Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/20/pope-francis-apologizes-for-ch.html
…
5 Likes
Hasn’t the pope been “trying” to clean house since he took over? On some level i think he was trying, i know some of his more progressive thoughts and mandates have been controversial among those in the conservative Catholic ranks. Then again its hard to tell if he was saying those things without the intention of following through.
I know these last abuse revelations have hit the church much harder so i can only hope actual change happens. Like letting priests marry.
7 Likes
About fucking time.
I guess the shitgibbon wing of the Catholic Church, aka Bill Donahue, got wind that this letter was in the works and that’s what inspired his recent outpouring of fecal material:
10 Likes
I hate having a good pope.
I wanted the predatory, abusive 1500+ year old cult that is the Roman Catholic church hierarchy to die, as soon as possible. My ancestors fled Europe one step ahead of Catholic lynch mobs that burned down their homes, but the bloody sect followed us here. Even in the 21st century the local Catholic diocese continues to interfere negatively with my property rights and the local society.
Now we have probably the only thing that could have possibly reversed the slow decline of the church - a good pope. Dammit.
7 Likes
Well I’m just glad it’s finally been resolved
4 Likes
I’m not holding my breath.
I’ll be impressed when they start turning over their child rapists to the authorities of the countries they committed their crimes in. Rather than keeping them safely shielded in a literal gilded palace.
21 Likes
AFAIK, this is the first time any pope has issued a clear mea culpa for the abuse and the coverups. Good to finally see the church leadership acting like pastors instead of like litigation attorneys.
8 Likes
I swear i’ve read about this current pope talk about past abuses a few times, i’m at work currently though and i don’t feel like i should be Googling sex scandals + pope 
7 Likes
He’s said that the victims aren’t credible in the past and that the accused clergy should be trusted above the victims.
6 Likes
I think you’re right, it seems like this unprecedented thing happens every year. Not that that’s a bad thing.
3 Likes
I don’t keep up with religion in general, i find most faiths to be detestable. That being said i can still hope that meaningful change happens for once
4 Likes
Pope, buddy, let’s be honest here: you didn’t clean house the last time this happened, you’re not going to clean house this time, and the same thing will continue to happen around the world.
You’ll give some speeches that say some really pretty things about how sorry you are, and you’ll form some blue-ribbon panels to recommend ACTION and vow that the perpetrators and enablers of this abuse are going to be held accountable, and then you’re going to take the recommendations from those panels and put them in the back of the filing cabinet and practice your sad face for the next time this all happens and you have to do the same song and dance again.
13 Likes
I suppose he deserves some credit for making a statement any decent person would have made decades ago. Have a cookie, Pope Francis.
18 Likes
I wish those guys would put a young pope in place so that he is held accountable instead of dying or retiring.
He did? Citation for that?
1 Like
9 Likes
And they had a story on today talking about this, and how when he was presented with the evidence, he changed course and backed the victims.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, he’s working against an entrenched bureaucracy (which almost always covers it’s ass when it comes to abuse, see almost every other organization in the world that covers abuse up until they can’t anymore). That’s working against him. I understand the skepticism, but I don’t’ understand how there seem to be people who want him to fail in actually making changes to the church that proactively protects victims instead of abusers. Shouldn’t we be supporting change from the top down here?
13 Likes
Isn’t that kind of the purpose of evidence? A pope who can change his mind when confronted with evidence seems a great improvement.
12 Likes
I remain unimpressed that it took years for this guy to apologize much less do anything about publicly known widespread sex abuse in the organization he’s supposed to have absolute control over.
Good catholics are supposed to believe he is the literal earthly mouthpiece of god himself. If you can’t just do the right thing with that kind of power you’ve wasted it.
I don’t think he’s a hero for getting around to eventually saying a nice thing.
7 Likes
That’s a totally fair point, but I do think that we tend to forget that the Pope is part of that entrenched bureaucracy and was selected for his position by that same entrenched bureaucracy. He says some really nice things on this and other issues, and deserves credit where credit is due, but at the end of the day he hasn’t done anything different on this issue than any other Pope has.
4 Likes
