During my christian education I already learned quite some of what you write here. Not in detail though like you do. I believe you when you tell me that you discovered that the reformation was only a tip of the iceberg. It's not for nothing that they fought wars against reformation and the relatively openness it created. But the reformation took with them a lot of the despicable things the inherited from the Catholic Church. They kept the indoctrination system of the institute, and after every schism later about interpreting and what the dogmas should contain and that lead to all those different "reformed churches", they all kept more or less the system of indoctrination that the Catholic Church had, and has developed since.

You may be right, I was no Catholic, but the dogma's of churches, especially the catholic, contain more than what you can find in the bible itself.

Where do you find the gospels of Mary Mag.? I've heard of these in some fiction - but never in reality? Though the Catholic Church is so patriarchal I do not doubt you.

The Gospel of Mary Magdelene is a published book translated from French. Look it up and get the translated copy. Same with the Gospel of Thomas which you can get on You Tube as well as in a Book. Abe Books or Thirftbooks. are pretty reasonably priced. The Gospel of Mary Magdelene has a lot of background attached which you may or may not want to believe but it also centers around the fact that she was married to Jesus and they had a child. She supposedly moved to France after the crucifixion for different reasons.

I wish it was only the Catholic Church. I'm very positive that you find this abuse of status or power in every religon.

@Gert Sure it is not just the catholics. Lots of examples in other religions. The abuse of women is making some news now, but has been around a long time, also.

All religion has abusers, but the demand of celibacy builds a haven for the worse of gay men. Where are they going to get their satisfaction and no one tell on them? Hmm.

I guess that doesn't change anything. The pope and his clique has to be convinced. They probably will use these people when they are convicted (and that will not be so easy) as a martyr to gain support. I bet.

No, laws should be passed that would cause the Pope to be jailed as well. I know, he has his own country, but we could arrest him when he visits. Our highest ranking Catholic who is number 3 or 4 in the Vatican has been called back to Oz re pedo charges, previously he piked and claimed illness so we sent a heap of victims to Rome to witness as he was questioned via video link re cover ups. An uphill battle I agree, but we should not stop until it is won.

What did you expect? That he would do something while his boss doesn't? An employee speaks the words of his master. So, he says nothing.

Well, the pope was one of the cardinals, so you shouldn't be surprised.

@Gert And he was the same SOB when he was a mere priest playing soccer at the summer resort in my city.

@DUCHESSA Well, let him go to prison. They probably play soccer there too during the recreation times. I hope he becomes a very skilled because of the many, many years of training there.

@Gert Not a bad idea.

Catholics are snowflakes because they have a very big, heinous structure to tear down.

My sentiment exactly.

Well, even if I tried to understand some of it based on what I know of the catholic church, it still is not silencing my feelings of weirdness.

In the 80's, I think, when sexual abuse was coming out, one victim said he was afraid to tell his dad back then because he wouldn't believe it, or if he did he would kill the priest.