Is the #metoo moment here for the Catholic Church?

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Will the Church finally face the abuse committed against its lower ranks members?

Cardinal McCarrick was suspended from his role after allegations he committed sexual abuse on a child 50yrs ago. But allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against him from seminarians and young priests date back to the early nineties. The Vatican knew about his love for organising retreats with young priests and selecting one to share his bed with. John Paul II (that I refuse to call saint) knew, as did Benedict XVI. It all was ignored and the man, a skilled fund-raiser, got promotion after promotion.

This exposes how the absolute loyalty to the hierarchy put young adult priests at risk for sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of their superiors. 

There's no system in place in the RCC to manage this sort of situations. And unwanted touching on an adult isn't a crime according to canon law.

Here you can find more about the Cardinal McCarrick abuses.

What do you think, the position of the Church on sexuality is still reasonable? Most Catholics ignore Church teachings re birth control, pre-marital sex and sexual morals in general. Is it time for a reform for clergy ranks' approach to sexuality as well? Many (me too) are convinced that the celibacy of the clergy is no longer feasible as it has fostered every sort of diseased approaches to sexuality.

[Howl]

I can't imagine that the entrenched church will move forward to do that.  If the millions (billions?) the church lost paying off lawsuits didn't create massive change, I don't think they will have a "me too" moment.  #sad

Apparently, some people just give up and become Episcopalians. 

[Palimpsest]

4 hours ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

What do you think, the position of the Church on sexuality is still reasonable?

No.

Quote

Most Catholics ignore Church teachings re birth control, pre-marital sex and sexual morals in general.

Yes.  So the Church teachings are quite useless.

Quote

Is it time for a reform for clergy ranks' approach to sexuality as well?

Yes.  The Roman Catholic Church needs to reassess its position on women, homosexuality and gender issues, as well as celibacy.  It could easily do away with required celibacy in the priesthood.

Quote

Many (me too) are convinced that the celibacy of the clergy is no longer feasible as it has fostered every sort of diseased approaches to sexuality.

I don't think celibacy, in and of itself, is the issue.  People, even priests, can be voluntarily celibate, after all.  I think the issue is that the Roman Catholic Church has historically protected rogue priests with every fibre of its being at the expense of the flock it was pretending to serve.  This became so well known that sexual abusers and common-or-garden abusers of power self-selected into the priesthood.  All were protected and many of them rose to power in spite of their known abuse.  Or perhaps because of it.

The corruption is endemic in the Church as we know it today.  It goes right to the top echelons of the Vatican.  Both JPII (who is not a saint, IMO) and Ratsy (to whom I will not grant the title of Pope) have filthy hands.  Francis has bleated a bit of well meaning pablum, but has done nothing of substance to address the issues.

Good priests (and there are, or were, some) have left already.  Others should also vote with their feet.

[SamiKatz]

23 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

I don't think celibacy, in and of itself, is the issue.  People, even priests, can be voluntarily celibate, after all.  I think the issue is that the Roman Catholic Church has historically protected rogue priests with every fibre of its being at the expense of the flock it was pretending to serve.  This became so well known that sexual abusers and common-or-garden abusers of power self-selected into the priesthood.  All were protected and many of them rose to power in spite of their known abuse.  Or perhaps because of it.

The corruption is endemic in the Church as we know it today.  It goes right to the top echelons of the Vatican.  Both JPII (who is not a saint, IMO) and Ratsy (to whom I will not grant the title of Pope) have filthy hands.  Francis has bleated a bit of well meaning pablum, but has done nothing of substance to address the issues.

Good priests (and there are, or were, some) have left already.  Others should also vote with their feet.

I bolded part of your comment because I so agree with it.  The issue with the Catholic Church is the degree to which they went to, to cover up the actions of the priests in their ranks that did sexually OR physically abuse children and other parishioners.  I was raised Catholic but left the church as a teenager due to my perception of the church as misogynistic, it was only as I got older I saw how corrupt the whole organization is. 

[NachosFlandersStyle]

The problem with the #metoo framing is that it's not like we are waiting for people to finally speak up-- people have been sounding the alarm about various abuses in the church for YEARS. Everyone knows the church has an abuse problem! But apparently no amount of transparency or public outrage or bravery on the part of the victims is enough to make this institution step back, engage in sincere introspection, and take real steps to correct itself.

I don't like the idea that ending the celibate priesthood would end abuse. People don't assault just because they're super horny and need to act on it somehow, they do it because they have power over others and no accountability. Giving an abuser a wife to go home to would only expose her to his abuse.  You're probably right that celibacy has distorted the church's understanding of sexuality in a more pervasive and intangible sense. But if we want to change the culture of the church, my first priority would be women priests.

[SuperSluth]

1 hour ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

But if we want to change the culture of the church, my first priority would be women priests. 

Yes!  That is what I said on the earlier post about a woman "saying" mass in Ireland when I priest was unable to be there for what ever reason.

From what I've read, I think there is/was a culture of sexual perversion in seminaries for quite some time that some priests brought that culture with them into the communities. And of course the continuation of that perversion in cover-ups/pay offs... keeping "problem priests" employed and just moving from community to community.

More and more problem priests for other reasons too: the drunks, ego maniacs and angry jerks... and parishioners are too embarrassed to complain.

The root problem is that the church has trouble recruiting priests. There aren't enough. They have tried for many years now with allowing men with severe moral and mental health problems enter the priesthood. These are the results. I think allowing priests to marry will attract more appropriate candidates. Same with allowing women priests.

I had a family member who was abused by a priest in the 1970s. She is a very smart woman but is on disability with severe mental health problems, some of which stems from the abuse from the priest. The family signed a NDA and she still receives benefits paid for by the church. She is so paranoid, I don't think she would ever speak up publically and she is very fearful of the internet and social media.

So #metoo on her behalf 

Edited July 17, 2018 by SuperSluth

[Hane]

@NachosFlandersStyle, I think the problem isn’t celibacy in and of itself, but that it *branches from* the celibacy requirement. That requirement drastically reduces the available pool of priests, so a larger proportion of problem cases makes its way into the clergy.

And then there’s the egregious waste of talent that results from the exclusion of women from the clergy.

[Pecansforeveryone]

I think the Catholic Churches, just like evangelical churches are overly authoritarian. Just look at the fawning audulation given the Pope by passing crowds. He's just a man like anyone else. From baptism to confession to last rites, I fell priests have to much authority over the lives of ordinary Catholics. (It's some variation of absolute power corrupts absolutley.) It's a set up that really is just ripe for abuse. 

[Shiny]

Celibacy isn’t a problem in my opinion. The problem is that those who are choosing a life of celibacy under the guise of priesthood may be doing it because of something they want to hide from themselves. 

[Hane]

On 7/17/2018 at 3:23 PM, Shiny said:

Celibacy isn’t a problem in my opinion. The problem is that those who are choosing a life of celibacy under the guise of priesthood may be doing it because of something they want to hide from themselves. 

Bingo. Even today, unhappy, closeted men seek the priesthood as an “acceptable” alternative to heterosexual marriage. A relative of my BIL is a case in point.

[Four is Enough]

On 7/17/2018 at 9:20 AM, Palimpsest said:

I don't think celibacy, in and of itself, is the issue.  People, even priests, can be voluntarily celibate, after all.  I think the issue is that the Roman Catholic Church has historically protected rogue priests with every fibre of its being at the expense of the flock it was pretending to serve.  This became so well known that sexual abusers and common-or-garden abusers of power self-selected into the priesthood.  All were protected and many of them rose to power in spite of their known abuse.  Or perhaps because of it.

I definitely agree with the celibacy remark. However, I'm not sure that abusers self selected into the priesthood.  It's a pretty rigorous life, YMMV, of course.

On 7/17/2018 at 1:21 PM, Pecansforeveryone said:

I think the Catholic Churches, just like evangelical churches are overly authoritarian. Just look at the fawning audulation given the Pope by passing crowds. He's just a man like anyone else. From baptism to confession to last rites, I fell priests have to much authority over the lives of ordinary Catholics. (It's some variation of absolute power corrupts absolutley.) It's a set up that really is just ripe for abuse. 

I can see this in the Church of the 50s, when I was born and grew up. I don't see it now so much unless it's my parents' age people... certainly I and my children don't feel this way.. and I think we're more in touch with the general feel of the populace of the church.

[Pecansforeveryone]

The Vactican has forbidden the use of condoms in A.I.D.S. stricken countries, yes? The church is not L.G.B.T friendly or are there any noticeable steps to become L.G.B.T. friendly that I am unaware of? The church has shielded sexual predators by the hundreds, possibly thousands, throughout the decades, and not just in the 50's.  A woman did die in Ireland due to church policy forbidding the removal of an ectopic pregnancy, if I understand correctly. I think most individual Catholics are wonderful people serving in wonderful indiviual congregations. My criticism of the top of the hierarchy still stands. 

Edited July 20, 2018 by Pecansforeveryone
Misspelled a name

[NachosFlandersStyle]

4 hours ago, Four is Enough said:

I can see this in the Church of the 50s, when I was born and grew up. I don't see it now so much unless it's my parents' age people... certainly I and my children don't feel this way.. and I think we're more in touch with the general feel of the populace of the church.

Right, people get excited about seeing the pope the same way they would about seeing the Queen or a celebrity, but most lay Catholics are not waiting with bated breath to hear his next pronouncement so that they can mold their lives to his wishes. Really super devout Catholics may think that their parish priest can do no wrong but I know a lot more people who grumble about their boring/ drunk/ conservative/ long-winded priest and even switch parishes over it. 

The abuse of authority in the church isn't caused by regular Catholics being too blinded by priest-worship to to hold people accountable. It's caused by church officials who are so self-interested that they will not respond to the majority of church-goers who demand that abuse be taken seriously. 

[luv2laugh]

I actually think the Mormon Church has a SERIOUS me too problem. They have the most money, second only to the Catholic church.

[Pecansforeveryone]

Power and money in the hands of a select few is just asking for trouble in whatever form the select few take.

[Jigsaw3]

The New York Times had an article today about a former Mormon bishop: the church is trying to get rape charges against him dropped. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/us/lds-church-lawsuit-joseph-bishop.html

I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg.

[Pecansforeveryone]

As far as the local Catholic church being "nice, a lot of that is the function of living in a country with separation of church and state. It's great that living in Pennsylvannia or Virginia or New York the Catholic church has been a positive force in your life. Women in El Salvador don't have that option. I googled it and came up with 4 separate cases of women discarding and being charged with murder or needing an abortion for medical reasons and being denied it. 

That would be women miscarrying. My tablet is acting up. 

[47of74]

Some news on the McCarrick front

Quote

In a move seen as unprecedented, Pope Francis has effectively stripped U.S. prelate Theodore McCarrick of his cardinal’s title following allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy. The Vatican announced Saturday that Francis ordered McCarrick to conduct a “life of prayer and penance” before a church trial is held.

Breaking with past practice, Francis decided to act swiftly on the resignation offered by the emeritus archbishop of Washington, D.C., even before the accusations are investigated by church officials. McCarrick was previously one of the highest, most visible Catholic church officials in the United States and was heavily involved in the church’s yearslong response to allegations of priestly abuse there.

Francis received McCarrick’s letter offering to resign from the College of Cardinals on Friday evening, after a spate of allegations that the 88-year-old prelate had for years sexually abused boys and had sexual misconduct with adult seminarians.

The pope then ordered McCarrick’s “suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, together with the obligation to remain in a house yet to be indicated to him, for a life of prayer and penance until the accusations made against him are examined in a regular canonical trial,” the Vatican said.

Hey Francis, I think the Pagliarelli would be a nice place to house him...

[ADoyle90815]

On 7/22/2018 at 9:47 AM, Jigsaw3 said:

The New York Times had an article today about a former Mormon bishop: the church is trying to get rape charges against him dropped. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/us/lds-church-lawsuit-joseph-bishop.html

I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg.

I'm sure this is the tip of the iceberg, especially if you see some of the exmormon forums on Reddit and in comment sections.

[47of74]

Riiiiigggghhhhttttttttt

Quote

The highest-ranking American at the Vatican insisted Tuesday he never knew or even suspected that his former boss reportedly sexually abused boys and adult seminarians, telling The Associated Press he is livid that he was kept in the dark because he would have done something about it.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, head of the Vatican's family and laity office, spoke as the U.S. church hierarchy has come under fire from ordinary American Catholics outraged that ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's misconduct with men was apparently an open secret in some U.S. church circles.

An open letter Tuesday in the conservative Catholic magazine First Things urged Catholics to withhold diocesan donations to the U.S. church until an independent investigation determines which U.S. bishops knew about McCarrick's misdeeds - a "nuclear option" aimed at making the laity's sense of betrayal heard and felt.

Some of that outrage has been directed at Farrell, who was consecrated as a bishop by McCarrick in 2001 and served as his vicar general in the archdiocese of Washington until McCarrick's 2006 retirement. Some Catholic commentators have speculated that Farrell must have at least heard the same rumors that some Catholic laity, students and professors at Catholic University in Washington and even some journalists had heard.

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Nuns all over the world are denouncing decades of abuses.

Spoiler

https://apnews.com/f7ec3cec9a4b46868aa584fe1c94fb28

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The nun no longer goes to confession regularly, after an Italian priest forced himself on her while she was at her most vulnerable: recounting her sins to him in a university classroom nearly 20 years ago.

At the time, the sister only told her provincial superior and her spiritual director, silenced by the Catholic Church’s culture of secrecy, her vows of obedience and her own fear, repulsion and shame.

“It opened a great wound inside of me,” she told the Associated Press. “I pretended it didn’t happen.”

After decades of silence, the nun is one of a handful worldwide to come forward recently on an issue that the Catholic Church has yet to come to terms with: The sexual abuse of religious sisters by priests and bishops. An AP examination has found that cases have emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, demonstrating that the problem is global and pervasive, thanks to the universal tradition of sisters’ second-class status in the Catholic Church and their ingrained subservience to the men who run it.

Some nuns are now finding their voices, buoyed by the #MeToo movement and the growing recognition that adults can be victims of sexual abuse when there is an imbalance of power in a relationship. The sisters are going public in part because of years of inaction by church leaders, even after major studies on the problem in Africa were reported to the Vatican in the 1990s.

The issue has flared in the wake of scandals over the sexual abuse of children, and recently of adults, including revelations that one of the most prominent American cardinals, Theodore McCarrick, sexually abused and harassed his seminarians.

The extent of the abuse of nuns is unclear, at least outside the Vatican. Victims are reluctant to report the abuse because of well-founded fears they won’t be believed, experts told the AP. Church leaders are reluctant to acknowledge that some priests and bishops simply ignore their vows of celibacy, knowing that their secrets will be kept.

However, this week, about half a dozen sisters in a small religious congregation in Chile went public on national television with their stories of abuse by priests and other nuns — and how their superiors did nothing to stop it. A nun in India recently filed a formal police complaint accusing a bishop of rape, something that would have been unthinkable even a year ago.

Cases in Africa have come up periodically; in 2013, for example, a well-known priest in Uganda wrote a letter to his superiors that mentioned “priests romantically involved with religious sisters” — for which he was promptly suspended from the church until he apologized in May. And the sister in Europe spoke to the AP to help bring the issue to light.

“I am so sad that it took so long for this to come into the open, because there were reports long ago,” Karlijn Demasure, one of the church’s leading experts on clergy sexual abuse and abuse of power, told the AP in an interview. “I hope that now actions will be taken to take care of the victims and put an end to this kind of abuse.”

___

TAKING VICTIMS SERIOUSLY

The Vatican declined to comment on what measures, if any, it has taken to assess the scope of the problem globally, what it has done to punish offenders and care for the victims. A Vatican official said it is up to local church leaders to sanction priests who sexually abuse sisters, but that often such crimes go unpunished both in civil and canonical courts.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the issue, said only some cases arrive at the Holy See for investigation. It was a reference to the fact that the Catholic Church has no clear measures in place to investigate and punish bishops who themselves abuse or allow abusers to remain in their ranks — a legal loophole that has recently been highlighted by the McCarrick case.

The official said the church has focused much of its attention recently on protecting children, but that vulnerable adults “deserve the same protection.”

“Consecrated women have to be encouraged to speak up when they are molested,” the official told the AP. “Bishops have to be encouraged to take them seriously, and make sure the priests are punished if guilty.”

But being taken seriously is often the toughest obstacle for sisters who are sexually abused, said Demasure, until recently executive director of the church’s Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the church’s leading think tank on the issue.

“They (the priests) can always say ‘she wanted it,’” Demasure said. “It is also difficult to get rid of the opinion that it is always the woman who seduces the man, and not vice versa.”

Demasure said many priests in Africa, for example, struggle with celibacy because of traditional and cultural beliefs in the importance of having children. Novices, who are just entering religious life, are particularly vulnerable because they often need a letter from their parish priest to be accepted into certain religious congregations. “And sometimes they have to pay for that,” she said.

And when these women become pregnant?

“Mainly she has an abortion. Even more than once. And he pays for that. A religious sister has no money. A priest, yes,” she said.

There can also be a price for blowing the whistle on the problem.

In 2013, the Rev. Anthony Musaala in Kampala, Uganda wrote what he called an open letter to members of the local Catholic establishment about “numerous cases” of alleged sex liaisons of priests, including with nuns. He charged that it was “an open secret that many Catholic priests and some bishops, in Uganda and elsewhere, no longer live celibate chastity.”

He was sanctioned, even though Ugandan newspapers regularly report cases of priests caught in sex escapades. The topic is even the subject of a popular novel taught in high schools.

In 2012, a priest sued a bishop in western Uganda who had suspended him and ordered him to stop interacting with at least four nuns. The priest, who denied the allegations, lost the suit, and the sisters later withdrew their own suit against the bishop.

Archbishop John Baptist Odama, leader of the local Ugandan conference of bishops, told the AP that unverified or verified allegations against individual priests should not be used to smear the whole church.

“Individual cases may happen, if they are there,” he said Thursday. “Individual cases must be treated as individual cases.”

___

PRIESTLY ABUSE OF NUNS IS NOT A NEW PROBLEM

Long before the most recent incidents, confidential reports into the problem focused on Africa and AIDS were prepared in the 1990s by members of religious orders for top church officials. In 1994, the late Sr. Maura O’Donohue wrote the most comprehensive study about a six-year, 23-nation survey, in which she learned of 29 nuns who had been impregnated in a single congregation.

Nuns, she reported, were considered “safe” sexual partners for priests who feared they might be infected with HIV if they went to prostitutes or women in the general population.

Four years later, in a report to top religious superiors and Vatican officials, Sr. Marie McDonald said harassment and rape of African sisters by priests is “allegedly common.” Sometimes, when a nun becomes pregnant, the priest insists on an abortion, the report said.

The problem travelled when the sisters were sent to Rome for studies. They “frequently turn to seminarians and priests for help in writing essays. Sexual favors are sometimes the payment they have to make for such help,” the report said.

The reports were never meant to be made public. The U.S. National Catholic Reporter put them online in 2001, exposing the depths of a scandal the church had long sought to keep under wraps. To date, the Vatican hasn’t said what, if anything, it ever did with the information.

Sister Paola Moggi, a member of the Missionary Combonian Sisters — a religious congregation with a significant presence in 16 African countries — said in her experience the African church “had made great strides” since the 1990s, when she did missionary work in Kenya, but the problem has not been eliminated.

“I have found in Africa sisters who are absolutely emancipated and who say what they think to a priest they meet who might ask to have sex with them,” she told the AP.

“I have also found sisters who said ‘Well, you have to understand their needs, and that while we only have a monthly cycle a man has a continuous cycle of sperm’ — verbatim words from the ’90s,” she said.

But the fact that in just a few weeks scandals of priests allegedly molesting sisters have erupted publicly on two other continents — Asia and Latin America — suggests that the problem is not confined to Africa, and that some women are now willing to break the taboo to denounce it publicly.

In India, a sister of the Missionaries of Jesus filed a police report last month alleging a bishop raped her in May 2014 during a visit to the heavily Christian state of Kerala, and that he subsequently sexually abused her around a dozen more times over the following two years, Indian media have reported. The bishop denied the accusation and said the woman was retaliating against him for having taken disciplinary action against her for her own sexual misdeeds.

In Chile, the scandal of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, an order dedicated to health care in the diocese of Talca, erupted at the same time the country’s entire Catholic hierarchy has been under fire for decades of sex abuse and cover-ups. The scandal got so bad that in May, Francis summoned all Chilean bishops to Rome, where they all offered to resign en masse.

The case, exposed by the Chilean state broadcaster, involves accusations of priests fondling and kissing nuns, including while naked, and some religious sisters sexually abusing younger ones. The victims said they told their mother superior, but that she did nothing. Talca’s new temporary bishop has vowed to find justice.

The Vatican is well aware that religious sisters have long been particularly vulnerable to abuse. Perhaps the most sensational account was detailed in the 2013 book “The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio,” based on the archives of the Vatican’s 1860s Inquisition trial of abuse, embezzlement, murder and “false holiness” inside a Roman convent. Once word got out, the Vatican poured the full force of its Inquisition to investigate and punish.

It remains to be seen what the Vatican will do now that more sisters are speaking out.

ONE SISTER’S STORY — AND YEARS OF HURT

The sister who spoke to the AP about her assault in 2000 during confession at a Bologna university clasped her rosary as she recounted the details.

She recalled exactly how she and the priest were seated in two armchairs face-to-face in the university classroom, her eyes cast to the floor. At a certain point, she said, the priest got up from his chair and forced himself on her. Petite but not frail, she was so shocked, she said, that she grabbed him by the shoulders and with all her strength, stood up and pushed him back into his chair.

The nun continued with her confession that day. But the assault — and a subsequent advance by a different priest a year later — eventually led her to stop going to confession with any priest other than her spiritual father, who lives in a different country.

“The place of confession should be a place of salvation, freedom and mercy,” she said. “Because of this experience, confession became a place of sin and abuse of power.”

She recalled at one point a priest in whom she had confided had apologized “on behalf of the church.” But nobody ever took any action against the offender, who was a prominent university professor.

The woman recounted her story to the AP without knowing that at that very moment, a funeral service was being held for the priest who had assaulted her 18 years earlier.

She later said the combination of his death and her decision to speak out lifted a great weight.

“I see it as two freedoms: freedom of the weight for a victim, and freedom of a lie and a violation by the priest,” she said. “I hope this helps other sisters free themselves of this weight.”

Spoiler

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/10/indian-catholic-nuns-protest-bishop-franco-mullackal-accused-of-rape

Indian Catholic sisters have broken ranks with the church by openly protesting in the streets of the Keralan state capital against a bishop accused of raping a nun.

The demonstrations started on Saturday and continued throughout the weekend in Thiruvananthapuram, fuelled by an incendiary press conference in which a politician questioned the account of the bishops’s alleged victim, a 46-year-old nun, and described her as a prostitute.

The nun lodged a complaint against bishop Franco Mullackal on 27 June this year accusing the clergyman of sexually assaulting her over a period of two years starting in May 2014.

She made the complaint only after Mullackal went to the police claiming the alleged victim and five other nuns were harassing and blackmailing him. He denies the rape accusations and says the alleged victim has a vendetta against him.

The case has exposed deep ruptures inside Kerala’s Roman Catholic church, whose adherents numbered close to 1 million according to the most recent census in 2011. The southern state has one of the largest Christian populations in India and one of the oldest in the world.

Former nuns have previously raised allegations of sexual exploitation by priests and other male clergy in the state’s church but the latest case has prompted unprecedented publicity and calls for investigation.

Five nuns joined street protests at the weekend organised by Catholic reform groups claiming the police were dragging their heels in the case. “The church has not given us justice,” one of the nuns, Sister Anupama MJ, told the Times of India. “Neither have police or the government. We will fight. It was the church that forced us on to the streets.”

Outrage at the case grew on Sunday when a state politician, PC George, asked a press conference why the nun had taken more than two years to raise the complaint. “No one has a doubt that the nun is a prostitute,” said George, an independent MP with a history of controversial remarks about sexual assault. “Why didn’t she complain the first time?”

The National Commission for Women, a statutory body that promotes women’s rights, called his remarks shameful and demanded a police investigation.

George Joseph, the president of the Joint Christian Council, one of the groups organising the protests, accused senior politicians and church leaders of interfering in the case. “It is the 76th day since the petition was filed and still police have not taken a major step in the investigation,” he said. “Police are interrogating the petitioner, not the accused, and we believe they are under pressure from political parties and the church.”

As usual the abuser is protected by the system while the victim is lefta alone. This is thoroughly disgusting, but what can you expect from an institution that tolerated, made excuses for and covered up child abuse?

[AmazonGrace]

Uh what? They're reading a rule book that's a couple thousand years old and yet you shouldn't expect that people recognize raping children as wrong 30 years ago

[47of74]

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick got his ass kicked out of the clergy

Quote

The Congresso of the CDF, which investigated the accusations, has issued a decree finding McCarrick “guilty of the following delicts while a cleric: solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power”.

The Congresso has imposed the penalty of “dismissal from the clerical state”. 

The statement of the CDF notes that McCarrick’s appeal against this decision was considered on 13 February 2019 by the Ordinary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “Having examined the arguments in the recourse”, the statement says, “the Ordinary Session confirmed the decree of the Congresso”. McCarrick was notified of the decision on 15 February 2019.

This decision, following the recognition by the Holy Father, is definitive and admits of no further recourse or appeal.

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Hermann Geissler, priest and head of office at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (one of the most important Vatican bodies) recently "resigned" from his job after having been accused of molestation by a nun. Actually the episode was denounced to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for the first time in 2012. When the nun told what happened to her superior, the superior apparently told her  something like "You know, I knew Father has a certain weakness for women so we kind of have to put up with this". In 2014 the Congregation wrote her a letter where they said they investigated the matter and had "admonished" him and "warned him to be more cautious in the future". No other official investigation and trial according to Canon Law ever happened. So last year the nun talked publicly of her experience and gave a couple of interviews. Finally the priest "resigned" last January. No trial yet, even if Canon Law says that molestation during Confession is a serious crime that goes under Crimen Sollicitationis.

Sources here in English and here in Italian, this last one also refers to other cases of abuse.

[47of74]

Ugh

Quote

Theodore McCarrick was once a cardinal – one of the highest-ranking positions in the Roman Catholic Church. He was also the archbishop of Washington, D.C. And he's the only current or former U.S. cardinal to ever face sex abuse charges.

But now a judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a criminal case against McCarrick stemming from the alleged molestation of a 16-year-old boy there in 1974.

The judge's move comes after examinations of the 93-year-old found that he has dementia.

In 2019, the church expelled McCarrick from the priesthood following an internal investigation that found multiple instances of sexual misconduct. Later, the Vatican issued a report saying that Pope John Paul II promoted him despite knowledge of sex abuse allegations.

I know the Episcopal Church has its own problems and bad history but I just don't feel as morally compromised as an Episcopalian as I would be compared to being a member of the Roman Church. 

I wish there was a way to go forward with the US judicial system to declare McCarrick would likely be found guilty and if the defense didn't like it to do a full trial in abstentia and then find him guilty and send him to Springfield.  If I somehow became Pope first thing I'd do is excommunicate the son of a bitch and tell him to figure it out for himself when it came to his financial arrangements and he wasn't getting a church funeral or burial in a Catholic cemetery no matter what.  And I'd tell all the conservative enablers to go F them selves if they didn't like it. 

Edited September 1, 2023 by 47of74