The Orthodox Church has two branches: one, where a prospective priest marries before being ordained and, the second is the monastical branch. That's where the perversion is truly blossoming.
As to the Soviet era activity, there was some, but very limited. They were truly dedicated and courageous. After the fall of the Empire, there was a flood of "do-gooders" who were trying to snatch souls (and eventual 10%) on the cheap. Most of them have now been kicked out.

I doubt if I could survive as a devout Catholic. However, when I was younger, I would have been an excellent genuflector. Come to think of it, I doubt if I could survive as a devout anything.

Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror" is an excellent expose of the Catholic Church. Their public relations methods have changed, but not their nature. If any other institution (except, perhaps, for the federal government) were to systematically protect and hide away child rapists, that institution would have been dismantled to its foundation. But the Church thrives, collects and professes to teach us how to live!

Whoa!
Strong words. First of all, whores don't practice rape. That makes them more honorable than the priests who do. As to numbers, I have no idea. Have the recent reforms done any good or have they merely forced the bad priests further underground? Don't get me wrong, I would never defend the Catholic religion for anything on any subject. Their history is filled with intrigue and horror and the current operation of the Vatican is just as dishonest as most states.

One would think the "learned father" would be more learned---but then if "learned" enough, he probably would be an atheist. And, after all, he was born and raised in Argentina. That country loves big government and hates freedom to do businss. Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

One would expect a "learned father" to be more learned...

Yes, he's beating himself to death over it...

Haven't dealt that close with the Protestants, but I can definitively state that in the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Church the priests all but run whorehouses. Affliction for boys is not common, though - they prefer girls.

And what makes you think that it is a small percentage? Based on the history of the past centuries and the world-wide effort to pretent that they see no evil and hear no evil while raping children in epidemic numbers, it is only reasonable to give very high marks to the Catholic Whorehouse.

Hybrid-Altruism, actually. The Church wants others to be altruistic, but that desease does not affect the Church itself.

The fact is, the pope in this statement renders himself worse than Marxist. Essential to his grab bag of populist remarks is that he is sticking to his altruist guns. Practiced and implemented, this means attacking and chastising any and all ideals or people who oppose altruism. In fact, that's about all there is left for him to do, and he knows it more than even we would! We should actually be thankful to the pope because, in this way, he makes a spectacle of the entire altruist code of ethics. So cheers to you oh dear liberal pope, for redressing grievances and making the voice of the people known! Just like the voice the Catholic Church had when it helped to banish Jews from Spain in 1492. You want fettered capitalism? You want socialism? You want to make economic decisions from your ivory tower in the Vatican and be the man who decides who gets what and when? You want to be the benefactor of goods you have seized from people you claim to represent? More power to you. Because pope, God is watching, and so is Danneskjold repossessions.

Haven't you heard, devil dung is the best fertilizer!

Which I call "religion."
:)

You can only take what the pope says through the filter of his office: shuffle the pedophile, alcoholic priests, impregnated nuns, hit and run priests,etc.

The catholic church has no moral high ground to stand on and, to be quite honest, should be ashamed to make any statements as-if they do.

Yes. It's all part of that circular reasoning in order to make sense of the senseless.

that's ironic... having to do penance for a 'crime' his own institute/organization DEFINED as a 'crime.'

I LOVE being an atheist.... :)))))))))

Perhaps a small hill.
Just because he lives like an emperor doesn't mean he doesn't suffer. For instance he probably has to do penance for all that masturbation.

Herb... "his sacrifice"??? "SACRIFICE"?!?!?
List 'em, please... I think his 'balance sheet' would be hard-pressed to prove his 'sacrifices' have amounted to anything resembling even a hill of beans.

imnsho.

I'm not convinced Rand made a mistake there...
'love of money' is probably the original text and meaning, but over the years, decades or centuries, it seems that the "quote" has morphed into the common quote of "money is the root..."

You hear that nearly all the time, not "the love of..."

I'd suggest that Rand was talking to the multitudes who use the misquote as a justification to attack capitalism and free markets.

And I think the pope is a moron for suggesting that there's any "unfettered capitalism" anywhere on earth today and maybe even in the past. Capitalism has ALWAYS been 'fettered' by people who like power and control over others.

When I hear things like that, I thank God I'm an Atheist. :)

Ayn Rand had some harsh writings about Pius XII (I think it was him) and his Populorum Progressivo.

So is unfettered Catholicism the crusades and the other horrors brought on by their craziness?

The pope is an anachronism is 2015. Pretty useless except to the people who are snookered into believing in his religion

'It's' as far from Socraties' altruism as one could get!