This doesn’t happen very often but, I retract what I said about the Pope. That man has had his every step logged since the moment he set his foot on our soil. I haven’t posted about his travels, but I have been following, or news stalking, him throughout his voyage.

Pope Benedict the XVI has actually been plugging away at the issues with our Catholic Churches. He has been trying to help those who fell victim to the Priests and wanting to do more.

“We are still far from closure,” said Rev. Richard McBrien, a professor of theology at Notre Dame and editor of the Encyclopedia of Catholicism. “Some bishops who covered up these crimes and exposed children and young people to serious risk of abouse are still in office.”

“It’s clear that we now have a pope who is concerned about this most serious problem to hit the Catholic Church since the Reformation of the 16th century, and the most serious problem in U.S. Catholic history,” McBrien added.

The world has a busy Pope on their hands, hes trying to solve the many issues with the molestation scandal and for that I salute him. Seriously though, the Pope is 81 and doesn’t have much life left in his Mortal Kombat health bar. I’m afraid that Pope Benedict XVI will not be able to tackle the whole team before he kicks it, but I could see him making a shopping cart size dent in your brand new Mercedes.

This whole abuse scandal got started in Boston in 2002 when many U.S. dioceses began trying to cover up the lawsuits with settlements. The biggest cover-up controversy is when the Los Angeles Archdiocese agreed to pay $660 million to 508 victims in July.

Link

Cult leader versus Pope, hilarious attack on the Catholic Church by Bill Maher

The Pope hits the U.S. Will he solve the rape issues?

Catholic Church spent $615 million on sexual abuse cases in 2007

So, I don’t know how many of you know or care, but the Pope is supposed to spend the next five days in the glorious country in which I live. That’s right folks, the Pope is hitting the U.S. in an epic adventure, where I certainly hope he handles some of the negative controversy towards their religion…

Back in March, I wrote the bit about the Catholic Church spending Catholic Church spent $615 million on sexual abuse cases in 2007. Honestly though, even if the Pope does not resolve even half the issues involved, it really wouldn’t put too much of a damper on their existence. Catholic Priests have been molesting their followers for years and years, that shows people in their 60’s to late 70’s standing in protest to the Catholic Church and the Pope.

What an incredibly juicy and controversial piece of TRASH, religion is such a joke. These Priests molest people who have similar beliefs in religion as them, they disrespect their God, disrespect everything they stand for, but when it comes time for them to take responsibility for what they have done, the Pope pays their settlement? THAT IS BULLSHIT. Seriously, if the Pope wants to stand by and let this ridiculousness continue under his ‘roof’ then, why do people continue to be Catholics? Are they brainwashed? Blackmailed? What is the deal?

Update: 4/14/08: If you liked, hated or felt indifferent about this post… Come check out my latest about the Catholic Church:

The Pope hits the U.S. Will he solve the rape issues?

Cult leader versus Pope, hilarious attack on the Catholic Church by Bill Maher

Who has $615 million dollars to just throw around? The answer to that question is the Catholic Church. Who also has the money to suppress a lot of bad press? The answer again is the Catholic Church. Who doesn’t have the decency to stay out of little boys pants? Again… The Catholic Church.

Here is a few quotes I found interesting in an :

Of the monies paid out by the church, 526 million dollars went to settling cases…

Around 23 million dollars was paid out for therapy for victims or support for accused offenders, and 60 million dollars for legal fees, said the report, which was commissioned by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

McKiernan estimated that more than 5,000 priests out of nearly 41,500 across the United States have been denounced for sexually abusing children since the 1950s.

A report commissioned in 2004 by the USCCB from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Washington found that nearly 4,400 priests had been accused of abuse.

In the last year, about 689 new allegations of abuse were lodged, that is only three percent fewer than in 2006. A lot of the cases settled in 2007 dated back decades. Of course most of the victims were teenage boys between 10 and 14.

Between 2006 and 2007 alone, “expenditure related to allegations increased by 54 percent,” due mainly to a near-doubling of the amount paid out for settlements in 2007, it said, showing that other pay-outs had fallen.

But Terry McKiernan, president of the organization Bishop Accountability, which documents the abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic church, said the report by the bishops was opaque and fudged the number of clergymen who have been accused of sexually abusing children.

“Because the report is only counting and not actually naming the priests, we are not able to determine which of these allegations pertain to priests already accused and which pertain to new priests,” McKiernan told AFP by phone from Boston.

I am not attacking the Catholic Church, but if you think about it in terms of a different company [not a non-profit organization] like Pizza Hut, Dell or Microsoft then people would boycott those companies. The companies would look horrible in the press, and people would begin to seek out other options for their pizza and computer needs. With all the bad press, even the stuff quickly suppressed, people still sit through church every Sunday and then some. No one cares what the Churches do, they are holy, and untouchable.

To be quite honest, I believe that all churches are the same, but Scientology, Christianity, Catholicism, ect. are all the same. They brainwash their community into getting more followers, followers of God they brainwashed you to assume. Or just more people to pay out of their pocket so they can afford to stay afloat after the millions of dollars spent on sex abuse cases. Sad thing is, people, tax payers, complain to no ends about paying for the containment of prisoners. But, when people think about giving money to the church, it is overlooked what they really spend their money on. Seriously, think about how much money you all just wasted by throwing it at the Catholic Churches blunders. Think twice before you put money into their collection plate, I bet it goes into the “Sex Abuse” folder instead of the petty cash.