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“ABORTION IS WORSE THAN PAEDOPHILIA – PRIESTP

Father Bucci

Christopher White Crux Now

Feb 2020

A Cistercian nun at the Valley of Our Lady Monastery near Prairie du Sac, Wis., organizes Communion hosts (Credit: CNS.)

NEW YORK – A Rhode Island priest who was recently under fire for denying communion to politicians who voted in favor of legislation supporting abortion rights is once again in the spotlight for saying that abortion is worse than pedophilia since it “doesn’t kill anyone.”

“We are not talking about any other moral issue, where some may make it a comparison between pedophilia and abortion,” said Father Richard Bucci on Sunday, doubling down on his previous comments. “Pedophilia doesn’t kill anyone, and this does.”

He went on to tell Rhode Island’s NBC 10 News there are more children who have been killed by abortion than have been abused.

“Now, I don’t know what else I have to say about it, this is the teaching of the Church. The Canon Law of the Church, the Second Vatican Council, and the First Catechism of the Church. I don’t know what more evidence I should have to present,” said Bucci.

Bucci had previously sparked an outrage among some parishioners and local politicians after distributing a flier which said that every state legislator who voted last year to keep abortion in state law would be denied communion.

RELATED: Rhode Island priest denies communion to legislators who support abortion

“In accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church for 2000 years, the following members of the legislature may NOT receive Holy Communion, as are all the officers of the state of Rhode Island, as well as Rhode Island’s members of Congress,” said the flier, which was distributed at Sacred Heart Church West Warwick.

At the time, a spokesperson for the diocese of Providence told Crux that the priest had made the decision and distributed the flier at the “local parish level” and he had not consulted with Bishop Thomas Tobin.

“For every sacrament, the Church provides detailed norms for preparation and reception. It is the pastor’s duty to apply them within his parish, in accord with Church law. This includes the proper reception of Holy Communion as outlined by the Code of Canon Law,” said the official diocesan statement in response to the earlier incident. “Because the Church entrusts to each pastor the duty of teaching, sanctifying, and governing his parish, the daily pastoral and administrative decisions are made at the local parish level.”

The diocese did not immediately respond to Crux’s request for comment on Bucci’s latest remarks.

Follow Christopher White on Twitter: @cwwhite212

PAT SAYS,

Here we have another cleric who just doesn’t get it when it comes to paedophilia.

He wants to class paedophelia as a second class sin compared to abortion which he regards as a first class sin!

Catholic and Catholic clerics are like rabbits in headlights when it comes to abortion

Of course abortion is a big moral issue. Of course abortion can often be a grave sin.

But it is silly to at all compare abortion and paedophilia and say paedophilia is the lesser sin.

Yes a human being (in my opinion) is killed when aborted.

But many victims of paedophilia take their own lives and many others suffer a long, slow death over a life time because of abuse.

I suspect that this priest is a secret clerical paedophilia denier!

89 replies on ““ABORTION IS WORSE THAN PAEDOPHILIA – PRIESTP”

I might be naive with this comment. Comparing abortion and paedophilia is like comparing apples and bananas, yes they’re different but they’re both fruits, just like abortion and paedophilia are both different – but they are both grave sins.
I suppose another difference is that in the confessional, as a priest dealing with someone who has had an abortion, you are having to deal with the healing of the person who has committed the sin. With paedophilia the healing is not with the sinner but with those sinned against.

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Pat, most intelligent, rational people know and believe that paedophilia kills the innocent abused person emotionally, mentally, spiritually, humanly, sexually. Paedophilia abuse is horrendous and morally reprehensible. Abortion, to me is also morally reprehensible but I would not say that paedophilia is the lesser of the sin or crime. This priest doesn’t get it about the horror of clerical sexual abuse or abuse of any kind by anyone, particularly when committed against a child or vulnerable person. This priest should apologise for this opinion.

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How many kids have you raped, Romanist priest? How many have you sodomised?
Why do you make such comments when some might think you are trying to deflect attention from a possible history of child-sexual abuse by you?
Can you give a sensible answer, Romanist ‘Father’”?

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Oh! For the glory days of the Spanish Civil War, when Romanist clerical PARASITES were put in their proper, moral perspective. Imagine getting off on that historical fact.
What a monumental shame we Christians haven’t the courage to do to these PARASITES what our forebears did!
(Just bein’ honest, like, as Jesus would want me to be.😮)

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11.54: Magna, of whom do you speak? And for once: stop assuming and perpetuating the lie that all Romanist Priests, as you ignorantly call them, are abusers. As a priest I am sickened by any abuse towards any person, young or old, vulnerable and fragile. I also abhor your abusive and ugly commentary.

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11 54: Magna, you should ask those questiin s of yourself, you drunken delinquent, alive with horrible, ugly hatred. Most people who drink heavily have headaches the morning after: You sadly end up with spiritual, emotional and sexual retardation. Go see your doctor.

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Intentional abortion takes the life of child and is never justified. Paedophilia has been called soul murder and, indeed, victims can die through suicide, addictions, so great is their pain and distress. This priest does no favour to the pro life cause. This priest is an absolute idiot and he should be silenced.

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Should be silent? If I was one of the victims I will cut his crock and balls… And he might remind silent after that. if he wish….
That monkey photo above I should say say for sure fits better to mostly of the active gays Romanist priests…

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Imagine a world FREE of Romanist clerical/religious sponging PARASITES.
JFC! Do all you can to make this HOLY dream come true. 😉

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12.11am: When will you contribute meaningfully or rationally to debate around importantbisdues. Your volcanic eruptions of faux outrage laced with ugly abuse and vulgarity do absolutely nothing for abused people. You haven’t a care in the world about survivors as evidenced by your comments. They rarely refer to victims/survivors as you speak only of your hatred for priests, all too boringly repetitive. Same old, same old crap. Imaginea wirld free of Magnas….if only. We’d have less hatred.

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The two simply cannot be compared. This guy would be better shutting his mouth. His comments do a grave injustice to all who have been abused or who have terminated pregnancies. Whilst I personally am against abortion, it is not for me to tell a woman what to do. I’m not in her shoes and I don’t know her circumstances. This is a very emotive issue but a RC priest is in no position to lecture others . Perhaps he should “take the log out of his own eye before removing the speck in another’s “.

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Whilst I am personally against slavery, it is not for me to tell a slaveowner what to do.

Is that how it works?

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5.31
The poster at 6.31 has an appreciation of how nuanced cases of unwanted pregnancies can be. They are not always straightforward instances of personal inconvenience, or of eugenic engineering.
I, too, oppose abortion under every circumstance, but to make equal moral censure of evey case is to read them with an objectivity at once inhuman and inappropriate.
I once read about a teenaged girl in an impoverished part of the world who, alone among her siblings, cared for her elderly and infirm parents. They had no wealth to speak of, and were almost constantly hungry.
The girl was raped by someone in her village, and became pregnant. She knew she would not be able to feed the child and turned to a person in the village who practiced abortion. The ‘operation’ went very badly wrong: both the child and mother died. But before she did, the girl mourned her dead baby, and regretted what she had been constrained to do through personal circumstances. The story goes that before she slipped away she had a vision of Christ. He rebuked her for what she had done, but gently so, because he knew the poverty she had lived in.
So why did Jesus rebuke her, given his perfect knowledge of her family situation? I think he was telling her, and the world, that however harrowing and oppressive one’s position in life may be, he is greater than any of this: and such trust in this truth will bring practical help from Heaven. Otherwise, what is the point of prayer?
But try telling that to someone who has never heard it before.
Before we condemn any woman who seeks abortion as a solution to her problems, do we each have enough trust in the impossible to make it seem not just plausible, but truly credible? To convince someone of the apparently unbelievable?

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Looks like they could all do with a few lessons in how to iron. They look a mess. Seward miraculously reappears, looking like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. I guess there will have been some overfamiliarity with some young buck going on, which is why he was ‘disappeared’. What a crew they are, those silly Oratorians. I go to their church for the entertainment, clergy poncing around and doffing birettas, congregation of the the swivel eyed loon variety. Seward is welcome to them, and they to him. Let them carry on in their irrelevant little world of incense, birettas, lace, sin and guilt. Didn’t Newman have an ‘affectionate relationship’ with a priest of the Cong Orat during his life, very intense little affair, I believe ? Buried on top of him. Or was it under him ? Top or bottom ?

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Nice to see Daniel has been allowed out in public again. Whatever had happened to cause his very rapid and unexplained move from Oxford, where he was Provost and very much in the public eye, has been brushed under the carpet. It has taken long enough to bring him back out of the closet – I don’t mean THAT closet! Honestly! – and make him presentable, as at first he was absent from group photos at York, then allowed to give a little bit of Bible study, and now he is back with the gang. I suspect, however, he will be treading carefully, and for the time being won’t be adding his name to any more petitions calling for the rigid implementation of traditional Catholic morality. Way to go, Daniel!

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Oh, Daniel, having been caught out, will resort to being the most orthodox, rigid, observant Oratorian on the planet. He’s probably extremely grateful that he’s got away without any further action being taken against him, either by the authorities or by the Church. I wonder if he would be staying if he had other options that were realistic and liveable ? As it is, he’s probably got very few, and knuckling under and living the same fiction, only with the increased fervour of the penitent, is the only realistic option he has got. Poor guy. Just saying….

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Fancy that and him a Provost too. Of course, they also had a good clear out at Birmingham Oratory ten years ago. Much talk about “intense friendships” and gin-soaked shouting matches at the time.

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Hi, Daniel. Glad to see that you’ve time for trolling and the internet between your devotions ! Yeah ! See you…well, you know where ! Mines’s a quickie.

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Top o th morning campers. What a stupid thing to say hi. The two issues can’t be compared nor should they. The church does not control sacraments or the grace of God. Life is sacred. Respect it but

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9.19

I have a learning disabled neice, not Downs, and in some ways less capable intellectually than a Downs person.

No matter where she goes people light up on seeing her, such is the joy her innocence, and banter, rouses in others.

People like her stop us from taking ourselves too seriously, and they ennable us to ‘regress’ emotionally, to make the sort of fun we did as kids.

Society calls her ‘special’…because of her needs. But that specialness she possesses has nothing to do with her needs, but with ours.

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Special indeed – because of the joy she brings. I’d sooner spend time with a “Special Needs” person than some of the miserable sods that I come across. But then as you say, it’s about my needs – which are met with encountering such joy.

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While paedophilia abuse is absolutely a horrible, sickening and life destroying experience, a crime deserving of the full rigour of the civil law, let us not equivocate on the horror of abortion. This too must be condemned when it becomes a choice of convenient birth control. To me abortion on demand for reasons where little unborn babies are considered a burden too much because of a medical diagnosis is child abuse of the worst kind. My grand niece was born with downs syndrome and her parents were told they would face huge challenges, almost beyond managing. The sub text was to consider abortion. Thank God my niece and her husband choose to bring their expected child into this world. What a beautiful joy, delight and gift this little girl is, now 6 years of age and constantly smiling, radiating happiness and surprise to everyone. God is good. God gives life. Both paedophile abuse and abortion are abhorrent. They leave scars for life.

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I expect there will be huge UK tabloid interest in Fr Sugar-Ray, Bp Pat, if he gets through to the DWTS finale, which looks more and more likely.

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Sinead O’Carroll revealed: Fr Sugar Ray came up to me at the end and said: “I wish it was me and not you”.
Somehow I don’t believe him, Bp Pat, but pleased he got though at the same time.

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3.48

No, I don’t believe him either: he was in it to win it.

His remark is an example of the pat platitude Romanists sometimes offer by way of personal wisdom, and self-sacrificing nature.

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He’s in it to win it, Bp Pat. I am sure he will give most of the €40,000 away to charity.

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5.32
What makes you ‘sure’?
Belief in the innate selflessness of Romanists?
He would be better to return it to the financially hard-pressed parishoners off whom he has been sponging for over three decades.

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The fact he has not been in the dance-off indicates viewers are voting in their droves for Sugar. How long that will last who knows, but he has trousered at least €24,000 so far for the poor and the needy. They want Fr Brian D’Arcy OBE or Michael Healy-Rae on next year.

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6.43: Oh, how we are subjected to the raving, mad jealous outbursts of a rejected seminarian!! Magsie Sluggie, I hope Fr. Ray ignores your deranged madness of mind. I know he will give generously to charities. Absolutely. He has already done so and touches with kindness countless people, a gift denied to you because of obvious unsuitability and dysfunctional behaviour. God bless Fr. Ray and the many, many other kind and caring priests.

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We all give for charity till we found out that the Cardinal use the donations to pay the victims of abuse women and children from the roman catholic priests…
He can still do that when he is using his own money from his wage and luxury Ambrose Pentahouse

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Pat, what’s the relevance of allowing Magna dominate this blog with repetitive, offensive, ugly and hate inciting vitriol against Priests? So far, the contributions from this entity are appalling. We get the same diet of poison, judgment and hatred every day. It achieves nothing. Why do you print the repeat narratives?

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Can I gently say, that all public comments should be treated as free speech unless Bishop Pat considers moderation of the comments to his blog inappropriate and considered hate speech. I actually think that it is a mark of the man that he does not get in the way of free speech and encourages frank views in pursuit of truth, transparency and personal accountability. Yes, I would say that Magna’s comments are bordering on distasteful at times but I respect their right to free speech, after all we do not know what they have suffered in their lives to feel they have to express their opinion in the way they do..
It is all about tolerance and forgiveness.

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1.20: I agree: it is all about tolerance and forgiveness…..Pity the one most intolerant and unforgiving, Magna, doesn’t think likewise! Having a right to free speech is not a licence to a tyranny of ugly, nasty, racist and hate inciting commentary.

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Catholic hypocrite tolerance and forgiveness!!!
Be landed!!!
What you mentioned doesn’t exist. At least not among Roman Catholic Priests!!

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Here here at 10:44am. The “Magna Carta” rubbish is horrible, boring, predictable and it goes on and on. Don’t expect Big Buck to do diddlysquat about it though.

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You are never going to get any clarity concerning the Church’s absolutist position. Catholics such as this creep think it is their trump card to outweigh every other moral consideration. Wait for the flurry of replies telling me ( again ! ) that I am ignorant, stupid, uneducated, and they hope my family and I will die in torment. There are sincerely held points of view on this issue, but for some I would suggest that the motivation to brook no resistance is egoistic: they feel good because they think they belong to an elect who alone have access to truth and virtue. In the history of religion, this position is invariably unsound and destructive.

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This is why I like Bishop Patrick’s blog because it does not shirk essential discussion.

Abortion is legalised murder. It cannot be excused or justified but the Soul may live on..

Paedophilia is practised by Soul-Vampires and this is what makes paedophilia the most heinous of crimes so despicable, as it ties those who have been harmed to their rapist to endure the lifelong pain of reliving the rape over and over again in their thoughts and feelings.

It causes a shadow on the Soul.

It affects more than those that have been harmed, it affects their family, their relationships with others and it could be argued everyone they come into contact with.

Those who have been harmed often say that they can sense if someone else has been sexually abused as a child because there is a shadow on their Soul.

Those who have been harmed often say that they feel that they have the word ‘abused’ tattooed on their forehead, such is their belief that everyone can sense this shadow on their Soul.

Paedophilia, is not really about sex, it is more about the rapist having power over their victim in the rape-act and also forever after.

The desolation, anguish, fear and self-loathing that often results creates a negative energy to travel around the world, which can and does affect others. Pure Evil.

Abortion and Paedophilia cannot be compared and contrasted because Paedophilia causes infinitely more damage and suffering.

It is interesting that the church would like to down-grade paedophilia as a way of managing the problem, rather than eradicating it completely.

The church would be better served if it accepted full responsibility, consistent with truth and transparency and looked after those harmed, on their Hellish journey through life..

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1.41 But as th cigarette said to th ashtray when do words become action Pats old blog and this have been going on for years. The fact he had to shut the old one says something about human nature. Talking done what next hi

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‘Father’ Bucci probably doesn’t subscribe to the ‘seamless garment’ approach to Catholic morality in The States, devised in part by Cardinal Bernardin (now dead) and endorsed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This approach links all social-justice issues in a broad-brush effort to tackle these similtaneously rather than create a hierarchy of them, in which intentional abortion would top the league and the others would simply become largely or wholly ignored. Michael Voris opposes the ‘seamless garment’ approach, and I’d bet that Bucci is a big fan of Voris and of Church Militant.

Party politics, and morality, in America are inseparable. The ‘seamless garment’ approach gurantees that ALL social-justice matters (including such things as workers’s rights to fair employment practices) are to the fore, which is something Republican party members, and their supporters, would rather not see.

Michael Voris (and, I suspect, ‘Father’ Bucci) is a Republican. So when I hear of internet pundits like Voris, and priests like Bucci, plead for abortion as a political priority, I automatically think of those workers’ rights they’d probably rather just bury in the shade of a sinlgle-issue moral crusade.

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As today’s blog topic includes paedophilia, I wonder what children abused by Pope Francis’ priests (and adults abused as children by them) would think of Francis’ latest liturgical wisdom from a Mass in the south Italian city of Bari. This stuff is freakin’ priceless Frankism, and from the oracle itself:
Worshipping God, Pope Francis intoned, is contrary to the culture of hatred, and this can be fought by ‘combatting the cult of complaint’.
‘The cult of complaint’. Can you hear it? The sound of every paedo-priest (and they are legion) sighing with enormous relief at the prospect of telling the abused that they are part of a cult of complaint when the raise the criminality of their being abused, and that they need to desist.
Francis’ solution is love your enemies, forgive them, and pray for them. Precisely the garbage that was told, time and again, to the abused by religious superiors, diocesan priests, bishops, etc. And every one of them a paedophile/ephebophile protector/ennabler.
This pope must be one of the dopiest ever, and the papacy historically is not marked for common-sense intelligence.
I thought it bad enough when this pope tried blaming the devil for the criticism of bishops who had covered up for paedo-priests, but now that this garbage has been laughed at from one radius of the planet through another, he’s changed tack: don’t blame Satan; blame the abused themselves for failing to follow Jesus.
This Dope has gotta go.

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It is abundantly clear from the Pope’s words and actions on other occasions that he does not see the abused as “complainers”. What “Magna Carta” is doing at its keyboard is what it and other trolls do best – twisting. Twisters twist. The Pope is perfect right though about a culture of hyper criticism and seeing everyone as an “enemy”.

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10.09
Nothing is clear…in your head.
If you knew anything worth considering about Pope Francis, you would know that he is the most inconsistent pope of the 20th and 21 centuries.
This is the man who answered on the issue of gay priests: who am I to judge? But who then went on to endorse a review of Pope Benedict’s ban on admitting gay candidates to seminary.
This is the pope who spoke of a policy of zero tolerance on clerical abuse of children, but who then went on to readmit to ministry priests credibly accused of child molestation and who went on to molest children again.
This is the pope who, through soundbites, expressed a tough line on abuse by priests, but who then allowed the resignation, through HIS inaction, of its two lay members and abuse surviors.
This is the pope who praised the courage of adults who came forward to raise publicly accusations of abuse by priests, but who then indirectly linked them to Satan for acting as his agents in the criticism of bishops accused of covering up the very abuse he encouraged these adults to declare.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to go into further detail about the inconsistent character of this idiot pope, but what I have expressed so far should make any WISE person cautious about second-guessing what Francis does, or does not, believe, since this guy blows with the wind.

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At 10.44
Paragraph 5 of that post refers to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, established by Pope Francis.

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Yes I am with you. He said: ” Who am I to judge those gay men who became roman catholic priests to seek God, but pleasure among others roman catholic gay men!”
When you quoting someone take all the phrase not only the bits that suits you!
Otherwise it counts as hypocrisy.

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4.35: You vile piece, Magna. You rewrite the words of others. You deliberately lie. You are deranged and retarded, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically. Does Pat pay you for your hatred? It is a black stain on this blog.

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5.32

You ranting, unthinking nutter.😆

Tell me HOW I have re-written any one’s words. Don’t just say it; prove it.

I’m waiting.😕

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5.56: You vile lazy heap, Magna. Vile, nasty, thwarted and a hateful and hate inciting tyrant. You certainly would come with a health warning near vulnerable people. Now I must go and help with the Belfast soup deliveries for the homeless. Do you want to help? But only if the PSNI accompanied You!!

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There would seem to be a number of ranting, unthinking nutters on here and many of them are writing under the name “Magna Carta”.

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7.51

So you can’t win the argument, then.

All huff and puff…and still the house (my point) is intact. 😅

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debates are won with strong and convincing arguments. you sir resort to personal insults. as thatcher said, when they resort to insults, they have lost the argument.

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It’s nearly 7pm on Monday night. If you are in the area of Glasgow RC Cathedral, then park up and walk round the corner to Pipeworks Sauna. Student night and several Clergy already here. Gloryholes, dark rooms, cinema rooms, porn and poppers. All welcome. Motherwell and Paisley clergy here too!

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6.53: If you are a priest, which I assume you are, you seem all too familiar with these saunas, glory holes etc…..not only in Glasgow but all over the UK….You are as perverted as the ones you condemn but somehow I believe you are a simpleton as your comments are borderline average intelligence.

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Go on Taggart you lying aul goat! Can picture you sleuthing in the shadows in a long mac pulling your pudding.

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I was there on a purely professional basis reporting for this blog. When I was approached for a bit of “how’s your father”, I politely made my excuses and left. And 7.47 – I’m not a Priest or a simpleton, I am highly educated to Doctorate level. 8.16 – I can assure you that my pudding is not being pulled tonight, unless you are offering of course? 😊😘

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”I was there on a purely professional basis”
you were warned to stick to the street corners !

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7:51. You absolute hypocrite. You say you are helping the homeless. Commendable but then you go and rubbish Magna for having obviously strongly held views. Wise up

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9.28: Pity about you. Are you a Mags the Hater supporter? Hate inciting words from the prolific hater, Magna, are totally unacceptable. The vile creature deserves every opprobrium given. If he spews it out he should be prepared to take it too.

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10.03: You meant of course to say ‘strongly’ not strong…..look beyond the viperous Maggie for truth.

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3.47 am
I can see from your profile pic that the phrase ‘the sacredness of human life’ (you’ll find it in official Church documents) means absolutely nothing to you.
You ex-American military?
Well, sir, let me spell this out for you. The RCC’s opposition to abortion is premised on only one thing: that human life (ALL human life) is sacred. Once exceptions to this are made (the guys ‘n’ gals on death row, for example), then your argument against abortion… Well, you don’t have one really, since you just disarmed it by denying its premise.
You see, you cannot pick and choose which lives are sacred without reducing the anti-abortion argument to a prissy, little, arbitrary personal preference rather than a universally principled position.
That’s a sniper’s rifle in your profile pic. The ideal position for sniping is from the high ground, just as it for arguing against intentional abortion.
Occupy the intellectual high ground here by maintaining the entireity and integrity of that principle, otherwise your enemies will simply outflank you.

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@ Magna, 25 Feb., 1:05 pm: You are wrong on the Church’s position on the death penalty. From the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church:
2267 “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty” …
The section cautions not to use execution except as a last resort, but does not prohibit it.
Wrong again on the difference between abortion and execution. It is not I who is “picking and choosing”; the sin of abortion brings automatic excommunication, whereas legal execution, as I showed above, does not. The Church does not base its condemnation of abortion on the “sacredness of all human life”, but rather on the basis of abortion being a “grave offense”; to wit, a “crime against human life”:
Part 3, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 5, SubSection 1, Heading 4
2272 “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” 77 “by the very commission of the offense,” 78 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. 79 The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.”
Assuming you are not an atheist, I suggest you revise your judgement that opposition to abortion is a “prissy, little, arbitrary personal preference.”
The author of the “seamless garment” way of thinking about life, also described as having a “consistent ethic of life”, was careful to note he was not trying to equate every threat or destructive reality. Cardinal Bernardin was aware that his words would be twisted, so he spelled out the need for making distinctions. “A consistent ethic of life”, wrote Bernardin, “does not equate the problem of taking life (e.g., through abortion and in war) with the problem of promoting human dignity (through humane programs of nutrition, health care, and housing).”
Taking up this same matter of making distinctions, Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict, wrote:
“Not all moral issues have the same weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”

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Most conservative Catholics think the seamless garment approach was an attempt to oppose the death penalty without coming out and saying so explicitly. This is the way I have seen the argument presented. Workers’ rights hardly enter into the debate. The plan was to link defense of unborn life with defense of the lives of condemned prisoners. This outraged many Catholics, myself among them, as we refuse to equate innocent unborn children with murderers. So this priest is just following along those lines, seems to me. Moreover, abortion is not a “social justice” issue; it is a matter of life and death, and therefore, yes, it is categorically more heinous than sex abuse.

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The least evil in this situation would simply be to abort all foetuses who are likely to become RC priests and then there will be much less evil in the world.

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3.47am
And sometimes it’s a matter of life and death for the mother. Whose life takes precedence?
7.46am
RCC doesn’t approve of abortion because it means fewer children available to be abused.

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@Monica 26th Feb 2020 — 11:23 pm
Regarding cases when the mother’s life is said to be in danger, a comparison to the situation of being confronted by an armed robber or home invader might prove useful. Giving birth to the baby may or may not kill the mother; the outcome cannot be known ahead of time. Likewise, the armed robber or home invader may or may not kill his victim, and this, too, cannot be known ahead of time.
But if the potential crime victim happens to be armed herself, and, feeling threatened, refuses to wait and see if her assailant will in fact shoot (or rape) her, and manages instead to shoot the assailant first, she may find herself facing very serious consequences before the law. Even if she was legally armed, she may have to convince the police or a judge that her gun-wielding attacker actually posed a threat to her life.
Whereas the pregnant woman may, without fear of being second-guessed or of having to defend her decision, abort the life within her merely upon the word of a doctor, even though we know that, with the advances of modern medicine, “The fact of the matter is that abortion as a necessity to save the life of the mother is so rare as to be nonexistent.”2 – Dr. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General And that statement was made almost 40 years ago.
Being a man, I do not have to bear the burden and risks of pregnancy, and I humbly admit that if I were in the position of being convinced that I had to choose between my life and my unborn child’s, I might not have the courage to refuse an abortion. I might decide, to use your terms, that my life should “take precedence”, even though the argument that the abortion is needed to save my life is far less convincing than the argument that shooting an armed attacker will save me. But I would know that I was not shooting down an armed attacker before he could shoot me. I would know that the tiny life within me bore me no ill will. I would know that I had chosen to live an ignominious life, rather than risk the noblest and most heroic of deaths, that of a mother giving her life for her child. And I am certain that if I did do such a thing, I would bear the shame and guilt for the rest of my life. I know this, Monica, because I once made my girlfriend abort our child. I can still see the hope in her eyes as she told me she was pregnant, and I can never erase the memory of how her hope died as I coldly told her she would have to have an abortion.

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