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Vatican says its Irish abuse letter misunderstood
AP ^ | January 18, 2011 | SHAWN POGATCHNIK

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 ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Ministry/Outreach; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS: agendadrivenfreeper; alteredtitle; apspin; correcttitle; diplomacy; ireland; lightoftruth; pederastpriests; romancatholicism; vatican; whiningrcappologists
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
!!!WOW!!!

81 posted on 01/19/2011 9:20:57 AM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: OpusatFR

That would explain the frenzied barking.


82 posted on 01/19/2011 9:21:18 AM PST by lastchance (Hug your babies.)
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To: Alex Murphy

INCREDIBLE.


83 posted on 01/19/2011 9:22:44 AM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: Winstons Julia

MORE

than a LOT

UNDERSTANDABLY.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES IN DRAWING YOU EACH EVER CLOSER TO HIM—DIRECTLY—WHEREVER YOU ARE.


84 posted on 01/19/2011 9:23:41 AM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: aimhigh

I never cease to be amazed at how far some folks will go to protect the mother church.


85 posted on 01/19/2011 9:29:50 AM PST by TSgt (Colonel Allen West & Michele Bachman - 2012 POTUS Dream Team Ticket!)
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To: metmom; Amityschild; Brad's Gramma; Captain Beyond; Cvengr; DvdMom; firebrand; GiovannaNicoletta; ..

Just keep in mind

in all such cases . . .

AT LEAST

the 18th Station of

The Stations of the White Hanky apply:

18. ICON OF THE SLIPPERY GOLDEN DANCE SHOES FOR DANCING THE RATIONALIZING-WEASEL-WORD-JITTER-BUG.


86 posted on 01/19/2011 9:31:30 AM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: Petrosius; mewzilla; metmom; Alex Murphy; Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus; Quix
From your link we also find this story...

VATICAN WAS 'OFFENDED' BY IRELAND'S SEX ABUSE PROBE, CALBES SHOW

Newly released U.S. diplomatic cables indicate that the Vatican felt “offended” that Ireland failed to respect Holy See “sovereignty” by asking high-ranking churchmen to answer questions from an Irish government commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy...

Ambassador Noel Fahey apparently told U.S. diplomat Julieta Valls Noyes that the sex abuse scandal was a tricky one to manage.

“The Vatican believes the Irish government failed to respect and protect Vatican sovereignty during the investigations,” read the cable from Noyes, deputy chief of mission.

Elsewhere in the cable the diplomat, citing a Holy See official, wrote that the inquiry commission's requests “offended many in the Vatican” because they were viewed as “an affront to Vatican sovereignty.”

From these additional cables we learn what really concerns the Vatican. Not justice. Not eradicating sexual deviance. Not protecting children.

"Vatican sovereignty."

87 posted on 01/19/2011 9:34:45 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg; marshmallow; metmom; Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus; Alex Murphy; Quix
"Report the priest to the police."

Obviously there are a couple problems with this. If at the first indication of a problem it's reported to the police, you would have experienced investigators looking into it and interrogating people while the possible crime is still fresh in everyone's mind. If an actual crime had occurred this church would be embarrassed and have to do something about it.

OTOH, if it's not reported immediately then memories get confused, it's harder to prove an allegation and the reputation of the church is not damaged.

Geez, is it really that hard to see what to do?

88 posted on 01/19/2011 9:38:54 AM PST by wmfights (If you want change support SenateConservatives.com)
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To: Turtlepower
The only part of the letter that warrants careful examination, IMO, is the instruction against mandatory reporting to civil authorities.

That is the whole point.

The letter reaffirms the Vatican's instructions in Crimen Solicitationis which for decades has warned church officials NOT to bring sexual abuse allegations against pederast priests to police authorities, but instead to keep the accusations hidden and "in-house."

We've seen how well that has worked for them. Billions of dollars paid out in lawsuits against pederast priests and the church that protected them.

89 posted on 01/19/2011 9:40:40 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: TSgt
Church first, children third after pedophiles

I'm not even sure children make the ranking. These victims are more often seen by Rome as money-grubbing swindlers or recalcitrant complainers.

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." -- Matthew 18:6

90 posted on 01/19/2011 9:45:16 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: wmfights
Nothing like getting up reading about this evil and wanting to punch some jerk in the nose.

LOLOL

Too bad Rome doesn't have that same, God-given reaction.

91 posted on 01/19/2011 9:48:06 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: OpusatFR; Amityschild; Brad's Gramma; Captain Beyond; Cvengr; DvdMom; firebrand; ...
WRONG.

The truth matters to most Proddys.

What most RC's seem unable or unwilling to wrap their sensibilities around

is the chronic, near total historical and current compulsion on the part of the INSTITUTION

to put the INSTITUTION FIRST

IN ALL RESPECTS VIRTUALLY REGARDLESS

AND THEN

TO DENY, DENY, DENY, DENY

. . . MANIPULATE . . .

FALSIFY EVIDENCE

HIDE EVIDENCE

DESTROY EVIDENCE

RATIONALIZE . . . .

PLAY POLITICAL GAMES

rather than Biblically deal with reality, facts, truth, PEOPLE.

And then on top of that to claim infallibility [in any sense and context]

as well as to be

Christ's sole authoritative rep on earth

and Christ's only true church.

WHAT AN UNMITIGATED FARCE!

THAT'S

THE TRUTH.

And UNTIL RC's on FR candidly deal with THOSE REALITIES, WHEN they pontificate in !!!!TRADITIONAL!!!! RC rationalizing shucking and jiving fashion,

Proddys will continue to look at such postings and claims with derisive and incredulous gaping shock and awe at the horrors of such INSTITUTIONAL, VULCAN MIND MELDED BRAIN WASHED HIDEOUSNESS.

There will be little to no Proddy respect of such outrages.

There willl be little to no Proddy respect of such claims and weasel worded dancing about on the head of a plastic idol.

Perhaps my Proddy cohorts disagree with my fierceness in this post. If so, they can post their disagreements . . . or agreements, for that matter.

It is not, per se, to me, about being grossly sinful. All of us are quite capable of that--have been there and done that to whatever varying degrees--whether by lying, deceiving, diddling, stealing, emotionally abusing, whatever. Some of us got caught by parents or whomever and some may think they have escaped. None of us escape. Ever. If we do--that's MORE frightful because GOD DISCIPLINES THOSE HE LOVES . . . Escaping discipline may indicate the individuals are already over a horrific line.

Proddys do well to be extremely careful about looking down on RC's--even Vatican hierarchy levels--in any kind of carnal critical judgment sort of ways. Evil is in the HEART OF MAN--we are ALL deceitfully wicked--who can know our evil hearts except Holy Spirit show us.

The decidedly different PRODDY VS VATICAN AIWSOTARM difference is--to me--about the INSTITUTIONALIZED--CENTURIES LONG--INSTITUTIONALIZED SELF-PROTECTION--SO HAUGHTY, soooo, unfounded, soooo unwarranted, soooo UNBIBLICAL sooooo politically powerful . . . so hypocritical . . . soooo 'successfully' evil for so long in such broad ways with such brazen arrogance and smugness.

When RC's seem to be glibly unaware of that--IT'S FRIGHTFUL. WHEN THEY DENY THAT--IT'S MORE FRIGHTFUL. When they do it on FR--it's shocking and mystifying--and causes Proddys to wonder if RC's have been group lobotomized.

Sheesh.

92 posted on 01/19/2011 9:52:16 AM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: wmfights; metmom; Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus; Alex Murphy; Quix; TSgt
The bottom line after so many of these sad stories have come out is that Rome protects pederast priests because Rome is made up of pederast priests.

Rome likes it this way.

Therefore all this denial and deflection and stalling and blaming the victims is simply self-preservation for the "alter Christus."

It's who they are.

93 posted on 01/19/2011 9:54:20 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: wmfights; 1000 silverlings; Alex Murphy; bkaycee; blue-duncan; boatbums; caww; count-your-change; ..
What absolutely astounds me about this is the post from Alex that notes the 1922 instruction on this "problem". 88 years later and they still can't get it right.

They need time to repent, dontcha know? What are you in such a hurry for?

How hard is it to do the right thing, turn the evil bums over to the police and throw them out on the street.

It's got to be pretty hard when you suspect that it might open the doors for a FULL investigation and it would come back and bite you.

Why anyone who reads a Bible would even go near this church is beyond me.

In the vast majority of the cases, those who DO start reading the Bible leave it. It's the discrepancy they see between what Scripture teaches and what they've been taught all their lives that motivates them.

And it does take time to get over the conditioning they put you through. I still remember when it really dawned on me that the pope has NO authority over other people to tell them what to do or dictate moral and spiritual matters to them, that he was just a man in a position.

That what he said did NOT affect me one way or the other.

It was very freeing.

John 8:31-32 31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Abiding in His WORD. Not tradition, but the WORD. That's how we will know the truth and be set free.

94 posted on 01/19/2011 9:55:15 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

I can see where parts of the media coverage distorted some of the facts of the issue. That is unfortunate, because it gives the church defenders an opportunity to blame the media, while ignoring the parts of the story that are true.

I agree with your conclusions that the premise of not having mandatory reporting to the police is a horrible practice. That is what the discussion should focus on. Church defenders have not been very convincing so far as to why the local Irish practice of mandatory reporting should have been discouraged by the Vatican.

Most of the responses have been blaming the media, and while I did read the article that tried to deflect this story, I still haven’t seen Church defenders adequately articulate why mandatory reporting was discouraged.


95 posted on 01/19/2011 9:55:28 AM PST by Turtlepower
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To: wmfights

INDEED.


96 posted on 01/19/2011 9:55:59 AM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

Just...... wow........


97 posted on 01/19/2011 9:56:48 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Turtlepower
I can see where parts of the media coverage distorted some of the facts of the issue

Where?

98 posted on 01/19/2011 9:58:15 AM PST by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: Quix

Did you bother to read it or any of the links posted?

Besides, the level of invective on this thread is such that discussing anything with a tribe of semi-literate harpies unable and unwilling to read at an academic level is not going to happen.


99 posted on 01/19/2011 9:59:22 AM PST by OpusatFR
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

The only reason the RCC has dealt with its pederast priests is because it’s been forced to by the negative publicity.

It’s only doing damage control.


100 posted on 01/19/2011 9:59:45 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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