Posted on 02/11/2011 7:11:53 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg
A grand jury on Thursday accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of failing to stop the sexual abuse of children more than five years after a grand jury report documented abuse by more than 50 priests.
The new report said a senior church official charged with investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests had in fact allowed some of those accused to remain in posts that gave them continued access to children. It charged him with endangering the welfare of minors and accused three priests and a teacher of raping two boys between 1996 and 1999.
“By no means do we believe that these were the only two parishioners who were abused during this period,” the report said.
At least 37 priests who are subject to “substantial evidence of abuse” are still in roles that bring them into contact with children, the new report said, and 10 of those have been in place since before 2005, when the last grand jury made its allegations...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
RR has left the building.
Not of his own free will.
The article beginning this thread speaks of the unbelievable and blatant guilt of the diocese itself. Not just individual priests or church officials.
The Diocese.
“The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again,” the grand jury said. Monsignor Lynn faces a maximum of 14 years in prison if convicted on all charges. The report also charged Msgr. William Lynn, secretary of clergy in the archdiocese under former Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, with endangering the welfare of children by allowing “dangerous” priests to remain in place. Monsignor Lynn was responsible for investigating abuse allegations from 1992 to 2004.
"All of them witches."
Quix, I took time to read the entire Grand Jury report. It was so disgusting, I had to throw up.
I am a lifelong Catholic and I am thoroughly distressed by the fact that Cardinals, Bishops, and Pastors have been covering up for these hideous perverts for decades.
I hope the Pennsylvania Legislature will take this Grand Jury report into consideration and change the law so that there is NO statute of limitations on the crime of child rape.
Wonder if his rocket hit that lightening? ;) ‘
The more grave delicts both in the celebration of the sacraments and against morals reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are:Thus priest abuse is included among what the church considers the most serious of crimes. It is precisely because of its seriousness, and admittedly because Rome was dissatisfied with the way the bishops were handling the cases, that it is so included. Look again at the list of other crimes. Unless you would want to us to believe that the church also wanted to cover-up these crimes you cannot have us believe that is why abuse by priest is included. No, Rome wanted this to be treated with more seriousness.
-Delicts against the sanctity of the most august eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments, namely:
1. Taking or retaining the consecrated species for a sacrilegious purpose or throwing them away.(4)
2. Attempting the liturgical action of the eucharistic sacrifice or simulating the same.(5)
3. Forbidden concelebration of the eucharistic sacrifice with ministers of ecclesial communities which do not have apostolic succession and do not recognize the sacramental dignity of priestly ordination.(6)
4. Consecrating for a sacrilegious purpose one matter without the other in the eucharistic celebration or even both outside a eucharistic celebration.(7)-Delicts against the sanctity of the sacrament of penance, namely:
1. Absolution of an accomplice in sin against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue.(8)
2. Solicitation in the act, on the occasion or under the pretext of confession, to sin against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue, if it is directed to sin with the confessor himself.(9)
3. Direct violation of the sacramental seal.(10)-A delict against morals, namely: the delict committed by a cleric against the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue with a minor below the age of 18 years.
Only these delicts, which are indicated above with their definition, are reserved to the apostolic tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
There follows the next section:
As often as an ordinary or hierarch has at least probable knowledge of a reserved delict, after he has carried out the preliminary investigation he is to indicate it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which unless it calls the case to itself because of special circumstances of things, after transmitting appropriate norms, orders the ordinary or hierarch to proceed ahead through his own tribunal.Did you get that, the case is to be referred to a TRIBUNAL, i.e. to a court. This is a place of judgment. Indeed, the next sentence reads:
The right of appealing against a sentence of the first instance, whether on the part of the party or the party's legal representative, or on the part of the promoter of justice, solely remains valid only to the supreme tribunal of this congregation.Thus the purpose of this procedure is to ascertain guilt or innocence and to apply a penalty to the guilty, not to cover-up a crime. This is made clear in the following section:
All tribunals of the Latin church and the Eastern Catholic churches are bound to observe the canons on delicts and PENALTIES, and also on the penal process of both codes respectively, together with the special norms which are transmitted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for an individual case and which are to be executed entirely.I can't make you read Ratzinger's letter or Crimen Sollicitationis. I've given you both in POST 27.
I suggest that it is you who should read Crimen sollicitationis. There you will find the following paragraph under TITLE NUMBER THREE: PENALTIES:
61. "He who has committed the crime of solicitation (note: again I will point out that Crimen solliciationis is only concerned with solicitation with Confession. These acts outside of Confession are not covered. At the time these were covered by the ordinary processes.) …, should be suspended from the celebration of the Mass and from the hearing of sacramental confessions or even, according to the gravity of the delict, should be declared incapable of accepting them. He should be deprived of all benefices and dignities, of his active and passive voice, and be declared incapable of all these [honors and capacities], and in the more grievous cases ALSO BE SUBJECT TO REDUCTION [TO THE LAY STATE]. Thus states the Code in Canon 2368, § 1.Ratzinger's own letter and Rome's own discourse on keeping pederast priests on the job and away from the prying eyes of parents and police.
Please show that if you can. The pontifical secret to which you constantly refer only applies to the internal canonical investigation. Nothing in Canon Law or the documents that you have presented ever prevented a victim or his family from going to the police.
Nor, despite the hysterics, is it the policy of the Catholic Church as a whole.
Suits me just fine. Thanks for the heads up metmom.
Accountability is good, thus the Presbyterian form of church government (which became the pattern for our representative form of civil government) with its built-in checks and balances where pastors are accountable to the congregation and the congregations are accountable to the Presbytery.
Baptists have too little accountability, but that is nothing compared to Rome with it's corrupt, authoritarian form of government where church polity is decided by a bunch of old men in dresses headed up by a false bishop of Rome who try to convince the congregations of their "infallibility."
You can fool some of the people some of the time...
Tragically, when Roman Catholics are fooled, their children often pay the price.
Sure. All those who have been graced with faith alone in Christ alone.
Read your Bible. Learn the truth.
Keep up with the times. This is indeed what the Catholic Church is doing. I admit that individual bishop in the past did not but they were acting against church policy. At the present the Catholic Church at all levels is vigorously pursuing these cases.
Thanks for every one of these examples. They illustrate that Protestants handle errant pastors a lot differently than Rome handles (hides, defends, keeps on the job) theirs.
Praise God for your integrity, Bro.
Evil is flooding the land as Scripture predicted.
Abusing innocents is the lowest of the low.
There’s been horrific stuff on all sides in all denominational groups. There’s been cover-ups by authorities in more than the RCC camp.
It does appear from our Proddy distance . . . that the systemic factors contributing to the abuse in the Vatican system are likely the worst.
I think that’s partly—a large part—of why so many Proddys express such virulent and persistent outrage—the level of horror and the levels of hierarchical involvement and the durability of the cover-up efforts.
However, no denomination of any size or age has sufficient clean slate to be pointing haughty fingers.
However, it REALLY IS TRUE, for all of us . . . the hearts of all of us are deceitfully wicked. Who but Holy Spirit can know them and reveal the truth of them to any of us.
And, haughtiness is not wise on anyone’s part.
Given horrific enough parenting; personality dynamics of sufficient type; conditioning factors etc. etc. etc. VIRTUALLY anyone COULD do virtually anything to virtually anyone.
I think Scripture and several decades of living and watching closely convices me wholesale of those truths.
The TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL IS . . . LORD . . . BE MERCIFUL
TO
ME
A SINNER.
NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS DEALS WITH, COVERS, REDEEMS SUCH SINFUL IDOLATRIES [AS SCRIPTURE SAYS SEXUAL SINS ARE] AND REBELLIONS AGAINST GOD.
NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS.
Apart from that, we are all in the same lost ditch sliding ever more quickly toward hell.
It will not matter ENORMOUSLY in hell [AT LEAS not in terms of whether one is there, or not] . . . who was the most horrific child molester/abuser . . .
and who was angry with his spouse or brother without cause and failed to confess, repent, earnestly endeavor to turn from it.
I still think that toilet needs and our sins serve primarily to require of us
HUMILITY.
And they are God’s mercy in challenging, demanding of us
HUMILITY.
Without it, we are ALL sunk.
We must ALL see our DESPERATE NEED OF OUR SAVIOR; OF CONFESSION; REPENTANCE, EARNESTLY ENDEAVORING BY HIS GRACE, BLOOD AND SPIRIT TO TURN FROM SUCH AND WALK HIS REDEMPTIVE PATH STARKLY DIFFERENTLY.
In that regard, these threads grieve me for both sides. Haughty finger pointing is spiritually extremely hazardous.
There but for the Grace of God and a different rearing, background . . . go any of us.
Haughty defensive denial is as bad or WORSE.
I think the denial is worse because it closes the door to insight and redemptive change.
Regardless . . . LOVE AND TRUTH are required for progress spiritually, relationally, in our relationship with God.
Apart from blasphemy against Holy Spirit, The worst sin . . .
is the unconfessed, unrepented, & unforsaken sin.
Mr. mm and I have always considered accountability to be important for a church so have never sought out an independent church to attend, but rather one which answers to denominational authority.
That also is a safety check as there have been cases I’ve heard of where pastors were preaching questionable, unscriptural doctrine and after a visit from someone at headquarters, he was GONE!
You don’t end up with Jim Jones type scenarios like that.
“At the present the Catholic Church at all levels is vigorously pursuing these cases.”
Sad to say, in the Philadelphia Diocese, they are not.
Rigali is still trying to cover up, despite the objective report of the grand jury.
Read the report.
My prediction:
Rigali will be swept off to the Vatican, perhaps to take the place of Cardinal Bernard Law:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/our_man_in_rome/
May The Lord richly bless you and those you love for your integrity, candor, honesty, perceptiveness.
Thank you, dear Quix. When it comes to this particular issue, you and I are on the same side.
PRAISE THE LORD.
THX FOR YOUR KIND REPLY.
Snort.
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