Posted on 06/09/2002 4:21:06 PM PDT by Pokey78
A TOP Vatican official accused the American media of persecuting the Roman Catholic Church over paedophile priests yesterday, but even as he did so a Washington Post survey laid bare the extent of the scandal. “The US media appears to act with a fury that reminds me at times of Diocletian and Nero and more recently of Stalin and Hitler,” said Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a Honduran who is widely tipped as a possible successor to Pope John Paul. Most American press coverage of the recent paedophile scandal was “obviously and openly anti-Catholic”, he told the Italian magazine, Trente Giorni, and accused The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, of hounding the Catholic Church. Cardinal Maradiaga suggested that the American media were motivated by a desire to attack the Catholic Church because it opposes abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia while supporting a Palestinian homeland. The Post, meanwhile, released an important survey showing that the number of priests accused of sex abuse was much higher than previously disclosed. It found that 218 Catholic priests from dioceses across the country had been removed from their positions because of allegations that they had sexually abused minors since the scandal broke in January. At least 34 known offenders are still working in their parishes and have not been removed or defrocked. At least 850 priests have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors since the 1960s. The Post, which said that the actual figures could be much higher, compiled the survey by contacting each of America’s 178 Catholic dioceses. It said that the Church itself had made no real effort to conduct a similar survey in order to find out the extent of the paedophile problem within its priesthood.
A separate Associated Press survey found that at least 300 civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by Catholic priests have been filed in 16 states since January. The findings were released as American bishops prepare to attend aconference in Dallas later this week to discuss how to deal with priests who sexually abuse minors. The conference is likely to be emotional as angry victims prepare to lobby the bishops, some of whom have been accused of systematically reassigning known paedophile priests to different parishes without warning parishioners. The bishops revoked an official public speaking invitation to a group of victims of abuse on Friday because the group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), sued dioceses to void a confidentiality agreement that was part of Church settlements with abuse victims. In past settlements the Church has offered victims financial damages on condition that they keep silent about their experiences. David Clohessy, the director of Snap, said that he was stunned at the bishops’ action, but victims would still try to speak at the conference. There are also disagreements on the issue within the Church. The bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse has proposed that some priests could stay in the ministry if they had committed only one offence. But Cardinal Roger Mahoney, the leader of America’s largest Catholic community, has run full-page advertisements in three newspapers suggesting a “one strike and you are out” policy.
The Vatican's official response was "Not tonight, dear, I have a headache."
"I am not a crook."--the pope
Ut Oh! Don't they read their Bibles? GEEZZ......
Joel 3:2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, (Armageddon) and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land.
How assisine! How dare you! Non Catholics don't have squat to say about corruption!When you're as holy as Pope John Paul 11,then you can talk!
Great.
The world is starved for moral heroes, and these guys turn the opportunity into Roman seppuku.
We got to pick on Clinton, and even he chose a woman over 18.
Er - all those boys who have been molested, many needlessly because of the "shuffling" performed by Bishops instead of performing their moral duty and calling the cops, are my American brethren.
I have every right to comment on it.
Come on... You have hundreds victims of abuse coming out of the woodwork claiming it happened as much as 30 years ago. Are those hundreds of victims all lying?
The guy at the top is never responsible.
___Richard Nixon, Jenny Jones, et al
And those churches are....?
You'll have to admit, priests molesting young boys is really pushing it.
I used a key board? I'm sorry, but Im not Catholic. The pope doesn't mean that much to me. I do think he seems like a nice enough fella, though. I kinda like the old guy.
The guy at the top is never responsible. ___Richard Nixon, Jenny Jones, et al
I don't get it. Are you saying that John Paul II was actively involved in a coverup of American priests and bishops who were sexually abusing those under their charge? If that is what you are saying, please provide the evidence for that charge. It is certainly something I would like to see and would have profound implications for many in the Church.
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