Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict’s claim which says that paedophilia is not considered an “absolute evil thing.”
Yesterday in his traditional Christmas speech, to cardinals and officials that work in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.
“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” he said.
“Even within the realm of Catholic theology there is no such a thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than’ and a ‘worse than’. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”
“We cannot remain silent about the context of these times in which these events have come to light,” he said, citing the growth of child pornography “that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society,” he said.
Angry abuse victims in America last night said that while some Church officials have blamed the liberalism of the 1960s for the Church’s sex abuse scandals and cover-up catastrophes, Pope Benedict had come up with a new theory of blaming the 1970s.
The Pope believes that church must adapt to the context of the world.
Source: Belfast Telegraph
