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"Crimen solicitationis is indicative of a worldwide policy of absolute secrecy and control of all cases of sexual abuse by the clergy.
But what you really have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.
You've got a written policy that says that the Vatican will control these situations and you also have I think clear written evidence of the fact that all they are concerned about is containing and controlling the problem.
Nowhere in any of these documents does it say anything about helping the victims.
The only thing it does is say that they can impose fear on the victims and punish the victims for discussing or disclosing what happened to them.
It's all controlled by the Vatican and at the top of the Vatican is the Pope so Joseph Ratzinger was in the middle of this for most of the years that Crimens was enforced he created the successor to Crimen and now he is the Pope this all says that the policy and systematic approach has not changed.
Cardinal Ratzinger, now as Pope, could tomorrow get up and say: 'Here's the policy: full disclosure to the civil authorities, absolute isolation and dismissal of any accused and proven and convicted clerics, complete openness and transparency, complete openness of all financial situations, stop all barriers to the legal process and completely co-operate with the civil authorities everywhere.'
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WARSAW, May 14 (Reuters) - Poland announced plans on Tuesday to tighten sentences for child sex abuse, just days after the country's politics were upended by a documentary on paedophilia in the Catholic Church, closely allied to the nationalist ruling Law and Justice party.
In just three days since it was posted on YouTube, more than 11 million people have viewed the documentary "Just Don't Tell Anyone". It shows Poles confronting priests they said abused them as children, and presents allegations that known paedophiles were shifted between parishes.
The documentary has led to a swift public outcry, with lawyers and journalists calling for the police to launch criminal investigations.
The issue has erupted in the run-up to a European parliamentary election in which issues of sexuality and religion have played a prominent role. Law and Justice (PiS) portrays the Catholic faith as a key element of national identity. Liberals argue that the Church has come to wield too much power.
The leftist progressive Wiosna (Spring) opposition party planned to project the documentary onto a building next door to a church headquarters on Monday. Police seized the projector and blocked the event.
[.....]
New documentary exposes sex abuse in Polish Church
Hadrien Genieys
Poland
Despite its spectacular staging, Tomasz Sekielski's documentary "Don't tell anyone" is no less attentive to factual accuracy. (Photo by STRIXCODE/STOCK.ADOBE.COM)
Poland
Despite its spectacular staging, Tomasz Sekielski's documentary "Don't tell anyone" is no less attentive to factual accuracy. (Photo by STRIXCODE/STOCK.ADOBE.COM)
"Don't tell anyone" is the title of independent Polish journalist Tomasz Sekielski's two hour shock documentary on the child sex abuse scandals that have traumatized the Catholic Church in Poland.
Following its release on YouTube on May 11, the program attracted 11 million viewers in only three days.
The documentary draws a pitiless portrait of the Church, cataloging the systemic cover up of abuse, the failures of dioceses to respond and the difficulties faced by victims. Nor does it hesitate to explicitly name offending priests as well as bishops suspected of having kept silence.
An overpowering program bordering on the sensational
The documentary opens spectacularly with a surprise visit by Anna, 39, to the priest who abused her during her childhood at the aged care home where he now resides.
Accompanied by the documentary producer, who poses as her husband while carrying a camera hidden beneath his coat, Anna enters the old priest's room.
"Do you remember me?" she asks. "I would like you to look me in the eye as I think that this will be the last time."
A terrible face to face confrontation follows. Completely disoriented by the situation, the aged priest admits the abuse, begging forgiveness from Anna, who leaves the room, overcome with emotion.
"I hope that God will judge you appropriately and justly," she tells him.
The documentary is dotted with similar hidden camera scenes and impromptu calls for explanation. This gives the film a rare power albeit without avoiding a certain disturbing sensationalism.
In his questioning, Sekielski does not hesitate to challenge his interlocutors, particularly when, court sentence and a video camera in hand, he asks a priest who is prohibited from activities with children why he is leading a spiritual retreat for children.
A strikingly rigorous documentary
Nevertheless, despite such spectacular staging, the documentary is scrupulously attentive to the facts. In fact, Sekielski includes overwhelming evidence in support of the serious accusations he makes.
The victims deliver icily precise testimonies when the director brings them back to the sites where they were first abused.
Revealing the identities of several persons involved in the "cover up" of these crimes, Sekielski also shows the compromising letters exchanged between dioceses. He highlights the promises that were never fulfilled as well as the removal of accused priests and their incessant transfer from diocese to diocese.
In an effort to promote reflection on the issue, Sekielski also taps a series of experts who offer the beginnings of a response to a number of issues raised by the documentary.
Why so little action on the part of ecclesial authorities? Why so many difficulties with legal procedures? Why do victims return to see the person who assaulted them? What consequences has abuse had on their lives?
Primate and episcopal conference president refuse to participate
Strongly criticized by the current Polish Church authorities, the documentary concludes by explicitly highlighting the refusal of the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, and the president of the episcopal conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, to participate in the program.
Nevertheless, the latter appears many times during the documentary, which features extracts from a March 14 press conference in Warsaw.
On that occasion, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki commented that the term "pedophilia in the Church" was "a very ideological slogan" chosen with the objective of "weakening the Church's authority and thus destroying the confidence of congregations."
He responded to the film by expressing his "emotion and sadness."
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| bron: Lovin Malta |
I establish that the present Apostolic Letter in the form of Motu Proprio be promulgated by means of publication in the Osservatore Romano, entering into force on 1 June 2019, and then published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 7 May 2019, the seventh year of my Pontificate. "
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tales familiar to Irish ears: problematic priests moved from one parish to the next and traumatised victims and their families blocked by bishops who shifted, rather than solved, problems. In one case, a priest convicted for abusing girls and banned forever from contact with minors was allowed work in a retreat programme with children.
In another case, a defrocked priest continued to say Mass even after the suicide of a former altar boy.
In one village northwest of Warsaw, a local man whose nephew was abused by the priest told filmmakers: “He couldn’t stop himself that man. But what to do? The bishop kept him.”
When the man decided to complain to the bishop, promises of support from his neighbours evaporated: “I was left alone, like an idiot.”
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