Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Saturday that all of society's institutions, and not just the Catholic church, must be held to "exacting" standards in their response to sex abuse of children, and defended the church's efforts to confront the problem.

Benedict acknowledged in remarks to visiting U.S. bishops during an audience at the Vatican that pedophilia was a "scourge" for society, and that decades of scandals over clergy abusing children had left Catholics in the United States bewildered.

"It is my hope that the Church's conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society," he said.

"By the same token, just as the church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards," the pope said.

The pedophile scandal has exploded in recent decades in the United States, but similar clergy sex abuse revelations have tainted the church in many other countries, including Mexico, Ireland, and several other European nations, including Italy.

But the most high-profile sex abuse case in the United States at the moment doesn't involve the church. Penn State University's former defensive football coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with sexually abusing eight boys, and the fallout has led to the firing of longtime coach Joe Paterno and the departure of university president Graham Spanier.

College football in the U.S. is highly popular. The scandal has shaken the reputation of a college program that long had prided itself on integrity.

Benedict didn't address accusations by many victims and their advocates that church leaders, including at the office in the Vatican that Benedict headed before becoming pontiff, systematically tried to cover up the scandals, and that they have rarely been held accountable for that.

Investigations, often by civil authorities, revealed that church hierarchy frequently transferred pedophile priests from one parish to another.

Benedict told the bishops that his papal pilgrimage to the United States in 2008 "was intended to encourage the Catholics of America in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades."

Echoing sentiment he has expressed in occasional meetings with victims of the abuse on trips abroad, Benedict added: "I wish to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the victims and the honest efforts made to ensure both the safety of our children and to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise."

Benedict seemed to be reflecting some churchmen's contentions that the church has wrongly been singled out as villains for the abuse.

The bishops were making periodic consultations with the Vatican, scheduled for every five years.

"My children, you will recognize the signs of your times. The evil has accelerated. Satan has poisoned many minds, even in the clergy. It is now the full responsibility of parents to be the leaders, the teachers of their children. Satan has poisoned the minds of many in the clergy and doctrines of demons are being introduced into My House.

     "My children, it is with great sorrow that We look upon the abominations being committed in My houses upon earth. Know now, O bishops, shepherds of My flock, that We look upon you and find you wanting.  You bring about a change, and for what? You were not satisfied with the rules, so now you make rules to suit your own basic carnal nature of man. And what are you doing, but you are reforming My House, and for what?

     "In arrogance and pride you have placed yourself above your God. Believe, and do you believe, O clergy? Shall you stand before Me and say that your teaching has been pure in My sight? I say unto you: I shall spit you out as vermin into the flames! Vipers upon earth you have become. I say unto you: Your days shall be counted in the few.
     "Many of My clergy are on the road to perdition and taking many trusting souls with them." - Jesus, July 25, 1977

 Let Us All Pray the Rosary Together Around the World for the Protection of Pope Benedict XVI... Click here...

EDITOR'S COMMENT:  Evil is accelerating and the Anti-Christ forces are gaining power in the world.  When the persecution starts, all Christian web sites on the internet will be forced to close.  Be sure to have in your possession all the following items: the Bayside Prophecy books, Bayside Medals, Douay-Rheims Bibles, the Protection Packets, Candles, Sacramentals, and Religious Books.  Purchase these items now while they are still available!  You will urgently need them in the days ahead.  Also, you can print out all PDF files for the Directives from Heaven and all of the Bayside Prophecies.  Copy Our Lady's messages and the Directives from Heaven now while they are still available!  Pray to the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance on how to prepare now and for the days ahead when the Antichrist is revealed.  God bless.

The amazing Bayside Prophecies...  https://www.tldm.org/Bayside/default.htm
These messages came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.

THE  MAJOR  OFFENSE
"The major offense being committed in your world is an offense far above any sin committed in such majority in the past. You have committed the great sin of heresy. You have opened the doors of your Eternal City, the home of your Vicar, to all manner of heretics and non-believers." - St. Michael, February 1, 1977 

EXCOMMUNICATE
"Pastors in the houses of your God, you must return from your wanderings and gather your straying sheep. Discipline must be returned. Holiness and piety must be returned. Heresy and heretics must be taken out of Rome! The power of excommunication must be used. You will cleanse the Eternal City now, or you will accept the sword!" - St. Michael, December 27, 1975 

INDOCTRINATED  IN  HERESY
"Your children must be protected from the evils that abound in your school systems in your country and most nations throughout the world. They are being taught immorality and a loss of faith in the supernatural and the knowledge of their God. All manner of heresy has been indoctrinated into their youthful minds. It is a diabolical plan of Lucifer." - Our Lady, June 18, 1979 

SPEAK  OUT
"Many homes shall be torn asunder by the fall of the children. Parents shall shed tears of anguish. Therefore, prevent this now while your children are at a young age. Give them a firm foundation of their faith. Be not afraid to speak out against heresy and abominations, even if you have to do this against your clergy. For many now have fallen in with the modernists, the socialists, the communists, and some the satanists. Therefore, My children, I make known to you the crisis that lies ahead." - Our Lady, June 18, 1979 

HERESY,  APOSTASY  ABOUND
"Because of the arrogance and pride of My clergy, many of Our sheep, Our children, are lost to the Kingdom of Heaven. Many mitres are destined for the abyss. Heresy and apostasy abounds upon earth." - Jesus, June 18, 1979 

MOURNFUL  HERESY
"Heresy, O mournful heresy! Pastors, this shall not be tolerated. You must not destroy Our young flowers, the children. You must nurture them with pure waters of faith. This faith must not be tainted by modernism and humanism. You have set upon the world a confusion of mind and a darkening of spirit." - Our Lady, November 20, 1975 

MUST  NOT  COMPROMISE
"You must not compromise your Faith. You cannot lower your standards and bring others into My Son's Church, for you bring in all manner of heresy and abominations. By your example did you gather Our sheep, and by your example now do you scatter them. I say, as your Mother: Turn back from your road, for you are on the way to perdition." - Our Lady, June 5, 1976 

HERESY  PREVAILS
"Each man shall be accountable for his own soul. You shall not allow heresy to prevail in My House! You shall not permit the corruption and destruction of the young souls with error, fallacy, and heresy! You shall not, in the name of technology and science, corrupt the teachings given to you by those who came before you, sent by the Eternal Father to enlighten you on the path and the way to your Kingdom, the Kingdom of your God in Heaven!" - Jesus, February 10, 1976 

HELL-HOLES  OF  HERESY
"Can you, O bishops, not spare but the little time to look into your seminaries? I say but one expression to you: they have become hell-holes of error and heresy! Clean out your seminaries, My bishops! My Son will lay upon you a heavy hand in penance! Is this what you want? Do you not have the courage of your convictions to stand by the truth of your Faith? Have you given yourselves to such foul sin, O bishops, in your personal lives that you do no longer recognize sin as being a way of life? Are you also condoning sin to become a way of life?" - Our Lady, October 2, 1976 

HERESY  IN  THE  CLASSROOMS
"And what are they teaching in the classrooms? Oh,  my sister, you must tell the world—all the children of earth, of the Eternal Father—that they are teaching heresy! Oh, that's untruth. Satan is deluding many and poisoning their minds. Heresy, O mournful heresy!" - St. Theresa, May 17, 1975 

LEGACY  OF  TRUTH
"I recognized, my child, the evils that were to fall upon the world. Search for the knowledge I have left to you. I, too, was enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Read well the legacy of truth* that I left to you. Modernism must be erased from your world!" - Pope St. Pius X, September 7, 1974

* Read especially the famous encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (The Doctrine of the Modernists) by Pope St. Pius X.

MANY  REBEL
"Many clergy have given themselves over to pleasures of the flesh. Many have fallen into sin and heresy, and have cast aside the truth of their vocations. Many now rebel against their leader, their God-given leader, your Vicar. In matters of faith and morals, man must not change the God-given laws, coming from the Seat of Peter, and established through tradition upon earth through My Son's Church." - Our Lady, October 6, 1979

Directives from Heaven...

D1 - The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass  PDF
D85 - Tradition  PDF
D161 - The Great Apostasy PDF
D164 - Heresy PDF
D184 - Church of Man,  Part 1    PDF
D185 - Church of Man,  Part 2   PDF
D186 - Excommunication   PDF 

Articles…

Pope Benedict XVI on the disintegration of the liturgy
https://www.tldm.org/news7/PopeBenedictXVIDisintegrationOfLiturgy.htm

Pope Benedict XVI on life, faith, family and freedom
https://www.tldm.org/News7/PopeBenedictXVIFaith&Family.htm

Pope Benedict XVI on Church after Vatican II: "incontrovertible that this period has definitely been unfavorable for the Church"
https://www.tldm.org/directives/d193.htm

Pope Benedict XVI: the Mass reduced to a show
https://www.tldm.org/News7/PopeBenedictXVIMassReducedToAShow.htm

Pope Benedict XVI on the theology of kneeling
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictXVITheologyOfKneeling.htm

Pope Benedict against Harry Potter: speaks of "subtle seductions" that "deeply affect (children) and corrupt the Christian faith in souls
https://www.tldm.org/News8/Pope%20BenedictAgainstHarryPotter.htm

Pope Benedict stresses necessity to halt cafeteria Catholicism
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictCafeteriaCatholicism.htm

Holy Communion for divorced and remarried undermines Sacrament of Matrimony says Pope Benedict
https://www.tldm.org/News8/Communion&DivorcedPopeBenedict.htm

Vatican says no to homosexuals in priesthood - approved by Pope Benedict
https://www.tldm.org/News8/homosexualityPriesthood3.htm 

Pope Benedict attacks 'hypocritical' secularists: calls those who want to exclude God from public life intolerant
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictAttacksSecularists.htm

Vatican correspondent notes Pope Benedict using "apocalyptic" language
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictApocalypse.htm

Pope Benedict XVI and his support for the Old Mass
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictSupportsOldMass.htm

Pope Benedict spied on by East German Communist Secret Police from 1974
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictSpiedOn.htm

Pope Benedict to bishops: Don't water down Church teachings
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeDon'tWaterDownTeachings.htm