Catholics: What to give up for Lent

How about pedophilia? Would you give up that one for us, please? And protecting your male, Catholic hierarchy. There's another good one. Please? If not for us and if not for yourselves, how about for your own children?

Two breaking news stories on the Catholic Church this morning

In the first one, Priest calls for pope's resignation from CNN "the Rev. James Scahill called in a sermon last weekend for the pope to resign over the church's sexual abuse scandal."

Good for him. I doubt he'll be the last.

"'If he can't take the consequences of being truthful on this matter, his integrity should lead him, for the good of the church, to step down and to have the conclave of cardinals elect a pope with the understanding that the elected pope would be willing to take on this issue, not just in promise,' Scahill said."

"His church has received more than 100 emails and dozens of calls, of which only two were negative, Sister Betty Braughan said."

More:

"'The church took action after years of sexual abuse only because it had been exposed through the media,' Scahill said."

"Although he has received great support from his parishioners, he admits it has been hard to speak out against the church and the pope."

"'This has not been a healthy thing for me. It's a lot of stress, but I believe the truth needs to be spoken, and I believe the people want to hear the truth and [that] they are sick of the smoke and mirror approach.'"

Indeed, we are all--believers and unbelievers, both sick of the smoke and mirror approach.

Secondly, also from CNN, is this, too:

"Most Americans -- and most American Catholics -- think Pope Benedict XVI has done a bad job of dealing with the problem of sexual abuse by Catholics priests, according to a new national poll."

"CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey results released Friday also indicate that recent revelations about that matter have hurt the pope's standing with the public."

"Fifty-nine percent of American Catholics questioned in the poll have a favorable view of the pope, down 19 points from February. Among all Americans, the slippage is even greater: from 59 percent in February to just 35 percent today."

"According to the survey, 56 percent of U.S. Catholics disapprove of how Pope Benedict XVI has dealt with the problem of sexual abuse committed by priests; only about one in three Catholics has a positive view of how he has dealt with that subject. An even larger number -- 74 percent -- disapproves of how the church overall has handled that matter."

So it's bad and getting worse for the Pope. Unfortunately, it's not a big surprise. You can't shove something like all these cases of abuse under a figurative rug and expect they'll go away.

I don't think anyone can, as yet, predict quite how this will turn out and how far this will push Pope Benedict.

Side note to the Pope: Happy 83rd birthday. Enjoy.

Yet another protected Catholic pedophile priest

This time, in Alaska:

"Alaska Natives are accusing the Catholic Church of using their remote villages as a dumping ground' for child-molesting priests—and blaming the president of Seattle University for letting it happen.

"According to the allegations, Father Joseph Lundowski molested or raped James Does 29, 59–71, and 73–94, plus Janet Does 4–7—a total of 40 children—giving them 'hard candy, money he stole from the collection plate, cooked food, baked goods, beer, sacramental wine, brandy, and/or better grades (silver, blue, or gold stars) on their catechism assignments in exchange for sexual favors.'"

I needn't go on here, about this. If you want more information and to read more of the story, go to the link at the bottom of this post.

My points here, now, are the same as I always post:

--The Catholic Church needs to own up to its wrong doings;

--It needs to explore what happened, where and to whom;

--It needs to see if anyone is guilty of any laws;

--If anyone is guilty of these laws, they should be put up for possible trial;

--They need to see if anyone in the church is guilty of cover up;

--Catholics themselves need to demand response and responsibility from the church leaders--priests, bishops, cardinals, even up to and including the pope himself--to respond to these problems;

--They need to make clear that covering up any abuses in the future will not be tolerated;

--Finally, the Catholic Church needs to put structures into place so that any abuses do get reported so they don't happen again.

A "hat tip" to America Blog (Americablog.com) for today's post, bringing this to my attention.

Link to original post: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-pedophiles-paradise/Content?oid=1065017