Penn State's Catholic Problem

Recently, two distinct parts of my professional life have run together in an unexpected way. For a quarter-century, much of my scholarly research has focused on aspects of child abuse and molestation, particularly within the context of the Roman Catholic Church.

For most of that time, I was working at Penn State University, which has now been overwhelmed by the abuse scandal centered on football coach Jerry Sandusky. Many people have noted parallels between the Penn State case and the clergy scandals — both, for instance, involved powerful, closed institutions — but the resemblances are closer than anyone has ever observed.

And these parallels have major implications for the future course of the Penn State investigations, which are going to remain in the headlines for many years to come.

The key episode in the Penn State case occurred in early 2001, when Sandusky was reported for molesting a young boy in a shower. After intense debate, university authorities decided not to take the case to police or child protection agencies, although university president Graham Spanier acknowledged the danger that "we then become vulnerable for not having reported it." Sandusky went on to molest more children, leaving the university open to multi-million dollar civil litigation.

Even so, Penn State's problems run much deeper than the university currently seems to realize.

Continue reading at www.realclearreligion.org

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Jim

The biggest problem at PSU was one man, Paterno and his Football Program. He was winning and Sandusky was one of the biggest reasons that he was winning. I belive that as time goes on, more and more will come out about how old Joe protected Sandusky so that the program could prosper. Joe had more clout and anyone who believes that old Joe did not know what was going on is total BS.
- Jack
  
  Jim, you are mostly right, but you (and many others) are wrong on the timetable. Sandusky left the Penn State football program in 1999. Like most retired professors/coaches, he had access to certain campus facilities. When, in 2001, he was seen in the men's locker room assaulting a boy, his privileges were suspended and he returned his keys to the athletic facilities. He was now barred from entering the athletic facilities, and I have seen nothing in the evidence that he ever regained entry to those facilities. Of course, Sandusky still had access to football tickets and other perks.
  
  You are absolutely right about the cover up. But, without any desire to find fault with your analysis or to nitpick the facts, it is not true that "Sandusky was one of the biggest reasons that [Paterno] was winning." Sandusky was actually long gone from the program . . .
  
  This was an attempt by a university to avoid any tarnish on the university's shiny reputation, not the just the football program's. If the university had taken action in 2001, many victims would have been spared.
bighoss

The cover-up by Penn State officialdom will result in very costly and protracted litigation and the university will pay through the nose for this, as has the Catholic Church. The similarities between the two institutions in the way they mishandled this issue are striking. Instead of taking the obviously needed corrective measures, they took the convenient and expedient route. The Catholic Church reported none of these crimes to civil authorities, but just moved the miscreant priests around to other assignments, as though those deviates would not find new outlets for their perverted lusts. The university similarly did not go to law enforcement authorities, but kept it under the university "roof." And the once-revered Joe Paterno's reputation is where it belongs for his part in this–in the toilet! He was once a winner; now he is seen as a big loser in the kind of things that really matter much more than football scores and lifetime won-lost records.
- myth buster
  
  One thing you have to understand about the Catholic Church is that the seal of confession is sacrosanct. Information obtained in the confessional cannot be used to the detriment of the penitent for any reason, not even to save a life. So, if a priest confessed to his bishop or to another priest that he had raped a child, the priest or bishop would not be able to turn him in to the authorities, under pain of automatic excommunication.
Dave S

The failure to report is the result of a confluence of two factors. First, the molestor is known (and probably liked) within the institution. There is a disinclination to believe that someone so familiar and so liked could do something that heinous. People don't realize that perpetrators of horrible deeds don't have horns, fangs or eyes that glow in the dark. The perp is probably much more familiar to the instituion than the victim. Second, there is an overwhelming desire to avoid bad publicity. The result is that the incident doesn't get reported, or gets reported to someone who is equally unmotivated to create a major commotion. Often, the perp is quietly allowed to leave and the problem exported. These two concerns are true universally. They were found in the Catholic Church before it got serious about the problem, and they will be found at Penn State and anywhere else molestation by a person of authority occurs.
The key to ending it is a zero tolerance policy and making all persons in authority realize that they will not be starting a commotion by reporting abuse; the commotion was started by the perp. They will only be part of the solution if they report and pursue the problem..
- daves
  
  You should be careful about your name. People around here don't like me much. :)
  - Eric
    
    Don't play the martyr card daves. It's not you that people don't like, it's your liberal politics and theology. You're probably a swell guy apart from everything you're wrong about… :)
  - keyboardshark
    
    Yes daves, I seldom agree with your opinion, but I have nothing personal against you. In fact, I do not know you personally, so it would be silly for me to attack you anyway. I try to make it a point to stick with the issues and not attack the person with whom I disagree. I'm not perfect of course, and am subject to emotion just like everyone else, so something that the other person perceives as a slight may slip by me, but it is (hopefully) not intentional.
  - http://conservativebyte.com Michael G.
    
    Why is that?
Randy131

I hope that Penn State suffers as the Catholic Church has, for just as it was unforgiveable for those Catholic Bishops to hide and cover-up their Priests' abuses, no matter how small the percentage, for one is too many, the Penn State officials have also done the same and has put their institution in a precarious financial position, as seen by what the Catholic Church has been through, so that the majority of the innocent will now have to suffer for the crimes of the very few, and only because of a lack of integrity in both the Catholic Church and Penn State by their leaders. Evil and Hypocrisy have raised their ugly heads in both of these situations.
- Gedi
  
  Please, anyone of you, tell me why you feel incapable of making your point about PSU without the PSU-Catholic-Church links? Smells like smear-by-association, does it not?
  - bighoss
    
    The Catholic Church is not linked to Penn State University, but the behaviors of Sandusky and Catholic priests were similarly unnatural and disgusting. There are very strong similarities in how the two institutions mishandled child sexual predators within their jurisdictions, with the negligence of both allowing abuses to continue. It would be remarkable if no one had noticed these glaring similarities.
    - Despeville
      
      Indeed and both were criminal in their cover up.
    - Gedi
      
      But notice how regrettably the linkage has diverted attention from the issues (Sandusky conduct and PSU response or lack thereof) to the usual ranting by angry protestants and confused ex-Catholics against the Catholic Church. From what is reported (none of the pious judges was present) it appears that Sandusky and Priests sinned. If they repent of their sins, the gracious Lord has promised to give their sins. It would seem that the last call on this belongs with the Lord Himself. Questions I have are: is there such a thing as institutional "sin" – what appears to readers from a distance as "deliberate coverup" by PSU and RCC – the Institutions? Who must repent and be forgiven for such a "sin" by Christ, the Institutions or persons? I worry that in focusing on the Institutions because they, especially the RCC, are easy targets, we are diverting attention from persons who sinned and need repentance, to Institutions of which they happen to be a part.
David Dale

You Don't Blame the Church for individual horrendous actions but ensure this doesn't happen again, so quick to judge, you who have no sin cast the first stone!! We ensure to expose the action of the sinner and prosecute as is appropriate.
- Ralph Cramden
  
  We CAN be quick to judge…as long as we use the SAME standards of judgement, which is what scripture refers to…it DOESN'T state that we cannot judge. We judge all the time. Police make judgements of rights and wrongs, judges pass sentence upon defendants, Doctors judge the best course of action upon a patient. Get over this idea that we cannot make judgement calls, life is relete with them.
  
  That said, the issue about child abuse is that it is rampant in society, it probably always has been. But it's more rampant in a society which is bent upon calling the perverse acceptable behavior, notably homosexuality, which is by it's nature a very predatory behavior. It is lust, pure and simple, and a predatory disgusting lust. And when anyone of power influences the young for sexual favors, it is particularly egregious. Whether it is Porn State Univ. or the Roman Catholic Crutch, it doesn't mastter, it's clearly wrong. The Catholics tolerated it at the highest levels, which shouldn't surprise anyone. The RCC has a lengthy history of anti-christian dogma and policies, which isn't surprising considering it's pagan beliefs.
  - Gedi
    
    LOL, Porn State Univ….!!!
  - tbone
    
    Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. James 1:21
- bighoss
  
  So why did you NOT ensure that in the numerous cases of priestly pedophilia that have come to light in the last decade?
  Time will tell whether the necessary changes have been put in place to ensure it does not happen again. The world watches to see whether or not the leopard will truly change its spots.
- daves
  
  You do blame the church for covering up the information and for assigning the priests new parishes instead of firing them.
- bighoss
  
  You say, "You Don't Blame the Church for individual horrendous actions," David, but it WAS the CHURCH, through its egregious negligence, that failed in case after case to take measures that would have prevented lecherous and corrupt priests from continuing their depravity. It WAS the CHURCH that shipped pedophiles off to other parishes to ruin more young lives. Many of the "individual horrendous actions" of priestly perverts would not have happened had the CHURCH taken timely and appropriate action instead of protecting "its own," after "its own" had been confirmed as depraved, child molesting criminals. Yes, David, I blame the CHURCH because the CHURCH clearly deserves blame for its sick and sorry behavior in this scandalous matter!
peter1589

Yeah, it figures you'd be focused and obsessed on the phenomenon of homosexual depravity which satan instituted in the Catholic Church. Just like he instituted communist infiltration leading to Pope Paul VI's famous and alarming question, from what fissure has the smoke of satan entered the temple of God.

Yet, guess what! Satan has been no more successful in overthrowing the Catholic Church than the 38,000 + subdivided PROTEST-ant sects have been for 600 years, nor the nationalistic "orthodox" heresies have been able since the Great Schism around 1000 years ago, nor through any of the more famous heresies such as Patripassianism, Arianism, Sabellianism or Macedonianism, nor barbarian invasions by the Huns, the Mongols nor any other armed force … in fact NOTHING has been able to kill the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Why? Jesus promised it!

You guys keeps dividing, diluting, reforming, and annihilating all forms of Sacramental life in your desperate bids to be Popes unto yourselves. Personal, individual, rationalistic and void of all Truth interpretation of Holy Writ (itself rewritten by copious pride-filled PROTEST-ants to fit their own theories of "theology") is the road satan has instituted in your souls to deny you the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, fully outlined and stated irrevocably in Holy Writ, in order that at death you become those who cry, "Lord! Lord!" and Jesus will say to you, "I never knew you. Depart from Me you who work iniquities."

Why does He never know you? You never ate His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist worthily. Better come Home! Time's flying! http://www.catholicscomehome.org/not-catholic.php.
- msjallen
  
  John 6:47-66 (This is not the literal flesh and blood of Christ. He is talking about salvation and growing spiritually.) _Luke 22:19-20 (It is not His literal blood or body that was taken at the first Eucharist since He had not gone to the cross and neither are they literal now.)
  1 Corinthians 11:23-30 (The ritual is what He did for you on the cross for your salvation and not what He is doing in the elements now or His presence in the elements. There is nothing mystical about the elements. We are to be in fellowship and completely focused on Christ during His memorial service.)
  - peter1589
    
    Sure, go ahead and reverse 2,000 years of Catholic theology and see what you get at death. I've already been there, and buddy, you ain't gonna like it one little bit. The furious lethality of the reptilian demons waiting for your soul and mine are beyond anything humanly imaginable. And they are laughing at you right now because you can't grasp the FACTS of the Catholic Church's teaching which hasn't changed for 2,000 years, based on Our Lord's exacting statement:
    
    6:54. Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.
    
    Except you eat – and drink, etc… To receive the body and blood of Christ, is a divine precept, insinuated in this text; which the faithful fulfil, though they receive but in one kind; because in one kind they receive both body and blood, which cannot be separated from each other. Hence, life eternal is here promised to the worthy receiving, though but in one kind. Ver. 52. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world. Ver. 58. He that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. Ver. 59. He that eateth this bread, shall liver for ever.
    
    6:55. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.
    
    6:56. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed.
    
    Indeed, it is, and you will have nothing of it due to your PROTEST-ant pride. Enjoy Hell.
    - msjallen
      
      I am not reversing anything the RCC has done it to themselves. BTW, you are sooooooooooooooooooo scary. I know I will be in heaven with my Lord Jesus Christ because I believed by faith that He died on the cross for my sins and I accepted what He did for me and the entire human race. He did all the work for my salvation and yours if you will believe in Him. Nothing else is needed for salvation. After salvation there is only one ritual that we are commanded to participate in and that is the Memorial Service to our Lord at the Communion Table that is not His literal blood but is figurative representing what He did for us. What the RCC believe about His body and blood is cannibalism and totally unBiblical.
      - peter1589
        
        That's what the Jews felt, and they walked away refusing to follow Him anymore. And I see that you can't comprehend what Jesus was saying in 6:55 above. You just can't. Nor can you comprehend the infallibility and indefectibility (meaning the Catholic Church, as Christ founded it, will last till the end of time) of the Church. How can it be that the Vatican, with only about 46o people in it, including Swiss guards, has not been conquered by anyone in history for the past 2,000 years? That's impossible! Hitler couldn't muster an indelible invasion of it nor the kidnapping of Pius XII, and the commies failed in their invasion of it, no matter the impact they had during the deliberations of Vatican II. IT CANNOT BE KILLED. And there's only about 460 people in the entire nation. Yet leaders from all over the world know its power and come to pay homage to the Pope, because there's over 1 billion of us, 1/5th of the world's population, on the face of the earth.
        
        Any national leaders come to you to find out what you're thinking lately, pope-unto-yourself? Nope, didn't think so.
        
        So you're absolutely certain of your salvation? Really? Then why did St. Paul state he had fought the good fight? If once saved, always saved (one of the most heinous heresies of all human history) were true, then how do you manage to avoid sin and live in absolute purity for the remaining days of your life in this society?
        
        You turn on the TV, BOOM!! You're already in mortal sin because Christ Himself stated that he who looks upon a woman with lust in his heart has committed adultery. A mortal sin.
        
        Worn a hair shirt lately? What penance do you do? Don't you recall that both John the Baptist and Christ Jesus Himself said to do penance? But you PROTEST-ants want all the attributes of pleasure and heaven right here and right now, so you will go to any lengths to avoid getting the honest Truth from the invulnerable Catholic Church but only share a wholesale contempt for Her, WHICH IS THE ONLY COMMON ATTRIBUTE BETWEEN ALL 38,000+ PROTEST-ANT SECTS WHO CAN'T AGREE ON A SINGLE TENET OF FAITH, BUT ARGUE, ARGUE, ARGUE TILL THEY FALL INTO THE GRAVE AND SEE THE THERMONUCLEAR HOT – LIQUID NITROGEN COLD – FURIOUSLY MURDEROUS REPTILIAN DEMONS WHO ARE NOW INFESTING THE EARTH UNCHALLENGED AND LAUGHING AT HUMAN PRIDE SO RAMPANT AND SO IGNORED.
      - peter1589
        
        If eternity exists, and it does, then isn't infinite eternity not infinitely more important than what constitutes a human life which ends at what moment we know not? Fundamentally, PROTEST-ant teaching robbed you of the most important topic of human life, for if we get that wrong, fail to love God (because of our gift of life) with all our hearts, minds and strength, and spend an eternity in Hell, what would have been the point of living?
        Look at the following verses from the Bible, and use the Catholic one, since the Catholic Church defined it, and all PROTEST-ant sects rewrite and redefine it exactly as Luther did, in order to fit their "personal" relationship with God, so that God submits to their wills, rather than we submitting to His. Here's the link to the online Catholic Bible, the Douay-Rheims: http://www.tldm.org/bible/bible.htm
        "3:16. All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice:
        All scripture,… Every part of divine scripture is certainly profitable for all these ends. But, if we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practice, we must not be content with those Scriptures, which Timothy knew from his infancy, that is, with the Old Testament alone: nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the traditions of the apostles, and the interpretation of the church, to which the apostles delivered both the book, and the true meaning of it."
        Note that he says "profitable" but not "essential". Why? For the simple reason that Christ instituted the Holy Roman Catholic Church, selected the Apostles, and sent them out to the world with the commandment, not to write a Bible, but to TEACH everything that Christ had instructed them, which, of course, includes all sorts of things not in the Bible but exist in the Apostolic Tradition (a.k.a., Holy Tradition).
      - peter1589
        
        "14:26. But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.
        Teach you all things… Here the Holy Ghost is promised to the apostles and their successors, particularly, in order to teach them all truth, and to preserve them from error."
        and
        "28:18. And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
        All power, etc… See here the warrant and commission of the apostles and their successors, the bishops and pastors of Christ's church. He received from his Father all power in heaven and in earth: and in virtue of this power, he sends them (even as his Father sent him, St. John 20. 21) to teach and disciple, not one, but all nations; and instruct them in all truths: and that he may assist them effectually in the execution of this commission, he promises to be with them, not for three or four hundred years only, but all days, even to the consummation of the world. How then could the Catholic Church ever go astray; having always with her pastors, as is here promised, Christ himself, who is the way, the truth, and the life. St. John 14.
        28:19. Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
        28:20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
        And above Christ tells the Apostles to go TEACH the world, not write Books but preach and orally pass on the Traditions of the Church.
        With no authority other than personal appetites, personal experiences, personal whims, personal addictions and personal ambitions, then BINGO! You have the absolutely total confusion of PROTEST-antism (I capitalize the first two syllables in order to make sure nobody misses the basic meaning of the word, which is to protest against the Church Christ established and the Apostolic Tradition which still reigns in the Catholic Church's Magisterium, handed down literally by the Apostles) with literally over 38,000 sects and counting.
      - peter1589
        
        Worse, the Bible actually says that the Bible is insufficient. Read Timothy:
        "3:15. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
        The pillar and ground of the truth…. Therefore the church of the living God can never uphold error, nor bring in corruptions, superstition, or idolatry."
        See? Not the Bible, which is the cause of so much dissent and theological chaos, but the Church, which is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church.
        "3:14. Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace.
        3:15. And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation: as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you:
        3:16. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction."
        See here how Peter condemns sola scriptura? It's in the Bible and PROTEST-ants singlemindedly ignore the threat, in order to place their own egos in a position supreme to that of God. Exactly as Satan tried and failed to accomplish.
      - http://youtu.be/HlD3Gaq4cN0 Despeville
        
        "See? Not the Bible, which is the cause of so much dissent and theological chaos, but the Church, which is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church."
        
        We see your carelessness that is what wee see. This:
        
        if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
        (1 Timothy 3:15 ESV)
        
        Refers to the LOCAL CHURCH ran by Timothy and not your Roman church that evolved hundreds of years later. This not a call to obey a corporate Moloch out of Rome that did not even exist but to grow in LOCAL church where the truth is proclaimed.
        
        'See here how Peter condemns sola scriptura? "
        
        You are totally deceived. 2 Peter 3:14-18 does not lowers the position of the Word of God for the sake some traditions. It actually calls believers to HAVE DISCERNMENT in what they believe: "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability." Peter calls them to excersise prudence and wisdom to what was actually WRITTEN to them in the past: " just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,"…
        
        Full context:
        
        Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
        (2 Peter 3:14-18 ESV)
        
        Repent from your papist idolatry and believe upon true Gospel and true Jesus.
      - myth buster
        
        Timothy was the bishop of Ephesus. Who is your bishop? And don't tell me your pastor's name, because a pastor is not a bishop. Timothy wouldn't be ordaining presbyters if he was able to serve every Christian in Ephesus himself.
      - bighoss
        
        John the Baptist and Jesus said that sinners should repent, but neither of them ever prescribed acts of "penance" such as reciting dozens or hundreds of ":Hail Marys" or "Our Fathers." Nowhere in the New Testament is there any notion of repentance that involves the "penance" contrived through the centuries by priests and popes and administered by ecclesiastics. Historically, penance in Catholicism has involved whipping oneself, wearing hair shirts, climbing stone steps on one's knees, etc. Those forms seem to have been abandoned, but that they ever existed at all confirms just how disordered the Catholic Church has been in its distorted concept of repentance and penance.
        
        No, I have NOT worn a hair shirt lately or ever, peter1589, and I never will, nor will I submit to any others of the unscriptural inventions of men that make up so much of the practice of the Mother of Harlots and Abominations in the Earth!
      - Despeville
        
        Ditto!
    - petroskhan1262
      
      I'm sorry…I have to ask…"reptilian demons"? You got a Book/Chapter/Verse on that one? I did a quick search, and couldn't find it in my Bibles…
  - http://conservativebyte.com Michael G.
    
    The Catholic Church says otherwise. Don't ask me how this can be; I can't give you an adequate explanation how Transubstantiation works. I'm not sure anyone can. But what you're saying simply won't work. It is what it is; not symbolism signifying something else. If it had been symbolism, the Word would have said so.
    - msjallen
      
      I know what the RCC’s transubstantiation and the Lutheran con-transubstantiation mean and they are not Biblical. The Biblical viewpoint – I Cor 11:24-25 — The blessing is the Bible Doctrine in your soul. Remembering what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross when He took the sins of all mankind in Him for three hours while God the Father judged them. The ritual is what He did for you on the cross for your salvation and not what He is doing in the elements now or His presence in the elements. The words of the ritual are to be interpreted literally but the elements are not. So that makes the bread and the cup symbolic of the doctrinal truth of Christ’s death; His substitutionary spiritual death.
      - myth buster
        
        And no early Christian would accept that, nor can your teaching be squared with the condemnation for sinning against the Body and Blood of the Lord if you take Communion unworthily.
      - msjallen
        
        One is to confess their sins to God the Father before taking Communion — that is the only way one can be worthy to take it. Taking Communion has NOTHING to do with our salvation — the Lord Jesus Christ paid for our salvation on the cross and He said "It is FINISHED" — there is nothing we can do except to believe by faith that He saves us; not we ourselves. Taking communion is in rememberance of what He did for us on the cross. It is the only ritual that is mandated for believers to participate but ritual without reality is meaningless.
        Eph 2:8-9 For you have been saved by GRACE in the past with the result that you continue to be saved forever through faith; and this salvation is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God; not by works, that no one may boast.
- tbone
  
  It's the teaching of the RCC that is wrong. To force priests into a life of celibacy is a doctrine of demons according to the bible. I Timothy 4:1-3
  - myth buster
    
    Who is forced? Did they not take their vows of their own free will?
- Once a Catholic
  
  Look to yourself Steward of the Vines Peter 1589… stop pointing your finger at everyone else and proceed to your appointed work. Martin Luther was right to attempt reformation, but it was a hopeless task, demonstrated once again by such bleeping threats you have sputtered against people who are just trying to find a way to avoid such tragedy in their lives like running into folks like Sandusky. Address the issue. You really want me running to the Catholic Church???!!!! Are you kidding? You need a history lesson.
  Signed: Once a Catholic
- petroskhan1262
  
  Why would Satan want to overthrow the RCC? It's his greatest tool here on earth. No other institution has been so successful in gathering so many people under so much blasphemous drivel in the history of the world.
  
  Remember, Satan wanted to be equal to God? Notice that those popes you follow equate themselves with God? Seeing a pattern here?
Lughon

When Protestants see the light, they realize just how many Bible verses they had been studiously ignoring. There are many references to the Eucharest in the Gospels. Look you fools, it's right in front of you. Or will you be like those who complained "This is a hard truth, who can hear it"?
- msjallen
  
  Almost every dogma and practice of the Roman Catholic faith is starkly opposed to the biblical Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the point of blasphemy against His glorious finished work of salvation.
  Self-righteous people seek to gain the favor of God by participating in meaningless rituals like taking the sacraments every Sunday in a Catholic or other church. It is ritual without reality. The sacrifices in the OT were a shadow of what Jesus Christ did on the cross when He took all our sins in Him as our substitute. The Eucharist is in memory of what Christ did and the elements are not His literal flesh and blood.
  - peter1589
    
    Your sources are unreliable. You believe PROTEST-ants who cannot agree among themselves. As Lughon said, it's all there in the Bible, but you CANNOT see it. That's the power of satan, to blind the ignorant in their pride and believe that all of John 6 is mere metaphor. Nothing could be further from the Truth.
    
    The Bible is clear. Unless our spirits (robes) are wiped clean in the Blood of the Lamb (Holy Eucharist), we have no inheritance in eternal life:
    
    7:10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb.
    
    7:11. And all the angels stood round about the throne and the ancients and the four living creatures. And they fell down before the throne upon their faces and adored God,
    
    7:12. Saying: Amen. Benediction and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honour and power and strength, to our God, for ever and ever. Amen.
    
    7:13. And one of the ancients answered and said to me: These that are clothed in white robes, who are they? And whence came they?
    
    7:14. And I said to him: My Lord, thou knowest. And he said to me: These are they who are come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
    
    7:15. Therefore, they are before the throne of God: and they serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell over them.
    
    7:16. They shall no more hunger nor thirst: neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat.
    
    7:17. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall rule them and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
    
    Our suffering, our charity, our constant offers of alms and prayers for the poor and the Poor Souls in Purgatory are foremost among the Sacraments necessary for salvation. It is obviously seen in the above Holy Writ that it is only Catholics who have sufficient Sacramental Grace to enter Heaven. For the "blood of the lamb" is the Eucharist instituted in John 6 and made manifest at the Last Supper and, again, to the disciples on the road to Emaus when their eyes were opened when the bread was broken and Jesus disappeared.
    
    So, what sufferings and tears do you, oh egocentric, "already saved" PROTEST-ant suffer? Got anything which will be wiped away at the entry to Heaven?
    - http://youtu.be/HlD3Gaq4cN0 Despeville
      
      You are deeply deceived religious man with no truth and no salvation either.
  - http://conservativebyte.com Michael G.
    
    One thing Christ didn't do and that was institute meaningless practices. I could say that your reading of the Scriptures is a meaningless ritual. What good would that do? I'd only be trying to put you down. And I won't stoop to that.
    Would you be willing to bet your Eternal destiny on your last statement?
    - msjallen
      
      Why do you assume what I do as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? I do not believe that one can grow spiritually by just reading the Bible. One must study from the original languages and if one does not know them then they get taught by those who do. My pastor does and is very thorough in his teaching. He spent 5 years teaching just the book of 1 Corinthians because there is so much doctrine in every verse. Are you taught the Word of God for at least one hour at each service or is the time spent in meaningless ritual? How many times a week do you have Bible teaching at your church? Do you confess your sins to God the Father before hearing the Word taught so that you are in fellowship through the Holy Spirit? Do you know how to pray? John 4:24 God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. We must worship God (includes prayer) in Spirit (in fellowship with God) and in truth (using the Word of God so we know how to pray and what to pray about) otherwise our prayers are not acknowledged by God.
  - myth buster
    
    How then, are they who eat and drink unworthily guilty of sinning against the Body and Blood of the Lord? (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)
    - msjallen
      
      buster, read my comment again very carefully after your confess your sins to God the Father — not the pope or priest or any other person and just maybe you will understand what the Word of God teaches. However, you must be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ first.
      Gal 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
      John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
- http://youtu.be/HlD3Gaq4cN0 Despeville
  
  Lughon,
  
  Your bogus mumbling is truly laughable while your butchery of the Bible terrifying.
tod

The real problem is We have let Queers,commieand muslims take over our country .They all need to round up and shot !!!
red nig

No, the problem is Penn State is Liberal-U. Professors there were preaching their religion "I was only sex." I spoke to a number of students in the fam, and asked them what they thought. same rote answer. Then asked what if you were forced to have sex with someone. Total confusion. I believe the correct non-PC term is brainwashing. A la Nazi Party? Most neo-libs are deeply into Naziism, tho they aren't bright enough to see it. See: Brainwashing, what little liberalism allows. I've been talked to by liberals a few times for not 'acting' as a good l'il brown brother should (we're Native American). that, of course, led to a number of problems like blacklisting at publishing houses :) As many of us write, this was a small problem, but, we write because we enjoy it, and the puzzlement on the faces of book reviewers that we cannot get published. They're still colonizing America. Welcome to injun country, and enjoy what we did when these jerks colonized us for the last 500 years, o' fellow 'skin! walk in beauty (means God's beauty).
red nig

Ah, but I forgot to add, rumor mill has it, Paterno received a substantial amount of cash AFTER each rape. Also, that he committed suicide, not died of natural causes.
- myth buster
  
  Paterno may well have given up on life, but it was cancer that killed him, not his own hand. At most, he stopped fighting and let the cancer claim him.
peter1589

"10:15. I speak as to wise men: judge ye yourselves what I say.
10:16. The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?
Which we bless… Here the apostle puts them in mind of their partaking of the body and blood of Christ in the sacred mysteries, and becoming thereby one mystical body with Christ. From whence he infers, ver. 21, that they who are made partakers with Christ, by the eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament, must not be made partakers with devils by eating of the meats sacrificed to them.
10:17. For we, being many, are one bread, one body: all that partake of one bread.
One bread… or, as it may be rendered, agreeably both to the Latin and Greek, because the bread is one, all we, being many, are one body, who partake of that one bread. For it is by our communicating with Christ, and with one another, in this blessed sacrament, that we are formed into one mystical body; and made, as it were, one bread, compounded of many grains of corn, closely united together."
See the preceding to understand the Bible's historical record of the establishment of the Holy Mass, wherein those of us who are as worthy as humanly possible via the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) are permitted to receive the Eucharist.
"11:27. Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.
1. Or drink… Here erroneous translators corrupted the text, by putting and drink (contrary to the original) instead of or drink.
Guilty of the body, etc., not discerning the body, etc… This demonstrates the real presence of the body and blood of Christ, even to the unworthy communicant; who otherwise could not be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, or justly condemned for not discerning the Lord's body.
11:28. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the chalice.
Drink of the chalice… This is not said by way of command, but by way of allowance, viz., where and when it is agreeable to the practice and discipline of the church.
11:29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.
11:30. Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you: and many sleep.
11:31. But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."
And there you see the punishment due for not "judging oneself," that is, not going to confession precedent to Holy Mass, and receiving Christ, Truly Present in the Eucharist, in a state of mortal sin.
- http://youtu.be/HlD3Gaq4cN0 Despeville
  
  What a bunch of terrifying butchery and twisting of the scriptures according to fallen men.
  You are deeply deceived papist.
I plead Guest

Does anyone care to comment whether the preponderance of this problem is directly related to misinterpretation, its delivery to the congregations, and its subsequent manifestations in the populations, of the perfect lessons taught by Christ? Or, should that aspect remain unspoken like "it goes without saying?" If the latter, then I have lost all hope for such organizations. I think that issue must be squarely questioned and addressed in the religious forum, with press releases online that are dignified yet very truthful to news agencies, which can be accessed, and easily readable by the public.

I am an ex-Catholic for reasons just barely related to this problem. I requested but received no help from the Catholic church to which generations of my family belonged. I lost complete faith in the Catholic church and if possible, they are still extremely diminished. I think fundamental self-examination by this and all organizations possibly harboring such problems, simply need to own up and make their progress towards a healthier point of view based in the Savior, in public. Trust is earned. We won't have the elements to trust without seeing the logical, step by step effort to clean up acts.

Some will say that I am blaming the Catholic Church for the sins of one. My answer to them would be no not at all. The perception that I was to develop and carry on in my life grew out of the knowledge that the priest was the perfect example of Jesus Christ on the Earth. I believed it as a small child and I continued to believe it into young womanhood and as a young mother. churches foster this idea among their congregation/clergy. I know the priest should represent Christ to the depths of his being and if he does not he should be cast out to priesthood. He cannot represent Christ even at an artificial level if he is the perpetrator of crime. A bad tree cannot yield good fruit.
- IpleadGuest
  
  It is up to the superiors to be good stewards of the vineyard and prune away when needed. That goes for Rome in the administration of every church on Earth,but they don't do it.
  
  they
- myth buster
  
  Remember that Judas was an Apostle, too.
smilingator

There is absolutely NO acceptable excuse for homosexual conduct. PERIOD! The individual may be pitied, counseled,
given all treatments possible, BUT it cannot be, under any circumstances, regarded as acceptable human behavior!

In every case that becomes known and is treated as acceptable behavior, the acceptor will be found to BE a homosexual
or sexual deviate, or to be seeking some form of personal profit (money, political gain, personal advancement, etc.) in
return for the acceptance! IN EVERY CASE !!!!
Luong

Typical Catholic thugs, always committing crimes and having your buddies covering them up.