"A widening child sexual abuse inquiry in Europe has landed at the doorstep of Pope Benedict XVI, as a senior church official acknowledged Friday that a German archdiocese made 'serious mistakes' in handling an abuse case while the pope served as its archbishop./emphasis obviously added
The archdiocese said that a priest accused of molesting boys was given therapy in 1980 and later allowed to resume pastoral duties, before committing further abuses and being prosecuted. Pope Benedict, who at the time headed the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, approved the priest’s transfer for therapy.
....The expanding abuse inquiry had come ever closer to Benedict as new accusations in Germany surfaced almost daily since the first reports in January. On Friday the pope met with the chief bishop of Germany, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the head of the German Bishops Conference, to discuss the church investigations and media reports.
Problems in the German church have already come close to the pope, whose brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, 86, directed a choir connected to a boarding school where two former students have come forward with abuse claims. In an interview this week, Monsignor Ratzinger, who directed the choir from 1964 to 1994, said the accusations dated from before his tenure. He also apologized for slapping students.
....Experts said the scandals could undermine Benedict’s moral authority, especially because they cut particularly close to the pope himself. As head of the Vatican’s main doctrinal arm, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he led Vatican investigations into abuse for four years before assuming the papacy in 2005.
'What is at stake, and at great risk, is Benedict’s central project for the ‘re-Christianization’ of Christendom, his desire to have Europe return to its Christian roots,' said David Gibson, the author of a biography of Benedict and a religion commentator for Politicsdaily.com. 'But if the root itself is seen as rotten, then his influence will be badly compromised.'
When a sex abuse scandal broke in Boston church in 2002, Pope Benedict — then Cardinal Ratzinger — was among the Vatican officials who made statements that minimized the problem and accused the news media of blowing it out of proportion.
....The former vicar general took full responsibility for the decision to reinstate the priest to pastoral work. 'I deeply regret that this decision resulted in offenses against youths and apologize to all who were harmed by it,' he said, according to a statement posted on the archdiocese’s Web site.
There was immediate skepticism that Benedict, as archbishop, would not have known of the details of the case.
The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, who once worked at the Vatican Embassy in Washington and became an early and well-known whistle-blower on sexual abuse in the church, said the vicar general’s claim was not credible.
'Nonsense,' said Father Doyle, who has served as an expert witness in sexual abuse lawsuits. 'Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He’s the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he’s trying to do, obviously, is protect the pope.'
It is unclear how many cases have come to light. At the news conference, the archbishop said that the Bishops Conference had sent a questionnaire to dioceses to determine which kinds of abuse cases emerged, not how many, and was awaiting a response."
To many observers, the situation in Europe looked unsettlingly similar to that in the United States a decade ago, when a trickle of isolated abuse cases steadily grew into a widespread phenomenon that upended — and financially strained — many American dioceses.This is a BIG SCANDAL!
But in Europe, unlike in common-law countries like the United States, Canada and Australia, defendants cannot sue the church for negligence.
'When this first started to break in the United States in the mid-to-late ’80s and our bishops went to Rome for help in dealing with it, they were basically told, "This is an American problem,"' said Nicholas Cafardi, a canon law expert and emeritus dean of the Duquesne University School of Law.
'But human nature being human nature, it wasn’t logical to say this only exists in the common-law countries,' Mr. Cafardi added. 'Our legal system brought it to light more quickly. In fact it’s not an American or common-law problem, it’s a human problem.'"*
This unsettling Oscar-nominated documentary from filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.posted by internet fraud detective squad, station number 9 at 11:56 AM on March 13, 2010 [14 favorites]
"This quote is by the real-life priest featured in this 'recruitment poster': 'I know I am hanging in a few girls' bedrooms too, but that's fine - we need their prayers for more priests'"Previous FPP: Does Neo wear a funny hat? Does Trinity...oh, never mind.
"In a July 1995 deposition, Curtis testified he kept 'secret files' about priests under a double lock that could only be opened with two keys – one which was kept by him, the other by the vicar general. He testified that he would destroy documents in those files when he determined they were no longer relevant, such as after a priest had died."Secret Church Letters Document Catholic Clergy Sex Abuse Case.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, CT.Nothing like a coordinated effort and conspiracy.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Dublin, Ireland.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, OR.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, VT.
Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles, CA.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, CA.
Catholic Diocese of Boston, MA -- "Some of those records where kept in a secret, locked cabinet to which [Cardinal] Law held a key."
He lashed out at Germany's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who had talked of a Catholic wall of secrecy. Müller said she belonged to a humanist association which he claimed was a kind of "masonry" that "considers paedophilia normal and wants to decriminalise it".Oh for the love of fuck. "We're not pedophiles, you are! And also *dun dun dun* freemasons!"
the college's own chaplain warned boys "not to speak" about their suffering - or even mention the abuse in conversations.And from the third link
the college "permitted Bain to remain as a house master when it ought to have known he was perpetrating widespread acts of sexual abuse against numerous boys in the boarding house"
But the victims' hopes that the full story would come out were dashed when the Jillings Report remained under wraps following advice from the council's insurers.posted by Dojie at 12:08 AM on March 14, 2010
That report named abusers and those considered negligent in failing to stop their activities.
...
There are still concerns that the report may shy away from naming all those suspected of abuse and those who allowed it to happen
Pope Benedict XVI faced claims last night he had 'obstructed justice' after it emerged he issued an order ensuring the church's investigations into child sex abuse claims be carried out in secret.From 2005.
The order was made in a confidential letter, obtained by The Observer, which was sent to every Catholic bishop in May 2001.
It asserted the church's right to hold its inquiries behind closed doors and keep the evidence confidential for up to 10 years after the victims reached adulthood. The letter was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as John Paul II's successor last week.
Worldwide population: 6.7 billion.posted by ericb at 8:29 AM on March 14, 2010
Christians worldwide: 2.1 billion.
Catholics worldwide: 1.166 billion.
Scope and nature of Catholic sex abuse cases.posted by ericb at 12:42 PM on March 14, 2010
Roman Catholic sex abuse cases by country.
Examples:Catholic sexual abuse scandal in the United States.
Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Canada.
Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland.
"As hundreds of new allegations of sexual abuse surface in the German church alone, a top Vatican official acknowledged Tuesday that, with only 10 people handling such cases, his office might not be adequate for the task. But the official, Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, who is effectively the Vatican’s internal prosecutor, said the church was working to bring more 'transparency' to the delicate and emotional process of settling allegations of abuse by priests that have severely damaged the church’s moral standing....Over the weekend, Monsignor Scicluna told L’Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, that his office had examined 3,000 abuse cases in the past decade, most of them from the United States. The ratio of 10 people handling 300 cases a year did not go over well in some quarters. 'It seems like an extraordinarily paltry effort, given the scope of the crisis,' said David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests...In a rare interview, by telephone on Tuesday, Monsignor Scicluna acknowledged the concern. Asked if he wanted reinforcements, he said with a laugh: 'I would hope we have less work. That’s my hope. Not more people, less work.' He added that if the number of cases averaged 300 a year, 'We can continue doing our job well with 10 people. The problem is: Are these numbers going to settle?'"posted by ericb at 8:19 AM on March 17, 2010
"Very much more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the so-called 'Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith' (formerly known as the Inquisition). In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church's own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated 'in the most secretive way ... restrained by a perpetual silence ... and everyone ... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office ... under the penalty of excommunication.' Nobody has yet been excommunicated for the rape and torture of children, but exposing the offense could get you into serious trouble. And this is the church that warns us against moral relativism! (See, for more on this appalling document, two reports in the London Observer of April 24, 2005, by Jamie Doward.)posted by ericb at 1:14 PM on March 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
Not content with shielding its own priests from the law, Ratzinger's office even wrote its own private statute of limitations. The church's jurisdiction, claimed Ratzinger, 'begins to run from the day when the minor has completed the 18th year of age' and then lasts for 10 more years. Daniel Shea, the attorney for two victims who sued Ratzinger and a church in Texas, correctly describes that latter stipulation as an obstruction of justice. 'You can't investigate a case if you never find out about it. If you can manage to keep it secret for 18 years plus 10, the priest will get away with it.'"
Brazilian authorities are investigating three priests accused of sexually abusing altar boys after a video allegedly showing one case of abuse was broadcast on television, police and church officials said Tuesday. The case came to light after the SBT network aired a video purportedly showing an 82-year-old priest having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy who worked for him for four years. Other young men appeared on the report saying that they, too, had been abused by Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa.So to the best of my knowledge, this is a unique case with circumstances we haven't seen before: video evidence exists, and it's been seen by millions of people. Faced with such incontrovertible evidence, will the Church excommunicate him? Turn him over to civil authorities?
But Cardinal Bertone halted the process after Father Murphy personally wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger protesting that he should not be put on trial because he had already repented and was in poor health and that the case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations.Dignity of the priesthood.
“I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood,” Father Murphy wrote near the end of his life to Cardinal Ratzinger. “I ask your kind assistance in this matter.
Father Murphy died [...] at age 72 and was buried in his priestly vestments. [...]If I was religious, I would wonder if there were, in fact, pits of hell deep enough.
“In spite of these difficulties,” Archbishop Weakland wrote, “we are still hoping we can avoid undue publicity that would be negative toward the church.”
Antonio Riboldi, the emeritus bishop of Acerra, declared that it marked the start of a war "between the church and the world; between Satan and God".WTFBBQ? To my ear, the bishop is claiming that child-buggering priests are on the side of God, and those that want those priests held accountable are with Satan.
"The Pope should resign. He should offer himself up to authorities for prosecution, like the sacrificial lamb he’s supposed to represent here on earth.posted by ericb at 12:49 PM on March 28, 2010
Long ago he should have opened the secret church books on priestly abuse. He hasn’t. Courts finally forced that in Boston almost a decade ago and, oh, what horrors we found. Remember? The Vatican hierarchy then blamed our scandal on a decadent American culture. Now the same priestly disease has swept Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, on and on across Europe and beyond. So was all the world, from the 1950s on, just one huge, decadent Gomorrah? Or was the Catholic hierarchy, from the ’50s on, run like an international crime organization aiding and abetting child abuse, then covering up its cover-up?
A few years back, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating caused an uproar by comparing secret-keeping American bishops to La Cosa Nostra.
He was but ahead of his time."
U.S. court rules Oregon abuse victim may sue Vatican for liability and fraud.posted by ericb at 3:02 PM on March 30, 2010
St. Paul, Minnesota attorney is suing the Vatican.
Pope accused in new Miami, Florida predator priest case.
"What I don't understand is how anyone could still consider themselves Catholics in the face of this. One or two incidences in a vast, moneyed, unwieldy organization means bad apples. $2 billion dollars paid out in the U.S. alone to abused victims (most of whom were CHILDREN) of these 'men of God' with hundreds (and countless thousands in the past) more emerging around the world means something is seriously fucked in the midget state of Vatican.posted by ericb at 3:39 PM on March 31, 2010 [1 favorite]
The CEO, an ex-Nazi in Prada boots, is complicit in allowing a man who abused 200 DEAF CHILDREN for decades to live out 'the dignity of his days' — unmolested, by, you know, law enforcement. Because he had 'repented' — whatever that means when you are morally bankrupt — and his health was failing in a way it should have long ago had there actually been a benevolent God.
It's just mind-boggling to me. These are supposed to be the most sacred people — the most holy — the most trustworthy — the most good. They are your direct line to the Lord. And they are fucking the small children.
How could one believe in any earthly manifestation of 'religion' after that? How? I genuinely want to know."
A few days ago, my mother called me on the phone, shaken. She's lost her faith in the church that saved her but destroyed so many others. She isn't sure that she can be Catholic anymore — all of these sins against children, the culture of silence, the bureaucracy built on lies. . . .posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 4:57 PM on April 8, 2010
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The pope, meanwhile, continues to be under fire for the Vatican letter he sent to all bishops nine years ago advising them that cases of sexual abuse of minors must be forwarded to his then-office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that the cases were to be subject to pontifical secret.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:25 AM on March 13, 2010 [3 favorites]