Pope’s child porn 'normal' claim sparks outrage among victims

Link

Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s.

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working 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,” the Pope said.

“It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such 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.”

The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” which brought “humiliation” on the Church.

Asking how abuse exploded within the Church, the Pontiff called on senior clerics “to repair as much as possible the injustices that occurred” and to help victims heal through a better presentation of the Christian message.

“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.

But outraged Dublin victim Andrew Madden last night insisted that child abuse was not considered normal in the company he kept.

Mr Madden accused the Pope of not knowing that child pornography was the viewing of images of children being sexually abused, and should be named as such.

He said: “That is not normal. I don't know what company the Pope has been keeping for the past 50 years.”

Pope Benedict also said sex tourism in the Third World was “threatening an entire generation”.

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.

“Catholics should be embarrassed to hear their Pope talk again and again about abuse while doing little or nothing to stop it and to mischaracterise this heinous crisis,” said Barbara Blaine, the head of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests,

“It is fundamentally disturbing to watch a brilliant man so conveniently misdiagnose a horrific scandal,” she added.

“The Pope insists on talking about a vague ‘broader context' he can't control, while ignoring the clear ‘broader context' he can influence — the long-standing and unhealthy culture of a rigid, secretive, all-male Church hierarchy fixated on self-preservation at all costs. This is the ‘context’ that matters.”

The latest controversy comes as the German magazine Der Spiegel continues to investigate the Pope's role in allowing a known paedophile priest to work with children in the early 1980s.

Drug ‘Ecstasy’ May Help Individuals with Schizophrenia, Autism

By TRACI PEDERSEN
Associate News Editor

Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 17, 2010


Some scientists believe that the drug MDMA (ecstasy), which is known to increase feelings of social connection and empathy, may have psychotherapeutic benefits for those with disorders often associated with a lack of feeling connected to others, such as in schizophrenia, autism, or antisocial personality disorder.

Up until now, scientists have had a hard time objectively measuring the effects of this drug, and there has been very little research in humans. Researchers from the University of Chicago, who conducted research on healthy volunteers, have reported their new findings in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry.

“We found that MDMA produced friendliness, playfulness, and loving feelings, even when it was administered to people in a laboratory with little social contact. We also found that MDMA reduced volunteers’ capacity to recognize facial expressions of fear in other people, an effect that may be involved in the increased sociability said to be produced by MDMA,” said author Dr. Gillinder Bedi.

These findings suggest that MDMA makes others appear more attractive and friendly, and this may be the reason for its popularity as a recreational drug. Furthermore, it makes others appear less intimidating, which may allow an individual to feel more confident in social risk-taking.

“Within the context of treatment, these effects may promote intimacy among people who have difficulty feeling close to others,” said Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry.

“However, MDMA distorts one’s perception of others rather than producing true empathy. Thus, MDMA may cause problems if it leads people to misinterpret the emotional state and perhaps intentions of others.”

Further studies in controlled settings will be necessary before MDMA can be considered for use as a psychotherapeutic drug. However, these findings also emphasize the importance of understanding how different drugs affect social experiences, since abused drugs are often used in social situations.

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Source: Elsevier

Cool photos from oh ten

Awesome photos of 2010's news. These photos are worth looking at, however scarring they may be!

Cops don't get fired cause they're just a big gang...

VANCOUVER - A Vancouver police officer has been charged with assault for pushing a disabled woman to the ground in an incident caught on video.

Const. Taylor Robinson was charged after a three-month investigation of the incident by the New Westminster police department.

Robinson was among three officers on foot patrol in the city's Downtown Eastside last June.

The video shows the woman walking by the officers when one of them pushes her from the back.

The officer didn't help the woman, who was assisted by other people on the street as the three officers walked away.

Robinson, who's been with the Vancouver Police Department since March 2009, has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of his court case.

The universe may have existed for ever?!

Mind bending implications, check it out!

WHAT happened before the beginning of time is—by definition, it might be thought—metaphysics. At least one physicist, though, thinks there is nothing meta about the question at all.

Just Breathe: Body Has A Built-In Stress Reliever

As it turns out, deep breathing is not only relaxing, it's been scientifically proven to affect the heart, the brain, digestion, the immune system — and maybe even the expression of genes.