Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 12:04am

PopeWatch: Sex Abuse-Two Standards

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Pope Francis has indicated that one goal of his pontificate is getting tough with clerics who shield sex abusers.  While in Philadelphia he said:  “The crimes and sins of sexual abuse of minors cannot be kept secret any longer. I commit myself to the zealous watchfulness of the church to protect minors, and I promise that all those responsible will be held accountable.”  That promise apparently had a short shelf life:

 

 

Cardinal Godfried Danneels, former Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels in Belgium, has already angered conservatives by calling for the Catholic Church to recognise a “sort of marriage” for gay couples and praising secular governments for introducing civil unions for same-sex couples.

Critics are now also pointing to a scandal in 2010, when Cardinal Danneels tried to cover up a sex abuse case involving a fellow bishop. An audio recording leaked to the Belgian media revealed the cardinal urging the victim not to reveal that his abuser was his uncle Roger Vangheluwe, Bishop of Bruges.

Cardinal Danneels asked the victim if he would wait until Bishop Vangheluwe retired before going public, and even told him to “ask forgiveness” and “acknowledge your own guilt”. The victim responds: “Whose forgiveness do I have to seek? I am not the one to ask for forgiveness.”

When the victim said he would not wait until Bishop Vangheluwe retired and demanded that the cardinal should inform Pope Benedict XVI at once, Cardinal Danneels accused him of trying to “blackmail” them.

The press soon got hold of the recording and Bishop Vangheluwe was forced to resign in disgrace, with Cardinal Danneels’s name also dragged through the mud. He claimed he had been “improvising” during the conversation and was merely trying to resolve a dispute within the bishop’s family.

However, despite the cover-up scandal and Cardinal Danneels’s controversial views, Pope Francis has personally invited him to attend the Synod on the Family.

 

 

 

Go here to read the rest.  Then we have the case of Bishop Barros in Chile:

Many watched in disbelief: There he was, Pope Francis, calling people in Osorno, a city in southern Chile, “dumb” for protesting against a bishop accused of being complicit in clerical sexual abuse.

“The Osorno community is suffering because it’s dumb,” Pope Francis told a group of tourists on St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, because it “has let its head be filled with what politicians say, judging a bishop without any proof.”

“Don’t be led by the nose by the leftists who orchestrated all of this,” the pope said.

The video, filmed by an Argentine tourist in May, was obtained by a Chilean television station and broadcast Friday, quickly instilling doubts here about the pope’s commitment to protecting victims of sexual abuse.

Under a heavy rain, demonstrators with black balloons chanted again outside the San Mateo Cathedral in Osorno on Sunday as the bishop at the center of the controversy, Juan Barros, said Mass.

Bishop Barros was appointed by the pope to head the Diocese of Osorno this year, despite reports that he had covered up sexual abuses committed by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a prominent priest in Santiago, the capital.

Go here to read the rest.  It would appear that the Pope has one standard for clerics he wishes to get rid of who have allegations of turning a blind eye to sex abuse and another for clerics he has use of.

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Philip
Philip
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 3:44am

There will be no shortages of mill stones when the curtain closes on the final act. As for today, the show must go on.

DonL
DonL
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 3:49am

We old-time deer hunters have a lot of experience following a trail back to its source, thus must wonder in truth; is this synod but a proxy show for a pre-determined result? Could this possibly be but a convoluted method of the work of the Holy Spirit? Will this result in more sheep being brought to salvation, or will more be turned into lamb chops? Stay tuned…..

Father of seven
Father of seven
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 5:33am

It is not possible one is for a zero tolerance policy, or against the crime for which there should be zero tolerance, and then appoint a scoundrel like Daneels. There were reports he even secretly lobbied for passage of Belgium’s law allowing abortion. The man should be laicized, not appointed to a Synod on the family.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 6:05am

In fairness to the Pope, some bishops have been traduced and the term ‘cover up’ as used by most of the Church’s detractors actually means ‘did not publish the priest’s personnel file’ or ‘did not report to police allegations for which prosecution would be time-barred’, or ‘did not report to police allegations which the complaining parishioner declined to report to police’. Characters like Rod Dreher and Leon Podles are also given to yapping as if there were no uncertainties or impediments to arriving at the truth and yapping as if the complaining parishioner has no agency. Dreher even fell Elizabeth McKenna.

That having been said, recall Joseph Sobran’s remark: “Behind every double standard is an unconfessed single standard”. To say that Francis weighs these allegations on two different scales is to say that the point of disciplinary measures against accused clerics is something other than to root out sexual misconduct.

Stephen E Dalton
Stephen E Dalton
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 8:50am

This Pope disgusts me to no end. As a person who has known victims of incest and other forms of sexual abuse, I find this man’s double standard appalling beyond words. It makes me wonder, is he one himself? I can’t see a normal Christian man doing this kind of thing.

Hank
Hank
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 9:17am

It didn’t take very long for the liberal – left hypocrisy of this Pontificate to rear its ugly head.

Paul W Primavera
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 10:11am

What if this Pope had covered up sex abuse himself, or worse, perpetrated it? I do NOT say that that HAS happened and yes, I realize that even suggesting something like that may be forbidden, but let us ask ourselves: why are conservatives accused of covering up sex abuse drummed our with much fanfare and liberals accused of the same are invitd to positions of authority in the hallowed halls of the Vatican. Why is that? Why the focus on making sodomite actions acceptable? Why? Why? If these people are NOT sodomites, then why do they care what sodomites think?

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 11:11am

Yes the show goes on – stay tuned, don’t lose heart, pray.

Franco
Franco
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 12:39pm

The morally superior excommunicated revolutionaries
of a condemned secret society called the Mafia, are exempt
from the rules and the old out-dated teachings of the
Church, while they transform the Catholic Church into
a contemporary church which suits the beliefs of the modern
world.

Latest from the Synod against the Family, participants are
insisting that the laity give the homily during Mass It’s
becoming apparent that the morally superior revolutionaries
intend to have the laity perform Mass in place of a priest.

Phillip
Phillip
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 12:51pm

“It’s becoming apparent that the morally superior revolutionaries intend to have the laity perform Mass in place of a priest.”

Clearly, certain liberal Catholics have sought to eliminate the role of the priest.

Franco
Franco
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 2:17pm

I agree Philip. However, the liberal clergymen have
a revolutionary pope who has the same goals. The
transformation of the Mass by this radical pope could
happen and soon.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 2:59pm

Our diocese/parish a deacon reads the Gospel. The priest gives the sermon. I went to a Mass in NH a few years ago, and there the deacon also fabricated a secular-humanistic sermon.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 3:21pm

Why the focus on making sodomite actions acceptable? Why? Why? If these people are NOT sodomites, then why do they care what sodomites think?

Well, look at the legal profession, the media, academe, even the executive suite. Very few in these subcultures are homosexuals, but they’re knocking each other over to suck up to the gay lobby. The only sense I can make of it is that it’s an element of social class competition and delineating in-groups and out-groups. Some other delineators would be Ivy League degrees, Sarah Palin’s flat vowels, and gun ownership. Read Charles Fried’s denunciations of Sarah Palin (which are objectively nonsensical) and you’ll get some inkling that our public life is much more governed by this petty and asinine social competition than it was several decades ago. Remember Arthur Schlesinger’s critique of Richard Nixon (“Nixon lacks taste…”)? It gets worse every decade.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 3:25pm

Paul, recall Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel? A mess of professional-managerial twits were in a horrible lather because a nun gave a twenty minute talk about a literature review in the Linacre Quarterly, Those knuckleheads have children; they’re not buggering each other. To anyone over a certain age, not in a certain social class, and not decerebrated, it seems absolutely madcap. These people make sense to themselves, I suppose.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 3:45pm

Virtue signalling I think is what they call it.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 3:47pm

The executive suite-almost universally populated by white men, willing to treat their own married white men employees like trash, willing to suck up to the latest trends – enviornmentalism, diversity (but not in the executive suite), homosexualism, expansionist government, “do more with less” (how much less does the executive suite do with?)…..

Archbishop Gadecki of the Polish Episcopal Conference, when asked about Communism and the cultural Marxism of today: “Surely, there is something in common. There is a present similarity between these two trends because both communism and post-communist leftist movements hold no value with respect to the human person. In other words, they do not respect the human person and its value like Christianity does; these movements attempt to ruin all interpersonal relationships. Communism wanted to break up the society by class and by the solidarity of the class, and also antagonize one against another. And now this is happening through another, more subtle intrusion – the tenets of gender: the questioning of correctness of the existence of marriage and family; the destruction of the institution of marriage; and family as “oppressive,” which contributes against the growth of humanity and its existence would reduce humanity. Therefore, I think there are different instruments and different methodologies, but the goal is the same: the pulverization of the society so that the human person stays alone and people can boldly and more skillfully manipulate humanity.”

Does anyone wonder what side of this divide Kasper and Marx are on,and where the Roman Pontiff stands?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, October 12, AD 2015 10:31pm

“Communism wanted to break up the society by class and by the solidarity of the class, and also antagonize one against another. And now this is happening through another, more subtle intrusion – the tenets of gender: the questioning of correctness of the existence of marriage and family; the destruction of the institution of marriage; and family as “oppressive,” which contributes against the growth of humanity and its existence would reduce humanity. Therefore, I think there are different instruments and different methodologies, but the goal is the same: the pulverization of the society so that the human person stays alone and people can boldly and more skillfully manipulate humanity.”

The commies were never exactly fans of the family either, for that matter. So, in point of fact, it’s the same instruments and the same methodologies, as well as the same goal. The only real difference is that “the post-communist left” isn’t out to destroy the family in the name of the class struggle.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 2:29am

Art Deco wrote, “‘did not report to police allegations for which prosecution would be time-barred’, or ‘did not report to police allegations which the complaining parishioner declined to report to police’”
One should not overlook the fact that such information is often very valuable. Most prosecutions for lewd, indecent and libidinous conduct against children rely on the Moorov doctrine: Where an accused person is charged with a series of similar offences closely linked in time, character and circumstances, the evidence of one witness implicating the accused in one offence may be taken to corroborate the evidence of another witness implicating the accused in another offence, each offence being treated as if it were an element in a single course, project or campaign of criminal conduct.
Without the Moorov doctrine, it would often be impossible to corroborate an allegation and the inclusion of the kind of information you mention in the offender’s police dossier may be an important first step on the road to a successful prosecution.

@FMShyanguya
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 2:37am

Philip on Monday, October 12, A.D. 2015 at 3:44am:


There will be no shortages of mill stones when the curtain closes on the final act. As for today, the show must go on.

Yes Surely, how can this end well for Pope Francis?

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 2:39am

I am happy the moral corruption in the Vatican is becoming better known by this site and others. But it is slow due left-wing sympathies and right-wing blindness and misplaced piety. For example I have been permanently banned on Church Militant TV because I made a remark critical of Pope Francis and Michael Voris defense of him.

Philip
Philip
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 4:01am

FMShyanguya asks; “How can this end well for Pope Francis?”

One of the comments written days ago on a different thread mentioned that a priest had told his parishioner; ” Pope Francis is drawing out the malefactors to publicly expose them for who they are.”(quote is not exact, however along this vein.)

I’d like to believe that, however I can’t. What might actually be happening is that we are witnesses to a prophecy spoken of years ago.
A freemasonry Pope.
You decide.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 7:22am

Imagine if Abp. Cordileone of San Francisco had done what Godfried Danneels has done. The outrage, the caterwauling, the inevitable forced resignation.
The hypocrisy.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 7:25am

“the post-communist left” iWill use any struggle they can glom onto to destroy the family-

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 7:52am

The left seems always to carry certain wounds – feeling resentful, jilted, outside.
They make the most of the sympathy they elicit.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Tuesday, October 13, AD 2015 8:37am

Without the Moorov doctrine, it would often be impossible to corroborate an allegation and the inclusion of the kind of information you mention in the offender’s police dossier may be an important first step on the road to a successful prosecution.

That would have made a practical difference in only an odd minority of cases. There were about 150 priests who were responsible for about a third of the complaints against priests in this country. They has a mean of about 20 accusations against them. You get outside that set, priests typically had one or two accusers and the accusations quite dated. Fifteen years after the fact was about normal prior to 2002. In 2002, you had thousands of antique accusations coming out of the woodwork. One of the more notorious cases in the Diocese of Syracuse was Msgr. Francis Furfaro. He retired in 1991 with a clean record. The first accusation came over the transom in 1998 and concerned something which happened in 1989 (to which Msgr. Furfaro admitted). Four other accusations were lodged in 2002-04. Once concerned a series of events in 1962-63. Another something which supposedly happened in 1949. (Interestingly, Furfaro denied these later allegations). Exactly what were the four bishops who supervised Furfaro between his ordination and his retirement ‘covering up’? What was Bp. Moynihan ‘covering up’ when these people complained?

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Wednesday, October 14, AD 2015 1:56am

Art Deco asked, “Exactly what were the four bishops who supervised Furfaro between his ordination and his retirement ‘covering up’?”
What, indeed? In many cases of historical abuse, one finds that there were suspicions, rumours, even allegations that were not pursued. Often enough, too, the publicity surrounding one allegation brings forward complainers previously reluctant to speak, for fear that they would not be believed.
Thus, convictions are sometimes obtained for offences committed thirty or forty years earlier.

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