Posted on 03/21/2010 7:14:31 PM PDT by Cardhu
NOT long after a portly, jovial priest in the German industrial city of Essen was accused of sexually abusing three boys in 1979, he was offered a new home in Munich by Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.
Ratzinger, who was Archbishop of Munich and Freising at the time, wanted Father Peter Hullermann — known to friends in the church as “Hulli” — to undergo psychotherapy.
A psychiatrist quickly concluded that Hullermann was untreatable, however.
“I told the church officials that Hullermann must never be allowed to work with children again,” said Werner Huth, the psychiatrist, in an interview with The Sunday Times this weekend.
“He did not seem to want or be able to co-operate fully during the therapy. He had an alcohol problem and the assaults on the children mostly happened when he had been under the influence of alcohol.”
Huth’s warning was ignored. The priest was allowed to return to pastoral work and then to teach religion in a local state school.
Soon, he was in trouble again. He drank, showed pornographic videos to boys and abused them. He was convicted of the sexual abuse of minors and fined.
Even that was not the end of his time in the church. After a period of probation he continued working — with altar boys, among others.
He was still working as a priest right up until last Monday when, at the age of 62, he was suspended from his duties at a Bavarian tourist resort for breaching a church order in 2008 to avoid any involvement with children.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Eye-opening. RCC bookkeepping resembles that of the democrats.
“I wonder how many of the “anti-abortion” democrats were RC.”
Marcy Kaptur-Romanist
Steve Driehaus- Romanist
Kathy Dahlkemper- Romanist
Chris Carney- Romanist
For the elect, yes. What Rome used for evil....
And those are just for the few cases that went to trial. It doesn't include all the thousands of cases that were kept secret under threat of excommunication for the victim.
"Settlements" that "went to trial?"
And I suppose these "thousands" of cases that were "kept secret," you can document those, correct?
Can’t say anything about the statistics, but this is not a nonsense concept. A case goes to trial and before a verdict the defendant settles with the plaintiff.
No kidding?
I was merely commenting on her remarkably imprecise language. It seems to be a shortcoming for her, if unintentional.
But of course I don't believe it's unintentional.
Why?
It does make those “billions” of members figures look different.
Please post that membership roll.
I'll bet you got your doctorate out of the back of Popular Mechanics.
State run churches are also dry and void of real belief.
That’s an ironic comment in the light of the Gospel Reading for the Fifth Sunday of Lent.
That’s not true. True believers are everywhere. Cheez...
“Counted” by whom? His baptism would be included in statistics from whatever year it was, but unless he’s an enrolled member of a parish now, he’s not being “counted.” The same is true of any church, including Protestant churches. Dutch Reformed, Lutheran or even - yes! - Presbyterian churches don’t go back and remove people from their baptismal rolls just because those people have stopped going to church (as if the church of their baptism would have any way of knowing this in any case!), and they only count as their current members those people who are members of a parish or local church or who appear on baptismal or other sacramental records for that year.
I doubt that the Presbyterian church goes through and erases from its records the names of individual Presbyterians who become Catholics (and I know a goodly number, btw). Besides, how would the Presbyterians even know? However, these people would not be reflected in parish statistics and therefore wouldn’t be included in their current membership numbers. It’s the same with the Catholic Church.
You anti-Catholics have just got to take a deep breath and drop the paranoia...
The Times Online is your new Bible I guess.
You must be new to this issue of the cover-up of abuse?
My comments where in a wider context. These types of things have been coming to light for years now.
...understand, Jerk-face?
I sincerely hope you feel better.
You have to be registered with the Parish and have to keep current in order to be considered active.
Then only active (how active?) members constitute that 68.1 million in the U.S. or what?
No, I’m not sure sure of the accuracy of the figure but for the discussion that’s not the question.
How does one count the members of an individual Christian Community? By registration (baptismal papers), Sunday attendance, etc...
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