France’s Lyon diocese sacks four priests for sex abuse

• Agence France-Presse

 on Jun 30, 2016 @ 11:10 AM

From the Link: http://www.globalpost.com/article/6779707/2016/06/30/frances-lyon-diocese-sacks-four-priests-sex-abuse

Four priests of the Catholic diocese of Lyon in eastern France have been relieved of their duties for sexual abuse, a diocesan source said Thursday.

A panel of experts recommended the measure, the source added, declining to say whether the clerics had already been named since the diocese’s predator priest scandal came to light in March, rocking France’s Catholic Church.

French judicial authorities are aware of all four dossiers, the source said.

The dismissals come three weeks after Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, was questioned by police over allegations that he covered up the sexual abuse of boy scouts.

One of France’s most powerful Catholic leaders, Barbarin has been accused of failing to remove a priest, Bernard Preynat, from his diocese when he became aware the man had sexually abused young boys 25 years ago.

Preynat was relieved of his duties last year.

Pope Francis issued a decree early in June that senior Catholic officials guilty of negligence in child abuse cases can now be dismissed from office.

The nine-member expert panel — which included a psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst, a doctor and Church legal expert — also recommended that the diocese keep an eye on other priests who have already been investigated.

Several other members of the Lyon diocese have already been questioned by investigators and several police raids have been carried out at the archbishop’s office.

Barbarin had said in April that he would reveal the panel’s conclusions by the end of June.

He said the members were tasked with “studying and analysing the cases of certain priests whose situation is problematic in terms of their pastoral activity, civil or Church law in the affective and sexual domain.”

The panel, which also includes a lay woman and man, both of whom are parents, has met seven times.

To ALL the Roman Catholic Pedophile Lovers and Defenders coming to my blog and being PIGS

To ALL the Roman Catholic Pedophile Lovers and Defenders coming to my blog and being PIGS

Catholic outrage at Facebook posts against Catholics. Loses no sleep over priests raping little boys.

Honestly? I could give two flying shits less, what you scumbag, pedophile loving, pew polishing, demonic shit stains on the underwear of humanity of the Unholy Roman Catholic Cult say, or whether YOU like what I am doing here or not. And I am DAMN SURE YOU are not going to like what I am going to say in this posting, but again, I could give two flying shits less if YOU do or not.

Plain and simple, rabid dogs deserve more mercy than any of you shit stain scumbags of this cult of pedophiles. A rabid dog does NOT know what it is doing. But all your disgusting, demonic, scumbag Pedophile Pimps do. All of you do. Each and every one of you low-life, scumbag pedophiles? Each and every one of your Pedophile Pimps? Each and every one of you retarded, brain-dead, brain-washed, pieces of shit pew polishers who defend them?

ARE ALL DESERVING OF DEATH, AND A DEATH THAT WILL INCLUDE YOU SCUMBAGS BEING TORTURED WITH YOUR OWN TOOLS OF YOUR INQUISITIONS, BEFORE WE CUT YOUR FUCKING HEADS OFF, PUT THEM ON PIKES IN FRONT OF YOUR VATICAN AND YOUR CHURCHES WITH THE WARNING THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ANY OF YOU SCUM WHO MESS WITH OUR CHILDREN.

I agree with your Saint Peter Damian when he said the following all the way back in 1049:

“Saint” Peter Damian

“Listen, you do-nothing superiors of clerics and priests. Listen, and even though you feel sure of yourselves, tremble at the thought that you are partners in the guilt of others; those, I mean, who wink at the sins of their subjects that need correction and who by ill-considered silence allow them license to sin. Listen, I say, and be shrewd enough to understand that all of you alike are deserving of death, that is, not only those who do such things, but also they who approve those who practice them.” 

Letter 31, the Book of Gomorrah [Liber Gomorrhianus], containing the most extensive treatment and condemnation by any Church Father of clerical pederasty

YOU ALL CALL YOURSELVES THE ONE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS, THE ONE HE OFFICIALLY STARTED. YOU CALL YOURSELVES THE HOLY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THEN WITH ALL THAT YOU HAVE DONE TO CHILDREN AND TEENS? RAPING THEM? BRUTALIZING THEM? BEATING THEM? ENSLAVING THEM? USING THEM AS MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS INCLUDING FORCED STERILIZATIONS AND ABORTIONS? AND EVEN MURDERING THEM? THEN YOU GOT THE UNMITIGATED BALLS TO STATE TO ALL OF US HOW YOU ARE THE PROTECTORS AND DEFENDERS OF CHILDREN BECAUSE OF YOUR STANCE AGAINST ABORTION AND CONTRACEPTIVES?

WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TRYING TO FOOL OR CON?

THEN? YOU FUCKING ATTACK US? YOU INSULT US? YOU DENIGRATE US? YOU CALL US THE LIARS, THE GOLD DIGGERS OUT LOOKING FOR A PAYDAY?

OR BECAUSE WE SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE CRIMES…NOT THE SINS….COMMITTED AGAINST US, HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF US? HELL MILLIONS OF US ALL THROUGH THE HISTORY OF YOUR DAMNABLE CULT? YOU DARE CALL US ANTI-CATHOLIC BIGOTS AND HATERS OUT TO DESTROY YOUR CHURCH?

Bill “Pig Face” Donohue, degenerate leader of the Catholic League

OR SHIT STAINS LIKE BILL PIG FACE DONOHUE OF THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE SAYS BECAUSE WE DID NOT PUNCH OUR RAPISTS IN THE FACE, THAT MEANS WE WANTED IT, WE ENJOYED IT AND WE ARE HOMOSEXUALS BECAUSE OF IT?

OR THAT WE SEDUCED OUR RAPISTS?

OR ALL THE OTHER EVIL, DISGUSTING, SHITTY THINGS YOU SAY AGAINST US?

HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!!! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU ATTACK US AND DEFEND YOUR CRIMINALS? HOW FUCKING DARE YOU DO THIS TO US? WHO SUFFERED INCREDIBLE HORRORS, PAIN AND SUFFERING BECAUSE YOUR SHIT STAIN PRIESTS, BROTHERS, NUNS AND SISTERS FUCKED US, RAPED US, TORTURED US, BEAT US, BRUTALIZED US AND MURDERED US!!!!

WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? WHY I KNOW WHO THE FUCK YOU ARE.

YOU ARE SCUM, YOU ARE FUCKING DEMONS IN HUMAN FLESH, YOU ARE THE LOWEST FORM OF HUMAN LIFE ON THE EARTH, YOU DESERVE NO RIGHTS, YOU DESERVE NO MERCY, YOU DESERVE NO COMPASSION, YOU DESERVE NOTHING BUT FUCKING DEATH!!

PLAIN AND SIMPLE, YOU GODDAMN PEDOPHILE PIMPS, YOU POPE FRANCIS, YOU POPE EMERITUS BENEDICT XVI, YOU PEDOPHILE CARDINALS, BISHOPS AND ARCHBISHOPS, YOU PEDOPHILE PRIESTS, BROTHERS, NUNS AND SISTERS AND ALL OF YOU SCUMBAG PEW POLISHERS WHO STAND UP AND DEFEND THEM AND ATTACK US? ARE FUCKING DESERVING OF DEATH, JUST LIKE YOUR SAINT PETER DAMIAN PROCLAIMED IN 1049.

SO FUCK YOU ALL.

OH AND I TRULY WISH YOU ASSHOLE, SCUMBAG, PEDOPHILE LOVING AND DEFENDING SHITSTAIN ROMAN CATHOLIC PEW POLISHERS WHO SPEW YOUR SHIT TO ME, WHO THREATEN ME WITH DEATH? WHO SAY I SHOULD BE RAPED? WHO SAY I AND MY SONS SHOULD BE PUT TO DEATH FOR SPEAKING OUT?

WELL I FUCKING WISH, I REALLY WISH, WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND SOUL, WITH ALL OF MY BEING, YOU WOULD HAVE THE BALLS TO SAY YOUR SHIT TO MY FACE, IN PERSON, BECAUSE FUCKING TRUST ME IF YOU DID?

YOU WOULD FIND OUT IF YOUR GOD AND JESUS ARE REAL, CAUSE I WOULD HAVE NO FUCKING PROBLEM….IN BEATING YOU TO DEATH WITH MY FISTS AND FEET RIGHT ON THE SPOT THE MOMENT YOU OPEN YOUR PEDOPHILE LOVING OUTHOUSE PIEHOLES TO ME.

SO FUCK YOU.

Pope denies early resignation for cardinal in pedophilia storm

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
16 MAY 2016 AT 15:52 ET

From the Link: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/pope-denies-early-resignation-for-cardinal-in-pedophilia-storm/comments/#disqus

“Saint” Peter Damian’s admonishing against priest pedophiles and those who cover up for them in 1049.

Pope Francis has ruled out seeking the fast-track resignation of a French cardinal accused of failing to inform the authorities about an alleged paedophile priest, the French newspaper La Croix reported on Tuesday.

In an interview with the Catholic daily on Monday, the pope said it would be “contradictory, imprudent” to seek Cardinal Philippe Barbarin’s resignation at this stage.

“We will see after the end of (any) trial. But (to seek his resignation) now would be to imply guilt,” the pontiff said.

Francis said he believed Barbarin had “taken the necessary measures, he took things in hand. He is brave, creative, a missionary. We should now wait for the outcome of the civilian judicial procedure.”

Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, France’s second largest city, is facing a storm over his handling of allegations against Father Bernard Preynat, accused of sex attacks on four boy scouts between 1986 and 1991.

Preynat was placed under formal investigation in January, but his lawyer argues the alleged crimes are now beyond the statute of limitations.

In March, prosecutors in Lyon ordered a preliminary investigation into three accusations by civilian plaintiffs that Barbarin’s diocese knew about the scandal a number of years ago but failed to inform the authorities.

According to the diocese, Barbarin first received testimony from an alleged victim in mid-2014, and relieved Preynat of priestly office in May 2015.

An association called La Parole Liberee (“The Liberated Word”) says it has identified between 50 and 60 victims.

In other comments he made to La Croix, the pope floated the idea of visiting France, but said he was unable to say when it would take place.

“Last year, some suggestions started to be made about a trip of this kind, comprising a stop in Paris and its suburbs, in Lourdes and in a city where no pope has been, Marseille for example, which represents a gate that is open to the world,” Francis said.

“I recently received an invitation from President Francois Hollande. The episcopal conference also invited me,” he said, adding, “I don’t know when this trip will take place, because next year is an election year in France, and generally the Holy See’s practice is not to travel (to a country) in this time.”

He described France as “the oldest daughter of the church but not the most faithful!”

That was a reference to a traditional honorific to mark France for its centuries-long support of the Catholic church.

That position has waned as France has become emphatically secular, for instance by enshrining into law the rights to gay marriage, contraception and abortion and curbing public display of religious symbols.

France is “a land of great saints and great thinkers,” Francis said, before adding: “The slight criticism that I say with regard to France (…) is that securalism is being overdone.”

The Catholic Church’s defiance and obstruction on child sex abuse

The Catholic Church’s defiance and obstruction on child sex abuse

By Editorial Board April 19

From the Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/defiance-and-obstruction-on-child-sex-abuse/2016/04/19/22efc3de-0351-11e6-9d36-33d198ea26c5_story.html

IN THREE years at the helm of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been a source of inspiration for millions of faithful around the world. In one critical respect, however, he has fallen short of his own promise: to come fully to terms with decades of child sex abuse by clergymen and the institutional cover granted to them by bishops and cardinals.

Francis has pledged “the zealous vigilance of the Church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all.” Yet there has been scant accountability, particularly for bishops. Too often, the church’s stance has been defiance and obstruction.

In his trip to the United States in the fall, Francis told victims that “words cannot fully express my sorrow for the abuse you suffered.” Yet his initiative to establish a Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who enabled or ignored pedophile priests has come to naught. Not a single bishop has been called to account by the tribunal, which itself remains more notional than real.

Meanwhile, church officials have fought bills in state legislatures across the United States that would allow thousands of abuse victims to seek justice in court. The legislation would loosen deadlines limiting when survivors can bring lawsuits against abusers or their superiors who turned a blind eye. Many victims, emotionally damaged by the abuse they have suffered, do not speak until years after they were victimized; by then, in many states, it is too late for them to force priests and other abusers to account in court.

Eight states have lifted such deadlines, known as statutes of limitations, for victims who are sexually abused as minors. Seven states have gone further, enacting measures allowing past victims — not just current and future ones — to file lawsuits in a finite period of time, generally a two- or three-year window.

In many more states, however, the bishops and their staffs have successfully killed such bills, arguing that it would be unfair to subject the church to lawsuits in which memories and evidence are degraded by the passage of time. Quietly, they also say the church, which has suffered an estimated $3 billion hit in settlements and other costs related to clergy sex abuse scandals nationwide, can ill afford further financial exposure.

A typical case is Maryland, where bills to extend the statute of limitations until the alleged victim turns 38 have failed even to come to a vote, owing to opposition from House of Delegates Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Prince George’s) and the Catholic Church, among others.

In his trip to the United States, Pope Francis praised bishops for what he called their “generous commitment to bring healing to victims” and he expressed sympathy for “how much the pain of recent years has weighed upon you.” Yet by its actions, the church’s “commitment to bring healing” has seemed far from generous. And it seemed perverse to address the bishops’ “pain” when the real suffering has been borne by children.

 

 

 

French church hit by new paedophile priest scandal

Published: 28 Apr 2016 12:30 GMT+02:00
Updated: 28 Apr 2016 12:30 GMT+02:00

From the Link: http://www.thelocal.fr/20160428/french-catholic-church-hit-by-new-paedophile-priest-scandal

A priest in south-western France has been accused of sexually abusing a minor, the latest in a long line of alleged paedophilia in French churches.

It was the mother of the victim who spoke out, claiming that her son – the nephew of the priest – was abused two decades ago.

The assaults allegedly occurred in Bayonne, in south western France, when the victim was a teenager.

Bayonne Bishop Marc Aillet, who is known for his conservative positions and leading a crusade against abortion, said in an open letter to his diocese on Wednesday said he had reported the matter to the Bayonne prosecutor.

The accused priest, Jean-François Sarramagnan, has been suspended from all ecclesiastical function.

Aillet said the priest had twice attempted suicide and had previously been suspended from his duties to attend “therapy”, although it remains unclear for what exactly.

France’s catholic church has been besmirched by a number of similar claims recently.

Earlier this week, a French cardinal accused of covering up for another paedophile priest admitted to “errors in the management and nomination of certain priests”

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, made the admission in a statement after a meeting at the bishop’s residence in Lyon to discuss accusations the church failed to report several child sexual abuse cases in the area.

The meeting, which was held behind closed doors and attended by some 220 priests, heard from a victim of Bernard Preynat, a priest who has admitted sexually abusing scouts under his supervision over 25 years ago.

Several complaints have been brought against Barbarin for failing to inform the authorities about Preynat and other priests targeted by abuse allegations in his diocese.

The media-friendly cardinal, one of the top figures in the Church in France, has vehemently denied any cover-up.

“The cardinal recognised that the diocese committed errors in the management and nomination of certain priests,” the statement issued after Monday’s meeting said.

“We failed to fulfill our obligation to investigate and to seek the truth,” Yves Baumgarten, vicar-general of the diocese, told a later press conference.

The scandal is the worst to hit the Catholic Church in France since 2001, when a bishop was given a three-month suspended jail sentence for failing to inform authorities about a paedophile priest.

Asked whether there were calls at the meeting for Barbarin to step aside, Baumgarten said that some priests were favourable to him stepping aside while the investigation was ongoing the vast majority wanted him to remain in his position.

The Catholic Church in France has announced plans for an independent commission of secular experts to advise bishops on handling allegations of clerical abuse as well as for local units in charge of listening to victims’ complaints.

From the Vatican to Sicily, France, India, Australia and Mexico – A Spotlight Should be on Pope Francis Enabling Clerical Sex Abuse

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Betty Clermon

From the Link: https://opentabernacle.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/from-the-vatican-to-sicily-france-india-australia-and-mexico-a-spotlight-should-be-on-pope-francis-enabling-clerical-sex-abuse/

“Saint” Peter Damian’s admonishing against priest pedophiles and those who cover up for them in 1049.

In the last two weeks, global events show that Pope Francis is enabling the clerical sex abuse of children by appointing, promoting and refusing to remove bishops with terrible histories of aiding and abetting abuse and by refusing to make meaningful change.

On Feb. 4, clerical sex abuse survivor and member of the pope’s commission on sex abuse, Peter Saunders, arranged for the movie, Spotlight,  to be screened for members of the commission. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, the movie is about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations into the cover up by Catholic officials of serial pedophile priests.

Two days later, Saunders was booted off the commission. Saunders had been an outspoken critic of Pope Francis’ appointment of a Chilean bishop accused not only of covering up for the most notorious pedophile priest in that country, but also of witnessing the sex abuse. Additionally, Saunders had called the pope’s financial tsar, Cardinal George Pell, “almost sociopathic”  for his brutal treatment of victims in Australia.

“On child abuse, I now fear, there is little or no sincerity on his (Francis’) part to effectively make change,” said Saunders, who was abused by two priests as a child. “There needs to be a turning out of all these people who have got very, very grim records – either they are abusers or they are known to have protected abusers or have enabled an abuser or made excuses for abusers.”

Saunders says a call he made for more openness and transparency at a meeting last week was rejected.

“I was shot down in flames,” he said, “The commission said that they need to remain secret and it was surprising how many times that word was used – not ‘confidential’ but ‘secret’ – the word has connotations with abuse because the whole nasty, vile world of the rape and sexual abuse of children exists because it is secret; it happens behind closed doors,” he said.

Eliminating secrecy is exactly what the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has been calling on the Church to do for decades. This is what the pope and his men have refused to do. Catholic officials must open their secret files and make all the hidden documents public. The names of all Church employees with credible accusations of child sex abuse made public. There are still sexual predators assaulting children under the protection of the Church.

Prelates with “grim records” know there’ll be no “turning out” by the pope. Some have even been appointed and promoted. 

Sicily – Cardinal Paolo Romeo, as archbishop of Palermo, said it was “not my place” to report Fr. Roberto Elice for abusing minors. Romeo “knew about the abuse against three children for three years.” On Feb. 2 Italian police arrested Elice who had left the parish “only a few weeks ago” where the abuse took place.

With no objection from Pope Francis, in April 2014 the Italian Bishops’ Conference stated their official policy was that “bishops have no official obligation  to report the sexual abuse of children to any legal authorities outside of the Catholic Church.” Romeo followed that policy.

France – “In the coming days, complaints will be filed against [Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon] for failure to report pedophilia.”  On Feb. 11, three weeks after Fr. Bernard Preynat’s indictment for “aggravated sexual assault of minors,” the cardinal acknowledged he was informed of the sexual abuse of four boys by Preynat in 2007-2008. Yet he chose to keep him in ministry until May 2015. The number of victims in Lyon willing to come forward could rise to 45.

Cardinal Barbarin’s resignation is “not on the agenda” according to the archdiocese.

The Lyon victims will also be “filing complaints against Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller and Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, to whom Cardinal Barbarin had referred this matter.”

On Jan. 29, Pope Francis thanked the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, headed by German Cardinal Müller, for “its efforts and responsibility” in dealing with cases of child sex abuse by clergy. Pope Francis promoted Müller to cardinal in October 2013 even though, as bishop of Regensberg, Müller’s appointment of Fr. Peter Kramer, an already-convicted  child sex abuser, as pastor, was well-known.

In a January report: “A former official in the Diocese of Regensburg accused Müller, of systematically covering up sexual abuse cases during his decade as bishop of the Bavarian diocese.” The then-Bishop Müller introduced “The Regensburg System” which prevented such abuse cases from becoming public.

India – Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was charged in Minnesota with sexually abusing two teenage girls. He fled the U.S. but was arrested by Interpol in 2012 and extradited back to the U.S. where he was convicted last year.  “Following a plea deal, Roseau County district court sentenced him to a year in jail but he was released anddeported to India in June 2015 on account of time served while awaiting trial.”

The Diocese of Ooty had suspended Jeyapaul in 2010. It was reported Feb. 11 that Jeyapaul’s suspension was lifted after consultations with the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith

Rev. Sebastian Selvanathan, a spokesman for the Diocese of Ooty, said Jeyapaul’swhereabouts is unknown.

The attorney who represented the girls, Jeff Anderson, said, “The Vatican must be held accountable. … This is on the pope.”

Australia – Comedian-musician Tim Minchin introduced a new song Feb. 16 on television. Titled, “Come Home Cardinal Pell,” Minchin called him a “pompous buffoon”, “a coward” and “scum.” Pell, the former Melbourne and Sydney archbishop and Ballarat priest, claimed to be too ill to travel from Rome to Australia to testify before the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse in person. Instead, he will appear on video from the Vatican.

Pell will have to answer charges that he attempted to bribe a victim, dismissed a victim’s complaint, knew about Australia’s worst predator priest, Gerald Ridsdale, and did nothing, and was complicit in moving Ridsdale from parish to parish.

Prior to being elevated to Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy by Pope Francis, Pell’s only previous financial expertise was cheating sex abuse victims out of an adequate compensation known as his “Melbourne response” and “Ellis defense” where Pell “instructed his lawyers to crush this victim.”€

A group of victims had a goal of raising $55,000 to fly some victims and counselors to Rome to witness Pell give his video evidence. Thanks to Minchin’s song, $90,000 was raised in one day.

John Haldane, a papal adviser to the Vatican, said he was moved after hearing a “compelling, human argument” of the father of two sexual-abuse victims in which the father made the case for victims travelling to Rome. “This would,” he said, “create the conditions for the existential reality of that suffering to be present in the room at the same time in which he (Pell) was giving evidence.”

Yesterday, lawyers representing the Church’s sex abuse victims applied to the Royal Commission for permission to appear along with Pell in Rome. If granted, “it would go some way to mitigate what is publicly perceived to be a judicial and psychologicalimbalance of power, and unfair concession granted to the domineering Cardinal Pell.”

Mexico – Pope Francis refused requests from clerical sex abuse victims to meet with them while he was in Mexico this past week.

Victim’s advocate and former priest, Alberto Athie, pointed out that while the pope chastises others for corruption, “the clerical pedophilia should be viewed as systemic like organized crime, which stops a criminal in isolation but does not affect the criminal structure.”

Athié said that clerical pedophilia has left more than a thousand victims in Mexico and there are at least five archbishops responsible for covering up pedophile priests: three of the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosi; Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City and some of his auxiliary bishops, and the Archdiocese of Oaxaca. Pope Francis is awareof several of these cases, Athie said.

Outraged by the presence of Cardinal Norberto Rivera with Pope Francis on his arrival in Mexico, Juan Carlos Cruz Chellew, victim of clerical sexual abuse, said he is very disappointed in the pope.  Rivera is a symbol that the pope does not consider the victims of priestly pedophilia to be important, said Cruz , because the cardinal has protected Mexican priests and abusers.

“The clerical pedophilia continues in the world with Francis,” said Athie. “The pope is very skilled with words and gestures, but changes of substance fail to happen.”

Yesterday, on his flight back to Rome from Mexico, Pope Francis said that a bishop who transfers a known pedophile should resign – once again giving the green light to prelates around the world that they will not be removed from office for even the most egregious offense. He also announced an additional official would be added to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the creation of an additional tribunal when not one person or group in the Vatican has yet taken a meaningful action to address this ongoing, systemic, global tragedy.

Can Pope Francis Keep Out Running His Sex Abuse Scandals?

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Betty Clermon

From the Link: https://opentabernacle.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/can-pope-francis-keep-out-running-his-sex-abuse-scandals/

“Saint” Peter Damian

Fr. Alessandro De Rossi, 46, pastor of a parish in Rome, was arrested on Dec. 31, 2014, charged with aggravated sexual abuse. An Argentine judge had issued the international arrest warrant on December 26 and transmitted it to Interpol.

De Rossi, born in Rome and sent to Argentina by Church authorities, was accused specifically with corrupting and sexually abusing minors, and “causing also the practice of group sex,” while he was a missionary in the Province of Salta from 2008 to 2013 working with young drug addicts.

On Dec. 23 and 24, 2014,

Salta police officers carried out several raids to seize computers, photographs and some other information that could be used as evidence of the alleged ties between De Rossi and the sexual abuse cases that had been reported by minors.

Prosecutor Pablo Paz explained to local media that there was enough evidence to charge the priest. Paz explained that he did not only have the depositions from the victims but also e-mails that De Rossi sent to the young man who filed a complaint. According to the prosecutor, De Rossi has to face charges for aggravated sexual abuse.

The Buenos Aires Herald also reported that “Judge Diego Rodríguez Pipino of Salta did not just request that Interpol arrest De Rossi but he also requested the assistance of the Foreign Ministry, the Border Guard, the Federal Police and the Airport Security Police. The Foreign Ministry is expected to play an important role to seek theextradition of the priest.”

The article noted that Italy had recently rejected Argentina’s request for extradition of two men connected to the atrocities committed during that country’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. One “was charged with the kidnapping and torture of more than 60 people.” He had fled to Italy “trying to take advantage of his dual nationality” and “had taken refuge in a chapel in Genoa.” The other “was said to have witnessed torture in a clandestine detention centre.”

In January 2013, De Rossi had been hospitalized after he said he was attacked by a young man who had asked him for money and food. “I will not return to Italy,” he told a provincial newspaper.

“The priest, who had returned to Rome in early 2013 for health reasons, after spending several years in the mission, was accompanied by a positive assessment by the local bishop. For this reason he had been entrusted the pastoral care of the parish of St. Aloysius Gonzaga in September 2013,” the Diocese of Rome stated after De Rossi’s arrest. The diocese had “full confidence in the Italian judiciary.”

Although one of the pope’s titles is Bishop of Rome, the diocese, or “vicariate,” is administered by a vicar-general appointed by the pope. Cardinal Agostino Vallini was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI and confirmed by Pope Francis.  Archbishop of Salta, Mario Antonio Cargnello, appointed in 1999 by Pope John Paul II, is the “local bishop” referred to in diocese’s statement.

De Rossi was put under house arrest by the Church for only six months after his arrest by civil authorities. Extradition to Argentina was denied on Oct. 11, 2015, by the Court of Appeal of Rome for “lack of serious evidence.” A prosecutor can decide to pursue the case further or close it.

Regardless, since October, De Rossi is a free man and under no ecclesial supervision.

After the priest’s arrest on Dec. 31, 2014, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federito Lombardi had stated, “I do not know anything … It’s something that does not start from the Vatican.”

But it does “start from the Vatican.” The failure of Cardinal Vallini and Archbishop Cargnello to protect children can be directly attributed to Pope Francis’ tolerance of such callousness.

For example, on Feb. 18, 2016, Pope Francis said that “a bishop who moves a priest to another parish when a case of pedophilia is discovered” should “present hisresignation,” announcing to his hierarchs around the world that he will not hold them accountable for endangering children and only in this particular circumstance would they be expected to offer their resignation.

On March 14, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, quoted the pope’s words as justification for maintaining their policy that prelates are not required to report the sex abuse of minors to civil authorities.

Cardinal Paolo Romeo, archbishop of Palermo, Sicily, said it was “not my place”  to report Fr. Roberto Elice for abusing minors. Romeo “knew about the abuse against three children for three years.” On Feb. 2 Italian police arrested Elice who had left the parish “only a few weeks ago” where the abuse took place.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, France’s senior Catholic prelate and now the subject of a criminal investigation on charges of failing to report and endangering the lives of others about sexual abuse of minors as required by French law, stated he would not resign.

One of Barbarin’s priests, Fr. Bernard Preynat, was indicted on Jan. 27 for “sexual abuse of minors under 15 years by a person in authority.” In an interview published Feb. 10, Barbarin admitted “having learned the facts in 2007-2008” about Preynat, but promoted him anyway in 2007, keeping him in ministry and in contact with children until he removed him in August 2015.

Pope Francis’ “comment does not in any way target Cardinal Barbarin who quite rightly suspended Father Preynat after meeting a first victim and taking advice from Rome, and this, even before a first official complaint was made,” a source close to the cardinal said.

It was first reported on Feb. 12, “In the coming days, complaints will be filed against [Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon] for failure to report pedophilia.” Preynat’s attorney stated on Feb. 16 “the facts were known by the ecclesiastical authorities since 1991” that his client had sexually abused young scouts between 1986 and 1991.

On March 1, Pope Francis told a delegation Christian social activists, “I receive you because my friend Cardinal Barbarin asked me.”

On March 4, prosecutors announced that “senior Vatican figures” would also be in included in their investigation for “failure to report a crime.” “The Vatican had given Cardinal Barbarin its backing, saying it had confidence he would deal with the matter ‘with great responsibility’ … The implicit support for Barbarin suggests that even pretensions that bishops should follow the law has been abandoned.”

The case has become so notorious that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged Barbarin “to take responsibility for his actions” on March 15   Two days later, theFrench state secretary for victims issues, Juliette Meadel, called on Barbarin to resign.

Also on March 17, new accusations were made that Barbarin had also promoted a priest previously convicted for sexually abusing adults in a residential home. Church officials denied the priest had been promoted but admitted he was still employed by the Lyon diocese.

So far, Pope Francis has refused to meet with Preynat’s victims.

 The scandals accumulate around the world. In 2016 alone:

Australian Cardinal George Pell, chosen by Pope Francis as head of all Vatican finance, gave testimony before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for four days ending March 3. His testimony was videolinked from a hotel room in Rome because the cardinal claimed he was too ill to travel to Australia.

The subject was what he knew about clerical sex abuse in Ballarat. In Ballarat “we have the highest suicide rate  among men in Australia. We have some of the worst drinking and violence problems. And it all stems from that abuse,” said David Ridsdale, one of the victims. “This is not just a problem in Ballarat or in Australia,” he told the press. “This is a systemic problem throughout all the world.”

Australians were disgusted by Cardinal Pell’s testimony.

“Pell’s testimony was directly contradictory … The pattern in Australia was identical to that in Ireland, Canada and the United States: countries that have also been stunned by the extent of the Church’s crimes, the enthusiasm of the conspiracy to elude authorities and the comparative indifference to victims,” wrote one columnist.

“Cardinal George Pell is finished whatever way you look at it,” wrote a columnist for theSydney Morning Herald. “This royal commission is just one example of light currently being shone, globally, upon the horror.”

“What we now know – more recently through the painful and confronting accounts of victims of crimes and testimonies during the royal commission – is that the sickening crimes of several Catholic priests were ignored by the very establishment which preaches propriety. And what Pell showed this week, was that even after these crimes were exposed for public condemnation, accepting blame by the Church appears to be a very difficult concept,” wrote the political editor of Perth Now Sunday Times. “And yet, he told journalists this week: ‘I have the full backing of the pope.’”

Pope Francis refused to meet with victims who had flown to Rome to witness Pell’s testimony in person.

“The pedophile scandal erupted in Oaxaca shortly before the visit of Pope Francis to Mexico [Feb. 12-18] but the pope did not agree to meet with relatives of the victims in this case nor others that have occurred years ago.” While Pope Francis “blasted the ‘oppression, mistreatment and humiliation’ of indigenous peoples,” the archdiocese was accused of covering up sexual abuse of 100 indigenous children. “Civil organization and relatives of victims accused the archbishop of Oaxaca, Jose Luis Chavez, and the Vatican of concealing evidence of abuse of indigenous children and refusing to listen to the victims.”

Victims’ advocate and former priest, Alberto Athie, pointed out that while the pope chastises others for corruption, “clerical pedophilia should be viewed as systemic like organized crime which stops a criminal in isolation but does not affect the criminal structure.” Athié said that clerical pedophilia has left more than a thousand victims in Mexico and there are at least five archbishops responsible for covering up for pedophile priests: three of the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosi; Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City and some of his auxiliary bishops, and the Archdiocese of Oaxaca. Pope Francis is aware of several of these cases, Athie said.

“Clerical pedophilia continues in the world with Francis,” said Athie. “The pope is very skilled with words and gestures, but changes of substance fail to happen.”

Fr. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was charged in Minnesota with sexually abusing two teenage girls. He fled the US but was arrested by Interpol in 2012 and extradited back to the US where he was convicted last year. “Following a plea deal, Roseau County district court sentenced him to a year in jail but he was released and deported to India in June 2015 on account of time served while awaiting trial.”

In January, the Vatican lifted Jeyapaul’s suspension following a recommendation by an Indian bishop. “We have provided him accommodation but he will not have any active role in the Church,” a spokesman for Diocese of Ooty said. Essentially, Jeyapaul is a free man.

The attorney who represented the girls in Minnesota said, “The Vatican must be held accountable. … This is on the pope.”

Unfortunately for the thousands of future victims of clerical sex abuse, Pope Francis can keep out running his scandals because the US media is the most influential in the world and they continue to lie.  No, the pope DID NOT fire his US ambassador as I will explain in a future report. (For one thing, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò passed the mandatory retirement age of hierarchs in January and is still in office. Second, the 3 Vatican reporters who broke the story never mentioned Kim Davis. Third, Vigano considered this post to be “punishment” for honestly reporting Vatican corruption and would be happy to leave.) In addition to his contempt for his Church’s victims of clerical sex abuse, Pope Francis is a misogynist homophobe.

(Betty Clermont is author of The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America.)

(Note to readers: No alternative reporter or blogger would have access to accurate information on the global clerical sex abuse crisis without the Abuse Tracker website, administered by the volunteer talent and hard work of Kathy Shaw. If you’d like to support independent journalism, please visit the website and follow the instructions to donate.)