Pope says WHAT!?

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Vatican Christmas Shocker! Pope says child rape isn't that bad, was normal back in his day -- Society's Child -- Sott.net

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Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an "absolute evil" as recently as the 1970s.

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered "normal" by society.


Pope Benedict XVI said:
"In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the Pope said.

"It was maintained - even within the realm of Catholic theology - that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a 'better than' and a 'worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself."
Click to expand...

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Someone showed this to me & I read it a couple times my eyes started hurting :buble_eye: On the one hand, I suppose it shouldnt be "too surprising" considering this pope was one of the Hitler Youth & has been known for alot of hypocritical flip flopping as of late...but this just reads & sounds incredibly bizarre to me. THIS is who ppl look to when it comes to a figure head in the catholic religion!?
 
Well they only quoted those two sentences. What was the rest of his speech? Was it, "Just because it's seen as normal that doesn't mean it's right"? What was the context of those statements. Because I find it really hard to believe that the Pope was condoning child abuse.
 
I have to agree with Vil...there are any numbers of ways that could be taken depending on context and I cannot think that he would nod at child sexual abuse. It seems like he is talking about the permissiveness of the 70s more likely.
 
reading this article made me think about a thread i saw on news-a-rama a couple years back discussing the controversy over a [ still minor age] Miley Cyrus, doing a rather risque cover & photo shoot for vanity fair. alot of the men were staunchly defending their "right" to openly LUST after a 15 year old girl ...their logic being "in the middle ages in Europe, girls were considered 'adults' at age 13, were marrying & having kids..." & THIS was what they used as their excuse for what I & others said in the thread amounted to pedophilia.
 
First, just because he was one of the Hitler Youth doesn't mean he was a part of them. ;)

Second, I agree that it was possibly taken out of context. I mean, surely the Pope of all people wouldn't be stupid enough to say all that. :hrm:
 
Doing some research lol...this article was from 2010.

Here is the text: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2010/december/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20101220_curia-auguri_en.html

And an excerpt:

We are well aware of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and of our corresponding responsibility. But neither can we remain silent regarding the context of these times in which these events have come to light. There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society. The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times. From Bishops of developing countries I hear again and again how sexual tourism threatens an entire generation and damages its freedom and its human dignity. The Book of Revelation includes among the great sins of Babylon – the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities – the fact that it trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities (cf. Rev 18:13). In this context, the problem of drugs also rears its head, and with increasing force extends its octopus tentacles around the entire world – an eloquent expression of the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind. No pleasure is ever enough, and the excess of deceiving intoxication becomes a violence that tears whole regions apart – and all this in the name of a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it.

In order to resist these forces, we must turn our attention to their ideological foundations. In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children. This, however, was part of a fundamental perversion of the concept of ethos. It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a “better than” and a “worse than”. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist. The effects of such theories are evident today. Against them, Pope John Paul II, in his 1993 Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, indicated with prophetic force in the great rational tradition of Christian ethos the essential and permanent foundations of moral action. Today, attention must be focussed anew on this text as a path in the formation of conscience. It is our responsibility to make these criteria audible and intelligible once more for people today as paths of true humanity, in the context of our paramount concern for mankind.

The moral of our story is, be careful what "news" you believe.

:)
 
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