Clerical abuse!

[Myles Na G.]

Dear Pope Benedict,

Go f##k yourself.

Yours sincerely,

Myles

[muppet]

Hardy wrote

Nowhere does he come out clearly and instruct priests, bishops and lay people that the primary requirement is to report child abuse to the police promptly and to ensure, above all, that abusers should be deprived, at all costs, of the opportunity to re-offend.

The procedures to address a present day sex abuse cases are already outlined elsewhere and assumed as understood.

I am proceeding very slowly with this document.

Read paragraph 4 carefully

Basically the Pope is repeating that lack of faith not only in the sex abusers but amongst the congregation was part of the  context for sex abuse 
4. 'Fast-paced social
change has occurred, often adversely affecting people's traditional
adherence to Catholic teaching and values. All too often, the sacramental
and devotional practices that sustain faith and enable it to grow, such as
frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats, were neglected'.

and most bizzarly

'In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid
penal approaches to canonically irregular situations.'

'It is in this overall
context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child
sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening
of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings'.

In the Pope's eyes the overall context is the weakening faith of the congregation combined with the misplaced good intentions of the Bishops etc,  contributed to the sex abuse phenonomen.

I am open to receive other interpretations of chapter 4

I would tend to see it similarly. I didn't read it all yet but I couldn't find the instruction of the religious to co-operate with authorities/police or with local law. I found a vague reference to 'properly convened tribunals' but he didn't elaborate on what he thought these might be.

More insulting was the the constant reference to 'the church in your country' as having been lacking. While he certainly apologises a number of time he blames everything from the church here to fast moving society and drifting away from the Gospel, but he never takes any responsibility nor does he suggest that the Vatican should take any responsibility.

At this stage it is extremely annoying that the only Law he refers to is Canon Law. Aside from ignoring our own sovereign right to have our own law respected, history shows some serious flaws in Canon Law.

[fearbrags]

'Fast-paced social
change has occurred, often adversely affecting people's traditional
adherence to Catholic teaching and values. All too often, the sacramental
and devotional practices that sustain faith and enable it to grow, such as
frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats, were neglected'.

I  am   sure  in  the  slow paced society of  the  forties the  people  sustained their devotionial practices such as
frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats .
And  judging  by  your  letter from  the old man in  previous  page
We  saw  how  that  helped

What  a  load  of  bollax 
some  day  on  here  i  will  share  my last  experience  of confession in  knock  when  i  was home  on hollidays last  year
It  may not  have helped  that  it  was  my  first in  about 20 years  but  it  will be  my  last.

[longrunsthefox]

Dear Pope Benedict,

Go f##k yourself.

Yours sincerely,

Myles

co-signed the Fox

[Pangurban]

Knee jerk reactions to an edited version of the letter, which was read out at Masses, serves no purpose. I thought what we heard was a bit like the Curates Egg, with good and bad parts, but the bad parts may be dealt with more fully in the full version, until then we should reserve judgement. What i will be looking for is an indication of the beginning to the process of effective radical changes in Church structures and governance

[Hardy]

Knee jerk reactions to an edited version of the letter, which was read out at Masses, serves no purpose. I thought what we heard was a bit like the Curates Egg, with good and bad parts, but the bad parts may be dealt with more fully in the full version, until then we should reserve judgement. What i will be looking for is an indication of the beginning to the process of effective radical changes in Church structures and governance

My comments were made having read the full version, linked by Main Street above:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0320/popeletter.pdf

[Main Street]

Well Pangurban it was very difficult for me to get past Section 4. I only managed it this morning.

It came  as no surprise to me that this letter falls far short of any significant acceptance of responsibility for the crime or admission of a cover-up. Pope Benedict seeks to place almost all responsibility on the priests involved in child abuse  and he tries to divert blame for the role of the bishops, archbishops, and popes who kept the deviants in positions where their immoral and criminal activity was likely to be repeated.

Section 7 is the only place where he talks about "responsibility" for the crime. As such he points a finger
of blame at those who have already been convicted, thereby telling us nothing.

Section 11,
In this wordy section of the letter, Pope Benedict falls far short of accepting administrative responsibility for the child sex -abuse crimes
committed or any subsequent cover-up. He talks about "serious mistakes" and "failures of leadership", but he offsets that with "long
established norms of canon law", "how difficult it was to grasp the extent and complexity of the problem", "continuing to cooperate with
civil authorities", and so on. He calls for "decisive action carried out with complete honesty and transparency", but that is just bull.
The pope's letter itself does not reflect any kind of decisive action (other than writing a letter), and the words of the letter certainly
do not display either "complete honesty" or "transparency".

This letter is will not be well received throughout the world and I doubt that it will be well received by those Irish Catholics who are proactive on this whole sex abuse saga..

[Denn Forever]

Not to make light of it but was the timing and publishing of this deliberate?

I say this as today's Gospel was Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

[muppet]

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn080703.htm

Crimen Sollicitationis, worth a read.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Dear Pope Benedict,

Go f##k yourself.

Yours sincerely,

Myles

Pig and grunt come to mind! 

[orangeman]

Not to make light of it but was the timing and publishing of this deliberate?

I say this as today's Gospel was Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Same thought occurred to me but I put it down to my own cynicism.  The Vatican did have time to plan the coincidence.  It was a matter of waiting for the Gospel to appear in the cycle. Rule nothing out.

Anything is possible with these lads. Anything !

[give her dixie]

Excellent song and video about Clerical and Instutional abuse by Mickey Coleman.
Well worth a view folks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yeIOGSbSjM

[orangeman]

Victim asks Cardinal Brady to withdraw defence


Friday, 26 March 2010 11:27


Cardinal Seán Brady has been urged to withdraw his defence in a legal battle with one of Fr Brendan Smyth's alleged victims.

The solicitor for the man says he was incredulous at recent expressions of remorse by the Primate and other church leaders when those statements were compared to Dr Brady's defence in the proceedings.

According to documents lodged in the High Court, the man is suing Cardinal Brady in his capacity as Archbishop of Armagh.

They say he was an altar-boy in Dundalk in the early 70s when Smyth sexually assaulted him in church, on a children's holiday in Co Cork and during a trip to Dublin for a Wombles concert.

The Cardinal's defence, which is dated February of last year and which is not sworn, denies that the acts alleged are grounds for suing him and asks for proof that they happened.

It also denies the man's claims that Dr Brady is the Catholic Church's representative here, that Smyth was his servant or agent and that the Cardinal owed the man any duty of care.

The alleged victim contends that the church called an ecclesiastical court to deal with the allegations and assured him and his father that Smyth would never be allowed to abuse children again.

The Cardinal denies calling such a court and giving such assurances.
Last month, the man's solicitor wrote to the Cardinal's solicitors, saying the defence was compounding the grievous wrongs perpetrated on his client.

He said it should be withdrawn to give practical expression to the Cardinal's recent statements of remorse about clerical sexual abuse.

[give her dixie]

The shit is getting very close to the fan

[longrunsthefox]

Time for a bit of levity... 

You couldn't make it up .... this is from The Times online report...

'Roger Boyes probes Vienna Boys' Choir

Catholic paedo scandal? The Times has the man for the job'