THE NEW YORK TIMES: As an investigative reporter, Jason Berry
exposed the church’s systematic cover-up of sexual
abuse. Somehow, it wasn’t enough
Nearly 20 years ago, an investigation by The Boston Globe into sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests ignited a firestorm of scandal that has traveled around the world. For many Americans, these shocking revelations — especially of the related cover-ups by the church — came out of nowhere, almost like a bolt of lightning. But the sobering reality is that this bolt of lightning had been striking for at least 15 years. Read the short article and watch the disturbing video here » | Ben Proudfoot | Mr. Proudfoot is an Emmy-winning filmmaker. | Tuesday, August 14, 2021
So much for organised religion! This is disgusting! Truly disgusting! It begs many questions: Why is there so much perversion in the Roman Catholic Church? Why does the RCC attract so many perverts? Who wants or needs to be preached to by these perverts on issues of morality anyway? And where do they get the audacity from to lecture people on being gay when they engage in truly disgusting sexual abuse like this?
We’ve all known about the goings on in the Roman Catholic Church (and other churches, too), but when you watch a video such as this one, it is a sad reminder that much of religion is a sick joke! This is far removed from the teachings of Jesus Christ. – @ Mark
Showing posts with label paedophilia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paedophilia. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Pope Francis: 'About 2%' of Catholic Clergy Paedophiles
 |
| Earlier this month the Pope begged forgiveness from victims of child abusers within the Church |
The Pope said that abuse of children was like "leprosy" infecting the Church, according to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper.
He vowed to "confront it with the severity it demands".
But a Vatican spokesman said the quotes in the newspaper did not correspond to Pope Francis's exact words.
The BBC's David Willey in Rome says there is often a studied ambiguity in Pope Francis' off-the-cuff statements.
He wants to show a more compassionate attitude towards Church teaching than his predecessors, but this can sometimes cause consternation among his media advisers, our correspondent adds. » | Sunday, July 13, 2014
Thursday, February 06, 2014
Nick Clegg's Ex-headmaster Jailed for Abusing Boys
 |
| Roland Peter Wright was led away from court by prison officers |
Roland Peter Wright, 83, of Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire, abused boys aged between eight and 13 at Caldicott Preparatory School from 1959 to 1970.
His sentencing went ahead despite the death of another former teacher who had been due to appear with him.
Hugh Henry, 82, apparently threw himself under a train on Tuesday.
Judge Joanna Cutts QC told Wright: "These offences were so serious that it is beyond question that only a custodial sentence can be justified.
"I have to sentence you for multiple offending against each of these victims.
"This was prolonged activity, the boys were groomed by a master at a school responsible for their care."
Mr Clegg was a pupil at the school from 1974 until 1980 and was joint head boy in his final year.
When Wright was convicted in December, Mr Clegg said: "I am shocked and appalled by the gross betrayal of trust and violation of childhood innocence that has been shown to have taken place at Caldicott." » | Thursday, February 06, 2014
Tuesday, August 06, 2013
Inside Story: The Shame of a Royal Pardon
Thursday, March 31, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Geert Wilders has stepped up his anti-Islam rhetoric by describing the Prophet Mohammed as an "insane, paedophile, rapist murderer" just two weeks before the opening of his trial on charges of inciting race hatred.The leader of hard-Right Dutch Freedom Party will be prosecuted in an Amsterdam court on April 13 for previous comparisons of Islam to Nazism.
On Thursday he fuelled the controversy surrounding his anti-Muslim politics and trial by publishing an article citing academics who accuse Islam's founder of crimes ranging from child rape to murder.
"The historical Mohammad was the savage leader of a gang of robbers from Medina. Without scruples they looted, raped and murdered," Mr Wilders claimed in the Dutch magazine HP/De Tijd.
In the article, Mr Wilders, whose Freedom Party MPs control the balance of power in the Dutch parliament, attacked fines levied on an Austrian feminist "for insulting a religion by calling Mohammad a paedophile".
"However, that is the truth," he wrote, citing the Muslim prophet's consummation of a marriage to a wife who claimed she was a child aged nine at the time. » | Bruno Waterfield | Thursday, March 31, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: British forces were advised by a military study that paedophilia is widespread and culturally accepted in southern Afghanistan.
Older, powerful men boosted their social status by keeping boys as sexual playthings and the practice was celebrated in song and dance, a military study claimed.
British officers in Helmand requested the study to help them understand the sexual behaviour of locals and Afghan comrades after young soldiers became uneasy they were being propositioned.
American social scientists employed to help troops understand the local culture reported that homosexual sex was widespread among the Pashtun ethnic group in southern Afghanistan.
Strict separation of men and women, coupled with poverty and the significant expense of getting married, contributed to young men turning to each other for sexual companionship.
"To dismiss the existence of this dynamic out of desire to avoid western discomfort is to risk failing to comprehend an essential social force underlying Pashtun culture," the report said.
The study, called 'Pashtun Sexuality', said that as well as willing sex between young men, "boys are appreciated for physical beauty and apprenticed to older men for their sexual initiation". >>> Ben Farmer, Kabul | Thursday, January 13, 2011
Afghan Profile >>>
MAIL ONLINE: Imam ‘raped boy, 12, as he attended mosque for religious lessons’ >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Thursday, January 13, 2011
Friday, November 19, 2010
CYBERPRESSE: Les cardinaux du monde entier se sont retrouvés vendredi autour du pape Benoît XVI pour évoquer notamment, pour la toute première fois, la «réponse de l'Église» face à la pédophilie, une rencontre déjà accueillie avec scepticisme par les victimes.
Quelque 150 cardinaux, parmi lesquels 24 nouveaux qui ne recevront leur «barrette» (toque) pourpre que le lendemain, participent à cette «réunion de réflexion et de prière», qui s'est ouverte dans la matinée avec un exposé du numéro deux du Vatican, le cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, sur la liberté religieuse dans le monde.
Un thème d'une brûlante actualité après le massacre de 44 fidèles et deux prêtres, commis en pleine messe le 31 octobre dans la cathédrale syriaque catholique de Bagdad par un commando d'Al-Qaïda qui a décrété les chrétiens «cibles légitimes».
La condamnation à mort pour «blasphème» d'une chrétienne pakistanaise, Asia Bibi, suscite aussi la vive inquiétude du pape qui, de façon inhabituelle, a réclamé cette semaine sa libération pure et simple.
C'est seulement en fin d'après-midi que le cardinal William Levada, préfet de la congrégation pour la Doctrine de la foi -l'ex-Inquisition chargée notamment d'examiner tous les crimes graves au sein de l'Église catholique -, doit ouvrir la discussion sur la pédophilie, à l'origine de la plus grave crise vécue par l'Église catholique ces dernières décennies.
La nouvelle vague de scandales a éclaté il y a exactement un an en Irlande, suscitant une cascade de révélations dans le monde entier. >>> Michèle Leridon, Agence France-Presse, Cité du Vatican | Vendredi 19 Novembre 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Saturday, July 03, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: An Australian Catholic priest has been jailed for almost 20 years for "sadistic" sex attacks on young boys that spanned more than 18 years.
John Sidney Denham, 67, was sentenced to 19 years and 10 months after pleading guilty to a range of charges, including multiple counts of indecent assault against boys aged five to 16.
Denham was found guilty of abusing 39 boys at schools in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986.
In sentencing, judge Helen Syme said that the abuse had been ignored by school authorities for many years, allowing it to continue. >>> Bonnie Malkin in Sydney | Friday, July 02, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Monsignor Charles Scicluna warns seminarians who exploit their office that their punishment in hell will be worse than death penalty on earth
The Vatican official in charge of catching paedophile priests has said their punishment in hell would be worse than receiving the death penalty on earth.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna issued the warning to seminarians at St Peter's basilica, in Rome, during prayers for abuse victims. >>> Tom Kington in Vatican City | Sunday, May 30, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Survivors of clerical child sexual abuse called on Irish Roman Catholics to make their voices heard today after Cardinal Sean Brady ended months of speculation about his future by saying he would not resign.
The cardinal, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, is under pressure to stand down after it emerged that he took part in a secret canonical tribunal in 1975 at which two minors were made to swear oaths of silence about their allegations against the paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth.
Smyth went on to rape hundreds more children across Ireland, the UK and the United States before he died in prison in 1997.
In March the cardinal asked for forgiveness, telling a congregation at Armagh cathedral that he would spend the rest of Lent reflecting on his future. >>> David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent | Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The child sex abuse scandal is the greatest threat to the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI said on Tuesday.
The pontiff said the crisis over paedophile priests was "born from sins within the church" not outside, and called for penance.
In some of his strongest comments to date, Pope Benedict said the Catholic church had always suffered from internal problems, but that "today we see it in a truly terrifying way".
"The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice," he said.
The Pope was speaking aboard the papal plane while en route to Portugal, where he began a four-day visit on Tuesday. >>> | Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
NEW YORK TIMES: VATICAN CITY — As the sexual abuse crisis continues to unfold in the Roman Catholic Church, with more victims coming forward worldwide and three bishops resigning last week alone, it is clear the issue is more than a passing storm or a problem of papal communications.
Instead, the church is undergoing nothing less than an epochal shift: It pits those who hold fast to a more traditional idea of protecting bishops and priests above all against those who call for more openness and accountability. The battle lines are drawn between the church and society at large, which clearly clamors for accountability, and also inside the church itself.
Uncomfortably, the crisis also pits the moral legacies of two popes against each other: the towering and modernizing John Paul II, who nonetheless did little about sexual abuse; and his successor, Benedict XVI, who in recent years, at least, has taken the issue of pedophile priests more seriously.
He has had little choice, given the depth of the scandal and the anger it has unleashed. But when supporters defend Benedict, they are implicitly condemning John Paul and how an entire generation of bishops and the Vatican hierarchy acted in response to criminal behavior.
“The church realizes that it doesn’t have a way out, at least not until it confronts the entirety of its problems,” said Alberto Melloni, the director of the liberal Catholic John XXIII Foundation for Religious Science in Bologna, Italy. >>> Rachel Donadio | Thursday, April 29, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: A senior Catholic bishop has resigned after admitting to sexually abusing a child. He is the latest and most senior cleric to stand down in the crisis engulfing the church.
Roger Vangheluwe, Belgium’s longest-serving bishop, said that he was “enormously sorry” for the “wound” he had inflicted on a young boy about 25 years ago.
“When I was not a bishop, and some time later, I abused a boy,” he said in a statement. “This has marked the victim forever. The wound does not heal. Neither in me nor the victim,” he said.
Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the bishop’s resignation, which is the first among senior clerics since the crisis over paedophile priests began. >>> Joanna Sugden | Friday, April 23, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The alleged victim of a US priest accused of being a serial pedophile is suing the Pope and the Vatican in an attempt to gain access to secret files containing internal investigations into sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
"There is a painful and long history of the Vatican and the top officials... muffling and suppressing the truth and protecting themselves and their own reputation instead of protecting the children," lawyer Jeff Anderson said at a press conference.
"This suit demands further action by the Vatican and the removal of every single priest that has offended a single child and every single bishop and cardinal that has been complicit in those crimes."
Mr Anderson, who has spent decades pursuing justice for victims of child sex abuse, said the case was "unprecedented" in its scope and demands.
That case is currently before the Supreme Court to determine whether the Vatican, which claims sovereign immunity, can be sued in a US court. >>> | Friday, April 23, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: US court action accuses Pope of failing to protect children from priest: The Pope was named in a lawsuit in a new court action in America yesterday by a man who says that he was abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest. >>> Ruth Gledhill, Roger Boyes and David Sharrock | Friday, April 23, 2010
BBC: Vatican says US lawsuit against Pope 'without merit': The Vatican says a lawsuit brought against Pope Benedict and two Church officials by a US man who says he was abused by a priest is "without merit". >>> | Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, has issued a statement expressing "deep shame" over the child abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.
The Archbishop of Westminster referred to the "inadequate response by some church leaders" to the "terrible crimes" committed.
He said: "The criminal offences committed by some priests and religious are a profound scandal. They bring deep shame to the whole church."
"We express our heartfelt apology and deep sorrow to those who have suffered abuse, those who have felt ignored, disbelieved or betrayed.
"We ask their pardon, and the pardon of God for these terrible deeds done in our midst. There can be no excuses.
The statement made at the Bishops' Conference in England and Wales said the church would do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to justice.
"We recognise the failings of some Bishops and religious leaders in handling these matters. These, too, are aspects of this tragedy which we deeply regret and for which we apologise. >>> Peter Hutchison | Thursday, April 22, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The Pope has pledged that the Catholic Church will take action to confront the clerical sex abuse scandal, in his first public remarks calling for change since the crisis erupted.
During his weekly public audience Wednesday in St. Peter's Square, the pontiff recounted his tearful weekend encounter in Malta with eight men who say they were abused as children by priests in a church-run orphanage. Benedict met with the men in the Vatican's embassy for more than 30 minutes, praying with them and listening to their stories.
"I shared with them their suffering, and emotionally prayed with them, assuring them of church action," Benedict told the audience.
He said he told the victims in the tearful meeting "not to be afraid of life's storms or even shipwrecks, because the love of God is greater than storms or shipwrecks." >>> | Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: The damage done by the child abuse scandal has been compounded by a lack of coherent response from those at the top
A papal trip to Malta would not normally attract world attention, but these are not normal times in the Vatican. The Pope’s first overseas engagement since the sex abuse scandal embroiled the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy will take place in the full glare of the media — the same media that some of his supporters accuse of waging a campaign against him and their religion.
The blame game — the Vatican has also attributed its woes to homosexuals, the Holocaust, the Irish, and even the Devil — speaks to a wider problem in the Church’s handling of accusations that it conspired to cover up paedophilia committed by its clergy. Only in the past few days have Vatican officials scrambled to find a coherent strategy to try to control a scandal that has inflicted immeasurable damage on the institution.
“The problem is not that the Vatican line over the crisis has had unfortunate consequences,” said Andrea Tornielli, the biographer of Pope Benedict XVI and other modern pontiffs. “The problem is that there is no line.”
Even as the Pope faced accusations that he had covered up instances of clerical abuse while Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, and later as head of doctrine at the Vatican for 24 years, there was no co-ordinated rebuttal. In the corporate world, the response to such a public relations disaster would be crisis management, but the Vatican’s ancient bureaucracy, and a centuries-old culture of secrecy is ill equipped to meet the demands of communications strategies.
“We are not a multinational,” Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, said recently. The Holy See, he said, “does not believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context”.
Asked during a rare briefing for reporters whether there had been urgent meetings in the Vatican over the abuse scandal, he looked baffled. Didn’t he feel that the Vatican was under siege? “No. We issue clarifications when necessary,” he replied, pointing to the publication on the Vatican website of church rules on abuse, making it clear for the first time that bishops must go to the police.
The reality, however, is that new abuse stories have appeared almost daily, and Father Lombardi, 68, a genial and mild-mannered Jesuit from Piedmont, northern Italy, has struggled without any apparent strategy or guidance from higher up in the Church.
Instead, stories involving abuse at the hands of priests have been dismissed as “petty gossip” or “idle chatter”. Contentious remarks by cardinals and bishops — blaming the stories on a Jewish conspiracy, for instance — have added to the furore. >>> Richard Owen in Rome | Saturday, April 17, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)