The Pope and child molestation

[Chattiestspike2]

So the Pope might be arrested for covering up for child molesting priests and the sort. Great. But when was the last priestly child molestation case of any degree? Is this still going on today? Or has this died of 30 years ago but people are just acting on it now?

 

[DepricatedZero]

Um...Catholic Priests have managed to avoid prosecution due to Vatican intervention, including orders directly from Benedict. It's been an ongoing scandal for a while that the Church is covering up child molestation. Priests who have been accused have simply been transferred to new locations, their records not following, to a whole new batch of kiddies to rape.

 

[simonecuttlefish]

One of the epic tragedies surrounding this affair is that often will take a long time for people to come forward. Name a parent, that wants their child to be labelled as "priest meat" or any other horrific term kids will throw about at each other? Name the person who wants to willingly have to relive the experiences, and become known as a "victim". It's surprising anyone comes forward at all.

Now, if the Pope would release the Vatican's little list, that he mostly complied in his previous position, of thousands and thousands of sexual offenders within the Catholic church, that the church itself believed there was evidence against, some indication of the true extent might be known. I wish I could remember the sources - I'm currently gouging through google new archives from april/may - I believe I saw the article then. I wont quote the numbers I'm thinking of, as I can't source the article (yet) and list it's potential sources of information. However the ratio of "paedophillia" cases to "adult" was at about 1:5, and there were thousands quoted. That's thousands of believed abusers, not victims. It's also a bit of a curiosity as to what the Vatican might consider "adult", or at least not paedophillic. This site http://www.avert.org/age-of-consent.htm states the Vatican age of consent for male <-> female sexual activity is 12, with question marks against the homosexual options.

And why is it all about abuse of boys as well? Provably because it makes for better "shock" value in media headlines.

The following is quoted from here -> http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/

Male and female victims

It is never too late to report church sex-abuse. Church victims are invariably adults when they eventually contact Broken Rites.

Of the men and women who contact Broken Rites, most say that the abuse happened in childhood (up to the age of 16 or so). Child sex-abuse is always a criminal offence and the offender, if prosecuted, is not allowed to use "consent" as a legal defence.

Of all the people who contact Broken Rites, more than half are males. (In an analysis that we conducted of our first 1000 callers in 1993-94, the ratio of males to females was 55 to 45.)

Among our male callers, the abuse usually happened under the age of 16.

Among our female callers, most were abused as children but a significant minority were abused as adults while in a vulnerable situation , for example, a single or separated or unhappily married woman who consulted a church pastor and was then sexually abused in the course of "counselling". (A psychiatrist who did that would face de-registration, so why not a clergyman?) In some cases, a sick or medicated woman has been abused by a hospital chaplain.

I just hope the girls who were routinely stripped and mercilessly flogged by manic nuns in some of the hell-hole boarding school and horror orphanages gets pulled out as well.

Sadly we don't have the will or guts to storm the Vatican, seize it's records and and burn it to the ground, like decent, level headed and fair minded people probably should. Reformation two is very sadly overdue.

 

[Grotznak]

Um...Catholic Priests have managed to avoid prosecution due to Vatican intervention, including orders directly from Benedict. It's been an ongoing scandal for a while that the Church is covering up child molestation. Priests who have been accused have simply been transferred to new locations, their records not following, to a whole new batch of kiddies to rape.

Exactly

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mixa
This guy was forced to resign, after even the catholic curch couldnt stand theyr stinking liars anymore.
Althoug he lost his job in Ger. he didnt loose his rank/title as bishop and could be sent somewhere else later the year

 

[Aught3]

It's hard to say that everything is in the past when some of the perpetrators are still fugitives from justice and hiding out in the Vatican underneath the Pope's skirts. That's the real scandal here, the abuse rates aren't overly high in the Catholic church compared to other institutions but the cover-up and moving the problem from parish to parish is their moral failing. To bad there isn't a hell for them to go to.

 

[simonecuttlefish]

Priests who have been accused have simply been transferred to new locations, their records not following, to a whole new batch of kiddies to rape.

Deliver us from Evil.
This film is so saddening. If you get the chance to see it, do so. Everybody should see this film.

This is just a preview of the movie


1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliver_Us_from_Evil_%282006_film%29

2) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814075/

 

[TheGreekDollmaker]

Priests who have been accused have simply been transferred to new locations, their records not following, to a whole new batch of kiddies to rape.

Deliver us from Evil.
This film is so saddening. If you get the chance to see it, do so. Everybody should see this film.

This is just a preview of the movie


1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliver_Us_from_Evil_%282006_film%29

2) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814075/

I am beggining to suspect that the catholic church is just a cover operation for NAMBLA.

Catholic Church: All your boys are belong to us.

 

[borrofburi]

So the Pope might be arrested for covering up for child molesting priests and the sort. Great. But when was the last priestly child molestation case of any degree? Is this still going on today? Or has this died of 30 years ago but people are just acting on it now?

As has been noted before, usually the people take a while to be able to come forward. So in 30 years or so we'll know if it's happening now and still being covered up, or if it did die off... But the thing is, the scandal is the cover up, and we know the cover up is still going on.

 

[Pennies for Thoughts]

Two thumbs up for "Deliver Us from Evil" which is as fascinating as it is terrifying.

This 27-minute YouTube documentary titled "Sins of the Fathers - USA" runs a similar course and can be watched now.


I have another documentary from 1993 with a similar title "Sins of the Fathers" that was done by A&E that I can recommend but believe it is out of print.

 

[Anachronous Rex]

Though we oft have our disagreements, I find myself agreeing with Tf00t here:


This whole child-molestation thing, bad as it might be, is as nothing in the face of untold human suffering this institution is perpetrating even as we speak.

 

[Baranduin]

Sorry for the off-topic, this will be short.

It's also a bit of a curiosity as to what the Vatican might consider "adult", or at least not paedophillic. This site http://www.avert.org/age-of-consent.htm states the Vatican age of consent for male <-> female sexual activity is 12, with question marks against the homosexual options.

That can be explained easily: the Vatican inherited the Italian Law during the Lateral Treaty, including the age of consent, but they no longer adopt the italian law due to some conflict of interests of some sort - probably that Italians are too liberal -, so their age of consent is stuck there. I don't think they are going to consider to change it, that is, I don't think there are going to be many children living in the Vatican for that to be a problem any time soon. Indeed, I know that technically a child can get Vatican nationality, but are there toddlers living in the Vatican? I don't think so.

However, may I ask what kind of conclusions are you drawing from a country's age of consent? That puzzles me.


--
Now on the topic:

So the Pope might be arrested for covering up for child molesting priests and the sort. Great. But when was the last priestly child molestation case of any degree? Is this still going on today? Or has this died of 30 years ago but people are just acting on it now?

Luckily for me, I don't know by my own experience, but I know second-hand testimonies about weird things happening in ultracatholic dependences, none of them related to specifically sexual abuse, but imho that would require further investigation. Sadly, every time a proposal to investigate catholic dependences is made in - at least - Spanish speaking countries, we are slapped in the face with the fucking concordats, and they're looking for any loophole as you probably know to avoid supervision in any other place. So I wouldn't be surprise if sexual abuse goes on and no one is reporting it; I have no evidence that they would act any different on this, there's plenty of evidence that they haven't changed their polices in other aspects, and they're making sure that we can't get the necessary evidence to have an opinion.

I'd add that sexual abuse (to boys, to girls, to adults) is probably not the only abuse they've committed. I'd like to see a report on the living conditions on catholic nursing homes for elderly people. Sadly, there are probably few victims of those still alive today to denounce it, but probably they've been more both in raw numbers and percentage.

 

[simonecuttlefish]

However, may I ask what kind of conclusions are you drawing from a country's age of consent? That puzzles me.

I was wondering if the Vatican considers sex with 12 year olds to be potentially consensual, or not paedophilia. I thought that was important as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is a Vatican based entity, and defines clerical conduct, among other things. This definition would have an impact on the numbers of paedophilia abuse cases claimed by the Vatican. Is sex with 12 year old children just naughty sex they shouldn't be having anyway, or child sexual assault by Vatican standards?


EDIT ADDED
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregation_for_the_Doctrine_of_the_Faith

According to Article 48 of the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, Pastor Bonus, promulgated by Pope John Paul II on June 28, 1988: "the duty proper to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world: for this reason everything which in any way touches such matter falls within its competence."

This includes investigations into what are known as "delicta graviora"; i.e., the crimes which the Catholic Church considers as being the most serious of all: crimes against the Eucharist and against the sanctity of the Sacrament of Penance, and crimes against the sixth Commandment ("thou shall not commit adultery") committed by a cleric against a person under the age of eighteen. These crimes, in a "motu proprio" of 2001, "Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela", come under the competency of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In effect, it is the "promoter of justice" who deals with, among other things, the terrible question of priests accused of paedophilia, which are periodically highlighted in the mass media. [1] [2] In other words, the CDF was given a broader mandate to address the sex abuse cases only from 2001.

I think (I'm sure I read it a while back) that throwing out the consecrated species, ordaining women, and kiddy fiddling are all considered "as bad as it gets". I also think I read that an update to the lists and definitions of things that fall under the category "delicta graviora" is getting an update in mid July - any day now I expect. Might be interesting to keep an eye on. Nice to see that chucking out some biscuit crumbs or ordaining women are getting recognised as the abhorrence they are!

 

[MillionSword]

So is it actually a possibility that the pope might be arrested? I just want to watch the shit storm and bask in the message it'll send all over the world.

 

[nasher168]

I certainly hope someone submits an arrest warrant (or whatever the procedure is) it's really up to the judgement of whichever Police Officer(s) deal with the warrant.