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Child abuse claims sweep Catholic Church in Europe
Yahoo News ^ | March 13, 2010

Posted on 03/14/2010 8:44:34 AM PDT by NCjim

DUBLIN – It often starts as a voice in the wilderness, but can swell into an entire nation's demand for truth. From Ireland to Germany, Europe's many victims of child abuse in the Roman Catholic church are finally breaking social taboos and confronting the clergy to face its demons.

Ireland was the first in Europe to confront the church's worldwide custom of shielding pedophile priests from the law and public scandal. Now that legacy of suppressed childhood horror is being confronted in other parts of the Continent — nowhere more poignantly than in Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI.

The recent spread of claims into the Netherlands, Austria and Italy has analysts and churchmen wondering how deep the scandal runs, which nation will be touched next, and whether a tide of lawsuits will force European dioceses to declare bankruptcy like their American cousins.

"You have to presume that the cover-up of abuse exists everywhere, to one extent or another.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catholic; indenial; sexabuse; usefulidiots
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1 posted on 03/14/2010 8:44:34 AM PDT by NCjim
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To: NCjim

Well, what a surprise! /s


2 posted on 03/14/2010 8:48:22 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: freeangel

Of course, this scandal is not a scandal, and should not be taken as casting the RCC in a bad light. /s


3 posted on 03/14/2010 8:52:32 AM PDT by Poe White Trash (Wake up!)
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To: NCjim
This is a very well-coordinated story. Every major news organization is pushing this narrative extremely hard this weekend, with a special emphasis on trying to tar the Pope.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that this week the Democrats are very close to forcing through abortion funding legislation on a level never before seen, and the fact that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops is about the only non-partisan national organization of any size standing up against those abortion provisions?

Luckily for the mainstream media, they know that they can rely on the useful idiots of the American right to promote their carefully scheduled campaign.

4 posted on 03/14/2010 8:55:41 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who like to be called Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: wideawake
"useful idiots of the American right"?
5 posted on 03/14/2010 9:00:31 AM PDT by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck.)
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To: Poe White Trash
The US scandal is a decade old, the Irish scandal is several years old, the German scandal is also several years old.

Nothing in this coordinated weekend "news" campaign is actually new. It is simply an attempt to claim that the Pope actively covered up abuse during his brief administration as the Archbishop of Munich.

This is a storyline that was aggressively promoted when he was named Pope almost five years ago, and an enormous amount of journalistic investigation and expense came up with nothing.

It is now being renewed again, despite no new developments, at precisely the time that the Democrats in Congress are pushing radical new abortion legislation disguised as a "healthcare bill", and at a time when the US Catholic Church is one of the few national organizations with the influence to delay or stop this federal funding of murder.

6 posted on 03/14/2010 9:01:33 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who like to be called Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: wideawake

Never never when these stories run around the towns or the diocease - like in Dallas - does the media add these words - “A Gay or Homosexual priest has been found to have had sex with minors.” They leave out any story about the seminary that may have encourged these men in their pursuit of their lifestyle in the church. The nver mention that a bishop had similar complaints or that they covered up their actions. But hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees pay for being tolerant of gays and homosexuals. Maybe that is why the Boy Scouts and the military are not to fond of the idea of them as open leaders.


7 posted on 03/14/2010 9:01:44 AM PDT by q_an_a
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To: wideawake

You might notice the MSM has their useful idiots ...oh let’s just say, like those who have posted this same story at least six times in the last 24 hours.


8 posted on 03/14/2010 9:02:17 AM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("Anyone pushing Romney must love socialism...Piss on Romney and his enablers!!" ~ Jim Robinson)
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To: Eagles6
"useful idiots of the American right"?

The American Left does everything it can to exploit interdenominational prejudices among American Christians - a divide-and-conquer strategy that, like Lenin, seeks to make useful idiots of conservatives so that they will assist the leftist media in their campaigns.

This week, the MSM wants evangelical Christians to be distracted with its manufactured anti-Catholic news cycle in order to take their attention off the most important news story of the week: the Democrats' abortion bill.

So far, it's working just as planned.

9 posted on 03/14/2010 9:05:10 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who like to be called Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: NCjim

Isn’t intergenerational same-sex affection a protected right in Europe? I just read a new item from Spain that mentioned school textbooks promoting sex with animals, as well, in the third grade.


10 posted on 03/14/2010 9:06:12 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Aw, CUSSWORDS!!!)
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To: Eagles6

“useful idiots of the American right”?

Absolutely. The American right also has a large contingent of anti-Catholic bigots who jump on any story, true or false to bash Catholics. The same people who decry the media will believe every single nuance and slant to this story. Abuse happened. It’s inexcusable. But the nuances and bias and sometimes outright falsehoods by journalists are not challenged.

This attack is well co-ordinated.


11 posted on 03/14/2010 9:07:54 AM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: Tax-chick

EWWWWWWW.......


12 posted on 03/14/2010 9:09:03 AM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: NCjim

IMO, the media is attacking the Roman Catholic Church again because of the homosexuals and because the Pope is going to canonize Pope Pius XII. What a joke the catholic haters are. I wonder if the homosexuals think they are going to be treated well by the muslimes that are taking over Europe.


13 posted on 03/14/2010 9:09:41 AM PDT by GinaLolaB
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To: OpusatFR
One element of the attack is the persistent and misleading use of the phrase "pedophile priests." The useful idiots you reference love to jump on this, but they are way off base. The vast majority of RC priest sexual offenses involve a homosexual priest perpetrator and adolescent, sexually mature males. These are not pedophiles preying on children. There were enough of these, to be sure, but they were the small minority. Mostly it has been homosexuals exploiting young men.
14 posted on 03/14/2010 9:16:22 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: GinaLolaB

It’s not the catholic haters who are the joke.

It’s the POS predatory priests who are the nasty joke.


15 posted on 03/14/2010 9:16:33 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: ladyjane

Another useful idiot


16 posted on 03/14/2010 9:17:37 AM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("Anyone pushing Romney must love socialism...Piss on Romney and his enablers!!" ~ Jim Robinson)
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To: big'ol_freeper

WHy are you defending the priests who molest boys?


17 posted on 03/14/2010 9:28:26 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (If America falls, darkness will cover the face of the earth for a thousand years.)
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To: q_an_a
The Church has failed grievously in many of these cases.

The people standing in condemnation of the Church - who are rarely motivated by selfless considerations but generally have their own agenda - like to gloss over the reality of these situations.

Realities like:

(1) Abusers are generally sociopaths who are very good at ingratiating themselves - as far as other adults are concerned they always seem thoughtful and helpful, etc. Their entire persona is calculated to avoid suspicion.

(2) Religious people are particularly soft targets for sociopaths. The more devout someone is, the more likely they are to give people the benefit of the doubt, to put the best construction on people's actions, to think the best of other people.

(3) Sociopaths are very good at coming up with alternate explanations for suspicious behavior, they are very adept at making people feel guilty for being judgmental or jumping to conclusions, etc. Garrido kept that poor Jaycee Dugard girl captive for decades despite being subject to numerous visits from police and parole officers. He sweet-talked these hardened, skeptical professionals from ever doing any serious inquiry into his home.

(4) Predators are very good at confusing and shaming their victims into not coming forward - they are often able to convince their victims that their actions are the victims' fault.

(5) When they are actually caught in a situation that they cannot lie their way out of, they are very skillful at expressing great remorse, they beg for forgiveness with convincing tears. In the context of a religious organization they are very good at manipulating scripture and doctrine regarding forgiveness and can be very convincing in their claims about turning their lives around.

(6) Even when they are caught, they are rarely caught dead to rights with evidence - they are caught because too many details of an incident are too questionable for someone to any longer give them the benefit of the doubt. There is rarely anything to go to the police with - usually the only real evidence is a victim's statement and victims are usually very unlikely to make a statement. These sociopaths are very aware of their rights under both ecclesiastical and secular law and do their best to avoid providing ecclesiastical or secular authorities with any useful evidence.

(7) During the 1960s to the 1980s - when the vast majority of these crimes occurred - the consensus of the psychiatric world and the legal establishment was that such individuals could be rehabilitated - that they could change and become productive members of society. It was only in the 1990s that there began to be a consensus in the psychiatric profession that sociopathic personalities are largely impervious to traditional therapy - that these individuals are as adept at manipulating psychiatrists as they are adept at manipulating victims and coworkers and superiors. They learn exactly how to behave and what to say to convince psychiatric professionals that they have changed.

It is now up to the Church to demonstrate through actions that these lessons have been learned.

18 posted on 03/14/2010 9:32:03 AM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that those who like to be called Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
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To: GinaLolaB
The worry should be where do the homos flee once the muzzies begin attacking them? I hope by that time, the US citizens send the statue of liberty back to France.
19 posted on 03/14/2010 9:34:51 AM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts
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To: Balding_Eagle

Did I post a defense of any priest, teacher, parent other other adult that sexually abused an adolescent?

I’d like you to prove that accusation slick.

I believe if you read for comprehension you will see I was admonishing assisting the liberal media with their orchestrated attempt to bring down an institution they believe to be an obstacle to their liberal agenda. Hence: Useful idiots.


20 posted on 03/14/2010 9:35:49 AM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("Anyone pushing Romney must love socialism...Piss on Romney and his enablers!!" ~ Jim Robinson)
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