Pope Bashing?

Ye, back to Mark Twain and religious indifference, live and let live!

Why is it, after 2000 years, that few people heed Jesus' words, the golden rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"? Catholic pedophile priests included, yes?

AllardChardon said:

Ye, back to Mark Twain and religious indifference, live and let live!

Why is it, after 2000 years, that few people heed Jesus' words, the golden rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"? Catholic pedophile priests included, yes?

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How do you know that the pedophile Priests didn't want someone to do them like they were doing the boys?

Well, I hate to say it, Jack Luis, but that is a good point. Anal stimulation works effectively on both females and males without regard for the similar or dissimilar sexes involved.

For all we know, the priest could have had one boy up front and another buggering him from behind, which I heard was often the case in English all boys schools, boys with boys only here, no teachers or authority figures included.

JackLuis said:

How do you know that the pedophile Priests didn't want someone to do them like they were doing the boys?

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Then they wouldn't be paedophiles. They would be adults doing adult things.

stephen55 said:

Then they wouldn't be paedophiles. They would be adults doing adult things.

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With pretensions of being catamites instead of sodemites?

And quare ones at that, but that is a different thread of mine... we have some blurring of subjects going on here, hahahaha

Praise God and die, you heretic scum.......

Catholic Popes who won't deal clearly and publicly with criminal priests, Westboro Baptist preachers who promote hatred, Islamic clerics who promote "Death to (insert Satan of the week)", Jewish Rabbis who can't accept that Palestinians should have a say in running their own affairs...am I missing anyone here?...yes...

Fundamentalist Protestants who want government to force kids to be taught Intelligent Design (you have to hand it to those Creationists...they know how to evolve), Catholics who insist that using condoms to prevent the spread of HIV is a sin, Sharia Law "courts" that stone a woman to death because she was raped (oops...she enticed a group of men to bad thoughts because she was...whatever...), Hindu village elders who do the same, except for the stoning, they prefer burning...

With religion doing it's thing, who needs Nazis, Maoists, Pol Pot, Glenn Beck...

It is true bloodshed has occurred in the name of salvation, maybe even more than territory, but it sure would be nice if everyone just got along. That is the Pollyana in me coming out, again.

Pope names envoy, commission to reform Legionaries

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican denounced the "immoral" double life led by the late founder of the Legionaries of Christ on Saturday and said a papal envoy and special commission would be named to overhaul the conservative order following revelations its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least one child.

In a statement, the Vatican excoriated the Rev. Marciel Maciel for creating a "system of power" built on silence and obedience that enabled him to lead a double life "devoid of any scruples and authentic sense of religion" and allowed him to abuse young boys for decades unchecked.

"By pushing away and casting doubt upon all those who questioned his behavior, and the false belief that he wasn't doing harm to the good of the Legion, he created around him a defense mechanism that made him unassailable for a long period, making it difficult to know his true life," the Vatican said.

The Vatican assured the Legion's current members that it would help them "purify" what good remains in the order and would not be left alone as they undergo the "profound revision" necessary to carry on.

The Vatican issued the statement after Pope Benedict XVI met with five bishops who investigated the Legion for the past eight months, met with over 1,000 members around the world to determine its future after its founder, around whom the Legion had built a cult of personality, was so thoroughly discredited.

The pope's response is being closely watched because the Vatican is facing mounting pressure to aggressively confront abuse and provide pastoral care to victims. The Maciel case has long been seen as emblematic of Vatican inaction on abuse complaints, since Maciel's victims had tried in the 1990s to bring a canonical trial against him but were shut down by his supporters at the Vatican.

In the end, it was only in 2006 — a year into Pope Benedict XVI's papacy — that the Vatican ordered Maciel to lead a "reserved life of penance and prayer," making him a priest in name only. He died in 2008 at age 87.

The Vatican statement was remarkable in its tough denunciation of Maciel's crimes and deception. It said the system of power, obedience and silence he created had kept "a large part" of the Legionaries in the dark about his double life. That raised questions about what would become of the current Legionaries leadership since many have questioned how they couldn't have known of his misdeeds.

The Vatican ordered an investigation into the order in 2009 after the Legionaries acknowledged that Maciel had fathered a daughter who is now in her 20s and lives in Spain. But it was only in March of this year that the Legionaries acknowledged that Maciel had also sexually abused seminarians and that two men are claiming to be his sons.

The late Pope John Paul II had long championed the Legionaries for their orthodoxy and ability to bring in vocations and money. Recent news reports in the U.S. Catholic publication National Catholic Reporter told of how the late pope's secretary and No. 2 intervened to protect Maciel and accept donations on his behalf.

But the Vatican on Saturday was unsparing in its criticism of him, although it didn't acknowledge the Vatican or its officials bore any blame in allowing his deception to continue.

"The extremely grave and objectively immoral behavior of P. Maciel, confirmed by incontrovertible testimony, represent at times real crimes and show a life devoid of any scruples and any authentic sense of religion," it said.

The Vatican praised the missionary zeal of Legionaries priests and lay members, but said that same zeal blinded them to Maciel's misdeeds and led them to believe that the sex abuse accusations "even as they became more insistent and widespread, could not be but slander."

The Vatican set out an initial course of action: the pope would name a personal envoy and a commission of study to review the order's founding constitutions. In addition, the Vatican said the pope would name a special investigator to look into the order's lay arm, Regnum Christi, at the lay members' request.

Maciel founded the Legion in his native Mexico in 1941 and the order's culture was built around Maciel. His photo adorned every Legion building, his biography and writings were studied, and his birthday was celebrated as a feast day. Until recently, Legion members took a vow not to criticize their superiors, including Maciel.

The order now claims a membership of more than 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 22 countries, along with 70,000 members in Regnum Christi. It runs schools, charities, Catholic news outlets, seminaries for young boys, and universities in Mexico, Italy, Spain and elsewhere. Its U.S. headquarters are in Orange, Connecticut.

The revelations of Maciel's double life caused enormous turmoil inside the Legionaries and Regnum Christie, with priests leaving the order and Legion officials steadily announcing changes meant to demonstrate the movement was already reforming on its own."


Man, this one really surprised me, my father-in-law was in the Legionaires!

AllardChardon said:

Why must the Christains advertise their faith like that? I know, it is a free country....

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Because scripture tells them to.

In 2nd Timothy 4:2, Paul said, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine."

And in Matthew 4:11-12, Jesus said, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven."

I realize that you're not religious, but if you're interested in the whys of it, you could do worse than to study religious teachings. It's all there.

I wonder if the scriptures meant for the faithful to advertise the wonders of paradise on billboards? My objection is not with proselytizing, per se, just the obnoxious manner in which some Christians choose to do so. Mainly, the born-agains.

AllardChardon said:

I wonder if the scriptures meant for the faithful to advertise the wonders of paradise on billboards? My objection is not with proselytizing, per se, just the obnoxious manner in which some Christians choose to do so. Mainly, the born-agains.

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Well, of course not. That's kind of a "duh" thing, isn't it? But it doesn't say exactly how to spread the word either.

Christianity in all forms is the most persecuted religion on the planet.
Been true for so long this seems normal anymore.

I'd say plain ole persecution is probably older than religious persecution, but the latter does have an extensive track record. Will those that believe in the spaghetti monster be persecuted for their false belief? They probably have been persecuted already. And so it goes...

In an article in The Catholic Herald, dated April 24, 2010, called "Trials will leave priesthood, church stronger, expert says", by Catholic News Service, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, an expert in treating psychological and spiritual difficulties, especially among priests, said;

"As the public negativiity rises and the chorus of naysayers crescendos, I believe our priests and church are actually the better for it," he added. "Truly, the more the church suffers, the stronger it becomes."

But it is not the church that suffers, it is the parishioners at the hands of the wrong-minded authorities of the church. This reminds me of the saying, "If it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger!" How much suffering must one go through to be strong, anyway? I doubt the victims feel stronger for their experiences, more like violated!

DesertPirate said:

Christianity in all forms is the most persecuted religion on the planet.
Been true for so long this seems normal anymore.

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Except of course when countries like the US have 85+% of the population identifying themselves as Christian. Its even higher than that in Latin America where upwards of 90% self-identifies as Christian. Philippines is 95% Christian. About half of Africa is with Central Africa (Congo in particular) being around 80% of the population and about three fourths of the population in Southern and Eastern Africa. Europe is about 80% Christian with a significant minority self-identifying as atheist but having been raised Christian.

All in all Christianity is the largest religion in the world. Christianity is the OFFICIAL religion of the UK, Argentina, Greece, Norway and Iceland... oh yes and the VATICAN CITY where the POPE is head of state.

Tell me again how Christianity is being persecuted and oppressed? Show me examples where people in the US are being forbidden from practicing their religion. Reasonable examples. Not examples like "bobby had to learn about evolution in school." I mean examples where people in the US are forbidden from being Christian.

Silence?

Thats because you CAN'T. The fact is that the argument "Christianity is oppressed" was bullshit coined by the conservatives in the '90s as part of their culture war. What I've never understood is how they can believe Christians are an oppressed minority (at 85+% of the population) but at the same time believe that America is a "Christian nation" and that it is and always has been the dominant force in US politics. Two seem contradictory to me.

I read some time back that one out of four people in the U.S. are Catholic. Those are some pretty impressive numbers and they seem to still be flourishing in spite of the latest developments. I bet the Churches are full this morning, afternoon and evening.

Some Catholics may be seriously looking at the basis of their faith over all of this, but most of them still believe in Jesus Christ and his connection to the Roman Catholic Church, which is long-standing and rather exclusive. Just believing in Jesus Christ, the validity of his teachings and practicing them is not enough to belong to that group.

AllardChardon said:

I read some time back that one out of four people in the U.S. are Catholic. Those are some pretty impressive numbers and they seem to still be flourishing in spite of the latest developments. I bet the Churches are full this morning, afternoon and evening.

Some Catholics may be seriously looking at the basis of their faith over all of this, but most of them still believe in Jesus Christ and his connection to the Roman Catholic Church, which is long-standing and rather exclusive. Just believing in Jesus Christ, the validity of his teachings and practicing them is not enough to belong to that group.

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I attribute that to the social factors within the lay church, rather than relative to the superiority of the Catholic Faith. Church is a chance to dress up and talk to your peers, see that girl, or seek forgiveness for transgressions.

The church and the Vatican are not always in synch.

Yes, the church and the Vatican are not always on the same page. I imagine there are at least a few thousand Catholic priests out there who think they could be doing a better job, if given the chance, of course. But accession to the throne of Peter is not easy to acquire.

Catholics sent predator priest to remote village

By MICHELLE FAUL and CARLEY PETESCH, Associated Press Writers

MAKANKA, Sierra Leone – A rutted red dirt track leads to the "bar," a couple of homemade wood benches in the shade of an old tree dripping with wild mangoes. Within easy reach, there's a yellow plastic jerry can of the fiery palm wine the American priest loved.

A 40-year-old schoolteacher now charges that the Rev. James Tully gave the palm wine to teenage boys to make them more susceptible to his advances.

This faraway corner of West Africa — with no electricity or piped water — is where the Roman Catholic Church sent Tully, twice. The teacher told The Associated Press that Tully abused him and other boys repeatedly during his first stint in Sierra Leone, from 1979 to 1985. After a conviction in the U.S. for giving minors alcohol and groping them, the church sent Tully back to Sierra Leone for a second stint from 1994 to 1998.

Tully's story is an example of how the church transferred abusive priests from country to country, in a scandal now emerging worldwide. But it also shows the deep reluctance to come out against a Catholic priest in many parts of Africa.

Catholic Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg cautioned this month that the scandals in the church were not particular to the United States and Europe.

"It simply means that the misbehavior of priests in Africa has not been exposed to the same glare of the media as in other parts of the world," Tlhagale said.

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The shade and occasional breeze are the only relief from the unrelenting 100-degree (38-degree Celsius) heat matched by 100 percent humidity that has men lifting their shirts to fan bellies and black skin glistening with sweat. The only sound is the chirping of long-billed birds attracted to a nearby rice paddy.

It was in these villages that Tully demanded oral sex, called "lollipopping" in the Krio dialect, the teacher said.

"He would want us to play with his penis, to arouse him; not even to just play with it but to put it in your mouth," said the teacher, who asked to remain anonymous because he works at a Catholic school and fears he could be fired.

Asked if the sex had gone any further, tears welled in the teacher's eyes and he turned away: "I don't want to remember that. After all these years, I still can't talk about it. It makes me hot all over."

Tully would not comment about these accusations when approached by The Associated Press in New Jersey, where he now lives. The Catholic Church says it never received any complaints about Tully's behavior in Sierra Leone.

"No family member or friends or associates of any victim that was sexually abused has come forward to inform or report to me that he has been sexually abused by Father Tully," said Bishop Giorgio Biguzzi of Makeni, who was bishop through all the years Tully was based in his northern diocese.

Such responses do not surprise the Sierra Leonean schoolteacher.

"Who would believe a young village boy over a white priest?" he asked.

He complained about the abuse to his uncle, who had helped bring him up after his father died. "My uncle pleaded with me, asking me if I couldn't 'cope' with this thing since it was the only way for me to get an education."

At least one boy refused to put up with it, according to a police officer from Kamakwei, a northern town near the border with Guinea.

The officer, who asked not to be identified because he is Catholic and fears being shunned by the church, said his cousin and several other youngsters lived in the parish priest's house in Kamalo, where Tully was based in the 1980s.

His cousin lived there for two years with other boys who were receiving scholarships from Tully. The compound was always filled with boys, sometimes playing soccer, and Tully rode around with them on the back of his pickup truck.

That was a familiar sight in many villages, according to more than two dozen people interviewed by the AP. Tully took boys with him on weekend trips to villages where he built up schools and churches, and stayed overnight so he could say Mass on Sundays.

Tully had picked the cousin out as the brightest student in Kamakwie when he was about 14, and told the family he would take care of his education if they let him come to Kamalo. But after two years "(my cousin) ran away and came home. He told us that the priest was always calling him to lie in his bed and urging him to caress him."

The family did nothing, the policeman said, "because we were not sure whether we should believe the boy, and also the status of the man was high." He said Tully was the top-ranking Catholic in the area, and headmasters at Catholic schools there reported to him.

He said his cousin completed his education at the Catholic school in Kamakwie but was killed by rebels during the war.

Tully left Sierra Leone for the United States in 1985. There, a seminarian in Milwaukee, William Nash, accused Tully of abusing him between 1986 and 1988. In 2005, Nash received a $75,000 out-of-court settlement from the Xaverians, though Tully did not admit to any wrongdoing.

"I had my own experience and I was horrified about it. I'm angry that the church has allowed a man to function in the church in this religious order for 30 years. And that's criminal," Nash told the AP in a telephone interview from his home in western Massachusetts.

In the early 1990s, Tully also was accused of escorting three teenage boys to a baseball game in Franklin, Wisconsin, giving them alcohol and groping one of the youths. Tully signed an affidavit that said, "I am pleading no contest because I understand what I am charged with and believe I would be found guilty."

He was convicted of disorderly conduct in 1992. He was sentenced to two years' probation and barred from unsupervised contact with juveniles.

Tully was transferred to the Institute of the Living in Hartford, Connecticut, which specializes in sexual disorders and has treated hundreds of priests. There he received psychotherapy and made "very good progress," according to a letter from the institute to the Wisconsin court.

"He has never denied responsibility for his sexual behavior and has come to realize the damage that this has inflicted on the others," says the May 1992 letter.

The Rev. Carl Chudy, current U.S. superior of the Xaverian Missionaries order based in Wayne, New Jersey, said Tully's therapist said he could return to Africa so long as he had supervised encounters with youth, therapy and ongoing support.

"I assume Sierra Leone agreed to this because when his probation was over, he left," Chudy said.

Yet the church sent him back to Sierra Leone apparently without ever investigating his activities there. And most of his work was with teenagers — organizing soccer teams, drama clubs and choirs in scrabble-poor villages.

He left in 1998, when he was evacuated during the nation's brutal 10-year civil war.

The Xaverians finally laicized Tully in February 2009, after Nash, the Wisconsin seminarian, went on a mission to have him defrocked. Chudy said the decision was Tully's and was approved by the pope last year.

Chudy said there is a very strict policy in place today: "In the past obvious missteps were made due to what was known at the time. We are quite committed to protecting young people from the few who have caused such great damage," he said.

Rev. Carlo Girola, an official of the Xaverians' general administration in Rome, said there were no accusations or suspicions regarding Tully's first stay in Sierra Leone to make the Xaverians feel they had to investigate.

Girola said the regional supervisor in Sierra Leone, Father Piero Lazzarini, was informed about the "situation and conditions" imposed for Tully's return to the country. Lazzarini spoke of this to Father Luigi Brioni, the pastor in Magburaka where Tully was then sent. According to Girola, Brioni "never informed Lazzarini of any incidents related to this problem."

Some who worked with Tully for years in Sierra Leone praised his good works.

"I know him as someone who was always assisting children, paying their school fees, helping them get into college," said Ahmed Polo Samura, a human rights activist and child protection officer in Kamakwie who knew Tully from the time he was an altar boy in church.

Mark Saidu, a farmer in Makali, said Tully converted him from Islam when he was 14 years old in 1984 and helped pay for his education at Catholic schools.

"Father Jim had lots and lots of friends. He was a man who loved to socialize," Saidu said. "And he was popular around here because he would travel around with a generator and show films in the villages. And with the soccer competitions, that could be the only entertainment people would have for months."

Augustine Sorie Bangura is described by many as Tully's greatest friend in Sierra Leone. Bangura, 48, said Tully encouraged him to write letters to the priest's friends in the United States to garner donations that built the first health clinic to the village. Before that, people had to walk 16 miles (26 kilometers) to the hospital in Kamalo.

Bangura and many others spoke of Tully's love of strong liquor, some said to the point of incoherent drunkenness.

"He would use palm wine to get people together to evangelize them, and he would also use palm wine to encourage the youths to join us in singing. That man loved palm wine," said choir master John Abdulai Kamara.

Some, though, say Tully's use of palm wine was more sinister: "He would take us boys to go palm wine drinking and would always encourage us to drink, saying, 'It's nice. Have some more.' You could say he lured us into drinking, and that stuff is so strong that just one sip can make your head spin," said the teacher who told the AP Tully molested him.

The teacher said he has long been disillusioned with the Catholic Church. "They shattered my dreams," he said.

The man studied to become a monk and teacher with the Irish-based Christian Brothers order, but said he left when the head of the seminary tried to abuse him.

The teacher said that if victims of sexual abuse by priests were assured they would not be punished for telling the truth, "you would see many, many, many people coming forward."

Pope blames church's own sins for sex scandal

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

LISBON, Portugal – Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday blamed the church's own sins for the clerical abuse scandal — not a campaign mounted by outsiders — and called for profound purification to end what he called the "greatest persecution" the church has endured.

His strong comments placed responsibility for the crisis squarely on the sins of pedophile priests, repudiating the Vatican's initial response to the scandal in which it blamed the media as well as pro-choice and pro-gay marriage advocates for mounting what it called a campaign against the church and the pope.

Speaking en route to Portugal, Benedict said the Catholic church had always suffered from problems of its own making but that "today we see it in a truly terrifying way."

"The greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church," the pontiff said. "The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice."

The comments marked Benedict's most thorough admission of the church's own guilt in creating the scandal. Previously he has blamed abusers themselves and, in the case of Ireland, the bishops who failed to stop them.

He was responding to journalists' questions, submitted in advance, aboard the papal plane as he flew to Portugal. His four-day visit will take him from Lisbon to the famed Fatima shrine to Portugal's second city, Porto.

It is not known whether Benedict would make further remarks about the scandal during the trip, but there have been no reported cases of sex abuse in Portugal, unlike in Malta, where Benedict met with abuse victims on a trip there last month.

Despite the Vatican's initial, defensive response to hundreds of clerical abuse reports in Europe, Benedict has promised that the church would take action to protect children and make abusive priests face justice. He has already started cleaning house, accepting the resignations of a few bishops who either admitted they molested youngsters or covered up for priests who did.

But critics say he still hasn't done nearly enough to repair the damage or protect children from a culture of secrecy that allowed priests to rape and molest children for decades unchecked. Some have noted that while Benedict has accepted some bishops' resignations, no bishop has been actively punished or defrocked, even those who admitted to molesting children.

"Many are tiring of hearing about his 'strong comments.'" They want to see strong action," said David Clohessy, director of the main U.S. victims' group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

While Portugal has not experienced the surge in reports of abuse by priests that has emerged in other European countries, including Benedict's native Germany, it is facing similar financial problems as other European nations.

Portugal's economic growth has been pedestrian for years, averaging less than 1 percent between 2001-2008, and the global downturn brought a steep contraction of 2.7 percent last year. A three-year austerity plan to ease the country's crippling debt load is expected to bring greater hardship to a people already feeling the pinch.

Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva referred to the financial crisis in his speech greeting Benedict at Lisbon's airport, saying the pontiff was visiting at a time of uncertainty that had tested Portugal's strength as a community.

"In these times, men require someone bearing a message of hope to meet their thirst for justice and solidarity," he told the pontiff.

Church bells rang out as the pontiff proceeded through Lisbon from the airport in his popemobile. Several thousand people lined the streets on a rainy day, some shouting, "Viva o Papa!" Some stretches of the route were thinly attended, however.

Benedict, for his part, said the crisis demonstrated the need for greater moral responsibility in running the global financial system and noted that he outlined his vision for more ethics in finance in his 2009 encyclical "Charity in Truth."

He called for greater dialogue within the financial system about ethical considerations.

Similarly, the pontiff called for greater dialogue between faith and the secular world. Portugal is nearly 90 percent Catholic, but only around 2 million of the country's 10.6 million people describe themselves as practicing their faith.

As has been the case with much of western Europe, Portugal has also drifted away from church teaching on key issues.

Portugal's center-left Socialist government passed a law in 2007 allowing abortion. In 2008, it introduced a law allowing a judge to grant a divorce even if one spouse is opposed. In January, Parliament passed a bill seeking to make the country the sixth in Europe allowing same-sex couples to marry. Cavaco Silvo now has to decide whether to veto or ratify that bill.

In his airport remarks, Benedict sharply criticized Portugal's abortion law, saying public officials must give "essential consideration" to issues that affect human life.

"The point at issue is not an ethical confrontation between a secular and religious system, so much as a question about the meaning that we give to our freedom," he said.

Benedict also praised Portugal's Catholic heritage, saying it was a "great force of faith" in spreading Catholicism around the globe, from Brazil to Africa, during colonial times.

Despite the country's increasingly secular bent, religious sentiment runs deep. At least 500,000 people are expected to attend the pope's Mass in Fatima on May 13, the anniversary of the day in 1917 when three Portuguese shepherd children reported having visions of the Virgin Mary.

Now, we are getting closer to the truth!

Pope appoints panel to investigate Ireland abuse
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Monday appointed nine prelates, including the archbishops of Boston and New York, to investigate child abuse in Ireland's Catholic institutions.

The pope urged the Irish church to support the investigation, saying it could be a chance for hope and renewal. In a March letter to the Irish faithful, Benedict had promised an investigation that addressed chronic clerical child abuse in Ireland and decades of cover-ups by church authorities.

Also Monday, the Vatican announced the pope had accepted the resignation of an Irish-born archbishop who had led the Benin City diocese in Nigeria and faced accusations that he carried on a 20-year relationship with a woman that began when she was 14.

Archbishop Richard Burke, 61, had been suspended. He was the latest bishop to resign amid the church abuse scandal, as Benedict moves to get rid of bishops who either admitted they molested youngsters or covered up for priests who did.

Child-abuse scandals have caused exceptional trauma in Ireland, a once-devoutly Catholic nation. An Irish government collapsed in 1994 amid arguments over its failure to extradite a pedophile priest to Northern Ireland. Since 2002, a government-organized compensation board has paid out more than euro800 million ($983 million) to 13,000 people abused in Ireland's church-run residential institutions for children.

The investigation in Ireland will deal with the handling of cases of abuse and providing assistance to victims. It will begin in four archdioceses, including Dublin, and then be extended to other dioceses, the Vatican said. It will also look at seminaries and religious houses.

The nine investigators will look at the procedures currently in place to prevent abuse and seek ways to improve them.

The pope invited "all the members of the Irish Catholic community to support this fraternal initiative" and hoped the investigation will be "an occasion of renewed fervor in the Christian life, and that it may deepen their faith and strengthen their hope," the Vatican statement said.

The investigators named by Benedict include the archbishops of Westminster in England, Boston, Toronto and Ottawa.

Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, will investigate the Irish seminaries as well as the broader issue of priestly formation. Two nuns were appointed to investigate religious institutes for women.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston will investigate the Dublin archdiocese. O'Malley was brought in to Boston after a priest sex abuse furor erupted there in 2002, prompting Cardinal Bernard Law to resign.

"The Church must be unfailingly vigilant in protecting children and young people," O'Malley said in a statement posted on the archdiocese's website. "It will also be important to respond to the concerns of the Catholic community and the survivors in the manner that will promote the process of healing."

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin praised O'Malley's appointment, saying his "experience and personal commitment render him particularly suited" for the task. Martin, who has been trying to root out abusive priests, called the investigation an "important element" in the purification and renewal of the Dublin church, which "addresses the truth of a dark moment in its history."

The pope apologized for the chronic abuse in his unprecedented letter to
Ireland, rebuking church leaders for "grave errors of judgment" and appealing to priests still harboring sins of child molestation to confess.

Three Irish bishops have stepped down since December, and there have been calls for the country's top prelate, Cardinal Sean Brady, to leave because of his handling of a notorious child rapist.

In the Burke case, the St. Patrick Missionary Society said Burke resigned for "his failure to observe his oath of celibacy."

However, the society said its local investigator in Nigeria never found evidence that Burke began having sex with the woman when she was 14. Burke said the sexual relationship began only after she turned 18, while he served as a priest in Warri, a city in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

"(Burke) has apologized to all those whom he has hurt by his actions and has taken full personal responsibility for what he has done wrong," the society said. Burke served in Warri for about a decade before heading back to Ireland. In 1996, he returned to Warri and later became bishop, sometimes serving as a negotiator between Nigerian militants who kidnapped foreign oil workers and the oil companies. Burke became archbishop of Benin City in 2007.

Catholicism is fast-growing religion in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 150 million people.

Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell also contributed to this report from Lagos, Nigeria.



This continues to keep my interest. What will they discover and will it be after the Pope's visit or before, I wonder.

Pope defends celibacy for priests at Vatican rally
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI strongly defended celibacy for priests as a sign of faith in an increasingly secular world Thursday, insisting on a church tradition that has increasingy come under scrutiny amid the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Benedict didn't directly mention the crisis that has rocked the Catholic Church for months in his comments to some 15,000 priests who massed in St. Peter's Square. But in an apparent reference to the crisis, Benedict spoke about "secondary scandals" that showed "our own insufficiencies and sins."

Benedict's comments came during an evening vigil service to mark the end of the Vatican's year of the priest — a year that has been marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse, cover-up and Vatican inaction to root out pedophile priests.

There had been speculation that Benedict might again refer to the scandal during the priestly gathering, following his recent comments en route to Portugal during which he acknowledged that it was born of the "sin within the church" and not from outside elements. Previously, Vatican officials, Vatican publications and cardinals had blamed the scandal on the media, the Masons and anti-Catholic lobbies, among others.

But Benedict didn't directly address it Thursday night. He is due to celebrate a final Mass on Friday before the three-day priest rally comes to a close.

The main U.S. clerical abuse victims group, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said Benedict had passed up a perfect opportunity to announce clear steps to protect children and insist that abusive priests be reported to police.

Benedict responded to preselected questions from five priests and none asked for his thoughts about the scandal. One asked him to speak instead about what he called the "beauty of celibacy," which he said was so often criticized in the secular world.

The pope acknowledged that celibacy was itself "a great scandal" in a world where people have no need for God. But he called it "a great sign of faith, of the presence of God in the world."

Against the so-called scandal of such faith "there are also secondary scandals, that of our own insufficiencies and sins that hide the true scandal," he said.

The Vatican has long denied that its celibacy requirement was the root cause of priests who rape and sodomize children. Yet the requirement — which is a tradition in the church but is not part of church doctrine — has come under increasing questioning amid the scandal and even some top prelates have called for an honest examination of it.

While the pope didn't directly address the crisis, priests visiting Rome for the rally spoke openly about it, saying it was painful — even shameful to them since it reflected badly on all of them.

"Well, I think it was really first a matter of pain, of sadness then a bit of shame because in Belgium we had bishops, not priests who had to resign," said Belgian priest the Rev. Jean Pierre Herman.

"The church isn't perfect. Priests are men. Among priests there are those who will become saints, there are good priests and there are criminals as well. So it happens," he said.

Said the Rev. Fernando Cerero from the diocese di Coatzacoalcos in Mexico, "We felt much shame and sadness, but this is an opportunity (for priests) to reflect on our ministry."

"It is an opportunity for holiness," he said.


I was hoping for a different outcome, myself. Why is being married not an opportunity for holiness, as well?

One thousand in Britain and Ireland are children of priests

One thousand in Britain and Ireland are children of priests
By CATHY HAYES, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
August 17, 2010

It has been estimated that at least 1,000 people in Britain and Ireland are the children of Roman Catholic priests according to the Guardian Newspaper.

The issue of celibacy in the church will come up during the pope’s visit to Britain says the Guardian who quotes the children of priests saying that it must be addressed.

There are three common Irish names,", "McEntaggart, McAnespie and McNab, that translate as 'son of the priest', 'son of the Bishop' and 'son of the Abbot', so it's been around for some time." says former Catholic priest Father Pat Buckley of Northern Ireland who left the church in part because of celibacy issues.

It already has in Italy. In May of this year dozens of Italian women banded together and sent an open letter to the Vatican calling for the abolition of celibacy.

This Italian women had been in relationships with priests of lay monks and argued that a man “needs to live with his fellow human beings, experience feelings, love and be loved,” according to the Guardian.

Their letter also pleaded for sympathy for those who “live out in secrecy those few moments the priest manages to grant [us], and experience on a daily basis the doubts, fears and insecurities of our men.”

The topic of celibacy has also been a topic of constant debate as clerical abuse scandals have swept across even corner of the Catholic Church and critics link sexual frustration to pedophilia.

There are also those who defend celibacy in the early Christian Church. Pope Benedict has said that celibacy “is made possible by the grace of God . . . who asks us to transcend ourselves." He believes that abstaining from marriage shows a commitment to the Church.

For those women who have been involved with men in the Church and children who are denied by their father’s there is a lack of financial support and recognition. There are very few support groups to help their cause and they make little headway with the Church.

In Larne, Northern Ireland there is what Pat Buckley, an excommunicated gay priest and the organizer calls an “independent ministry to disaffected and alienated Catholics and Christians". He has been running this group since the 1980s and also runs a support group for women who are in relationships with priests.

He said "These problems have been hidden for centuries, but there's been so much in the news that people are getting a bit more courage to come forward."

For example, in Ireland, in 1992, there was the case of Eamon Casey, the much loved Bishop of Galway, who had used diocese funds to pay maintenance for his American child.

Buckley believes the Catholic Church plans to "hang on to celibacy for reasons of power and control. St Paul said in one of his letters that a bishop should be the husband of one woman. If a man does not have the experience of running a human family how can he run a church? Celibacy was unusual during the first 12 centuries of the Catholic Church. It was introduced [in the Middle Ages]. It's often very sad for the women and children in these relationships. A lot of them want some form of resolution, to sort out the baggage. Anybody who is abandoned by a parent suffers a
very large injustice.”

Of course there is the other side of these argument, those who defend celibacy in the Church. Father Stephen Wang is the Dean of Studies at Allen Hall seminary in London. On his blog earlier this year he wrote “there are practical aspects to celibacy. You've got more time for other people, and more time for prayer. You can get up at three in the morning to visit someone in hospital without worrying about how this will affect your marriage . . . But celibacy is something much deeper as well. There is a place in your heart, in your very being, that you have given to Christ and to the people you meet as a priest."

An aspect of this global tragedy that I had overlooked.

AllardChardon said:

In an article in The Catholic Herald, dated April 24, 2010, called "Trials will leave priesthood, church stronger, expert says", by Catholic News Service, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, an expert in treating psychological and spiritual difficulties, especially among priests, said;

"As the public negativiity rises and the chorus of naysayers crescendos, I believe our priests and church are actually the better for it," he added. "Truly, the more the church suffers, the stronger it becomes."

But it is not the church that suffers, it is the parishioners at the hands of the wrong-minded authorities of the church. This reminds me of the saying, "If it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger!" How much suffering must one go through to be strong, anyway? I doubt the victims feel stronger for their experiences, more like violated!

Click to expand...

OH how true.
Justice should be done; and seen to be done!