zondag, januari 31, 2010

Malta Felix Cini Curia silent on paedophile priest’s appointment in Malta

The Malta Independent
by DAVID LINDSAY
31 January 2010

The Archbishop’s Curia this week chose to remain silent about the nature of the appointment given to a Maltese priest in Malta in the mid-1990s who was convicted of paedophilia in Italy in 2004.

While acknowledging that Fr Felix Cini had served in Malta between 1995 and 1996, and insisting that he had not returned to Malta since the conclusion of Italian court action against him 2004, the Curia refused to answer questions on where he had served in Malta, and in what capacity.
...

An Italian investigation into Fr Cini had begun in late 2002, just six years after he had served in Malta, and after 17 children aged between 10 and 14 years of age reported having received undue attention at the hands of the priest.

Charges were filed in 2003 and Fr Cini eventually submitted a plea bargain in 2004, avoiding a lengthy trial and a possible prison sentence, and instead being landed with a two and a half year sentence in a special community.

The proper Italian legal term used is ‘patteggiamento’ – in other words he accepted the sentence to shorten the trial. Later he said that he was advised to do so, even though he felt he was innocent and that it was a case of mistaken identity.

He claimed that unnamed ‘political pressure’ was brought to bear upon him to make him take this legal way. His claim was met with rather widespread scepticism.

Although a number of Italian media reports claim he had returned to Malta for some time following the sentencing, the Maltese Curia insists that he has not returned to Malta since 2004.

The abuse took place while Fr Cini was in Comunità Siloe in Sasso d’Ombrone in the commune of Cinigiano near Grosseto.

During the investigation, all 17 children, accompanied by their parents, testified to “undue attention” received from the priest. Two computers were also taken from him and police investigators claimed they found a history of porno-paedophile web pages having been accessed.

After being posted to Cercemaggiore, the people of the small community were outraged to find out through the Internet, and through a local paper, about the murky past of the new priest in their parish.

Some of the people were aghast that such a priest had been thrust upon them without them receiving any warning, but others objected to the protest.

They claimed that, in the months he has been in the new parish, he has succeeded in attracting more and more young people to the church. A candlelight protest was held, attended by many people, and 3,000 signed a petition asking the bishop to let him remain there. It was also claimed that, ever since he came to Cercemaggiore, his behaviour had been “impeccable”.

Archbishop of Campobasso-Bojano, Monsignor GianCarlo Bregantini, has announced that the priest is being sent elsewhere, thus closing the issue, at least in his diocese.

Clergy exposed in Murphy 'must take responsibility'

The Irish Times
Saturday, January 30, 2010
SIMON CARSWELL in Davos, Switzerland

The archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said the Catholic clergy and others associated with the cover-up of clerical child sex abuse, as exposed in the Murphy report, must accept general responsibility for their failure to protect children.

Dr Martin was responding to criticism of him by the former Dublin auxiliary bishop, Dr Dermot O'Mahony, who claimed in letters published this week that the archbishop had failed to support priests in the Dublin diocese following the publication of the report.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Dr Martin said that Dr O'Mahony had, like many others, not accepted accountability for the failings outlined in the report and that he "perpetuates this mistake by misquoting the report" in his correspondence.

"All I would like to see is people accept accountability and say, 'look this is what happened'. In that letter, there is a certain rejection of what happened - that this horrendous scandal and the cover- up never took place. This I don't accept," said Dr Martin.

Dr O'Mahony said suggestions that the clergy failed to take cognisance of the safety of children was "inaccurate and unjust". He said that "the acceptance by the media and current diocese policy that a cover-up took place must be challenged" in letters circulated to the council of priests.

People didn't want to admit that "we got it remarkably wrong", said Dr Martin, but this conclusion was justified and wider accountability must be accepted.

"People can criticise me but I believe that, for me, the reaction to the Murphy report must be predominant - something horrendous happened on our watch and we got it spectacularly wrong."

Dr O'Mahony criticised Dr Martin for being out of the Dublin diocese for 31 years and having "no idea" of the trauma of dealing with sex abuse allegations without protocols or guidelines.

"Nobody knows where they would have been," said Dr Martin. "However, it is again a case of blame everybody else, saying: 'Where were you, what would you have done?' "

Dr Martin said that it was "not easy" to determine where accountability lay, but it was wrong to deny general accountability and to blame "some impersonal systems failure".

The pope's decision to call the bishops to a meeting in Rome next month was "a sign of his concern" and "an unusual thing", Dr Martin added. "I am glad it is taking place."

Dr Martin, who attended Davos to participate in debates with academics and healthcare specialists, said that there were parallels between the crisis in the Church over the Murphy report and the global financial crisis, with a general lack of accountability common to both.

"We are identified by what we tolerated and our identity as an institution is measured by the things we allow happen, even if it happens in a way in which you cannot pin down specific responsibility," he said.

"I would say the same in the banks - it isn't necessarily that people were encouraging bankers to behave in an irresponsible way but it was tolerated and therefore that is part of the identity of the institution that does it."

Dr Martin said there was a certain collective responsibility that existed in allowing mistakes to be made but that no one individual was responsible.

"Something terrible happened in the diocese of Dublin - at least 2,000 children, I believe, were abused.

"The lives of their parents, their spouses, their children have been irrevocably damaged and changed and [ it is sad] that nobody is responsible, that it is a systems failure," he said.

"It doesn't mean that everybody has to go up and say that I alone am responsible, but it is not enough to say that the system was wrong."

Kopvel.




Pathologisch verlangen naar exotische oorden waar de zon altijd schijnt? Tob niet langer maar geef je gevoelens creatief vorm met fruit. Het Innocent Smoothie receptenboek helpt je daarbij.

Snij bijvoorbeeld ½ geschilde ananas in stukken. Stop ze in de sapcentrifuge en giet het sap in de blender. Doe het vruchtvlees van 10 lychees, 1 geschilde perzik en ½ banaan erbij en blender alles. Hak ong 1 cm citroengras fijn, zonder de buitenblaadjes. Doe het met 100 ml kokosmelk bij de rest en laat de blender nog 4x mengen.



Je moet er toch niet aan denken dat in de film over Tutu als voorzitter van die verschrikkelijke commissie de camera wél mee naar achteren was gegaan, nadat hij met zijn kop op tafel sloeg en weg moest lopen voor hij weer terug kwam.

Maar het is eindelijk en voor het eerst dat ik werkelijk weet wat ik eigenlijk deed na een telefoongesprek met een mamoedt en nee zei.


Dank je wel Diarmuid!
Spiegel online
30.01.2010
...
Der frühere Sportlehrer und Jesuitenpater Wolfgang S., 65, räumte zudem in einer an seine Opfer gerichteten Erklärung ein, es sei "eine traurige Tatsache, dass ich jahrelang Kinder und Jugendliche unter pseudopädagogischen Vorwänden missbraucht und misshandelt habe". Daran sei "nichts zu entschuldigen".

Darüber hinaus gab der heute in Südamerika lebende Kirchenmann an, bereits 1991 seinen "damaligen deutschen Provinzialoberen eingehend über meine verbrecherische Vergangenheit informiert" zu haben. Somit wusste der Jesuitenorden seit etwa 19 Jahren von dem vielfachen Missbrauch. Stefan Dartmann, der heutige Provinzial der Jesuiten in Deutschland, bestätigte dem SPIEGEL, dass der Orden seinerzeit Kenntnis von den Straftaten des S. hatte. Man habe jetzt eine Anwältin mit einer Prüfung der Akten beauftragt, "um festzustellen, was genau die Jesuiten damals wussten und welche Konsequenzen erfolgten". 1992 trat S. aus dem Orden aus. Zuvor soll er auch an anderen Jesuitenschulen in Deutschland Jungen missbraucht haben, was S. heute nicht kommentieren will. Unter anderem war er an der Hamburger Sankt-Ansgar-Schule und von 1982 bis 1984 in Sankt Blasien im Südschwarzwald tätig. Dem damaligen Schuldirektor, Pater Hans Joachim Martin, war seinerzeit das "innige, väterliche Verhalten" des Pädagogen zu einigen Schülern aufgefallen. S. musste später das Gymnasium verlassen. Auch der Vatikan war laut S. über die Verfehlungen im Bilde. Er habe, heißt es in seiner Erklärung, dort "Zeugnis von meiner nichts beschönigenden Ehrlichkeit" abgelegt.

In Südamerika habe er "immer wieder engen Kontakt sowohl mit Folterern als auch mit Opfern" der Pinochet-Diktatur gehabt. Daher, so S., "war ich fast täglich mit meinem Spiegelbild als jahrelanger Kinderquäler konfrontiert". Mehrere Opfer reagierten entsetzt auf den Tonfall des Schreibens. In dem Dokument, datiert vom 20. Januar, wandte sich S. "an alle Personen, die ich als Kinder und Jugendliche missbraucht habe". Wörtlich heißt es: "Was ich dir und euch angetan habe, tut mir leid. Und falls du fähig bist, mir diese Schuld zu vergeben, bitte ich darum."
Dem SPIEGEL erklärte er: "Ich bin mit meiner Vergangenheit vor Gott und der Welt im Reinen."
...
Auf Lehrer R., der nach seiner Berliner Zeit in Niedersachsen als Seelsorger in der Jugendarbeit wirkte, soll vor einigen Jahren eine Messerattacke verübt worden sein. Bei dem mutmaßlichen Angreifer soll es sich um einen ehemaligen Schüler des Canisius-Kollegs gehandelt haben.

complete artikel

Ex-Pater gesteht jahrelangen Missbrauch

Berliner Morgenpost
30. Januar 2010 22:42
Von Michael Behrendt, Peter Oldenburger und Katrin Schoelkopf

Der ehemalige Jesuiten-Pater Wolfgang St. hat zugegeben, über Jahre Schüler missbraucht zu haben. Das sagte der 65-Jährige, der heute in Südamerika lebt, dem Magazin "Der Spiegel". Der zweite Beschuldigte, Peter R. aus Berlin, streitet hingegen alle Vorwürfe ab.

Im Missbrauch-Skandal am Berliner Canisius-Kolleg hat einer der beschuldigten ehemaligen Jesuiten-Patres seine Schuld gestanden. Wolfgang St., der seit den 80er-Jahren in Südamerika lebt, räumte laut dem „Spiegel“ in einer Erklärung an seine Opfer die Taten ein. Es sei „eine traurige Tatsache, dass ich jahrelang Kinder und Jugendliche unter pseudopädagogischen Vorwänden missbraucht und misshandelt habe“. Daran sei „nichts zu entschuldigen“, heißt es demnach in dem Schreiben.

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Nach Informationen von Morgenpost Online bereitet St. seine Rückkehr aus Chile nach Deutschland vor. Der offizielle Vertreter des Kolpingwerks für Lateinamerika, Luis E.D. Soffia, sagte, der 65-Jährige sei aus der Erwachsenenbildung seiner Organisation ausgeschieden und werde am 12. Februar in sein Heimatland zurückkehren. Nähere Gründe dafür seien ihm nicht bekannt. Wolfgang St. habe laut Soffia die vergangenen Jahre in der Hauptstadt Santiago de Chile als Manager ein Hotel für Studenten geleitet. Von den Missbrauchsvorwürfen zeigte sich der Kolping-Vertreter überrascht. Soffia erklärte, er habe mehrfach in dienstlichen Angelegenheiten mit St. Kontakt gehabt und beschreibt den 65-Jährigen als netten Mann, der bei jedermann beliebt gewesen sei.


Wolfgang St. hat mittlerweile geheiratet und ein Kind
Pater Wolfgang St. habe bis Ende des vergangenen Jahres bei der Sozial- und Entwicklungshilfe des katholischen Sozialverbandes Kolpingwerk in Chile gearbeitet, sagte am Sonnabend der Geschäftsführer der Sozial- und Entwicklungshilfe des Kolpingwerkes, Hans Drolshagen. „Er hat es verlassen, weil er mit 65 in Rente ging. Wir haben von den Missbrauchsbeschuldigungen erst am Donnerstag durch Anrufe der Presse erfahren.“ St., der „ungefähr zehn Jahre“ beim Kolpingwerk gearbeitet habe, sei nie auffällig geworden. „Wenn das alles so stimmt, ist das fürchterlich und eine Katastrophe“, sagte Drolshagen. „Das wird juristisch aufgearbeitet werden müssen.“

St. sei zuständig für die Erwachsenenbildung in Chile und auch in anderen Ländern gewesen und habe sich vor circa zehn Jahren beim Kolpingwerk auf eine entsprechende Stelle beworben. „Als er bei uns anfing, lebte er schon in Chile, war aus dem Orden ausgetreten, also kein Priester mehr, und mit einer Chilenin verheiratet“, so Drolshagen. „Er hat ein zwölf- oder dreizehnjähriges Kind.“ Solange es keine Ergebnisse einer juristischen Aufarbeitung gebe, wolle Drolshagen sich einer Bewertung von St. und der Missbrauchsanschuldigungen enthalten.

St.s Frau erklärte am Sonnabend Morgenpost Online, ihr Mann sei nicht zu sprechen. Aus seinem Schreiben, über das der Leiter des Canisius-Kollegs, Pater Klaus Mertes, von der Mediatorin Ursula Raue informiert wurde, geht hervor, dass Wolfgang St. bereits 1991 seinen „damaligen deutschen Provinzialoberen eingehend über meine verbrecherische Vergangenheit informiert“ habe. Somit muss der Jesuitenorden seit etwa 19 Jahren von dem vielfachen Missbrauch gewusst haben. Dies habe Stefan Dartmann, der heutige Provinzial der Jesuiten in Deutschland, dem Magazin bestätigt.

Da die Opfer seinerzeit um absolute Diskretion gebeten hätten, sei erst jetzt „mit dem Hervortreten einiger Opfer“ ein Untersuchungsverfahren zur vollständigen Aufklärung der Missbrauchsfälle möglich und zwingend. Es gehe darum, welches Wissen es seinerzeit um die Vorfälle bei den Verantwortlichen am Canisius-Kolleg und dem Jesuitenorden gegeben habe. „Zusammen mit Pater Klaus Mertes, dem Rektor des Kollegs, teile ich die Trauer und Scham über die Verbrechen unserer ehemaligen Mitbrüder“, so Dartmann. Der Provinzial kündigte für Montag seinen Besuch in Berlin an. Er werde dann weitere Auskünfte geben.

Man habe jetzt eine Anwältin mit einer Prüfung der Akten beauftragt, „um festzustellen, was genau die Jesuiten damals wussten und welche Konsequenzen erfolgten“. St. soll auch an anderen Jesuitenschulen in Deutschland Jungen missbraucht haben, was er heute nicht kommentieren will. Unter anderem war er an der Hamburger Sankt-Ansgar-Schule und von 1982 bis 1984 in St. Blasien im Südschwarzwald tätig.

Auch der Vatikan war über die Verfehlungen im Bilde
Dem damaligen Schuldirektor Pater Hans-Joachim Martin war seinerzeit das „innige, väterliche Verhalten“ des Pädagogen zu einigen Schülern aufgefallen. St. musste später das Gymnasium verlassen. Auch der Vatikan war laut St. über die Verfehlungen im Bilde.

Mehrere Opfer reagierten entsetzt auf den Tonfall des Schreibens von St. In dem Dokument vom 20. Januar, wandte er sich „an alle Personen, die ich als Kinder und Jugendliche missbraucht habe“. Wörtlich heißt es: „Was ich dir und euch angetan habe, tut mir leid. Und falls du fähig bist, mir diese Schuld zu vergeben, bitte ich darum.“

Bei dem zweiten Beschuldigten handelt es sich um den 69-jährigen ehemaligen Religionslehrer Peter R. aus Berlin, der im Gegensatz zu St. vor Vertretern des Canisius-Kollegs sämtliche Vorwürfe bestreitet. Einer der von Peter R. missbrauchten Schüler hat sich jetzt in einem Internet-Forum als Betroffener geoutet und freimütig von den Taten des ehemaligen Paters berichtet. Der frühere Canisius-Schüler erzählt von einem Bett, das sich im „Burg“ genannten Gebäude des Kollegs befand. Davor hätten Schüler von R. kniend masturbieren sollen. Wer „seine Sache“ gut gemacht habe, dem habe der Pater eine Schallplatte geschenkt.

Auf Lehrer R., der nach seiner Berliner Zeit im südlichen Niedersachsen als Seelsorger in der Jugendarbeit wirkte, soll vor einigen Jahren eine Messerattacke verübt worden sein. Bei dem mutmaßlichen Angreifer soll es sich um einen ehemaligen Schüler des Canisius-Kollegs gehandelt haben.

zaterdag, januari 30, 2010

Duitsland Essen Essener Priester wegen Missbrauchsvorwurf beurlaubt

Essen. Die Staatsanwaltschaft Essen ermittelt gegen einen Priester, der sich an einem Jugendlichen vergangen haben soll. Das Bistum hat den Geistlichen bis auf weiteres von allen Aufgaben entbunden.
...
rest artikel


Essen. Ruhrbischof Franz-Josef Overbeck hat einen 66-jährigen Priester mit sofortiger Wirkung beurlaubt, da die Staatsanwaltschaft wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs gegen den Geistlichen ermittelt. Opfer soll ein 16-Jähriger sein.

Die Staatsanwaltschaft Essen wirft dem Essener Domkapitular Rainer A. sexuellen Missbrauch zum Nachteil eines 16-Jährigen vor. Ruhrbischof Franz-Josef Overbeck hat den 66-Jährigen Priester von allen seinen Diensten beurlaubt. „Wir haben den Erlass eines Strafbefehls beantragt“, bestätigte Oberstaatsanwalt Wilhelm Kassenböhmer das Verfahren. Weder Staatsanwalt noch Bistum machten am Donnerstag aber Angaben zur Person.

Die Tat ereignete sich einen Tag nach Weihnachten in der Wohnung des Geistlichen. „Aber das war nicht der typische Fall: Priester missbraucht Kind“, sagt Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner, Rechtsbeistand von Rainer A. Zum Verhängnis sei dem Geistlichen geworden, dass er dem 16-jährigen Türken kurdischer Herkunft auf dessen Wunsch Geld gegeben habe. Als dessen Familie das Geld entdeckt habe, habe ein Angehöriger Anzeige erstattet.

Priester muss sich auf innerkirchliches Verfahren einstellen
Über den Strafbefehl, der eine Geldstrafe in Höhe von mehr als 90 Tagessätzen vorsieht und dazu führen würde, dass A. vorbestraft wäre, ist bislang nicht entschieden. „Der Täter muss aber geständig sein, sonst würde es bei diesem Delikt niemals einen Strafbefehl geben“, erläuterte Presserichter Gerd Richter vom Amtsgericht in Essen. Die Entscheidung soll in der kommenden Woche fallen.

Rainer A., der Kulturhauptstadtbeauftragter und Vorsitzender des Kunstvereins im Bistum Essen ist und bis Dezember 2008 acht Jahre lang als Offizial das kirchliche Gericht leitete, muss sich auch auf ein innerkirchliches Verfahren einstellen. Nicht nur kirchliche Titel und Ämter könnten dabei aberkannt werden, sondern auch Pensionsansprüche.

Gemäß der „Verfahrensordnung bei sexuellem Missbrauch Minderjähriger durch Geistliche“ ist A. auf jeden Fall bis zur Aufklärung und zum Abschluss aller Verfahren beurlaubt. Er selbst habe, so das Bistum, auf alle Ämter verzichtet.

Das kirchliche Verfahren sieht aber nicht nur Sanktionen gegen den Täter wegen der Straftat vor, sondern auch eine „seelsorgliche Begleitung des Opfers“ und seiner Angehörigen durch einen Bischöflichen Beauftragten. Dies dürfte im vorlegenden Fall nicht nur wegen des Strichermilieus äußerst schwierig werden, sondern auch, weil das Opfer muslimischen Glaubens ist.

Nog meer Berlijn: Sexuelle Übergriffe in Kirchengemeinde

Vorwurf auch gegen Pfarrer

Im Osten Berlins wird ein katholischer Pfarrer verdächtigt des sexuellen Missbrauchs verdächtigt. Er ist nicht mehr im Amt

VON LALON SANDER



In Hohenschönhausen ist ein weiterer Vorwurf des sexuellen Missbrauchs eines Minderjährigen in der katholischen Kirche bekannt geworden. Wie ein Sprecher des Erzbistums mitteilte, hatte eine Person im Juli vergangenen Jahres die Vorwürfe gegen den Pfarrer erhoben. Sie bezogen sich auf das Jahr 2001. Der Pfarrer trat kurz danach von seinem Amt zurück. Seitdem wohnt er nicht mehr in der Pfarrei und ist auch nicht seelsorgerisch tätig.

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"Über den Missbrauchsvorwurf haben wir die Gemeinde noch nicht offiziell informiert", sagte ein Sprecher des Erzbistums. Sie soll erst am Wochenende über die wahren Hintergründe aufgeklärt werden. Gleichzeitig soll auch der Zwischenstand der kircheninternen Ermittlungen vorgestellt werden. Bislang hatte es vor Ort geheißen, dass der Pfarrer aus gesundheitlichen Gründen zurückgetreten sei. "Die Vorwürfe sind nicht so schwerwiegend, dass staatsanwaltschaftliche Ermittlungen eingeleitet werden müssten", hieß es aus dem Erzbistum. Eine Anzeige bei der Polizei habe das Opfer abgelehnt. Ein Sprecher der Polizei sagte, von Amts wegen seien Ermittlungen gegen Unbekannt eingeleitet worden.

Kirchenintern wird der Fall von einer Kommission untersucht, in der neben Kirchenvertretern auch eine Kirchenrechtsprofessorin und eine ehemalige Kriminalbeamtin sitzen. Gleichzeitig habe auch in Rom eine Untersuchung begonnen. "Aus der internen Untersuchung gibt es bisher keine Ergebnisse", sagte der Erzbistumssprecher. Befragungen im Umfeld des Opfers hätten keine weiteren Vorwürfe ergeben.

Duitsland Canisius-Kolleg Berlin Even wennen.

De inmiddels meer dan bekende misdaad, blijkbaar een bijzondere school, in ieder geval een bijzondere brief van de rector, Pater Klaus Mertes.
Onwillekeurig betrap ik mezelf erop dat het "even wennen" is en de confrontatie die dat nu weer betekent. Ook die hoort kennelijk bij "even wennen".
God, wat komt dat - stap na stap na stap - noodzakelijke en voordurende proces van even wennen hoor, me mijn neus uit!
En wat is dat "even" wennen gevaarlijk.

Welt on Line
28. Januar 2010,

„Liebe ehemalige Schülerinnen und Schüler,

in den vergangenen Jahren haben sich mehrere von Ihnen bei mir gemeldet, um sich mir gegenüber als Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch durch einzelne Jesuiten am Canisius-Kolleg zu erkennen zu geben. Die Spur der Missbräuche zieht sich durch die 70er Jahre hindurch bis in die 80er Jahre hinein. Mit tiefer Erschütterung und Scham habe ich diese entsetzlichen, nicht nur vereinzelten, sondern systematischen und jahrelangen Übergriffe zur Kenntnis genommen. Es gehört auch zur Erfahrung der Opfer, dass es im Canisius-Kolleg und im Orden bei solchen, die eigentlich eine Schutzpflicht gegenüber den betroffenen Opfern gehabt hätten, ein Wegschauen gab. Allein schon deswegen gehen die Missbräuche nicht nur Täter und Opfer an, sondern das ganze Kolleg, sowohl die Schule als auch die verbandliche Jugendarbeit. Aus demselben Grund bitte ich hiermit zunächst alle betroffenen ehemaligen Canisianerinnen und Canisianer stellvertretend für das Kolleg um Entschuldigung für das, was ihnen am Kolleg angetan wurde.

In den Gesprächen mit einigen der Opfer habe ich besser verstanden, welche tiefen Wunden sexueller Missbrauch im Leben junger Menschen hinterlässt, und wie die ganze Biographie eines Menschen dadurch jahrzehntelang verdunkelt und beschädigt werden kann. Zugleich konnte ich in den Gesprächen von den Opfern hören, wie befreiend es ist, wenn man beginnt, über die Erfahrungen zu sprechen, auch dann, wenn sie zeitlich weit zurückliegen. Es gibt nämlich Wunden, welche die Zeit nicht heilt.

Seitens des Kollegs möchte ich Sie darauf hinweisen, dass der Orden 2007 eine Beauftragtenstelle eingerichtet hat, an die sich Missbrauchsopfer von Jesuiten und Angestellten von Jesuiteninstitutionen wenden können: Frau Ursula Raue, Rechtsanwältin und Mediatorin, (...) war lange Jahre Vorsitzende der deutschen Sektion von „Innocence in Danger“, einer internationalen Organisation, die sich der Bekämpfung von Kindesmissbrauch im Internet widmet. Sie ist Ansprechpartnerin nicht nur für mögliche aktuelle Verdachtsfälle und Opfermeldungen. Sie ist ebenfalls Ansprechpartnerin für Missbrauchs-Opfer aus länger zurückliegenden Zeiten, wenn diese wieder Kontakt mit dem Orden oder mit dem Kolleg aufnehmen wollen. Sie ist berechtigt und verpflichtet, zusammen mit den Opfern an den Orden heranzutreten und zu vermitteln. Sie arbeitet mit bei der Konfrontation der Täter. Alle Informationen, die sie bekommt, werden nur mit ausdrücklicher Zustimmung der Opfer an andere weitergegeben.

Ich respektiere es selbstverständlich, wenn Betroffene auf Grund ihrer Erfahrungen für sich die Entscheidung getroffen haben, mit dem Kolleg, mit dem Orden und mit der katholischen Kirche zu brechen. Andererseits möchte ich gegenüber denjenigen, die den Kontakt zum Kolleg und zum Orden suchen, das Signal nicht unterlassen, dass wir ansprechbar sind. Dabei ist Frau Raue eine Möglichkeit zur Ansprache. Sie können sich natürlich auch an jede andere Person Ihres Vertrauens wenden, die mit dem Orden und dem Kolleg zu tun hat. Innerhalb des Jesuitenordens in Deutschland hat P. Provinzial schon vor einiger Zeit darüber informiert, dass es in der Vergangenheit unzweifelhaft Fälle von Missbrauch von Jugendlichen beiderlei Geschlechts durch einzelne Jesuiten gegeben hat. Diese Information hat bei den Mitbrüdern große Betroffenheit ausgelöst.

Neben der Scham und der Erschütterung über das Ausmaß des Missbrauchs in jedem einzelnen Fall und in der – bisher sichtbaren – Anhäufung müssen wir uns seitens des Kollegs die Aufgabe stellen, wie wir es verhindern können, heute durch Wegschauen wieder mitschuldig zu werden. Wegschauen geschieht ja oft schon in dem Moment, wo man sich entscheidet, nicht wissen zu wollen, obwohl man spürt, dass man eigentlich genauer hinschauen sollte. Das ist eine Herausforderung für die persönliche Zivilcourage jedes Einzelnen wie auch für die Überprüfung der Strukturen. Denn es drängt sich zugleich auch die Frage auf, welche Strukturen an Schulen, in der verbandlichen Jugendarbeit und auch in der katholischen Kirche es begünstigen, dass Missbräuche geschehen und de facto auch gedeckt werden können. Hier stoßen wir auf Probleme wie fehlende Beschwerdestrukturen, mangelnden Vertrauensschutz, übergriffige Pädagogik, übergriffige Seelsorge, Unfähigkeit zur Selbstkritik, Tabuisierungen und Obsessionen in der kirchlichen Sexualpädagogik, unangemessenen Umgang mit Macht, Abhängigkeitsbeziehungen. An diesen Themen haben wir in den letzten Jahren sowohl im Orden als auch am Kolleg gearbeitet und werden es auch weiterhin tun. In diesem Sinne danke ich den Opfern, die durch ihren Mut zu sprechen auch dem Kolleg und dem Orden einen Dienst erweisen, indem sie diese Themen anstoßen.

Seitens des Kollegs möchte ich durch diesen Brief dazu beitragen, dass das Schweigen gebrochen wird, damit die betroffenen Einzelnen und die betroffenen Jahrgänge miteinander sprechen können. In tiefer Erschütterung und Scham wiederhole ich zugleich meine Entschuldigung gegenüber allen Opfern von Missbräuchen durch Jesuiten am Canisius-Kolleg.“




Märkische Allgemeine
30.01.2010

...
Viel Zuspruch für seine offensive Strategie habe er erhalten, sagt Mertes, als er gestern die Presse über den Fall informierte. Auch Hass-Mails waren darunter. Und 15 Briefe von ehemaligen Canisius-Schülern, die selbst Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs wurden.

Damit erhöht sich die Zahl der bekannten Opfer auf 22. Sie alle belasten die beiden mutmaßlichen Täter, zwei Patres, die das Kolleg 1982 beziehungsweise 1983 verließen. Mertes glaubt, dass sich weitere Opfer offenbaren.
...

Gestern erhärtete sich der Verdacht, dass die sexuellen Übergriffe gegen Schüler des Kollegs schon lange bekannt waren – und zwar nicht nur als Gerücht. Mertes, der selbst erst seit 1994 an der Schule unterrichtet, spricht vom Canisius-Kolleg der 70er und 80er Jahre als „wegschauende Institution“. Dies hätten ihm die Opfer glaubwürdig beschrieben.

Auch Mertes selbst hatte zunächst geschwiegen. Schon 2004 und 2005 hatten sich ihm zwei ehemalige Schüler anvertraut und von Mertes absolutes Stillschweigen verlangt. „Das ist ein hochkomplexes Problem“, sagt der Rektor. Er habe die Fälle an den Provinzial des deutschen Jesuitenordens gemeldet. Warum das keine Konsequenzen nach sich zog, ist bislang unklar. Erst als sich ihm kürzlich weitere Absolventen offenbarten, wandte sich der Rektor in einem Brief an rund 600 ehemalige Kollegiaten. „Ich wurde gebeten, meinen Beitrag zum Brechen des Schweigens zu leisten“, sagt Mertes. Dann zitiert er frei nach dem Johannes-Evangelium: „Die Wahrheit macht frei.“
...
Wie das alles passieren konnte, ist Sache der Aufarbeitung, die Pater Mertes verspricht. Das Image seiner renommierten Schule dürfe dabei keine Rolle spielen, sagt er. „Wichtiger ist, dass die Wahrheit ans Licht kommt.“

Klar ist für ihn, dass die Strukturen der katholischen Kirche sexuelle Übergriffe auf Kinder und Jugendliche begünstigen. „Die Kirche hat ein Angstproblem“, sagt Mertes und nennt als Beispiel die Tabuisierung von Homosexualität. Hinzu komme das Problem der Sprachlosigkeit: „Wenn sich die Lehre der Kirche so weit von den realen Erfahrungen junger Menschen entfernt, führt das die junge Generation zu großen Teilen in eine Sprachlosigkeit.“

Während Klaus Mertes dies alles erklärte, wurde gestern ein weiterer Missbrauchsfall innerhalb des Erzbistums Berlin bekannt. Die Kirche ermittelt gegen einen katholischen Gemeindepfarrer, der sich 2001 an Kindern vergangen haben soll. (Von Torsten Gellner)

vrijdag, januari 29, 2010

Allassio il canto de maffia Luciano Massaferro

Giovanni Durante sulla vicenda del parroco di AlassioIl presidente di Arci Savona, Giovanni Durante, è intervenuto nel dibattito in merito alla vicenda che ha portato all’arresto del parroco di Alassio, Luciano Massaferro.


“Uno dei fondamenti delle società liberali occidentali, forse quello più importante e che ci differenzia dalla ferocia e iniquità del feudalesimo è l’uguaglianza di tutti i cittadini innanzi alla legge. L’equilibrio tra i poteri istituzionali, ovverosia tra legislativo, esecutivo e giudiziario rimane forse l’unico parametro che distingue ancora le democrazie dalle tirannie o dalle oligarchie.
Questa breve introduzione porterebbe ovviamente a ragionare su cosa è oggi il nostro paese, e di come sia diventata fragile la nostra democrazia costituzionale rispetto alle spallate subite in questi ultimi 16 anni. Tuttavia mi limiterò ad una preoccupata riflessione sul caso “locale” del parroco di Alassio, Luciano Massaferro, in carcere dal 29 dicembre 2009, accusato di un reato gravissimo e odioso, di molestie sessuali su una bambina di 11 anni, aggravate dal fatto di essere
sacerdote-educatore.
Premetto che non intendo entrare nel merito del caso, ma solo riflettere su come molte personalità, istituzioni, politici si siano “esposti” enormemente a difesa del sacerdote arrestato, senza conoscere ovviamente gli atti d’indagine, giudicando solo per motivi ideologici, emozionali, di opportunità, attraverso i mezzi di comunicazione. Trovo che la campagna mediatica scatenata contro la magistratura savonese sia il segnale preoccupante che la giustizia italiana dovrebbe, secondo alcuni, essere amministrata dalle piazze.
Se una persona accusata, per esempio, per associazione mafiosa (magari quale mandante di omicidi) normalmente risultasse essere una persona educata, gentile, addirittura premurosa, i cittadini del paese del mafioso potrebbero chiedere che tale persona, pur mafiosa, sia “manlevata” dal rispondere sul piano giudiziario dei propri reati penali, a prescindere dal procedimento giudiziario penale obbligatorio, perché normalmente rispettabile, addirittura buona. Per quanto riguarda il caso in oggetto ho notato, con inquietudine, l’escalation di accuse nei confronti della Procura di Savona mosse da un quotidiano nazionale come Avvenire, da persone che rappresentano le istituzioni come il sindaco di Alassio, da deputati (ricordo da subito l’onorevole Scandroglio della PDL, e poi dall’onorevole Buttiglione dell’UDC…) che si sono immediatamente lanciati in accuse contro i magistrati inquirenti, si direbbe per delegittimare per l’ennesima volta uno dei poteri dello Stato (la Magistratura) per favorirne evidentemente un altro (il Governo).
Capisco, fino ad un certo punto, le persone (facilmente strumentalizzabili) che in buona fede sostengono la sicura innocenza del sacerdote, ma dalla stessa diocesi albenganese mi sarei aspettato una maggiore prudenza, mentre il Vescovo di Albenga ha dichiarato di considerare inverosimili le accuse e di considerarsi certo dell’innocenza del proprio sacerdote. Mi aspetterei, inoltre, da parte delle stesse istituzioni e di persone che si proclamano “cristiane” maggiore rispetto e solidarietà nei confronti di una bambina, e della propria famiglia, che potrebbe avere subito un’esperienza terribile, drammatica, esperienza che potrebbe segnarle l’intera esistenza.

Personalmente non intendo giudicare il caso, e mi rendo conto delle accuse gravissime e infamanti se il sacerdote risultasse innocente, tuttavia mi chiedo se, un domani, Don Luciano Massaferro, risultasse colpevole, cosa dovrebbero fare le persone che si sono non solo poste a sua difesa, ma che hanno attaccato così pesantemente i magistrati senza dimostrare la minima attenzione ed empatia per il dramma di una bambina e della sua famiglia? Io credo che dovrebbero dare le dimissioni immediate dalle istituzioni che rappresentano, cominciando dal sindaco di Alassio, che bene avrebbe fatto a usare maggiore responsabilità istituzionale.

Se i processi si dovessero spostare dalla realtà processuale (che non è la realtà assoluta) al voto delle piazze e ai suoi umori finiremmo nel tornare allora ai roghi in piazza, all’inquisizione, agli “auto da fè”, non si è garantisti se si è innocentisti, si è garantisti se si rispetta il principio del diritto, senza creare confusione di ruoli tra i poteri dello stato. Sono molto preoccupato per la mancanza di risposte istituzionali a tutela del ruolo della stessa magistratura, lasciata in balia di attacchi mediatici molto pericolosi, per questo motivo ho sentito la necessità di scrivere queste riflessioni che spero possano suscitare un dibattito e prese di posizione a difesa dell’ordine costituzionale.”

Giovanni Durante, Presidende Arci di Savona

21/01/2010

donderdag, januari 28, 2010




Archbishop Martin criticised for failure to support priests

Dead men walking
Mary Rafferty

En dan nu maar hopen dat zo'n man als Mgr. de Korte ook over dit confrontaties eens gaat lezen. Dan heeft hij misschien nog wel nooit een slachtoffer gesproken, maar wie weet komt er dan dankzij zijn collegae en heel veel Iers belastinggeld nog eens ooit een tijd dat, zelfs in nederland, een historicus-bisschop wél weet waar hij het over heeft ipv zichzelf schaamteloos te kijk te zetten bij de EO en daarmee mensen de grond in te trappen.
Zoals de Ierse nuntius hem had kunnen vertellen getuigt het prelaten uit Rome nakwaken (daarbij ontkennende rectoren van nederlandse opleidingsinstituten de hun geeigende plaats niet ontnemend) behalve van minachting en nog zo wat zaken dan weliswaar van grenzeloze zelfoverschatting maar niet echt van verantwoordelijkheid en integriteit, noch intelligent of een adequate visie. Bovenal : het werkt niet meer in een wereldkerk met internet.


"...the Murphy report covers far more than what individual Bishops did or did not do. Fundamentally it is about how the leadership of the Archdiocese failed
over many decades to respond properly to criminal acts against
children.
...
I should have challenged the prevailing culture.
...
I hope it honours the truth that the survivors have so bravely uncovered and opens the way to a better future for all concerned. "

Mgr. Moriarty, 23 december 2009


Jamie Smyth,
Social affairs correspondent

A former Dublin auxiliary bishop has strongly criticised Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, claiming he failed to support priests in the Dublin diocese following publication of the Murphy report into clerical child sex abuse.

Bishop Dermot O’Mahony, auxiliary bishop emeritus, has also called on priests to challenge the acceptance by media and current diocese policy that the church engaged in a “cover-up” of child sex abuse over several decades.

“The archbishop did nothing to counteract the statement of the Murphy report, widely circulated in the media, that the majority of clergy knew and did nothing. Indeed, I feel he made matters worse by giving an example of a parish that could be clearly identifiable to the priests of the diocese,” wrote Dr O’Mahony in letters sent to Dr Martin and the Council of Priests in recent weeks.

In the letters, published in the Irish Catholic, Dr O’Mahony admits there were shortcomings in how the diocese responded to allegations of child sex abuse. But he also defends certain aspects of the church’s past response to allegations of child sex abuse by priests in the diocese and emphasises the difficulty in dealing with the issue.

“To suggest our approach failed to take cognisance of the safety of children is inaccurate and unjust. The acceptance by media and current diocese policy that a cover-up took place must be challenged,” wrote Dr O’Mahony, who took the unusual step of circulating his own correspondence with Dr Martin to the Council of Priests.

He criticises Dr Martin for his public comment that “the management of cases was inexcusable”.

“I said that your criticism was unfair. You were out of the diocese for 31 years and had no idea how traumatic it was for those of us who had to deal with allegations without protocols or guidelines in the matter of child sex abuse,” wrote Dr O’Mahony, who was criticised personally by the Murphy report for his “particularly bad” handling of complaints and suspicions of sexual abuse.

The report said he was aware of complaints involving 13 of the priests in the representative sample looked at by the report.

In a letter to Dr Martin on December 30th, Dr O’Mahony wrote that he had been shocked at the tone of a previous letter he had received from Dr Martin, which had addressed the Murphy report.

“I regret that I must add that the letter was the harshest communication I have ever received from anyone during my 34 years as a bishop and almost 50 years as a priest,” he wrote.

A spokeswoman for the archbishop told The Irish Times this letter to Dr O’Mahony, which was dated December 2nd, 2009, was sent following detailed conversation between the men. It was sent three days after a meeting of the diocesan council which discussed the Murphy report.

“Your comments at Monday’s meeting of the Diocesan Council left me extremely concerned in your criticism and even rejection of the findings and of many of the underlying presuppositions of the commission of investigation into the sexual abuse of children by priests in the archdiocese of Dublin,”
wrote Dr Martin, who criticised Dr O’Mahony for not showing public remorse following publication of the report.

In the letter, Dr Martin asked Dr O’Mahony to refrain from publicly administering Confirmation and to cease his association with a charity bringing disabled children to Lourdes. He also withdrew his invitation to Dr O’Mahony to sit at meetings of the Diocesan Council.

“I regret – and I know that this regret is shared by many believing people in the parishes in which you served – that your commitment as auxiliary bishop to the priests and people of the diocese now appears tarnished by the findings of the report and your refusal to recognise that fact,” he wrote.

Dr O’Mahony said he sent a statement of apology to the archbishop’s press office for publication, which was never published. A spokeswoman for the archbishop said a press statement was sent in but the communications office was never asked to publish it.

KEY QUOTES: ARCHBISHOP DIARMUID MARTIN AND BISHOP O'MAHONY
Key quotes from correspondence between Bishop O’Mahony, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Dublin, and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and a subsequent letter sent by Bishop O’Mahony to the Council of Priests.

“ I profoundly regret that any action or inaction of mine should have contributed to the suffering of even a single child. I want to apologise for my failures from the bottom of my heart.”

Statement of Bishop O’Mahony sent to press office of Dublin archdiocese, which was never issued publicly. (Oct 27th, 2009)
“Your comments at Monday’s meeting of the Diocesan Council left me extremely concerned in your criticism and even rejection of the findings and of many of the underlying presuppositions of the commission of investigation into the sexual abuse of children by priests in the archdiocese of Dublin.”

“I regret that you did not express any public clarification or remorse or apology. It appears that you underestimate the degree of dismay and anger that people feel about the commission’s references to you.”

Letter sent by Dr Martin to Dr O’Mahony, December 2nd, 2009
“I regret that I must add that the letter was the harshest communication I have ever received from anyone during my 34 years as a bishop and almost 50 years as a priest.”

Letter sent by Dr O’Mahony to Dr Martin, December 30th, 2009 “ You were out of the diocese for 31 years and had no idea how traumatic it was for those of us who had to deal with allegations without protocols or guidelines in the matter of child sex abuse.”

Letter from Dr O’Mahony to the members of the Council of Priests, December 30th, 2009

Martin's handling of report criticised

Catholic Culture.org
27 januari 2010

A retired auxiliary bishop of Dublin severely criticizes the city’s current Catholic leader, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, in letters that have been obtained by the weekly Irish Catholic newspaper. Bishop Dermot O’Mahony complains that Archbishop Martin failed to defend the bishops and priests of Ireland against charges that they engaged in a “cover-up” of sexual abuse. The retired bishop charges that Archbishop Martin—who was working at the Vatican during the years covered by the Murphy Commission report—was “unfair” in his criticisms.

Bishop O’Mahony took special exception to the new archbishop’s complaint that he—Bishop O’Mahony—had never apologized to the victims of sexual abuse. The retired bishop said that he had written an apology, but the Dublin archdiocese never made it public. A spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed that Archbishop Martin was aware of the apology letter.

The letters from Bishop O’Mahony—a rare display of frank criticism of one bishop by another—will be made public in the January 29 issue of the Irish Catholic.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Dublin divided Irish Catholic

BXVI: “filth” in the Church even among those ... in the priesthood.”

bron




SNAP Press Statement Archdiocese Says Accused Irish Priests Were Transferred To Boston; SNAP responds

For immediate release: Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Statement by Barbara Dorris, National Outreach Director 314 862 7688

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

This is an outrage. Cardinal O'Malley has basically morphed into his predecessor and become 'Cardinal Law Lite.' Shame on him for hiding from Catholics and citizens the news that at least four credibly accused Irish pedophile priests were welcomed into the Boston archdiocese. Shame on him for belatedly disclosing this only under pressure.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 21 years and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Peter Isely (414-429-7259)



Archdiocese Says Accused Irish Priests Were Transferred To Boston By DEBORAH BECKER Published January 27, 2010 UPDATED 7:17 AM | BOSTON — For the first time, the Boston Archdiocese has confirmed that some priests who were accused of sexual abuse in Ireland were then transferred to Boston. An Irish government report last year outlined rampant clergy sex abuse in Ireland, but the Boston Archdiocese has never before acknowledged that any of those priests worked here.

The Archdiocese released a statement Tuesday saying that three accused priests from Ireland did, at one time, work in the Boston Archdiocese.

It only named the priests, without giving further information about where or when they worked here. But the Archdiocese did say it was unaware of any abuse accusations against the three men and that no similar allegations were made against them in Boston.

Terry McKiernan, with the group bishopaccountability.org, wants more details about the priests. “It’s a bit of surprise and not really a surprise,” McKiernan said. “It seems to me a shame that this is still the way things are working. Surely the Boston Archdiocese by now should know it needs to come forward, it needs to come clean about situations like this.”

The late priest Brendan Smyth was accused of molesting children in Ireland, Britain, North Dakota and Rhode Island. In this undated file photo, Smyth leaves a courthouse in northern Ireland. (AP) Bishopaccountability.org has been documenting the U.S. clergy sex abuse scandal. After the Irish government released its report (PDF) on rampant clergy sex abuse last year, bishopaccountability.org started asking questions about what may have happened on this side of the Atlantic.

Last month it published a list of about 70 priests it said were either born in Ireland or are of Irish descent and who re-offended children in the U.S. Among them was a notorious abuser, the late Brendan Smyth, who was accused of molesting children in Ireland, Britain, North Dakota and Rhode Island.

Helen McGonigle, now an attorney in Connecticut, alleges that Smyth abused her when she was six years old and he was at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Rhode Island. “He molested me in school, in church and in my home,” she said. “When he first molested me, he told me I can’t tell anybody because his finger was the finger of God. That if I told anybody, I would end up like the body in the woods. It was a death threat. He was a monster.”

McGonigle said Smyth abused her after he was sent back to Rhode Island following his treatment in Ireland for abusing children. She has an active lawsuit pending against the Providence Diocese. The Providence Diocese says it has referred the issue to its child protection advisory board, which meets next month.

The priest, Brendan Smyth, died in prison in Dublin shortly after his

1997 conviction on charges of abusing dozens of children. “I am outraged,” McGonigle said. “Because if he abused so many kids in Ireland and my parish, it’s not a leap of faith to suspect that he abused kids in the Boston Archdiocese.”

The Boston Archdiocese, which would not go on tape for this story, maintained there were no similar abuse allegations against Smyth or the other two Irish priests during the time they worked in Boston. The Archdiocese did say one current Irish priest is alleged to have abused a child here some 30 years ago and is now under investigation. The Archdiocese said law enforcement and the priest’s religious order have been notified. But it gave no further details.

Olan Horne works with clergy sex abuse survivors in Massachusetts. Two years ago he met with the pope to talk about the clergy sex abuse crisis. He is outraged that the Vatican and the pope have not taken stronger action following the Irish government’s report on the abuse.

“It’s Groundhog Day all over again, and it keeps happening again and again,” he said.

Horne also said the Boston Archdiocese and the pope should respond to clergy sex abuse survivors and come forward with the personnel records of priests from Ireland who have worked, and may still be working, in Boston.

“There needs to be a response, and one thing sorely missing, especially from the Vatican, is that survivors should be front and center,” Horne said. “He needs to hear from a large group of people about what needs to be done. People are outraged across the globe about the Catholic church and how it handles itself and continues to handle itself. ”

Horne expects that dozens of survivors will try to meet with the pope this fall to push for more transparency about how the Ireland priest scandal may have affected churches around the world. And bishopaccountability.org said it will continue to press Catholic officials in Boston and Rhode Island for more details about their priests.


Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org

Three priests in Irish sex abuse scandal spent time in Boston


By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff
January 27, 2010
The Boston Globe

The Archdiocese of Boston announced today that three priests named in the clergy sex abuse scandal in Ireland previously served in Massachusetts, but said no allegations were made that they had abused anyone while they were here.

The archdiocese said a fourth priest from Ireland -- who was not named in the Irish scandal -- is being investigated for an alleged abuse that occurred here 30 years ago.

The disclosure comes as the archdiocese announced the formation of an Office of Pastoral Support and Child Protection, a merger of several child advocacy and background screening departments, to better document and safeguard against child abuse. The church also has established an Office of Professional Standards and Oversight .
“The Archdiocese of Boston has worked diligently to ensure our children’s safety and to promote healing and reconciliation in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis,” Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley said in a statement. "Much has been accomplished by our efforts, but more remains to be done. The establishment of these two new offices will allow us to continue our critical work in the areas of prevention and protection and to continue to care for those impacted by clergy sexual abuse in a more integrated manner.”

The disclosure that three accused priests from Ireland had worked here came less than a month after two victims' advocate groups, The Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests and BishopAccountability.org, had called on the cardinal to open up its files on Irish priests. The request was made after a report in the fall showed that church officials in Dublin had concealed a massive sex abuse crisis and in some cases sent accused priests to other countries.

The archdiocese said the three priests who worked here were: Joseph Maguire, Dennis Murphy, and Brendan Smyth. Smyth became the face of the sexual abuse crisis in Ireland after pleading guilty to sexually abusing 20 boys and girls between 1958 and 1993. He died in an Irish prison in 1997.
While he is not the subject of any allegations in Massachusetts, Smyth has faced allegations of abuse in Rhode Island, according to victims' advocates.

Victims' advocates plan a news conference this afternoon to call on the archdiocese to detail the places that Maguire, Murphy and Smyth worked during their stay in the area, and to identify the fourth priest whose accusations remain under investigation.

woensdag, januari 27, 2010

You'll do


Het tegenovergestelde van liefde is niet haat
maar onverschilligheid

dinsdag, januari 26, 2010

Vlechtenkoppies

ROME (RKnieuws.net) - De Shoah als dusdanig is een joodse uitvinding. Dit stelt de gepensioneerde Poolse bisschop Tadeusz Pieronek op de internetsite Pontifex.Roma.it.
‘Hoewel onbetwistbaar de meerderheid van de doden in de concentratiekampen joden waren, waren er onder meer ook katholieken, Polen en Italianen bij’, aldus de prelaat. ‘Het is dus niet toegestaan dat men zich deze tragedie toeëigent om propaganda te maken’, voegt de bisschop eraan toe.

‘Er waren ook veel Polen bij maar deze waarheid wordt vaak ontkend’, aldus de bisschop, die oud secretaris en ex- woordvoerder is van het Poolse episcopaat. Volgens de prelaat wordt de Shoah gebruikt als een propagandawapen en om vaak ongerechtvaardigde voordelen te bekomen.

‘De joden genieten van een goede pers omdat zij ondersteund worden door machtige financiële middelen, een enorme macht vormen en kunnen rekenen op de onvoorwaardeljke steun van de VS, wat een zekere arrogantie bevordert die ik vreselijk vind’, aldus bisschop Pieronek. ‘Natuurlijk, dit alles betekent geen ontkenning van de schande van de concentratiekampen en de aberraties van het nazisme’, voegt de prelaat eraan toe.


bron
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Survivors of institutional child abuse want €500,000 – which has been earmarked for a monument to victims – to be given to survivors of the Haiti earthquake.

The proposal was made to Taoiseach Brian Cowen in a meeting last Friday with two of the main groups representing victims. Michael O’Brien of Right of Place, who met Cowen in Clonmel, said that the direct aid gesture would ‘‘genuinely mean more to victims of clerical abuse than a piece of stone on O’Connell Street’’.
The erection of a monument to survivors of abuse was one of the proposals in the Ryan Report into the abuse of children in state-run institutions.

The government established a committee last October to consider the location and nature of the memorial, which was to include the 1999 apology to abuse victims by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Cowen told the groups that the government would consider the proposal.
--> rest

vrijdag, januari 22, 2010

bron

Slachtoffer business class De rituele dans om het geld: Diözese - Württembergische Heimerziehung in der Nachkriegszeit wird erforscht

Zoals je in Ierland toenemend niet anders dan kotsmisselijk kunt worden van de rituele dans om het geld, met deze week het meer dan dieptepunt de onwaarschijnlijk cynische (en m. i. dom nationalistisch!) waanzin mbt. de Magdalenes in het Dail debat terwijl ook binnen eigen netwerken en -organisaties een wel heel doordringende rotte-eierlucht zich begint te verspreiden, lijken ook in Duitsland vooruitlopend op het werk van de Ronde Tafel de zakcalculatortjes het werk te doen wat eerder, en zeker vanuit de RK Kerk, ontkend werd.

Slachtoffer businessclass.






Euphrasiaatje spelen, Goede Herder Leiderdorp




19.01.10
Ad Hoc News Berlin

Die Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart will die Heimerziehung in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren in katholischen Kinder- und Jugendheimen in Württemberg erforschen lassen. Eine entsprechende Studie zur Aufarbeitung der Geschichte habe die Diözese beim Stuttgarter Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft (Ifas) in Auftrag gegeben, teilte der Caritasverband der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart am Dienstag in Stuttgart mit. Die Diözese erwarte von der Studie möglichst viele Erkenntnisse über die Lebenswirklichkeit in den katholischen Heimen während der Nachkriegszeit, sagte die für die Caritasarbeit in der Diözese zuständige Ordinariatsrätin Irme Stetter-Karp. Die Forschungsergebnisse sollen bis Februar 2011 vorliegen.

Ziel der Untersuchung ist den Angaben zufolge nicht allein eine möglichst vollständige quantitative Erhebung und Darstellung der Träger, Einrichtungen und stationären Hilfeformen. Der Anspruch sei vielmehr, die Heimerziehung jener Zeit aus der Sicht von Betroffenen und Pädagogen darzustellen. Aus der Analyse sollten zudem Erkenntnisse für die heutige Erziehungspraxis in den Heimen abgeleitet werden.

Der Bundestag hatte Anfang 2009 einen Runden Tisch eingerichtet, um mögliche Misshandlungen in Erziehungsheimen der jungen Bundesrepublik Deutschland aufzuarbeiten. Dem 21-köpfigen Gremium gehören Vertreter der Länder, der Kirchen und Betroffene an.


Diözese vergibt Forschungsauftrag zur Aufarbeitung der Geschichte klik

Ein Forschungsprojekt zur Aufarbeitung der Geschichte der Heimerziehung in den 50er und 60er Jahren hat die Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart in Auftrag gegeben. Sie wolle sich so „verantwortungsvoll und proaktiv ihrer Vergangenheit stellen“, sagte die für die Caritasarbeit in der Diözese zuständige Ordinariatsrätin Irme Stetter-Karp.

Ordinariatsräting Stetter-Karp erwarte von der Studie möglichst viele Erkenntnisse über die Lebenswirklichkeit in den katholischen Kinder- und Jugendheimen in Württemberg während der Nachkriegszeit. Betreut wird das Projekt vom Caritasverband der Diözese, durchgeführt vom Stuttgarter Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft (Ifas). Im Februar 2011 sollen die Ergebnisse vorliegen.

Ziel der Forschung ist nach den Worten von Caritasdirektor Johannes Böcker nicht allein eine „möglichst vollständige quantitative Erhebung und Darstellung der Träger, Einrichtungen und stationären Hilfeformen“. Der Anspruch sei vielmehr, die Heimerziehung jener Zeit aus der Sicht von Zeitzeugen – Betroffenen wie Pädagogen - darzustellen, sie in ihrem zeitgeschichtlichen Zusammenhang zu analysieren, aus diesen Ergebnissen zu lernen und nicht zuletzt daraus Erkenntnisse abzuleiten für die heutige Erziehungspraxis in Heimen. Damit solle ein Bogen geschlagen werden von der Vergangenheit in die Gegenwart und in die Zukunft. Gerade die Fragen von Kinderschutz und Kinderrechten seien entscheidend für die Glaubwür-digkeit katholischer Einrichtungen. Dies liegt auch im Interesse der in der diözesanen Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Einrichtungen der Erziehungshilfe (AGE) zusammengeschlossenen Trägern, die das Forschungsprojekt nachdrücklich unterstützen.

Pressemeldung Caritasverband Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart

Issue of women committed to Magdalenes Laundries needs to be resolved

Statement by Joan Burton TD
Labour Spokesperson on Finance
Issued : Thursday 21 January, 2010





The issue of women who were committed to Magdalenes Laundries is one of the last unresolved issues of the hidden Ireland of institutions, religious orders and the State, so eloquently set out in the Ryan report and a whole series of articles, films and programmes.

Just before Christmas, the ‘Justice for Magdalene’ group met with senior officials in the Department of Justice. At that meeting, Mr. James Martin, Assistant Secretary, stated that after the passage of the Criminal Justice Act (1960), the Department of Justice referred women to the Magdalenes Laundries and paid a capitation grant for each woman so referred.

I welcome the admission by the Department of Justice that “women were routinely referred to various Magdalene Asylums via the Irish court system, in an arrangement entered into by members of the judiciary and the four religious congregations operating Magdalene Laundries in the State.”

“Women were also placed in Magdalene Laundries “On probation” by the Irish court system, in some cases for periods of up to 3 years.”

There is cross-party agreement among significant numbers in the Dáil to support the demand by the ‘Justice for Magdalene’ group and that the records relating to all such women, and to these institutions, should be released.

It would now also seem appropriate that the Minister for Education’s assertion, last September 4th, that “the state did not refer individuals to Magdalene Laundries, nor was it complicit in referring individuals to them” should be withdrawn.

The Minister for Education needs to come into the House and withdraw these references and also his previous references to women in Magdalene Laundries being some form of employee of the laundries.

There is a need to seek to address the wrong that was done to these women. They need a forum in which to tell their story and recover their history. Many of the survivors are now elderly, poor and living in greatly reduced circumstances in Ireland, the UK and the US.

I welcome the fact that the Department of Justice has entered into a serious dialogue with the representatives of these women. The Labour Party brought before the Dáil last July a Bill which sought to address some of the proposals in the all-party resolution which followed on from the Ryan report. This included a proposal to extend the enquiry’s remit to the then age of majority of 21. The Labour Party believes that this would help in a significant number of cases.

For people under 40, there is no memory and no familiarity with the Laundries and the other institutions in which women were incarcerated, in many cases because they were having a child on their own or because they had come to the attention of the courts. Incarceration in these institutions was seen by the court system as a substitute for female prisons.

I believe that the general public in Ireland, and a wide body of cross-party opinion in this house, strongly supports justice and restitution for the women who were incarcerated and who worked like slaves in these Laundries.


Magdalene women ‘not on remand for long’
By Claire O’Sullivan
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Irish Examiner

1932

THE Department of Justice has denied that women sent to Magdalene Laundries by the courts, on remand or on probation, were regularly kept at the institutions for protracted periods.

In meetings before Christmas with the Justice for the Magdalenes (JFM) group, department officials confirmed that after the publication of the 1960 Criminal Justice Bill, the department placed women "on remand" to the Sean McDermott Street Magdalene Laundry and Our Lady’s Home, Henrietta Street in Dublin.

This admission caused embarrassment for Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, who had refused the Magdalene survivors any redress last September, arguing the State "did not refer individuals nor was it complicit in referring individuals to Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries".

Further information on the state’s role in the Magdalene Laundry culture was revealed in the Dáil yesterday when Justice Minister Dermot Ahern answered parliamentary questions from Deputy Ruairi Quinn.

Mr Ahern said the women on remand were not kept at the homes indefinitely and that their period of detention rarely exceeded seven days. He also confirmed that payments were made by the Department of Justice for those remanded by the courts to the institutions.

"Limited records for one or two years have been located linking payments with individuals remanded to Our Lady’s Home, Henrietta Street. The records indicate periods of remand rarely exceeded seven days and one or two days was the norm. Further research is being carried out to establish if more comprehensive records were kept," he said. The minister confirmed the Henrietta Street institution was inspected by a state inspector when the religious orders sought financial support.

donderdag, januari 21, 2010

Day 3 in Haiti


day 1

day 2

January 20, 2010
By: Paul Kendrick '72
The Mirror

This is one of the dormitories at Project Pierre Toussaint. Two of Perlitz’s abuse victims told me that, late at night, Perlitz would go from bed to bed and flash the illuminated face of his wristwatch in the boys’ faces. Perlitz would then lead one of the boys into the dorm’s private bedroom where he would rape the child.

Editor’s Note – This is the third in a five part series of diary entries written by Fairfield alumnus Paul Kendrick ‘72, who spent last week in Haiti. Kendrick is a long time advocate for sex abuse victims and a co-founder of Voice of the Faithful in Maine, which formed in response to the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases. He had visited Project Pierre Touissant, which was run by fellow Fairfield alumnus Doug Perlitz ‘92 in 2003. Last year, Perlitz was indicted by a Bridgeport grand jury on ten counts of abusing Haitian children. His trial is scheduled to start in April.

Cap-Haitien, Haiti – As Wednesday dawned, I was hoping to be able to see Jean (name changed to protect him from harm) one more time before he raced back to Port-au-Prince to be with his family.

Jean (he is Haitian) was a highly regarded former senior staff member at Project Pierre Toussaint. It took him almost two days to drive to Cap-Haitian from Port-au-Prince due to flooded roads (heavy rains) and two flat tires. He was finally able to meet with Cyrus Sibert (local journalist) and me in the late afternoon on Tuesday. Sensing he was hungry, we went several doors down to La Kay, a local restaurant across the street from the sea walled harbor area.

Jean had traveled to Cap Haitian to meet with me about Perlitz’s abuse of children and the possibilities of reopening the school. Jean and I had met one other time in Haiti.

We were just beginning our meal when the ground began to tremble. Dishes didn’t fall off the table, or anything like that, but the tremor was certainly noticeable. Within ten minutes or so, Haitian radio was reporting large amounts of damage in Port-au-Prince which is located 85 miles south of Cap-Haitian. Soon after, a man came running into the restaurant shouting that the news stations were reporting that a tsunami was about to happen on the north coast where we were located (within in an hour, the tsunami alarm was called off).

Jean’s face was ashen. He was already on his cell phone trying to contact his wife and two children (one and five-years-old) who he had left back in Port-au-Prince. His cell phone wasn’t working, so we headed to higher ground and went to an apartment in the inner city to try one of the other cell phone networks. Nothing seemed to work so Jean disappeared into the heavy rain where he eventually made brief contact with a family member. His family was OK. When the first shock hit, his wife and two kids had run out of their home. Then came the aftershock which caused the walls to fall sideways and the roof to collapse right before their eyes. They were brought to Jean’s wife’s mother’s house in a nearby town.

Later, as we sat in a hotel lobby, I told Jean that I knew he was preoccupied with concerns about his family and we could discuss the Project at another time. His family was safe, he said, “So let’s talk now.” And so we did for the next two hours.

Jean had worked at the Project for many years. He was more than capable of running the day-to-day operations at the village (the boarding school). Doug relied on Jean’s unique abilities.

Then, one day several years ago, a teacher at the school told Jean that some of the students were reporting that Doug was touching them inappropriately. The kids had been afraid to come directly to Jean, because they feared that Jean, by virtue of his position at the school, would defend Doug and not believe them. Jean spoke at length with the students and then invited Doug to lunch at the same hotel we were at.

Jean told Doug what he had learned and wanted Doug to immediately stop abusing the children. In Jean’s mind, if Doug would stop harming the kids and the school could stay open, than Jean would be satisfied that he had done what’s best for the boys. I asked Jean what Doug’s reaction was to being confronted about abusing children. He said, “Doug only wanted to know the names of the children who reported that they were being abused.”

“Who told you this?” asked Doug.

Jean went on to say that in the coming weeks and months, Doug began to act differently towards Jean, often criticizing his work and even suggesting that Jean take some time off to decide if he wanted to remain working at the Project. All of a sudden, Jean’s work performance was unacceptable.

Jean told me that for the next three years, Father Paul Carrier refused to speak to him. Carrier’s behavior was so bizarre, Jean said, that when Jean answered Doug’s cell phone, Carrier would say nothing until Doug came on the line. During the silence Jean would say into the phone, “Hello, is this you, Father Paul? Hello, Hello.” Eerily, Carrier said nothing.

According to Jean, Carrier and Doug spoke on the phone several times each day and Carrier traveled to Haiti on a monthly basis. Jean told me that Carrier and Perlitz vacationed together in the Bahamas. He told me about the time that Carrier, Perlitz and an employee of the school went to Cormier Plage (a small hotel located on the beach 8 miles from the inner city) for the weekend. The employee stayed in one room and Perlitz and Carrier stayed in a second room.

It wouldn’t be much longer before Jean, exhausted from Doug’s constant criticism and suggestions that he find other work, resigned his position. A few years later, and at Doug’s urging, Jean returned to monitor the school while Doug went on a long planned sabbatical. Jean remained until the school was forced to close.

Jean visited the Fairfield, Connecticut area a few times to speak at Haiti Fund fundraisers. On one trip, sometime in late 2005 or early 2006, Jean told me that he confided in a woman who still teaches at Tomlinson school in Fairfield. He told her that Doug was sexually abusing students (she is a close friend of Jean and Tom Tisdale, both of whom are defending Doug’s innocence). Jean asked the teacher to keep this information confidential because he feared the school would be forced to close.

The teacher has not yet returned my call.

The teacher is a mandated reporter. Jean stuck his neck out to protect children by confronting Doug and demanding that he stop the abuse.

And then there’s Jessica Lozier, one of the signers of the letter that disgruntled former board members and Perlitz supporters sent in August 2008 to donors in which the signers disparaged the current board’s decision to fire Perlitz. I learned that during the same 2008-2009 period that there was a warrant for Doug’s arrest in Haiti, Lozier would withdraw money from Doug’s bank account in Cap-Haitien to pay the bus fare for several boys to travel to Santo Domingo to meet with Doug. Some boys would return later in the day. Others would stay with Doug in his hotel room and be sexually molested by him.

I told Jean how sorry I was for the miserable, sick and despicable manner in which he was treated by Perlitz and Carrier in the aftermath of his confrontation with Doug. Jean had trouble finding another job in Cap-Hatien, so he eventually moved his family to Port-au-Prince.

I called former Haiti Fund board member Hope Carter today, introduced myself and asked her to help me help the boys in Haiti. Click. She hung up on me. I wanted to ask Carter if she is bank rolling Doug’s legal defense. As I looked into the sad and troubled faces of the boys who were abused by Perlitz, I couldn’t help but ask myself what kind of people are former Haiti Fund board members such as Tom Tisdale, Fairfield alumnus and area chairperson of the Order of Malta, Madeline and Philip Lacovara, and of course, Father Paul Carrier, Jesuit priest and former Fairfield University campus ministry director. What kind of people are they that they could so easily turn their backs on children who are homeless, hungry, frightened and raped. “Who is their God?” I must ask myself.

I will be talking more in my final two “diaries” about what it will take for the Fairfield University community to reopen the school and drop-in center and I will share with you my vision of what can be accomplished for the children by engaging in a “konbit’ with the Haitian people. .

In Haitian Creole, a konbit is a traditional Haitian method of working together to till your friends’ fields as well as your own – a cooperative effort. In this way, we want to always show our respect for and friendship with the people of Haiti.

If anyone would like to contact me, please call me at 207 838 1319 or email: kendrickpt@aol.com.

10 Weesgegroetjes als penitentie

Dank U Heer, voor een paar maffe cabaret zingende advocaten die af en toe een wijze opmerking de wereld inslingeren.
Ik heb ze nodig op van die dagen dat ik een goddelijke hand op mijn kop wil, zo'n dag dat ik in scheermesjes-justitie wil geloven.


A WOMAN told a jury her priest made her say 10 Hail Marys as penance after he abused her in a confessional room.
Father Maeliosa O Hauallachain (72), of Seafield Road, Killiney, Co Dublin, pleaded not guilty to three charges of indecent assault on dates between July 31, 1981, and August 2, 1982, when the complainant was between 13 and 14 years old.

The Louth woman, who is now 42, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that the priest abused her and told her not to tell anyone.

She told the court she started drinking heavily by the time she was 15 and would self harm and bathe herself in Savlon (an antiseptic cream).

"I felt terrible, dirty; felt there was a smell off my body. My behaviour deteriorated somewhat. I knew it was wrong," she said.

The woman told of how Fr O Hauallachain was manipulating her and how he had power over her.

"I was afraid of him. I felt if I broke my silence, God would harm me," the complainant said.

She said the first assault happened before she went to Fr O Hauallachain to say her confession.

Sinned

She knelt down beside a screen and had just said "bless me Father, for I have sinned" when Fr O Hauallachain "popped his head around and said 'Ah, it's yourself'."

He then took her around the other side of the screen and sat her on his knee. She continued to discuss some issues she was having before he put his arm around her and kissed her on the lips.

She said Fr O Hauallachain then got up and locked the door of the confession room.

He started to touch her breasts and kissed her on the lips. "He put my hand into the pocket of his habit and made me play with his penis.

"He then told me to say 10 Hail Marys for my penance and not to tell anyone what happened," the woman told the jury.

"Like a fool, I went out and said the Hail Marys. I felt so bad and ashamed of what had just happened in the house of God," she continued.

She said that the abuse continued when Fr O Hauallachain would "persuade" her into a room in the priory and touch her inside her underwear.

She said he would kiss her using his tongue and make her masturbate him. She said the same type of abuse would happen in this room in the priory most Sundays and sometimes as she was passing on her way home, up until the age of 15.

The complainant described how, on some occasions, O Hauallachain was not wearing any underwear under his robes.

The trial continues.

dinsdag, januari 19, 2010

Response to Murphy report key

Kevin Hegarty
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
The Mayo News
Judging from the media images, the Irish Catholic bishops seemed worried and worn at the funeral of their long-lived patriarch, Cardinal Cathal Daly, on a frosty day in early January. Ordained as Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in 1967, Dr Daly’s episcopacy extended from the days of fragile optimism after the Second Vatican Council to the pervasive darkness that has engulfed the Irish Catholic Church in the last 16 years, as the stories of the clerical sexual abuse of children have unfolded.
It is not surprising that the bishops looked so preoccupied at the funeral. They had just been through a torrid time. The fallout from the Murphy report had resulted in the resignation of four members of the hierarchy.
Not since the arms crisis of May 1970, which caused the resignations or removals of four cabinet ministers and one parliamentary secretary has a major Irish institution experienced such a level of attrition.
One former auxiliary bishop of Dublin, Dr Martin Drennan, now Bishop of Galway, has refused to succumb to requests for his resignation from victims of abuse, arguing that the culture of cover-up of such cases had ceased by the time of his appointment in 1997.
On television before Christmas, we saw the extraordinary spectacle of Dr Drennan accusing his colleague, Dr Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, of impugning his integrity by asking him to reflect on his position in the light of the Murphy report. It is difficult to see how they can serve on the one Episcopal bench with any sense of courteous amity, never mind with the spirit of harmonious love, to which all Christians are challenged to aspire.
Not since the middle of the 19th century has there been such public dissension between bishops. Then Archbishop John MacHale, known as the ‘Lion of Tuam’, and some of his colleagues fought a long campaign against both British colonial oppression and the increasing Roman encroachment into the affairs of the Irish Catholic Church.
In 1848, Rome sent Dr Paul Cullen, the Rector of the Irish College, to impose its discipline. A dour and effective administrator, Cullen accomplished his mission. He left us with a legacy of submissive hierarchies who maintain a stolid consensus in public - up to the present anyway.
The inclement weather, the sad travails of Iris Robinson and the earthquake in Haiti have reduced coverage of the implications of the Murphy report in the media. The report, however, has not gone away. Nor should it. The Catholic Church in Ireland cannot afford to forget or minimise its conclusions.
In limpid prose and measured judgements, it reveals a dysfunctional church: “The Commission has no doubt that clerical child sex abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities over much of the period covered by the Commission’s remit. The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up. The State authorities facilitated the cover-up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes. The welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages. Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institutions and what the institution regarded as its most important members - the priests... It is the responsibility of the State to ensure that no similar institutional immunity is ever allowed to occur again.
This can be ensured only if all institutions are open to scrutiny and not accorded an exempted status by any organs of the State.”
Furthermore, the report asserts that the Church authorities “failed to implement most of their own canon law rules in dealing with clerical child sex abuse.” For many years offenders were neither prosecuted nor made accountable within the church.
The Pope has promised to issue a pastoral letter to the Irish Catholic Church on the crisis.
Hopefully, it will not be full of what the media commentator, Colum Kenny, has called “pious truisms”. The Catholic Church needs to address not only the quality of its corporate governance but also what has been termed its “archaic psychology of sexuality”, if it is to remain a relevant voice. Surprise us, Benedict.

godverkrachter in de incestueuze kerk; ... after all we are prepared to forgive the children

The Irish Times
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Church blames Devil-inspired children over sex abuse
...
The reason why the church covered up the abuse and moved priests about
is because they did not blame the priests, they blamed the children.
With this knowledge observe the reaction of church authorities. They
look as if they would like to say it, but can’t.

And that is it. They can’t because they believe society is now
over-sentimental about children and they would not be understood. This
was confirmed to me when I met an old priest tucked away in a nursing
home despite the fact he was not unwell.

At one point he suggested Cardinal Ó Fiaich should be canonised, I
rejected the idea, pointing out he was involved in the cover-up of abuse.

The old priest said: “People should forgive him, after all we are
prepared to forgive the children.” I asked: “Forgive the children what?”
He replied: “Their share of the blame.”
...
They see themselves as the victims and everything that has happened, up
to and including the Murphy report, is part of the attack that these
Devil-inspired, tempter children have been responsible for in their
attempts to destroy the church.

Every victim who then claims against the church is simply acting in the
role in which they have been cast. Having tempted the poor, weak priest
into sin they then add insult to injury by trying to destroy the church
by attempting to steal its money.

With this logic in mind everything falls into place. The problem is not
a legal or a moral one, it is spiritual.
...
rest