Is the Pope guilty of sexual abuse cover up?

[stew]

stew, I know for an absolute fact that religious orders and diocesan people responsible for recruiting men to the priesthood have been screening people within an inch of their lives via the RUC/PSNI/Gardai for at least 15 years.  That includes psychological interviews and tests along with prolonged interviews with trained counsellors as well as priests

That doesn't mean that the security checks with cops will pick up on all paedophiles, as those checks only pick up known ones

Nah, that doesnt do it Ardmacha, there were far too many in Ireland for any meaningful screening process to be in place, I hate to say it but there was a certain arrogance in the clergy in Ireland, they had the Government of the South in their pockets and if they were serious in any way about getting rid of these scumbags they would have turned them over to the police, they didnt and in their arrogance they chose to do the wrong thing, shame on the lot of them that knew what was going on.

I take no pleasure in saying this but you should have a bit more perspective, they knowingly moved these bastards about the country or even abroad t do the same thing elsewhere, why???

[ardmhachaabu]

stew, fact of the matter is you don't know a thing about the inner workings of the church. End of.

[mylestheslasher]

In every country in the world where catholic clergy abused children the same actions were taken to cover it up. Abusers were protected and moved to other parishes on instructions of the bishops. Now surely no one can be so naive to believe that this is a coincidence. Clearly instruction on how to handle this came from a central authority - the Vatican. Therefore I would conclude that not only does this pope know about this but also the previous pope. It is this fact that tells me the church is rotten to the core. All the decent priests should do a Luther and start a "real" catholic church and cast the corrupt leadership away. Surely these good priests have the moral balls to stand up and not just be yes men?

[theskull1]

When you see what the vatican along with the upper echelons of the roman catholic hierarchy has colluded in, you can actually get a sense of why the reformation occured.

Big Ian maybe wasn't that far away 

[NetNitrate]

stew, I know for an absolute fact that religious orders and diocesan people responsible for recruiting men to the priesthood have been screening people within an inch of their lives via the RUC/PSNI/Gardai for at least 15 years.  That includes psychological interviews and tests along with prolonged interviews with trained counsellors as well as priests

That doesn't mean that the security checks with cops will pick up on all paedophiles, as those checks only pick up known ones

Even if the Church screened out all paedophiles, you still have morally depraved people in the church including Bishops, Cardinals and Popes who believe it is ok to cover up the sexual abuse of a child to protect their beloved church. Criminal and Cardinal are not too far apart in the dictionary. They are well matched. If the pope ever sets foot on this island, I hope the guards will show some balls and arrest the canonized you know what.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

stew, I know for an absolute fact that religious orders and diocesan people responsible for recruiting men to the priesthood have been screening people within an inch of their lives via the RUC/PSNI/Gardai for at least 15 years.  That includes psychological interviews and tests along with prolonged interviews with trained counsellors as well as priests

That doesn't mean that the security checks with cops will pick up on all paedophiles, as those checks only pick up known ones

Even if the Church screened out all paedophiles, you still have morally depraved people in the church including Bishops, Cardinals and Popes who believe it is ok to cover up the sexual abuse of a child to protect their beloved church. Criminal and Cardinal are not too far apart in the dictionary. They are well matched. If the pope ever sets foot on this island, I hope the guards will show some balls and arrest the canonized you know what.

Ya well to be honest they should have arrested George Bush and many other heads of state as well as many Irish leaders by those standards. I don't think we have the nuclear arsenal and delivery capabilities to try a stunt like that.

[orangeman]

It's all the media's fault :



Vatican attacks media on 'Pope role' in sex abuse cases 
Victim Arthur Budzinski says Vatican members knew about the scandal
The Vatican has attacked the media over charges that the Pope failed to act against a US priest accused of abusing up to 200 deaf boys two decades ago.

A Vatican newspaper editorial said the claims were an "ignoble" attack on the Pope and that there was no "cover-up".
Archbishops had complained about Fr Lawrence Murphy in 1996 to a Vatican office led by the future pope, but apparently received no response.

One victim told the BBC the Pope had known of a cover-up "for many years".

Arthur Budzinski, now 61, said Pope Benedict XVI should confess about what he knew.

He said through an interpreter: "It goes all the way up to him - he was in charge of these types of cases."


ANALYSIS

David Willey, BBC Vatican correspondent
Hardly a day goes by without new allegations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests somewhere in the world being reported in the media.

The Pope's spokesman defended Benedict, saying the Vatican department which the future pontiff was in charge of had not been informed of these latest allegations until 1996 - 20 years after the priest's victims first informed the police.

But the Vatican's rather lame excuse for lack of any action is that canon law, as Church law is called, "does not envision automatic penalties".

The Catholic Church teaches that paedophilia is a grave sin, but the evidence is that accused priests were usually moved to another parish rather than punished.

While the Pope is now promoting a policy of zero tolerance to clerical abuse, the suspicion remains that for many years he failed to react to the damning evidence which arrived on his desk.
Pressure grows on Pope

The Catholic Church has been plagued in recent months by abuse cover-up claims in Europe, echoing paedophilia scandals that rocked the institution in America eight years ago.

Fr Murphy was a popular priest who is suspected of abusing some 200 boys at St John's School for the Deaf in St Francis, Wisconsin, between 1950 and 1974.

According to Church documents, an archbishop wrote in 1996 to a Vatican morals watchdog led by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope, to complain about Fr Murphy.

A canonical trial was authorised by the future pope's deputy, but was later halted, despite objections from a second archbishop.

Fr Murphy had written to Cardinal Ratzinger saying he was ill and wanted to live out his life in the "dignity of my priesthood".

The Pope's official spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said the Murphy case had only reached the Vatican in 1996 - two decades after the Milwaukee diocese in Wisconsin first learned of the allegations, and two years before the priest died.

The diocese had been asked to take action by "restricting Father Murphy's public ministry and requiring that Father Murphy accept full responsibility for the gravity of his acts", the Rev Lombardi said.

"Father Murphy died approximately four months later, without further incident," said Fr Lombardi's statement," the statement said.


The papal spokesman also noted that police at the time investigated the allegations, but did not bring charges.

A strongly worded Vatican newspaper editorial said there was "no cover-up" over the case, which was reported in Thursday's edition of the New York Times.

L'Osservatore Romano labelled the allegations "clearly an ignoble attempt to strike at Pope Benedict and his closest aides at any cost".

Meanwhile, one of the Pope's top aides, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, told reporters there was "a conspiracy" against the Church, without specifying who was responsible.

The Pope was also supported in the UK by the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, who said the then Cardinal Ratzinger had not been an "idle observer" in the case.

Writing in the Times, the Archbishop also said the Pope had introduced changes into Church law to protect children.

The BBC's Robert Pigott in Milwaukee says the US case is particularly shocking, not only because the priest abused boys but because he was allowed to go on to another diocese where he had access to children all over again.

Our correspondent says that although there is no direct evidence against the then Cardinal Ratzinger, this is an uncomfortable confluence of events for the Vatican. This is a case of concealment, he says, and that is where the Pope will have a case to answer.

Ireland letter

Fr Murphy - who admitted abusing boys before he died in 1998 - is said to have targeted victims in their dormitory beds, on school trips and even at confession.



Fr Lawrence Murphy died in 1998 with no official blemish on his record
Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of five men alleging the Archdiocese of Milwaukee did not take sufficient action against the priest.

Meanwhile, members of a group of clerical abuse victims who were holding a news conference outside the Vatican to denounce Pope Benedict's handling of the case were briefly detained by Italian police for not having a permit.

Last week the Pope issued an unprecedented letter to Ireland addressing the 16 years of clerical cover-up scandals.

He has yet to comment on his handling of a child sex abuse case involving a German priest, which developed while Benedict was overseeing the Munich archdiocese.

The Rev Peter Hullermann had been accused of abusing boys when the now Pope approved his 1980 transfer to Munich to receive psychological treatment for paedophilia.

The disgraced priest was convicted in 1986 of abusing a youth, but stayed within the Church for another two decades.

[Declan]

Check out the name of the Journalist
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7065824.ece

[Hardy]

They're taking the piss, surely?

[johnneycool]

stew, fact of the matter is you don't know a thing about the inner workings of the church. End of.

There's that arrogance Stew was talking about, you'd have made a fine priest!

I see that the defence for Ratzinger not knowing about this Fr Murphy in Wisconsin is that the letters were sent to the The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and even with the fact that at the time Ratzinger was head honco of said department he may not have been informed or aware of the letter.

This begs the question; was rampant paedophila by a serving priest not serious enough to merit the attention of Ratzinger let alone JPII??

This drip drip of scandals shows no sign of abaiting.

[Declan]

They're taking the piss, surely?

That's what I thought HArdy but apparentely not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Boyes

[EC Unique]

This is all good in my mind. The more scandal to surface the better. It will help drive out the rats and get a new leadership that can start to sort this shit out. Then they can start to modernise the church with moves like women priests and priests having the choice to get married and have a family.

If it continues as is the church will be a small fraction of itself in 50 years.

[orangeman]

Check out the name of the Journalist
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7065824.ece

Roger Boyes  - OMG

[give her dixie]

The sight of the disgraced Irish Bishops meeting the Pope in Rome a few weeks ago was sickening.
Watching them curtsey in front of him, and then proceed to kiss his ring like he was some form of royalty was revolting.
Watching this, i'm sure the victims felt like they had support at the highest level.
I'm sure the meeting went into much detail about how they could cover up some more. Share a few idea's and secrets on the art of cover up.

I have a very good friend who was abused by a priest, and knowing about the cover up involved in their case is one very very sad affair. The church is rotten to the core from the top down. Until there are changes from the top down, then the church will continue in free fall.

If any of the loyal supporters of the church on here knew a victim personally, then you would soon change your tune. By supoporting the church and clergy in it's current form, you are on the side of the abusers.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

The sight of the disgraced Irish Bishops meeting the Pope in Rome a few weeks ago was sickening.
Watching them curtsey in front of him, and then proceed to kiss his ring like he was some form of royalty was revolting.
Watching this, i'm sure the victims felt like they had support at the highest level.
I'm sure the meeting went into much detail about how they could cover up some more. Share a few idea's and secrets on the art of cover up.

I have a very good friend who was abused by a priest, and knowing about the cover up involved in their case is one very very sad affair. The church is rotten to the core from the top down. Until there are changes from the top down, then the church will continue in free fall.

If any of the loyal supporters of the church on here knew a victim personally, then you would soon change your tune. By supoporting the church and clergy in it's current form, you are on the side of the abusers.

This is why I get ANGRY when people on this board accuse me a Nationalist & Republicanof being a Unionist or a Monarchist when I abhor the institutions that put a Queen on the throne of England and a Pope on the throne of Rome. All these so called Republicans who worship to a Pope in Rome, that makes you Monarchists, ya numpties. Monarchs & Dictators, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS, LONG LIVE IRELAND.