American cardinal is blaming feminism for shortage of Catholic priests. Wait, what?

"Get away from me harlots!"

Courtesy of International Business Times:  

American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a known conservative and one of Pope Francis’ biggest critics, says the “radical feminist movement” has left Roman Catholic men feeling “marginalized” since the 1960s. His comments were made in an interview published Jan. 5 with Matthew James Christoff of “The New Emangelization,” a Catholic men’s ministry. 

“Men are often reluctant to become active in the Church. The feminized environment and the lack of the Church’s effort to engage men has led many men to simply opt out,” Burke said. He points to the popularity of pornography, saying it promotes extramarital sex, a “materialistic and consumer-focused” society that pushes parents to work longer hours and the introduction of altar girls as reasons for men to feel reluctant to be active Catholics. 

“The introduction of girl servers also led many boys to abandon altar service. Young boys don’t want to do things with girls. It’s just natural. The girls were also very good at altar service. So many boys drifted away over time,” Burke said, adding that this contributed to the declining number of priestly vocations in the church. 

Altar girls have existed since 1983, when the church removed its ban on girls helping priests at the altar.

You know here's a thought, and I will just throw this out there, but wouldn't this problem solve itself if the Catholic church simply started allowing women to become priests?

Or is it simply better to continue to blame women for every problem that arises, like the religion has been doing since its inception?

The first rule of Catholic priest child sex abuse, is that we don't talk about Catholic priest child sex abuse.

Courtesy of Opposing Views:  

A Roman Catholic priest has come forward and said his attempts to speak about sexual abuse in the church led to his firing from Congregation of the Holy Cross in Montreal, Canada. 

The priest, Rev. Andre Samson, first spoke about the church’s unfortunate history two years ago after Congregation of the Holy Cross issued an apology and paid $18 million to victims of sexual abuse. 

Samson, a former military chaplain, was interrupted by his colleagues at lunch one day when he began telling them the story of an 18-year-old who had confessed to him that he was psychologically tormented after being abused by a Catholic priest when he was younger. 

“The community superior became enraged,” Samson said. “He said, ‘Don’t talk about this here. It can’t be. We don’t talk about this here.’ ” 

Later that day, Samson says the community superior forbid him from eating lunch in the dining hall. About one month ago, he went to a different superior and asked for help in overturning his expulsion from the dining hall. The superior declined to help him. 

Last week, Samson was fired. He says the officially listed reasons for his firing were all minor – like failing to wear his collar correctly. Samson maintains that the real reason for his firing is his shunned discussion about sexual abuse in the church. 

“I find this difficult because as priests we give our lives to the church,” he said. “And it’s sad how we can be betrayed by this church.” 

Samson took his story to the press in order to raise public awareness about the silencing he received in the church.

It is certainly no secret that I don't have much affection for most religions, but Catholicism holds a very particular place on my shit list for not outing pedophile priests, for covering up their crimes, and for moving them around the world which allowed them to continue to prey on children, sometimes for decades.

They chose to protect their religion, and their fortune, over protecting the lives of the innocents who came to them in faith and trust. 

What they allowed to happen should signal the end of their existence, and yet they continue to convert impressionable people from around world.

The new Pope may serve to convince some that the church has changed, but cosmetics only give the appearance of change, and do nothing to deal with the rot that lies within.

It is hard for me to imagine too many things more enjoyable than watching a young earth Creationist shut down by a Catholic priest.

Gee and look he also used my line that teaching Creationism to children is tantamount to child abuse.

I will resist the urge to mention that the Catholic church is in a unique position to identify what is, and what is not, child abuse.

Episcopalian priest leaves church to be ordained a Roman Catholic, giving up sex with his wife in the bargain, because you know "teh gays."

Courtesy of The New York Daily News:

John Cornelius will be ordained a Roman Catholic priest this weekend — and with the blessing of his wife they're giving up their sex life. 

Cornelius, a father of three, will become the first married Roman Catholic priest in New York — and Sharyl, his wife of 33-years, has agreed to the whole celibacy thing. 

“We have decided to do that voluntarily,” Cornelius told WGRZ-TV. “I have always had friends that are Roman Catholic priests and I appreciate what they've given up to serve God and the priesthood.” 

Cornelius, 64, is a former Episcopalian priest who converted three years ago to Catholicism. He said his old church had gotten too liberal for him. 

“There was the ordination of the homosexual priest in New England,” he said. “Then it came time for women's ordination. ... It may have been okay for other people, but it was just too much for me. 

“I needed someplace where there was order,” he added. 

Okay not to be shallow, but looking at the two of them in the picture at the top, do we really believe that either the wife or the husband are going to be missing the sex? Somehow I think that celibacy has been a part of their marriage for quite some time, being ordained a Catholic priest just makes it official.

And they say that gay rights will not have any effect on heterosexual marriage. Really ? Look what it did to this "happy" couple!

Though to be fair it seems that the ordination of the gay priest just about pushed him over the edge, but it was the ordination of those sinful women as priests that proved too much for Father Misogyny here.

H/T to Joe My God.

Episcopalian Bishop reveals the truth about Hell. I don't think this is what you might expect.

You know it was the concept of hell, and my determination that it was a ridiculous notion, that really sent me fleeing from Christianity in general.  To this day that was perhaps the most hateful thing that anybody had ever said to me, that if I did not embrace THEIR specific religious beliefs I would be punished for all eternity.

Essentially for me, once you have said something that hateful and unnecessarily vicious you can no longer expect me to listen to ANYTHING else you may have to say.

And so I never have.

If you want to learn more about Bishop Spong just click here.

You gotta love Samuel Clemens.

And what happens when that knowledge is attained by the very people who are supposed to preach religion to the masses?

Courtesy of Alternet:

What happens when a clergy person -- a minister, a priest, a rabbi, an imam -- realizes he doesn't believe in God? 

And what happens when he says it out loud? What happens when they find each other; when they support each other in coping with their crises, when they help each other with resources and job counseling and other practical assistance? What happens when they encourage each other to come out? 

Could this affect more than just these clergy people and their followers? Could it change how society as a whole thinks and feels about religion?

There is strong evidence that we may be entering a new age of enlightenment, which can only bring good things to us.  Well that is unless you believe that without religion, there can be no morality.

And hopefully nobody who visits here is so primitive in their thought process as to subscribe to so antiquated a notion.

If Catholic priests took confession as seriously as they expect their parishioners to take it.

What I still have trouble understanding is why women have such a difficult time recognizing this?

Apparently Rick Santorum knows exactly who is to blame for pedophiles in the Catholic priesthood. It was the liberals, duh!

"No seriously, ask my wife. This is how far she makes me stay away from her at all times."

Back in 2002, in a Catholic publication Santorum wrote an article called "Fishers of Men" in which he claimed the following:

Like most American Catholics, I have followed the recent sex scandals in the Church with profound sympathy for victims, revulsion over priests who prey on minors and frustration at the absence of hierarchical leadership. Unlike most, I have been visited by the gift of hope; for I see in this fall an opportunity for ecclesial rebirth and a new evangelization of America. This "new evangelization," advocated strenuously by Pope John Paul II, has the potential for restoring confidence in the priesthood while empowering all American Catholics. 

The most obvious change must occur within American seminaries, many of which demonstrate the same brand of cultural liberalism plaguing our secular universities. My hope was rekindled last week as our American Cardinals proposed from Rome an "apostolic visitation" of seminaries emphasizing "the need for fidelity to the Church's teaching, especially in the area of morality." It is an arduous task. However, the Pope made it clear last week that he expects the strong appeal of the Cardinals to be followed by decisive Episcopal action. 

It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm. 

So men who are forced to remain celibate for their entire lives, and then left alone with young, easily manipulated  children are only taking advantage of them because of liberal attitudes in the world? WTF?

Now as those of us with a working intellect well know the Catholic priest sex scandals were NOT contained in Boston, and in fact turned out to be a world wide phenomenon that often went back for decades.  It even poisoned the lives of native children living in the remote villages of Alaska.

Just a few days ago the frothy mixture was asked about his contention that liberals were responsible for man on boy sex in the Catholic church.  He did not respond well.

This is the kind of bullshit blame game that these morons engage in all of the time, when they are around like minded individuals who will not call them out on their scurrilous claims. So of course now that Santorum has, what he believes, is a chance to get the GOP nomination he does not want to talk about the ignorant stuff he happily talked about in the past.

As a matter of fact Santorum's obsession with all things sexual, has started to cost him support with the very demographic that he is relying on to carry him into the White House. The Conservatives.

The GOP’s problem is that such talk alienates many voters who support the party out of fiscal conservatism but who would not appreciate Rick Santorum meddling with their sexual freedoms, thank you very much. If the Republicans want to deny Barack Obama a second term, they can’t afford to lose any of these voters. 

There are a fair number of Republicans, not to mention Republican-leaning independents, who don’t care so much if Billy loves Bobby and is allowed to marry him. They realize the military hasn’t imploded post the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. So Santorum’s boast that he would restore the ban doesn’t exactly thrill them. 

They realize that abortion rates have plummeted in recent decades and have little interest in reinstituting a nationwide ban on the procedure. 

They’re not obsessed with the fallacy that women having access to contraception has undermined American families. And they don’t buy into a brand of Christianity that consistently reaches to promote the Founding Fathers as Bible-carrying apostles for Jesus.

Hmm it looks like many on the conservative side have decided to grow up, but little Rickie is still stuck in an adolescent fixation on all things sexual.

I think that most of us well realize that those who constantly promote themselves as better than others and seem to believe that they are surrounded by sexual deviancy, are in fact projecting their own frustrating desires from deep within their closet of denial.

So the question for any good reporter, in my humble opinion, should be, what is Rick Santorum hiding?

Because I think that many of us believe that it is definitely something.

Gee no wonder Sister Sarah likes him so much.