The Hall of Fire

Maureen Dowd continues the pile-on Now we learn the sickening news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, nicknamed “God’s Rottweiler” when he was the church’s enforcer on matters of faith and sin, ignored repeated warnings and looked away in the case of the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, a Wisconsin priest who ...

Charisma goes a long way in this world.

Yep. Look at all the deluded Fidel and Che fans.
(Kim Jong-Il, not so much)

He wasn't being subjected to interrogation. He was asked to help out with information on a sexual abuse case and refused. That's not how I would characterize a demand that he appear before a House investigations committee. If the Parliament wanted information from the Irish Church, they should have...

The HRC's agenda *always* relates to "Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.’" Why Orwellian-named? Because this gang which calls itself a "Human Rights" council consists of Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia... you name 'em, the worst human rights abuser...

A Nuncio is a diplomat: he's the Vatican ambassador. It is a grievous breach of protocol for a government to subject an ambassador to interrogation, and the Irish parliament was way, way out of line. If they wanted to, they could have subpoenaed, say, the Archbishop of Dublin, who is an Irishman; bu...

What I was suggesting was that all institutions are necessarily prone to some degree of corruption, venality and vice; and therefore any institution which even attempts to provide guidance is going to be guilty of a measure of hypocrisy. It's the way of the fallen world. Congress still has the power...

Weakland's reasoning (which I disagree with) was that proceedings should be put on hold because Murphy was a dying man. This happens in the criminal courts, too, if a defendant becomes too ill to participate effectively in his own defense. However, the case was brought *specifically* because his vic...

But someone tried to stop the trial, if I understand what 'abate' means in that context.

Yes- Murphy's lawyers. Effectively, they succeeded in running out the clock.

Wonderful.. Now the UN's Orwellian-named "Human Rights" Council is spreading the blood libel:

UN propagates Israeli organ theft allegation

And there, in a nutshell, is the problem people are having with the Catholic apparatus. This was an internal trial. Nothing was handed over to the police. That is simply untrue. Why didn't the Church go to the police in 1974? THEY DID. The police, however, chose not to believe the children, as woul...

Lurker:

CNN lost “almost half” of their viewers in the last year

No, a Pope can resign, generally understood as being for reasons like ill-health, although if that's ever happened it's been a long, long time. Now, back in the Middle Ages quite a few Popes "abdicated" involuntarily- and were promptly condemned by the successors who ousted them. And there...

Meanwhile, back at the press ranch:

CNN brings on as an "expert" guest to discuss Catholicism- Sinead O'Connor.

Maybe next they'll have a Passover roundtable with Hassan Nasrallah....

Rectangular building things: Setting the record straight in the case of abusive Milwaukee priest Father Lawrence Murphy Then-presiding judge for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee gives first-person account of church trial By Fr. THOMAS BRUNDAGE, JCL (and of course a media feeding frenzy. No demonization?)

"There is a systematic effort by some groups to have public schools just shut down and go away"???????

‘The Hobbit’ Delayed by MGM Financial Woes Digital Spy spoke to Any Serkis, the actor who provided the motion-capture performance that brought Gollum to such vivid life in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In that discussion, Serkis dropped the news that The Hobbit would not be underway until the end ...

However, you can't overlook the concerted effort on the part of some to dredge up something, anything to hang on Josef Ratzinger personally , no matter how tenuous. When he was first elected there was a drive, if you recall, to paint him as a 'Nazi.' (This can't be urelated to the massive, longstand...

Sure, SF- but then you're one of those ex-Catholics who really, really hate the Church.

And a counter-view: This Pope has done more than any other churchman to address the issue of priestly child abuse. He has stopped the practice of turning over priests accused of abuse to therapists, as we now know that therapy seldom helps a paedophile. He has fast-tracked the defrocking of priests ...