Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

Surely if Pope Palpa - sorry - Benedict had a hand in allowing priests to go unpunished, then he should be tried in a court of law?

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

The problem is the Catholic Church will have thousands of men who would be willing to lie in court and cover for him if they felt it was "God's will". Yes the Vatican needs to be held to account but I cannot see it ever happening. Cover-up after cover-up.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

Do priests need approval by the CRB before they can spend time with young boys?

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

Most probably over the last 10 years or so but even then <cynical mode> it just shows they hadn't been caught.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

Does this mean the CRB checks are not as useful as they could be? If so, shouldn't we put our own house in order?

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

No what I mean is all a CRB check proves is a person hasn't been caught yet. Of course there are many many people with CRB checks who are completely honourable and innocent but in fairness all it shows is if the person has any relevant convictions. It's possible that child/sex abusers have cleared such checks because they haven't been caught or have yet to act on their urges.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

That's quite scary when you say it like that.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

But this, of course, is equally true in every walk of life/work/action - the same could apply for murderers, rapists, thieves, etc, etc......

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

Yeah of course - I was responding to the question of CRBs being used for priests.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

Well said

It does not and should not matter who a pedophile works for, It should matter that those that are not involved in the abuse of children should come forward and do the right thing and inform on those that are involved.

Should it be that this is constantly shown to be covered up then steps should be taken to ensure that the organisation or persons involved are investigated by an outside agency and steps put in place to ensure it cannot happen again. The fact that this is a religious organisation that supposedly stands by the bible does make it all the more incredible to be honest ?.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

I thought I read that some of the priests had abused several boys over a period of years.

I suppose I'm saying it is a bit rich to arrest the Pope "after the fact", when the mechanisms we have to prevent or detect these crimes are woefully inadequate.

A (rather poor) analogy would be prosecuting a car manufacturer ten years after selling cars with faulty brakes, while the MoT tests failed to detect the fault.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

I don't doubt that they did. Doesn't mean they were caught, though.

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

So, how can the head of a global organisation be held responsible, when the local checks aren't working?

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

the local checks or crb checks can only work if someone is caught if they aren't caught they get away with it ..the same as any crime

Re: Atheist Campaigner Plans UK Arrest of Pope
 

Except that most jobs don't require you to remain celibate, which (imo) is likely to be a contributing factor in these cases of child abuse.