A handful of protesters ridiculed the service as ecclesiastical theater. Among them was Paddy Doyle, one of the first abuse victims to go public with his story in his 1988 autobiography “The God Squad,’’ his account of suffering severe physical and sexual abuse at a church-run industrial school.
Doyle said he had been invited to have his feet washed, but he declined.
“It’s a stunt,’’ he said. “Another stunt by the Catholic Church to absolve itself of the rape and abuse of children all over the world.’’
The service was disrupted several times by victims who interrupted to speak.
The first such case occurred minutes after the service began, when a man strode down the center aisle and asked the musicians to stop playing for a moment.
The man, Robert Dempsey, spoke for five minutes about being sexually abused in a church-run mental institution as a child, waiting endlessly for his case to be heard in court, and being mistreated by police.
“What the hell did I do wrong as a child?’’ he said. “What the hell did any of us do?’’
When he said he had pictures proving his story to give to Martin, Martin came and stood by his side. And when he finished, the cathedral burst into applause.
A while later, an elderly man made his way to the microphone from the middle of the pews.
He gave a terse account of how, as a child in a church-run school, he was thrown into a cold bath and then brought into another room, “frozen, naked, and terrified.’’
He was forced to climb a ladder, and with each step, he was lashed with a whip.
“May God forgive them,’’ he said.
The congregation applauded again — and again a bit later, when a young man spoke in remembrance of those who had committed suicide as a result of abuse…
Read complete report:
Machinations of Benedict XVI Denials Leaking Documents Homosexual Overtones To Publicly Discredit Prominent Catholic Editor Who Criticized Italian MP - A Supporter of Benedict XVI Issues - February 9, 2010
What you cannot do is accept injustice.
From Hitler – or anyone.
You must make the injustice visible – be prepared to die like a soldier to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi
Pope 'is at centre of Vatican abuse cover-up', says Hans Küng
by Roger Boyes, Berlin,
March 25, 2010 – The Times
One of Europe’s leading theological thinkers has accused the Pope of being complicit in a Vatican cover-up of child abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church.
“No one in the whole of the Catholic Church knows as much about abuse cases – knowledge that is ex officio, derived from his office,” Hans Küng said in an interview with Swiss television. Photo
Professor Küng – a long-standing critic of the Vatican – said that the Pope’s involvement in hiding clerical molestation of children dated back at least to his 24 years as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome .
“This Vatican authority has for a long time centralised [information about] all abuse cases so that they can be concealed, classified as top secret,” the 82-year old Swiss theologian said.
He has been a close observer of Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – since they were theology professors at the University of Tübingen in the 1960s. Both were theological advisers to the Second Vatican Council, which concluded in 1965.
Professor Küng’s clinching piece of documentary evidence against his old university colleague is contained in a diocesal letter, dated March 18, 2001, on child abuse, “De delictis gravioribus” (“about serious offences”). Signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the document establishes guidelines for dealing with priests suspected of abuse: Photo
“In tribunals established by ordinaries or hierarchs, the functions of judge, promoter of justice, notary and legal representative can validly be performed for these cases only by priests. When the trial in the tribunal is finished in any fashion, all the acts of the case are to be transmitted ex officio as soon as possible to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," it says.
Professor Küng argues that the Pope is acting hypocritically by calling bishops to order because for the past ten years such offences have been officially regulated behind closed doors…
Read complete report:
Church in worst credibility crisis since Reformation,
theologian tells bishops
by Hans Küng,
April 16, 2010 – The Irish Times
Pope Benedict has made worse just about everything that is wrong with the Roman Catholic Church and is directly responsible for engineering the global cover-up of child rape perpetrated by priests, according to this open letter to all Catholic bishops
VENERABLE BISHOPS,
Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and I were the youngest theologians at the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Now we are the oldest and the only ones still fully active. I have always understood my theological work as a service to the Roman Catholic Church. For this reason, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI, I am making this appeal to you in an open letter. In doing so, I am motivated by my profound concern for our church, which now finds itself in the worst credibility crisis since the Reformation. Please excuse the form of an open letter; unfortunately, I have no other way of reaching you… Photo
Read complete letter:
Irish abuse victim: New letter proves Vatican cover-up
by Claudio Lavanga,
January 18, 2011 – NBC News
A 1997 letter from a Vatican official advising Irish bishops not to report suspected child abuse cases to the police has sent shockwaves across the Catholic world.
To child abuse victims, it’s the “smoking gun” that proves what they have claimed all along: that the Vatican actively tried to prevent criminal investigations against sexually abusive priests by instructing bishops not to report them to the police…
…The Vatican letter instructed bishops that abuse allegations and punishments were to be handled within the church through canon law. It warned that bishops who tried to pursue charges outside of canon law could have their actions overturned on appeal in Rome.
The newly revealed document undermines what the Vatican has said for years – that it never instructed local bishops to withhold evidence of suspected crimes from the police. It could be used as crucial evidence in multi-billion dollar lawsuits against archdioceses in the United States and across the world…
Vatican dismisses letter
The Vatican has downplayed the importance of the letter, claiming that it represents an outdated approach to sexual abuse cases and that much has changed since 1997 in the way the Vatican deals with them...
Victim: letter shows cover-up
But Colm O'Gorman, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse and founder of the Irish charity One-in-Four, said that it’s time the Catholic Church took responsibility for its mishandling of thousands of abuse cases.
“It’s just not credible to dismiss the letter because it’s 14 years old. It was 1997, not 1597, and nothing has changed since,” O’Gorman told msnbc.com. “This letter is important for a number of reasons: not only because it shows that the Vatican tried to cover-up abuse cases in Ireland, it also proves that Pope Benedict XVI was dishonest in his handling of the scandal.”
Read complete report:
143 Catholic theologians in Germany
demand broad church reforms, abandoning vow of celibacy
by Juergen Baetz,
Associated Press, February 4, 2011 – Los Angelus Times
BERLIN (AP) — University theologians in Germany have called on the Catholic Church to abandon the vow of celibacy for priests, open up the clergy for women and accept gays couples.
The 143 professors said the church must implement bold reforms because of "a crisis without precedent" following the discovery of widespread sexual and physical abuses by clergymen a year ago.
More Christians than ever have turned their backs on the Catholic Church in the past year, they said. "The Church has to understand these signs and move beyond its ossified structures to regain new vitality and credibility."...
Read complete report:
“What the Pope Knew”
Gary Tuchman,
September 25, 2010,
CNN & CNN International
(Investigative documentary)
video
Read more/related links:
Priest says he was pressurised into taking blame for pope
by Paddy Agnew, Derek Scally and Patsy McGarry
4/19/10
Priest says he was bullied into taking fall for Pope in abuse scandal
The Local – 4/18/10
Germany’s News In English – read more
Ratzinger & Vatican
“They did as much as they had at each point in time given the public outcry, and no more.”
Katrin Bennhold – 4/27/10
The New York Times – read more
“…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 – 4/26/10
The New York Times – read more
Hurricane Katrina - Nancy Pelosi - Washington, DC – 2005
& Accountability
Benedict XVI Child Sexual Abuse
Who Can Mock This Church?
By Nicholas D. Kristof
May 1, 2010
The New York Times
Pope Blasts U.K. Anti-Discrimination Laws
CBS NEWS
Ratzinger, Hurley, Maida & Accomplices
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
(Sequential Order of Reactions)” 2010
Emile Zola
What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
Luke 12:3
“This is about the reckless endangerment of children in a calculated, purposeful strategy to protect the institutional Church”
December 2, 2009
By Jason Walsh
Ireland released a report into 30 years of Catholic priest abuse of children in Dublin that found the police frequently looked the other way to protect accused clerics.
Dublin, Ireland
That the Catholic church covered up sexual abuse by priests for years is hardly news anymore. But the highest-profile investigation into abuse allegations yet in Ireland found another breach of public trust: The Garda Síochána, the police force for the republic, failed to investigate reports of priest abusing children and conspired to protect Catholic officials in Dublin for 30 years. Photo
The commission on child abuse by Catholic priests in Dublin led by Judge Yvonne Murphy released its long-awaited report on the matter last week. Justice Murphy's commission investigated how allegations of child sex abuse by priests in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin were dealt with by both state and church authorities from 1975 to 2004. The report slammed the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland and, for the first time, reprimanded state agencies, particularly the Garda. Photo
Unlike the Catholic sex abuse scandal uncovered by The Boston Globe in the archdiocese of Boston in 2002 where, instead of reporting the incidents to police, the dioceses directed the offenders to seek psychiatric treatment, in Ireland children, parents, and others reported suspicions of abuse to police but investigations did not follow. Many cases were simply referred back to church authorities instead. Photo Boston
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said that the report exposed "misguided or undue deference" shown by the police to religious institutions and said, "That has no place in criminal investigations, it certainly has no place in 2009 under my watch." "This is not about failings or learning curves. This about the reckless endangerment of children in a calculated, purposeful strategy to protect the institutional Church," said the abuse charity One in Four in a press release.
Read complete article:
Pope 'led cover-up of child abuse by priests'
2006 - London Evening Standard
standard.co.uk
Catholic Church sex abuse documents made public
By Gillian Flaccus,
Associated Press, October 25, 2010 - Salon
Watergate 1973
Ripping Open An Incredible Scandal
(TIME, April 30, 1973) -- The denials, the evasions, the secretiveness, and, yes, the lies, all had failed. The Watergate case was breaking wide open. A 10-month campaign by some of the highest past and present officials of the Nixon Administration to cover up their involvement was crumbling. Read more - CNN TIME Photo Nixon
Roman Catholic - hierarchy child sexual abuse
“cover-ups”
ordered by Benedict XVI
to avoid public outrage & criminal charges
- falsely accused gay priests - WATERGATE?
No “Checks and Balances”
A major problem with the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church is that there are no “checks and balances.” When the necessary “checks and balances” are not in place to protect any organization, it leaves “not making waves” the rule that governs the hierarchy and opens the way to many devastating mistakes harmful to everyone and allows corruption to grow.
The following statements are harsh statements, but unfortunately they are heavily documented. (1) Benedict XVI and his hierarchy failed to protect children from child sexual abuse for decades. (2) They mistreated and intimidated the victims and their families who came to report the child sexual abuse, in order to cover up publicity of any child sexual abuse. (3) They failed to protect children by repeatedly reassigning the child sexual abusers to assignments where children would be present. (4) When the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children became public, globally, in 2002 they shifted the blame wrongfully onto gay priests. Photo
Read complete report:
Child Protection Service of the Archdiocese of Dublin http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PB09000504
(5) By falsely, against known research to the contrary, blaming gay priests they implicated the entire LGBT community and how they are fighting against Marriage Equality. When the scientific facts known for decades about human sexuality have been discounted with no substantiated facts given to explain why, it causes many questions whether Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s fight against Marriage Equality is more a fight to maintained the cover-up of the hierarchy’s criminal negligence failing to protect children? Benedict XVI and his hierarchy need to clearly offer substantiated reasons why they are against Marriage Equality. This statement needs to be spelled out in great detail and follow Pope John Paul II’s test of truth of not separating science and religion. Photo Nixon
(6) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous public propaganda against homosexuality encourages public intolerance towards LGBTQ&I adults and children. They continue to do this even though this summer 2 major Christian denominations approved LGBT singled and partnered people for all forms of ordained ministries. (7) Benedict XVI and the hierarchy’s continuous promulgation of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings that are harmful to children in their early childhood psychological developmental years, harm that is crippling throughout their lives. They have continued this even after the beginning of the year, 2009, the Family Acceptance Project research studies had shown the negative effects caused to youths, when their sexual orientation is not accepted, having health problems, suicidal ideation, etc. They ignore all the major medical, psychiatric, psychological and social workers national and international professional associations regarding their findings regarding human sexuality and sexual orientation. WHEN DO WE START PROTECTING CHILDREN?!?!
Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz
December 17, 2009 – Revised January 15, 2010
Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation
Dr. Gregory Herek,
University of California at Davis &
Yale University &
City University of New York
New Catholic Sex Abuse Findings:
Gay Priests Are Not the Problem
by DAVID GIBSON
Politics Daily - November 18, 2009
NO EVIDENCE SUPPORTS THESE [homosexual] STEREOTYPES
Judge Vaughn Walker Ruling
California Prop 8. August 4, 2010
Related Links:
GAY MARRIAGE ≠ Benedict XVI Storm Suggesting Wider Western Culture Normalized Pedophilia, Hierarchy Systemic Cover-ups – Children - Victims, Islam Violent, Deny Holocaust, Pray Jews Convert, etc., etc., etc., …
The Irish Affliction
February 9, 2011 – The New York Times
…Ireland’s move away from the Catholic Church began before the reports were released. Between 1974 and 2008, regular Mass attendance dropped by some 50 percent. The situation today highlights a problem that is looming for the Vatican, especially in the West, as the global sex-abuse crisis, coupled with the increasingly conservative rule and top-down control that have prevailed since the 1970s, is contributing to the departure of populations the church once considered foundational. “Ireland is a prime example of what the church is facing, because they made this island into a concentration camp where they could control everything,” Mark Patrick Hederman, abbot of Glenstal Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in County Limerick, told me. “And the control was really all about sex. They told you if you masturbated, it meant you were impure and had allowed the devil to work on you. Generations of people were crucified with guilt complexes. Now the game is up.” Photo
…The Vatican’s repeated efforts to deal with the scandals seem to bring only further outcry. During his Christmas greetings, Pope Benedict touched off another global storm by suggesting that the wider Western culture had normalized pedophilia. In the estimation of Peter Nissen, a Vatican-watcher and professor of the cultural history of religion at Radboud University in the Netherlands: “This is the largest crisis the Catholic Church has faced since the French Revolution, and in a way you could say it is even worse. In those days, the church was a victim of the crisis. Now she has caused the crisis herself.”
…The visitation itself is seen by many as another indication that the Vatican intends not to bring reform but to exert control. “If the Vatican wanted to do a credible investigation of sexual abuse,” Thomas Doyle said, “they would not send archbishops and cardinals. These people — the church hierarchy — are the very people who have caused this problem.”…
Read complete report:
Related links:
U.S. diocese agrees to $77 million abuse settlement
February 3, 2011 - Reuters
Vatican Letter to Irish Bishops on Sex Abuse: A 'Smoking Gun' in Conspiracy?
by David Gibson,
January 19, 2011 – Politics Daily
Vatican Letter Warned Bishops on Abuse Policy
By Laurie Goodstein,
January 18, 2011 - The New York Times
Document
Irish abuse victims 'disgusted' at Vatican letter
January 19, 2010 – CNN World
Quick Facts: US church sex abuse,
February 14, 2011 - PressTV
New allegations of sexual abuse surfaced in the U.S. after a U.S. grand jury accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of failing to stop the sexual abuse of children more than five years after another grand jury report documented abuse by more than 50 priests.
These new allegations have brought the issue of sexual abuse by priests into the limelight. Photo
The New York Times says in October 2010, the U.S. fell in the Annual Corruption Survey. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Tribal Justice, American in the United States, Roman Catholic archdioceses have collectively paid some $2 billion in settlements to victims since the priest sex scandals first erupted in Boston nearly a decade ago. In 2011, a Roman Catholic diocese in Delaware agreed to settle 142 claims of sexual abuse by priests for $77 million. Later that year, two Roman Catholic priests, a former priest and a Catholic school teacher were charged with raping young boys. 78% of the victims of sexual abuse in U.S. churches were between the ages of 11 and 17.
Time and again the Roman Catholic Church has been forced to defend itself against charges that top officials tried to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by priests.
Pope Benedict XVI himself has not been spared from these charges, especially for his actions as an archbishop and as the head of a Vatican watchdog group.
A look back at sex abuse scandals in the US…
Read complete report:
“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
…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
Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.
Kids Are Being Hurt !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment