I can only give you 1 thumbs up, I would give you more if I could

That would take balls to do Jay,something Enda Kenny doesn’t have.Maybe the pope will pray,that god gives Enda some balls,or a backbone.

Eh, that would actually be the pope who has actually done more than any other to remove abusers from the church.

But I suppose we shouldn’t let the facts get in the way of thrashing the Church.

@AlMar prior to becoming Pope he spent years covering up child abuse scandals. Only when the heat came on did he do something about it. Why do people have an ‘audience’ with Ratzinger? Can’t he have a meeting like any other statesman/politician/gombeen……….

Marist ’59 – the reality is that it was only in 2001 that the CDF, of which he was the head, was given jurisdiction over these cases. Prior to then, it didn’t come under the authority of his office. Also, prior to that time, cases were not routinely referred to Rome, it was up to the local bishops to handle it. Unfortunately, it was clear that local bishops were not up to the task. (And that was also true here – the abuse crisis in Ireland was an IRISH crisis, not a ROMAN crisis). Post 2001 much more vigorous action was taken by Cardinal Ratzinger to dismiss clerics accused of abuse.

Have there been mistakes? Almost certainly. And those mistakes, whatever they are, are not good enough and are inexcusable. But there always will be mistakes in every system and in every State. It doesn’t excuse them however.

Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict has done more to clean the Church than any other pope.

@ AlMar

LOL.

Watch out, watch out there’s an AlMar about! Guaranteed mention of the pope and his staunchest defender is on the case like a fly on a fresh piece of dung! All the usual carping about how much herr benny has done to protect children blah blah, we all know the man covered up abuses during his time as a cardinal just like his Irish bishops tried to do. Irish, US, Australian, Belgian children and many more from numerous countries had the same experience at the hands of this evil cult and all the AlMar’s on this planet won’t change that fact, Ratzo is just as culpable as the rest of them. As for Kenny, not that long ago in the aftermath of the latest Irish abuse scandal report being published he was all beside himself to show how much he was outraged and disgusted by what had gone on in the various catholic run abuse centres up and down the country, now he’s in Rome fawning over it’s leader, kow towing to him like some subservient peasant to the lord of the manor! what a joke! The report into the religious/state run gulags has yet to be published and no doubt we will all be treated to another bout ‘faux rage’ by him when it too details the abuses meted out to the vulnerable women and children in these hell holes! He should be demanding that the CEO of Catholic Church Inc. orders his various overseas operations pay the victims the compensation they deserve for the damage inflicted on them by members of HIS clergy and the other battalions of so called ‘holy orders’ implicated in the vile abuses that took place. It’s no good using the old post war nazi excuse of “i was only following orders” to get out of it. AlMar you really need to stop defending these child raping cover up merchants!

He’s probably going looking for absolution for all the lies he told to get elected.

Feck it. I wanted to come back as a dolphin.
Now you’ve ruined it Mary!

“An unelected Italian PM, a failed nazi as pope and Enda” and not to mention the Christian Democrats…….

it’s like a really bad parody of what reality ought to be like. Bad quality entertainment. And these muppets are dictating a major portion of reality for us- in the 21st Century!!!!!!!!

Come on. We’re in the future and this just isn’t good enough.

Self sufficiency (food, water, energy), technological innovation, and local/global community. That’s where we should be at. Not this crap.

Or maybe its just that the vast majority of the people hate the vatican, instead of a select few spending all of their time waiting to post comments to make it seem that way.

Let me think about that. Oh Yes! They did spend decades raping and abusing Irish children. Didn’t they?

I was at his press conference for the Children’s RIghts referendum and he said it was unlikely because it’s not a one-on-one audience.