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News Updates Please visit our new extensive Survey Poll The Judge and the Child Porn Law While I agree with Judge Jack B. Weinstein about ending mandatory sentencing and giving discretion back to judges, there are fundamental ways in which we disagree about the users of child pornography. First, he does not believe that those who view images of child sexual abuse are a threat to children. But of course they are! If they did not provide a market for such images, then children would not be abused to produce them in the first place. According to the Justice Department, an estimated one million children
in the United States are abused yearly in the production of child
pornography, a $3 billion business annually. Report Outlines Abuse Claims at German Jesuit Schools The investigator, Ursula Raue, said the actual number could be higher. “We cannot expect to have heard everything yet,” she said. “The question must be asked why the order dealt so dismissively with the well-based information about frequent incidents of sexual abuse in its institutions.” Father Stefan Dartmann, Germany’s leading Jesuit official, immediately issued a statement acknowledging “with shame and guilt, our failure.” A priest identified only as Father Eckhart, no longer alive, who was at Canisius-Kolleg, “liked very much to beat” the children. Another priest, called Father Michel, also at that school, was “a sadist who enjoyed and often beat the naked bottoms of the children.” At three schools, a priest called Father Bertram beat 50 students in a “sadistic sexual” way on their bare or clothed buttocks in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the investigation, Father Bertram underwent years of therapy. Before leaving the order, he confessed in 1991 to having suffered emotional problems that led him to beat children. continue: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/world/europe/28jesuit.html The Welfare Museum Last weekend I had the very great pleasure of visiting Svendborg and meeting Maria and her colleagues at the museum which has recently undergone a major refurbishment. The building, erected in 1872, was Denmark's last operational workhouse, finally closing in 1974. There are remarkable parallels between the English and Danish poor-law systems and also between their institutional buildings. The Svendborg workhouse, one of 450 in Denmark, as well as segregating males and females, had sections for the "deserving" poor (the elderly, chronic sick, etc.) and the "undeserving" poor (the able-bodied, vagrants, alcoholics, etc.). continue: http://www.boernehjem.nu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=402&Itemid=144 Irish cardinal defies calls to resign over priest's child abuse Dr Sean Brady to stay on as head of Irish Catholics despite role in covering up abuse of teenagers by Fr Brendan Smyth The leader of Ireland's Catholics has defied calls to step down over the cover-up of the country's most notorious paedophile priest scandal. Cardinal Sean Brady said he would stay on as head of the Irish church even though he had previously hinted he may resign. In a statement last night Brady asked Pope Benedict XVI for "additional support for my work, at episcopal level". continue: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/18/irish-cardinal-defies-calls-resign-abuse Pope-bishop relationship key in sex abuse defense VATICAN CITY — The pope appoints bishops, issues rules bishops are supposed to follow and accepts their resignations. Bishops take a vow of obedience to the pontiff and can't switch jobs without his approval. But is the pope their boss? Are bishops Vatican employees or officials? Those questions are very much at the heart of lawsuits in the United States seeking to hold the Holy See liable for the failure of bishops to stop priests from raping and molesting children. The Vatican filed a motion to dismiss one such suit in Kentucky on Monday, arguing in part that bishops aren't Vatican employees and that Rome therefore can't be held liable for their actions. The case is significant because it represents the farthest any case has gotten in a U.S. court trying to place blame for the clerical abuse scandal on Rome, not just the priests who abused children and the bishops who failed to turn them into police. The lawyer for the victims in Kentucky, William McMurry, says he doesn't have to prove bishops are employees of the Vatican to hold them liable but merely demonstrate they are Vatican "officials." continue: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iH9I3NH568g_9CE-MMStuwZ3jgfAD9FP5FE80 Shooting At Shadows Archbishop Diarmuid Martin: ‘I am surprised at the manner in
which church academics and church publicists can today calmly act
as pundits… as if they were totally extraneous to the scandal’ continue: http://www.paddydoyle.com/shooting-at-shadows/ What has happen in Ireland since the Ryan report? ‘Just another report on another shelf’ One year ago this Thursday, Justice Sean Ryan published the long-awaited results of his report into child abuse at church-run industrial schools and orphanages, where rape and abuse of children was found to be ‘endemic’. As the anniversary approaches, John Downes asked a variety of people for their thoughts on what progress, if any, has been made since then continue: http://www.paddydoyle.com/just-another-report-on-another-shelf/ Survivors Rally in Dublin. I have a message to the Catholic church today: Get out of my country!” Kevin Flanagan stood with me and fifty others, including a swarm of all the major media, as he said these words outside the Dail, the Irish parliament, in downtown Dublin today. Tortured as a child in a Catholic school, Kevin faced the truth unafraid,
and shared it with all of us who gathered to confront the state coverup
of horrible crimes by the church in institutions across Ireland –
and to reveal how these crimes continue. Catholic recruits and the sex abuse scandal Catholic priests have been at the centre of the child sex abuse scandal that has so damaged the Church. Some have found themselves defrocked, on trial, or both. But it seems, despite a scandal that has been building for years, that there are many who still receive the calling. continue: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8676093.stm HP: Bringing the Vatican to Justice I confess that, as a critic of religion, I have paid too little attention to the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Frankly, it always felt unsportsmanlike to shoot so large and languorous a fish in so tiny a barrel. This scandal was one of the most spectacular "own goals" in the history of religion, and there seemed to be no need to deride faith at its most vulnerable and self-abased. Even in retrospect, it is easy to understand the impulse to avert one's eyes: Just imagine a pious mother and father sending their beloved child to the Church of a Thousand Hands for spiritual instruction, only to have him raped and terrified into silence by threats of hell. And then imagine this occurring to tens of thousands of children in our own time -- and to children beyond reckoning for over a thousand years. The spectacle of faith so utterly misplaced, and so fully betrayed, is simply too depressing to think about. But there was always more to this phenomenon that should have compelled
my attention. Consider the ludicrous ideology that made it possible:
The Catholic Church has spent two millennia demonizing human sexuality
to a degree unmatched by any other institution, declaring the most
basic, healthy, mature, and consensual behaviors taboo. Indeed, this
organization still opposes the use of contraception, preferring, instead,
that the poorest people on earth be blessed with the largest families
and the shortest lives. Pope pins abuse scandal on Church 'sin' He made his comments in response to a question while en route to Portugal. Critics have previously accused the Vatican of attempting to blame the media and the Church's opponents for the escalation of the scandal. But the Pope made clear its origin came from within the Church itself, and said forgiveness "does not replace justice". continue: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8674350.stm BBC: Pope accepts German bishop's resignation Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of a German bishop accused of hitting children, the Vatican said. Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg said in his resignation letter last month that his diocese needed a "new start". The bishop at first denied hitting children at an orphanage in the 1970s and 1980s, but later apologised. He has not been accused of any sexual abuse. However, on Friday prosecutors said they were investigating other allegations but gave no details. The Catholic Church has come under severe pressure over child sexual abuse allegations emerging across the world in recent weeks. 'Causing grief' A short, Vatican announcement on Saturday cited no reason for accepting Bishop Mixa's resignation. The Church has also set up an investigation into alleged financial irregularities at a children's home which was under Bishop Mixa's responsibility, amid reports that large sums of money had been spent on antique paintings, garden furniture and wine. continue: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8669747.stm Report: Sexual abuse charge against German bishop BERLIN — German officials said Friday that a preliminary investigation has been launched against Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa, who offered Pope Benedict XVI his resignation already last month over allegations he physically abused minors. The daily Augsburger Allgemeine reported that Ingolstadt prosecutors had launched the preliminary investigation into Mixa over a charge of sexual abuse stemming from his time at the Eichstaett diocese from 1996 to 2005. The Augsburg diocese confirmed in a statement that it had "handed over information, that has recently come up to the responsible authority," involving the bishop, but spokeswoman Kathi Marie Ulrich refused to give any details. Bavarian Justice Ministry Spokeswoman Stefanie Ruhwinkel said a preliminary investigation had been launched against Mixa but provided no other details. Prosecutors in Ingolstadt did not respond to calls Friday and Mixa could not be reached for comment. Mixa's attorney Gerhard Decker told the paper his client "resolutely
denied" the allegations. Decker did not return calls seeking
comment Friday. Resigning German bishop accused of sexual abuse (Reuters) - German prosecutors are investigating accusations of sexual abuse by a Roman Catholic bishop in Pope Benedict's native Bavaria, authorities said on Friday. Prosecutors and church officials said an investigation had been opened but gave no further details of the accusations of abuse against Bishop Walter Mixa, who has already offered to resign after being accused of hitting children. A spokesman for the diocese of Eichstaett said the accusations referred to a time between 1996 and 2000 when Mixa, currently the bishop of Augsburg in the predominantly Catholic Bavaria, was bishop of Eichstaett, also in the state. "The Augsburg diocese has transmitted details to the appropriate
authorities according to the guidelines of the German Bishops' Conference,"
the diocese said in a statement. Police investigate sex abuse claims against Catholic bishop Mixa German police are investigating sexual abuse allegations against controversial Catholic bishop Walter Mixa. The cleric offered his resignation last month over allegations that he hit children before becoming bishop. Prosecutors in the Bavarian city of Augsburg on Friday said that they had opened a preliminary probe into sexual abuse allegations against German Bishop Walter Mixa. The 68-year-old has been accused of sexually abusing a boy while he was bishop of Eichstaett between 1996 and 2005. Catholic officials are reported to have called police over claims
that Mixa breached rules on sexual contact with minors. NT: Abuse Case Offers a View of the Vatican’s Politics The two former Mexican seminarians had gone to the Vatican in 1998 to personally deliver a case recounting decades of sexual abuse by one of the most powerful priests in the Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado. As they left, they ran into the man who would hold Father Maciel’s fate in his hands, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and kissed his ring. The encounter was no accident. Cardinal Ratzinger wanted to meet them, witnesses later said, and their case was soon accepted. But in little more than a year, word emerged that Cardinal Ratzinger
the future Pope Benedict XVI halted the inquiry. “It
isn’t prudent,” he had told a Mexican bishop, according
to two people who later talked to the bishop. HP: Cardinal Levada Blames Celibacy for Clergy Sex Abuse Given the numerous times that representatives of the Catholic Church hierarchy have denounced efforts to link compulsory celibacy to the terrible history of clergy sex abuse and cover-up, it was astonishing to hear Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles abuse allegations, do just that on PBS Newshourlast week. Responding to a visiting Margaret Warner's questions about the clergy sex abuse scandal, Levada at one point said: "I think the causes we will see go back to changes in society that the church and priests were not prepared for, particularly changes involving how to be a celibate person in a time of the sexual revolution." continue: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-bonavoglia/cardinal-levada-blames-ce_b_560145.html The Catholic Church: Abusing, Endangering, And Intimidating Women It was indeed outrageous that Reverend Raniero Cantalamessa, in his Good Friday homily at St. Peter's Basilica, with Pope Benedict in eyeshot, compared the public denunciation of the Catholic Church hierarchy for harboring child molesting priests to the homicidal viciousness of anti-Semitism. But there was another reason to be troubled by that homily: Cantalamessa also talked about the need to end violence against women, which is crucial, but he did so without any acknowledgment of the Church's own culpability in the abuse, endangerment, and intimidation of women. "Much of this violence," he declared, "has a sexual background." Yes, let's start there. In 2001, a year before the pedophilia crisis hit the news, the National Catholic Reporter analyzed internal Church reports written by two Catholic nuns -- a physician who was a Medical Missionary of Mary, and the AIDS coordinator for the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development -- documenting the sexual exploitation of nuns by priests in 23 countries on five continents. continue: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-bonavoglia/the-catholic-church-abusi_b_531184.html Catholic order to be overhauled after founder's abuse
Marcial Maciel's actions were "immoral" and the Legionaries of Christ order had to be "purified", the Vatican said. Maciel, who died in 2008, fathered a daughter with a mistress as well as sexually abusing many boys and young men over a period of 30 years. He had enjoyed the support of the previous pope, John Paul II. In 2006, Father Maciel was banned from exercising his ministry in public and told to retire to a life of prayer and penitence. The priest - who founded the conservative order in 1941 - had always denied any wrongdoing. He died in January 2008 at the age of 87. continue: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8656085.stm |
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