Vatican - "New policy... report sex crimes"

puremagic wrote:

The Catholic church is now claiming that celibacy is not at the heart of these sexual abuse cases. The Catholic church is claiming that homosexuals within the church are the abusers and offenders. How special!!!!

this is secondary ... i want to know why the pope isn't in jail for knowingly allowing the predatory nature of some priests to a) continue and b) not reported to the police?

This is the Richard Dawkins article.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7094310.ece

I'm far from religious, but would add this much to the conversation - The vatican and pope are not religion - mere self-appointed extensions of it. If push came to shove, most followers of that faith would not renounce their belief, but merely this group of cohorts. I do not like religion as a whole but many use this issue as breading ground to bash religion in a sensationalized manner (Dawkins in this example). The same reasons most disagree with religion or god will not be altered by priests' abuses or similar. This will not spawn an age of reason or disillusionment of religion and belief - merely a blow (pun intended) to "organized religion" and in this instance the pope and/or the vatican.