“Benedict XVI Could Take A Big Step Toward Greater Transparency By Appointing An INDEPENDENT COMMISSION With No Ties To The Vatican…” - The Hartford Courant

Catholic Church Must Own Up To Shame  

The Hartford Courant

April 30, 2010

Revelations about Catholic priests sexually abusing children have become depressingly common. The church's response too often has been to conceal this criminal activity and quietly move priests to new assignments, where the sexual assaults often continued. 

…In recent months, several bishops have resigned, including two who admitted they sexually abused children years ago. That housecleaning was long overdue and should continue.

Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cases - – The New York Times

For more than two decades, the Catholic Church has grappled with a series of clergy sexual abuse scandals and lawsuits. The cases have cost an estimated $2 billion in settlements and have shaken the faith of many of the church's members. Still more have expressed outrage with the church leadership, which has responded by making significant changes in its disciplinary procedures, and often by calling the attention to the cases an attack on the church.

As the sexual abuse crisis continues to unfold, it is clear the issue is more than a passing storm. The church is undergoing nothing less than an epochal shift: It pits those who hold fast to a more traditional idea of protecting bishops and priests above all against those who call for more openness and accountability. The battle lines are drawn between the church and society at large, which clearly clamors for accountability, and also inside the church itself. Read more – The New York Times

More ripples appear for Catholic Church - Sapa-AFP – Daily Dispatch Online – 4/30/10

THE paedophile priests scandal shredding the Catholic Church’s reputation worldwide has been especially savage in Latin America, where half the religion’s faithful live.

Ecclesiastical authorities from the region have either been begging for forgiveness as they tried to reassure their nervous flock – or echoing the Holy See’s line that the Catholic Church was being persecuted by some mysterious forces. Photo

Colombian cardinal Dario Castrillon,… “It is a shame there are such idiots working up this type of persecution,” he added, in comments from Rome to Radio RCN in Bogota.

Hurricane Katrina - Nancy Pelosi - Washington, DC – 2005 & Accountability Benedict XVI Child Sexual Abuse

Hurricane Katrina 

was one of the strongest storms to impact the coast of the United States during the last 100 years. With sustained winds during landfall of 125 mph (110 kts) (a strong category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and minimum central pressure the third lowest on record at landfall (920 mb), Katrina caused widespread devastation along the central Gulf Coast states of the US. Cities such as New Orleans, LA, Mobile, AL, and Gulfport, MS bore the brunt of Katrina's force and will need weeks and months of recovery efforts to restore normality.

Read more ----- Photo 

 

Hurricane Season 2005: Katrina - Read more 

"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous" USA Katrina 2005 - Nancy Pelosi
"No Oversight" - The Modus Operandi 

No “Checks and Balances or Accountability" Vatican -> WATERGATE and KATRINA (AGAIN)? Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

It is sad to state that the Vatican’s great defense in dealing with “cover-ups” is to allow time to past, lots of time, years and years, for people to forget. The Vatican is  not accountable to anyone or any civil laws  anywhere in the world, however, their  accomplices are and have been prosecuted.  It took the Vatican 400 years to apologize to Galileo for condemning him because he said the earth revolves around the sun. Photo

Go forth and blog, says Pope – TechEYE.net

To Catholics, obviously

The Pope has urged Catholics to take up the internet - though he's rather generously suggested that the rest of us heathens shouldn't actually be booted out…

The Pope has been getting increasingly interested in technology, last year meeting with executives fromFacebook, Wikipedia and Google to discuss digital youth culture. Read more - TechEYE.net ---- Google logo ------Globe 

"For what will it profit a man 

if 

he gains the whole world

and

forfeits his soul?

Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Matthew 16:26

Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 

Matthew 18:6

"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous" USA Katrina 2005 - Nancy Pelosi

You can fool some of the people all of the time,

and

all of the people some of the time,

but

you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Abraham Lincoln 

16th president of US (1809 - 1865) Photo 

USA Hurricane Katrina 

August 28, 2005

Barbara Bush

"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas," Barbara Bush said in an interview on Monday with the radio program "Marketplace." "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality."

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway," she said, "so this is working very well for them." Read more – September 7, 2005 – The New York Times 

Nancy Pelosi

At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "absolutely no credentials." (Related video) 

She related that she had urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown.

"He said 'Why would I do that?'" Pelosi said.

'"I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'"

"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous," she added.  Read more – September 7, 2005 – USAToday.com  -Related video 

Child Protection Service of the Archdiocese of Dublin, 

November 2009 -Report by Commission of Investigation into the handling by Church and State authorities of allegations and suspicions of child abuse against clerics of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. Read complete report->Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

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 - read more 

Pope Benedict condemns 

'petty gossip' 

over child sexual abuse scandal  

Mark Tran and agencies – guardian.co.uk – Read more 

Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

J.K. Rowling - The Power of Human Empathy, Leading to Collective Action, Saves Lives, and Frees Prisoners

J.K. Rowling,

author of the best-selling 

Harry Potter book series,

delivers her

Commencement Address, 

June 5, 2008

“The Fringe Benefits of

Failure,

and the Importance of Imagination,”

at the

Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

Harvard Magazine, Harvard University Video 

Belief excerpts from the Text as delivered. Video 200,761

Looking for Leadership in a Storm – Katrina - September 3, 2005 - by Linda Wertheimer – National Public Radio (NPR)

Katrina Hurricane USA 

 August 29, 2005

This has been a painful week for all Americans, this week of storms and floods and destruction. I'm sure that in every household in this country someone has gone to bed this week only to become totally awake with the words of displaced people echoing in their heads. I know there are people sitting down to dinner with family and friends who suddenly feel the beginnings of a bellyache, feeling irrationally guilty about a good dinner, not to mention taking out the trash, turning on the tap, flushing the toilet. Photo ---- Photo 

Sending money to the Red Cross is important, and everyone ought to do it, but somehow this terrible situation has made us feel that we have to get off the sidelines and onto the field because somebody has to do it. I say that as a professional sidelines stander. For all the years that I've covered politics and a few floods and earthquakes, I've been very clear that my job was to show up and then tell our listeners what I'd seen and heard. It's an article of faith with me that I serve a useful purpose on the sidelines, and I've never been tempted to wade into a demonstration, grab a banner and start marching. I have never wanted to grab a politician by the back of his neck and try to shake some sense into him or her. Well, almost never. But four long days watching suffering people waiting has tested my resolve… Photo

…In some ways, that missing leadership is rising everywhere out of a 

national compassionate impulse to treat the victims of Hurricane Katrina as Americans want them to be treated... 

Read more and Listen - Linda Wertheimer – National Public Radio (NPR) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4831405

Week in Review: Hurricane Katrina

WERTHEIMER: Yes. Usually we try to give a review of all the week's news in this segment, but the devastation from Hurricane Katrina has been so huge we thought we'd stick to that single subject today, and we need to look at both the human and the governmental aspects, because it's become truly a crisis at both levels. Let's start with the human side. Lives were disrupted; many died in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as in New Orleans. But it was in New Orleans where the most people have been affected. What struck you as you heard and read about it?

SCHORR: Well, of course, you are struck by the immensity of it and the tragedy of it, but there was one additional thing that struck me and that is a disaster is not an equal-opportunity thing. When they called for evacuation from New Orleans, those with cars drove out. Those without cars got stuck there. And those without cars were predominantly black and poor people. That struck me.

LINDA WERTHEIMER and DANIEL SCHORR - NPR - Read more & listen

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4831402

The trouble with blue sky thinking - By Rajini Vaidyanathan - BBC News Magazine

The controversial Foreign Office memo about the Pope was the result of a brainstorm among junior staff. But how do you harvest the best creative ideas while keeping a check on the too outlandish? Photo 

An abundance of marker pens, sticky notes and whiteboards in the office usually means one thing - it's time to brainstorm, to "think outside the box", let one's creative juices flow, join an "ideas shower".

In the neophiliac world of management jargon the concept of brainstorming has near elder statesman status.

A brainstorm is a session in which a small group of people is brought together to solve a problem by voicing spontaneous ideas. It doesn't matter how unusual or eccentric those ideas are - convention holds that dismissing a suggestion can stymie a group's creative dynamic. Photo 

It's a rule that might explain the results of a leaked Foreign Office memo concerning the Pope's visit to the UK. Read more - By Rajini Vaidyanathan - BBC News Magazine

Church carelessness costs Catholics - By Kati Smith – Coyote Chronicle

 The Vatican is sorely misrepresenting the Catholic Church, and is effectively giving Catholics around the world an undeserved bad reputation. Photo 

    The mission, heart and faith behind the work and service of many Catholics have been repeatedly undermined in the wake of the ongoing abuse scandal. The failure of the Vatican to address the issues in a matter satisfactory to the victims of abuse has caused a near schism.

     Still, Catholic churches persist in their work.

    Father Luis A. Guido, a priest at San Bernardino’s Our Lady of the Assumption, told me that their different ministries to the community are numerous.

    “We have a kitchen pantry. It's food for the poor,” Guido said, "At Sunday Mass we receive food from people who bring it. Every Mass we collect that and share it with those who come.” Read more - By Kati Smith – Coyote Chronicle

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

Ratzinger & Vatican “They did as much as they had at each point in time given the public outcry, and no more.” Katrin Bennhold – The New York Times

Future Pope Tried To Get Fuller Inquiry In Abuse Case 

By Katrin Bennhold – The New York Times 

VIENNA — As Pope Benedict XVI has come under scrutiny for his handling of sexual abuse cases, both his supporters and his critics have paid fresh attention to the way he responded to a sexual abuse scandal in Austria in the 1990s, one of the most damaging to confront the church in Europe.

Defenders of Benedict cite his role in dealing with Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër of Vienna as evidence that he moved assertively, if quietly, against abusers. They point to the fact that Cardinal Groër left office six months after accusations against him of molesting boys first appeared in the Austrian news media in 1995. The future pope, they say, favored a full canonical investigation, only to be blocked by other ranking officials in the Vatican. Photo 

A detailed look at the rise and fall of the clergyman, who died in 2003, and the involvement of Benedict, a Bavarian theologian with many connections to German-speaking Austria, paints a more complex picture.

Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had the ear of Pope John Paul II and was able to block a favored candidate for archbishop of Vienna, clearing the way for Father Groër to assume the post in 1986, say senior church officials and priests with knowledge of the process. His critics question how this influence failed him nine years later in seeking a fuller investigation into the case. Read more - By Katrin Bennhold – The New York Times

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

“…the church must … end its campaign to block the weak and the vulnerable from receiving help to deal with the consequences of criminal sexual abuse.” By Lawrence Lessig – The New York Times

A Better Chance at Justice for Abuse Victims - By Lawrence Lessig – The New York Times

LAST week, Pope Benedict XVI told victims of sexual abuse by priests in Malta that the Catholic Church was doing all it could to investigate abuse accusations and find ways to safeguard children in the future. With the pope’s pledge, and the resignation in recent days of three European bishops involved in the sex abuse scandal, it might appear that the church is finally taking responsibility for failing to protect children against molesters for hundreds of years. Photo

But the church is not doing everything in its power to help victims. In fact, it is worsening the sins of the past by taking a leading role in preventing abused children from getting the compensation they need to help remedy past abuse. Read more - By Lawrence Lessig – The New York Times

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

Catholic sex abuse scandal raising doubts for young German Catholics - By Robert Marquand – The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor

In Germany, the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI, the priest sex abuse scandal has shaken many young Catholics' trust in the church, if not their faith. The man who initially inspired a new 'Benedict generation' is now seen as out of touch.

Munich, Germany

The Vatican today accepted an apology from the British Foreign Office for an internal “prank” memo written by a 23-year-old diplomat that satirized Pope Benedict XVI ahead of his UK visit. Photo 

British Foreign Secretary David Milliband said he was “appalled” by the leaked spoof memo written by an Oxford graduate that caused a minor media storm by suggesting the Pope open abortion clinics and bless a gay marriage while in Britain.

But beyond such juvenalia and other late-night TV humor, the global pedophile priest scandal is causing disaffection among a young generation of Catholics.

With waning trust in church institutions and a turn toward “spirituality” among Catholic youth, many German Catholics under 30 have turned away from the pope. While saying they respect Benedict’s learning, young German Catholics don’t identify with Bavarian-born Benedict or with an institution seen as closed, hierarchical, and absolute. Read more - By Robert Marquand – The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor