positively scary. Mind you , we live in a culture that is primarily ordered around corporate profit requirements, so things that don't immediately pay off with increased consumption are actively and passively discouraged. Do people never ask how they could have free will if everything is just physical for instance? Are mathematics and logic physical things? There is more to existence than meets the bottom line. I'ver read that Pius XII was directly involved in saving over 700,000 jewish lives and he ordered the churches and convents to hide and protect them. No one did more. Certainly not Canada and the US who turned away boatloads of desperate jewish refugees.

Cheers

By: P Boire

P Boire — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:02:30 +0000

That said, it is surprising, given Fr Mendel's seminal work in genetics which SAVED Darwinian theory from a lot of scientific resistence that the writer thinks there has ever been a problem with evolutionary theory. And Big Bang physics was from a priest, Jorges Lemaitre, as well. Modern western science despite the highly misunderstood Galileo incident was largely a work of Catholic and Christian Europe.
As to condoms, the UNAIDS study of Hearst and the Harvard study (Greeen) BOTH agreed with the pope that the emphasis on codoms was furthering the AIDS epidemic.In a consumer culture that worships 'natural', it's ironic that its the church that defends natural human sexuality. And the idea that Catholics 'hate' homosexually attracted persons is simply ridiculous. Any first year biology student knows we are not at all designed for certain sexual practices. But the chruch's view is neither underinformed or insensitive to deeper psychological realities that can cause gender confusions. I think the Catholic Church has been and continues to be , by a very wide margin the most progressive, intelligent and forward looking force for good ever seen in all of history. I am very happy that she is there for me and all.

By: P Boire

P Boire — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:00:09 +0000

I can understand how a person can become irrational with disappointment and shock over the sex abuse scandal that has so wounded so many, myself included. But this is mostly a legacy of the 'free love' ethics of the '60's. Audited records for abuse claims show a total of fewer than ten serious claims in the US out of 63 million. The Catholic church is certainly the safest place in the US for a child, and this is how it should be. Pope JP II, some say, really couln't believe that such terrible corruption could have existed, (and it was NOT usually just a case of turning a blind eye, but naive treatments from psychologists and a culture of forgiveness and a fear of scandal. This doesn't excuse of course, but such issues in the '60's were widely viewed as 'moral' issues and parents almost never wanted a public trial.

By: Catherine Uffen

Catherine Uffen — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:04:54 +0000

I am very disappointed in Macleans for publishing this piece of nonsense. This isn't journalism it's an advertisement. Send an invoice to the Roman Catholic Church Macleans – and charge by the word.

By: K. Van Keith

K. Van Keith — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:49:13 +0000

Obviously Catholicism is fair game for any hack who thinks they know what they are talking about!

Let's see you dare to do an identical piece on Islam. What do I sense hesitation. You bet I do. Why, because it would be considered racist, that's why!

It's so obvious that you chose Holy Week to be the most disrespectful. I

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:26:21 +0000

Since this article is about the Catholic Faith and the Pope,
I should show the Biblical roots of Confession, the Papacy, and the importance of the Church.
After his resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21–23).

"You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church" (Matt. 16:18)

The apostle Paul says to Timothy: "These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:14,15)

God bless,
Steve

By: newsjunkie

newsjunkie — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:15:37 +0000

Yes this is the problem. There are no headlines and wall-to-wall reportings, but if you look at the stats, they are the same. Every statistical research shows that Catholic cleargy are not worse than other clergy or professionals. But, of course, you will not see this with a bigotted approach. (see stats above)

By: newsreader

newsreader — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:03:17 +0000

Oh, the bigoted ones creeping out of the woodwrok …

By: newsjunkie

newsjunkie — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:58:06 +0000

You speak like an expert on the matter …

By: Bob Turecki

Bob Turecki — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:51:27 +0000

The pope reminds you that if you don't believe you go the hell. That's the threat that most 3rd world countries were told when they got invaded by your religion.

By: Bob Turecki

Bob Turecki — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:44:47 +0000

Yeah, that all sounds great but the catholic church preaches it is the highest authority on how to live a healthy life if you follow their holy doctrines. Then you get that horny celibate priest that young people look up to and trust and suddenly you got some pressure on your rear. Even one case, let alone thousands should be enough to outlaw this church.

By: Bob Turecki

Bob Turecki — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:36:42 +0000

When was the last time you saw a media report on child sex abuse by the anglicans, protestants, united or baptists? Or do you think their cover-up techniques are better than the catholics.

By: Bob Turecki

Bob Turecki — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:28:52 +0000

Really? Where did you get that from? The same place that says jews are ok now?

By: OriginalEmily1

OriginalEmily1 — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:53:46 +0000

Well since the RCs don't have any 'female religious authorites' beyond nuns, that will automatically limit the damage to less than that of priests.

Not 'without money'…..with laundering money. Hanky panky with the books. They've already been nailed several times for it.

There's an old prediction that this pope is the second last one….at the rate things are going I wouldn't be surprised if that happens. I've seen the church fall from revered absolute authority to a joke just in my lifetime.

But then nothing is eternal…not even the universe.

By: Yanni

Yanni — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:37:56 +0000

I know a lot of it hasn't come out yet. We haven't dealt with the sex abuse crisis involving female religious authorities, who had far more contact with children on a day to day basis than the men did. Estimates predict that for number of cases, it will outnumber the cases of predation by men. Whether it will be of a similarly overwhelming prevalence of same-sex assaults remains to be seen.

As for the Church ceasing to exist without money… certainly the Church will become less visible in the public sphere without money, but I'm doubtful that it will cease to exist any time within the next 1000 years. If it is going to cease to exist however, I'd rather it do it sooner rather than later. After all, why waste your time on the Church if it isn't eternal?

By: OriginalEmily1

OriginalEmily1 — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:49:35 +0000

No, there aren't any 'conservative' dioceses any more….they are all 'liberal' to varying degrees.

And much of it hasn't come out yet.

However it'll be the money situation that finally does the church in.

By: Yanni

Yanni — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:27:42 +0000

Oh, we have outrage. We just don't trust your organization enough to be a solution to the problem, nor do we wish to give you any money. The list of contact names on your website are fairly infamous, and are part of a political wing in the Church which exists to undermine authentic catholic traditions, doctrine and teaching.

The Liberal dissidents want to blame everything on a repressed, conservative hierarchy, but the simple fact is that the liberal ideologies and liberal clergy are just as (if not more) responsible for the sex abuse cases as the people they are beating the war drums against.

By: Yanni

Yanni — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:22:44 +0000

You are assuming that the priests caught with in sexual abuse disagreed with you about condoms, same sex marriage, sexual liberation, divorce or abortion. The dioceses which were the most liberal (in Ireland & England, the Maritimes, Boston & New England, California, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Belgium etc.) were hit the hardest in terms of both the number of abuse cases and the number of cover-ups.

By: janey

janey — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:39:20 +0000

Catholic acceptance of evolution is nothing new, and it's definitely not radical.

By: anon 11

anon 11 — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:10:23 +0000

The problems with the catholic church are of their own doing and their misguided ways – they are no different than any other religion in the problems they inflict on society – confession is for each believer and God – no man has such authority- not even the pope– any religious institution that places their interest between God and Gods creation will crumble like dust in the wind –Christian, Muslim or Jew They like the rest will reap what they have sown.

By: Janks

Janks — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:56:55 +0000

I thought this was going to be a good article and then right away the author failed. He put in the fallacious statement that the Pope endorsed the use of condoms. Having read the entire book in which that quote was pulled from, the Pope did no such thing. As the author correctly stated, the Pope did say that in the case of a male prostitue with HIV it would signal that the male prostitue was, direct quotes, "a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants." The Pope nevers says that condom use is morally justifiable in certain cases but the use of a condom in certain cases might be signaling a step in the right direction. Besides the errors on evolution and the condom issue, it was a decent article.

By: Ray Fortier

Ray Fortier — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:34:26 +0000

When a Pope presents himself as a friend to everyone not willing to make the hard choices, the weak kneed members of the Catholic faith feel very comfortable as they feel their short comings and diluted points of view will not be challenged. This Pope does not take the easy road and has re-affirmed the will of God for his flock. The flock maybe smaller but is a much truer representation of the theology of the Catholic Church.

By: macGen

macGen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:54:35 +0000

Is the Pope Catholic? Of course not, He's Jewish. This argument is about absurd as Is President Obama an American? the West is losing it. What's next? Is the Queen Royalty?

By: Rodolfo

Rodolfo — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:38:17 +0000

I think most Catholics people just pay attention to the church or Pope anymore, it's been like this for a long time but the church just don't realize it greatvacationspots.net and gossipmagazineonline.com All religious people tell me the same thing now a days they have a faith with god and may attend church but don't care about the "church" per say anymore. They have realized their faith is with God, not the church. Afterall wants to be associated with a church that allows such wrong things to go on, and doesn't face the their facts. The church is run by very old people who are totally out of touch with reality.

By: Kristine Ward

Kristine Ward — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:50:45 +0000

What a an outrage that Catholics have so little moral outrage at the scandal that they can be are described as being "assuaged: by Pope Benedict about the rape and sodomy of children.

By: Kaladan

Kaladan — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:46:02 +0000

Yeah but wouldn't you want your gay prostitue to wear a condom too?

By: Bob Turecki

Bob Turecki — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:15:29 +0000

Brian – You missed your calling. You should look up Charles Lewis and write for the National Post. This is one of the most pandering and ludicrous articles I've ever read in Macleans. This Pope is hardly a rebel unless you include his history and what he and his church stands for – indifference to the Nazis, the Roman rat lines, extreme child abuse by clergy (which he knew about and waved off as a nuisance), pushing his church onto 3rd world countries with the threat of going to hell, homophobia of gays and lesbians, hiding behind the pro-life movement, denying women an equal place in his church, condoms are ok only if you are a gay prostitute, and the list goes on.

As to sending out his troops to prop up his religion in waning countries, this is a move of desperation. People in droves no longer believe in a church with this horrid background, preaching its centuries old doctrines made up by men for men – and who can blame them. If you want to call this Pope a rebel, call him a rebel still trying to push his cause.

By: OriginalEmily1

OriginalEmily1 — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:08:58 +0000

Safe sex = pick on the choir boy.

By: newsreader

newsreader — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:07:36 +0000

You are right. There is no contradiction between evolution and church teaching.

By: Warren

Warren — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:16:42 +0000

Well, sex scandals or not, Mr. Bethune makes one hell of a blunder by stating that the pope has casually accepted evolution. I was studying Catholicism in the mid 70's and evolution was accepted by the church then; and as far as I know the Catholic church had accepted evolution as not in any way at odds with church teaching for decades before that. The Catholic church, for all its faults, accepts the metaphorical nature of scripture; in other words, Genesis is a nice story with some important lessons, but it ain't history.

By: newsreader

newsreader — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:31:17 +0000

If you were really disturbed about child abuse, you would be concerned with the current situation in our society, as described by more recent data:

For example, in the US 25% of girls and 16% of boys are sexually abused prior to reaching age 18 (Finkelhor, at al., 1990). According to Vogelnatz, Wilsnack, and Harris (1999), child sexual abuse among girls in the US ranges between 21% – 32%.

According to the March 22, 2010 media release: “Sexual Misconduct Continues to Plague US Schools,” 10% of children will experience sexual misconduct by a school employee during their academic career.

In the United Kingdom, according an estimate by the Adult Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Network, 25% of males and 33% females experienced sexual abuse prior to the age of 18 (data available on their website).

In India, according to the 2007, 13-state National Study on Child Sexual Abuse, by the Ministry of Women and Child, UNICEF and Save The Children, 21% of children experience severe sexual abuse. (Statistics regarding child sexual abuse are on average comparable in other countries.)

By: newsreader

newsreader — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:29:06 +0000

I think you are mixing up the tragic situation of child abuse with one of your sales pitches you give so frequently in your business. Highly disturbing!

It has been documented that the overwhelming majority of abuse cases in the Catholic Church took place prior to the 1990s. Since then many things have changed, most importantly, in the past 15 – 20 years the number of new cases has dramatically dropped, and all but disappeared (however, even one is too many!).

By: Patrick O’Malley

Patrick O’Malley — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:05:53 +0000

The most important thing about Pope Benedict is the way that he dealt with priests raping tens of thousands of children, which also includes his time as Bishop Ratzinger.

He promoted the idea of lying, hiding the truth and fighting law enforcement, which they do to this day. Read the first 6 pages of the grand jury report at http://www.philadelphiadistrictattorney.com/image… to find out how horrifying it still is.

He also continues to ignore and forget the victims.

A bishop in Belgium admits he had sex with his nephew from age 5 to age 18, and the pope STILL can't figure out what to do. For anyone else, it would be a 5 minute decision.

I'm embarrassed to say I was once a member of the Catholic church.

Parents – save your children from the Catholic church. The Pope, his bishops, and his priests just don't think child rape is a big deal, they don't think honesty is important, and they hvae been horrible in their treatment of victims. You'll never see them practice the "loving arms of God".

They've ruined a perfectly good religion.

By: BC-resident

BC-resident — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:12:32 +0000

I think the most important aspect of Pope Benedict's ministry is that he is focusing on calling people to turn back to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pope reminds us that the only Saviour is Jesus, and that people need to turn to Jesus for His love, forgiveness, and the eternal life that only Jesus offers. The Bible says it so well, in John's Gospel, chap 3 v. 16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son Jesus, that whoever believes in Jesus will never perish but have eternal life.

By: newsreader

newsreader — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:43:20 +0000

Overall this is a good article. There are some minor things which could have been articulated differently, but all things considered, this is pretty good.

One of those ‘minor things’ is that perhaps it would have been more accurate to highlight that the 16 year old Ratzinger actually deserted from his Hitlerjugend unity (risking severe punishment), and not that he was a member of it, which as you point it out, was automatic for all children of his age.