Pope canonises woman who died to save her unborn baby

[eddm]

see this

Makes me feel sick.

Except a significant number of priests haven't forsworn sex, they just use their position to abuse boys, and in some cases women.

Surely these priest you're talking about would have found boys regardless of whether they joined the church or not.
I am in no way condoning the cover up though.

Don't know but the church gives them a great opportunity and a position of trust.
PS half my family are Catholic, but I object to a lot of what the church itself stands for. And half of dh's relatives are Jehovah's Witnesses...

Actually, maybe the enforced celibacy does have an effect... it is possible that having to suppress the very natural and enormously strong drive to have sex and reproduce does perhaps turn some people into abusers. But you'd have to be a psychologist to make a judgement on that, I suppose.

eddm, I am not a Catholic but my understanding is that preists are not forced to be celibate, it is a choice that they make. I don't think that it is necessaary, but that is only my opinion. It doesn't make people be celibate, they chose it. Some may not be able to keep their vows but that is a different issue.

I'm a teacher. I am setting work on Sunday morning, while the rest of my family are out having fun. The LEA isn't making me do this, I have chosen it.

HMB, have just read the Guardian article, eventhough I don't condemn catholic religion (I'm a catholic myself), I believe that Cardinal should be removed from his post.

Yes the Church is guilty of a cover-up of abuse. Again, I don't think the intentions there were deliberate, just naive. But it does need a shake-up and apparently things have changed in that respect now. The Church does hold up it's hands and says that it has done things wrongly in the past. I guess that's one of the reasons I respect it so much.

As for condoms, yes they should allow use of condoms, not just in places like Africa, but everywhere. However they should not stop looking to change the attitudes of people in regards to sex. The Aids problem is camoflaging other serious problems in those countries, and we need to be looking at re-education. When people say that the Church refuses to sanction condoms, they forget to look at the brilliant work the Church does in other areas to try and stop the spread of Aids. You do need to look at the bigger picture.

Of course friends hmb! I've enjoyed our debate!

Tongue firmly in cheek mode.......Took 'em a while over Galilao tho' didn't it???

Nice to know that they got round to it in the end!