Sunday, March 14, 2010

The Vatican's Dragon: Child-Molesting Priests

The king and his men, many of whom are now revealed to be gay child molesters (rapists) or complicit in covering up unimaginable abuse

Vatican in damage control on sex abuse
Fox News, Mar. 13, 2010
After giving some serious lessons over the last few years on how not to handle a crisis, the Vatican has gone into full-scale damage control on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in Germany....

A German newspaper reported that a priest who had been suspected of abusing children had been transferred into the Archdiocese of Munich when [the future pope] Joseph Ratzinger – [currently Pope Benedict XVI] – was archbishop there. A lower level church official in Munich took full responsibility for the move.

Also on Saturday, the Vatican official in charge of investigating and prosecuting abuse cases, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, gave a rare interview, defending the work of Pope Benedict on the question of clerical abuse....

Stories of physical and sexual abuse at Catholic institutions in Germany are just the latest scandal to rock the Church in Europe. Pope Benedict had already been briefed on the problem in Ireland... When the story in Ireland became known to its full extent late last year, the Vatican said the Pope... Full story>>

Catholic church should free its priests from celibacy
Editorial (The Observer, Mar. 14, 2010)
Pope Benedict XVI needs to break with tradition and allow priests to marry. Spare a thought for the typical Catholic priest. His image has been blackened by successive child abuse scandals, first in Ireland and America, now in Germany, Holland, and Italy.

His vocation is vanishing – for instance, only seven men were ordained in England and Wales last year – and as a result, his workload has multiplied. With several parishes to tend, his isolation grows. Hardly the kind of vibrant and healthy culture to inspire men with the strength to deal with society's ills. More>>

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