Of church and state

You can't make this stuff up. Here from the super conservative Mundabor is his take on the ideal relationship between church and state. How does this fit in Western democracies?

The whole article is at his blog.

 Of church and state
Mundabor
Aug. 8, 2012

11 Feb 1929:  Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri sign the Patti Lateranensi

Let us be clear that I am very much in favour of Catholicism as State Religion; that I consider it very good that priests have a (modest) wage from the taxpayer; and that I consider, in general, a duty of the State to contribute to the material welfare of the Church as the Church works toward the spiritual welfare of the citizen. The ideal model is in my eyes the one the Duce and Cardinal Gasparri (the then Secretary of State) put together with the Patti Lateranensi, the Concordato of 1929. With the Concordato, the Church became State Religion, and the State took among its duties the one of caring for both the clergy and the infrastructure for a rapidly growing population. Priests had a salary which, if modest, was universally considered fitting to the position of a priest, who should be a witness of simple living even if he did not take a vow of poverty. There was no problem anymore of maintenance of churches, or of monasteries etc; the money problems which had afflicted the Church in Italy for decades were suddenly out of the door, but without generalised corruption and decadent lifestyle getting in from the window. .....etc

Church official denied bail during appeal

Washington Post
Associated Press,
Published: August 6

PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic church official will remain in prison while he fights his landmark conviction for failing to protect a boy from a predator priest.

A judge on Monday deemed Monsignor William Lynn’s conduct too serious to warrant bail, despite defense arguments that the felony conviction may well be overturned, because Lynn wasn’t the immediate supervisor of any accused priests.

“This is the first case in the history of the commonwealth where (endangering the welfare of a child) has been applied to a supervisor on Monsignor Lynn’s level,” defense lawyer Jeffrey Lindy said.

Lynn, the longtime secretary for clergy, is serving a three- to six-year prison term. He was the first U.S. church supervisor convicted of endangering children by helping the church shuttle accused priests from church to church.

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, in sentencing Lynn last month, said he had “enabled monsters in clerical garb ... to destroy the souls of children.”

Defense lawyers were not surprised by her bail decision, and planned an immediate notice of appeal to move the case to state Superior Court.

But Lynn’s legal team is shrinking as the Philadelphia archdiocese caps its budget for his appeal. Lindy is stepping down after eight years representing Lynn, while two of the four lawyers who defended him at trial will continue “largely on a pro bono basis,” the archdiocese said.

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Read entire article at Washington Post

The second vatican council according to Albino Luciani

ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican Insider
Aug. 6, 2012

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On the 11th of October 1962, among others, a young cleric who had been appointed bishop of Vittorio Veneto by John XXIII himself four years before attended the opening ceremony. This young man was Albino Luciani who would later become the first pope to have experienced the Council as a bishop and then to put its decrees in action in his dioceses. It’s interesting to look at what the then-bishop of Vittorio Veneto had hoped and wished for, as he himself wrote in the text he sent to Rome during the Council preparations (Marco Roncalli analysed the subject in his recent thorough biography on Luciani, published by San Paolo). Luciani in his letter hoped that the future Council would highlight the “Christian optimism” inherent in the teachings of Christ, against the “widespread pessimism” of relativistic culture. He denounced a fundamental ignorance of the “basic elements of the Faith”.
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t is also interesting to look at the way Luciani experienced the long process that lead to the Council’s declaration on religious freedom «Dignitatis humanae». “Religious freedom, interpreted in the right way“ wrote Luciani  “ so we would not misunderstand. We all agree that there is only one true religion and those who are aware of this truth must practice this religion and no other. That said, there are also other things that are right and we must say them. In other words, those who are not satisfied with Catholicism have the right to profess their own religion for various reasons. Natural Law states that each one of us has the right to search for truth, especially religious truth. One cannot find it by staying shut in a room, reading some books. We truly search for it by talking with other people, by sharing opinions…. The right to the truth is just a common saying, but there are only physical or moral people who do not have the right to search for truth. Therefore do not be scared of slapping truth in the face when you give someone the right to use their freedom”.

 
“The choice of religious belief must be free.” explained the bishop of Vittorio Veneto “ The freer and more earnest the choice, the more those that embrace the Faith will feel honoured. These are rights, natural rights. Rights always come hand in hand with duties. The non Catholics have the right to profess their religion and I have the duty to respect their right as a private citizen, as a priest, as a bishop and as a State”.

Read full article at Vatican Insider

(This statement by the future Pope John Paul I contrasts rather dramatically with teachings attributed to Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo quoted here yesterday)

Religious liberty?

Rorate Caeli

Aug. 5, 2012

The Church, with Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos (1836), with Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus and in Quanta Cura (1864), but also with Pope Leo XIII in Immortale Dei (1885) and in Libertas (1888) teaches that:

• 1. No one can be constricted to believe in the private forum, because faith is a personal choice formed in the conscience of  man.
• 2. Man has no right to religious freedom  in the public space, or rather freedom to profess whatever religion, because only the true and the good have rights and not what is error and is evil.
• 3. Public worship of false religions may be, in cases, tolerated by the civil authorities, with the view of obtaining a greater good or avoiding a greater evil, but, in essence, it may be repressed even by force if necessary. But the right to tolerance is a contradiction, because, as is evident even from the term, whatever is tolerated is never a good thing, rather, it is always a purely bad thing. In the social life of nations, error may be tolerated as a reality, but never allowed as a right.  Error “has no right to exist objectively nor to propaganda, nor action” (Pius XII SpeechCi Riesce 1953)

Full article at Rorate Caeli

In light of the above, one questions exactly for whom many of our bishops campaign for "religious liberty" in , e.g. the  "fortnight for freedom". 

Mo. Diocese voices profound concern for victims, as priest pleads guilty to child porn charges

Catholic News Service
Aug. 3, 2012

The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., voiced deep sympathy for victims harmed by a diocesan priest who plead guilty in federal court Aug. 2 to child-pornography charges.

“The diocese expresses its profound concern for anyone who may have been harmed by Shawn Ratigan and urges prayer for all affected by his actions,” the diocese said in a statement released Wednesday.

Father Ratigan, who served as pastor of parishes throughout the diocese, plead guilty to the charge of producing or attempting to produce child pornography in federal court over a year after his initial arrest.

etc

What this statement conveniently neglects to mention is that the Kansas City- St. Joseph diocese and its Bishop Robert Finn were indicted and will be tried in September on charges of neglecting to report Father Shawn Ratigan when his behavior became known to them, and that the bishop's lawyers recently asked that charges against Bishop Finn be dropped on the grounds that Ratigan's photographs weren't actually pornographic.-Mike

Kansas City Priest admits taking pornographic photos of young girls

TONY RIZZO AND JUDY L. THOMAS
Kansas City Star
August 2, 2012

As a priest, he absolved others of their sins in the anonymity of the confessional.

This afternoon, the Rev. Shawn Ratigan stood in the very public forum of a federal courtroom and confessed to some of his own.

Ratigan, 46, pleaded guilty to using five girls to produce or attempt to produce child pornography over several years while serving as pastor to congregations in the Northland and St. Joseph.

Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison. Prosecutors are expected to argue later for a sentence that ensures that Ratigan spends a significant portion of the rest of his life behind bars.

Beyond damage done to the victims and their families, the case has roiled the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in controversy and litigation over how church officials responded to Ratigan’s crimes.

While civil and criminal cases remain pending against Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese, Thursday’s hearing in U.S. District Court in Kansas City focused on Ratigan’s long-standing obsession with taking disturbing photographs of children.

The victims, identified in court documents as Jane Does 1 through 5, ranged in age from 2 to 9 when photographed.

Jane Doe 1 was 6 in June 2005 when Ratigan posed her with her legs spread and panties pulled to one side, according to court documents.

A repair technician discovered that photograph on Ratigan’s laptop computer in December 2010. At that time, the computer was “turned over to agents for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph,” according to court documents.

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In May 2006, Ratigan photographed 2-year-old Jane Doe 2 with her vagina exposed at St. Joseph’s Church in Easton, Mo., the court documents state.

The third count Ratigan pleaded guilty to Thursday involved Jane Doe 3. She was 5 in 2007 when Ratigan took photographs of her naked pubic region, court documents say.

Jane Doe 4 was 7 in July 2009 when Ratigan, without her knowledge, took “close-up” photographs of her crotch area while she wore a bathing suit, according to the court documents.

The final victim, Jane Doe 5, was asleep, court documents allege, when Ratigan pulled down her pants and photographed her. That happened sometime between August 2008 and September 2009 when she 8 or 9.

In exchange for the guilty pleas to five felony counts, prosecutors dismissed eight other charges that involved different incidents with the same victims.

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Thursday’s guilty pleas do not resolve Ratigan’s legal troubles.

He is charged in Clay County Circuit Court with three felony counts of possessing child pornography. Prosecutors there said they plan to move forward with that case once the federal case is completed.

Finn and the diocese are facing trial in Jackson County Circuit Court on misdemeanor criminal counts alleging that they failed to follow the Missouri law that mandates the reporting of suspected child abuse to authorities. That trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 24.

Ratigan also faces four civil lawsuits involving the child pornography allegations. Those lawsuits also name Finn and the diocese as defendants, alleging that they were aware of Ratigan’s troubling behavior and the images on his computer but failed to act.

Read entire article at Kansas City Star

Vatican newspaper says Melinda Gates 'off the mark' on contraception

Catholic News Service
July 31, 2012

VATICAN CITY -- Under the headline "birth control and disinformation," the Vatican newspaper took to task Melinda Gates, wife of the Microsoft founder, who announced in early July that the couple's foundation would give $560 million during the next eight years to increase women's access to artificial contraception.

Written by Giulia Galeotti, a frequent contributor on abortion and other life issues, the article on the front page of the July 29 edition of L'Osservatore Romano said Gates is free to make charitable donations to whomever she wants, but not to spread incorrect information.

In an interview July 10 with The Guardian, a British newspaper, Gates identified herself as a practicing Catholic who "struggled" with the idea of publicly opposing church teaching to promote a project aimed at giving 120 million women in developing countries access to contraceptives by 2020.

Gates said she felt compelled to act to "keep women alive. I believe in not letting women die, I believe in not letting babies die."

In the Vatican newspaper piece, Galeotti wrote, "The American philanthropist is off the mark," the victim of "bad information and persistent stereotypes on this theme. To still believe that by opposing the use of condoms, the Catholic Church leaves women and children to die because of misogynist intransigence is a baseless and shoddy reading" of reality.

Gates told The Guardian that the Catholic church allows natural family planning, but "for our foundation, well, we promote modern tools because these have the most impact." At the same time the church can and should continue to teach women how to space births naturally, she said. "Let a woman choose what it is she would like to use."

Galeotti said the comment reflected the widespread, but mistaken notion of the ineffectiveness of natural family planning methods that involve teaching couples to recognize the natural signs of a woman's fertility and act accordingly.

The "smile of condescension" and descriptions of NFP as unscientific or primitive probably are not completely accidental, Galeotti wrote.

No one is getting rich off NFP methods that "do not cost anything, do not damage a woman's health and are considered 98 percent effective," she said.

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