Religious Arguing/News here---->

[HairOfTheDog]

As we all know, the Catholic church has protected their own for years. The deviant behavior would be brought to their attention and believed and the church would simply shuffle the offender off to another parish. I have a friend from childhood who was an alter boy and there's a small group of us who believe he was sexually assaulted by one of the priests.

Yeah, it's saddening and maddening how many lives have been fucked up due to pedophiles and rapists hiding behind clergy robes, with the higher-ups in the Catholic Church being willing accomplices.

Yesterday, the Vatican responded to the disgusting level of child molestation, rape and pornography detailed in the Philadelphia grand jury report.   This statement is stronger than previous ones I've seen from the Catholic Church.

I'm also not seeing/hearing bunches of Catholics and Christians contending that the evidence is all bogus or that the child abuse is carried out by "just a couple of bad apples" anymore.  There's way too much solid evidence and too many credible victims for that bullshit to fly at this point.

One of the most disturbing practices detailed in the grand jury report, to me at least, was how priests would give little boys they'd just violated for the first time special crosses to wear.  They did this so that other priests would be able to quickly identify the children who were already broken-in victims, essentially branding kids that were considered easy pickins for other pedophile priests.  Motherfuckers.

Anyway, this Vatican statement acknowledges that the church failed so many children and families, that they have a serious and wide-spread problem with 'morally and criminally reprehensible priests', that the Pope is on the side of the victims, and that they're working diligently on ways to resolve the problem by establishing a 'zero tolerance' policy.  I hope they're willing to put their (massive amounts of untaxed) money where their (long-silent) mouths are.

Vatican Statement:  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/us/ca...ement.html