You probably remember this pope. He 's the one that was in power when the pedophilia scandal among the priesthood was discovered. He's also the one that refused to take action for many years, and protected those priests by refusing to defrock them (and just moved them from parish to parish, so they could have new victims).
And when the scandal became so widely known that the church could no longer try to hide it, he instructed that homosexuals be discriminated against and not allowed to become priests (even though homosexuality and pedophilia have no connection). And even after the scandal was widely known, this pope continued to protect his pedophile friend, Marcial Maciel (one of the worst of the churches pedophiles, because of his high ranking in the church), ignoring the many accusations against him (which were proven to be true).
This man knew about pedophile priests for most of his papal reign, and did nothing about it. If there were a god, I can't believe he would want this man honored as a saint. His sin is too great. Frankly, I am shocked to see such a failure as a decent person honored in any way by people who call themselves christians.
Oh, I remember this pope, alright. I had personally been hiding a transition in my own beliefs for sometime; staying with the social justice minded Jesuit parish for my children. John Paul II was the pope that ended my politically motivated compliance (And, btw, earned a blistering anti-abuse-of-power sermon from our Jesuit priest); I came out neo-pagan to my children and told them I could not stay (even socially) in a Church being led back to the Dark Ages by a man who decided his word trumped human conscience. And that was before the news came out of him protecting churchly sinning pedophiles.
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