PHILADELPHIA - A Roman Catholic church official apologized to a victim of priest sexual abuse on the final day of testimony in his groundbreaking child-endangerment trial.
Well, an apology is better than no apology.
Jurors are set to hear closing arguments Thursday after the defense for Monsignor William Lynn and a codefendant rested Tuesday afternoon.
Lynn, 61, who was the Philadelphia archdiocese secretary for clergy
from 1992 to 2004, is the first US church official charged over his
handling of priest-abuse complaints. He and the Rev. James Brennan have
been on trial for 10 weeks.
Lynn testified that he tried to get priests accused of abuse out of parishes and into treatment, but said his power was limited because Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, now deceased, had the final say....
Lynn said that Bevilacqua would not permanently remove a priest unless the man was diagnosed as a pedophile. That was rare among the dozens of priests accused of raping or molesting children in Philadelphia.
If anything they found a good place to hide. Under robes.
Defense lawyers call the mild-mannered Lynn a scapegoat for the alleged failings of the archdiocese.
Asked Tuesday if it is not immoral to keep predators in ministry, a weary Lynn asked, “You want me to answer for the whole church?’’
the priest-abuse crisis exploded in Boston in 2002....
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Related: Arguments over charge in Philadelphia priest-abuse trial
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Vatican Mystery Solved
Maybe not:
"Vatican bank board members had concerns over ousted president" by Nicole Winfield | Associated Press, June 10, 2012
VATICAN CITY - Intrigue mounted Saturday over the controversial ouster of the Vatican bank’s president, with leaked documents showing board members and even a psychiatrist had questioned his behavior and fitness for the job months before he was fired.
E-mails and phone calls to Gotti Tedeschi’s lawyer and assistant at Banco Santander, where Gotti Tedeschi is the chairman of the Spanish bank’s Italian branch, were not returned Saturday....
Also see: Skipping Through Spain
Isn't that something? Vatican tied into that mess.
Gotti Tedeschi’s ouster has jolted the staid world of Vatican affairs, in part because of his close ties to Benedict.
The firing became all the more worrisome to the Holy See when Gotti Tedeschi’s home was raided last week in an unrelated corruption investigation, and documents he had prepared to respond to his firing were seized by police.
The seizure and Gotti Tedeschi’s subsequent questioning by prosecutors prompted the Vatican on Friday to issue a warning to both its former bank president and Italian authorities, reminding them that its officials and documents have immunity protections given that the Vatican is a sovereign state.
Gotti Tedeschi and the Vatican bank’s general director were placed under investigation in 2010 by Rome prosecutors for alleged violations of Italy’s anti-money-laundering norms in conducting a routine transaction from an account from the Vatican bank at an Italian bank.
Prosecutors seized some $28.97 million from the account but eventually returned it after the Vatican passed an anti-money-laundering law that went into effect last year....
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That didn't solve it for me.
Maybe the ladies can lend a hand:
"US nuns respond to Vatican criticism; Say they will argue their case in Rome" by Laurie Goodstein | new york times, June 02, 2012
NEW YORK - The American nuns who were harshly condemned by the Vatican in April as failing to uphold Catholic doctrine responded Friday in strong terms, saying the Vatican’s assessment was based on “unsubstantiated accusations’’ and a “flawed process’’ and has caused scandal, pain, and polarization in the Roman Catholic Church.
Does doctrine include pooper-pumping altar boys?
The nuns issued a statement after six weeks of virtual silence, during which their religious communities across the country mulled over the Vatican’s startling pronouncement and Catholics across the country rallied to support the nuns.
The Vatican had announced it would dispatch three
American bishops to lead a complete makeover of the sisters’ principal
organization, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which
represents about 80 percent of American nuns.
Sister Pat Farrell, president of the leadership conference, said Friday in a telephone interview, “We do want to go and speak the truth as we understand it about our lives.’’
That is what I am doing here, dear readers.
She said the sisters had been “stunned by the severity’’ of the Vatican’s pronouncement, which accused them of such transgressions as promoting radical feminism and contradicting the bishops.
Catholic nuns?
You old farts have been drinking too much sacrificial wine.
The sisters were also concerned that the assessment was conducted almost entirely by written communication, she said, with only “minimal contact’’ with officials at the Vatican office that issued the conclusions, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Among the accusations the nuns considered “unsubstantiated’’ was the Vatican’s charge of promoting “radical feminist themes,’’ Farrell said.
“Even large sectors of the church itself have legitimate concern and want to continue to talk about the place of women in the church, and rightful equality between men and women,’’ said Farrell, who is a member of the leadership team of the Sisters of St. Francis, of Dubuque, Iowa. “So if that is called radical feminism, then a lot of men and women in the church, far beyond us, are guilty of that.’’
The Vatican ordered a “doctrinal assessment’’ of the women’s leadership conference in 2008 after years of concerns about its direction.
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One does sometimes stop and wonder if we had ladies in charge of the church would the sex abuse have been less.
