...The recent sex scandal by Ireland and German priests calls for a rethink among the catholic church on the institution of marriage and particularly whether priests should marry or not. Since these so called priests have refused to wear underwears ( ...not zip up their pants since they wear robes and with those robes I do not think they have anything under!!!), they should be allowed to marry or better still, because the church allows them to drinks, it can as well allow them to have prostitutes once in a while. This is far much better than what they do in hiding. It is completely wrong for anybody to molest children sexually and is worse when this is done by priests, who the children hold in reverence. I am not condemning the whole church, but what moral standing does the church have to talk against abortion whne some of the priests practise?

What a mess! The acts are repulsive at so many levels, including some not of this world. This affair of entrusting imperfect human beings with the works of God, is to me dumbfounding! But woe unto us if we should think to compare man's intellect to God's wisdom.

I'm not a scholar but since Catholic Church was formed as first Christian church, I now know of many moments of crisis:

1st c: Nero's persecution
4th c: Arianism
8th c: Muslim conquests
15th c: Western schiscm
16th c: Protestant Reformation
17th c: Turkish Invasion
18th c: French Revolution/separation of church+state/persecution of Protestant Hugenots
19th c: Breakup to form Old Catholic Church
20th c: Cristeo War/Spanish Civil War and persecutions


This abuse of children is another crisis. No doubt the church will go on. I pray it will provide an opportunity for the church to learn much needed lessons, and even show more tolerance to other people that may not ascribe to some of its beliefs.

Vatican mystery intensifies

To say that Catholic is a mysterious organization is an understatement; consider the story of the a girl Emanuela Orlandi who disappeared about 30 years ago believed to have been murdered by guys high up in the Holy see and her remains hidden among the caskets holding ‘holy bones’

Orlandi was 15 when she disappeared after leaving her family's Vatican City apartment to go to a music lesson in Rome. Her father was a lay employee of the Holy See. Doubts have also been cast on whether the Vatican itself had cooperated fully with the investigation.

In 2008, Italian news reports quoted De Pedis' ex-girlfriend as telling prosecutors that Orlandi had been kidnapped by the Magliana gang on the orders of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the late U.S. prelate who had headed the Vatican bank and was linked to a huge Italian banking scandal in the 1980s. Marcinkus had always asserted his innocence in the scandal and the Vatican at the time of the allegation said the woman's claims had "extremely doubtful value."

At the time of Emanuela's disappearance the witness reported seeing a girl who fit her description getting into a dark green BMW near the music school, which was adjacent to the Sant' Apollinare church. That lead was never corroborated. In 1981, two years before the girl's disappearance, Turkish national Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II. In the days after Emanuela disappeared, her parents received anonymous phone calls from someone promising the safe return of their daughter if the Vatican released Agca. Meanwhile, an anonymous caller told police that Emanuela was kidnapped to keep her father, Ercole Orlandi, quiet. That caller said Ercole Orlandi had stumbled upon sensitive documents that tied banker Roberto Calvi to an organized crime syndicate. Calvi was known as "God's banker" for his close association with both the Holy See and its primary banking facility, Banco Ambrosiano. Orlandi worked in the Vatican's special events office that organizes papal functions and Catholic celebrations. Calvi was found hanged in London in 1982. Speculation turned from suicide to homicide in that case. The tipster to police in Italy said Orlandi's daughter was nabbed to ensure her father's silence.

Following pressure from many quarters for a speedy conclution of the case, Vatican has allowed investigators to infiltrate some of its ‘hidden’ closets. Medical experts took samples from the remains of Enrico De Pedis and also took boxes of old bones from the nearby ossuary, according to a De Pedis family lawyer, as part of the investigation into whether Emanuela Orlandi may have been buried alongside him.

But shockingly, investigators also found about 200 boxes of unidentified bones in the crypt, which they are now working on dating. Investigators are still checking the walls behind the boxes where the bones were kept, in case it hid secret vaults.

http://news.yahoo.com/va...nd-grave-143053526.html

http://abcnews.go.com/bl...-vatican-disappearance/

http://edition.cnn.com/2...missing-girl/index.html

Cover ups?

Does anyone think there are no previous attepmts?

I have attached a photo of a page of a book 'A Complete History of the Popes of Rome From Saint Peter, The First Bishop, To Pius the Ninth, the Present Pope: Including The History of Saints, Matyrs, Fathers of the Church, Religious Orders , Cardinals, Inquisitions, Schims and the Great Reformers'.

The book was translated from the French of Luis Marie De Cormenin. It is the volume 1 and it was printed in Philadelphia by J. & J. L. Gihon, of No 98 Chestnut street in 1851.

So the 'present pope' in the title was in 1851, not 2012.

This has got to be one of the greatest coverups in the history of human kind. Almost complete is this particular coverup that talking about it will raise strange stares, but like all human work, the coverup is imperfect and gaps still exist such as this one.

The photo is page 225 of the book and the story goes up to page 231. I could have put all those relevant pages but my modem is slow.

I am not sure if a download link to the book still exists it would have been easier to just put it then people to read the book (that has several interesting information that would be good to keep under wraps) for themselves as after all, Google states it is now in the public domain, its copyrights having expired.


Here it is:

Not only that….the current Pope; Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI was a former Hitler Youth. Under Hitler he was in an anti-aircraft unit that protected a BMW factory making aircraft engines. The workforce included slaves from Dachau concentration camp.

What happened to the Kenyan priests who confessed to have families?

Popess Joans story proper begins in this page in the second column.

@YesuWangu, thank you for your comprehensive update. My facts on the matter indicate Popess Joan was a juicy medeival folklore and the time overseen by Popes Leo IV (died 17/7/855) and Bendedict III. I'm sure you are more familiar with certain unfortunate theories advanced by infamous author Dan Brown.


Don't get me wrong, I cannot begin to advocate idea of Pope as angelic or even equivalent to a saint. No more than I would think the Queen, Pastor, the first disciples, as spiritual leaders beyond reproach.

I would say they stand judged, as do we, before God. Asa posits, why is there so much religion yet there's so little love?

If the idea of your post is to teach in love, I would refer you to a more constructive read: 'Defects of the Saints' by Jesus Urteaga.