Posted on 01/18/2011 9:23:23 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg
DUBLIN -- A 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police - a disclosure that victims' groups described as "the smoking gun" needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests.
The newly revealed letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided to The Associated Press, documents the Vatican's rejection of a 1996 Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests following Ireland's first wave of publicly disclosed lawsuits...
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Jeffrey S. Lena, a lawyer for the Vatican, said in a statement that the letter has been deeply misunderstood. He said that its primary purpose was to ensure that bishops used proper canonical procedures to discipline their priests so that the punishments were not overturned on technical grounds. He said the letter was also intended to question the validity of the Irish bishops policies, because they were issued merely as a study document.
Mr. Lena added, In stark contrast to news reports, the letter nowhere instructed Irish bishops to disregard civil law reporting requirements.
First of all, it’s pretty interesting that when others use the NYT as reference, it’s totally dismissed.
And second, “the letter ‘has been deeply misunderstood’” is the mantra of Rome...
Crimen Solicitationis “has been deeply misunderstood.”
Ratzinger’s letter to the bishops “has been deeply misunderstood.”
John Paul II’s calling Mary a “co-Redemptrix” “has been deeply misunderstood.”
Ratzinger’s “Global Authority” encyclical “has been deeply misunderstood.”
Everything about Rome “has been deeply misunderstood.”
Except it hasn’t. People have brains and people can read and people are able to understand what motivates men who choose to live without women and families and who believe themselves to be “another Christ” to act on their base desires while ignoring the pain and destruction they inflict on others.
It’s called “evil.”
a lawyer for the Vatican.
‘nough said.
lolol
Double-damned. 8~)
“cast the first stone”
Er, no.
Just because a lawyer for the Vatican says that the letter “has been deeply misunderstood” doesn’t mean a thing other than that a not entirely disinterested party is trying his best to downplay the significance of it.
in the same vein, global warming is really true, Islam really is a religion of peace, and that clumsy oaf Santa Claus knocked my turbine off with his sleigh a few weeks ago.
Vatican warned Ireland’s Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police -
As Cokie Roberts said of Roman Polanski, “Just Take Him Out and Shoot Him.”
Were you the one that told me I’d have to join ‘the one true church”?
It’s increasingly apparent that priests were diddling kids.
And in Illinois, when they weren’t diddling the nuns or kids...they were drinking it up something fierce.
As I said, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ...but you Catholics take it too far sometimes.
Words fail me...
Nice try, but no - this isn’t some big, worldwide conspiracy to smear the sterling reputation of Catholicism. In fact, priestly sexual abuse of children (and the wives of parishioners, in times past) has been an ongoing theme in the history of Rome for quite a long time.
Trying to hide this behind Ayers and HuffPo is disingenuous at best, and disgustingly mercenary at worst.
Early morning wake up ping!
That’s right. We should all just listen to the Associated Press about everything on religion. And make sure you get the articles that only present one side.
/sarcasm
Wow! You’ve just discovered that the mainstream bias can purposely “misunderstand” Christians? Have you told Sarah Palin?
And, yes, the New York Times is a terrible source, but at least they asked for a response. When you’re more irresponsible and slanderous than the New York Times, that should tell you something.
And you all could read the letter yourselves, if you had any interest in the truth.
The letter never tells the Irish bishops not to report the abuse, nor to fail to comply with civil law. It reminds the Irish bishops that by mandating reporting all suggestions of abuse to civil authorities, they could put the Catholic Church in the difficult position of having to reinstate a priest after reporting him to the authorities.
The Congregation for Divine Worship is acting here in the role of the District Attorney, which has to tell the cops sometimes that they have to make a clean bust if they want it to stick. Because guess what: Men who have sacrificed their lives for the priesthood are entitled to some legal protection, too.
Nothing in the letter instructs the bishops not to obey civil law. But the bishops’ proposal, which you could also have read for yourself if you had any interest in the truth, goes far beyond the requirements of civil law.
You know who merely advises congregation to report when civil law requires them to? The Southern Baptist Convention. And the Presbyterian Church, USA. Yeah, I know, PCUSA are the liberals. But then the PCA doesn’t have ANY guidelines.
When they dogpile the thread, you’ll have to ask them, if you can get a straight answer out of them on it.
That’s the excuse they use when asked why the RC church didn’t ex-communicate Hitler, that he ex-communicated himself so the church didn’t need to take any action.
Third it.
No way I’d lend any support to an organization that behaves like this. That would make me complicit by showing my approval and agreement and support of those actions.
Typical knee jerk Catholic reaction.
In EVERY area that makes the Catholic church look rightfully bad, the poor, persecuted, misunderstood church is well, misunderstood.
You see, what the Catholic church says and what it means are ALWAYS two different things.
They need to hire some people who are more literate and can SAY what they MEAN instead of saying what they say and telling everyone else who reads the plain meaning of what is said that they are wrong.
If you can’t attack the facts, attack the source.
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