When Prayer is Assigned as a Form of Punishment

Pope cuts penalties for paedophile priests - including one let off with just a lifetime of prayer for abusing five young boys.

Pope Francis said to be applying his vision of a 'merciful church' to sex offenders.

He reduced sentence for Rev Mauro Inzoli from defrocking to lifetime of prayer

Too much mercy is as bad as too much punishment.

When justice becomes a mockery, you are left with an environment that invites abuse and degeneracy.

What is happening to this world? What is happening to the Catholic church?

One of the priests was the Reverend Mauro Inzoli, who was found guilty of abusing young boys by the Vatican in 2012 and was ordered to be defrocked.

However, he appealed, and in 2014 Francis reduced the penalty to a lifetime of prayer, prohibiting him from celebrating Mass in public or being near children, barring him from his diocese and ordering five years of psychotherapy.

Rev Inzoli was then convicted by an Italian criminal court for his sex crimes against five children as young as 12.

He is now facing a second church trial after new evidence emerged against him.

A church official has said some paedophile priests and their high-ranking friends appealed to Pope Francis by citing the pope's own words about mercy in their petitions.

High-ranking friends? I wonder who THEY are.

The article further says:

Comparatively, his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, rarely granted clemency petitions and defrocked 800 priests, who had raped and molested children, during his eight-year papacy.

Think about that....800 defrocked for raping and molesting children over an 8-year span!

Has the whole world gone completely insane!? Where is real justice? People that do this sort of thing to children need to hang, imo.


www.dailymail.co.uk...

Justice is as important as mercy.

Prayer only would work if they were actually feeling remorse.

a reply to: queenofswords

Well mercy is just but justice is no where to be found in most justice systems ..They treat it as a game and play it out in a court .True justice needs no court but 2 or more credible witnesses before judgement can be made .

originally posted by: ketsuko
Prayer only would work if they were actually feeling remorse.

I doubt they are capable of remorse.

In the article, Marie Collins, a survivor of abuse said this:

Marie Collins, an abuse survivor and founding member of Francis' sex-abuse advisory commission, expressed dismay that the congregation's recommended penalties were being weakened.

She said: 'All who abuse have made a conscious decision to do so. Even those who are paedophiles, experts will tell you, are still responsible for their actions. They can resist their inclinations.'

It is a choice to molest or rape a child. It is a conscious decision.

A lifetime of prayer, my as*!!

a reply to: queenofswords

Maybe the RCC should cut to the chase once again and bring back indulgence fees ...cha-ching$$$

a reply to: queenofswords

A noose sounds like it might be a more fitting punishment.


Leave it to pedophiles to protect pedophiles eh

a reply to: queenofswords

If those guilty ones had any true repentance in their hearts they would not have allowed the Pope to go easy on them, they would make an example of finally having learned the scope of their crimes and taken responsibility for them, but alas they didn't or won't. They aren't showing any remorse by allowing the Pope to pardon them so easily. A sad epitaph and also a testament to how completely corrupted the Pope is and many of those under his poor leadership.

a reply to: queenofswords

A person is always capable of remorse. That doesn't mean they'll ever decide they are guilty and feel it though. As sad as it sounds, some people just don't understand or accept that they've done something wrong.

That's why when we talk about forgiving, it's important to understand that forgiving the people who have wronged you is sometimes just as important for you as it ever is for them. Sometimes, they need to know they're forgiven, but just as often, it's you who simply needs to let it go so you can go on with your life because they certainly won't care about what they've done to you.

a reply to: ketsuko

A person is always capable of remorse.

It would be great to believe that but if you throw the Narcissists into the equation ,I am not so sure .

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: queenofswords

A person is always capable of remorse. That doesn't mean they'll ever decide they are guilty and feel it though. As sad as it sounds, some people just don't understand or accept that they've done something wrong.

That's why when we talk about forgiving, it's important to understand that forgiving the people who have wronged you is sometimes just as important for you as it ever is for them. Sometimes, they need to know they're forgiven, but just as often, it's you who simply needs to let it go so you can go on with your life because they certainly won't care about what they've done to you.

If one of these sleazebag priests did something like that to one of mine, I would find it very difficult to forgive.

Maybe after justice was meted out, I could consider it.

Forgiving doesn't mean foregoing justice.

a reply to: queenofswords

I didn't say anything about foregoing justice.

My thought is that the only way constant prayer and reflection would be any kind of punishment is if they felt real remorse and the prayer and reflection forced them to basically torture themselves with the reality of what they had done to others and really reflect on that pain ... for life.

I don't know. Maybe my own emotional responses can be abnormally intense, but I still get tears of remorse and guilt over the one night where our barely 1-year-old son was left alone at night during a violent storm in a room with open windows because we forgot to turn his monitor on, and when we finally got to him, he was screaming in abject, hystoerical terror.

Reflecting on the terror we inadvertently caused him still makes me feel awful to this day years later.

Now I imagine feeling what the magnitude would be like if I had to reflect with that intensity of emotion on years of having intentionally abused young children ... and I can't go there.

Unless these men came forward of their own accord and confessed these things then they did not repent of them..if that is the case then they are not qualified to receive mercy. IMO

ETA...At the least they should freely confess when confronted and should accept whatever the church deemed fit without appealing.

Who cares about any church! What's happening to you?..Now. that's my view.

I love most, don't get me wrong.

If the Pope wants to protect criminals that have broken laws by protecting their freedoms within Vatican City then the Pope should be arrested when travelling overseas for abetting those criminals.

No-one should be above the laws agreed by the people.

a reply to: ketsuko

We, as parents, feel guilty for every little thing we unintentionally did or didn't do. I totally understand what you're saying about forgetting to turn the monitor on, but that was not something you chose to not do.

When a priest, or anyone for that matter, molests or rapes a child, that is a conscious decision. He knows it is wrong, and chooses to ignore that. He gives in to the basest of degradation for some sick perverted pleasures, then he turns around and does it again and again and again.

Choices.....conscious choices.

I don't use words like 'evil' and 'wickedness' very often, but that is what has infiltrated the Catholic Church, imo, and other high places in government and even academia.

When the pope can give a pervert that has permanently harmed a child by molesting and raping that child, a sentence of prayer for a lifetime, something is sick within.

Again....too much mercy is just as bad as too much severity.

a reply to: ketsuko

My thought is that the only way constant prayer and reflection would be any kind of punishment

One might get a misunderstanding of what prayer really is ...Prayer could never be punishment ,plain and simple ..Its a privilege and should be a honor .You are after all communicating with the Great Creator ...Oh darn I have to go talk to that guy again ...boo hoo ....besides being silly its just plain stupid and anyone thinking otherwise is a fool to believe it .

a reply to: the2ofusr1

It's not the prayer itself but the act of having to reflect on what you've done as you pray because you are specifically praying for forgiveness for what you have done.

They say that when you are before God to be judged you will experience a review of your life good and bad. And even if you've been quite a good person, you will still squirm in discomfort and remorse over the things you have done to wrong people that you didn't know you did because you'll finally know how it impacted them.

originally posted by: queenofswords

Pope cuts penalties for paedophile priests - including one let off with just a lifetime of prayer for abusing five young boys.

Pope Francis said to be applying his vision of a 'merciful church' to sex offenders.

He reduced sentence for Rev Mauro Inzoli from defrocking to lifetime of prayer

Too much mercy is as bad as too much punishment.

When justice becomes a mockery, you are left with an environment that invites abuse and degeneracy.

What is happening to this world? What is happening to the Catholic church?

One of the priests was the Reverend Mauro Inzoli, who was found guilty of abusing young boys by the Vatican in 2012 and was ordered to be defrocked.

However, he appealed, and in 2014 Francis reduced the penalty to a lifetime of prayer, prohibiting him from celebrating Mass in public or being near children, barring him from his diocese and ordering five years of psychotherapy.

Rev Inzoli was then convicted by an Italian criminal court for his sex crimes against five children as young as 12.

He is now facing a second church trial after new evidence emerged against him.

A church official has said some paedophile priests and their high-ranking friends appealed to Pope Francis by citing the pope's own words about mercy in their petitions.

High-ranking friends? I wonder who THEY are.

The article further says:

Comparatively, his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, rarely granted clemency petitions and defrocked 800 priests, who had raped and molested children, during his eight-year papacy.

Think about that....800 defrocked for raping and molesting children over an 8-year span!

Has the whole world gone completely insane!? Where is real justice? People that do this sort of thing to children need to hang, imo.


www.dailymail.co.uk...

Justice is as important as mercy.

Well, it has been pretty clear over the last millenia that the catholic church is not for the people. It is for itself. Their answer for everything is just pray about it and don't stop sending us your money. For those who still go to catholic churches and listen to those old creepy priests, i ask, what the # is wrong with your mind? They have been pulling this ruse long enough that it shouldn't fool anyone anymore. Stop sending them tithes and they will not have the means to molest your children any more.

People who go into the priesthood are hiding out from the world. Hiding in the shadows of an imaginary god. Trying to appear innocent by association.

a reply to: ketsuko

They say

Really ...They meaning people like the Pope or any of his sick and twisted minions ...Basic tenants of the Biblical theology of salvation and the forgiveness of sins says that they will be remembered no more ...Heaven is a place of reward for good deeds and service not the place where the children of God will be doing any squirming . All of our sins forgiven means sins we don't know about too . Its either a total forgiveness or its not .Either the blood of Christ was sufficient to atone for our sins or it was not ..

a reply to: Woodcarver

People who go into the priesthood are hiding out from the world. Hiding in the shadows of an imaginary god. Trying to appear innocent by association.

I personally know some that became RCC priest but left ...They were not hiding from the world when they went in and were not when they left ,and are still not ...Some of them actually read the book and the RCC was just not in it ...They realized that what the RCC was something that wrapped the cloak of the bible around them but it was not inside them ...big difference . No they left to remain faithful to what the Bible teaches .