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Church Turns To Facebook To Find Priests

crimeandpunishment writes "The Catholic church of France isn't looking for friends on Facebook, it's looking for priests. The church has turned to Facebook as part of a campaign to attract young people to the priesthood, in an effort to combat its drastically dwindling number of priests. It may be working. The Facebook page attracted more than 1,200 fans in one week."

35 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Sex offenders banned? by ThisIsAnonymous · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So, what are they going to do once every state has a law banning sex offenders from social networks?

  2. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, the jokes will continue. But hey, the church brought this on themselves. While many can learn to forgive (per teachings of Jesus), no one must forget.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  3. A better, more old fashioned solution by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Perhaps they should actively seek to inspire people rather than trying to protect and defend themselves. There may have been a time when their church was above and beyond criticism, but those days are long gone. They need to accept this fact and focus on the positive rather than the negative. Furthermore, they need to look within themselves and to blame themselves for the current public opinion of their church. (In other words, instead of blaming the victims for speaking out, blame the people who did the victimizing!)

    Then, after all that, do good works... LOTS of good works. That used to work in the past. These days, one rarely hears much about the good works of the church...

    1. Re:A better, more old fashioned solution by nomadic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The Church could completely reinvigorate itself and make sure there are plenty of priests by doing two things: (1) allow women to be priests; and (2) allow priests to marry. Until they do either one or both of those things they'll continue to weaken.

    2. Re:A better, more old fashioned solution by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think they can easily combat underlying circumstances. See, France and generally (though not as a whole...) Europe has changed, it's waking up. Secularization has progressed quite a lot; I wouldn't be surpised if, by the time of next Eurobarometer polls regarding faith, less than 50% of Europeans will declare themselves religious. It wasn't that far the last time...

      Priesthood, being a priest simply lost its social prestige. It's not "cool" (and this FB campaign likely won't change that...even if they would show some of the excesses in seminaries or monasteries) anymore to have a priest in the family.

      And no, they won't introduce changes proposed by you, not for the next few decades - remember that the Church is essentially run by the "elders" (and this trend will get stronger with few young priests); it's not only about their conservatism, also personal distaste - those are the men (well, supposedly...) who gave their entire lifes to church, distanced themselves from "earthly joys". Do you think they could bear the sight of young happy priests (also women), with families, happily fucking without any potential problems?

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    3. Re:A better, more old fashioned solution by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 3, Insightful

      (1) allow women to be priests; and (2) allow priests to marry.

      No, no, no.... Wrong approach... Allow women to be priests and make it mandatory to attend weekly orgies for clergy.

      That would boast priesthood numbers for sure!

    4. Re:A better, more old fashioned solution by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But, if they allow priests to marry, then then ones that don't marry will be suspected of being, uh... a little light in the loafers. The Catholic church has always been an outlet that provides a socially acceptable lifestyle for those that just can't stomach the thought of sex with the opposite sex. As such, I believe homosexuals have always been overrepresented in the celibate castes.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    5. Re:A better, more old fashioned solution by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Dwindling in importance? Are you certain? EU is considered quite readily as one of the most major powers lately, culturally it retains its identity fine (plus look past popculture; and also from where most of that popculture originated...); and demographically it won't be that big of a problem, I suspect - yes, it will need a wave of immigrants...so? Sure, there are failure stories, but also huge success stories (the largest population of "Muslims" in EU is probably in Germany; rather nicely integrated)

      As for the topic - the Catholic Church will of course continue to increase in so called "3rd world" countries. But remember it doesn't have to reform itself to do that... (I would even guess that would inhibit its growth in impoverished areas!)
      And since its losing importance basically only in Europe (also the place of TFA), it's sensible to assume we're discussing only that area.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    6. Re:A better, more old fashioned solution by Nidi62 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The Catholic Church allows African priests to marry, did you know that? It is pretty much the only way they could get Africans to be priests, instead of importing white priests to Africa. It would be interesting to compare African abuse statistics(if there are any or if they are accurate, however I would assume they would be just as under-reported as in Europe, if not more so) with European statistics. There is a logical connection between forced celibacy and abuse, but I am not aware of any statistical analysis having been done, nor of any correlation found between them.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    7. Re:A better, more old fashioned solution by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Same can be said about Texas, or Confederate vs. Union States.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
  4. Just allow priests to marry already. by rolfwind · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It will largely take care of the pedophile problem and the dwindling number willing to be priests in one shot.

    Priests marrying wasn't disallowed all throughout church history anyway, it was political nonsense to do away with questions of inheritance.

    1. Re:Just allow priests to marry already. by Xtravar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Catholic Church is the last (Christian) religious institution to have the "sacred dogma" marketability. It's a very large bullet point on their sales presentation slide. "We have been around the longest. We are full of mystical, intriguing quirks that lend to our legitimacy."

      Once they start giving in to modern concepts (and giving up dogmas), they begin to lose that essence and have less to compete against other Christian sects with.

      It's also a great source of pride, however depraved that may seem.

      So, they need to change slowly. They don't want to seem like some willy nilly religion that makes arbitrary rules. THEIR rules are from God.

      If they were to change in the midst of this pedophile scandal, it would seem as a reaction to the scandal and not edict from Heaven. That would lose credibility among followers, priests (who've had to be celibate all this time), and those potential followers looking in.

      In other words, the writing's on the wall, but the situation is delicate.

      --
      Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
  5. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by Zedrick · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But are all the schools trying to cover it up every time something like that happens, and protect the teacher in question?

  6. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by sznupi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Also wrong. The biggest threat to children are parents (or generally close family and "friends"). As with most of serious crime BTW...

    --
    One that hath name thou can not otter
  7. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Alright, I'm an atheist! That means I can joke about it as much as I wish!

    But I wont, because frankly it's just painful. But I'll give you some free advice (the worst kind, I know): if the best you can say to defend your own religion is that all other religions are just as bad or worse but have somehow managed to keep a lid on it... then maybe it's time to look for a new religion, or, and I say this from experience, to let go of them altogether.

  8. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mod +5 funny. Or +5 naive. I'd love to think that there is some religion or non-religion that consistently makes people better people

    But centuries of data shows otherwise.

    Utimately, it comes down to individuals and their individual choices. I've known very good Chrisitans and very evil ones. I've known very good Atheists and ones who I certainly wouldn't trust my kids with.

    The bottom line is that you need to judge people individually and not collectively

    --
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  9. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In a word: Bullshit.

    The biggest threat to kids is family, and family friends. Those statistics make all others look small.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  10. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Actually, I'm not aware of any solid data indicating that priests are more likely than anyone else to abuse children or young adults. Not that I'm a fan of the Catholic Church (or any other religion). But the real problem was hiding the abuse and not dealing aggressively with the abusers.

    And even then, to be fair, back in the 1970's and before, there weren't mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse. Society in general has become more aware of the problems; the Church really wasn't out of step with the prevailing attitudes.

    (Of course, what does that say about their claims to be moral leaders?)

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  11. We don't need any more priests!! by JDSalinger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I like this quote from Sam Harris... "I've read the books. God is not a moderate. There's no place in the books where God says, 'You know, when you get to the New World and you develop your three branches of government and you have a civil society, you can just jettison all the barbarism I recommended in the first books.'"

    Why do people still believe in Christianity? It is 2010. Must we propagate this insanity any further?

  12. Re:JUST WOW by Locke2005 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Unfortunately, since the minimum age to sign up for Facebook is 13, it is not very useful for recruiting altar boys. Sometimes the traditional ways work best...

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  13. Re:JUST WOW by MrNaz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's not the most ridiculous thing about this. Think about it, they're looking on Facebook for people who want to be celibate.

    I don't rate their chances very highly.

    --
    I hate printers.
  14. Children + Facebook * church = .... dangerous? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    After so many scandals of the church.
    I'm realy not proud of the religion, i'd rather would protect the innocent against any books of so called wisdom.
    A religion works only on the personal level, and beyond that a few steps higher it becomes politics, scandals and greed for power.
    On the small scale i do understand people need religion (for life and death situations) for social and emotional peace.

    On a the big scale explain me why doesnt the top of all the main religions come together and settle their differences.
    There would be much more peace, around in the world.
    And no i dont feel empty because i lost big faith in it, i think its the 21 century; mankind has become smarter.
    We know what stars are, we cannt proof to explain it all; but then why should we?
    I have totaly no need to understand darkmatter gods, or alians;
    I mean beeing normal these days is complex enough to me.

    But somehow i'm able to pickout those people who are normal too, almost on sight.

    I therefor rather believe in real people, people who sometimes are bright examples of living a good life.
    But sometimes are people who make small mistakes, as long as they dont become dangerous > is that atheism to believe in people?

  15. Why facebook? by tomp1000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why facebook? Why not somewhere more suited to finding a better selection of possible catholic priest candidates? Like 4chan for example?

  16. Bad taste slashdot. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This really falls in the So What List. The catholic church is looking for more priests whats new. So they are using Facebook as a tool. So what... A good for them.

    Now this is just in bad taste for slashdot as it will only really be just a forum to make fun of problems that a religion is having.

    This Ain't News for nerds, this isn't news for geeks, if you are not interested in joining the priesthood it doesn't even matter. You just wanted an other forum to make fun of catholics.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  17. Proof please? by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not the schools, but the teacher unions do.

    Last I checked teacher's unions don't have a lot of pull in the district attorney's office.

    While false accusations are a real problem, I'm pretty sure I've never heard of a case of a teacher's union covering for a real sexual abuse case. Care to link to some actual proof for your assertion?

    1. Re:Proof please? by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Last I checked Catholic Church also supposedly didn't have a lot of pull in the attorney's offices throghout the world...

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    2. Re:Proof please? by rtfa-troll · · Score: 2, Insightful
      That was getting me really annoyed with the teacher's unions until this broke the spell..

      The teachers union did not defend him.

      "The current system works for no one," United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said, adding that the union "has made repeated attempts to work with the administration to resolve the rubber-room issue, but the administration has preferred to grandstand rather than solve it."

      Perhaps you should read the articles you quote to the end???

      --
      =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
  18. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by thijsh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Religious/non-religious does not make a lot of difference... but a religious authority does! God trumps your mom, dad and government... and the priest who just told you to shut up about the abuse is a direct representative of god. This little detail and the fact that those priest eagerly forgive themselves or even make it 'right' by claiming that that little bit of evil is OK because of all the good they can do because of it is just sickening (not only with sexual abuse, but also like mother Theresa who let unfortunate people suffer so she herself could be closer to god).

    In my experience any man who claims to have a more direct line to god (or the supernatural) than you should be avoided at any cost. I'm certain that if there would be no religious leaders there would be almost no problems with religion...

  19. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The reality is that a child is far more likely to be molested by a family member or someone else they know then by priests, teachers, Boy Scout troop leaders, etc.

    I'm not defending the Church's actions. They need to be punished and made to pay so severely that they never again put their own interests above the people they claim to be guiding and protecting. But the fact is that like everything else to do with the "for the children" kneejerkism of the modern age, it's as much hype and fear mongering as anything else.

    Scaring parents is a major industry now. Journalism, or at least the semi-journalism of news magazine shows makes a killing off of it. Politicians get elected by it. Police get big budgets to sit on their fat asses playing around on Internet forums with it.

    The odds are that your child is probably safer in church or in school than they are in their own bedroom.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  20. The jokes just write themselves, don't they? by sean.peters · · Score: 2, Insightful

    More seriously - dear Catholic church: maybe if you're having trouble with recruiting, it might be a good idea to look at your medieval personnel policies? You know, like maybe letting priests get married, letting women in, etc, etc. Might cut down on the pervert problem too. I'm just sayin'.

  21. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Here we go, do we expect slashdot to become a sectarian site as well? Can we keep to technology commenting and avoid moronic remarks on the church? Not all the technical
    people are athiest. Guess what some of them are even catholic. Should I deduce from this comment and the previous one that you call them pedophile or a perv?

  22. Re:Please refrain from pedophile jokes... by silanea · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you seek consistency in your beliefs, try agnosticism.

    Were I to care about other people's faith I would rather recommend apatheistic ignosticism. Since I don't, I recommend spending your time on improving your area's data on OpenStreetmap rather than meditating about the finer aspects of particular faiths. Religion has yet to do anything useful for the world at large, but OSM has aided me innumerable times in the few years since its inception.

    --
    Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
  23. Re:JUST WOW by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Give me a break, those are all piss-poor examples. Psychologists don't give advice on how to best be mentally ill, and the job of divorce lawyers is to offer legal services, something they are indeed very experienced in.

    Would you go to a relationship counsellor who was never in a relationship? Well, you might, but it is hardly surprising that those of us not already blinded might think twice about it.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  24. Re:Young people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    what religious prick went and made all these posts troll. The vatican got fuckheads on /. too. You can't keep covering it up mr pope.Christian churches covered up the fact the priests were buggering altar boys.

    Fuck you covering it up is almost as bad as doing it.

  25. Re:JUST WOW by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you really think that any sort of schooling can teach someone about relationships the same way schooling can teach a doctor medicine, or a lawyer the law, then you are delusional beyond hope.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)