I’m going to go further than that. He didn’t fail, he chose to cover things up instead of dealing with them. I am nearly certain Benedict was forced out of the papacy because of their personal role in the child sex scandal*, and now they ought to keep their mouth shut.
* Sure, Benedict resigned because they were old and sick. It’s just that a quick list of papal abdications shows only 11, the most recent one being nearly 600 years prior to Benedict, and none of them abdicated for health reasons. If you are pope and you get sick, just don’t abdicate, you just die. Maybe Benedict should look into that.
An even surer argument: if the world had simply ended in 1959, where would not have been any sexual abuse at all after that.
“Ratzi” is good, but I usually think of him as “Benny the Rat”. Though that’s disrespectful to a fine species of rodents.
When I was ~14 a former priest that had been kicked out because he liked to have sex with teenage boys moved in next door with his wife and 2 kids (still can’t imagine why she would marry him).
He wasn’t fired from the priesthood for the sex, but for being honest about it. He would go to the French Quarter and hire teenaged male prostitutes and was open about it because he thought it was ok. Had he been molesting choir boys and lied about it the church would stuck by him and just transfered him to a new church (this was back in the '80s when Benedict was being forced by the hippies to cover up sex crimes).
Hippies are why we can’t have nice things, and go to heaven and shit.
I had the opposite question. What of priests who were born after 1970, and never suffered from the 60s at all? Sex abuse numbers for them must be near zero, right?
He was vocal some decades ago about how old popes should retire rather than gradually going senile. He stood by that principle at least.
Though, the cardinals who elected him might have taken that into account and figured that they’d get a chance in the next election.
Some of the boring parts are surprisingly accurate, such as the books of Kings. But who ever reads them?
I just read the bible for its sex magic
Genesis 30:37-39
Did you know whatever you look at when doing it makes your baby look that way?
This is an important documentary on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_God_(film)
As a result of being called out for abuse in the early 60’s, in Sudbury, MA, Joseph Birginham was assigned to a parish in Salem that included my father and his friends. Birmingham continued (through five parishes) his career of abuse for 30 years while the church continued to lie to his victims.
The retired pope is an evil man.
It’s well known fact there was no sexual abuse before the 1960s.
Huh…I was raised by fundies, and yet this is the first time I have ever heard about that story. Crazy!
I blame witches.
Why the hell are people still supporting this world wide pedo ring? AND they take their children there?! And then they vote with moral authority?
Any other organization would have been raided, shut down, everyone thrown in jail, and the assets sold or burned to the ground.
“Christianity is under attack”? Fucking hell yes it is, but not even enough.
Well duhhhh. Just like Nazis and the Holocaust can be blamed on the roaring 20s. Those flappers are going to burn in hell!
Because WTF is personal control responsibility?
The bible is chock full of embarrassing stories that aren’t suitable for children
For sure! But I’ve been an “adult” for some time (sigh!) and thought I was familiar with most of these stories by now. So it’s interesting to come across a “new” one…am grateful for the head’s up 
My brother is still a believer, though the fervency of his faith isn’t quite as frothing as that of our parents…will have to ask him what his take on this is.
I mean, the bible even gives a procedure for a temple condoned abortion. So… I have no idea where the evangelicals get the idea that god says anything negative about it.
