Lisbon Patriarch called on carpet for women's ordination comments

Apples and oranges.

If some cardinal were to say to the press "no fundamental obstacle exists to protect priests who sexually abused children", I'm sure the Vatican would act much more quickly.

For the Vatican to react so quickly and forcefully would indicate that they are very threatened by this issue. Priests and Bishops who even hint that women may someday be ordained, if Rome allows it, are called on the carpet and threatened. Why? Why does this issue strike such fear in the Vatican? The Vatican cannot even discuss the ordination of women in a rational manner, they now resort to intimidation and fear. Sooner or later, the dam is going to break.

really wonder why we poor women are sooooo much more threatening than child abusers. don't remember Jesus saying millstones should be placed around our necks and we should be thrown into the sea, as a matter of fact Jesus showed great love and respect for the women in His life. AH times have changed!!!!

to be honest: the behaviour of the Vatican is disgusting

Actions certainly speak louder than mear words as to where are B16's priorities.

I was wondering how long it would take!
Shoot, I should have had an office betting pool to see how long it would take!
Didn't take long at all!

Narcissistic old pharisees...

Your brief speaks for itself.

Bishops who protected abusing priests receive no summons to Rome to account for their actions, but bishops who think women could be ordinated are called to account quickly for their words. That says it all, doesn't it?

The Church melts around us with churches and schools closing but we can't have married priests nor female priests. We have new language in the liturgy and we have youth day and a new evangelism. But we have not enough priests so we shutter the churchs.

After a while, stubborn stupidity feeds on itself and that meal has begun.

Is it not time for these Bishops to distance themselves officially from a tyrannical Vatican? Take you diocese out of Roman control. There are way to many problems with the Roman influence. Ireland may well be on her way and very soon.

"It is impossible not to note that bishops who for years protected priests who sexually abused children have not received so much as a letter from the pope, much less a summons to account for their actions. But mention that there's no reasonable theological or scriptural impediment to women's ordination, and the wheels of authority spin quickly."

This paragraph represents what is wrong with the Vatican today. If a bishop protects pedophile priests, it does nothing, but even a mention of the possibility of women priests and it goes ape. The pharisees of Jesus time had nothing on today's Vatican. May God save the Holy Catholic Church from its own "leaders."

Policarpo was treated with extreme kindness “because the Vatican was afraid he would react negatively to a strong reprimand.”

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How cynical! I've already explained in the NCR that behind all that was Opus Dei,which the Cardinal oppposed firmly. OD, together with two or three fashniobale new movements, is perharps the biggest cancer that is corrupting and eroding the Church. It's no better than Freemasonry. Perharps his even worse, because based in such a tremendous personal ambition and pride. How can you explain that a son of a shop attendant kept all his live changing his name, to fake links with the nobolity, until he claimed the title of Marquês de Peralta! What a wonderful saint, what a worderful movement! Why the secrecy?! Don't the Gospel told us to proclaim from the rooftops? This is the result: creepy manouvers behind the scenes, like under the Borgias or the Medici popes.

Yes, it is fascinating -- and disgusting. Rome's priorities continue to be skewed. And there is no credible plan on the table to address the looming shortage of priests. We cannot keep robbing Third World countries of their clergy.
Of course, the most pessimistic among us might say not to worry: So many people are leaving the Church that there won't be a clergy shortage. I hope that they are wrong. But they may be right.

Be it government policy or RCC policy,   morality and justice   (or lack thereof)   are clearly displayed by leadership priorities.     Attempts to squash discussion of female ordination should be the least of their concerns in their present circumstances.
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I just finished reading the latest stomach-turning chapter in the Bishop Finn/Kansas City-St.Joseph sexual abuse scandal.
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/09/3067899/federal-child-porn-charges-...
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The institutional self-serving behavior of Vatican-favorite Finn and a very similar episode that is in process within my own diocese,   has left me quite frankly disgusted beyond repair.     This is ongoing KNOWN and TOLERATED sexual abuse of minors — it's NOT "in the past".     The only "rapid-response" of the Vatican and its prelates is in behalf of protecting their privileged hierarchical boys' club and their institutional system.     These corrupt men,   the pope and his bishops,   all belong in jail.     They are a disgrace to the Name of the Lord they were called to serve.
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When one reads some of what the Vatican letter sent out with Pope Benedict's signature to the deposed Bishop Morris of Toowomba, in the Australian magazine SWAG, and the claim it contains under Benedict's name that the non-ordination of women is an infallible teaching, I have to wonder at the credibility of a position taken on an issue that does not even meet the criteria of Vatican 1 to be an infallible teaching.