SNAP responds to Pope's appt. of Rigali

Amplify’d from www.newsworks.org

SNAP responds to the Pope's new appointment for Rigali

By Shannon McDonald

Pope Benedict has named Philadelphia's Cardinal Justin Rigali as a special envoy to a church celebration in the Czech Repubilc in June. Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests are crying foul.

Rigali will head to the Czech Republic June 18 for the bicentennial celebration of the birth of St. John Nepomuceno Neumann.

SNAP likens the decision to rubbing salt in wounds. "Vatican officials are either incredibly stupid - and no one believes that – or incredibly callous," reads a statement from SNAP.

The advocacy group says the Pope should have chosen a different cardinal to represent the church, given the current charges against Rigali and says the decision to send him emphasizes the gap between what the Catholic Church says and does regarding child sex abuse cover-ups.

Feed the Feed: Should the Pope send someone else to the Czech Republic? Read more at www.newsworks.org

 

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Belgian Bishop Admits Abuse: On The Run

Belgian Bishop Admits to Abusing Nephews, Says It’s No Big Deal, Is Now on the Run

Amplify’d from blogs.babble.com

Belgian Bishop Admits to Abusing Nephews, Says It’s No Big Deal, Is Now on the Run

by carolyncastiglia

74-year-old former bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who thinks molestation is no big deal.

In an addendum to last week’s mind-blowingly offensive assertion by the Catholic League that sexual abuse in the Church is caused by “homosexuality, not pedophilia,” and that some children willingly participated in the abuse, a Belgian priest made a televised announcement on Thursday admitting that he sexually abused two of his nephews, diminutively describing the molestation as just “a little game.”

As you can imagine, this “caused an uproar in Belgium on Friday, with the prime minister, senior clergy and a prosecutor expressing shock at the way the ex-prelate made light of his offenses,” the Associated Press reports.  The priest, 74-year-old Roger Vangheluwe, the former bishop of Bruges, contends that he was never naked, therefore the abuse was never about “real sexuality.”  Vangheluwe declared, “I never felt the least attraction to a child” and denies being a pedophile.

Okay, sure.  So why touch your nephew for 13 years, from when he was 5 to 18, then?  Vangheluwe dismissed the severity of his offenses by saying, “From me toward him there was a bit of intimacy that occurred each time we saw one another.  And of which we later said, ‘That’s not right.’”

The current bishop of Bruges says “All (Belgian) bishops are astounded” and Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Belgian bishops expressed “the feelings of astonishment and worry that were generated by the interview.”  The Vatican has ordered Vangheluwe to “no longer work as a priest while officials determine his punishment,” but Vangheluwe said “he would never voluntarily leave the priesthood,” according to the AP.

Reuters reports:

Church law has no provision for defrocking a bishop.  But Belgian theologian Rev. Gabriel Ringlet told Belgian television that this should not stop (Pope) Benedict from taking decisive action.  ”The pope should say loudly and clearly, ‘I deeply regret that our law does not permit it, but morally I consider that this bishop is no longer part of our family’,” he said.

Later, they add, “It’s not clear how much control the Church has over the rogue bishop now anyway. Officials have confirmed to Belgian media that he will get his 2,800-euro state pension regardless of his standing in the Church.”

It remains unknown then if Vangheluwe has accepted the Vatican’s decree to stop working as a priest (whatever that means – he’s a priest unless he’s excommunicated, whether he’s saying mass for the public or not), but as of Friday, Vangheluwe was nestled safely in “a wooded Catholic retreat in Ferte-Imbault in central France,” where he was sent by the Vatican for “psychological examination,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

They write, “Catholic practice through the abuse scandal has often been to give its disgraced priests and bishops space and time to rest and reflect.”  It’s clear there’s not a lot of reflecting going on in Vangheluwe’s mind, as “throughout the interview, he sat relaxed, sometimes smiling and at times shrugging his shoulders as if to signal that the events he spoke of were not very serious,” the AP says.

Regarding the handling of the worldwide sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, Vangheluwe proved that Catholic League president Bill Donohue’s opinions aren’t very far removed from some in the priesthood.  Vangheluwe asked the interviewer, “Why is it different for priests than for other situations?  Why should the church pay compensation and there is no compensation in other professions?” he asked. “The church should not be pushed in a special corner.”

Exactly.  The church should not be pushed in a special corner.  Which is why priests who have committed sex crimes should not be shrouded in a secluded retreat in the woods of France.  (According to Reuters, Vangheluwe “left the secluded monastery near Orleans on Saturday after it complained about all the media attention his presence had caused.”  He boasted to reporters that he’d “received a massive amount of offers of lodging, both from monasteries and from individuals” and that “hundreds of people have expressed their support by sending a letter or card.”)  But to answer his question, perhaps the reason victims of Catholic priests are being paid by the Church is because the Church knows these victims can’t enjoy the satisfaction of seeing their attackers punished by the judicial system.  Or maybe it’s hush money being offered in the hopes that those who were abused won’t write tell-all books.  I don’t know.

Either way, offending priests need to come out of hiding – and if there are gay priests who have taken refuge in the Church and solace in chastity, and I’m sure there are, they need to quit the priesthood and come out of the closet.  (I’m not saying gay men can’t be chaste, I’m saying choosing chastity as a way of dealing with/avoiding your sexual orientation seems like an unhealthy choice, and though it may not manifest in kid-touching, will likely be harmful in another way, at the very least to the priest making the choice, especially given that the Church teaches that homosexuality is a sin.  What kind of intense self-loathing do you have to have?…)

The Catholic Church now has a policy of screening potential priests for pedophilia and other conditions via psychological evaluations, but in 2008, Father Bresciani, a psychologist and adviser to the Congregation for Catholic Education told the press, “It is obvious that a psychologist who is closed to the transcendent, who denies the significance of chastity or is closed to certain values that are proper to the Church, cannot assist in the maturing of a vocation toward the consecration of one’s life to ministry.”  In other words, they only take psychiatry seriously to the extent that it affirms what the Church believes in.  That means the Church is going to continue to face problems with its priests until it wakes up and joins the 21st century, allowing priests to marry and acknowledging that the vow of chastity is in one view likely to blame for much of the sexual abuse that has occurred.  At this point, I believe we’ll see the second coming of Christ before we see change in the Church, and I don’t believe in the second coming of Christ.

Related Posts : Catholic League Blames Sexual Abuse by Priests on Homosexuality and Says Kids Willingly Participated Archdiocese of Philadelphia Removes Priests Accused of Molestation Confession App Lets Busy Catholics Confess Through Text Message Is a Woman’s Life More Important Than Her Unborn Child’s? Read more at blogs.babble.com

 

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Chilean police seize Vatican documents

Chilean police seize Vatican documents on priest suspended for abuse

Amplify’d from www.catholicculture.org

Chilean police seize Vatican documents on priest suspended for abuse

Chilean authorities have searched the office of a lawyer representing a priest who had been charged with sexual abuse, and seized documents pertaining to a confidential Vatican investigation.

Father Fernando Karadima had been the defendant in a civil suit in Chile, but the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. However, a separate Vatican investigation resulted in the priest's suspension from ministry. Reasoning that the Vatican had evidence of the priest's guilt, the civil case was re-opened and a judge authorized a search of the attorney's office.

Church officials had previously refused to turn over the documents related to the Vatican investigation, citing its confidentiality.

Judge orders confiscation of Vatican documents on accused priest (EWTN) Read more at www.catholicculture.org

 

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Pedophilia: Bishop out of retirement

Amplify’d from www.pisqa.com

Pedophilia: the former Bishop of Bruges came out of retirement

Written by Sandeep

Roger Vangheluwe, the former bishop of Bruges convinced of pedophilia, left on Saturday night the religious community of the Loir-et-Cher in which the Vatican had been cloistered for an unknown destination, announced Sunday at the AFP’s top religious community.

“He left yesterday evening,” said the Mother Superior of the Fraternity of Jerusalem, a religious community established in La Ferte Imbault in Loir-et-Cher.

Asked about the destination made by the former bishop after his departure from La Ferte Imbault, the nun said: “I do not know. For more information (in this case), it refers to the nuncio in Belgium,” she said.

The Vatican ordered Roger Vangheluwe to undergo “spiritual and psychological treatment” and to be forgotten. But the former bishop did not follow instructions.

Forced to resign in 2010 after acknowledging that he sexually abused a minor of his nephews for thirteen years, he confessed last Thursday of abusing a second child for almost a year and downplayed his actions, described as “a game” , “a sort of habit.”

The retreat forced by the Vatican sought “is not a punishment but a period of reflection”, he further said, boasting many expressions of support, including religious communities.

His statements, he admitted they were wrong, have plunged the Church of Belgium in turmoil. Its hierarchy is accused of trying to protect him and several bishops asked the Vatican to act quickly and punished under penalty of ruining efforts to regain the trust of the faithful.

The problem is that the crimes of Roger Vangheluwe are prescribed for civil justice, as justice for the Church.

Only the pope can decide because canon law does not provide for the possibility of disqualifying a bishop from the clerical state, say the theologians.

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European countries are calling for the Mediterranean EU aid to migration Read more at www.pisqa.com

 

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Former priest enters not guilty plea

Amplify’d from delcotimes.com

Former priest, others enter not guilty pleas

By PATTI MENGERS pmengers@delcotimes.com

Four men including a former priest who now resides in Delaware County have pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing boys in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Edward V. Avery, 68, who was last reported as living at a private residence in the Havertown section of Haverford, is charged with sexually assaulting a fifth-grade altar boy at St. Jerome parish in Philadelphia in 1999. The Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 64, and Bernard Shero, a 48-year-old former Catholic school lay teacher, are charged with assaulting the same boy. The Rev. James Brennan, 47, is charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in an apartment during a leave of absence from his ministry in 1996. The Rev. Monsignor William Lynn, the highest-ranking U.S. Roman Catholic Church official ever charged with endangering the welfare of children, has also pleaded not guilty. All pleaded in Philadelphia court on Friday except Brennan who was not in court Friday and who pleaded not guilty earlier. The next court date is set for June 6. Members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, said they were not surprised that the suspects have pleaded not guilty. “Criminal charges are not convictions. Church officials often hire the best defense attorneys available,” said SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris. “Now more than ever it is important for anyone who has seen or suspected misdeeds by these men to contact law enforcement.” Philadelphia Judge Rene Cardwell-Hughes has imposed a gag order barring all parties involved from publicly speaking about the case. The Feb. 10 arrests of the five men were the result of a grand jury investigation on clerical sexual abuse launched by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. Since Feb. 17, 26 additional priests named in the grand jury report have been placed on administrative leave while archdiocesan officials review complaints against them ranging from sexual abuse of minors to “boundary issues.” At least nine have ties to Delaware County including two pastors and a parochial vicar. Lynn, 60, served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004 under former Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and was responsible for investigating clerical sexual abuse. He was formerly parochial vicar at St. Katharine of Siena parish in the Wayne section of Radnor. Lynn was most recently pastor of St. Joseph parish in Downingtown, Chester County before being suspended. Avery, who formerly served as assistant pastor of St. Bernadette Church in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby and Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Chester, was defrocked by the Vatican in 2006 because of previous sexual abuse allegations. Brennan, who was on the faculty of Cardinal O’Hara High School in Marple from 1991 to 1996, has been on a leave of absence and restricted from performing priestly duties since Jan. 16, 2006. He was living in a private residence in Linfield, Montgomery County, being supervised by an archdiocesan monitor and awaiting results of a canonical trial, when he surrendered to authorities. He was in residence at St. Mary Magdalen parish in Upper Providence from June 1995 to April 1996 and at Divine Providence Village, a facility for developmentally disabled girls and women in Marple, from June 1991 to June 1995. Engelhardt, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis DeSales, was last reported to be living at an Oblates’ residence in Wyndmoor, Montgomery County. Shero, a layman, was removed from his teaching position at St. Thomas Aquinas School in Bucks County Jan. 30, 2009 when archdiocesan officials received allegations that he sexually abused the same student allegedly abused by Engelhardt and Avery. He is a resident of Bristol, Bucks County. This is the second Philadelphia grand jury investigation on clerical sexual abuse. The first one, launched by former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham and completed in 2005, revealed that 63 priests allegedly abused children as far back as the 1940s, 43 of whom had ties with Delaware County. None could be criminally charged because Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations had expired by the time civil authorities became aware of the alleged abuse. The statute was expanded in 2006 by the state legislature that is currently considering a proposal to eliminate it. CNN contributed to this report. Read more at delcotimes.com

 

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Amplify’d from www.news24.com

Child abuser disappears from convent

Brussels - Former Catholic bishop and admitted paedophile Roger Vangheluwe on Sunday left the French convent where the Vatican had banished him for an undisclosed location, Belgian media reported.

The head of the convent of La Ferte-Imbault in France's Loire Valley had indicated on Saturday that he would leave shortly but could not say where he was going.

Vangheluwe last year became the first Catholic bishop to resign over sexual abuses he committed after admitting to abusing a nephew for 13 years.

The Vatican ordered him to seek "spiritual and psychological treatment" at La Ferte-Imbault and to disappear from view.

But the former bishop on Thursday told Belgian media he had abused another nephew for nearly a year, playing down the encounters by calling them "a kind of game".

The Vatican's forced retirement was "not a punishment, but a period of reflection," he said, pointing to many expressions of support, notably from religious communities.

The case plunged the Belgian Catholic Church anew into turmoil, with several bishops asking the Vatican to act quickly to punish Vangheluwe.

The church was rocked by revelations in September 2010 of nearly 500 cases of abuse by priests since the 1950s, including 13 victims who committed suicide.

- SAPA Read more at www.news24.com

 

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Priests in illicit relationships

Thousands of Catholic priests are in illicit relationships with both men and women in contravention of the Vatican's teachings on celibacy and homosexuality, a new book by an investigative journalist has claimed.

Amplify’d from www.telegraph.co.uk

Thousands of priests 'in illicit relationships with men and women'

Thousands of Catholic priests are in illicit relationships with both men and women in contravention of the Vatican's teachings on celibacy and homosexuality, a new book by an investigative journalist has claimed.

Some priests pay ex-lovers hush money so as not to be found out while others covertly support their illegitimate children through school, the book claims

By Nick Squires, Rome

Carmelo Abbate spent months undercover documenting a "hidden world" in which heterosexual priests have children with women who can never be their wives, and gay priests of many different nationalities visit nightclubs in Rome and pay for sex with escorts.

His book, "Sex and the Vatican: a secret journey in the reign of the chaste", was published in Italian yesterday.

Two British publishers are interested in buying the rights.

"The purpose of the book is not to shame Catholic clergy, it is to expose the hypocrisy and double standards of the Church," Mr Abbate, an award-winning investigative reporter, told The Daily Telegraph.

"There are priests with children but the kids cannot talk to their fathers in public for fear of their situation being discovered.

"There is a culture of 'omerta' (silence) in which the Church pretends not to know about any of this. If the authorities do find out, they just cover it up so as to avoid any scandal."

The book developed from an investigation conducted by Mr Abbate last year in which he used hidden cameras to film three priests attending gay nightspots in Rome and having casual sex, before donning their cassocks the next day and holding church services.

"At the time the Church said that these were just isolated incidents. I wanted to explore whether that was true and what I was found was that the phenomenon is much, much wider," he said.

He cited research which suggests that as many as a third of Catholic priests in the United States are gay and a quarter are in heterosexual relationships with women. Similar statistics have been reported in Germany and Austria.

Women made pregnant by priests told him of being forced to have abortions, or having to put their children up for adoption in a desperate attempt to keep their relationships secret.

Some priests pay ex-lovers hush money so as not to be found out while others covertly support their illegitimate children through school, the book claims.

"For a lot of priests, the Church's teachings on sexual relations are a prison," said Mr Abbate.

The Vatican declined to make any comment on the book, while a spokesman for the Italian Bishops Conference said: "We can't react to all books that speak badly of the Church."

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PLEASE sign this petition right away

Dear Blaine, A bill that would mandate pro-homosexual history classes has passed the California Senate. The bill would white wash American history and replace it with a version designed to advance a very specific agenda: The normalization of immoral homosexual behavior as a “healthy lifestyle” to be “experimented with.” They want to teach your children about sickening sex acts and draw them into a world of perversity where anything that feels good goes. And anyone who opposes sexual immorality and stands for the virtue of Marriage and the Family? Well, they’re hate-filled bigots who want to tell you what to do. You see the left has been playing upon the rebellious nature of young people for decades. They want to turn your children against you. And unless you and I stop it, this radical agenda will become the law of the land throughout our nation. I’ve told you about the Homosexual Classrooms Act before. (H.R. 998 and S. 555) Now it’s closer than ever to become law. H.R. 998 already has 128 co-sponsors in the House! And S. 555 already has 37 co-sponsors in the Senate! You and I need to take action right now to stop the growing momentum of this disastrous legislation. So if you haven’t already, PLEASE sign this petition right away. Thanks, Eugene Delgaudio President, Public Advocate of the United States

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Pure Evil

It's not just about raping children

Amplify’d from cityofangels11.blogspot.com

Pure Evil it's not just about raping children

. Pure evil, pure evil, that's why I'm freaking out now and having nightmares, because I had to get so close for several hours to Pure Evil, last week in the office of the lawyers who represent Cardinal Francis George and the Archdiocese of Chicago. It's not just about raping children, as if that were not enough. With the Catholic Church coverup of sex crimes of its priests, it's about Pure Evil, about hiring corporate lawyers to finagle manipulations so you can get away with breaking the law, any law can be broken if you have enough lawyers. It's about taking the Word of God and twisting it to keep yourself in so much power that even though everyone from the Supreme Court and the President of the United States, to one little old 62 year old lady, can see how evil and illegal everything is that they do, yet, they continue to be in positions of power and influence. Pure Evil, and when you get too close to it, it gets under your skin and attacks you through your subconscious at night while you sleep, re-entering your mind as dreams, nightmares that wake you up way before sunlight in a cold sweat, like I've had past few nights. Pure Evil and it will take me a few weeks to recover from this interaction. But I will overcome. (This post started here) Read more at cityofangels11.blogspot.com

 

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Crimes Against Humanity of Pope

Write Hague Criminal Court Prosecutor by May 11 re Crimes Against Humanity of Pope

Amplify’d from cityofangels11.blogspot.com

Write Hague Criminal Court Prosecutor by May 11 re Crimes Against Humanity of Pope

A prosecutor at The Hague International Criminal Court will soon decide whether to pursue criminal charges against Joseph Ratzinger (otherwise known as the “Pope”) as a German citizen who is complicit in crimes against humanity, especially in light of the epidemic of pedophilia by Catholic priests. Persons with evidence of crimes committed by the Catholic Church or The Vatican can now write directly to the prosecutor the International Criminal Court in charge of this case, Dr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, according to the two German Lawyers who are applying to prosecute Ratzinger, Christian Sailer and Gert Hetzel. "It is easy to have impact on the overall decision of The Hague prosecutor, as anyone can write directly with evidence of the crimes that this religious organization has committed," according to an email from Axel Cooley axel@telegracia.com received this week by City of Angels Blog. "It is vital to do this well before his decision date, May 15, 2011, so that he can utilize this evidence to proceed," writes Cooley. Send your story and evidence to: The Prosecutor The International Criminal Court Dr. Luis Moreno Ocampo Maanweg174 NL-2516 AB Den Haag The Hague,The Netherlands Cooley writes: "It is also important to enter your name in one of the websites of these websites demonstrating your approval:" http://www.popeaccountability.org/do-you-approve-/index.php (English) http://www.der-fall-des-papstes.com/finden-sie-das-gut/index.php (German) Soon, this website will be made available in Spanish, French and Italian. City of Angels Blog is Ba-a-a-ack -Kay Ebeling Read more at cityofangels11.blogspot.com

 

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