Posted on 03/22/2010 6:21:30 AM PDT by Gamecock
Pope Benedict's weekend apology to Ireland went further than any other papal statement on child-sex abuse by priests, but still fell too short for many victims of the scandals shaking the Catholic Church across Europe.
Following are details of some of the major abuse scandals in various countries:
SWITZERLAND: The Swiss Catholic Church is investigating allegations of abuse by clergy. The Diocese of Chur, in eastern Switzerland, said Saturday it was investigating about 10 complaints. The abbot of a monastery in the diocese said at least three of the 77 monks at Einsiedeln had committed acts of abuse since he took up office in December 2001, but no legal action had been taken.
NETHERLANDS: More than 200 Catholics have reported abuse after Radio Netherlands Worldwide and newspaper NRC Handelsblad revealed that three priests from the Salesian order abused pupils decades ago at a boarding school. The church there has set up an independent inquiry headed by a Protestant politician.
GERMANY: A Jesuit high school in Berlin reported cases of sexual abuse there in January, starting a series of revelations at other Catholic boarding schools and non-religious schools.
- The Regensburg diocese admitted physical and sexual abuse cases at a boarding school for its famous Domspatzen (cathedral sparrows) boys choir. Its director, Pope Benedict's brother, Rev. Georg Ratzinger, admitted to slapping boys to discipline them but denied knowledge of sexual abuse. The ensuing wave of abuse charges from previously silent victims has since reached about 250.
IRELAND: In April 2002, Bishop Brendan Comiskey of Ferns resigned over his handling of charges against a priest who committed suicide in 1999 while facing 66 charges of abuse.
- May 2009 - The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse issued a five-volume report that took nine years to compile. It said priests beat and raped children during decades of abuse in Catholic-run institutions.
- Nov. 2009 - The Murphy report, a government-commissioned inquiry into abuse in Dublin from 1975 to 2004 said church authorities covered up widespread cases of child sexual abuse until the mid-1990s.
- Dec. 2009 - After meeting two Irish church leaders, Pope Benedict said he shared the "outrage, betrayal and shame" over the scandal in Ireland.
- Feb. 2010 - Benedict held crisis talks with 24 Irish bishops at the Vatican. The bishops promised him they were committed to cooperating with authorities. Four bishops have offered their resignations and the pope has so far accepted one.
UNITED STATES: June 2002 - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops agreed on a new policy that would forbid pedophile priests from ever again acting as clerics - but not necessarily expel them from the priesthood.
BRITAIN: July 2000 - London Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor acknowledged making a mistake in a previous post in the 1980s by allowing a pedophile priest to continue working. The priest was jailed in 1997 for abusing nine boys over a 20-year period.
AUSTRIA: July 2004 - Austrian News magazine Profil ran pictures of priests kissing and groping seminarians at a Catholic seminary in the St. Poelten diocese.
AUSTRALIA: July 2008 - On a visit to Australia, Pope Benedict apologized for sexual abuse by clergy. At that time there had been 107 convictions for sexual abuse in the church there.
MEXICO: March 2009 - Pope Benedict ordered an inquiry into the Legionaries of Christ priestly order whose founder was discovered to be a sexual molester. In 2006, the pope told the founder, Father Marcial Maciel, to retire to a life of "prayer and penitence". Maciel died in 2008. His order acknowledged in 2009 that he had fathered at least one child with a mistress.
CANADA: Oct. 2009 - Bishop Raymond Lahey of Antigonish, N.S., was charged with possession and importation of child pornography. Earlier that year, he had overseen a $13-million settlement with clerical abuse victims in the Antigonish diocese in a case dating back to 1950.
C'mon, you've been hammered about this misdirection play time and time again. There are a half a million priests worldwide administering to a billion Catholics, yet there is only 1 Catechism of the Catholic Church. This 1 priest's writings are not dispositive of the beliefs of a billion people. You cannot point to me anywhere in the Catechism that is says anything close to this. Additionally, your argument is further proven false here.
Otherwise, should you continue to wrongfully maintain that this one Jesuit's views be reflective of the entirety of Catholic theology on this point, I will have to believe then that all silly claims made by your protestant bretheren (some made on this very board) are reflective of you and the entire protestant community.
So, Eckleburg, when do you expect the next feast of the Greys to take place? I hear the slurry of human body parts is particularly delicious this time of year.
lol. Misdirection? There are thousands of Roman Catholic writings stating the Roman Catholic church believes its priestcraft to be an "alter Christus" - "another Christ."
Your objection is with the Roman Catholic church, not me.
Why don't you start correcting them here, with a "three-part video put out by the Congregation of the Clergy in order to promote The Year for Priests."...
If the priest is a "bridge" bringing humankind into communion with the divinity..." During this Year for Priests it is the intention of the Holy Father to educate the faithful's understanding of what a priest is and to encourage priests to renew their own priestly identity. On the Friday after Ash Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI addressed the priests of his diocese and referred to the priest as a bridge and mediator; his mission "unites and thus brings man to God, to His redemption, to His true light, to His true life.
Are the Vatican, the "Congregation of the Clergy" and Joseph Ratzinger misdirecting you? (That would be a "yes.")
I suppose it's a good sign you seem to be unhappy your church designates Roman Catholic priests to be "another Christ" who are the "bridge and mediator"..."bringing humankind into communion with the divinity."
As anyone who reads a Bible knows, the Holy Spirit through the word of God is the only "bridge bringing humankind into communion with the divinity" and there is only "one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus" - 1 Timothy 2:5)
Follow your instinct that appears to be telling you it is wrong to refer to the Roman Catholic priestcraft as "another Christ." God willing, it will lead you away from Rome to a truer understanding of God's grace and Christ's appearing.
(I'm pinging a few others who might enjoy seeing verification straight from Rome as to what the Roman Catholic church actually teaches.)
When you find anything from the Vatican saying Crimen Sollicitationis has been rescinded, repealed, denied, labeled inoperative and/or otherwise null and void, be sure to let us know.
You've just got the location wrong.
As the WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH (Scriptural proofs at the site) reminds us...
I. The catholic or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all.[1] II. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion;[2] and of their children:[3] and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ,[4] the house and family of God,[5] out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.[6] III. Unto this catholic visible Church Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and does, by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto.[7] IV. This catholic Church has been sometimes more, sometimes less visible.[8] And particular Churches, which are members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them.[9] V. The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error;[10] and some have so degenerated, as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan.[11] Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will.[12] VI. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ.[13] Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalts himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God.[14]
Of the Church
you Catholic-hating bigots
Calling FReepers names is no way to win an argument.
—Founded after 300 vs 300 year earlier
—A list of untrue UNBiblical mythology about Mary
—Bureaucratic power-mongering at its worst declaring all manner of Rubber Bible and Rubber history stuff
—Bureaucratic arrogant power-mongering gone to seed and to tyranny repeatedly over the centuries
What would snooker anyone into thinking that such an organization had the least bit of interest in THE TRUTH?
LOL. Get lost with your useless traditions of men.
Figures.
Learn from your mistakes.
Clearly something hasn’t stopped Roman Catholic et al’s
from understanding a simple fact . . .
DISAGREEMENT over key issues and facts
does NOT EQUAL bigotry.
Y’all don’t get to define bigotry.
Y’all don’t get to define Christ’s universal Church.
Y’all don’t get to !!!!DEMAND!!!! that Prottys KOWTOW and kiss the toes of y’all’s rubber dictionary.
Y’all might attempt to grow up.
Well, if you stick to your own, you never really know WHAT people think, or are saying. It's very uncommon for Protestants among Protestants to express hatred for Catholics, just as it's very unusual for Catholics among Catholics to express hatred for Protestants.
Both of my parents have brothers who converted to Catholicism to marry Catholics, so all of my cousins are Catholic. I married a Catholic, and go to a Catholic church every Sunday. I have been board chairman of a mixed Protestant-Catholic Christian school.
Let me tell you, there's enough hatred on both sides to curl your hair, if you go looking for it. The good news is that it's less than when I was a kid.
The bad news is that most Christians still are not paying attention to Mark 9:38.
Because that organization gives men cover to believe they can earn their way to heaven and men love to believe they are in control. What is more pleasing to our fallen human nature than to consider ourselves as pious? That pain in the bended knees to statues of Mary feels so good.
But Scripture tells us all the righteousness of men is as filthy rags to God. The only righteousness that saves anyone is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, mercifully and freely imputed to God's family, according to the will and purpose of the Triune God.
"For what is more consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be freed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame, to be made straight by him? Weak, to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying, that he alone may stand forth gloriously and we glory in him [cf. I Cor. 1:31; II Cor. 10:17]?" -- John Calvin, INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
Thank God.
Amen. And disagreement certainly doesn't entitle anyone to name-calling against other FReepers.
May Almighty God bless and keep you.
May He find you someone else to argue with.
INDEED.
THANKS FOR YOUR POSTS AND PINGS.
It's all they've got.
Another (intentional?) falsehood from the mouth of Eckleburg, as that is not what the Congregation of the Clergy stated, and not by a longshot. I will respond in turn to your sickening drivel when I return home from work in the evening, as you posted links which I am unable to open here. I have learned never to take your cut and pastes for granted due to your penchant for "selective quoting."
I've noticed you've been really active today slandering the Catholic Church. Does that make you feel good about yourself?
That is not true.
I already did. I won’t hold my breath waiting for you to admit you’ve been wrong at least twice on this subject.
Please breathe. :)
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