Pell and other allegations

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George Pell’s mate Rupert Murdoch runs a fair chunk of the news over here.

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It gets worse.

What a disgrace.

Yep. Way to put the philosophy and teachings of Jesus into practice.

According to the 2016 census, 22.6% of Australians are Catholic and 30.1% are of no religion. No blooming wonder.

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Until the latest census, I wrote Catholic even though I haven’t gone to mass for 40+ years (except for matching and dispatching). I’ve now stopped doing that.

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Same.

A pretty wide spread trend I’d imagine.

l put a line through religion, as in none. l am a devout non - believer, except for Essendon. l stopped going to church well over 50 years ago. Haven’t missed not having a Sunday morning to myself, since then.

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Paedophile priest/brother Sunday, not fired Monday. Seems SSM a worse sin.

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what a pack of ancient, outdated, irrelevant god-bothering wankers.

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Personally, I agree.

But I’m not surprised by that article in the slightest, and tbh I’m not even outraged by it. The catholic church dogma is well known and the only way it will change is from within. I think its important that they not be forced by law to allow SSM as a religious union. Its a tough position for Catholic homosexuals to be in and i sympathise a lot, but they’ll need to change that idiotic behemoth of an organisation as Catholics. The irony is that they’ll get more support in their love from broader society - and maybe within the congregation too - than from the bureaucracy of their own faith. Absurd. But thats how it is. Currently. In an australian context, I think it could change, as all these old powerbrokers die off. But by then the practicing church membership will likely be stuff all. And I’ve no idea what the views are overseas , where Rome does still have a substantial powerbase in various countries.

Paedophilia on the other hand should see the full force of the law descend upon them. Including anyone who hears “confession” and doesnt act upon it. The notion of “Gods forgiveness” for these things is utter utter tripe.

(Disclaimer: i married a catholic girl. She supports SSM. My kids are horrified that anyone wouldnt. Their grandparents are uncomfortable with the notion. I think the entire religion in a structured, Tenet based context , is totally off its rocker)

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Personally I don’t understand why gay folks would want to marry under the auspices of an institution that regards them as “an abomination” and who’s texts call for them to be killed.

I’ll wager there weren’t many Jews at the Nuremberg rallies.

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I’d suspect any gay couple going to a Catholic priest and demanding to be married in the church is being deliberately provocative. Ditto going to a Catholic hospital asking for an abortion or euthanasia.

They should keep the exclusion rules that say a church can refuse gay marriage or a hospital refuse abortion, but that’s as far as it goes. They shouldn’t be able to sack gay teachers who’ve married.

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If they consider it an “Abomination”, . why would they employ Gay or Lesbian teachers in the 1st place?

And for that matter, … why would anyone of such leanings want to work there?

Religious institions already enjoy considerable exemptions under employment laws such as hiring/ firing. Whether they should - including in circumstances where the State financially contributes to employment - is another matter. At the least, the scope of the exemptions could be more narrowly circumscribed.
We would be better off following the system in many countries where only civil marriages are recognised in law.

The most frequent outcome would be “how can I remain part of an institution that hates me for how God made me?”, and then subsequently leaving.

I agree with ol’ Socks’n’Sandal Noonan on this one. The churches should maintain the right to practice their religious beliefs as they hold them, and that doesn’t include SSM. To me the SSM debate is about civil rights and legal recognition, not forcing churches to change their ways. The only way that religion comes into the SSM debate is as a very feeble argument against it.

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As a catholic (and I use this in the lightest of terms) who is young it seems to be the teachings are good (don’t kill, love thy neighbour, look after the poor and sick) the but the practice of it is all bad. I’ve always found it interesting the church can forgive although God was to say that ‘judgement will be mine’.

Too much of religion is done behind closed doors.

I believe in science too much to have one opinion and only believe in one religion. Now personally I take in a little bit from everyone. More searching for some sort of spiritual place that can explain that all this suffering has an ultimate purpose.

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I’m an atheist but have always believed that the general principles of most religions (do unto others, don’t be bad) are a pretty good starting point. A couple of years ago I went to my niece’s baptism (my sister in law comes from a catholic upbringing, my brother is of the same mind as me) and I was astonished by the way the priest carried on during the whole thing. He basically reminded everyone that society is going to hell, we’d all be going to hell if we didn’t be more catholic, that everyone who only turned up to the church for the baptism would be going to hell, we should all fear God’s judgment because he would surely send us to hell, the kids would go to hell if we didn’t raise them in good catholic fashion. We would go to hell if we didn’t raise the kids to be good catholics, etc, etc. I can remember thinking “why would anyone want to listen to this stuff every week?”. Who wants to be brow-beaten about guilt and sin by an organisation that is basically the hypocritical champion of both? Every other church I have been to for weddings and christenings have always been about sharing love and doing right by others, which all seemed like pretty positive, encouraging stuff. IMO it’s no wonder that numbers of people who identify themselves as Catholic once they leave school and their parent’s house is in sharp decline. I reckon a lot of people now look at the church without the blinkers and think “yeah, nah, I reckon there are better ways than this”.

And without knowing you personally Soulnet, it sounds like you’re heading that way too.

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All that talk of do this & that, & don’t do that & the other, or “HELL” is yours to sweat out eternity in, … yet IIRC, all you need is absolution on your death bed from a Priest, .(child molesting kind or not, … same/same), after a lifetime full of “Sin”, and all’s hunky dory, … “Heaven” awaits

Hypocritical much? Or just a load of redundant threats?