Posted January 29, 2010Updated February 21, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Pope's Apology Rings Hollow To Some U.S. Victims - by BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY – NPR : National Public Radio
The scandal in Ireland is all too familiar: thousands of children abused and neglected as some Irish bishops protected the allegedly predatory priests.
Over the weekend, Pope Benedict XVI took 24 Irish bishops to task for the sex abuse crisis in that country, calling the scandal a "heinous crime."
They were strong words, and according to the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, it is evidence that the Vatican has changed course in the eight years since the sex abuse scandal erupted in the United States. Benedict is now pope, and his attitude appears to be different…
… But some U.S. victims do not. For example, Alexa MacPherson, who was abused by her priest in Boston when she was a child, is not impressed that the pope said the abuse was a "heinous crime."
"I mean, everybody out there knows that's it a heinous crime, it shouldn't have happened; if it happened once, it never should have happened again," she says. "What's he going to do about it at this point? I mean saying it and doing something about it are two completely different avenues."
Given her experience in Boston, where the archdiocese asked her to serve on an advisory board that stopped meeting after the headlines died down, MacPherson does not believe the Vatican has radically changed.
"I think they're just going to pay people to shut them up and hope that everybody forgets about it."
And Bernie McDaid, a victim who met with Pope Benedict when he visited the U.S. in 2008, says he is let down.
"I don't care if they clean up all of Ireland tomorrow. I mean, that’s a good thing," he adds quickly. "But they've got a whole world in front of them that they need to clean up that they haven't. This is 2010! That's what I keep coming back to. And here we are again with the same issue." Read complete article, comments and more - by BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY – NPR : National Public Radio
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit." Erik Erikson
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Gay Witch-Hunt Underway In Malawi – by Jim Burroway – Box Turtle Bulletin
Malawi authorities are on the hunt:
Malawi Police have uncovered a network of high-profile people who are involved homosexual acts including University of Malawi lectures and priests police spokesman said. Davie Chingwalu, police spokesman for the Southern Region is quoted by Associated Press that police investigation indicates that some University of Malawi lectures are involved in practices of homosexuality.
“Some are white expatriates, some are priests while others are university lecturers,” Chingwalu is quoted by AP. … Chingwalu said police are still investigating the matter and warned that “we will arrest them all.”
Read complete article and more - by Jim Burroway – Box Turtle Bulletin
Related link:
GLAAD to Honor Sykes, Barrymore - By Advocate.com Editors
Actress Drew Barrymore and comedian Wanda Sykes will be honored this year at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation awards in Los Angeles.
Barrymore will receive the Vanguard Award, which is presented to media professionals who have increased the visibility and understanding of the LGBT community. In 2009, Barrymore took on the role of the lesbian daughter of a widower played by Robert De Niro in Everybody's Fine, which has been nominated for Outstanding Film - Wide Release. Barrymore also hit the streets when the California supreme court upheld Proposition 8 last May.
"I was born, bred, and raised among diversity; it has defined me and made me the person I am today," Barrymore said in a statement issued on Wednesday to The Advocate. "I'm honored and humbled to be receiving this award." Read complete article - By Advocate.com Editors
Related links:
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
DrewBarrymore.com - The Official Drew Barrymore Site
Wanda Sykes at the 2009 White House Correspondents' Dinner
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After Clergy Abuse Scandals, Ireland Needs a New St. Patrick – by David Gibson – Politics Daily
At this point in the Catholic Church's long-running saga of the sexual abuse of children by priests there are few surprises and fewer heroes. The two-day "summit" in the Vatican that wrapped up on Tuesday brought the bishops of Ireland together to meet with Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the issue, much as leaders of the American hierarchy were summoned to Rome for an overnight palaver with Pope John Paul II in 2002.
Now, as then, a statement was released following the closed-door sessions expressing deep regret and "shame" for the failures of oversight by the hierarchy, the sins of "some Irish clergy" who abused children, and the efforts being made to help victims and prevent further abuse. The statement said Benedict told the bishops that the sexual abuse of children and young people is "not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin," but he stopped short of calling on any bishops to resign nor did he speak of punishments for those who committed the abuse.
Rather, the pontiff said a root cause of the clerical abuse was "the more general crisis of faith affecting the Church" and said "the weakening of faith has been a significant contributing factor in the phenomenon of the sexual abuse of minors." He called for "a deeper theological reflection on the whole issue" and said current and future priests should receive better training. He also said he would address the topic in greater depth in a letter to Irish Catholics that he will release during Lent, which starts today (Feb. 17) with Ash Wednesday. Neither the statement Tuesday nor the promise of a future papal pronouncement gave many abuse victims and disenchanted Irish Catholics much hope that things would proceed very differently than they did after the American version of this summit back in 2002. Read complete article - by David Gibson – Politics Daily
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit." Erik Erikson
Background links:
Report: Homosexuality No Factor in Abusive Priests - By RACHEL ZOLL - ABC News – 2009
Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests' – London Evening Standard – standard.co.uk - 2006 - KIDS ARE BEING HURT !!!
This about the reckless endangerment of children in a calculated, purposeful strategy to protect the institutional Church - By Jason Walsh - The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com - December 2, 2009
What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality. "Interpreting the Bible" Daniel Helminiak, STL, PhD.
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Related links:
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Ratzinger, Hurley, Maida & Accomplices – January 29, 2010
Benedict XVI & accomplices in Fear as -> “Obama signs hate-crimes bill” by Rex Wockner – Nov. 2009
Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children. Kids are being hurt!!!
Pope Urges Irish Bishops to Confront Sex Abuse - By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and ALAN COWELL – New York Times / International Herald Tribune
ROME — Pope Benedict XVI urged Irish bishops on Tuesday to show “determination and resolve” in confronting the sexual abuse scandal convulsing the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland but made no explicit call for the punishment of those who perpetrated what he called a “heinous crime.”
After two days of closed-door conversations between the pope and Irish bishops, a Vatican statement said the scandal had ignited a “grave crisis,” which had “led to a breakdown in trust in the church’s leadership.”
But the statement seemed unlikely to satisfy victims of abuse who had called for more resignations of senior clerics involved in covering up decades of sexual abuse of children and young people by priests.
Even as the Vatican talks were under way, John Kelly, the founder of a victims’ group called Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, wrote in a letter to the pope made public in London, “The secular powers in Ireland appear paralyzed to bring to civil justice some of those who carried out acts of horrific abuse as well as those who assisted by acts of omission or even outright collusion after the fact. Read complete article - By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO and ALAN COWELL – New York Times / International Herald Tribune
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit." Erik Erikson
Background links:
Report: Homosexuality No Factor in Abusive Priests - By RACHEL ZOLL - ABC News – 2009
Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests' – London Evening Standard – standard.co.uk - 2006 - KIDS ARE BEING HURT !!!
This about the reckless endangerment of children in a calculated, purposeful strategy to protect the institutional Church - By Jason Walsh - The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com - December 2, 2009
What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality. "Interpreting the Bible" Daniel Helminiak, STL, PhD.
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Related links:
After Clergy Abuse Scandals, Ireland Needs a New St. Patrick – by David Gibson – Politics Daily
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Ratzinger, Hurley, Maida & Accomplices – January 29, 2010
Benedict XVI & accomplices in Fear as -> “Obama signs hate-crimes bill” by Rex Wockner – Nov. 2009
Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children. Kids are being hurt!!!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
…“the Vatican has accepted no responsibility for its role in facilitating the sexual abuse of children,” By ROBERT MACKEY – New York Times News
Updated 2/17/10
Vatican Statement on Sexual Abuse by Irish Clergy Disappoints Victims Groups
As my colleagues Elisabetta Povoledo and Alan Cowell report, after two days of closed-door meetings with Irish bishops, Pope Benedict XVI called the sexual abuse of children by Irish clergy members a “heinous crime,” in a statement released by the Vatican on Tuesday.
The complete text of the Vatican statement is embedded below.
Alison Healy of The Irish Times reports that victims of the abuse in Ireland said they were disappointed by the statement.
Maeve Lewis, a psychotherapist who is the director of One in Four, a support group for abuse survivors in Ireland, told the Irish newspaper that she had hoped that the Vatican would address the role the Irish church played in covering up the crimes. Read complete article - By ROBERT MACKEY – New York Times News
Anger as papal nuncio refuses to testify on child abuse - Sydney Morning Herald
February 17, 2010
DUBLIN: Irish politicians have denounced the refusal of the Pope's diplomat in Ireland to testify to a parliamentary panel probing the level of Catholic Church co-operation with investigations into the church's cover-up of child abuse.
News of the refusal came as the Vatican described the child sex abuse scandal in Ireland as ''humiliating'' for the church and 24 Irish bishops began unprecedented talks with the Pope.
The papal nuncio to Ireland, Cardinal Giuseppi Leanza, told MPs in a letter published on Monday that he would not answer questions from the parliament's foreign affairs committee.
Cardinal Leanza has faced heavy criticism in Ireland for ignoring letters from two state-ordered investigations into how the church for decades suppressed reports of child abuse by parish priests and in Catholic-run residences for poor children. The investigators said the cardinal did not reply to letters seeking the Vatican's assistance.
An Irish MP, Alan Shatter, said it was ''not only deeply regrettable but incomprehensible'' that Cardinal Leanza would not explain the Vatican's lack of co-operation with Irish investigations, given ''it is acknowledged in Rome that members of the clergy in Ireland are guilty of abominable sexual abuse of children''. Read complete article - Sydney Morning Herald
“You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln
Background links:
Report: Homosexuality No Factor in Abusive Priests - By RACHEL ZOLL - ABC News – 2009
Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests' – London Evening Standard – standard.co.uk - 2006 - KIDS ARE BEING HURT !!!
This about the reckless endangerment of children in a calculated, purposeful strategy to protect the institutional Church - By Jason Walsh - The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com - December 2, 2009
What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality. "Interpreting the Bible" Daniel Helminiak, STL, PhD.
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Related links:
Irish lawmaker Alan Shatter said it was "not only deeply regrettable but incomprehensible" that Leanza would not explain the Vatican's noncooperation with Irish investigations, given that "it is acknowledged in Rome that members of the clergy in Ireland are guilty of abominable sexual abuse of children." Read more - By Frances D’Emilio (AP) - Forbes
"Does anyone honestly think that the very same men who ignored and concealed child sex crimes for decades will ... suddenly be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem?" Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests asked. Read more
Pope should have invited abuse victims to Rome - Irish Times
Pope ignores demands to sack bishops - by Rachael Brown - ABC Online
Pope Benedict scolds Ireland's bishops over sex abuse scandal – Christian Science Monitor
Vatican summit a 'waste of time' – Madden – by Alison Healy - Irish Times
Victims fear whitewash in Irish abuse scandal - by Philip Pullella - Montreal Gazette
Pope tells Irish bishops to be honest over scandal - By Frances D’Emilio (AP) - Forbes
Andrew Madden: Let them never preach high standards to anyone again – Irish Independent
Anger as papal nuncio refuses to testify on child abuse - Sydney Morning Herald
Vatican-Irish summit ends amid anger papal envoy won't testify in parliament on sex abuse - TODAYonline
Pope has 'washed hands' of our abuse: victims - By John Cooney in Rome and Ciaran Byrne - Irish Independent
When sorry just isn't enough – by David Sharrock - The Australian
US abuse survivors group hits out at papal response - Ireland Online
Pope Doesn't Ask for Resignations in Abuse Talks - AOL News
Santa Marta: Bishops to stay far from prying media - Irish Times
John Cooney: Unholy ghosts of clerical sex abuse stalk Pope's homeland - Irish Independent
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Ratzinger, Hurley, Maida & Accomplices – January 29, 2010
Benedict XVI & accomplices in Fear as -> “Obama signs hate-crimes bill” by Rex Wockner – Nov. 2009
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit." Erik Erikson
Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children. Kids are being hurt!!!
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