Pope hits out at criticism of Church over sexual abuse

5 March 2014 Last updated at 11:40 ET

From the link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26448075

Pope Francis has strongly defended the Roman Catholic Church’s record on tackling sexual abuse by priests.

In a rare interview with an Italian newspaper, the Pope said “no-one else has done more” to root out paedophilia.

He said the Church had acted with transparency and responsibility, yet it was the only institution to have been attacked.

Last month, the UN strongly criticised the Vatican for failing to stamp out child abuse and for allowing cover-ups.

‘Shocking’ statistics

In his interview with Corriere della Sera published on Wednesday, Pope Francis said: “The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution to have acted with transparency and responsibility.

“No-one else has done more. Yet the Church is the only one to have been attacked.”

The Pope, who will celebrate his first anniversary of his election later this month, also praised his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, for changing the Church’s attitude towards predatory priests, saying he had been “very courageous”.

He also questioned the focus of the debate, saying: “The statistics on the phenomenon of violence against children are shocking, but they also clearly show that the great majority of abuses are carried out in family or neighbourhood environments.”

A UN report into the abuse scandals published last month called on the Pope to “immediately remove” all clergy who were known or suspected child abusers.

It also accused the Vatican of systematically placing the “preservation of the reputation of the Church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims” – something it has strenuously denied.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the Holy See should open its files on members of the clergy who had “concealed their crimes” so that they could be held accountable by the authorities.

Pope Francis has set up a commission to investigate sex crimes committed by priests and to care for victims, but so far he has made very few public comments about the scandals that have rocked the Church in recent years.

No ‘big changes’

The leader of an Italian group representing victims of clerical sex abuse claimed there had been little action from the Vatican and said there had been no “big changes” under Pope Francis.

Francesco Zanardi of Rete L’Abuso, told the BBC: “The cases of child abuse by priests continue to happen, all around Italy, and of the cases that we’ve denounced we have seen no results.”

“The Pope may make this statement, but then the Vatican doesn’t reply to the UN or impose the obligation that bishops should denounce accused priests in the courts and not deal with the cases internally.”

The founder of the US-based website, BishopAccountability.org, Terence McKiernan, was more direct in his criticism, complaining that the Pope had not merely failed to apologise to the children who had been abused but had not even expressed sorrow.

“It is astonishing, at this late date, that Pope Francis would recycle such tired and defensive rhetoric,” he said.

Pope Francis also used the interview with Corriere della Sera to admit that he was uncomfortable with the depiction of him as a “superman” who leaves the Vatican at night to feed the homeless.

He told the newspaper: “The Pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps calmly and has friends like everyone else. A normal person.”

His comments came as a new weekly magazine devoted entirely to his life, called Il Mio Papa – or My Pope – hit the news-stands in Italy.

 

 

Pope Francis YOU are a LIAR: Church Sex Abuse Survivors Criticize Pope

Church Sex Abuse Survivors Criticize Pope

“The Catholic Church is possibly the only public institution that acted with transparency and responsibility. Nobody else did more. Still, the Catholic Church was the only one to come under fire.” said Pope Francis.

From the link: http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/church-sex-abuse-survivors-criticize-pope-n45501

Wow I actually started liking this Pope until he spewed the above words from his mouth the other day.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS NEVER ACTED WITH TRANSPARENCY AND RESPONSIBILITY WHEN IT COMES TIME TO THE PRIEST AND NUN ABUSE CRISIS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. THEY STILL DO NOT. THEY STILL FIGHT US VICTIMS USING EVERY MEANS AT THEIR DISPOSAL TO EVADE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS. THEY LOVE TO USE THE STATUE OF LIMITATIONS TO AVOID THEIR PAYING FOR THEIR CRIMES AGAINST US.

Transparency? Is that for when you moved child rapist pedophile priests from parish to parish, not warning anyone, some of these priests being moved up to a dozen times? You dare call this transparency Pope Francis? These pedophile priests files were hidden from all of us, so please explain to us how this made you so transparent?

Pope Francis, the ONLY thing the Roman Catholic Church has done to us survivors of priest rape, soul torture and nun abuse is to shit on us. You deny us justice at every step of the way, you keep protecting the Pedophile Pimp Cardinals, Bishops and Archbishops and Pope Emetrius Benedict for their parts in the cover-ups. Your church and its lawyers use every means available to deny us victims true justice and recompense for our shattered lives…especially the Statue of Limitations.

You have sick and twisted attack dogs like Bill Donohue of the Catholic League whom blames us victims for our rapes and tells us we enjoyed being raped and are homosexuals for it.

No Pope Francis, the Catholic Church still does NOT act with transparency and responsibility towards us survivors of your disgusting priests and abusive nuns. You should be ashamed of yourself for speaking such outrageous, bald faced lies…but this is what we survivors have come to expect from the leadership of the Unholy Roman Catholic Church of Pedophile Pimps and Priests.

Vatican envoy rejects UN panel’s critical verdict on clerical abuse scandal

Committee attacks church’s handling of sex abuse allegations, but archbishop says findings are outdated and ideological

• Lizzy Davies in Rome and Henry McDonald
• theguardian.com, Wednesday 5 February 2014 13.59 EST

The leadership of the Roman Catholic church is engaged in a tense standoff with the United Nations after a damning report on the Holy See’s handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal was branded out of date, unfair and ideological by a top Vatican official.

After the appearance last month of a Holy See delegation before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the expert panel published a series of highly critical observations accusing the church of failing to acknowledge the scale of the problem and implementing policies that led to “the continuation of the abuse and the impunity of the perpetrators”.

The committee said it was particularly concerned that, when dealing with allegations of children being abused by priests, “the Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children’s best interests”.

The panel also found fault with some central church teachings and their impact on children’s health, urging the Vatican to reconsider its stance on abortion and contraception, and encouraging it to tone down criticism of homosexuality in an attempt to reduce “social stigmatisation” and violence against gay youths and children raised by gay couples.

In a swift and terse response, the Vatican released a statement saying it would submit the findings “to a thorough study and examination” but did not appreciate being asked to change its position on issues it considered immutable.

“The Holy See does … regret to see in some points of the concluding observations an attempt to interfere with Catholic church teaching on the dignity of [the] human person and in the exercise of religious freedom,” it said.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanent observer at the UN in Geneva, went further, saying he had been surprised by the findings, which he considered “not up to date” and a distorted depiction that ignored recent progress.

Tomasi, who was part of last month’s delegation, said the report seemed “almost to have been prepared before” that meeting, and ignored the “precise responses on various points” that he and other officials had given. Asked by Vatican Radio why he thought the findings had been so harsh, he said he suspected pro-gay rights NGOs had influenced the committee and “reinforced an ideological line” in the UN.

Advocates for the survivors of clerical sex abuse welcomed the committee’s findings. “This day has been a long time coming, but the international community is finally holding the Vatican accountable for its role in enabling and perpetuating sexual violence in the church,” said Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the US-based Centre for Constitutional Rights.

“The whole world will be watching to ensure that the Vatican takes the concrete steps required by the UN to protect children and end these crimes.”

Pope Francis has referred to clerical child sex abuse as “the shame of the church”, yet has not often spoken out about it, preferring to focus on other issues such as poverty and the evils of the global financial system. In December he announced the establishment of a commission of experts to look at how the church could better protect children from potential abusers.

When they appeared in Geneva last month, Tomasi and Charles Scicluna, a former sex crimes prosecutor at the Vatican and auxiliary bishop of Malta, said guidelines already put in place by the Holy See and Catholic churches around the world had, when properly applied, presented a way of eliminating the scourge of abuse. “The Holy See gets it,” Scicluna declared.

But, according to the UN committee, that is yet to be proved. “The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” it wrote in its first concluding observations on the Holy See – a signatory to the UN convention on the rights of the child – since 1995.

Dismissing a key plank of the Holy See’s argument – that the church is not comparable to a global business and the Vatican cannot be expected to keep in check all clergy in all parts of the world – the committee said that by ratifying the convention it had committed itself to implementing it “not only on the territory of the Vatican City state but also as the supreme power of the Catholic church through individuals and institutions placed under its authority”.

Attacking what it described as a “code of silence” that had restricted the reporting of suspected crimes, the committee criticised the practice of moving priests found to have abused children from parish to parish or to other countries “in an attempt to cover up such crimes”.

The committee noted: “The practice of offenders’ mobility, which has allowed many priests to remain in contact with children and to continue to abuse them, still places children in many countries at high risk of sexual abuse, as dozens of child sexual offenders are reported to be still in contact with children.”

Last month Scicluna told the panel that this was “a grave concern”, but said dioceses and parishes were now obliged to pass on information concerning a priest wanting to move on. He also said: “It is not a policy of the Holy See to encourage cover-ups.”

The UN panel also criticised the Holy See for refusing to hand over data concerning all cases of abuse brought to its attention during the period in question, and their outcomes. It said confidential disciplinary proceedings had “allowed the vast majority of abusers and almost all those who concealed child sexual abuse to escape judicial proceedings in states where abuses were committed”.

The findings were not limited to clerical abuse, exploring other areas – from the classification of “illegitimate” children to the use of so-called baby boxes – where it said the Catholic church could improve its protection of children’s rights.

It was particularly critical of the Vatican’s handling of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries scandal, in which thousands of women and girls were abused and enslaved, saying a full Vatican investigation should be launched and the abusers prosecuted. It demanded full compensation be paid to the victims and their families who were caught up in the system in Ireland.

Last year the Irish state finally said sorry to 10,000 women and girls incarcerated in Catholic church-run laundries, where they were treated as virtual slaves. The taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said what happened to the Magdalene women had “cast a long shadow over Irish life, over our sense of who we are”, and he “deeply regretted and apologised” for the hurt and trauma inflicted.

Clerical sex abuse: the UN’s recommendations

• All known and suspected child abusers must be immediately removed from their positions and the relevant civil law enforcement authorities notified. This reporting to civil authorities must be mandatory; clear rules and procedures should be set up to facilitate it; and all church employees must be taught that these obligations prevail over church law.

• Pope Francis’s commission should investigate independently all cases of abuse and “the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them”. It should consider appointing representatives of civil society and victims groups.

• Archives of past cases dealt with by the Holy See must be opened to allow for both the abusers and those who may have sought to conceal their crimes and “knowingly placed offenders in contact with children” to be held accountable.

The committee’s findings are non-binding. The report notes that most of the recommendations made by the panel in 1995 have “not been fully addressed”.

U.N. Panel Criticizes the Vatican Over Sexual Abuse

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN, NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and JIM YARDLEYFEB. 5, 2014

From the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/world/europe/un-panel-assails-vatican-over-sex-abuse-by-priests.html?_r=0

In a hard-hitting report applauded by victims as a landmark in the Roman Catholic Church’s clerical sexual-abuse scandal, a United Nations committee on Wednesday called on the Vatican to remove all child abusers from its ranks, report them to law enforcement and open the church’s archives so that bishops and other officials who concealed crimes could be held accountable.

The report, issued by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, is likely to put pressure on Pope Francis to make concrete changes in the way the church handles abuse cases and put some muscle into the commission on abuse that he announced in December, whose members and mission have not yet been specified.

The Vatican responded on Wednesday that it had already made many of the changes called for in the report, and that the report’s conclusions were out of date.

The report, however, was sharply critical of the church’s current practices, not just those of the past. “The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report concluded.

The criticism came from a panel that examined the Vatican’s compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international agreement signed by 140 sovereign entities, including the Vatican. The panel held a hearing on the issue last month, the first time the Vatican faced public examination by an international body of its record on sexual abuse, and heard testimony from Bishop Charles J. Scicluna, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sexual abuse cases until 2012, who told the panel that “the Holy See gets it.”

The report, issued in Geneva, addressed issues far beyond child sexual abuse, taking the Vatican to task for its opposition to contraception, homosexuality and abortion in cases of child rape and incest. The committee even suggested that the church amend its canon laws to permit abortions for pregnant girls whose lives and health are at risk.

But the Vatican press office said in a statement that it regretted to see the United Nations committee “attempt to interfere” with Catholic teaching and the church’s “exercise of religious freedom.”

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a blog post that the report was “weakened” by the panel’s decision to include objections to Catholic teaching on “culture war” issues.

On the many pressing problems related to child welfare, the report recommended specific steps it said the Vatican should take: stop obstructing efforts by victims’ advocates in some countries to extend statutes of limitations, which now allow most abusers to escape prosecution; stop insisting that victims sign confidentiality agreements swearing them to silence as a condition for receiving compensation; help birth parents locate children who were taken from them for adoption out of Catholic institutions like the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland; and identify, count and financially support children fathered by Catholic priests without imposing confidentiality agreements on the mothers.

Kirsten Sandberg, the chairwoman of the United Nations panel, said Wednesday at a news conference in Geneva that tens of thousands of children around the world had suffered abuse by priests. “We think it is a horrible thing that is being kept silent both by the Holy See itself and in the different local parishes,” she said.

The panel rejected the church’s key contention that the Vatican has no jurisdiction over its bishops and priests around the world, and is responsible for putting in effect the Convention on the Rights of the Child only within the tiny territory of Vatican City. By ratifying the convention, the panel said, the Vatican took responsibility for making sure it was respected by individuals and institutions under the Holy See’s authority around the world.

The panel’s report on the Vatican’s treatment of children, its first in 14 years, called on the church to report back on its progress in 2017. Although the panel’s recommendations are not binding, Ms. Sandberg said it expected Francis and the Holy See to act on them.

Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, who was abused by a priest as a child, said the report was “long overdue.”

“It is wonderful that the U.N. has spoken so clearly about what the Vatican has done — and what it has failed to do,” said Ms. Dorris, who is based in St. Louis. “To us, it is a call for the civil authorities to step in. Church officials have proved they cannot police themselves.”

But Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the pope’s permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva, characterized the United Nations report in a radio interview as “a rather negative approach” to steps the Vatican had already taken, and said the report “in some ways is not up-to-date.” He said a Vatican delegation had told the committee about “concrete measures” that were being taken, including the new papal commission.

Francis, who became pope last March, has begun a broad overhaul of the Vatican bureaucracy and has established commissions to deal with several delicate issues, including the one announced in December to address clerical sexual abuse. One Vatican official said that commission’s president would be named “within weeks.”

Since 2001, sexual-abuse cases sent to the Vatican have been handled there by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In an address last week, Francis told members of that group that he was studying a possible link to his new commission, signaling that the commission might become involved in adjudicating abuse cases.

Francis has been widely praised for his humble style and moderating tone on issues like homosexuality, but he has been less outspoken on the abuse issue. He has described clerical sexual abuse as the “shame of the church,” but has otherwise rarely spoken about it and has not met in public with abuse victims, unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

At his general audience on Wednesday, Francis greeted Philomena Lee, the subject of the Oscar-nominated movie “Philomena.” The film portrays her decades of searching for the son taken from her as an unwed mother living in a Catholic institution run by nuns in Ireland. Ms. Lee is on a campaign to get the Irish government to force open adoption records to help reunite birth mothers with their children, and she was seeking the pope’s blessing.

Correction: February 5, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights who commented on the United Nations panel’s report. She is Katherine Gallagher, not Katherine Kramer.

William Anthony Donohue, President of the Catholic League and Hypocrite Catholic

William Anthony Donohue, vile President of the Catholic League, whom by his own opinion gets to say, in his opinion, whom is really Catholic or not, is such a royal hypocrite.

See Donohue is DIVORCED!!! This means, by the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, HE CANNOT RECEIVE COMMUNION!!!! THIS MEANS HE IS NOT A ROMAN CATHOLIC IF HE CANNOT RECEIVE COMMUNION LEGALLY BY THE RCC.

Yet, Mr Donohue, the belligerent bully of the Catholic League feels he can insult, denigrate, defame, libel and slander anyone whom he believes is NOT a good Catholic in his book. He feels he can attack anyone whom takes a stand against any teaching of the Catholic church.

He can insult and denigrate priest rape and nun abuse survivors as liars, fallen women, people out looking for a payday from the Catholic Church. He can say that we the survivors of priest rape are responsible for our own rapes.

He stated from the stand against me in the State of NH vs Frank LaFerriere, in the Berlin NH district court, where he had me charged with harassment charges, “If a 15 yr old boy is being messed with by a priest and he does not punch him, that means he not only wanted it, he enjoyed it and he is a homosexual.” He also stated that this is not a problem of pedophiles, but of homosexuals.

Well Bill YOU have no right as a fallen, divorced Catholic to even be speaking on Roman Catholic Church issues.

According to the teachings of the RCC, you Bill are in a state of mortal sin for being divorced. Therefor you cannot receive the Holy Communion, therefor you are NOT a true Catholic.

So Bill….stop pretending to be a Catholic.