zondag, februari 28, 2010

Fish N Chips met Hokey Cokey

Een schokkende email maakt de Irish Times van vorige week, toch al om te zoenen, nog prachtiger. Een van die -veel te veel vrouwen - op zoek naar haar "bio" moeder (schietgebedje heregod laat ons toch aub ooit een ander woord voor die vreselijke uitdrukking gaan gebruiken).

Een van de slachtoffers van de leugens over dat verleden, die door alle informatie en publiciteit nu op zoek moet naar een andere realiteit over zichzelf en haar moeder.
Was haar, onbekende, nedelandse moeder jarenlang een gevallen vrouw uit de Goede Herder die haar ter adoptie afstond, wat is ze dan nu?

Ik word nog steeds hondsberoerd van die verhalen, hoewel hard ik ze regelmatig ook nog steeds nodig heb als schop onder mijn foei mag je niet zeggen, ter aanmoediging om door te gaan.
Waar ik niet op voorbereid was, was haar woede. Niet op -hoewel waarschijnlijk heel begrijpelijk - deze manier. Me onvoldoende gerealiseerd hoeveel pijn overwinningen als dat Ryan rapport en zelfs mijn werk voor haar groep slachtoffers inmiddels kan veroorzaken.
Haar hernieuwde gang van afhankelijkheid naar woede?
Jaren pijn hebben van leren accepteren die weggegooid lijken te worden door het aantonen van historische leugens. En de belangen daarbij.

Haar confrontatie confroneert met mijn jarenlange confrontaties en ellende van de kapo-leugen maar ook dwingt tot deze herbeziening.
Momenten dat moord in het Vaticaan en menig klooster - en recent de heer de Korte - wat mij betreft is toegestaan, zolang de rotzooi daarna maar weer wordt opgeveegd met een paars vegertje. Wat moet je dan in vredesnaam met die vreemde opmerkingen als van die kardinaal Bertone over vernederend.
Zou zo'n man uberhaupt weten waar hij het over heeft of is juist de vernedering dat hij daarop niet geloofd wordt?
Wat moet je dan in vredesnaam met al die opmerkingen over die paus die zijn briefje maar niet stuurt? Je moet er toch niet aan denken dat hij dat wél zou hebben gedaan.
Zoals al die oversten, die nu binnen no-time met hun sorry's komen.
Als er nu toch iets is wat er stinkt...vandaag gemeld, morgen het sorry binnen: doodschop compleet! PS: O ja, er je kunt er ook nog wel 5000 euro voor krijgen hoor. Halleloeia.

Momenten dat ik blij en trots ben op mijn mammoedt!
En heel erg gelukkig ben met die vreselijke gesprekken, Laetitia cs. , stijfgearmde Roos met haar verbijsterde nonnen, mijn angst voor mijn noodzakelijkerwijs in stukjes te hakken kudde non, de brokken Oostenrijkse strakblauwe luchten, de groene marsvrouwtjes, mijn moeten kapo-laveren tussen daverende lach om en groen en geel uit kunnen slaan door directe slachtoffers.

En zo'n email van zo'n dochter van zo'n "bio"moeder.

Laat het gebed dan maar gaan opdat dat ze dat ooit van elkaar zullen mogen weten.
Of om degelijke journalisten, professioneel genoeg om partij te kunnen en durven zijn!
Of neutrale archivarissen die laten zien wat oerfatsoenlijk zijn is.

Maar laat het merendeel van die sorry's simpelweg verboden worden.
Sorry's nu uitgesproken, als in Nederland - maar ook in Duitsland - na het sinds '95 bestaande Hulp en Recht, zijn sinister.
Het daarbij dan nog verwijzen naar diezelfde club de minachting die knap in de richting van het summum van cynisme gaat.
Dát heeft de heer de Korte met zijn intervieuw in ieder geval wel duidelijk aangetoond!

De valse vriend

Een biljoen is tien tot de 12e macht, dus 1.000.000.000.000 of 1012. Het is een miljoen tot de tweede macht, hetgeen de naam met het voorvoegsel bi- verklaart.

Het Engelse woord billion is een zogenaamde valse vriend.

Het Engelse billion is wat in het Nederlands een miljard genoemd wordt, dus 1000 miljoen of 1.000.000.000 (109). Deze betekenis was oorspronkelijk tot het Amerikaans-Engels beperkt, maar is thans ook in het Brits-Engels de norm. Een biljoen heet in het Engels trillion (1000 × 10003).

bron: wiki

Religious orders fall €200m short of Ryan report charges Het zelfreinigend vermogen van Generaal Sorry en de oversten pardon

D'n eerste boer de beste, zoete lieve Gerritje
D'n eerste boer de beste, zoete lieve meid.


The Sunday Tribune.
Conor McMorrow and Shane Coleman
February 21, 2010

The religious orders' final offer to cover the cost of the residential institutional abuse scandal is more than €200m short of the contribution the government wants it to pay, the Sunday Tribune can reveal.

The orders, which were heavily criticised in the Ryan report, have made a final offer totalling €348m, more than €200m less than what is required to ensure a 50:50 contribution from church and state.

The final bill is expected to reach €1.36bn.

Department of Education officials told the government during a briefing last Tuesday that 16 of the 18 religious orders criticised in the report have made offers of further contributions to the state.

The Sunday Tribune has learned that the final €348m offer is made up of €235m in property transfers to the state, a further €111m in cash payments to be paid over five years and a €2m waiver of rents owed by the state to the orders.

This will bring the total contribution from the orders to €476m which is just over a third of the likely final bill.

While this is a substantial improvement on the initial €128m agreed as part of the controversial indemnity agreed between the church and the government in 2002, it will not satisfy those who argue the orders should foot at least 50% of the overall €1.36bn cost.

The cabinet now has to decide whether it should sign off on this offer or seek a further €200m from the Orders to bring the split up to 50:50.

It will also be looking closely at the property portfolio offered by the orders to assess their value and usefulness. It is likely to look for cash or alternative property if some of the properties do not meet the valuations that the orders have placed on them.

The overall cost of the response to residential institutional abuse scandal is now estimated to exceed €1.36bn.

This is made up of the €126m cost of the Ryan commission, the €1.1bn cost of the Redress Board, €10m for indemnity counselling, €12.7m for the Education Finance Board, a body set up to provide education for victims, and a further €110m for a proposed victims' fund.

Peter deRosa: Why Dublin's Archbishop should resign

By Peter DeRosa
Saturday February 27 2010

This is a fan letter to the heroic Irish victims of clerical abuse. Your story has gone around the world. Your courage has rewritten the history of Ireland over the past 60 years. You trashed the idea of the RC Church as a safe haven for women and children. It made the lives of many women a hell on earth. And what would St Patrick or James Connolly think of all those tender childhoods it stole?

Your bewilderment over the meeting between the Pope and bishops was palpable. You couldn't believe you were excluded. You weren't even present in their thoughts. Strange, seeing that Christ's 'hierarchy' was made up exclusively of children and the poor.

That meeting was never about you or your years-long struggle for justice. It was called to restore the shattered prestige and authority of the Roman Church. The Pope, who denied your existence for decades, even had the nerve to blame the "faithless" world for priest rapists and the antics of their episcopal pimps. Does he blame it, too, for Cardinal Connell's lies?


Victims

Understand this. You and your comrades are in a war. Rome doesn't see you primarily as victims but as its enemy, the most formidable in decades. You bared the cruel wounds your Church inflicted on you, whom Jesus charged it to protect. You spoiled Rome's hilarious myth of a Holy Ireland with Pope, bishops and priests as knights in shining armour.

The marks on your bodies and souls reveal the endemic brutality at the core of its regime. It secretly loathes you for betraying its dirty secrets. No wonder it keeps two-fingering you.

You will never be on its agenda and if you can't get justice from Rome who can? It is here not to serve the broken but to rule with a rod of iron. Stop listening to prelates who don't listen to you. Do not seek their approval, only God's.

You are disappointed that Archbishop Martin wasn't able to help you. He must be disheartened, too. He is the only bishop who shares your sense of betrayal. The rest were hand-washing Pontius Pilates. They beat their breast but they'd get more remorse out of a carpet. Not one believes he's guilty of anything. The entire system was corrupt but no one in charge was to blame, certainly not the top man with all the clout.

Diarmuid Martin was terribly naive. He believed his passionate intervention would be taken seriously by the Vatican. What a shock to find it was anathema to his peers and superiors.

Forget Bishop Drennan who has the gall to call your quest for justice "revenge". You couldn't bang a nail in his heart or his head. Instead, urge Dr Martin to do a prophetic thing: resign as Archbishop of Dublin and stand alongside the poorest of Christ's poor.

vrijdag, februari 26, 2010

donderdag, februari 25, 2010

Donna Elza: Eu fique com medo... Since when did the offendors get to dictate the pace of healing for their victims?





I loved my church once, when I believed in it. But I do not anymore. It gives me no pleasure to say so, no satisfaction or closure. I remember the Sacred Heart in the kitchen of my childhood, the faith of my grandmother, the power of the sacraments, the constant presence of the faith as an anchor in all of our lives. I remember how we looked to Church to make real the momentous moments of our lives; birth, marriage and death. I remember the faith of my forefathers and I feel nothing but sadness.

...an essay I contributed to a book ‘What being Catholic means to me’, published by Columba Press last year.

Since when did the offendors get to dictate the pace of healing for their victims?25-02-2010

Has it struck anyone else as obscene that in their rush to rationalise the abject failure of the Pope to properly address the deliberate cover up of the rape and abuse of children by Roman Catholic Priests, Irish Bishops seem to be suggesting that victims must be patient and wait for the Vatican’s grand design for our healing to be revealed?

In a letter from Bishop of Ferns Dr Denis Brennan which was read at masses in the Diocese, Dr Brennan asserted that the visit by Bishops was only one part of a process designed to bring healing to victims.

Well excuse me, but since when did those who were responsible for the cover up of abuse and its resultant trauma get to dictate or design the healing process for victims?

And just why exactly is the Pope unable to name the terrible wrong that the institution he heads is guilty of?

The Vatican, Catholic Bishops and Pope Benedict XVI have now made many statements about clerical sexual abuse. They have blamed the media, the decadence of western society, the sexual revolution, gays and now a “weakening of faith” and countless others for the scandal of clerical sexual abuse.

What they have consistently failed to do is name the simple truth of their own guilt in overseeing a cover up of crimes against children on a grand and global scale.

The Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI are fully aware of the extent of clerical abuse, not only in Ireland but worldwide, and have overseen the cover up of that abuse for decades. The failures exposed by the investigations we managed to force here in Ireland are the result of a deliberate and well orchestrated policy of cover up and denial spanning decades. And at the heart of the cover up, as Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman Apostolic Church in all his ermine and finery sits the Pope.

So enough of the lies and half truths and breathtaking arrogance, enough of the blaming everyone and everything else.

If you can’t speak the truth, then perhaps it’s time to shut up.

But do not presume that anyone else can or will wait for you to sanction or ‘design’ their healing process.

The simple truth is that the problem is not a “weakening of faith” or the corruption of society. The problem is a corrupt institution led by an arrogant and deceitful hierarchy

Failure to respond over Murphy gave 'bad impression'

The Irish Times
Wednesday, February 24
PATSY McGARRY and PADDY AGNEW

AN IRISH bishop told the pope and senior cardinals in the Vatican last week that the failure of Rome and the papal nunciature in Dublin to respond to correspondence from the Murphy Commission “gave a very bad impression”.

Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby said he also told the Vatican that “for years they did not appreciate the gravity of the problem” of clerical child sex abuse in Ireland.

He said there was a good response to what he said from the cardinals and Vatican officials. “There was recognition that some of the Roman Congregations were not helpful in the past. Canon law is to be updated to take greater account of the problem of clerical child sexual abuse. The obligation to report crimes to the secular state was recognised and will be encouraged,” he said.

He was “saddened that the survivors were disappointed with the outcome of the meeting. Perhaps their expectations were too high . . . As I mentioned earlier, there was an acknowledgement that changes had to be made, and an undertaking that this would happen”.

In an address on the Clonfert website, which he delivered at St Brendan’s Cathedral in Loughrea, Co Galway, last Sunday, he said it was “serious evil in matters of sexual abuse of children that led Pope Benedict XVI to invite the Irish bishops to the Vatican . . .”

Each Irish bishop “submitted the text of what he would say to the pope, the cardinals and the Vatican officials” at the meeting, he said. Topics covered included “counselling and pastoral outreach to survivors of abuse, the impact of poor management of child abuse cases, the accountability of the church, restoring confidence in the church, questioning the public credibility of bishops and priests, [and] a new understanding of sexuality and the role of women in the church”.

Looking forward to the pope’s pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, Bishop Kirby concluded: “I think a good start has been made in addressing a serious problem in the Catholic Church not only in Ireland but also worldwide.”

Yesterday, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi told The Irish Times he had “nothing to add” to the Holy See’s press release of last Tuesday on the meeting between Pope Benedict and the Irish bishops. He was responding to questions arising from reflections Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary posted on the Tuam website, in which he said the pope “asked for the forgiveness of the victims” at last week’s meeting. “I have to stick to what is in the [Vatican] communiqué . . . otherwise it all becomes confused,” Fr Lombardi said.

There is no reference to a papal request for forgiveness in the communiqué.


Reflections of Archbishop following Meeting in Rome
February 21, 2010 by Editor

For all day for Monday, 15th February and for most of the morning of Tuesday, Pope Benedict and senior Vatican Officials met with the Irish Bishops. This was a measure of the seriousness with which the Holy Father viewed the situation. In the discussions he asked for the forgiveness of the victims.

The sense of pain, betrayal and anger expressed by victims was conveyed by the Bishops. Scandal and shame was acknowledged by all who participated. A wide range of areas was covered in the discussion.

Central to it was the outreach to survivors, the desire to accompany them in their pain and help them find hope. The contributing causes to what had taken place and the lessons to be learned for the future were underlined. If lay people, and particularly women, had been involved as they now are in addressing this issue the response would have been different. Poor past management of sexual abuse cases has contributed to the suffering experienced by victims.

The need for co-operation with civil authorities, HSE and Gardai, and the complete implementation of the Church’s own norms and procedures were seen as central to the safeguarding of children. It was acknowledged that while this is not a problem which is peculiar to Ireland or to the English speaking world, or the Church, nevertheless its impact is intensified in the Church, damaging its credibility in a number of areas, for example, its teaching on marriage and the family, on sexual morality, and on the Church’s role in education and Catholic schools.

Criteria for admission to the seminary, the way in which priests are trained: their spiritual, human, intellectual and pastoral formation, and the need for ongoing formation were all seen to be necessary in restoring credibility. Close collaboration with laity and religious in parish and diocesan Pastoral Councils in the mission of the Church was seen to be absolutely necessary if Christ’s gospel is to be effectively proclaimed. There was great interest in and warm welcome for the enormous number of people, men and women, who are giving so generously of their services in so many Church related areas, like Boards of Management of Schools, Pastoral Councils, parish representatives for the safeguarding of children and many other ministries. Here in our own Archdiocese the Diocesan Pastoral Assembly has been a great source of inspiration, encouraging many more people to become involved in Church life. I am deeply grateful to them for the very significant contribution which they make and I invite and would welcome the involvement of more.

While there was an honest and courageous acknowledgement of the challenge facing all of us as Church at this time, the prevailing mood was one of hope and trust in God “who in Jesus Christ has reconciled the world to himself” (2 Cor). Faith is the courage to live through these challenging times, to heal the hurts and become heralds of hope. Together we can do this, knowing that Christ has promised to journey with us.

Finally, I want to thank you for your prayers in preparation for the meeting in Rome and for your ongoing support.

woensdag, februari 24, 2010


We particularly welcome the contribution from those former child migrants
who related their stark, painful and often horrific experiences to us.







We commend the courage and effort which providing the evidence must have required.


United Kingdom House of Commons
THE WELFARE OF FORMER BRITISH CHILD MIGRANTS , 1996


It was barbaric; it was dreadful. We look back on it in our organisation with shock and horror."

[1] This was the comment on the child migration programmes made by the Chief Executive of Barnardo's when he, along with representatives of other sending agencies, gave evidence to us on 11 June 1998.

Child migration was a feature of British social policy for many years.
Legislation allowed children in the care of voluntary organisations to be transported to Commonwealth countries.

In total it is estimated that some 150,000 children were dispatched over a period of 350 years—the earliest recorded child migrants left Britain for the Virginia Colony in 1618, and the process did not finally end until the late 1960s.

[2] Exact statistics are difficult to come by. Today many former child migrants continue to face serious difficulties in establishing their actual identities and contacting members of their natural families who are still alive.

The absence of a medical history is also a significant problem for some. In many cases child migrants suffered emotional and physical hardship and abuse, of a kind which has had damaging consequences for their health and well-being for the remainder of their lives.

2. Responsibility within the British Government for matters relating to the welfare of former British child migrants now rests with the Department of Health (DoH).

This is therefore an issue which falls within the Health Committee's order of reference. At our first meeting in the present Parliament, in July 1997, we decided to inquire into aspects of child migration, a subject which until recent years has received shamefully little attention. One explanation for this seeming disregard is that until the advent of the Child Migrants' Trust in 1987, individual former child migrants had no organisation to represent their interests or co-ordinate their activities.

They were, and are, widely dispersed across Australia and other Commonwealth countries, and often lack any ready means of gaining access to opinion-formers or to the media. Mr Tom Luce, Division Head of the Social Care Group at the DoH, commented that:



"We have a very strong impression that before the middle to late 1980s
there were very few inquiries, complaints, applications for records".[3]

The agencies involved in child migration appear at this time to have been less than co-operative in dealing with requests for information. Former child migrants were a group whose fate had largely been forgotten.



,,Ik bied mijn excuses aan voor een misplaatst beleid dat voortduurde tot in de jaren zestig'', verklaarde Brown. ,,Wanneer je mensen ontmoet die hierdoor zijn getroffen, zie je dat voor velen van hen geldt dat het hun leven heeft verwoest.''

Veel van de kinderen werden in hun nieuwe omgeving misbruikt en eindigden in instituten of als arbeiders op boerderijen. Ze kregen vaak te horen dat hun ouders waren overleden, terwijl dit niet waar was. Veel ouders wisten niet dat hun kinderen naar Australië of Canada of een andere kolonie werden gestuurd. Het Kinder Migratie Programma werd veertig jaar geleden gestopt.





maandag, februari 22, 2010

Schoenmakers; .

Zinnen in lood
Woorden, zinnen
Zullen steeds met één letter beginnen
Gedachten klein en groot
Kregen letterlijk vorm in lood
Als onleesbare zetsels voor leken
Hoor ik daar over Cicero spreken ?
De zethaak werd vervangen
Door machines waar hele zinnen in hangen
...

bron
Het intens genoegen van na de truc van de Australiers, ik ben geen care-maar systemleaver, een paar dagen proeven.
Die duitsers, 't lijken wel belgen, komen al een heel eind in de richting, sexuell geweld, maar 't is het nog niet helemaal...
De Cree liggen nog steeds op kop.
potje jezuitje pesten na het eenentwintiggen.

Zwitserland

Von Katia Murmann

Die Schweizer Bistümer haben in den letzten 15 Jahren mehr als 60 Fälle von sexuellem Missbrauch untersucht. Das zeigten Recherchen des «Sonntags». Der jüngste Fall kommt aus dem Bistum Chur: «In einer koordinierten Aktion haben das Bistum und das Opfer bei der Staatsanwaltschaft Anzeige gegen eine Person eingereicht», bestätigt Domherr Christoph Casetti.

Dem Mitarbeiter der katholischen Kirche wird vorgeworfen, eine Frau sexuell belästigt zu haben. Derzeit prüft die Staatsanwaltschaft Graubünden nach Angaben des zuständigen Untersuchungsrichters Albert Largadièr, ob ein Verfahren eröffnet wird. In zwei weiteren Fällen prüft das Bistum Chur, ob es weitere Anzeigen einreichen will. Das Fachgremium «Sexuelle Übergriffe in der Pastoral» der Schweizer Bischofskonferenz (SBK) wurde in neun Fällen tätig. Eine entsprechende Aufstellung liegt dem «Sonntag» vor. Daraus geht hervor, dass achtmal Priester die Täter waren, einmal verging sich eine Lehrerin an einem Schüler. In einem weiteren Fall lud sich ein Kirchenmann Kinderpornografie aus dem Internet herunter. Die Opfer sind nach Angaben der SBK drei Mädchen, zwei heranwachsende Frauen, zwei erwachsene Frauen, ein Schüler und ein heranwachsender Junge.

Der Abt des Klosters Einsiedeln, Martin Werlen, verurteilt die Taten im Interview mit dem «Sonntag»: «Sexuelle Übergriffe sind eine massive Verletzung der Würde eines Menschen. Sie stehen der christlichen Botschaft diametral entgegen.» Der Abt sieht Handlungsbedarf: «Opfer sollen unkompliziert Zugang zu den zuständigen Instanzen finden. Diesbezüglich müssen wir noch viel Arbeit leisten.»

Samstag, 20. Februar 2010 22:00

zondag, februari 21, 2010

Duitsland: Oproep Wir sind Kirche aan Duitse Bisschopsconferentie; Avondwake tijdens vergadering maandag

Frühjahrs-Vollversammlung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz
Vom 22. bis 25. Februar 2010 findet erstmals in Freiburg die Frühjahrs-Vollversammlung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz statt. An ihr nehmen 65 Mitglieder der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz unter Leitung des Vorsitzenden, Erzbischof Dr. Robert Zollitsch, teil.



Pressemitteilung München/Freiburg, 21. Februar 2010

Leitlinien zum sexuellen Missbrauch grundlegend überarbeiten und konsequent anwenden!

Wir sind Kirche appelliert an die Bischofskonferenz: Leitlinien zum sexuellen Missbrauch grundlegend überarbeiten und konsequent anwenden!

Mit einer Mahnwache „Keine Vertuschung sexualisierter Gewalt in der Kirche“ appelliert die KirchenVolksBewegung Wir sind Kirche erneut an die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz, die 2002 beschlossenen „Leitlinien für den Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch an Kindern und Jugendlichen durch Kleriker und Kirchenangestellte“ grundlegend zu überprüfen, verbindlicher zu gestalten und konsequenter anzuwenden.

Die in den letzten drei Wochen zu Tage getretenen Fälle haben in erschreckender Weise deutlich gemacht, dass die Leitlinien der Bischofskonferenz (DBK) wie auch die Leitlinien der Deutschen Ordensoberenkonferenz (DOK) große Lücken aufweisen. Diese Leitlinien wurden auch noch nicht einmal immer konsequent angewendet, wie besonders der Fall Riekofen im Bistum Regensburg im Jahr 2007 zeigte.

Zentrale Forderungen der KirchenVolksBewegung für die Überarbeitung der Leitlinien sind:

1. Einrichtung einer niederschwelligen unabhängigen bundesweiten Ombudsstelle für Opfer (und auch Täter). Es kann nicht sein, dass in einzelnen Diözesen ranghohe Geistliche, denen die notwendige Distanz zu möglichen Tatverdächtigen fehlt, immer noch als Ansprechpartner genannt werden (1. und 2. der Leitlinien). Solange dies nicht erfolgt, hält Wir sind Kirche den im Jahr 2002 eingerichteten Notruf weiterhin bereit (Telefon: 0180-3000862, E-Mail: zypresse@wir-sind-kirche.de).

2. Beschleunigung kirchenrechtlicher Voruntersuchungen, damit nicht Verjährungsfristen verstreichen (5. der Leitlinien). Außerdem sollte der Gesetzgeber prüfen, ob nicht die Verjährungsfristen für Fälle sexueller Gewalt zu verlängern sind, da diese erfahrungsgemäß den Opfern erst nach vielen Jahren bewusst werden.

3. Aktive Zusammenarbeit mit der Staatsanwaltschaft. Es reicht nicht aus, dem Verdächtigten zur Selbstanzeige zu raten (7. der Leitlinien).

4. Entschuldigung bei den Opfern für die erfahrene Gewalt und Demütigung, unabhängig von der Finanzierung von Therapien und anderen Schadensersatzleistungen (8. der Leitlinien). Ermutigung der Opfer, sich zu melden, so wie dies die Jesuiten in Berlin zwar verspätet, aber dann in vorbildlicher Weise getan haben.

5. Verdächtige und überführte Täter dürfen in keiner Weise mehr in der Seelsorge eingesetzt werden. Es reicht nicht aus, nur den Kontakt zu Kindern und Jugendlichen zu unterbinden (11. und 12. der Leitlinien).

6. Einheitliches und abgestimmtes Vorgehen aller Diözesen und Ordensoberen, um ein verschleierndes Versetzen ehemaliger und möglicher Täter zu unterbinden (15. der Leitlinien).

7. Aktives Recherchieren von Altfällen durch eine unabhängige Untersuchungskommission, wie dies in Irland geschah. Wir sind Kirche unterstützt den Vorschlag der Bundesjustizministerin zur Einrichtung eines bundesweiten kirchenunabhängigen Runden Tisches, da sich gezeigt hat, dass kircheninternes Handeln immer wieder an strukturelle Grenzen stößt.

8. Praktizieren einer Null-Toleranz-Politik für Pädophile und Ephebophile, wie sie Papst Benedikt XVI. im Jahr 2008 in seinem Drei-Stufen-Plan vorgelegt hat. Nur so kann vermieden werden, dass alle Priester, Ordensleute und katholischen Einrichtungen unter Pauschalverdacht geraten.

9. Wirksame Präventionsmaßnahmen bei der Auswahl der Seminaristen und auf der Seite möglicher Opfer in den Gemeinden, Jugendverbänden, Kindergärten, Schulen und überall dort, wo Kinder und Jugendliche der Kirche anvertraut sind (14. und 15. der Leitlinien).

10. Grundlegende Reform der Priesterausbildung mit intensiver Auseinandersetzung der Seminaristen mit ihrer eigenen Sexualität und Persönlichkeitsentwicklung.


Wir sind Kirche warnt aber auch vor einer Dämonisierung der Täter, die oft selber persönliche Opfer oder Opfer einer menschenfeindlichen Sexuallehre gewesen sind. Deshalb fordert die katholische Reformbewegung dazu auf, endlich die tieferen, strukturellen Ursachen in den Blick zu nehmen: die strikte Sexualmoral, ein überhöhtes männliches Priesterbild und autoritäre hierarchische Strukturen. Eine Zölibatsdebatte alleine würde zu kurz greifen. Ohne Enttabuisierungen in der Sexuallehre und ohne grundlegende Änderung in der Einstellung zur menschlichen Sexualität wird nach Auffassung von Wir sind Kirche der Teufelskreis von Machtmissbrauch und sexualisierter Gewalt in der römisch-katholischen Kirche nicht zu durchbrechen sein.

Eine zentrale Verantwortung trägt der Vatikan, der im Jahr 1962 in dem streng vertraulichen Dokument „Crimine Sollicitationis“ alle Bischöfe angewiesen hatte, sexuelle Vergehen von Priestern „mit größter Geheimhaltung“ innerkirchlich zu verfolgen, und die Opfer unter der Drohung der Exkommunizierung zum Stillschweigen verpflichtete. Dass diese Regelungen weiterhin gültig sind, hatte Kardinal Joseph Ratzinger noch 2001 verfügt, als die Glaubenskongregation mit dem „Motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela“ die kirchenrechtliche Zuständigkeit für sexuelle Vergehen an sich gezogen hat.

Die Richtlinien des Vatikan zur Aufnahme ins Priesterseminar vom November 2008 sind insofern problematisch, als – wie schon in früheren Verlautbarungen – nicht klar zwischen sexueller Gewalt gegenüber Minderjährigen und Homosexualität erwachsener Menschen unterschieden und erneut Homosexualität als sexuelle Möglichkeit der Orientierung ausgeschlossen wird. Vorsichtige Schätzungen gehen von 300 pädophil (Neigung zu Kindern) oder ephebophil (Neigung zu Heranwachsenden) veranlagten Priestern in Deutschland aus. Die Zahl der Opfer ist um ein Vielfaches größer.


* * *

Zur Mahnwache am Montag, 22. Februar 2010, von 17 bis 18:30 Uhr (vor dem Eröffnungsgottesdienst im Münster) am Freiburger Münsterplatz Ecke Herrenstraße sind alle Christinnen und Christen, aber auch andere Bürgerinnen und Bürger herzlich eingeladen.

In einem Pressegespräch am Dienstag, 23. Februar 2010, um 11 Uhr im Hotel/Restaurant „Oberkirch“, Münsterplatz 22 in Freiburg werden die Forderungen der KirchenVolksBewegung zur Überarbeitung der Leitlinien erläutert und auch andere aktuelle Punkte der Agenda der Bischofskonferenz angesprochen.


* * *

Wir sind Kirche-Kontakt in Freiburg während der Frühjahrsvollversammlung der Bischofskonferenz:
Annegret Laakmann (Wir sind Kirche-Referentin und Initiatorin des Wir sind Kirche-Notrufs): 0175-9509814
Magnus Lux (Wir sind Kirche-Bundesteam): 0176-41266392
Christian Weisner (Wir sind Kirche-Bundesteam): 0172-5184082
E-Mail: presse@wir-sind-kirche.de

RK Nieuwsnet

Inmiddels zijn er al zes gevallen van seksueel misbruik in katholieke instellingen aan het licht gekomen.
ZDF : 700.000 vielleicht auch 800.000 tussen 1949 en 1975 kinderen en jongeren

Neue Verdachtsfälle in sechs katholischen Einrichtungen

20.02.2010

Im Missbrauchs-Skandal der katholischen Kirche hat die Bundesregierung die deutschen Bischöfe zum Handeln aufgefordert. Bundesjustizministerin Sabine Leutheusser- Schnarrenberger sagte dem SPIEGEL: "Ich erwarte von der katholischen Kirche konkrete Festlegungen, welche Maßnahmen für eine lückenlose Aufklärung ergriffen werden." Die FDP-Politikerin schlägt Ombudsleute und einen Runden Tisch aus Staats-, Kirchen- und Opfervertretern vor. Ein solches Gremium sei "ein guter Weg, um die zahlreichen Missbrauchsfälle aufzuklären und der katholischen Kirche Gelegenheit zu bieten, mit den Opfern über freiwillige Entschädigungen ins Gespräch zu kommen." Gleichzeitig übte Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger scharfe Kritik am Augsburger Bischof Walter Mixa, der die "sogenannte sexuelle Revolution" mit verantwortlich für den Missbrauch gemacht hatte. Es sei "wenig hilfreich, wenn sich einige Verantwortliche wie Bischof Mixa hinter polemischen Ausflüchten verstecken, statt zur Sachaufklärung beizutragen", sagte die Bundesjustizministerin.

Währenddessen weitet sich der Skandal um Missbrauchsfälle aus den 60er, 70er und 80er Jahren immer weiter aus. Mindestens sechs katholische Einrichtungen sind mit neuen Vorwürfen konfrontiert. Darunter zwei ehemalige Heime der Salesianer Don Boscos in Augsburg und Berlin, wo drei Geistliche und ein Mitarbeiter Minderjährige missbraucht haben sollen. Ebenfalls betroffen sind ein ehemaliges Kinderheim der Vinzentinerinnen im oberschwäbischen Oggelsbeuren sowie das Maristen-Internat in Mindelheim (Bayern) und das frühere Franziskaner-Internat in Großkrotzenburg bei Hanau. Massive Missbrauchsvorwürfe gibt es auch gegen frühere Mitarbeiter des Franz-Sales-Hauses in Essen, einer renommierten Behinderten-Einrichtung. Der heutige Leiter der Institution erklärte dem SPIEGEL, "ohne Rücksicht auf das Image der Einrichtung" für Aufklärung sorgen zu wollen.

zaterdag, februari 20, 2010

Paderborner Erzbischof rechnet mit weiteren Opfern in katholischen Einrichtungen


Paderborn (dpa) - Der Paderborner Erzbischof Hans-Josef Becker rechnet mit einer weiter steigenden Zahl von Missbrauchsopfern in katholischen Einrichtungen. Das sagte Becker der dpa. Den offensiven Umgang der Jesuiten mit den Missbrauchsfällen, bewertete er positiv. Eine Abschaffung des Zölibats ist seiner Ansicht nach keine Lösung. Abhilfe schaffe nur ein verantwortungsvoller «Umgang mit der eigenen Sexualität, verheiratet wie unverheiratet».


Janosch, Frühstück eines reichen Katers

Entsetzen über Augsburger Mixa-Äußerung Grünen „historisch absurd“ verlangen Erklärung Benedikts XVI

Focus on Line17.02.2010,

Der Augsburger Bischof Mixa sorgt wieder einmal für Wirbel. Der jüngste Stein des Anstoßes: seine Theorie, wonach die sexuelle Revolution für die Missbrauchsfälle in der katholischen Kirche mitverantwortlich sei.

Als „verantwortungslos“ kritisierte die Kirchenvolksbewegung „Wir sind Kirche“ die Aussage des Augsburger Bischof Walter Mixa. Sexuelle Gewalt gegen Kinder auch in Internaten habe es „lange vor der sexuellen Revolution gegeben“, sagte Christian Weisner von „Wir sind Kirche“ der „Frankfurter Rundschau“ vom Mittwoch. Offenbar sei dem Bischof die „Dimension des Problems nicht klar“.

Bernd Göhrig von der Initiative „Kirche von unten“ sagte der Zeitung, der Bischof sei „persönlich überfordert“ mit dem Thema und sprach von einer „Krise des Führungspersonals“ in der katholischen Kirche. Er warnte die in der nächsten Woche tagende Bischofskonferenz vor nur kosmetischen Beschlüssen. Es dürfe nun nicht darum gehen, das Ansehen der Kirche zu retten. Die Bischöfe müssten sich mit der Frage beschäftigen, „wie die Strukturen der Kirche diese Verbrechen begünstigen“.


Grüne fordern Papst-Erklärung auch zu Deutschland

Auch die Grünen mischten sich in die Debatte ein. „Das Problem, das die katholische Kirche hat, ist viel älter als die sexuelle Befreiung“, betonte Grünen-Parlamentsgeschäftsführer Volker Beck. Ursächlich für die Vorfälle sei eher die „systematische Unterdrückung von Sexualität“, sagte er dem „Tagesspiegel“. Die Thesen Mixas seien deshalb „historisch absurd“.

Nach den Äußerungen des Papstes zu den Missbrauchsfällen in Irland verlangen die Grünen auch eine Erklärung Benedikts XVI. zu den Vorfällen an deutschen Jesuitenschulen. „Die weltweiten Skandale haben etwas Systematisches an sich. Der Papst muss dafür sorgen, dass das Thema in allen Teilen der Welt zum Thema gemacht wird. Das ist das Mindeste, was die Opfer erwarten können.“ „Überfällig“ sei zudem eine Entschuldigung der Vorfälle.

uq/ddp

Bisdom: Bischof Mixa weist Kritik zurück
Augsburg, 18.2.2010

MARIE COLLINS : Reporting allegations of child abuse

The Irish Times
Saturday, February 20, 2010

Madam, – Archbishop of Cashel and Emly Dermot Clifford said that the church procedures on child protection were now more rigorous than those applied by the State, adding, “The State doesn’t have mandatory reporting” (Home News, February 18th).

He suggests by this comment that the church does! He went on to say he felt “confidentiality, where a person’s good name is concerned, is going to remain a problem when it comes to informing statutory authorities about allegations of child sex abuse”. Bishop Martin Drennan of Galway on Wednesday in a radio interview claimed that full and proper child protection procedures had been followed since the introduction of the Framework Document (Green Book) in 1996 and so were in operation during his period as auxiliary bishop in Dublin.

I have heard the bishops of this country since 1996 make claims that all allegations are reported to the civil authorities, their child protection policies rigorously followed. Do they feel comfortable in making these claims as the majority of people in the country may never read the following section from the Murphy report covering this issue?

“7.13 Msgr [John] Dolan went on to say that the understanding behind the Framework Document, was that each diocese or religious institute would enact its own particular protocol for dealing with complaints. This in fact never took place because of the response of Rome to the Framework Document. According to Msgr [Alex] Stenson, Rome had reservations about its policy of reporting to the civil authorities. The basis of the reservation was that the making of a report put the reputation and good name of a priest at risk. Msgr Dolan told the Commission that the Congregation for the clergy in Rome had studied the document in detail and emphasised to the Irish bishops that it must conform to the canonical norms in force. The congregation indicated that “the text contains procedures and dispositions which are contrary to canonical discipline. In particular ‘mandatory reporting’ gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature”. Msgr Dolan said that the congregation regarded the document as ‘merely a study document’.”

We have had two further Catholic Church child protection documents since the Framework Document in 1996, Our Children Our Church (2005-2008) and now Safeguarding Children. The Vatican has not to this day approved any of these documents or the mandatory reporting of every complaint of child abuse to the civil authorities.

Until the Pope gives his recognitio to this process each bishop can ignore the child protection policies and there will be no sanction from Rome.

Until this changes, nothing has changed. – Yours, etc,

MARIE COLLINS,

Children in Peril: From Haiti's Dubious Adoptions, to the Vatican's Continuing Cover-up I

Marci A Hamilton
Thursday, February 4, 2010
FindLaw,

The plight of children in Haiti has drawn headlines recently – rightly so, for Haiti's children, like all children, deserve our avid concern. But it is important that we also keep in mind the continuing fight to get justice for children who have been mistreated and abused here in the United States.

Thus, in this column, I'll cover both the Haiti situation and new evidence regarding the Vatican's continuing cover-up of clergy sex abuse.

The Questionable Actions of an Adoption Organization in Haiti

A Baptist group's actions in Haiti have recently triggered controversy. The group's website states that they intended "to rescue orphans from Port-au-Prince," but questions have been raised about their intentions and their operation.

At this early stage, a few facts seem apparent: First, the group attempted to take 33 children to the Dominican Republic, though their original intent had been to transport 100. It is not clear what they intended to do with the children after they arrived in the Dominican Republic, but the group was linked to the "New Life Adoption Foundation," which seeks to arrange adoptions for Christian parents who cannot afford to adopt through the ordinary channels.

Second, the group did not go through proper legal channels and, therefore, failed to do minimal due diligence -- which, at the very least, would have revealed to them that some of the children that they had taken were not orphans; rather, these children had parents in Haiti with whom they could, in the future, be reunited as circumstances in Haiti improved.

Third, the essence of the group's defense appears to be that God and their faith led them to Haiti, and that a religious group in Haiti gave them the children. However, Haitian officials appear poised to make them an example of Haiti's intention to protect its children from exploitation of any kind in the midst of its earthquake crisis.

Whether this group is a bunch of bumbling do-gooders or something more nefarious, the facts available thus far suggest that they crossed the line with their apparent disregard of the basic legal principles governing all adoptions, and with their reported failure to look into the children's actual familial relationships. Even if they intended to eventually fix their "paperwork" problems, they reportedly removed the children from Haiti into the Dominican Republican without knowing whether they still had family ties in Haiti -- a decision that violate every principle underlying adoption laws. It would be illuminating to learn whether the New Life Adoption Foundation has gone to other countries before, to secure children for Christian parents without the resources for ordinary adoptions, and if so, precisely how they did so. For this observer at least, it appears that, once again, the interests of children were likely being sacrificed for the interests of religiously-motivated adults.

The good news, though, is that the children were returned to Haiti and are currently under the care of a reputable adoption organization from Austria that has been operating in Haiti for 30 years. The children are getting needed medical care and, where possible, the issue of finding their family members and reuniting them with the children is being addressed. The primary reason that the children are now in a better position is that the Haitian government imposed its law to forestall harm to its children.

vervolg artikel

As both of these developments in Haiti and the Vatican reveal, around the world, we have a long way to go in the emerging civil rights movement for children. The first question in each of these scenarios should have been: What is best for the children? Until everyone, including religious organizations, starts making that question the priority, children will be hurt.

Gods Kangaroos golden fiction








een winderige middag in de zomer van 1996 zat Dana op de schoot van haar moeder in een parkje waar haar broertje Justin baseball aan het spelen was. Zoals gewoonlijk was Dana aan het kwebbelen, toen ze plotseling ineens stopte en zei: “Ruik je dat?”. Diana rook en antwoordde: “Ja, het ruikt naar regen”. Dana sloot haar ogen en zei weer: “Ruik je dat?”. En haar moeder zei: “Ik denk, dat we straks nat worden. Het ruikt naar regen.” Dana schudde haar hoofd, raakte haar schouders aan en vertelde: “Nee, het ruikt naar Hem. Het ruikt naar God toen ik met mijn hoofd op zijn borst lag.” Tranen kwamen opzetten toen Dana opsprong om met de andere kinderen te gaan spelen. Voordat de regen begon, hadden de woorden van haar dochter al bevestigd wat de Blessingfamilie in hun hart altijd hadden geweten. Tijdens de lange dagen en nachten van die eerste 2 maanden van haar leven, toen zij nog te gevoelig was om haar aan te raken, had God haar tegen zijn borst gehouden en het was Zijn geur die zij zich zo goed herinnerde.

De geboorte van het kindje Linde en dit verhaal brachten me in herinnering dat God ons Zijn kinderen toevertrouwd en Hij ook al Zijn mensen blijft dragen door het leven…
bron: bijdrage van een rk priester Forum: Actuele zaken. 10/10 '09
Onderwerp: De geur van God

Bron

Nu beval de tiran dat Sint Agatha moest worden vastgebonden en met roeden gegeseld. En twee slaven gaf hij bevel haar zachte borsten gruwelijk af te knijpen met ijzeren tangen. Op het moment dat het bloed over haar lichaam gutste, zei ze hem: "Jij tiran! Schaam jij je niet mij zo te behandelen;
terwijl jezelf gevoed en gezoogd bent aan de borst van je moeder?"


heilige levens Sint Agatha van Catania, patrones van voedsters en minnen Omdat men op afbeeldingen haar borsten op een schaal soms voor broodjes aanzag, wordt zij ook vereerd als patrones van de bakkers.Ook zag men er klokken in: zo werd zij patrones van klokken- en meer in het algemeen van ijzergieters en metaalarbeiders en zelfs mijnwerkers; van edelsmeden en juweliers; vandaar ook van glasblazers. Omdat klokken geluid worden bij brand en het vuur herinnerde aan de vulkaanuitbarstingen, werd zij ook patrones van brandweerlieden en brandblussers en van vuurwerkmakers; tenslotte ook van herderinnen (door veel meisjes uitgeoefend beroep op Sicilië), verpleegsters (vanwege Petrus’ verpleging) en wevers (omdat haar naaktheid bedekt werd in het bordeel). Vanwege de woordgelijkenis is zij tegenwoordig ook patrones van de katten.

vrijdag, februari 19, 2010

Children in Peril: From Haiti's Dubious Adoptions, to the Vatican's Continuing Cover-up II

By MARCI A. HAMILTON
Thursday, February 4, 2010


The Newly-Discovered Evidence in a Wisconsin Case Confirms the Findings in Ireland

The Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy has been credibly accused of abusing over 100 deaf boys, and now there is solid proof that the bishops of Wisconsin and the Vatican were more concerned about the Church's internal procedural niceties than bringing Murphy to justice or protecting children.
There is also proof that the Vatican's primary response to these issues is ice-cold.

Higher-ups either neglect to respond to requests for guidance from the American bishops or they put the demands of elderly abusing priests above the need for internal fact-finding and justice. Nowhere is there a trace of concern about civil law or legal obligations.

On July 17, 1996, Archbishop Robert Weakland of Milwaukee wrote to John Cardinal Ratzinger -- who was, at the time, the head of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (he is now, of course, Pope Benedict XVI) -- for guidance in handling multiple instances of abuse at St. John School for the Deaf in Milwaukee. The offending priest had solicited sex from children in the confessional.

Then, having heard nothing by March 1997 from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Weakland wrote a letter on the same matter to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. Again, he asked what he was supposed to do with respect to Murphy, whom he now suspected of having abused many more victims.

Within the same month, Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responded. He instructed Archbishop Weakland to follow the procedures set forth in the 1962 Crimens Solicitationes document in which the Vatican. directs Catholics to avoid "scandal" by keeping sexual abuse of children and animals (as well as homosexuality) secret, and to follow specific, secret procedures for handling these issues – or face the threat of excommunication. One of the persistent themes of Weakland's missives to the Vatican is his fear of impending "scandal."

Even though the Church's internal statutes of limitations on the charges against Murphy had expired, a trial of Murphy was still set. Nor was Weakland the only bishop seeking guidance regarding this prolific abuser; the Bishop of Superior, Raphael Fliss, also wrote to the Congregation of the Faith, saying that he thought an internal trial of Murphy was necessary. Yet, Murphy himself then wrote to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, admitting his transgressions, but asking to be relieved from having to undergo a trial, because he was elderly and ill and the alleged conduct had occurred decades before. He just wanted to live out his life as a priest in good standing.

A month after Murphy had made his plea to avoid the Church's internal procedures, Weakland and Fliss flew to Rome and met with Bertone and his staff. The notes from the meeting indicate that the Congregation decided to follow Murphy's reasoning, and did not encourage them to carry through with a church trial. The end result was that no action was ever taken against Murphy within the Church. And, there was certainly no criminal action pursued outside. Murphy should have been turned over to prosecutors and the victims should have been the central focus. Child perpetrators do not "age out" of their criminal predilections; thus, while the bishops and the Vatican higher-ups dithered, Murphy was free to prey. Even though they knew he had had numerous victims, this likelihood is not acknowledged in any of the correspondence. Their negligence was criminal.

Because civil authorities were cut out of the process, Murphy's misdeeds were never known -- until today, when civil litigation led by pathbreaking litigator Jeff Anderson has finally led to the discovery of the first hard proof that we have in the United States that the Vatican itself has actively participated in orchestrating and directing its grossly deficient practices for handling child sex abuse within the institution. Finally, too, the unearthing of this evidence proves that the civil law is yielding far better results for society than permitting the Church to operate within its secret sphere. It is apparent that the civil clergy-abuse lawsuits, like the Irish reports, are essential in learning the truth, aiding survivors, and protecting children.


Marci Hamilton, a FindLaw columnist, is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge 2008). A review of Justice Denied appeared on this site on June 25, 2008. Her previous book is God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge University Press 2005), now available in paperback. Her email is hamilton02@aol.com.

donderdag, februari 18, 2010

"Some of the expectations simply can't be met" Full text of Bishop Drennan interview

Irish Times
February 18, 2010

Full text of interview by Galway Bay FM presenter Keith Finnegan (KF) and Bishop Martin Drennan (BD) on Thursday February 18th, 2010


I think a bit of listening needs to be done first. I mean what the victims are hoping for from Rome didn't happen and there's been a lot of comment in the public media about that. Some of the expectations simply can't be met. The kind of financial expectations are way beyond the region of..


The rights of children. Hokey-Cokey Pancakes.

The Irish Times
URSULA KILKELLY
Thursday, February 18, 2010

A brave new model for the rights of Irish children

ANALYSIS : The proposed changes to the Constitution would force the State to give deserved priority of place to children in all decisions that might affect them

IRELAND has come late to children’s rights. The inadequate provision for children’s rights in the Constitution and the knock-on effect is well-documented.

Numerous reports have detailed the extent to which children’s rights have been ignored and underplayed. The Ryan report documented the appalling abuse and neglect of children in State institutions over several decades, and others have detailed the failure of those in authority to prioritise children’s right to protection, listen to them and to speak up on their behalf.

Litigation has demonstrated the impact on children’s lives of the absence from the Constitution of express protection for the rights of children and revealed, in cases like the adoption of Baby Ann, the absence of a framework to ensure that decisions about children take their interests into account. The lack of express protection for children’s individual rights, combined with the exceptional deference shown to the marital family, has led to the rights of children being overshadowed in law, policy and decision-making generally.

Reform has been recommended over the years by a range of authorities including Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness in her capacity as chairwoman of the Kilkenny Incest Inquiry in 1993 and the Constitution Review Group in 1996.

Ireland’s signature of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child almost 20 years ago led to several initiatives to bring Irish law and practice into line with children’s rights principles. Yet Ireland has been criticised for failing to take a rights-based approach to policies and practices affecting children. Bodies such as the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have urged Ireland to undertake meaningful constitutional reform. The Government responded in 2007 by publishing proposals to amend the Constitution.
-->Rest van het artikel


Hoofdredactioneel Comment

The proposed children’s rights amendment to the Constitution would herald a major improvement on the present protection afforded to children, and the publication of the wording is long overdue. It was first recommended by the 1993 Kilkenny incest inquiry report and has featured a number of times since in official reports.

This amendment is about much more than intervening in families or in situations where children are being abused, like the unfortunate case this week. It is a positive statement of the rights of children as individuals to have their welfare regarded as a primary consideration and the responsibility of their parents, as the primary protectors of their welfare, to provide for them.

This is the intent of the proposed new Article 42 of the Constitution, to be entitled Children, replacing and incorporating much of the existing Article 42, entitled Education. The old Article set a very high threshold for intervention in the marital family, requiring the family to “fail” for “physical or moral reasons”.

Heretofore, the children of a marital family were not, except in the most highly exceptional circumstances, available for adoption. The threshold for intervening to protect the welfare of children in a non-marital family was lower than in a marital family. This distinction will be abolished if the amendment is passed, and the children of married parents who cannot care for them will have the right to be adopted. All children will have an equal right to have the State supplement the place of their parents where they fail in their responsibility.

Fears were expressed during the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment’s two years of deliberations that, by lowering the threshold for intervention, an amendment could leave parents with unorthodox or marginal views at the mercy of State intervention, or allow the State to take children into care for trivial reasons. These concerns are met by the proposed wording, which states that State intervention shall be “by proportionate means, as shall be regulated by law.” The emphasis is on supporting families in their responsibilities to their children, and the removal of children from their parents will be a last resort.

The committee received many submissions urging the amendment of Article 41 of the Constitution, which declares that the Family, based on marriage, has “inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.” This, combined with the very exceptional circumstances in which the State could intervene in the marital family, was seen as inhibiting the protection of children. The committee decided not to propose any amendment to Article 41, because this might cause concern among parents that their rights were being reduced. There is an ambiguity as to how Article 42 will be read in conjunction with Article 41.

This is a complex question, both legally and socially. The Government must now decide whether to accept the new wording and put it to the people. There are those who hold the view that the rights of children are already recognised within the Constitution but have yet to be enumerated. There is a need for a public debate.

Cadeautje van een Ierse bisschop

Een diepe grinnik over de afwezigheid van mijn recht op katholiek onderwijs.

Het bespaarde me in ieder geval ook een hoop flauwe kul over een 80 jarige oorlog en de koning van Hispanje en leverde me, naast ogen op steeltjes over een Limburgse priester en diens kennelijke visie over katholieke emancipatie, het oprecht plezier op over een Iers gebed,
Uit de wie is wie, een wat inzichtelijker cadeautje van een Ierse bisschop.


“Through the prayers of St Brigid
I banish all hunger and famine
from this house for a year and a day
to the land of the Turks”.

Papal nuncio attends every session with bishops

The Irish Times
Thursday, February 18, 2010
PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent in Rome

VATICAN MEETINGS: THE PAPAL nuncio to Ireland Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza attended all meetings at the Vatican this week involving Pope Benedict, senior curial cardinals and the Irish bishops.

However, he did not contribute to proceedings nor did he or the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Bertone make any reference at the various sessions to the decision of Archbishop Leanza not to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly Dermot Clifford yesterday.

Appointed apostolic administrator to Cloyne diocese last March and Ireland’s longest serving Catholic Archbishop, he told The Irish Times in Rome yesterday that it would probably be advisable to await the result of audits by the HSE and the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland before it was decided to extend the remit of the Murphy Commission to other Catholic dioceses in Ireland. Otherwise, he said: “The past won’t be the past for a very long time.”

He felt that where the church was concerned, it was “on the way to having child protection safeguards which are exemplary. Mistakes of the past are being rectified. Bishops are prepared to be corrected and survivors have to be heeded.”

Church procedures on child protection were now more rigorous than those applied by the State, he said. “The State doesn’t have mandatory reporting,” he said.

But he felt “confidentiality, where a person’s good name is concerned, is going to remain a problem when it comes to informing statutory authorities about allegations of child sex abuse”.

He hoped “we will come out of the present difficulty a more humble and more caring church and one where we will not lose our priorities when it comes to the care of children and care for the church’s reputation”.

On whether Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan should resign, he said “that is a matter between himself and the pope”.

He didn’t know why Archbishop Martin had not attended the Irish bishops’ press conference in Rome on Tuesday but disagreed that there was division among the Irish bishops following the fall-out from the Murphy report.

What the pope was referring to in calling for unity among Irish bishops was his hope they would be united “in coming out strongly on the evil of abuse, the putting in place of healing for survivors and of getting the whole church behind, especially during Lent, atonement and repentance for the abuse against innocent children.”

He said the fallout from the Murphy report was a shock to the bishops. The resignations of four bishops “was very unexpected. We still have to deal with it,” he said. Even Archbishop Martin, who had warned that the report’s findings would be shocking, “seemed as surprised as any of us . . . by the report itself.”

He also said the Murphy report had a far greater negative effect on older people than the previous Ryan and Ferns reports.

Where the Vatican was concerned he said that, in his experience of dealing with abuse cases, “there was no problem with the congregations. They gave every help and assistance in dealing with individual cases.”

Even if the Vatican did not give recognition to the Irish bishops’ 1996 and 2005 child protection guidelines, “the Irish bishops bound themselves to carry out those [1996 and 2005] procedures, which are stricter than those of the State”.

The meetings with the pope this week were “a unique event”, he said. It had been agreed beforehand that each bishop would speak for five minutes, though this was not rigidly interpreted.

“The pope listened and took notes, before giving his reaction. He was very sympathetic.” So too were the curial cardinals in their interventions, he said.

He said the pope’s pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, which they had seen, “will now be filled out with suggestions from all who spoke in individual interventions”.

He expected it would be published around St Patrick’s Day. Following this week’s meetings with the pope, he said, contact between the Vatican and the Irish church on the clerical child sex abuse issue would be “ongoing.”

As regards the Cloyne inquiry, which is ongoing, he felt precluded by law from saying whether he had given evidence to it. Its report is expected by the end of this year.

Reflecting on his time as archbishop, he said: “It was very pleasant being a bishop until 1992 [when it was revealed Bishop Eamonn Casey had a son]. Since then, it has been one crisis after another.”

woensdag, februari 17, 2010

Vatican meeting part of 'process' - Martin

Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has said the meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Irish bishops in the Vatican in recent days was part of a process.

Speaking after an Ash Wednesday Mass at UCD, Dr Martin said the meeting will be followed by a pastoral letter and other things will happen, but not everything could happen right away.

He said the letters received from survivors were presented to the Pope, and they will be looked at.

Dr Martin said there was no turning back or denial of the Murphy report, which was one of the requests made by survivors.

He said the question of the Pope meeting with survivors was not excluded, adding that the Pope has met with survivors in a number of countries and these meetings have been announced afterwards to avoid the fact that it could become a media event.

Asked why the Pope had not issued an apology to Irish victims, Dr Martin said the tone of the meeting clearly stressed that this was a moment of great concern.

He added that 'there comes a time when repeating the word apology may even be empty'.

Dr Martin said the Pope was distressed at what had happened here in Ireland, particularly in the diocese of Dublin, and at what was recorded in the Murphy Report.

He said the meeting had been called to begin a process of seeing where do we address the problems that were there, why did it happen and where are we going to go in the future?

Dr Martin said he would not agree that the meetings were a wasted opportunity.

He said if victims feel dismayed, they have a right to feel dismayed. But he said he will listen to their dismay.

Dr Martin added that the hierarchy has 'begun something', and expressed he hope that now that dialogue has begun with survivors groups, that they don't lose heart.

Asked about why there was no discussions about resignations at the meeting, Dr Martin said it was said in advance of the meeting that that wouldn't happen.

He said that was a matter between those who present their resignations and the Pope.

He said standing down and resigning is a personal decision, involves people assuming accountability and responsibility, otherwise it is not resignation.

Drennan will not resign - spokesman

A spokesman for the Bishop of Galway, Dr Martin Drennan, told RTÉ News tonight that he would not be resigning from his position.

Bishop Drennan has been under pressure from organisations representing victims of clerical child sexual abuse to tender his resignation to the Pope.

Bishop Drennan's spokesman said he had not tendered his resignation to the pope during his visit to the Vatican and his position on not regisning from office was as he had previously outlined.


Survivors of abuse near 'despair'

The Rape Crisis Network has said victims of clerical sex abuse are in a 'state of almost despair' today following the outcome of the meeting between Pope Benedict and the Irish bishops.

Read the Vatican statement

Executive Director Fiona Neary said victims she had been speaking to this morning were deeply disappointed that the Pope had not accepted the responsibility, which she said the Vatican had in relation to child sex abuse in Ireland.

Irish Survivors of Child Abuse welcomed that the Pope finally acknowledged that paedophilia within the church is a 'heinous crime'.

However, it accused the Pope of failing to show strong leadership in tackling this crisis.

Clerical abuse survivor Andrew Madden has called for an urgent meeting with Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to find out why issues raised by victims were not addressed by the Pope.


Abuse helpline numbers

The Pope is preparing a pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland, taking into account the comments of the Irish bishops, which will be issued before Easter.

After yesterday's meeting with the Pope, the Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady told a news conference that the abuse of children by priests and religious was not just an Irish problem or a problem of the English-speaking world.

He said the Pope emphasised the need for the Bishops to be united in the face of the abuse crisis.

goed verhaal van een tragedie!

Bishops to put on `sackcloth and ashes' - Cardinal Brady

Nu de Ierse bisschoppen de vraag of - indien ze Joop van de Ende produkties of haar Ierse equivalent niet geinteresseerd krijgen in een aantal niet-de-eerste-de-beste shows - reddingsoperaties van een berghelling van de nationale kerkelijke hierarchie de meest praktische manier is om om te gaan met geld van de Congregaties beantwoord hebben, blijven mijn vragen toch weer over
dat rare woord van Tarcisio Bertone vernederend, nu in de versie van aartsbisschop Brady, spreidt middel en wijsvingervinger en spuug erdoor: laat ze die man in vredesnaam niet in dat Vaticaan opsluiten.

Brady kreeg het van een slachtoffer.
a victim told him that he wanted the see the bishops humiliated and this is what is happening.


Bishops to put on `sackcloth and ashes' - Cardinal Brady
Date:
18 Feb 2010
Garry O'Sullivan, in Rome

The Irish bishops will perform an act of penance during Lent, equivalent to putting on 'sackcloth and ashes' to demonstrate their humility and their empathy with victims of clerical child sexual abuse, Cardinal Brady has said.

Speaking after the 24 Irish bishops' meeting with the Pope and flanked by four bishops, Cardinal Seán Brady told the world's media that a victim told him that he wanted the see the bishops humiliated and this is what is happening.

He said that the bishops had discussed penitential acts, such as climbing Croagh Patrick or going to Lough Derg but that whatever they do, it will be the equivalent of ''sackcloth and ashes''.

Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns said that he knew that victims ''feel disillusioned but that they also want the bishops to hang in there with them''.

He said that during Lent the bishops would engage with the parishes in their dioceses and would encourage a listening process, as well as continuing their traditional outreach to the poor and the marginalised.

Questioned about the lack of unity among the bishops, Cardinal Brady said that while there were ''differences of opinion'', the bishops were ''united in the matter of dealing with child sexual abuse and that their unity was never greater than at their meetings in Rome,'' which he described as a mini-Synod.

He also said that the bishops did not feel like scapegoats and that the Vatican had offered them help to deal with the situation and offered them encouragement to bring about spiritual renewal in Ireland.

In a communiqué issued after the two-day Rome summit, the Vatican said that the Pope ''challenged the bishops to address the problems of the past with determination and resolve, and to face the present crisis with honesty and courage''.

Cardinal Brady acknowledged the ''real failure in our leadership'' but said that humility and real penance by the bishops would bring about a change of heart.

For his part, Bishop Brennan said that during his five minutes with the Pope he told the Holy Father ''of the rupture in the Irish Church between the bishops, people and society and that there had been a breach of trust and there was no quick fix''.

Keeping with the Lenten theme, Cardinal Brady, said the bishops would work with the poor, and also that they would consult their parishes in every diocese. Finally, the talk of renewal may have some meat on its bones as a result of the push Pope Benedict has given the Irish bishops.

Monstrueus fluitkoor. De Ierse bisschoppen waren in Rome.

The Irish Times - Wednesday, February 17, 2010 Helplines


HSE national counselling service


Information line for adults who have experienced childhood abuse or neglect

Freephone: 1800-235234 (Thurs-Sun, 6-10pm) www.hse-ncs.ie

Connect – National Adults Counselling Service

Freephone: 1800-477477 (Northern Ireland or UK: 0800-47747777) Wednesday-Sunday: 6-10pm www.connectcounselling.ie

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre

24-hour helpline for victims of rape and sexual abuse.

Freephone: 1800-778888. www.drcc.ie

Samaritans

Telephone: 1850-609090; www.dublinsamaritans.ie

Faoiseamh

Freephone: 1800-331234 (Northern Ireland and UK: 0800-973272) Monday and Wednesday 11am-8pm; Friday: 11am-4pm; www.faoiseamh.com

One in Four

Telephone: 01 6624070; www.oneinfour.org

Child Protection Service of the Archdiocese of Dublin

Telephone: 01-8360314; www.cps.dublindiocese.ie

National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland

Telephone: 01 5053124; www.safeguarding.ie


Mijzelf vermanend toesprekend: gij zult het holst van de nacht niet gebruiken om blij giechelend tussen het zoveelste bombardement strakblauwe lucht door te dansen op en om wat misschien wel ooit dat langgezochte hokey-pokey-begrip is,
gaat de fish n chips verpakking nog verder met het verhaal "De ierse bisschoppen waren in Rome";

Als bij de nieuwsuitzending van RTÉ, waren er, goddank, mensen die het benul hadden dat deze informatie nu opportuun is omdat het levensbesparend kan zijn.

De welhaast lijfelijk ervaren botsing van die beide verwringt zich tot het aanfluitingskoor voor Kerk en Staat in haar criminaliteit.

Nee, het rooms katholiek kerkelijk misbruik is niet Iers, zelfs niet Angelsaksisch.
Was het maar waar!
Het als zodanig hebben willen verkopen, net als het al hebben gevonden van deelantwoorden, ook nú alweer beschikbaar, was slechts deel daarvan.
We schrijven wereldgeschiedenis. Wereldkerk.

Was dat maar waar.

Maar misschien versta ik door dat aanfluitingskoor eindelijk die rare uitdrukking die Tarcisio Bertone gebruikte gister: vernederend. Of misschien wel door die giechel?

Posities scheiden ervaringen, dus woorden.
Voor mij, nu weliswaar zonder die giechel, dan toch nu die hokey-pokey maar.
Mijn kindsdeel, onvervreemdbaar Recht.
Vast besloten .

The Irish Times vandaag een krant om je vingers bij af te likken! Irish Fish n chips

Pope should have invited abuse victims to Rome
ANALYSIS: The meeting with the Irish bishops appeared useful ahead of the pope’s pastoral letter to the Irish faithful, but a glorious opportunity to show respect to victims of clerical sex abuse has been missed, writes PATSY McGARRY

1947

The Moment of Psycho

dinsdag, februari 16, 2010

Irish attempts to grapple with abuse frustrated by Rome

Criticism of the Irish bishops this week should not deflect attention from the role of the Vatican in the clerical abuse scandal

The Irish Times
Tue, Feb 16, 2010
Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent,in Rome


IT CAN only be hoped that today’s discussions in Rome on what Cardinal Claudio Hummes has memorably described as “the painful Irish happenings” will reflect on the role not just of the Irish bishops but also of the Vatican itself.

Rome consistently tripped up the Irish church as it attempted to come to grips with the issue of clerical child sex abuse, and Cardinal Hummes – who is taking part in this week’s discussions with Pope Benedict XVI, his senior curial colleagues and 24 Irish bishops – is uniquely placed to understand just how.

He is prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy which refused to give recognition to child protection guidelines introduced by the Irish bishops in their 1996 Framework Document and again in their updated 2005 Our Children, Our Church document.

It meant those guidelines were “only guidelines”, as Cardinal Connell memorably told Marie Collins in December 1996, less than a year after that Framework Document was published (in January 1996). They did not have to be followed and were not binding in canon law, Cardinal Connell said.

He should know. He was then a member of the Congregation for the Clergy and was known to be unenthusiastic about the Framework Document . His concern was with the risk to the good name of an accused priest.

This lack of recognition by Rome meant that an accused priest could appeal to the Vatican over his bishop’s head if action was taken against him on foot of an allegation of child sex abuse and that, most likely, the priest would win as there was no backing for such a bishop’s action in Rome.

As Cardinal Connell would have been aware there was a precedent for this in an “Irish happening” of the early 1990s. Following a canonical trial it was recommended to Rome that an Irish priest be laicised on foot of allegations of child sex abuse.

The priest appealed the decision to Rome, which decided he should not be laicised but should spend time in a monastery before resuming his priestly ministry. However, in the intervening years between the priest’s making his appeal and Rome’s decision he abused another boy, on foot of which he was jailed. It was then Rome decided to laicise him.

Despite this Rome still refused to give the Irish bishops’ 1996 Framework Document or their Our Children, Our Church document of 2005 its backing, meaning those documents were not worth the paper they were written on.

As the Murphy report put it: “The Framework Document (1996) was not a norm and therefore was not binding on individual bishops. The Holy See did not formally recognise it either. Victims have expressed disappointment that neither the Framework Document nor its successor, Our Children, Our Church (2005), received recognition from Rome, thus leaving both documents without legal status under canon law.

“This was in direct contrast to the approach adopted by the Holy See to the request of the American Conference of Bishops, who sought and received recognition for their 2002 and 2006 norms. The fact that a number of the bishops in the USA disagreed with the norms was probably a factor in Rome granting recognition to the USA norms and thus making them binding in canon law.”

The report continued: “Bishops wanted procedures that they could be certain of; they felt extremely vulnerable because in 1996 . . . they were meeting an onslaught of complaints and Rome was pulling any particular solid ground that they had from under them.”

The former chancellor of the Dublin archdiocese, Msgr Alex Stenson, told the commission that “Rome had reservations about its [the Framework Document ’s] policy of reporting to the civil authorities. The basis of the reservation was that the making of a report put the reputation and good name of a priest at risk.”

Not content with “pulling any particular solid ground that they had” from under the Irish bishops, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith went on to ignore co-operation with the Murphy commission and, for good measure, its papal nuncio twice refused to respond to commission correspondence.

It is clear Rome itself has profound questions to answer concerning “the painful Irish happenings”.


(T. Doyle, Religious duress and )