Leaked Documents Show Fractured Vatican, Rivalries

[NonXNonExX]

With the recent shenanigans of the pedo priests and their protectors, it would be hard not to be reminded of the popes of the late middle ages.

[Bobby_Ouroborus]

The Catholic Church has had internal conflicts since way before Constantine. If you think they are having internal conflicts now then maybe you guys should brush up on the history of the Middle Ages...this is nothing compared to what went on with the Church back then.

Yeah, but back then, they didn't have tales of priests raping altar-boys making the rounds on international media to an audience of billions.

I think the current era is qualitatively different from those internecine struggles.

Believe me they had priest raping not just boys but anything that moved and people knew. Don't believe me...read the Decameron

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I'm not really that surprised, or, rather, am only surprised that so many documents and opinions from within the Vatican have been made available recently.

But that said, the Vatican is like the ultimate old boys club. For nearly 2 thousand years it has existed as members only hegemony with the laity being promised much but never actually seeing the inner-workings of the beast.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And the Vatican has had absolute power over its worshipers for generations.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The Catholic Church has had internal conflicts since way before Constantine. If you think they are having internal conflicts now then maybe you guys should brush up on the history of the Middle Ages...this is nothing compared to what went on with the Church back then.

Yeah, but back then, they didn't have tales of priests raping altar-boys making the rounds on international media to an audience of billions.

I think the current era is qualitatively different from those internecine struggles.

Believe me they had priest raping not just boys but anything that moved and people knew. Don't believe me...read the Decameron

That wasn't my point; I know the same crimes were being committed.

My point was that in a media environment where the arrest of a molester-priest in one diocese can be read of, world-wide, within minutes by hundreds of millions of lay Catholics, there is a qualitative difference in the effects such scandals will have upon the Church.  They have no way of squelching these sorts of stories, as they have in centuries past ... and that has had, and will continue to have, a direct financial effect on the Church.