Dutch News
November 29, 2011
The Catholic church was aware of child abuse at orphanages and other institutions throughout the Netherlands as early as 1954, according to documents found by researchers in church archives.
Senior church officials have consistently claimed they were not aware of the abuse.
However, television current affairs show Altijd Wat reported on Monday night the church's council for child protection issued warnings about child abuse in church-run homes and boarding schools in 1959 and 1962.
Warnings
The warnings were sent to the authorities at 112 homes and residential schools.
The letters urged institution managers to be aware of the dangers of employing people who are 'unsuitable' to give leadership to children.
The 1959 circular, for example, says the child protection group was aware of a number of cases, 'with sad and serious outcomes'.
Monks
RTL news has discovered a warning made by a senior cleric in Tilburg in 1954 in which monks in Tilburg were told: 'be careful in how you relate to children and do not make your lives unhappy. Keep your hands to yourself.'
The documents shed new light on the church's claim not to have known about the widespread abuse of children living in church institutions.
Lawyer Martin de Witte, who is representing a number of victims, said the letters showed the church could no longer say it was not aware of the abuse and claim that the cases are now too old.
Scandal
'They knew exactly what was going on but decided to to nothing about it,' De Witte told the Volkskrant.
It is almost two years since the scandal broke in the Netherlands with revelations that three Catholic clerics from the Don Rua cloisters in 's Heerenberg, Gelderland, had abused at least three children in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since then, a government commission has received reports of almost 2,000 cases of abuse within religious institutions. A number of cases will be taken to court
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Judge finds Cardinal Bevilacqua competent to testify
November 28, 2011
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) –
The judge hearing private testimony today from Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua about the alleged sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has ruled that the retired cardinal was legally competent to be offering his testimony.
Cardinal Bevilacqua was questioned for several hours in the case, in private but on videotape, at his residence at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Wynnewood, Pa. His testimony was scheduled to resume tomorrow.
Because of a gag order in the case, court officials said today that they could not disclose the substance of the cardinal’s testimony.
.......
Four of the defendants, three priests and a lay teacher, allegedly sexually assaulted young boys. The final defendant, Monsignor William Lynn, allegedly endangered children by transferring predator priests to other assignments while not blocking their access to children .
All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty
Full story at CBS
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) –
The judge hearing private testimony today from Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua about the alleged sexual abuse of children by clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has ruled that the retired cardinal was legally competent to be offering his testimony.
Cardinal Bevilacqua was questioned for several hours in the case, in private but on videotape, at his residence at St. Charles Borromeo seminary in Wynnewood, Pa. His testimony was scheduled to resume tomorrow.
Because of a gag order in the case, court officials said today that they could not disclose the substance of the cardinal’s testimony.
.......
Four of the defendants, three priests and a lay teacher, allegedly sexually assaulted young boys. The final defendant, Monsignor William Lynn, allegedly endangered children by transferring predator priests to other assignments while not blocking their access to children .
All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty
Full story at CBS
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Re: Pope Benedict’s address to US Bishops on Ad Limina Visit to Rome
Kristine Ward
National Survivor Advocates Coalition
Nov. 27, 2011
It takes hubris for Pope Benedict to tell his bishops that the Catholic Church has led in the fight against sexual abuse of children.
Issuing self satisfied pats on the back while children remain in danger, only further diminishes the Church’s credibility and deepens the laryngitis in its moral voice.
For the Pope to insinuate the Church is a leader and reformer in the movement to protect children from sexual abuse is counterfeit. We hope Catholics out of a false sense of respect and loyalty don’t buy this.
We feel for the Catholics who must be embarrassed by this papal approach and ask them to speak with their wallets and redirect their contributions until the Pope’s words and Catholic Church’s actions match up for the protection of children.
The Church to this day, while waving a moral flag, hasn’t even come close to the Penn State Board of Trustees response: no bishop has been fired.
We would like to see an investigation of bishops by a former FBI director or some one of the same rank and caliber as the one initiated by Penn State. Then we might be getting somewhere with the Church.
It is possible that if Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict had been morally outraged and acted accordingly when the Boston incarnation of the scandal broke children who became post 2002 victims of Jerry Sandusky and other perpetrators might have been saved.
But when massive news coverage outed both perpetrators and cover-up bishops we got a whitewash from the Church of how moving priests from parish to parish, and getting and following bad advice from psychiatrists was a good formula that only needed the tweaked with the addition of a fingerprinting program.
Again, today, the Pope comes up short.
National Survivor Advocates Coalition
Nov. 27, 2011
It takes hubris for Pope Benedict to tell his bishops that the Catholic Church has led in the fight against sexual abuse of children.
Issuing self satisfied pats on the back while children remain in danger, only further diminishes the Church’s credibility and deepens the laryngitis in its moral voice.
For the Pope to insinuate the Church is a leader and reformer in the movement to protect children from sexual abuse is counterfeit. We hope Catholics out of a false sense of respect and loyalty don’t buy this.
We feel for the Catholics who must be embarrassed by this papal approach and ask them to speak with their wallets and redirect their contributions until the Pope’s words and Catholic Church’s actions match up for the protection of children.
The Church to this day, while waving a moral flag, hasn’t even come close to the Penn State Board of Trustees response: no bishop has been fired.
We would like to see an investigation of bishops by a former FBI director or some one of the same rank and caliber as the one initiated by Penn State. Then we might be getting somewhere with the Church.
It is possible that if Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict had been morally outraged and acted accordingly when the Boston incarnation of the scandal broke children who became post 2002 victims of Jerry Sandusky and other perpetrators might have been saved.
But when massive news coverage outed both perpetrators and cover-up bishops we got a whitewash from the Church of how moving priests from parish to parish, and getting and following bad advice from psychiatrists was a good formula that only needed the tweaked with the addition of a fingerprinting program.
Again, today, the Pope comes up short.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Germany's Catholic church gives up 'erotic' publisher
Dagmar Breitenbach
Deutsche Welle
November 22, 2011
Weltbild publishing group is co-owned by 12 German dioceses which have now agreed to sell their share in the profitable enterprise as soon as possible. They decided on the move because Weltbild's book range includes steamy pulp novels with titles like "Boarding School for Sluts" and "The Lawyer's Whore" as well as books on esoteric practices.
Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meissner said there was no alternative to selling the publishing group.
"We can't make money all week long with something we condemn from the pulpit on Sunday," he said.
Pope Benedict XIV had also urged Catholics to "oppose the distribution of erotic and pornographic material."
Germany's bishops met this week and pressed the 12 bishops whose dioceses co-own Weltbild, based in the southern city of Augsburg, to end the investment after the company had defended its policy of publishing whatever books meet market demand.
With annual sales of 1.6 billion euros (2.1 billion dollars) and a workforce of 6,400, Weltbild is a major company that publishes books and operates book clubs and a national bookshop chain. Weltbild has denied that it lists "pornographic" literature, saying that the term is clearly defined. It said its erotic literature accounted for just 0.017 percent of its revenue, but church leaders fear a tarnished reputation.
Deutsche Welle
November 22, 2011
Weltbild publishing group is co-owned by 12 German dioceses which have now agreed to sell their share in the profitable enterprise as soon as possible. They decided on the move because Weltbild's book range includes steamy pulp novels with titles like "Boarding School for Sluts" and "The Lawyer's Whore" as well as books on esoteric practices.
Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meissner said there was no alternative to selling the publishing group.
"We can't make money all week long with something we condemn from the pulpit on Sunday," he said.
Pope Benedict XIV had also urged Catholics to "oppose the distribution of erotic and pornographic material."
Germany's bishops met this week and pressed the 12 bishops whose dioceses co-own Weltbild, based in the southern city of Augsburg, to end the investment after the company had defended its policy of publishing whatever books meet market demand.
With annual sales of 1.6 billion euros (2.1 billion dollars) and a workforce of 6,400, Weltbild is a major company that publishes books and operates book clubs and a national bookshop chain. Weltbild has denied that it lists "pornographic" literature, saying that the term is clearly defined. It said its erotic literature accounted for just 0.017 percent of its revenue, but church leaders fear a tarnished reputation.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Boston's Cardinal Law, who was disgraced after sex abuse scandal, resigns from Rome job
Nicole Winfield,
The Associated Press
2011/11/21
VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as Boston's archbishop in 2002 after the priest sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States, has retired from his subsequent job as head of a major Roman basilica.
The Vatican said Monday that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the 80-year-old Law's resignation as archpriest of St. Mary Major basilica and had named Spanish Monsignor Santos Abril y Castello to replace him.
Law's 2004 appointment as the archpriest of one of Rome's most important basilicas had been harshly criticized by victims of priestly sex abuse, who charged that bishops who covered up for pedophile priests should be punished, not rewarded.
Law turned 80 earlier this month. While the pope could have kept him on longer — the dean of the College of Cardinals will be 84 this week, for example — Benedict decided to replace him.
The Vatican announcement made no mention of Law's resignation, though, merely noting in a perfunctory, two-line statement that Benedict had named a new archpriest for the basilica.
Law became the first and so far only U.S. bishop to resign for mishandling cases of priests who sexually abused children.
The abuse crisis erupted in Law's Boston in 2002 after church records were made public showing that church officials had reports of priests molesting children, but kept the complaints secret and shuffled some priests from parish to parish rather than remove them or report them to police.
The crisis spread as similar sexual abuse complaints were uncovered in dioceses across the country. To date, U.S. dioceses have paid out nearly $3 billion in settlements to victims and other costs.
Law himself was named in hundreds of lawsuits accusing him of failing to protect children from known child molesters. After 18 years leading the nation's fourth-largest archdiocese, Law resigned in 2002, having asked Pope John Paul II twice before receiving permission to step down.
Ten months after he left office, Law's successor, now-Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley helped broker an $85 million settlement with more than 550 victims of pedophile priests.
Law remains a member of a half-dozen important Vatican congregations, including the office that helps the pope select bishops. Such appointments are for renewable five-year terms and it's not clear when each one expires or whether he'll seek to stay on.
While in Rome, Law has been a frequent presence at all major Vatican ceremonial and diplomatic events, a lifestyle that galled many abuse victims who have long insisted that the Vatican crack down on bishops who transfer abusive priests rather than report them to police.
Law's successor at St. Mary Major — one of the four basilicas under the direct jurisdiction of the Vatican — retired earlier this year as the Vatican's ambassador to Slovenia and Macedonia.
Abril y Castello, 76, is also the No. 2 prelate who helps take care of matters dealing with a papal death and runs the Vatican until a new pontiff is elected in a conclave.
Now that he is 80, Law can no longer vote in a conclave, but he remains a cardinal.
The Associated Press
2011/11/21
VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as Boston's archbishop in 2002 after the priest sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States, has retired from his subsequent job as head of a major Roman basilica.
The Vatican said Monday that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the 80-year-old Law's resignation as archpriest of St. Mary Major basilica and had named Spanish Monsignor Santos Abril y Castello to replace him.
Law's 2004 appointment as the archpriest of one of Rome's most important basilicas had been harshly criticized by victims of priestly sex abuse, who charged that bishops who covered up for pedophile priests should be punished, not rewarded.
Law turned 80 earlier this month. While the pope could have kept him on longer — the dean of the College of Cardinals will be 84 this week, for example — Benedict decided to replace him.
The Vatican announcement made no mention of Law's resignation, though, merely noting in a perfunctory, two-line statement that Benedict had named a new archpriest for the basilica.
Law became the first and so far only U.S. bishop to resign for mishandling cases of priests who sexually abused children.
The abuse crisis erupted in Law's Boston in 2002 after church records were made public showing that church officials had reports of priests molesting children, but kept the complaints secret and shuffled some priests from parish to parish rather than remove them or report them to police.
The crisis spread as similar sexual abuse complaints were uncovered in dioceses across the country. To date, U.S. dioceses have paid out nearly $3 billion in settlements to victims and other costs.
Law himself was named in hundreds of lawsuits accusing him of failing to protect children from known child molesters. After 18 years leading the nation's fourth-largest archdiocese, Law resigned in 2002, having asked Pope John Paul II twice before receiving permission to step down.
Ten months after he left office, Law's successor, now-Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley helped broker an $85 million settlement with more than 550 victims of pedophile priests.
Law remains a member of a half-dozen important Vatican congregations, including the office that helps the pope select bishops. Such appointments are for renewable five-year terms and it's not clear when each one expires or whether he'll seek to stay on.
While in Rome, Law has been a frequent presence at all major Vatican ceremonial and diplomatic events, a lifestyle that galled many abuse victims who have long insisted that the Vatican crack down on bishops who transfer abusive priests rather than report them to police.
Law's successor at St. Mary Major — one of the four basilicas under the direct jurisdiction of the Vatican — retired earlier this year as the Vatican's ambassador to Slovenia and Macedonia.
Abril y Castello, 76, is also the No. 2 prelate who helps take care of matters dealing with a papal death and runs the Vatican until a new pontiff is elected in a conclave.
Now that he is 80, Law can no longer vote in a conclave, but he remains a cardinal.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Catholic reform movement issues call for "holy disobedience"
Sarah Mac Donald
Catholic Ireland
Nov. 19, 2011
On Friday, the Irish branch of the international Catholic reform movement, We Are Church, launched a grassroots campaign for Church reform with a ‘Call for Holy Disobedience’.
At a press conference in Dublin, We Are Church Ireland (WACI) spokesman, Brendan Butler, said the group’s five reform aims include the removal of compulsory clerical celibacy; full participation of women in all aspects of church life, including priesthood; and the building of a more inclusive Church that would welcome gay Catholics and those in second relationships.
Calling on all committed Catholics to join the group in exercising ‘holy disobedience’, Brendan Butler said, “We will not be cowed down by threats of excommunication.” Phil Cullen told ciNews that the members are “not dissidents and will not be pushed out of the Church.”
WACI will hold its first public event, an Advent Assembly, on Sunday November 27. The “inclusive liturgy” will, according to Butler, “be an expression of the five aims, in the same way as the Austrian priests will use every occasion to promote their disobedience.”
However, he underlined that it would not be a Eucharist.
It coincides with the official introduction of the new translation of the missal, a move WACI described as a, “forced imposition,” and, “another example of how the Vatican operates as an ivory towered centralised authority.”
.......
Describing the Church in Ireland as, “in a state of crisis,” Brendan Butler said Irish Catholics are appalled at the recent clerical sex abuse scandals and especially by the cover-ups by bishops and senior clergy. “We despair of any meaningful reform coming from the hierarchy in Ireland or the Vatican,” he continued and added that it was time for lay Catholics to organise themselves and demand the necessary structural changes to save the Church “from a slow death.”
Bishops and theologians, he claimed, are operating in a culture of, “endemic paralytic fear,” and, “absolute obedience to the Pope and even papal opinions.”
“This absolute obedience is not to God but to the preservation of an institution.”
........
Referring to retired bishop of Derry’s Dr Edward Daly’s call for an end to compulsory clerical celibacy in his autobiography, Brendan Butler said, “There are obviously a lot of people in the church, ordained and not ordained, who back this but are so afraid to say it.”
“It is a justifiable fear because look at what happened to the Bishop of Toowoomba and one theologian here whom I can’t name – he has been silenced in a most terrible way. Sisters and priests have lacked a support structure up to now. If anything happens to any of our sisters who are members of our group, we will certainly take a very active protest on that,” he warned.
.......
WACI is committed to the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church on the basis of the Second Vatican Council. Members are seeking to bring about informed dialogue among the people of God on their five objectives:
- Equality of all the baptised where decision making is actively shared by all, with appropriate structures for this;
- Full participation of women in all aspects of church life, including priesthood;
- Recognition of the primacy of an informed conscience;
- Removal of the obligation of clerical celibacy and a positive attitude towards sexuality;
- An inclusive Church, open and welcoming to all, which does not marginalise people who are divorced, in second relationships or gay.
Friday, November 18, 2011
A Nun Comments on Archbishop Dolan’s Remarks
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is wrong when he comments that the present Penn State scandal “over a former football coach accused of sexually abusing young boys ‘reopens a wound’ for the U.S. Roman Catholic Church.”
The “wound” Archbishop Dolan refers to has never closed. It is a “wound” that has continued to fester since the Archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts imploded in 2002.
Why?
Well for one thing the bishops of the United States have never really admitted, individually or collectively, to their part in covering up for clergymen known to be sexual predators of children and young people.
Yes, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church has “a long way to go,” in making up for the egregious crimes that have been committed against children. “Failures” and “mistakes” are words that hardly begin to describe the agony thousands of children were left to go through while the few adults who dared to confront pastors or bishops over the behavior of rogue priests were bullied, harassed and intimidated into silence, often with threats of eternal damnation.
They were crimes and they were crimes against the very humanity of these innocent children.
Archbishop Dolan, you offered to work with “Penn State administrators on a national education campaign to stop abuse.”
Does your offer extend to working with advocacy groups in Pennsylvania whose goal is legislative reform? If it does there are several groups that were formed in response to the 2011 grand jury investigation on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who are now working for reform in Pennsylvania.
Sadly though, at this very moment, Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput, along with the bishops of Pennsylvania and the PA Catholic Conference are united in vicious opposition to any proposed legislation that would better protect children.
How do you explain that?
No, Archbishop Dolan, I’m afraid that neither you nor most of your fellow bishops has a clue as to the suffering that the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church’s has caused and continues to inflict because it has never been truly accountable or transparent.
No one in the Catholic community has suffered more than the innocent children whose minds, hearts and souls were torn asunder by those who stood in the place of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Baltimore’s former archbishop, Cardinal William Keeler correctly described such horrific sexual abuse by a trusted minister of God when he used the term “soul murder” for it truly is that.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan should be at the head of the parade in supporting the removal of all criminal and civil statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children.
Anything less should be morally repugnant to all not just to all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)