LONDON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A large majority of British residents say the Catholic Church has not done enough to help victims of sexual abuse, a poll released Wednesday indicated.
Four in five Britons, 80 percent, and more than two-thirds of Catholics in Britain, 68 percent, agree that not enough has been done, Angus Reid Public Opinion said. About six out of 10, 59 percent, of Britons and 42 percent of Catholics say the church has handled the scandal badly.
The Vatican estimated in 2009 that the percentage of priests involved in sexual abuse during the past half century was between 1.5 percent and 5 percent. About one-quarter of Britons agreed with those numbers, with 37 percent saying they think abuse is actually less widespread, involving only a few priests, and 27 percent saying it might involve as many as half the clergy.
Half of the Catholics polled thought Pope Benedict XVI was sincere in his apologies for clerical sexual abuse and the church's handling of the issue during his recent visit to Britain, as did 43 percent of all Britons.
Angus Reid, based in Toronto, surveyed 2,005 adult members of its Springboard U.K. panel on line between Sept. 22 and Sept. 24. The poll has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
Britons: Church must aid abuse victims - UPI.com
'Caprica' midseason premiere: Are you giving the 'BSG' spin-off a second chance? | EW.com
the elders of her one-god religion. Viewers, there was something familiar about all this stuff — the elders in robes, Vatican-esque bureaucracy, the stuffy-cathedral decor. Part of the inherent fun of the Battlestar Galactica/Caprica continuum has been how much the shows resolutely avoid stupid sci-fi tropes…like elders in robes chatting about Vatican-esque bureaucracy while sitting in stuffy cathedrals. We’re moving into Jedi Council territory here.
MN Archbishop Nienstedt Denies Communion To LGBT Allies And Activists For Second Time - Lez Get Real
Perhaps he is planning to hide out at the Vatican until after the November election. McGrath also pointed out that it is church policy from the Vatican on ...
Do Jews Control the Media?
Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Meridiaga -- who was a runner up for the papacy -- blamed the Jewish-controlled media, particularly The New York Times, for the sex scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church.
Here is his "logic." He begins by asserting that the Vatican is anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian. It follows, therefore, that "the Jews" had to get even with the Catholic Church, while at the same time deflecting attention away from Israeli injustices against the Palestinians.
The Jews managed to do this by arranging for the media which they, of course, control to give disproportionate attention to the Vatican sex scandal.
Rodriguez compared the Jewish-controlled media with "Hitler," because they are "protagonists of what I do not hesitate to define as a persecution against the Church."
Homosexuals As "Victim Souls"
The Catholic doctrine differs from the Protestant one, in as much as the Vatican doesn't hold that gays can be cured (someone should alert Ms O'Donnell). ...
Will the Pope be Served... | Religion Dispatches
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Serving court papers on the Pope takes some doing. According to the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), for the first time a US federal judge has entered the fray in a case involving alleged sexual abuse by the late Rev. Lawrence Murphy at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Judge Rudolph T. Randa of the US District Court for the Eastern Division of Wisconsin in Milwaukee recently released three two-page documents asking the Vatican to cooperate in serving paper on three of its highest officials, including the Pope himself, a.k.a. Joseph Ratzinger. Also to be served are Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone who is the Secretary of State, and Angelo Sodano, another Italian cardinal who was Bertone’s predecessor and is now the Dean of the College of Cardinals.
They are “wanted” in conjunction with what they knew when of the abuse against Terry Kohut by Father Murphy. The local bishop contacted the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith that Ratzinger headed before his promotion to request an ecclesial trial. The trial went forward, but after a letter from Father Murphy to the Roman congregation it was eventually called off, supposedly due to the man’s age and ill health. SNAP and supporters see this as one more case of the Vatican favoring perpetrators over victims. Some satisfaction will come if/when the officials are forced to testify.
The “letters rogatory,” as the judge’s missives are known, probably will not get very far very fast. The Vatican likes its correspondence to arrive in Latin so translation of such legal materials takes time. Its attorneys claim the lawsuit is without merit, that the alleged abuse took place more than thirty years ago. The Vatican routinely “disappears” when these cases emerge, suddenly asserting that it is the local bishops’ conferences that are in charge of priests and not the Vatican.
Whatever happens with this legal action, and frankly I doubt much will come of it in the lifetime of the main players, it is important to note that at least one US judge had the integrity, compassion, and legal grounds to do the right thing. Here’s hoping others join him.
Iraqi Christians flee homeland even as war fades | Reuters
Alarmed that their flock could face extinction, Iraqi Christian leaders appealed to the Vatican for help. Pope Benedict, also worried about the shrinking ...
Synod of Middle East Bishops Vatican
The Eastern rite Catholic churches are under the jurisdiction of the Vatican and they recognize the authority of the pope, but their traditions are closer to Eastern Orthodox traditions.
The Rutgers Tragedy Hits Home | The Fairfield Mirror
it was reported that Fairfield was ranked in the top-20 least gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) – friendly schools in the country. This means that we, as a community, are portrayed as intolerant and closed-minded, and are much more susceptible to a tragedy similar to Tyler’s.