Ireland - Bishops covered up priests' child abuse

[Missizzy]

I was just tooling along and I came across 7 minutes--7 minutes??!! As in 420 seconds? To describe what's being done in their diocese about pedophilia and the cover-up.

How long does it take to speak the words, "Well not a whole heck of a lot, Father."?

 

[monicafussy]

So, in other words, that means we're not going to talk about it.......surreptitiously slide it back under the rug (or let it crawl back under the rock)?

You got it in one !

 

[Texas Mist]

Archbishop employs paedophile tracker

17.02.10

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin says he employs a person fulltime to monitor the activities of paedophile priests. He was responding to continuing criticism of this week's meeting in Rome.

The admission comes as victims of clerical abuse criticised the summit as being nothing more than "a cynical PR exercise".

http://www.tv3.ie/article.php?locID=1.2.&article_id=32048

allllrighty then

 

[monicafussy]

 

[Missizzy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100320...lYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3BvcGVzbGFtc2lyaQ--

Pope slams Irish church, no Vatican blame in abuse

Pope Benedict XVI rebuked Irish bishops Saturday for "grave errors of judgment" in handling clerical sex abuse cases and ordered an investigation into the Irish church. But he laid no blame for the problem on the Vatican's policies of keeping such cases secret.

In a letter to the Irish faithful read across Europe amid a growing, multination abuse scandal, the pope apologized to victims but doled out no specific punishments to bishops blamed by Irish government-ordered investigations for having covered up abuse of thousands of Irish children from the 1930s to the 1990s.

Ireland's main group of clerical-abuse victims, One in Four, said it was deeply disappointed by the letter because it failed to place responsibility with the Vatican for what it called a "deliberate policy of the Catholic Church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders, thereby endangering children."

"If the church cannot acknowledge this fundamental truth, it is still in denial," the group said....."


Much more at link. "Not my fault, don't look at me or my guys." One in Four, indeed. Shame.

 

[Missizzy]

With the greatest respect to the Pontiff, I'd have to disagree about not judging pedophiles. I assume the adulteress in the parable is an adult as was her lover. We're talking about stealing the innocence and harming the bodies of thousands of children. I'm afraid his words are going to be cold comfort for Catholics who have been waiting to hear more merciful words concerning their plight. JMO



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100321...jA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNwb3BlZG9lc25vdG0-

Pope does not mention rebuke to Irish bishops

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged Catholics to refrain from judging sinners a day after he rebuked Irish bishops for their handling of a half-century of sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

The pontiff didn't mention his letter chastising Ireland's church hierarchy as he made his weekly appearance Sunday from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square. He cited the Gospel passage about Jesus' inviting those without sin to cast the first stone toward an adulterer.

"While acknowledging her sin, he does not condemn her, but urges her to sin no more," Benedict told English-speaking pilgrims in the square. "Trusting in his great mercy toward us, we humbly beg his forgiveness for our own failings, and we ask for the strength to grow in his holiness."

more at link

 

[Missizzy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110118...jA3luX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDdmF0aWNhbndhcm5l

Vatican warned Irish bishops not to report abuse


"A 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police — a disclosure that victims' groups described as "the smoking gun" needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests.

The newly revealed letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided to The Associated Press, documents the Vatican's rejection of a 1996 Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests following Ireland's first wave of publicly disclosed lawsuits.

The letter undermines persistent Vatican claims, particularly when seeking to defend itself in U.S. lawsuits, that Rome never instructed local bishops to withhold evidence or suspicion of crimes from police. It instead emphasizes the church's right to handle all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments in house rather than give that power to civil authorities...."

more at link

 

[kgeaux]

If this proves to be true how much more horrible for all the victims to know that the Pope---whom Catholics believe to be infallible---demanded that their abuse not be reported.

There was a priest in my area who routinely abused altar boys. His punishment, for much of his career, was to be moved about from parish to parish. There was a definite attempt on the part of the Catholic church to cover his crimes, to pretend nothing had happened, to give this priest (but not his victims) every chance to begin again in a new area where no one knew his history.

I'll just go out on a limb and bet that the Irish bishops were NOT the only ones to receive these instructions. I'll bet that "no report" was what was encouraged everywhere.....

 

[Linda7NJ]

IMO The catholic church is big business and when it came to the sexual abuse of CHILDREN by clergy...it became all about protecting the "brand"

 

[2goldfish]

IMO The catholic church is big business and when it came to the sexual abuse of CHILDREN by clergy...it became all about protecting the "brand"

I think you're right but I still dont understand. I dont see how they could sleep at night.

 

[drip~drop]

I learned a lot about the Catholic Church the day my daddy died.
As Father Coffey and Mother Superior stood there, my dads partner...my god father yet, dosed my dad with a combo of drugs that caused him to pass within minutes.
A Catholic hospital that refused abortions but ok'd death by lethal injection to my dad.

IMO, the Catholic Church is 2-3 faced.:maddening: Whatever faith I had, I lost it that day.

 

[believe09]

In a small town near me, the local Catholic Church suffered the death of it's priest who had been shepherding his flock for quite some time. Another priest was brought in, he lasted a year then was indicted for sexual abuse. Another priest was transferred in, he lasted a year and then was indicted for sexual abuse.

Tell me what the message is to these good people-that they are a dumping ground for questionable priests, right?

Personally, I believe that it a right of passage in the church that goes back centuries. It is institutionalized in a way. And for the last 100 years at least, people have kept their mouths shut because of the power these clergy people have in their lives as well as their community. And then the damn broke.

Nothing is going to ease this heartache until the Vatican just gives it all up-just cops to everything we know to be true...that there was an organized response to problem priests which was to move them around and put them in "retreat" when people started comparing notes about their children's experiences. And that people were encouraged not to go to LE. They complained to their bishop, who either did nothing or buried the complaint.

The Irish have it right-no more hiding if they can help it. Mitch Garabedian who has championed victims of clergy sex abuse here in the US is publishing a list of SO's within the Church today on his website because Sean O'Malley has failed to do so himself.

It is time to wake folks up and protect our children. The true sin is to allow the abuse to spread. JMVHO.

 

[Missizzy]

Wait, we all misunderstood? Is that classic, or what?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_irela...DeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDdmF0aWNhbjE5OTdp

Vatican: 1997 Irish abuse letter 'misunderstood'


"VATICAN CITY – In a new round of damage control, the Vatican insisted Wednesday that a 1997 letter warning Irish bishops against reporting priests suspected of sex abuse to police had been "deeply misunderstood."

The Associated Press on Tuesday reported the contents of the letter, in which the Vatican's top diplomat in Ireland told bishops that their policy of mandatory reporting such cases to police "gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature....."

more at link