"Pope calls on abusive priests to turn themselves in" by Jason Horowitz New York Times December 22, 2018
ROME — Pope Francis on Friday called on clerics who sexually abuse minors to hand themselves over to civil authorities and prepare their souls for eternal judgment, saying that the Vatican would remove the priests who prey like wolves on their flock and endanger the credibility of the whole church.
The pope’s remarks came in his traditional Christmas address to the bureaucracy that runs the Holy See, a speech that has become an annual excoriation of the careerism, sins, and corruption that he says have infected the Catholic hierarchy.
“To those who abuse minors, I would say this: Convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice,” Francis told the Roman curia, with cardinals in black cassocks and red skullcaps gathered around him in the frescoed Clementine Hall of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.
Aren't those the same guys who helped cover it up?
The sexual abuse crisis has continued to expand throughout the church. New reports and grand jury investigations from multiple continents have detailed how abuse has ruined the lives of young victims and their families for decades.
The crisis has also badly damaged the church’s standing and imperiled the papacy of Francis, who turned 82 this week. For all his efforts to reform the church, the pontiff long failed to understand the gravity of the scandal that most threatened the church and his other priorities.
Francis seemed to have woken up to the issue this year amid the furious backlash to his stated faith in Chilean bishops over the “slander” of abuse survivors. He ultimately dispatched investigators and accepted the resignations of some Chilean bishops. In the United States, where the crisis has exploded in the past few months, he has also accepted the resignations of prelates, though sometimes reluctantly, but even as the pope has spoken out in increasingly forceful tones against abuse, victims and their supporters contend that he has taken little concrete action to solve the problem. They took Friday’s speech as more evidence that the pope needed a reality check when it came to sex abuse.
“At a moment that cries out for visionary leadership and radical change, the pope is indulging in make-believe and misdirection,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, a co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks clergy sex abuse cases.
“In commanding child molesters to turn themselves in, Francis is pretending,” she said. “He’s pretending that sick men can suddenly see the light. He’s pretending we don’t remember it was the Vatican that has blocked the few efforts by bishops’ conferences to mandate reporting to law enforcement. He’s pretending the problem lies with perpetrator priests and some ignorant bishops of the past rather than with ongoing secrecy modeled by the Vatican itself.”
Critics also argue that the pope’s collegial emphasis on a response originating from local bishops is misplaced, citing longstanding patterns of abuse and cover-ups by many of those same bishops. Only a centralized, explicit zero-tolerance order from the Vatican will carry weight around the globe, they say.
The Vatican has raised expectations that an extraordinary meeting in February would result in tangible changes and not just more tough talk. The pope has summoned the presidents of bishops’ conferences around the world to address the abuse issue.....
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Related:
Vatican committee: Church credibility at risk over sex abuse
I have news for them: the credibility is already gone.
Pope cuts 2 cardinals named in abuse scandal from cabinet
It's all going to the dogs.
"Australian archbishop cleared of child sex abuse coverup" Associated Press December 06, 2018
NEWCASTLE, Australia — An Australian appeals court on Thursday overturned a conviction against the most senior Roman Catholic cleric ever found guilty of covering up child sex abuse.
New South Wales state District Court Judge Roy Ellis upheld former Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson’s appeal of his May conviction in a lower court for concealing the sexual abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest in the 1970s. Ellis found there was reasonable doubt that the 68-year-old cleric had committed the crime, which is punishable by up to two years in prison.
Wilson has served almost four months of a yearlong home detention sentence at his sister’s house outside Newcastle. He was to become eligible for parole after serving six months.
The judge also dismissed a prosecution appeal against the leniency of the sentence.
Wilson was allowed to watch the decision via a video link from a remote location so he could avoid media cameras at the Newcastle court.
Wilson has always maintained his innocence and after his conviction had initially refused calls for his resignation until he had exhausted his appeal options. But he quit in July after then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the Vatican to act.
Administrator Delegate of the Adelaide Archdiocese Philip Marshall — Wilson’s replacement — said the church noted the judgment and welcomed the conclusion of a process that had been long and painful for all concerned.
‘‘We now need to consider the ramifications of this outcome,’’ Marshall said in a statement.
‘‘The survivors of child sexual abuse and their families are in our thoughts and prayers, and the archdiocese remains committed to providing the safest possible environments for children and vulnerable people in our care,’’ he added.
The prosecution said Wilson was told by two altar boys in 1976 that they had been abused by pedophile priest James Fletcher but did nothing about it. It was alleged he subsequently failed to go to the police after Fletcher was arrested in 2004 for abusing another boy.
One of the two altar boy victims, Peter Creigh, was in tears after the judge’s decision. He was too upset to comment outside court. Creigh has previously agreed to be identified in the media as a victim of child sex abuse.
Another of Fletcher’s victims who was not involved in the charge against Wilson, Peter Gogarty, said the Catholic Church had shown no genuine contrition for the abuse of children by clerics.
‘‘I’m very disappointed as you’d expect. I’m disappointed at a personal level . . . but more importantly, I’m very disappointed for the other people, good, honest, reliable people,’’ Gogarty told reporters outside court, referring to witnesses in the trial.
Newcastle Magistrate Robert Stone ‘‘found them all very credible and very honest and those people have stood up to the might and the money of the Catholic Church and they’ve been deeply hurt by this decision. So, I feel terribly for them,’’ Gogarty added.
In May, Stone rejected the evidence of Wilson, who is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, that he could not remember the altar boys telling him of the abuse.
Fletcher was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing another boy and died of a stroke in prison in 2006.
The defense lawyers had argued Wilson was not guilty because the evidence was circumstantial and there was no evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the clergyman was told about the abuse, believed it was true or remembered being told about it.
During Wilson’s two-day appeal last week, prosecutor Helen Roberts urged Ellis to consider how the magistrate had the benefit of watching both Wilson and Creigh — the main witness — during the trial. The magistrate had raised doubts about the cleric’s credibility before finding him guilty.
Stone found Creigh had been a genuine and truthful witness who had no motive to make up the conversation he said he had with Wilson in 1976, but Ellis repeatedly stated during the appeal that Wilson was an intelligent, articulate man who appeared to be doing his best to answer questions put to him during the trial.
Ellis said he was not bound by the magistrate’s conclusion that many of Wilson’s answers were ‘‘dissembling and contrived.’’
When sentencing Wilson to home detention, Stone said the cleric had shown no remorse or contrition for the cover-up and his primary motive had been to protect the Catholic Church.
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Also see:
American Priest Is Accused of Molesting Boys in the Philippines
Duterte says he was molested by a priest when he was child.
Duterte seeks martial law extension in southern Philippines
They gave it to him with conviction.
For whom the bell tolls:
Jesuit province releases names of priests facing ‘credible’ accusations of sexual abuse
"Two Roman Catholic Jesuit provinces that cover nearly half the United States released the names Friday of more than 150 priests and other ministry leaders who were found to have ‘‘credible allegations’’ of sexual abuse made against them dating to the 1950s. Jesuits West, which covers 10 Western states, said its internal investigation found credible allegations against 111 priests, brothers, or priests in training who were connected to it dating back to 1950. No one on the list is involved in public ministry any longer, it said. Hours earlier, the Jesuits’ US Central and Southern Province, which covers 13 states along with Puerto Rico and the Central American country of Belize, released the names of 42 men who had ties to the province going back to 1955. It said four are still members of the province but are not active in ministry and live in supervised housing....."
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
The Church has strange bedfellows (I didn't want to reopen old wounds):
"Kevin Spacey faces criminal complaint in alleged sex assault at Nantucket bar" by Matt Rocheleau and Jaclyn Reiss Globe Staff December 24, 2018
Actor Kevin Spacey was first accused of sexual misconduct near the start of the #MeToo movement, which exploded into American life in late 2017 and has provided a forum for women and some men across the country to share personal, painful stories of abuse and harassment.
The movement has in some cases led to criminal charges and derailed the careers of scores of high-profile figures, from Hollywood executives and celebrities to prominent politicians, including movie producer Harvey Weinstein and former senator Al Franken.
The charge Spacey faces carries penalties of up to five years in prison or up to two and a half years in jail or house of correction and a requirement to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.
Shortly after the Globe published a story online about the criminal charges, Spacey broke his lengthy Twitter silence to post a bizarre video along with the caption, “Let Me Be Frank.”
In the video, Spacey appeared to assume the character of Frank Underwood, the dangerously ambitious politician-turned-president in “House of Cards” and used the character’s Southern accent.
“I told you my deepest, darkest secrets. I showed you exactly what people are capable of. I shocked you with my honesty, but mostly I challenged you and made you think. And you trusted me. Even though you knew you shouldn’t,” he said.
It was unclear whether the timing of the post was a coincidence or whether anything Spacey said in the three-minute video was somehow related to the charge announced on Monday.
The case emerged during an emotional news conference in November 2017, when Unruh publicly accused Spacey of sexually assaulting her son.
Unruh said that in July 2016 her then 18-year-old son was at The Club Car, where the actor was among the late-night crowd in the dimly lit restaurant. Her son was mesmerized by Spacey and told him he was old enough to drink, Unruh said previously.
Unruh said Spacey purchased alcohol for her son until he was drunk and then stuck his hand inside the teenager’s pants and grabbed his genitals. During the encounter, Unruh said, her son tried to shift his body away from Spacey but was “only momentarily successful.” The actor urged her son to accompany him to an after-hours party to drink more, she said.
Unruh said her son fled the restaurant when Spacey excused himself to use the bathroom and a woman urged the youth to run. He sprinted to his grandmother’s house and told his sister what happened, Unruh said. The siblings then called Unruh, who traveled to Nantucket in the morning, she said.
“The victim, my son, was a star-struck, straight 18-year-old young man who had no idea that the famous actor was an alleged sexual predator or that he was about to become his next victim,” Unruh said at the 2017 press conference accompanied by attorney Mitchell Garabedian and her daughter, Kyla. “This was a criminal act.”
Unruh said her son reported the incident to Nantucket police in the fall of 2017 and provided evidence to investigators.
The case was investigated by State Police troopers assigned to the detective unit at the district attorney’s office. They interviewed Unruh’s son and several others, according to court documents.
The documents describe how Unruh’s son told investigators that on the night of the alleged assault, Spacey bought the teenager four or five beers and then four or five glasses of whiskey and said at one point, “Let’s get drunk.”
Unruh’s son also told investigators that Spacey asked the teenager questions about his genitals and Spacey described his own, according to the documents.
The teenager texted someone while Spacey was allegedly groping him and sent that person a video of the alleged assault. It’s unclear if investigators were able to view that video since it was sent via a service in which messages, including videos, eventually disappear, by design, but the person who received the message confirmed it to investigators, the documents show.
The documents also say that after Unruh’s son fled from the bar, Spacey texted the teenager, “I think we lost each other.”
Other people interviewed by investigators confirmed seeing Spacey and the teenager together at the bar that evening.
One person said they noticed the teenager at one point turn “pale, blank, a bit frightened.” Others said the teenager described to them what Spacey allegedly had done soon after the incident.
It’s unclear if anyone interviewed by investigators saw the alleged groping.
Unruh said in the fall of 2017 that her son asked Unruh to speak publicly about the encounter. He didn’t go to authorities sooner, she said, because of embarrassment and fear. Soon after the alleged attack, however, Unruh said she discussed it with Nantucket’s sheriff, who urged him to file a complaint.
During her news conference, Unruh also alleged Spacey had targeted another man during a visit to the island.
Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse, said in an e-mail Monday: “The complainant has shown a tremendous amount of courage in coming forward. Let the facts be presented, the relevant law applied and a just and fair verdict rendered.”
He declined to comment further “because of the pending criminal matter.”
Court records list Spacey’s attorney in the Nantucket case as Boston lawyer Juliane Balliro. The actor has also been represented previously by Los Angeles attorney Bryan Freedman.
Neither attorney could be reached on Monday.....
Spacey thought coming out as a gay man would give him a pass.
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I'm disgusted and no longer like any of his movies (and I can't think of any offhand that I really liked).
Also see:
"More than 3,000 people living in or near a 36-story apartment high-rise at Sydney’s Olympic Park were evacuated Monday after residents reported hearing cracking noises. Firefighters and engineers were expected to enter the Opal Tower complex late Monday to examine what caused the reported cracks on its 10th floor and to determine whether the building is in danger of collapse. The $165 million building, completed in August, had the alarm raised by residents who reported hearing ‘‘cracking noises’’ throughout the morning, according to a New South Wales police statement....."
You may want to avoid the shelter.
Looks like the people in Indonesia are going to need more than that, God help them.
FURTHER UPDATES:
Death toll climbs, fear rises on Indonesia’s tsunami-ravaged coast
No surprise that "it was a somber Christmas. The Anak Krakatau volcano, whose eruption and partial collapse is thought to have caused a landslide that unleashed the tsunami, was still erupting, billowing smoke and clouds of ash hundreds of yards into the air. Military and civilian teams used heavy equipment to move debris strewn all along the coast, while others used drones to assess the extent of the affected area and sniffer dogs to find bodies. Dionisius Agnuza, 20, was visiting Carita island as part of a student trip for psychology majors at the University of Indonesia. Saturday evening, he was lounging on the beach under a full moon, watching lava spewing from Anak Krakatau. Then the wave hit.
At Rahmat Pentecostal Church in Carita, the mood was somber. Pastor Markus Taekz told the Associated Press only 100 people attended Christmas Eve service, half the usual number, with a normally joyful celebration now ‘‘full of grief.’’ Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation but its 17,000 islands are also home to significant numbers of Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists. Church leaders called on their congregations to pray for victims.
President Joko Widodo vowed to have tsunami detectors repaired or replaced after his own officials said a system of warning buoys set up after the calamitous Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 had not been functioning for years, but experts said it would have been hard to see this one coming. The sensors monitor earthquakes, which cause most tsunamis — but not volcanic activity. For now, the focus is on rescue efforts in a search area that continues to expand."
"Pope Francis, in Christmas Day message, emphasizes ‘fraternity’" by Jason Horowitz New York Times December 25, 2018
ROME — As nationalist forces rise globally and populist leaders emphasize the primacy of their own people, Pope Francis used his annual Christmas Day address Tuesday to voice his conviction that all humans are part of an extended holy family that has lost its sense of fraternity.
The pope, who has been an ardent defender of migrants in a period when speaking in their defense has largely fallen out of fashion, specifically addressed the scars of war in Africa, where “millions of persons are refugees or displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance and food security.”
He called for a spirit of fraternity to be rekindled in places where conflict has prevailed. Francis cited various conflicts, including between Israelis and Palestinians, in Yemen — where children are exhausted from “war and famine,” he said — on the Korean Peninsula, in Venezuela, Ukraine, and in the “beleaguered country of Syria.”
“May the international community work decisively for a political solution that can put aside divisions and partisan interests, so that the Syrian people, especially all those who were forced to leave their own lands and seek refuge elsewhere, can return to live in peace in their own country,” Francis said Tuesday.
The pope’s appeals for peace and fraternity — including toward those suffering the “ideological, cultural and economic forms of colonization” and from “hunger and the lack of educational and health care services” — were in keeping with his traditional Christmas prayers. He also voiced concern for persecuted Christian minorities in countries or regions where the faithful have been killed or had their religious freedom suppressed.
The pope’s Christmas address and earlier remarks delivered on Christmas Eve — in which he rejected consumerism, declaring that “the food of life is not material riches but love, not gluttony but charity” — followed the pattern of last year’s addresses.
In 2017, his Christmas Eve remarks focused on the “worldliness” that had taken Christmas hostage, while his Christmas Day speech made clear his concern that he was worried that serenity was sorely lacking as the “winds of war” were blowing, but much has happened in the past year, threatening to erode the pope’s authority and the resonance of his calls for peace and justice.
Is anyone listening to him and his discredited claque of pedophile perverts?
Apparently, the web version of the Globe is:
The scourge of clerical sexual abuse scandals in the church hit with unprecedented force. Reports and criminal investigations have demonstrated just how widespread, damaging, and concealed the crimes have been for decades, resulting in intense pain, anger, and distrust toward the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
Francis, who has long struggled to respond to the issue that threatens his papacy, has called a meeting in February with the presidents of bishop conferences around the world. The stakes are high for him to come up with concrete, actionable measures to protect children and vulnerable adults from predatory priests.
Many people close to victims of abuse have said that this could be the last chance for Francis, for whose papacy they had such high hopes when he was elected in 2013, to salvage his reputation on the issue, but they are concerned that instead of issuing orders from the Vatican, the pope’s emphasis on fraternity and collegiality among bishops will once again allow the hierarchy to police itself.
In the meantime, ideological enemies of the pope within the church declared open war on Francis in 2018 and weaponized the sexual abuse scandal to weaken a pontiff who they are convinced is leading the church astray by diluting doctrine, and outside the church, populist leaders, even in the pope’s own Italian backyard, have increasingly risen to prominence using the very anti-migrant and nationalistic policies and language Francis warned against in his Christmas address. Often, such political leaders in Europe say they are acting in defense of the Continent’s Christian roots.
“Without the fraternity that Jesus Christ has bestowed on us,” the pope said Tuesday, “our efforts for a more just world fall short, and even our best plans and projects risk being soulless and empty.”
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Also see:
O’Malley urges love and reconciliation
Then he went to the homeless shelter and and read a bedtime story to the kids (please ignore his racism).
Vatican tribunal hands down first money-laundering verdict
"Almost 30 priests, deacons, and other men have been ‘‘credibly accused’’ of sexual misconduct in south Alabama dating back to 1950, the Roman Catholic Church said Thursday as it released their names. 17 are dead and 12 others are prohibited from ministry. The names on the lists include those of a one-time Air Force chaplain, a former director of youth ministry, men who worked at Catholic schools, and one who worked at a boys home. The church statements did not include key information, such as exactly when or where alleged misconduct happened, nor did they describe what had occurred....."
Rest easy; it's only about 2 percent of priests who have served.
Police in Australia offer reward in gay man’s 1988 death
They found the body in New Zealand.
