As we've noted several times before, Los Angeles Times Opinion Editor Tim Rutten hardly misses an opportunity to bash the Catholic Church. So imagine my shock and amazement when I picked up his Saturday column (1/30/09). Rutten rips a reported federal grand jury investigation of L.A. Cardinal Roger Mahony's handling of the abuse scandal as "frivolous" and "overreaching." (For the record, the archdiocese's attorney has said that he was told that Mahony is not a target of an inquiry.)
Did a wave of clarity and sanity suddenly overcome Rutten? Rather than bellowing the hysterical falsehoods that have often been aired in the Times and in the media in recent years, Rutten's must-read piece wipes away a number of myths. Rutten proclaims a number of very notable and important facts about the Church abuse narrative in Los Angeles:
"[E]very cleric who can be criminally prosecuted already has been by the [L.A.] county's district attorney."
"Mahony has imposed a zero-tolerance policy on abuse so stringent that it's regarded as a model for institutions that care for the young."
"So far, the grand jury has subpoenaed records on 22 former priests, two of whom are dead, according to sources at the U.S. attorney's office. All of the relevant information on their cases has been in the hands of county prosecutors for years."
And most notably, for those who say attorneys are "afraid" to prosecute Church officials out of fear that they'd be damaged politically:
"The legal acrimony between the D.A.'s office and the archdiocese over all this has been corrosive enough to eat through titanium alloy. If any sort of criminal obstruction had occurred, does anybody really think L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley wouldn't have prosecuted?"
Are you listening, Doug McIntyre, John & Ken, John Manly, Gustavo Arellano, Al Rantel, Steve Lopez, and SNAP?
To Tim Rutten: Nice job ... but an honest, level-headed assessment of the Los Angeles Catholic Church abuse scandal from the Times has been loooong overdue.
—Dave Pierre is the creator of TheMediaReport.com and a contributor to NewsBusters.
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MAHONEY IS BALONEY
February 1, 2009 - 15:24 ET by1 Timothy 4
Instructions to Timothy
1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
None of your apologist writing can change the fact that Cardinal Mahoney, is a leader in the false church prophesied to BE so by Paul to Timothy.
For the first 250 yrs, well after the death of John on the Isle of Patmos, the church only had ONE METHOD OF SALVATION. That method was taught by Christ to Nicodemus in John 3:1-8. It involved water baptism in the NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, not the false baptism of the Catholic Church or it's offshoots. It also involved the proper reception of the Spirit oF Christ with attendant EVIDENCE, "glossalalia", speaking in other tongues as the Spirit allowed (mark 16:15-20, Acts 2:4 Acts 1:8, Acts 2:33, Acts 2:38 Acts 10:44-48 Acts 19:1-6)
After the church, the TRUE church of Christ was founded the devil did not stop his efforts to CORRUPT the truth. As amply demonstrated by Paul in this prophecy about what would happen once Paul was dead.
Acts 20:28-30
28Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
29For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Well, these speakers of "perverse things" DID arise! Not only were they trying to change the doctrine of Christ before the apostles died, but they obviously continued to change the doctrine AFTER the Apostles were no longer here to keep it straight.
The devil doesn't care if you jump and shout and praise the Lord, he cares whether or not you are saved from the wrath to come, because the bible says that the devil knows his time is short. Through an evil catholic priest named TERTULLIAN, the baptism in Jesus' holy name was CHANGED as well as the requirement given by Christ about the mysterious SOUND, that would accompany each "new birth" (John 3:8)This occurred at the Council of Nicea circa 250 A.D. approx.
Just as the devil tried through emissaries to stop Peter and John from preaching in JESUS' NAME ( acts 5), he definitely wanted to stop you from being baptized properly in Jesus' Name because the devil knows something that the Pope and his deceived cohorts don't know...Acts 4:12
12. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Sometimes it takes a long time for the prophecies of God to come true. It took over 700 years for the prophecies in Isaiah 53 to come to fruition on the cross. For the first 1000 or so years of the "universal" or Catholic churches existence, they allowed priests and nuns to get married. Then the devils that deceived the priests demanded that they change and start being "celibate". EVEN THOUGH THE BIBLE SPECIFICALLY MARKS THIS PRACTICE AS A SIGN THAT YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT BY DEMONS!!!! ( 1Tim 4:1) That is because in order to fulfill scripture the Lord blinded them to the truth of their actions.
This is the reason that everyone else is more upset about the buggery than the priests. This is why they can shuffle PREDATORS off from one parish to the other in an attempt to evade prosecution and investigation with nary a thought for the poor boys who had been buggered! They have had their "consciences seared as with a hot IRON", (1Tim 4:2). If you've ever seen a brand, on cattle or some idiot in a frat, you know that the skin becomes hard and numb, without feeling, never to receive the same amount of feeling again. That is the church that Mahoney is one of the leaders of, the church of satan. Lead by a false prophet who fancies himself a "Pope", who actually fancies himself to be the MEDIATOR between MAN and GOD! How presumptuous, especially since the bible specifically declares that there is only ONE mediator between man and God and that it is NOT THE POPE!
1TIM 2:5
5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.
Get it? ONE MEDIATOR. Get it? NOT THE POPE.
Search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are those which testify of ME. Jesus said. Stop listening to some fake priests or preachers! Read the gospels and the book of Acts! See that true Christian faith resembles almost NOTHING that you have been exposed to! See how the Apostles baptized, see how they received the Spirit. If your experience of faith differs in ANY appreciable way, especially over issues liKE BAPTISM AND RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST, then it is YOU, or I , for that matter, who is in ERROR.
Um...wow. Just wow.
February 1, 2009 - 22:43 ET by moderncommentaries83Too bad it's too late to dissect your rantings. All I can say is, "Wrong, wrong, wrong!"
You wouldn't have the Bible, or Christianity, if it weren't for the Catholic Church. Period. And, in its 2,000 year history, the important theological teachings of the Church have remained the same. As has our interpretation of the Bible.
You can't say that about other denominations, currently numbering something like 35,000 - each with a different interpretation, Bible, and set of worship standards.
And this begs the question - who am I going to trust? Modern-day Christians with various interpretations, or the teachings and writings of people who knew Christ, or his apostles, or who lived in the early days of the Church? The presumption that Christians who were there and lived through the experience of the early Church do not know the faith - but modern-day Christians do - is both ignorant and insulting.
Search the Scriptures, there is more evidence there to support Catholicism than many - liberal and conservative - care to acknowledge.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
mc83
February 1, 2009 - 23:01 ET by choselife3xYou didn't miss anything. Acts...like a tool has bats in his belfry.
Unless you'd enjoy poking him and watching him writhe, gibber and foam at the mouth. It can be fun.
Check out the Anderson Cooper thread from Friday afternoon if you want a glimpse into the fetid swamp he calls a brain.
In order to be pro-choice, one must first be born. Ah, the irony.
The other Trolls-
February 2, 2009 - 02:58 ET by ahusserThe self-righteous scripture throwing kind that just quotes scripture like it is the be all and end all to all arguments. No logic no reasoning just a quote from a book. Here it is just hatred, ignorance and vitriol wrapped in a religious veneer. I would call it CDS.
Poor Catholics bashed from the left and the right. The problems with the Catholic Church is an all too human problem which they are trying to address and has nothing to do with prophecy but more to do with the mostly all male lifestyle which, unchecked at that time, allowed predators and other ilk to flourish. There also were sympathizers, enablers and those more concerned with the embarrassment of discovery who allowed these perverse antics to continue or cover them up. All those who are guilty and who haven't already been punished need to face justice but not a witch hunt especially for political reasons (See the Duke rape case).
Wow. I'm really interested
February 1, 2009 - 19:59 ET by danebramageWow. I'm really interested in what you have to say, Acts. Clearly, you're a highly educated man/woman with a penetrating mind. I found the line "Lead [sic] by a false prophet who fancies himself a 'Pope,' who actually fancies himself to be the MEDIATOR between MAN and GOD!" fascinating. I'd never realized the Pope considered himself to be a man known by a name that translates as "Papa." Does that mean my dad is a false prophet, too? I'm gonna have my own kids start calling me "Mama" just to be on the safe side...
As for the mediator business, it's obvious you must have loads of examples of Popes talking about being the mediator between God and man. Could you post some of them for me, please, so I can share them with my fellow dullards?
Thanks so much.