inside the vatican - the sex abuse scandal

[peaccenicked]

Inside the Vatican News June 11 2002

<center>On the Eve of the US Bishops' Meeting </center>

by Robert Moynihan


Conflicting currents -- from Rome, from the US media and legal system,
from progressive Catholics and from victims of clerical sexual abuse --
will trouble the upcoming US bishops meeting in Dallas June 13-15

VATICAN CITY, June 8, 2002 -- Tensions are mounting, and the battle,
far from nearing its end, is just beginning.
From Rome to Dallas, the US sexual abuse scandals are crystallizing
positions on matters central to the future of the Christian faith.
Opinions about the root causes of and the needed remedies for the
unprecedented US clerical sexual abuse scandal are increasingly polarized in
the days leading up to the US bishops' meeting in Dallas June 13 to 15.
An examination of the questions raised by these conflicting voices
suggests that three main questions are being posed:
(1) Is the main problem in the US that of pedophilia and administrative
cover-ups, or is it an increasingly widespread culture of active
homosexuality in the priesthood, with the cases of pedophilia one
manifestation of this phenomenon?
(2) Is the treatment of the scandal by the US media an ordinary and in
fact salutary probing and publicizing of terrible abuses and crimes, or
is it that but also something more, an intentional exaggeration of
these evil actions in order to blacken the reputation of all priests and in
so doing to destroy the moral authority of the Church?
(3) Is this scandal creating a situation in which one of the Church's
most precious attributes -- her freedom from state or secular power
("libertas ecclesiae") -- will be compromised?

***

Here is a summary of some of the most important of these interventions:
(1) In Rome, a leading cardinal -- Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga
of Honduras, who is thought of as "papabile" -- has just given an
explosive interview in which he compares the US media coverage of the scandal
to a "persecution" of the Church by Stalin and the Nazis.
(2) An influential US lay Catholic -- Deal Hudson, editor of "Crisis"
magazine -- has just sent an email letter following a visit to Rome in
which he says he finds little understanding in the Vatican of "the real
problem -- namely, predatory homosexuals in the priesthood" and
therefore has little hope that the June bishops meeting will be a successful
one. (3) An American Jesuit priest -- Father Paul Shaughnessy -- has
written a bombshell review of a new book on the Society of Jesus in which
he makes clear that homosexuality has become widespread, and widely
accepted, in the order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola almost 500 years
ago.
(4) A Croatian Jesuit moral theologian who works in the Vatican --
Father Ivan Fucek -- has argued that no homosexual who has engaged in
homosexual activity should be ordained a priest, and that this policy should
be adopted by the US bishops.
(5) An influential Jesuit Catholic magazine in Italy -- "La Civilta
Cattolica," whose texts are reviewed in the Vatican prior to publication
-- has recently published articles on the US scandals in which the US
media is faulted for its "morbid curiosity" in covering this scandal over
the past five months.
(6) An overview of the entire situation by Father Leonard Kennedy.
(7) A prayer and consecration being circulated on the internet.
(8) A note in which the Pope denies the rumor that he may decide to
resign.
------------------------
To read the full text of these items, go to the "Inside the Vatican"
website at: www.insidethevatican.com, where the full text is posted

[Supermodel]

The Supermodel addendum:

Did the church cover up the murder of Pope John Paul I?

Did the Pope in the 1930's support and give aid to Adolf Hitler?

Did the church turn its back on the holocaust?

Did the church cause global suffering by refusing to promote birth control in the third world?

Will the church now admit that it maligned Mary Magdalene by making up the story that she was a prostitute to suppress all women in the church?

Did the church give sanctuary to terrorists in Northern Ireland?

All will be revealed..........

[Menshevik]

"Did the church cover up the murder of Pope John Paul I?"

Why would the Church want to do that?

"Did the Pope in the 1930's support and give aid to Adolf Hitler?"

No, but he did not speak out against the persecution of Jews, and later apoliogized for not doing so.

"Did the church turn its back on the holocaust?"

Again, no, not really. But if you think about it, the entire world turned its back on the Holocaust. No one was willing to believe it until they actually saw with their own eyes.

"Did the church cause global suffering by refusing to promote birth control in the third world?"

Global Suffering? How so? The Churches policy on birth control has changed drastically, and they now feel that married couples may practice some form of birth control, but they will never accept abortion (if thats what you meant). The Church will also never embrace pre-marital sex, and therefore would condemn the use of birth-control by unmarried partners.

"Will the church now admit that it maligned Mary Magdalene by making up the story that she was a prostitute to suppress all women in the church?"

So you're saying that Mary Magdalene was in fact a real person, but she wasn't a prostitute? Who are you to say who she was? As a character in the Bible, she is most likely fictional. Aside from that, why does calling one woman a prostitute supress all women? Jesus teaches to love the meek and all those below you. He said that it was the prostitutes and lepers who would be with him first in the Kingdom. This still does not supress women.

"Did the church give sanctuary to terrorists in Northern Ireland?"

So, the Church in Northern Ireland sometimes protected soldiers in the IRA. Does this refer directly to the Universal policies of the Church? No, it only refers to a specific group in a specific moment.

[Blasphemy]

even during the war, after the digusting atrocities carried out by the nazis were revealed, the church did not even condemn the massacre of the jewish people. they did not do as much as say that it must be stopped.

the allies at least declared war on germany, after looking the other way for quite some time.

and it was really nice that the pope apologized, but that does not compensate for the fact that the church could have stopped the murdering. an apology does not bring the dead back to life.

[Menshevik]

The allies did not declare war on Germany because of the persecution of Jews. Saving Jews was farthest from anyone's mind during the war. It was only at the end of the war that the allied armies actually witnessed the atrocities comitted. The Pope could not have prevented the Holocaust for several reasons. One, there is no Catholic majority in Germany, most Germans are Lutheran or some other form of Protestant. Also, do you really think that a facist government would pay any attention to the decrees of the Church? The Church does not have power over the actions of any government, so there is no way they could influence other countries into intervening. Finally, where is the Vatican? It's in Rome. Where is Rome? It's in Italy. Italy was, of course, controled by the facists, so, the Church's communication with the people was greatly supressed.

Furthermore, just because the Pope did not speak out against the Nazis, doesn't mean other Church officials were silent as well. St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish franciscan who resisted the Nazis bitterly and was later killed in Auschwitz. Kolbe said, "These Nazis will not kill our souls, since we prisoners certainly distinguish ourselves quite differently from our tormentors; they will not be able to deprive us of the dignity of our Catholic belief. We will not give up. And when we die, then we die pure and peaceful, resigned to God in our hearts."

Kolbe was only one of thousands who resisted the Nazis. Don't assume that everyone was complacent. And don't assume that nothing was done.

[peaccenicked]

Quote: from Menshevik on 5:33 pm on June 14, 2002
"Did the church cover up the murder of Pope John Paul I?"

Why would the Church want to do that?

"Did the Pope in the 1930's support and give aid to Adolf Hitler?"

No, but he did not speak out against the persecution of Jews, and later apoliogized for not doing so.

"Did the church turn its back on the holocaust?"

Again, no, not really. But if you think about it, the entire world turned its back on the Holocaust. No one was willing to believe it until they actually saw with their own eyes.

"Did the church cause global suffering by refusing to promote birth control in the third world?"

Global Suffering? How so? The Churches policy on birth control has changed drastically, and they now feel that married couples may practice some form of birth control, but they will never accept abortion (if thats what you meant). The Church will also never embrace pre-marital sex, and therefore would condemn the use of birth-control by unmarried partners.

"Will the church now admit that it maligned Mary Magdalene by making up the story that she was a prostitute to suppress all women in the church?"

So you're saying that Mary Magdalene was in fact a real person, but she wasn't a prostitute? Who are you to say who she was? As a character in the Bible, she is most likely fictional. Aside from that, why does calling one woman a prostitute supress all women? Jesus teaches to love the meek and all those below you. He said that it was the prostitutes and lepers who would be with him first in the Kingdom. This still does not supress women.

"Did the church give sanctuary to terrorists in Northern Ireland?"

So, the Church in Northern Ireland sometimes protected soldiers in the IRA. Does this refer directly to the Universal policies of the Church? No, it only refers to a specific group in a specific moment.

Is the catholic church reactionary through and through?
No! there are some muddle-headed liberation theologists, who want to turn Jesus Christ into Che Guevara.

[RedCeltic]

I have nothing against catholic people, however totally disagree with all forms of "organized religion"... and the catholic church, time, and time again as proven just how wrong, corrupt, and oppressive organized religion can be.

Is it any wonder that the majority of ex-Christians we see coming to Wicca are from the Roman Catholic Church?

Supermodel has touched on many of the dark aspects of Catholicism.

Well perhaps they deserve some credit, there was once a time that a true follower of Jesus Christ would still find his/herself burned at the stake for not believing that Jesus was "Begot but not made" but rather the natural son of Mary. Born in the flesh as a true son of "God".

Nowadays things are different and the Catholic Church is mildly making it's way out of the middle ages.


(Edited by RedCeltic at 12:10 am on June 20, 2002)

[peaccenicked]

The catholic church has historically bent with the wind.
Legalise heroin now they would be for it in a year. I do not hate catholics(in case that is implied in my thinking)
I detest ideology in all its forms because it just is not true. Ideologues play footsie with the truth, but popularity is the goal, finding a compromise with any old reactionary 'common' denominator.