zondag, januari 29, 2006

UK:misbruik en Zwijnstein

Geen herkenning van grenzen en misbruik door voortbestaan Het Geheim: misbruik en Zwijnstein, nu zonder Harry Potter cs.

Eindelijk dan een veroordeling in Engeland van een priester die door zijn (lagere school) leerlingen e op een top- élite school, Ampleforth, destijds al 'pervy Piers' genoemd werd.
Iedereen was van het misbruik (gepleegd tussen '65-'75) op de hoogte, (klik) van de abt -de latere Kardinaal Basil Hume - tot aan de leerlingen aan toe. Desalniettemin kon de man 9 jaar lang zijn gang gaan. Tot hij uiteindelijk na klachten in '75 gestopt werd op deze school om -1978 - overgeplaatst, vervolgens op de nieuwe school, waar hij tot '89 werkzaam is, opnieuw zijn gang te kunnen gaan.

Zelf zegt de man dat hij dacht "oude tradities" voort te zetten; zich nooit gerealiseerd te hebben dat hij zijn slachtoffers kwaad berokkende......
En dat zou, hoe krankzinnig het ook moge lijken inderdaad wel eens de waarheid kunnen zijn geweest. Hij is er, behalve in de openheid van zijn uitspraken,
in die visie ieder geval zeker geen uitzonder in. Het privilege van de geperveteerde macht: criminaliteit die als "normaal", het hoort erbij, gezien wordt.

De politie heeft nogal wat moeite gehad met het onderzoek: de man was kennelijk niet de enige die problemen had bij het door krijgen dat dergelijke 'oude tradities" er niet waren om voortgezet te worden, maar crimineel gedrag is. Ook de leerlingen waren nauwelijks bereid hun mond open te doen.
3,5 duizend verklaringen had zijn advocaat, van oud leerlingen van "pervy Piers":
geweldige vent....

Het voort laten bestaan van Het Geheim betekent immers het niet stellen van grenzen.

Van de zelfde school , Workington, waarheen deze priester werd overgeplaatst zijn eerder mensen veroordeeld. Een van hen , Gregory Carrol, kreeg 1 jaar strafvermindering. Zelfde laken een soutane: ook hij kwam van Ampleforth en werd overgeplaatst en kon vervolgens in Workington zijn gang weer gaan. Inmiddels lopen er nieuwe zaken tegen hem. Van slachtoffers welke eindelijk ook hebben besloten de grens te moeten trekken.

Het zou wel eens het verhaal van de komende jaren kunnen worden.


hier de berichtgeving van The Times

Pervert monk jailed after a decade of abusing young boys
Mark Branagan (bron: klik)

27 January 2006A MONK who abused 15 boys as young as eight over a
decade while a master at a leading Roman Catholic boarding school has been
jailed for two years.
Piers Grant-Ferris, 72, son of Tory Peer Lord Harvington, was placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and banned from working with children indefinitely.
His conviction yesterday at Leeds Crown Court ends a two-year investigation into abuse at Ampleforth College, in North Yorkshire, following a decision by former Abbot Basil Hume not to involve police in a complaint against Grant-Ferris in 1975.

Grant-Ferris worked at Ampleforth's former prep school, Gilling Castle.
The court heard that a number of the boys who had been the subject of
the 20 indecency offences he admitted between 1965 and 1975 were affected in
later life.One victim, who also suffered more serious abuse by a member of the
community now dead, complained that his treatment had "wrecked his life".Judge
Ian Dobkin said: "So we do know what you did was dire in many respects. What you did remains as serious now as then."

Earlier James Goss QC, prosecuting, said Grant-Ferris would beat the children on their bottoms with his bare hands and take their temperatures rectally.
Describing one ordeal, he said: "Terrified, the boy pleaded and begged him to stop but was ignored." He said the abuse continued into the boy's second year and he suffered a breakdown aged 19.

Another boy said: "The pain was excruciating and seemed to go on for a long
time."
Patrick Cossgrove QC, defending, linked the offences to the "emotional
abandonment" that Grant-Ferris suffered as a child when he was only allowed to
see his parents socially once a week after Sunday lunch. He denied his client
was a predatory offender.
Abbot of Ampleforth Father Cuthbert Madden
said:"The offences were a serious betrayal of his responsibilities as a monk,
teacher and adult member of society."


Published on 27/01/2006
A FORMER Workington priest jailed for sexually abusing young boys will be re-interviewed by town detectives following a new complaint.

The news comes less than two weeks after Father Gregory Carroll, 66, had his four-year sentence shortened by a year by the Criminal Appeal Court.He was sentenced in September for abusing 10 boys under the age of 15 while he was teaching at the junior house of Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire from 1973 to 1983.

For the first time, allegations are under investigation that he molested a boy in Workington, where he was sent to from Ampleforth by church authorities, which had removed him from teaching.

The man, who lives in the Home Counties, claims he was between eight and 10 when the abuse took place at various locations, including our Lady and St Michael’s RC Church and Carroll’s bedroom.

He said: “It’s taken a long time for me to come forward and there were lots of reasons for that. I am pleased that I have. It’s a huge weight off my mind and everyone has ben so supportive from the police to my closest family and friends.

“When I found out his sentence had been cut by 12 months, it made me feel sick. He was put in a position of trust and he abused that position on a number of occasions and he should be punished for it.

“Three years is not enough for what he put them through.“

If he is a holy man like he has preached for years, then he should be a man and admit it all and do his time.

“It also angers me that a senior official at Ampleforth knew about what he was capable of and still sent him to Workington. This official does not deserve to be called a holy man and should have to answer to me, my family and the people of Workington.”

The man, who still has family in Workington, has spoken at length to detectives in his home area. They have now passed the investigation on to Workington.

The head of West Cumbria CID, Detective Inspector Andy Carter, said this week: “We are in receipt of a complaint and a full investigation is under way.

“At some stage, we need to speak to Gregory Carroll but to comment further on the direction of the investigation would be counter productive.”

The Ampleforth offences were effectively swept under the carpet, to allow Carroll to quietly move out of teaching and into the priesthood in Workington, where he worked among an unsuspecting community from 1987 until he retired in 2001.

His Ampleforth offences and those of another former Ampleforth teacher, Fr Piers Grant-Ferris, came to light when North Yorkshire Police began investigations in 2004.

Grant Ferris had also been moved to the priesthood in Workington after he was identified as one of a nest of paedophiles on the Ampleforth staff who preyed on boys for nine years.He was known to the pupils under his care as ‘pervy Piers’ - yet in Workington he was appointed chaplain to St Joseph’s RC High School, where he took confessions from children in private. He was priest here between 1975 and 1989.


Two years jail for pervert priest
Published on 27/01/2006

Piers Grant-Ferris
A FORMER Workington priest has been jailed for two years after he admitted 20 counts of indecent assault on 15 young boys at a prep school.

Father Piers Grant-Ferris, 72, assaulted boys under 12 when he was a teacher at Gilling Castle Preparatory School in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, between 1966 and 1975. He was sent to serve in Workington three years later in 1978 despite admitting to Ampleforth College that he had abused young boys.

The college admitted it was aware of his behaviour 30 years ago but the matter was not reported to police and Grant-Ferris was sent to Workington to fill a post as an assistant priest. He remained there until 1989.

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday that he was arrested and charged after a police probe into Ampleforth Abbey, which is attached to the country’s leading independent Roman Catholic School, Ampleforth College.Gilling Castle Prep School was used as a feeder school by the college.

The offences occurred while Grant-Ferris, who the children saw as “a bit of a crackpot”, was a second year form master at the school.Grant-Ferris punished the boys by smacking and fondling them and some of his young victims thought there were occasions when he gained sexual gratification from the punishments, the court heard.

The assaults took place in various places around the school, including the bathroom, the defendant’s bedroom and in woods nearby.

Mr Goss said one boy described Grant-Ferris’s assaults as terrifying and humiliating while another said the defendant had wrecked his life.Another victim said he was left with a feeling of terrible confusion and bewilderment and another boy said he had been left with repressed sexual urges and had experienced difficulties in his marriage.

Patrick Cosgrove QC, defending, said he had received 3,500 letters of support for Grant-Ferris, including one from a victim of the abuse which said the monk had helped him.Mr Cosgrove said there was no way of knowing whether Grant-Ferris had caused all the victims’ problems as at least one of them had suffered much more serious abuse by a member of lay staff at the school who has since died.

Mr Cosgrove said that in his client’s autobiography, Grant-Ferris wrote he suffered severe emotional deprivation in his early years and was indecently assaulted in the same way as he indecently assaulted the boys under his supervision.He thought he was carrying on a timeless set of traditions until the outside world intervened.

In Grant-Ferris’s autobiography, he wrote: “I never had the slightest intent to cause any harm to any of my pupils. I simply failed to understand that my behaviour was so serious and so upsetting to the victims.“I’m very sorry for the harm I have caused to a number of boys in my care and trust.”

Judge Ian Dobkin also ordered Grant-Ferris to be registered on the sex offenders register for 10 years and banned him from working with children until further notice.Seven further offences, which Grant-Ferris denied, will remain on file.

dinsdag, januari 24, 2006

23-1-06 Het Legioen, Mexico de paus en nog steeds Maciel I punt.nl

With elite backing, Catholic order has pull in Mexico
Monday, January 23, 2006
By Jose de Cordoba, The Wall Street Journal

MEXICO CITY -- Two years ago, a handful of Latin American billionaires and some of the world's top financiers gathered at New York's Plaza Hotel. They were honoring Mexican plutocrat Carlos Slim and raising money for schools for poor children run by the Legion of Christ, a fast-growing conservative Roman Catholic order.

Among those giving speeches at the black-tie gala were the Rev. Marcial Maciel, the 85-year-old Mexican founder of the Legion, and Citigroup Inc. Chairman Sanford Weill. Within hours, the diverse group of 500 well-wishers raised $725,000.

The Legion was in its element. Founded in 1941, the order concentrates on ministering to the wealthy and powerful in the belief that by evangelizing society's leaders, the beneficial impact on society is multiplied. Like the Jesuits who centuries ago whispered in the ear of Europe's princes, the Legion's priests today are the confessors and chaplains to some of the most powerful businessmen in Latin America.

"The soul of a trash collector is as important as the soul of Carlos Slim, but if Slim is converted, think of the influence and power for good he would wield," says Luanne Zurlo, a former Goldman Sachs securities analyst who organized the benefit. Mr. Slim, Latin America's richest man with a fortune estimated at $24 billion, says he's not a highly devout Catholic but is helping the Legion create 50 low-cost universities in Latin America.

The Legion has become an important player in promoting the Vatican's social agenda and defending Catholicism's Latin American heartland from inroads made by evangelical Protestant groups. When the church was struggling to find priests in Germany, the Legion recruited German-speaking seminarians from Brazil to fill the gap. In Rome and Mexico City, Legion universities offer advanced degrees in bioethics that stress the limits morality should put on science.

The Legion's critics charge that its focus on the wealthy reinforces the sharp class divides that have long held Latin America back socially and economically. They say the Legion fosters intolerance and social climbing rather than devotion to Christ's gospel. Some in Mexico, instead of referring to the order's followers as Legionnaires of Christ, call them the "Millionaires of Christ."

More troubling for the Legion, Father Maciel, the order's founder, has been dogged for nearly a decade by widely publicized accusations that he sexually molested at least eight teenage seminarians from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Father Maciel denies the accusations. Many Catholic activists, angry with the church over cover-ups in priest sex-abuse cases, believe the Vatican has protected Father Maciel because of the Legion's reach and power.

The Legion operates in some 20 countries, including the U.S., Chile, Spain, Brazil and Ireland, but its influence is greatest in Mexico. Here it runs the country's fastest-growing network of Catholic schools for the well-to-do, and each spring mobilizes 20,000 volunteers to travel to remote towns and urge wavering Catholics to keep the faith.

Catholic orders such as the Legion, the Franciscans and the Jesuits are largely independent of the church's diocesan governing structure and answer to their own directors based in Rome. To be active in a given diocese, however, they must obtain permission from the local bishop and are subject to his authority.

Even as the church struggles to recruit priests, the Legion's nine seminaries have turned out 650 ordained priests, many of whom come from wealthy families. That is up from 210 priests in 1990. The Legion's ranks also include about 2,500 seminarians studying to be priests and 1,000 "consecrated women" -- lay nuns who pledge to remain chaste and poor -- as well as some 65,000 lay supporters, in a group known as Regnum Christi.

Charitable works make up about $50 million of the Legion's $650 million yearly budget. It operates a network of 21 Mano Amiga schools for some 13,000 poor children, whose parents pay about $20 a month in tuition. Regnum Christi members have started many of Mexico's leading charitable efforts, such as a program through which supermarket customers donate money for a national food bank. In El Salvador and Mexico, the order has built small towns for disaster victims complete with schools, churches and medical facilities.

"The Legion is the only Mexican multinational in the world of religion," says Dionisio Garza Medina, chairman of Alfa, a large conglomerate in Monterrey, Mexico, and brother of the Legion's vicar general, the Rev. Luis Garza Medina. A sister of the two men is a consecrated woman.

Controversy often follows the Legion as it expands into new countries. Two years ago, Legion priests were barred from working in the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis after St. Paul Archbishop Harry Flynn said he worried that the Legion was building a "parallel church" behind the backs of local priests.

In 2004, two Baton Rouge, La., Catholic schools warned parents about the Legion's "questionable methods." Members of Regnum Christi paid for Baton Rouge students to fly to Los Angeles for a screening of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" without notifying the schools. A spokesman for the Legion says the incidents were "misunderstandings" caused by the Legion's relative youth and overzealous Regnum Christi members.

The Legion was a favorite of Pope John Paul II, who liked its mix of religious fervor and conservative doctrine. Over the years, the late pontiff often praised Father Maciel's work. "John Paul used to talk about the Legion all the time, holding them up as examples while reading us the riot act," says the Rev. Vincent O'Keefe, a former deputy director of the Jesuits, a prominent order which fell into papal disfavor due to the liberal beliefs of some of its members.

Soon after John Paul II ascended to the papal throne in 1978, he made it known he wanted to become the first pontiff to visit Mexico, the world's second-biggest Catholic country after Brazil but one whose government was stridently anticlerical. Father Maciel wrangled an invitation by appealing to the then-president's devout mother and sisters, according to papal biographer George Weigel. That trip eventually led Mexico to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican. In recent years, Father Maciel arranged a private audience with John Paul for President Vicente Fox's first wife, who worked in Rome for the Legion for a year.

Mr. Maciel today writes warm letters to Marta Fox, the president's powerful second wife, according to two friends of Marta Fox. One friend says the letters address her as "Mi muy querida Martita," or "My very dear Martita." Marta Fox's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

The Legion's close ties with the elite are most evident in Monterrey, a city of four million that has long been dominated by businessmen in the so-called Group of Ten. For decades, Jesuits played a major role educating the children of the wealthy there, but the order veered leftward and was expelled in 1968 by the local bishop, who accused Jesuits of backing a strike at a local university. Since then,the Legion has set the social and intellectual tone for Monterrey's wealthy through a web of schools, clubs and charitable organizations.

Many of Monterrey's entrepreneurs and executives send their children to single-sex Legion schools where they make connections that last a lifetime. "They are very good educators," says Mr. Slim. "My children studied with them."

Middle-class parents struggle to pay the high tuitions of nearly $900 a month, convinced that their children will benefit from school ties, says David Martinez, a former member of Regnum Christi who studied in Legion schools and is now managing director of the New York-based hedge fund Fintech.

At the Legion's after-school youth clubs, where the catechism is mixed with soccer and games, "vocation hunters" recruit candidates to become priests or consecrated women. As a first step, teenagers are encouraged to donate a year to the Catholic Church by volunteering for the Legion's world-wide operations. Around Monterrey, Legion priests dress in smart double-breasted black suits and sport cufflinks along with a clerical collar. Consecrated women wear ankle-length dresses.

In October, Monterrey's establishment turned out to see a newly ordained priest, the Rev. Benjamin Clariond -- whose father and uncle are former state governors -- celebrate his first mass in the city. The event was amply covered in the society pages of Monterrey's leading newspaper, which put 64 photographs of the event on its Web site.

Like the Clarionds or the Garza Medinas, almost every prominent clan in Monterrey has a son who is a Legion priest or a daughter who is a consecrated woman. Talk at dinner parties of the "movement" or the "kingdom," referring to Regnum Christi, is common. Mr. Martinez, the hedge fund manager, says Father Maciel is "worshipped" by Mexico's upper class because for 60 years he has made Mexico's rich feel as if "Christ loves them more than other people, and is using them as part of a divine plan."

The Legion's influence extends to the workplace, too, where many companies pay for Legion evangelists to lead weekly discussions on Catholic values. At Grupo Novem S.A. de C.V., a water-systems company owned by a family of Legion supporters, employees are urged to attend one-hour seminars on such subjects as marriage and human cloning. Message boards in the building extol the "Moral Value of the Month."

The order's critics say the Legion creates an oppressive climate for those who don't follow orthodox Catholic teaching. Jose Zumaya, a psychiatrist who counsels couples in Monterrey, says some of his upper-class clients suffer from what he calls "Legionary syndrome," referring mainly to a dread of social ostracism if they get divorced. "They feel their children will have to leave school, they will lose all their friends, and there will be consequences for the husband at work as well," says Dr. Zumaya.

In December 2004, the University of Monterrey, a private Catholic institution that isn't affiliated with the Legion, fired five professors and a dean, most of whom taught women's studies. The fired dean blamed Mr. Garza Medina, a strong Legion supporter who in addition to his business interests serves as chairman of the university's board of trustees. Vice Rector Victor Zuniga denies that the chairman played a role and says the dean was fired for poor performance. The Legion says it had nothing to do with the firings. A spokesman for Mr. Garza Medina says the university had no links to the Legion of Christ, and also cites poor performance as the reason for the dean's firing.

Mr. Zuniga says a theology professor was fired around the same time because many parents disliked her questioning such topics as papal infallibility. He defends the decision, saying such questioning was akin to challenging President Bush's patriotism at a Texas university after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Legion points out that it serves more than Latin America's wealthy bastions. One day last summer, in San Francisco, a sweltering thatched-roof hamlet of Maya Indians in the southern Mexican state of Quintana Roo, premedical students from the Legion's Anahuac University, under the direction of a young doctor, examined a long line of children and dispensed medicines. Other college volunteers played with dozens of barefoot children and taught catechism lessons.

"How many sacraments are there?" asked Pablo Orvananos, a bearded tourism major. "Seven," answered a little girl, getting a lollipop as a prize.

When he started the Legion in 1941, Father Maciel was an ambitious 20-year old, the scion of provincial Catholic aristocracy. Three of his uncles were bishops and a fourth led an army of peasants against the Mexican government during the 1926 Cristero War, a struggle over state control of the Catholic Church that raged on and off until 1941 and cost some 250,000 lives. According to the Legion's official history, Pope Pius XII ordered Father Maciel in 1946 to recruit Latin American leaders and said the congregation should be like an evangelizing "army in battle formation."

Constantly traveling, Father Maciel proved to be adroit at raising money from rich Mexicans, in particular Flora Barragan de Garza, the Monterrey widow of one of the wealthiest men in Mexico at the time. One technique: Seminarians would write affectionate letters detailing their financial needs to Mrs. Garza, whom they addressed as their "mother." Mrs. Garza responded generously. She bought a Mercedes-Benz for Father Maciel and land in Mexico City that the Legion used to build its first school, Instituto Cumbres, or "The Heights," in 1952.

From 1956 to 1958, Vatican investigators relieved Father Maciel of his position while they looked into a range of charges about his conduct, although allegations of sexual abuse weren't raised at that time. Absolved by that inquiry, Father Maciel regained command of the Legion in 1959.

In 1997, eight men went public with complaints, made previously through informal church channels to the Vatican,that Father Maciel had abused them when they were seminarians in the 1940s and 1950s. The Vatican unit that investigates such charges -- then under the direction of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- quickly tabled a formal complaint, filed with church authorities in 1998. In Mexico, leading media companies also ignored the allegations. When a small cable-television station ran a documentary about them, leading businessmen organized an advertiser boycott that almost drove the station into bankruptcy.

The investigation into Father Maciel seemed dead until last year, when it emerged that Cardinal Ratzinger had revived the probe in the waning days of Pope John Paul II's reign. In January 2005, soon after the probe began, Father Maciel resigned as head of the Legion, citing his advanced age. In April, a top Vatican investigator went to New York and Mexico to interview Father Maciel's accusers. The same month Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.

Today, the investigation remains open. The Legion is under the direction of the Rev. Alvaro Corcuera, a 47-year-old Mexican, who says he'll continue to govern "in the strictest fidelity" to the spirit of the founder.

The accusations against Father Maciel appear not to have damped the fervor of the Legion's well-to-do followers. In November, some 10,000 Regnum Christi members gathered under a huge tent in Guadalajara, Mexico, where they gave Father Corcuera a rock-star's welcome. As a guitar-strumming Legion priest sang a song honoring Father Maciel, Father Corcuera praised the founder's mother, Mama Maurita, whom the Legion is lobbying to be made a saint.

maandag, januari 09, 2006

‘Sekscrisis heilzaam voor Amerikaanse kerk’

Tertio sprak met voorzitter Amerikaanse bisschoppenconferentie
Geplaatst op 6/1 '06 om 1:30u
Door Theo Borgermans (Bron: Tertio)

WASHINGTON (RKnieuws.net) - William Skylstad, de voorzitter van de Amerikaanse bisschoppenconferentie, is bisschop van een failliet bisdom. Toch is hij ervan overtuigd dat de seksschandalen die zijn bisdom ruďneerden, de katholieke kerk uiteindelijk ten goede zullen komen.

De voorzitter van de machtige Ameri-kaanse bisschoppenconferentie, William Skylstad, is thuis een van de armste bisschoppen van de Verenigde Staten (VS). Zijn bisdom Spokane, in de noordwestelijke staat Washington, is een van de drie Amerikaanse bisdommen die het faillissement hebben aangevraagd, nadat het torenhoge schadevergoedingen moest uitbetalen aan de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door een diocesaan priester.

Skylstad overweegt nu het bisschopshuis te verkopen. "Ik huur wel een appartementje,’’ zei hij aan Tertio, toen hij onlangs in ons land op bezoek was. Meer nog: "Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat de crisis die in 2002 losbrak, toen allerlei schandalen van seksueel misbruik aan het licht kwamen, uiteindelijk heilzaam zal zijn voor de kerk in de VS.’’

Volgens sommigen is de recente Vaticaanse instructie over homoseksuelen en priesterschap een rechtstreeks gevolg van het seksueel misbruik in de Amerikaanse kerk. Bent u het daarmee eens?

"Het klopt dat er veel is veranderd in de screening van kandidaat-priesters. Vroeger volstonden bij wijze van spreken een gezondheidscertificaat van je huisarts en een aanbeveling van je pastoor. Vandaag wordt van een kandidaat-priester geëist dat hij met iedereen goede pastorale relaties kan aanknopen. Daarvoor moet hij goed in zijn vel zitten. Het is de ambitie van de kerk om goede priesters te vormen en daar waren we soms te laks in.

De Vaticaanse instructie is vijf jaar lang voorbereid. Toch staat er niets radicaal nieuws in. Het specificeert wel een aantal criteria. Dat is nuttig voor bisschoppen, spirituele leidsmannen en voor de kandidaten zelf. Zo kan men beter uitmaken of iemand de juiste kwalificaties bezit voor het dienstwerk.’’

Toch is het de eerste keer dat de kerk zo duidelijk zegt dat ‘iemand met diepgewortelde homoseksuele neigingen’ geen geschikte priester kan zijn.

"Ja, al zijn die ‘neigingen’ niet duidelijk gedefinieerd. Er is dus ruimte voor interpretatie. Dat iemand die er homoseksuele activiteiten op nahoudt, geen goede kandidaat is, was voor mij al langer duidelijk. Het is voor mij ook geen goede zaak als je seksuele geaardheid goede pastorale relaties met anderen in de weg staat. De kerk is op zoek naar priesters die hun hele zelf kunnen geven aan authentieke pastoraal, aan liefdadigheid en aan de kerk. Als je seksualiteit – of die nu homo of hetero is – dat in de weg staat, is er een probleem. Het document focust op homoseksuelen, maar het is evident dat je beter ook geen priester wordt als je een vrouwenloper bent.’’

Legt het document, door te focussen op homoseksuelen, geen band tussen homoseksualiteit en pedofilie? En is die band terecht?

"Er is tot nog toe geen wetenschappelijk bewijs van een verband tussen pedofilie en homoseks. Integendeel, pedofilie gebeurt meest tussen mannen en meisjes. In families zijn het vooral mannen die zich vergrijpen aan meisjes. De ‘John Jay studie’ – het wetenschappelijke rapport dat het seksuele misbruik in de Amerikaanse kerk cijfermatig in kaart bracht –, toont evenwel aan dat het in de kerk meer ging over mannen met jongens: 81 procent van de slachtoffers was een jongen, 19 procent een meisje.

Het misbruik van minderjarigen was dus meer homoseksueel getint. Het is moeilijk uit te maken waarom dat zo is. Misschien was er gewoon meer gelegenheid. Daarom bestelt de bisschoppenconferentie nu een nieuwe studie die verder gaat dan de cijfers. De studie moet ingaan op de context en de redenen voor het misbruik. Het is een grootse studie, die enkele jaren in beslag zal nemen. De resultaten zullen nuttig zijn bij de selectie van priesterkandidaten, maar ook voor allerlei religieuze gemeenschappen.’’

In hogere kerkelijke kringen probeerden sommigen de schandalen aanvankelijk te minimaliseren. Maar kardinaal Joseph Ratzin-ger, nu paus Benedictus XVI, was naar verluidt erg geschokt door de dossiers, die hij als hoofd van de Congregatie voor de geloofsleer persoonlijk heeft ingekeken. Speelt dat een rol in de doortastende reactie?

"De Heilige Vader was ongetwijfeld geschokt, maar dat waren wij allemaal. Ik heb een tijdje samengewoond met iemand die zich geregeld aan kinderen vergreep, en ik wist het niet. Bij sommige bisschoppen was er aanvankelijk enig scepticisme, dat klopt. Maar persoonlijk ben ik blij en dankbaar dat het is uitgekomen, hoe hard en pijnlijk dat ook was. Nu kennen we het probleem, kunnen we eraan werken en het overwinnen.

De bewustwording is heel sterk. De schandalen die nu aan het licht zijn gekomen, vonden vooral in de jaren zeventig en begin de jaren tachtig plaats. Aan het einde van de jaren tachtig zie je de klachten naar beneden gaan. Dat komt omdat heel wat bisschoppen toen al maatregelen begonnen te nemen. Het fenomeen helemaal stoppen is waarschijnlijk onmogelijk, maar je kunt het aantal gevallen wel enorm doen dalen.’’

U suggereert dat de crisis uiteindelijk nuttig zal zijn voor de kerk.

"Dat blijkt nu al. Zo hebben we een massale inspanning gedaan om priesters en andere kerkmensen te trainen en te vormen. De resultaten zijn er al. Onlangs werden twee meisjes op ongepaste wijze benaderd door een priester, nadat ze de mis hadden gediend. Al na enkele minuten vertelden ze het feit aan hun schooldirecteur. Training helpt de signalen snel te ontdekken.’’

Wat met het gevaar dat priesters valselijk worden beschuldigd? Het nultolerantiebeleid van de Amerikaanse bisschoppen werd daarom door Rome wat gemilderd.

"Nee, de nultolerantie is onverminderd van kracht. Wij kunnen niet toestaan dat kinderen opnieuw gevaar lopen. Ook de ouders ondersteunen dat beleid krachtig. Al te vaak dachten bisschoppen dat het maar bij een geval was gebleven, terwijl achteraf bleek dat de ziekte toch was verspreid. Er wordt dus niets meer door de vingers gezien. Elke zaak wordt zorgvuldig onderzocht.

Natuurlijk moeten ook de rechten van de beschuldigden worden beschermd. Valse verdachtmakingen komen inderdaad voor. Dat moeten we goed onderkennen. Bovendien moeten we oppassen om niemand te demoniseren. Ook de misbruiker is iemand die in zijn ziekte moet worden geholpen. Onze aandacht gaat in de eerste plaats naar de slachtoffers, maar in tweede instantie ook naar de daders.’’

En dan zijn er de financiën. De zware schadevergoedingen wegen op de Amerikaanse kerk.

"Tegen wie zegt u het. Mijn bisdom Spokane heeft het faillissement aangevraagd. Ook Portland in Oregon verkeert in die situatie. Wij zijn maar een klein bisdom met weinig middelen. Op dit moment hebben wij twee prioriteiten: zien dat alle slachtoffers gelijk en billijk worden vergoed en er tegelijk voor zorgen dat de schadevergoedingen de missie van de kerk niet in gevaar brengen.’’

U haalde onlangs de internationale pers met uw plannen om uw bisschopshuis te verkopen.

"Zover is het nog niet, maar we overwegen het wel. Om mezelf bekommer ik me niet. Ik vind wel een appartementje bij de kathedraal of een kamer in een centrum voor priesters op rust. Veel heb ik niet nodig. Wat mij vooral ter harte gaat, is dat we onze missie kunnen voortzetten. De kerk in de VS doet veel voor de armen. De zogenaamde ‘faith based initiatives’, die door de staat worden ondersteund, zijn zoveel efficiënter dan wat de staat zelf doet. We doen veel voor daklozen, geesteszieken en armen. Dat bleek bijvoorbeeld nog bij de ramp van de orkaan Katrina in Louisiana. De kerk haalde toen meer dan 120 miljoen dollar op. Daarin zijn we goed en dat moet blijven bestaan.

Voor de rest zullen we misschien een arme kerk zijn. Misschien is dat zo slecht nog niet. Dat zal ons met nieuwe problemen confronteren, maar de Heer zal wel nieuwe wegen voor ons vinden. Dat doet Hij altijd.’’

Wat is de impact van de crisis en de strengere richtlijnen op de nieuwe roepingen?

"Ik merk dat het aantal priesterroepingen niet is teruggelopen. Integendeel. Misschien is het wel normaal dat er in moeilijke tijden ook sterkere antwoorden komen. Mijn bisdom telt 45 priesters voor 90.000 katholieken. Maar het ziet ernaar uit dat ik de volgende drie jaar tien nieuwe priesters kan wijden. Dat is toch heel wat.’’

Heeft de crisis de geloofwaardigheid van de katholieken niet ondergraven? Profiteren daar de evangelicale protestantse gemeenschappen, die zo sterk in opmars zijn, niet van?

"Ik denk het niet. Het dynamisme van de nieuwe protestantse gemeenschappen daagt ons natuurlijk uit. Toch heeft de katholieke kerk veel troeven. Zo hebben wij niet alleen de Schrift, maar ook onze rijke traditie. Voorts hebben de nieuwe protestantse gemeenten ook niet die maatschappelijke inzet voor de armsten die de kerk zo sterk tekent. Onze traditie verzoent ook geloof en rede. Kijk naar heel de discussie over het ‘intelligent design’. Dat is een bijna exclusief protestantse zaak. Die fundamentalistische lezing van de bijbel hebben wij achter ons gelaten. Ik heb zelf als fysicus een positiefwetenschappelijke vorming gekregen en ik kan gerust zeggen dat er voor mij geen enkele contradictie is tussen de schepping en de evolutieleer.’’


R.K.Priester
Forum: Actuele zaken. Geplaatst op 8/1 '06 17:24u. Onderwerp: ‘Sekscrisis heilzaam voor Amerikaanse kerk’ (posts: 47, views: 949)

Bepaalde beslissingen zijn echter niet uit te leggen aan de buitenwereld.

Laat de buitenwereld maar eerst de miljoenen slachtoffers van abortus uitleggen, voordat ze ook maar één verwijtende vinger uitsteken.

De verantwoordelijkheid die ik voor de Kerk voel maakt dat ik over bepaalde
onderwerpen niet wil zwijgen.

Wie vraagt je om te zwijgen? Maar de Paus of de kerk in het algemeen aanklagen of meeheulen
met de linkse propaganda is een heel ander verhaal. ---------------------------------------

En da's ook een visie, nietwaar


R.K.Priester
Forum: Actuele zaken. Geplaatst op 8/1 '06 1:10u. Onderwerp: ‘Sekscrisis heilzaam voor Amerikaanse kerk’ (posts: 47, views: 949)

...........OKP, noem ook maar één enkel protest van de koningin tegen de onbeschrijfelijke misdaad van abortus die door haar regering ondersteunt wordt, en ik neem mijn woorden terug.

R.K.Priester
Forum: Actuele zaken. Geplaatst op
7/1 '06 20:52u. Onderwerp: ‘Sekscrisis heilzaam voor
Amerikaanse kerk’
(posts: 47, views: 949)
Onze Kerk is echter ook verloederd.
Onze Kerk is heilig. Mensen binnen de Kerk zijn zondaars. Mensen
in Nederland zijn zondaars. Kardinaal Law was inderdaad veel te passief, hij
moest daarvoor terugtreden en kreeg en zuiver ceremoniële taak. Kardinaal Law is
dus ter derge gestraft vanwege zijn passieve houding als kerkleider. Maar is hij
daardoor een misdadiger? Onze koningin is ook zeer passief in het bestrijden van
abortus. Is ze daarom een misdadiger???

zaterdag, januari 07, 2006

William Levada's geheimpjes.

Ter vermijding van verwarring: YEP! Deze voormalig aartsbisschop van San Francisco, William Levada is inderdaad de Kardinaal het hoofd van de Congregatie van de Geloofsleer, als opvolger van Ratzinger, benoemd door Ratzinger -augustus 2004 - als Bendictus XVI.

De man lijkt er een nogal gecompliceerd aantal geloofswaarden op na te houden over die geloofsleer die op zich toch niet zo gecompliceerd zouden hoeven zijn..... over mannen en vrouwen, en over liegen bv. én over krentebrood. Oude jongenskrentenbrood dus, niet dat Kerst Brood.

Of zou dat nu toch weer aan zijn advocaten liggen en hij zijn handen bijbels wassen?
Of toch gewoon weer aan die slachtoffers?

Toch wel een plezierig idee eigenlijk, dat niet alleen de brandstapels van de inquisitie, de oude naam van die Congregatie voor de geloofsleer, zijn afgeschaft maar óók de methoden van verhoor vóór men op die brandstapel kwam.

Want zodra een spokesman begint te vertellen dat híj van niets weet, maar in het algemeen gesproken..... krijg ik toch wel de neiging om even rond te kijken naar de brandslangen , bij al die rook.

As he prepares to be deposed in San Francisco next week, former S.F. Archbishop William Levada may have to come clean about a priestly child molester he protected in Portland.
By Ron Russell
Published: Wednesday, January 4, 2006

In April 2004, when questioned under oath by lawyers for victims sexually abused by priests, San Francisco's former archbishop, William J. Levada, was asked about Father Joseph Baccellieri, a parish priest accused of child molestation whom Levada removed from ministry in 1992 while archbishop of Portland. Levada restored Baccellieri to his post two years later.

"I believe there was some allegation that occurred while I was there," he said, when asked about Baccellieri's circumstances. A lawyer for the archbishop quickly interrupted to prevent Levada from saying anything more about the priest. A few months later, in a letter from Levada defending his decision to place Baccellieri back in ministry despite knowing that he had molested -- published in the archdiocesan newspaper Catholic San Francisco -- Levada wrote: "With regard to Father Baccellieri, I removed him from ministry in 1992 when I received an allegation of sexual abuse back in the 1970s."

But Levada wasn't telling all that he knew.

SF Weekly has learned that in 1993 -- the year before the archbishop's controversial decision to restore Baccellieri to his priestly duties -- Levada knew about allegations that the priest had abused not one but three male victims, and that Levada authorized secret payments to each of them after they threatened to make the allegations public in a lawsuit.

Sources familiar with the matter, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, tell the Weekly that the men were paid undisclosed sums and agreed not to sue the archdiocese in return for their pledging to keep the payments confidential. One of the victims, who claimed that Baccellieri had sodomized him for several years, insisted on and was granted a private meeting with Levada as a condition of his signing off on the arrangement, sources say.

Bud Bunce, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland, and who has worked there since 1991, says he has no knowledge of any such arrangement. However, Bunce says that "in general, if someone approaches us and wishes not to file a lawsuit and they have an allegation regarding child abuse, those situations can be settled [confidentially]."

Jeffrey Lena, a Berkeley attorney who represents Levada, declined to comment.

Levada left San Francisco for the Vatican last August after being appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making him arguably the world's second most powerful Roman Catholic prelate. (He was Portland's archbishop from 1986 to 1995.) His successor, Bishop George Niederauer of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, is to be installed as San Francisco's new archbishop Feb. 15.

Having spent $53 million to settle more than 100 claims of priestly sex abuse, Portland in 2004 became the nation's first Roman Catholic archdiocese to declare bankruptcy. Dozens of other cases are in limbo while a bankruptcy court sorts out the archdiocese's finances. On Jan. 9, Levada is scheduled to be deposed in San Francisco by lawyers for several of those plaintiffs, including some whose alleged abuse occurred during his tenure there.

In his letter in Catholic San Francisco, Levada said that he restored Baccellieri's priestly duties after "extensive therapeutic treatment" and after determining "that he had been truly repentant and could be trusted to engage in limited ministry with proper supervision."

Records show that Baccellieri served as either pastor or associate pastor in four Portland-area parishes between 1994 and 2001, when he went on leave to study canon law. In 2002, after U.S. bishops adopted their so-called "zero-tolerance" sex abuse policy, and long after Levada had come to San Francisco, Baccellieri was once again removed from ministry.

As it turns out, the accusations that Levada knew about before reinstating the priest aren't the only complaints against Baccellieri.

Since 2004, four other men have come forward claiming that Baccellieri sexually abused them as teenagers during the same 1971-1975 period as the men whose secret payments Levada approved. They have filed lawsuits against the Portland Archdiocese.

All seven of Baccellieri's alleged victims fit a similar profile. Each was a member of the band at the same Catholic high school in Portland where Baccellieri taught music from the late 1960s until the mid-'70s. He is alleged to have abused the teenagers both in his residence at a retirement home where he also served as chaplain and at a beach house in Lincoln City, Ore.

David Slader, an attorney for three of the men who have filed lawsuits, says it is "unconscionable" that Levada never bothered to report Baccellieri to law enforcement after learning that the priest was a sex offender. (Bunce, the archdiocese spokesman, says that the church would not have been obligated under state law to turn over Baccellieri for criminal prosecution in the 1990s because by then the alleged victims were adults.)

"All the evidence we've been able to find demonstrates that Archbishop Levada's sole concern was to maintain a veil of secrecy and to continue the false impression that Father Baccellieri was a trustworthy and dutiful priest," Slader says. "His efforts to protect other children from being preyed upon were halfhearted at best."

One of Baccellieri's accusers confronted the priest in a secretly recorded phone call in 2004 (which, unlike in California, is legal under Oregon law). During the call, Baccellieri acknowledged that he had not told Levada about all of the teenagers with whom he had had sex.

During the conversation, a transcript of which was obtained by SF Weekly, Baccellieri said that Levada was "extremely compassionate" in allowing him to resume priestly duties with the proviso that he couldn't be around children and couldn't counsel adults or children, restrictions that he said were sometimes awkward.

He told his alleged victim, who is now in his 40s and lives in the Bay Area, that he had been helped by a sex addicts support group whose meetings he said he had attended continuously since 1992. Baccellieri referred to his time as a priest after Levada reinstated him as "the best years of my life, because I was sober."

Parishioners where he served after Levada reinstated him were never made aware of the sex allegations against him, although fellow priests with whom he lived did know and were "under seal" not to disclose it, Baccellieri said.

Apparently, it was a secret well kept.

In 1995, a warm and fuzzy feature article in the Oregonian, Portland's daily newspaper, extolled Baccellieri's talents as an accordionist -- including his once having formed a dance band with some former students called the Gemtones -- without any hint of the trouble he had been in.

At the time, Baccellieri was playing the instrument at fairs and festivals. He had become known by his stage name: the Swinging Priest.