First, let's honor the father, the son, and the unholy ghost:
"Bush intervened in dispute over Irish peace process
WASHINGTON — Former president George W. Bush personally intervened last week in a dispute over the peace process in Northern Ireland in his first known direct involvement in a public policy debate since leaving the White House.
So how many troops did he send?
Bush called David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives in Britain, to urge him to press allies in Northern Ireland to support the latest step in the peace process.
But the effort proved unsuccessful; Cameron’s allies in Belfast refused to go along in a vote Tuesday.
Oh, like everything else he ever put his hand to; a damn failure.
Then why is the AmeriKan MSM giving the agenda-pushing impression that it was a success?
The call represented a break from Bush’s self-imposed postpresidential retreat. Although he has given speeches and joined former president Bill Clinton in leading earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, he has largely refrained from involvement in policy and political matters since President Obama took office. He made an exception in this case apparently after a request from the Obama administration, reflecting his own longstanding interest in furthering reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The issue was the latest move in the 12-year-old peace effort stemming from the Good Friday accords that were negotiated by Clinton and supported by Bush....
Yeah, those guys are joined at the hip these days, huh?
Sort of puts the lie to all that political rhetoric, doesn't it?
Yup, ALL in the GLOBALIST CLUB now!
The Ulster Unionists opposition was not enough to stop the plan, but American officials worried that a lack of unity behind the move would undercut it.
What is this MSM BS and why are they taking up space with it?
The Guardian newspaper reported that the Obama administration was so concerned that Declan Kelly, its economic envoy to Northern Ireland, asked Bush to intervene with Cameron.
Yeah, please show us how it is done, George!
Good Lord, America, this is change?
In the end, the assembly approved the transfer of policing powers Tuesday with the support of 88 of 105 members.
The vote was how close and divisive?
Now see if that accounting jibes with this one:
"Northern Ireland lawmakers want own Justice Department; Courts currently in British control" by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press | March 10, 2010
BELFAST - Northern Ireland lawmakers voted overwhelmingly yesterday to create a new Justice Department, the next key step in making their Catholic-Protestant government work.
Three of the four parties in Northern Ireland’s cross-community government backed the motion to take control of the territory’s police and courts from Britain next month. The long-debated move would put law and order back into local hands for the first time since Northern Ireland’s descent into civil war four decades ago.
The British, Irish, and American governments have pressed for former Belfast foes to take this step and cement their partnership as the US-brokered Good Friday peace accord of 1998 intended.
The two key coalition parties, the British Protestants of the Democratic Unionists and the Irish Catholics of Sinn Fein, negotiated the pact last month during nearly two weeks of day-and-night negotiations. But it required majority approval from both sides of the Assembly to become law.
While 88 lawmakers voted in favor of the Justice Department plans, including all Catholics on the Irish-nationalist side of the house, only 17 lawmakers from the Ulster Unionists - a minority on the Protestant side of the house - voted against.
You know, it is kind of ironic.
Catholic priests have their dicks out and Protestants just are ones.
No wonder the churches are in crisis.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain lauded the vote as confirming the wisdom of “devolving’’ powers from Britain to local politicians.
I'm just wondering why THAT is NOT GOOD ENOUGH for the REST of us!!!
“The courage and leadership of the parties who voted to complete devolution at Stormont will be noted around the world.’’
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the vote “an important step in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous future for all of the people of Northern Ireland for generations to come.’’
How many drinks she had?
Related: Clinton Gets Toasted in Ireland
So?
Clinton, who last visited Belfast in October when she urged agreement on taking control of law-and-order powers, said she looked forward to meeting the power-sharing leaders again when they visit the US capital for Saint Patrick’s Day next week.
Stay away from the whiskey, woman!!!
But Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey said that his party had no choice but to vote “no’’ despite diplomatic pressure from British and Irish officials and former president George W. Bush.
Well, that never was Georgie's strong suit, was it?
Sort of a different emphasis and spin from my AmeriKan newspaper, huh?
For more on Irish politics see my Irish label.
Okay, on with the MSM sermon:
Irish cardinal won’t resign over abuse case
No, not from him.
"Sex scandal embroiling Catholic Church in Brazil; Video of alleged abuse airs on public television" by Bradley Brooks, Associated Press | March 17, 2010
RIO DE JANEIRO — Diarmuid Martin, archbishop of Dublin, declared yesterday that his Catholic colleagues in Ireland must tell “the entire truth’’ about their decades of covering up child abuse in the priesthood — or else the Irish government may have to broaden its own investigations.
Martin, the second-highest-ranking Catholic in Ireland, has demanded greater honesty and openness over the church’s longtime refusal to tell police about pedophile priests being transferred from parish to parish, school to school....
Martin said church officials had inflicted untold suffering on scores of notorious pedophile priest Brendan Smyth’s victims from 1975 to 1994, when he was finally arrested and convicted on more than 100 counts of molesting and raping boys and girls. Smyth, who abused children in North Dakota and Rhode Island as well as Ireland, died in an Irish military prison in 1997.
“Brendan Smyth should have been stopped from the very first time it was known that he was abusing,’’ Martin said. “How a person would have abused and continued to abuse for so long — 18 years after [Brady’s evidence-gathering] — and God knows how many years before.’’--more--"
What do you do when you have to puke during the psalms?
"Merkel addresses abuse scandal; Chancellor tells Germany truth must be uncovered" by Melissa Eddy, Associated Press | March 18, 2010
BERLIN — At a St. Patrick’s Day Mass, Ireland’s highest-ranking church member, Cardinal Sean Brady, apologized to Irish Catholics. Brady has faced calls to resign after revelations that he failed to report to police allegations of abuse by two victims of a pedophile priest in 1975.
While the German scandal is particularly sensitive because it has landed the sexual abuse allegations on the doorstep of a sitting pope, in scope and numbers the Irish crisis is much greater. There, three government-ordered investigations have documented a shocking catalog of child abuse and church coverups from the 1930s to 1990s involving more than 15,000 children....
--more--""Bavarian bishops pray for abuse victims" by George Frey and Melissa Eddy, Associated Press Writers | March 18, 2010
BAD STAFFELSTEIN, Germany -- In Ireland, which has been shaken by an even wider crisis over child abuse, a Catholic bishop on Thursday ordered a priest to remain silent about his views that church officials should not tell police about child abusers within the priesthood.
Bishop Dermot Clifford said Monsignor Maurice Dooley, an expert in Catholic canon law, must not speak publicly again about his understanding of the church's rules on confidentiality....
Dooley has repeatedly spoken out in defense of Irish Cardinal Sean Brady, a former classmate and fellow canon-law expert who is facing pressure to resign because he failed to tell police about his knowledge of one of Ireland's worst pedophiles....
--more--"
DUBLIN — Pope Benedict XVI addresses Ireland today in a letter apologizing for the sex abuse scandal there — a message being watched closely by Catholics from Boston to Berlin to see whether it also acknowledges decades of Vatican-approved coverups.
Oh, sending you a letter. That should take care of everything.
The church is only beginning to come to terms with decades of child abuse in its parishes and schools. The scandals first emerged in Canada and Australia in the 1980s, followed by Ireland in the 1990s, the United States this decade and, in recent months, Benedict’s German homeland.
Victims’ rights activists say that to begin mending the church’s battered image, Benedict’s message — his first pastoral letter on child abuse in the church — must break his silence on the role of the Catholic hierarchy in shielding pedophile clergy from prosecution.
That includes abuses committed decades ago under his watch, when he was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, as well as the pontiff’s role in not publicly acknowledging the scandals earlier this decade....
Benedict’s successor in Munich, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, said the pope’s letter to Ireland “will of course affect us. The pope always speaks for everyone. It is not . . . for specific groups or countries. That word will also be important for us.’’
--more--"So what came in the letter?
"Pope apologizes to Irish Catholics for clergy’s abuse; Doesn’t seek discipline for church leaders" by Rachel Donadio, New York Times | March 21, 2010
VATICAN CITY — Faced with a church sexual abuse scandal spreading across Europe, Pope Benedict XVI yesterday apologized directly to victims and their families in Ireland, expressing “shame and remorse’’ for what he called “sinful and criminal’’ acts committed by clergy.
But the pope did not require that church leaders be disciplined as some victims were hoping; nor did he clarify contradictory Vatican rules that many fear allow abuse to continue unpunished....
Even that action raised questions among critics who wondered what the investigators might unearth beyond what was found in two wide-ranging and scathing Irish government reports released last year.
One of those reports said the church and the police in Ireland had systematically colluded in covering up decades of sexual abuse by priests in Dublin....
I'm not surprised at all; that is what authorities do.
The letter also remained tightly focused on Ireland to the dismay of many victims’ groups around the world even as the crisis has widened among Catholics in Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany....
Colm O’Gorman, cofounder of a victims’ group called One in Four who said he was sexually abused by a priest as a teenager in Ireland in the early 1980s and the leader of Amnesty International in Ireland, said, “I find that deceitful because we know that this is a global and systemic problem in the global church,’’ said O’Gorman, “It’s all about protecting the institution and, above all, its wealth,’’ he added.
AI trying to destroy the Catholic Church?
Say what you want about the Catholics, but they are in places no one wants to go to help.
For many Catholics, the letter offered a critical test of whether the pope can stem a widening crisis that has shaken the credibility and authority of the Roman Catholic Church in other parts of the world. Even as Benedict urged local clergy to cooperate with civil justice authorities, it has also put to the test a Vatican culture of protecting its own even in the face of crimes against civil and canon law....
Getting the feeling this could bring his papacy down.
--more--"
Maybe I should try another church.
Germany:
Related: Pope’s brother knew of beatings
German Catholics open abuse investigation
So it was sex with sadism, huh?
Think of that as organ music before the snoozer, I mean, service.
"Allegations rock Vienna choir; Ex-members say they were abused as boys" by George Jahn, Associated Press | March 12, 2010
Rock the choir, huh?
That's not Catholics, zzzzzzzz.
VIENNA — Allegations of misconduct against children in this nation spread beyond the Roman Catholic Church....
The Der Standard story follows a string of abuse allegations in Austria. It surfaced just hours after Catholic Church officials announced that three priests had been relieved of their clerical duties because of allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, and after one admitted to carrying out the acts of which he is accused.
On Wednesday, a priest in the eastern Austrian province of Burgenland resigned after a report surfaced alleging that he sexually abused or molested up to 20 children and youths in the 1970s and 1980s. Earlier this week, the head of a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg admitted to sexually abusing a minor four decades ago and resigned....
Another boys choir, Germany’s Regensburger Domspatzen, has this week been at the center of a physical abuse scandal. The choir was run for 30 years by Pope Benedict XVI’s brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, who this week acknowledged slapping students and apologized for being told about beatings and doing nothing to stop them.
Germany’s top education representative, Ludwig Spaenle, said yesterday that the church failed to report cases of physical and sexual abuse across the country in a timely fashion. At least 170 former students from Catholic schools have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse. Others have claimed physical abuse.
VIENNA — At least two mass graves containing dozens of people killed by the Nazis have been found on property used by the Austrian army, government officials said yesterday.
An army statement suggested that some of the remains may be those of US pilots shot down and imprisoned toward the end of World War II....
That can't be true!
Related: Hogan Finally Escapes From Stalag 13
Colonel Klink Surfaces in Romania
So it isn't even Jews they found?
But the headline and the synaptic connection your a meant to make in the Zionist-inculcated society is... ?
I'm so sick of reading or seeing Nazis in the Zionist-controlled AmeriKan MSM.
Haven't a LOT of PEOPLE been KILLED SINCE?
Aren't there being people KILLED NOW?
Oh, now it is USrael doing all the killing, so... yeah, I get it now.
Also see: Eisenhower's Holocaust
Say what?
My state-sponsored history texts never told me that!
We "liberated" them, dammit!
The mass graves are located in bomb craters underneath an army sports field in the southern city of Graz. Officials said they contain about 70 bodies of victims killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.
I don't know; the lack of mass graves at Treblinka (watch: video) really has me questioning anything the lying Zionist says.
The sites were identified from wartime photos, made from US bombers, showing open graves and bodies.
Maybe we BOMBED the SITES ourselves, huh?
US authorities made the imagery available on request of Austrian historians tasked two years ago by Defense Minister Norbert Darabos with researching documented war crimes at the site, used by the SS during World War II.
A statement yesterday on the Austrian army website said up to 219 people were massacred at the location during the last days of World War II in an attempt to hush up atrocities committed there.AmeriKa's MSM should know all about that.
That's why we in AmeriKa are fed endless newspapers articles, movies and television programs with Nazis in them.
The Zionist MSM of AmeriKa can not talk about anything else since.
--more--"
Well, they can talk plenty about this:
"Scandal’s shadow touches pope’s German years" by Nicholas Kulish and Rachel Donadio, New York Times News Service | March 13, 2010
BERLIN — A widening child sexual abuse inquiry in Europe has landed at the doorstep of Pope Benedict XVI, as a senior church official acknowledged yesterday that a German archdiocese made “serious mistakes’’ in handling an abuse case while the pope served as its archbishop.
The archdiocese said that a priest accused of molesting boys was given therapy in 1980 and later allowed to resume pastoral duties, before committing further abuses and being prosecuted. Pope Benedict, who at the time headed the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, approved the priest’s transfer for therapy. A subordinate took full responsibility for allowing the priest to resume pastoral work, the archdiocese said in a statement.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said he had no comment beyond the statement by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which he said showed the “nonresponsibility’’ of the pope in the matter.
The expanding abuse inquiry had come ever closer to Benedict as new accusations in Germany surfaced almost daily since the first reports in January....
Experts said the scandals could undermine Benedict’s moral authority, especially because they cut particularly close to the pope himself. As head of the Vatican’s main doctrinal arm, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he led Vatican investigations into abuse for four years before assuming the papacy in 2005.
“What is at stake, and at great risk, is Benedict’s central project for the ‘re-Christianization’ of Christendom, his desire to have Europe return to its Christian roots,’’ said David Gibson, the author of a biography of Benedict. “But if the root itself is seen as rotten, then his influence will be badly compromised.’’
When a sex abuse scandal broke in Boston church in 2002, Pope Benedict — then Cardinal Ratzinger — was among the Vatican officials who made statements that minimized the problem and accused the news media of blowing it out of proportion.
But as the abuse case files landed on his desk at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, his colleagues said he was deeply disturbed by what he learned. On his first visit to the United States as pope, Benedict met with abuse victims from Boston and said he was “deeply ashamed’’ by priests who had harmed children.
But victims’ advocates accuse the pope of doing little to discipline the bishops who permitted abusers to continue serving in ministry. The case in Munich, which was brought to the attention of the diocese by the daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, was a result of “serious mistakes,’’ the archdiocese said in its statement....
--more--"
"Vatican decries effort to draw pope into clergy abuse scandal; Denies Benedict tried to cover up cases in Germany" by Rachel Donadio and Nicholas Kulish, New York Times | March 14, 2010
Not that I'm excusing the Catholic church; however, nothing like a Jewish newspaper bringing you the "news," huh?
Related: NYC to fight abuse among Orthodox Jews
Sex abuse accusations divide N.Y. Orthodox community
Rabbi accused of sexually assaulting 2 students in the 1970
One-Day Wonder: Israel's Organ Harvesting Operation
Boston Globe Can't See the New Jersey Shore
Boston Globe Censorship: Cutting Out a Kidney
Huge N.J. corruption case trial set to open
Well, yeah, you hear less about those cases in the Zionist MSM.
Again, that doesn't excuse this sick shit, and if I had my way, all those priests would be losing one head or the other.
Didn't they used to take cut of the balls of people like this so they could no longer ring church bells?
ROME — As new details emerged on allegations of child sexual abuse by priests in the Munich archdiocese then led by the future Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican spoke out yesterday to protect the pope against what it called an aggressive campaign against him in his native Germany.
At the same time, a high-ranking Vatican official overseeing internal investigations yesterday acknowledged that 3,000 cases of suspected abuse of minors had come to its attention in the past decade, of which 20 percent had been brought to trial in Vatican courts.
In a note read on Vatican Radio yesterday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said it was “evident that in recent days there are those who have tried, with a certain aggressive tenacity, in Regensburg and in Munich, to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse.’’ He added, “It is clear that those efforts have failed.’’
In Germany, a man who said he was sexually abused by a priest there in 1979 said yesterday that church officials had told him then that the priest would not be allowed to work with children again. Instead, the priest was allowed, under Benedict’s watch, to resume full duties almost immediately, where he went on to abuse more children.
The Vatican also sought to defend the pope against criticism that a Vatican rule requiring secrecy in abuse cases was tantamount to obstruction of justice in civil courts.
Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, director of a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal arm, dismissed as “false and calumnious’’ accusations that Benedict covered up abuse cases when he oversaw investigations as prefect of that congregation for four years before becoming pope.
In a rare and unusually frank public interview that appeared on the front page of L’Avvenire, the Italian Bishops Conference newspaper yesterday and was circulated by the Vatican Press Office, Scicluna acknowledged that the Vatican had received about 3,000 accusations of abuse by priests of minors in the past decade, 80 percent of them from the United States....
Ooooooh!
Of the 3,000 cases, he said, “We can say that about 60 percent of the cases chiefly involved sexual attraction towards adolescents of the same sex, another 30 percent involved heterosexual relations, and the remaining 10 percent were cases of pedophilia in the true sense of the term; that is, based on sexual attraction towards prepubescent children.’’
************
In Germany, where hundreds of people have come forward in the last few months with accusations of abuse by priests, new details emerged yesterday about a case in the Munich Archdiocese that the church has acknowledged it made “serious mistakes’’ in handling. Pope Benedict, then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, was head of the archdiocese at the time.
The daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the pastor previously identified as H sexually abused an 11-year-old boy in Essen in 1979, including forcing the child to perform oral sex.
In a telephone interview yesterday, the victim, who asked to be identified as Wilfried F. to protect his anonymity, said the abuse occurred after a vacation trip to the Eifel mountains. The priest gave him alcohol, locked him in his bedroom, took off his clothes, and molested him, Wilfried F. said.
When the abuse was reported to the church, the church handled it as an internal matter without notifying the police or prosecutors....
The archdiocese said in a statement on Friday that the priest was moved to Munich in 1980 for therapy with the approval of Ratzinger. Vicar General Gerhard Gruber took responsibility for allowing him to return to pastoral work, where he later was convicted of sexually abusing minors.
In the interview yesterday, Scicluna also addressed accusations that the Vatican was obstructing justice by imposing secrecy on reports of abuse.
In 2001, Benedict, who was then in charge of Vatican investigations of abuse allegations, sent a letter to bishops counseling them to forward all cases of abuse of minors to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where they were to be subject to secrecy.
While dismissing the idea that the Vatican imposed secrecy “in order to hide the facts,’’ Scicluna said that “secrecy during the investigative phase served to protect the good name of all the people involved; first and foremost, the victims themselves, then the accused priests who have the right — as everyone does — to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.’’
--more--"
Not to excuse the stuff, but with all the secrecy out there why is the *ewsmedia running with this, huh?
"Vatican denies celibacy rule led to scandal" by Associated Press | March 15, 2010
They seem to be in denial over a lot of things.
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican yesterday denied that its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe and again defended the pope’s handling of the crisis.
Suggestions that the celibacy rule was somehow responsible for the deviant behavior of sexually abusive priests have swirled in recent days, with opinion pieces in German newspapers blaming it for fueling abuse and even Italian commentators questioning the rule.
I've always wondered about that myself.
You can't just yank one off yourself, 'eh, father?
Much of the furor was spurred by comments from one of the pope’s closest advisers, Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who in his online newsletter last week called for an honest examination of issues like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of sex abuse.
His office quickly stressed that Schoenborn was not calling into question priestly celibacy, which just last week Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed for priests as an “expression of the gift of oneself to God and others.’’
In the days after Schoenborn’s editorial, several prominent prelates — in Germany and at the Vatican — shot down any suggestion that the celibacy rule had anything to do with the scandal, a point echoed yesterday by the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
“It’s been established that there’s no link,’’ said the article by Bishop Giuseppe Versaldi, professor emeritus of canon law and psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
By who?
Of course, there is none.
Catholic priests are not the only celibate ones, and these problems do not seem to affect them.
The Vatican article also defended Benedict as a “vigilant shepherd of his flock’’ in confronting the crisis decisively early on.
--more--"
Really out doing damage control, and for good reason.
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel called the sex abuse scandal rocking the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI a major challenge to German society and said the only way to come to terms with it was to “find out everything that has happened.’’
One wishes she had the same attitude regarding the 9/11 cover-up, no?
Merkel spoke to parliament yesterday amid growing impatience from Germany’s Roman Catholics for the pontiff to address the scandal in his homeland, where about 300 former Catholic students have come forward alleging physical or sexual abuse.
During his weekly general audience in Rome, Benedict said he hopes his forthcoming letter to the Irish faithful concerning the sex scandal in the Irish church would help with “repentance, healing, and renewal’’ there, but he failed to make any mention of the issue in Germany.
Speaking in English, Benedict acknowledged the Irish church had been “severely shaken’’ as a result of the crisis and said he was “deeply concerned.’’
Merkel stressed in her remarks — her first public statement on the German scandal — that it was important not to point fingers, although the Catholic Church has been at the heart of the German scandal.
“I think that we all agree that sexual abuse of minors is a despicable crime and the only way for our society to come to terms with it is to look for the truth and find out everything that has happened,’’ Merkel said. “The damage suffered by the victims can never fully be repaired.’’
Makes me think of 9/11 again.
--more--"
BAD STAFFELSTEIN, Germany -- The statements come as the German church continues to grapple with the magnitude of abuse claims. Victims in Austria and the Netherlands have also come forward with claims of abuse, deepening a crisis in the church and triggering charges the pontiff is avoiding comment on the issue....
--more--"
You know, the guy always looked creepy to me.
And he could avoid comment no longer:
DUBLIN — Pope Benedict XVI addresses Ireland today in a letter apologizing for the sex abuse scandal there — a message being watched closely by Catholics from Boston to Berlin to see whether it also acknowledges decades of Vatican-approved coverups.
The church is only beginning to come to terms with decades of child abuse in its parishes and schools. The scandals first emerged in Canada and Australia in the 1980s, followed by Ireland in the 1990s, the United States this decade and, in recent months, Benedict’s German homeland.
Victims’ rights activists say that to begin mending the church’s battered image, Benedict’s message — his first pastoral letter on child abuse in the church — must break his silence on the role of the Catholic hierarchy in shielding pedophile clergy from prosecution.
That includes abuses committed decades ago under his watch, when he was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, as well as the pontiff’s role in not publicly acknowledging the scandals earlier this decade....
Seems like I've heard this all before, zzzzz.
The Rev. Hans Kung, a Swiss priest and dissident Catholic theologian, said, “Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide coverup, at last pronounce his own mea culpa.’’
Benedict, who was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, has yet to speak about the hundreds of abuse cases emerging since January in Germany.
These include the Rev. Peter Hullermann, who was already suspected of abusing boys in the western city of Essen when Ratzinger approved his transfer to Munich for treatment in 1980.
There, Hullermann was allowed contact with children almost immediately after his therapy began. He was again accused of molesting boys and was convicted in 1986 of sexual abuse. He was suspended this week for ignoring a 2008 church order not to work with youths.
WTF?!!!
Dirk Taenzler, director of the Federation for German Catholic Youth, said his members were appalled by the revelations of abuse in church-run schools and choirs — and wondered why the pope had yet to address his fellow Germans. “Everyone is suffering from the church’s bad image,’’ Taenzler said. “It is an issue in every congregation and everyone is trying to cope.’’
Benedict’s successor in Munich, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, said the pope’s letter to Ireland “will of course affect us. The pope always speaks for everyone. It is not . . . for specific groups or countries. That word will also be important for us.’’
Marx said the pope should not be expected to take responsibility for abuses committed by individual priests. “We expect the pope to take a stand on everything every time, but we are responsible for what happens here,’’ he said.
In the United States, where several dioceses have been driven to bankruptcy amid abuse lawsuits, activists called on the pope to be candid about his own failings — and for bishops to be held accountable.
Ray Flynn, former Boston mayor and former US ambassador to the Vatican, said the pope has been slow to speak about the church’s abuse crisis because he lacks media savvy, not because he wants to stonewall critics or doesn’t care about victims.C'mon, Ray, quite making excuses for the guy.
--more--"
REGENSBURG, Germany — Four priests and two nuns in the Regensburg diocese are under investigation for sexual abuse allegations, the diocese said yesterday, as a wider picture began to emerge of incidents decades ago in the pope’s native Bavaria....
In addition to the six now under investigation, about whom further details were not given, Neck said there were two new charges of sexual abuse of a minor by a man identified as Friedich Z. who was convicted of abuse charges in 1958, and one new charge against a Georg Z. who was convicted in 1969.
The Regensburg cases come among a spiraling child abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, in which some 300 former students have come forward with assertions of physical or sexual abuse.
Members of a US-based group arrived in Munich on yesterday to encourage more victims in Germany to come forward.
“We want to reach out to any others who have been hurt. We ask them to speak out,’’ said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Abuse scandals involving Catholic dioceses, monasteries, and other institutions have also hit Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Italy.
--more--"
Also see: Germany's Gay Priests
Meanwhile, back in Flynn's town.
Boston:
ALL ROADS lead to Rome, when it comes to the Catholic Church and the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
But they also loop back to Boston.
The most recent revelations about pedophile priests come out of Germany and threaten to ensnare the current pope.
Back in the 1980s, the archdiocese led by Joseph Ratzinger, archbishop of Munich and Freising, and the future Pope Benedict XVI , ignored repeated warnings about a priest accused of sexually abusing boys. According to current news reports, while Ratzinger was in charge, the accused priest — the Rev. Peter Hullermann — was transferred to Munich for therapy. But, he was allowed to return to parish work and interactions with children. In 1986 — several years after Ratzinger had been transferred to the Vatican and put in charge of reviewing sex abuse cases — Hullermann was convicted of sexual abuse. Even after that conviction, the priest continued working with altar boys. He was finally suspended, just this month.
It sounds familiar, right? That’s because the basic story line closely parallels what happened in Boston under the watch of Cardinal Bernard Law, who once dreamed of becoming the first American pope.
Law was at the epicenter of the scandal that rocked the church from Boston to Rome in 2002. As allegations of the sexual abuse of children by priests were revealed, Law ducked, dodged, and lied about what he knew and when he knew about it. As public pressure built, underlings took responsibility. Ultimately, it became clear in depositions that Law knew about the sexual misconduct, moved the transgressors from parish to parish, and covered up for them.
Eventually, Law was forced to resign his position.
Related: O'Malley's Odyssey
A much better choice.
Yet, he retained his cardinal’s hat and never provided full details of his role in the scandal. He was transferred to Rome, where he is archbishop emeritus of Boston and archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. He took full part in the conclave that selected Ratzinger to succeed John Paul II.
Allowing Law to escape accountability is the Vatican’s original sin.
Since the Boston scandal, a disturbing history of clergy sexual abuse, and an institution committed to covering it up, has been revealed across this country and abroad, in Ireland, Australia, and now Germany....
What happened here was part of a much larger pattern. What was happening in Boston was happening in Munich, with the blessing of the archbishop in charge. The practice of protecting predators rather than children was institutional. It spanned the globe and accountability extends to Rome....
Even a pope cannot escape truth forever, although serious consequences for a sitting pontiff are hard to imagine.
Meanwhile, the news out of Germany is a reminder of the opportunity missed in Boston. It is one thing for the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to protect higher-ups like Law. It is quite another thing for the secular world to go along with it. In Boston, a misplaced deference allowed that to happen.
Thomas Reilly, the Massachusetts attorney general at the time, took a pass on prosecuting Law or the Boston Archdiocese for criminal conspiracy. Several priests were prosecuted and went to jail for their individual acts of abuse. But the scandal was bigger than a single priest. It was as much a product of secrecy and cover-up by the church and the full conspiracy has never been prosecuted in court. That may be the biggest sin of all....
Oh, look at the WORDS she is USING!
Well, this is bad; however, we know an EVEN BIGGER COVER-UP and CONSPIRACY being kept secret by the agenda-pushing Zionist AmeriKan MSM!
Now that is a sermon I wouldn't mind hearing!
--more--"
Yeah, how did they react to the letter around here?
Pope Benedict XVI’s first pastoral letter on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church drew sharp criticism yesterday from local victims and their advocates, who said the pope failed to place responsibility on church hierarchy, acknowledge his own role in the crisis, and address its multinational nature.
But among area parishioners attending evening Mass yesterday, reaction was mixed. Some joined victims in calling the letter a missed opportunity, while others welcomed it as a balm for wounds left by the abuse scandal. Some were unfamiliar with the 4,500-word letter, which was directed at Catholics in Ireland and will be read at churches across that country today....
Helen McGonigle, a Connecticut lawyer who was sexually abused by an Irish priest as a child in East Greenwich, R.I., in the late 1960s, called the letter “sorely inadequate.’’
McGonigle was abused by the Rev. Brendan Smyth, who used his position to molest and rape dozens of children during a nearly half-century career in which he was shuffled among parishes on both sides of the Atlantic.
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston did not immediately issue a statement about the pope’s letter, but he plans to reflect on it in his blog later this week, a spokesman said.
In 1975, Ireland’s current senior Catholic leader, Cardinal Sean Brady, helped gather evidence against Smyth while serving as a priest and Vatican-trained canon lawyer — then required the children involved to sign oaths promising not to tell anyone outside the church.
Brady has said he would not resign unless ordered by the pope, who has not called for his resignation and who has not accepted resignations offered by three other Irish bishops associated with concealing abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese.
“That needs to happen, and [the pope] himself has to think about his own resignation because of his role in covering up these crimes in Munich [as an archbishop] and elsewhere as they came to his attention,’’ McGonigle said. “He’s a selfish man if he doesn’t resign, because he will destroy the church.’’
Seems to be heading that way with a big Zionist push.
I'm beginning to wonder what he did to piss them off.
The pope in his letter did not address the abuse crisis roiling much of Europe, including his native Germany.
“He’s the worst offender for keeping the secrecy and putting the church as an organization before the welfare of children,’’ said Ann Hagan Webb of Wellesley, who was abused by a priest in West Warwick, R.I., as a child and who is now New England codirector for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. She said the pope’s credibility is strained by the latest revelations from Munich. “Any good administrator would know if something as serious as that was happening. Either he’s totally stupid or he’s lying.’’
Yeah, authorities seem to do that no matter where they are found.
********
At multiple Catholic churches yesterday, parishioners interviewed had mixed reactions to the letter....
Molly Byrne of Weymouth, who received her First Communion at Gate of Heaven seven decades ago, likened the abuse crisis to the Holocaust, when German citizens and even world leaders stood by or abetted Nazi Germany.
Oh, COME ON!!!!!!
“They knew what was going on, but they said something a little too late,’’ Byrne said. “It has been going on for centuries. Maybe it will be different if they didn’t have celibacy laws.’’
Yeah, I heard that, you ignorant s***.
At the Paulist Center, a worship center on Boston’s Park Street popular among liberal Catholics, some greeted the pope’s letter with skepticism.
“It is very kind and very politic of the pope to send a letter to Ireland when his native country is embroiled in the accusation of sexual abuse,’’ said Rosanne Procopio of Somerville, sarcasm in her voice.
But at Saint Cecilia Parish, a Back Bay church first erected in the 1890s to serve the Irish immigrants then laboring for the neighborhood’s Brahmins, worshippers hailed the pope’s letter....
Guess we have come full circle, so....
Thank God that service is over.
Related: Advocacy groups seek hearings on abuse scandal
Aw, s***, maybe I'll just skip it.
But before I leave:
"German retirees sentenced in kidnapping" by Associated Press | March 24, 2010
BERLIN — Three German retirees who lost $1.4 million in the financial crisis and kidnapped their American investment adviser in an attempt to recoup the money were convicted yesterday, with their 74-year-old ringleader sentenced to six years in prison.
--more--"Related: Nazi hit squad member convicted
Need I even type it?
How about that Mossad hit team, MSM?
Certainly seems more like "news" to me.
Wow, that was a long service.
