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Vatican Tells New Bishops They Don’t Have to Report Sexual Abuse to Police
Newsweek ^ | 2/11/16 | Lucy Westcott

Posted on 02/11/2016 11:21:34 AM PST by Impala64ssa

Updated | The Vatican has told new Catholic bishops that they have no obligation to report clerical child abuse, according to reports.

During a presentation for newly appointed bishops, French Monsignor Tony Anatrella said they don't have a duty to report abuse because it should be the responsibility of victims and their families to go to the police. The comments were first reported by John L. Allen at the Catholic news site Cruxnow.com earlier this week.

Anatrella, a psychtherapist and consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, is known for his controversial views on homosexuality, including that the acceptance of homosexuality in the West is creating “serious problems” for children. He also helped to write a training document for newly appointed bishops that further spells out the church's stance on clerical sexual abuse.

"According to the state of civil laws of each country where reporting is obligatory, it is not necessarily the duty of the bishop to report suspects to authorities, the police or state prosecutors in the moment when they are made aware of crimes or sinful deeds," the training document, which was released by the Vatican earlier this month, reads. The document says bishops are required only to report the suspected abuse internally.

When reached for comment, a Vatican receptionist told Newsweek that Thursday is a holiday, so no one in the Vatican press office would be readily available. Newsweek also left a voicemail message at the Vatican's Permanent Mission to the United Nations and emailed every person listed as the Mission’s permanent staff to seek confirmation and clarification of the comments, but has not yet received a response.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: childabuse; pederasts; pedophiles; perverts; priestscandal; vatican
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To: Gamecock

That’s what they did around here!
DISGUSTING!


41 posted on 02/11/2016 12:26:26 PM PST by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31)
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To: WilliamIII

I....and a lot of Catholics.....will agree that the Reformation was needed.

Arrogant, self-righteous, insular leadership has long plagued our Church. Martin Luther did them a favor.

The fact that you now hear Away In a Manger played in Catholic Churches at Christmastime seems a tacit admission that the clergy knows it too.


42 posted on 02/11/2016 12:36:46 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Arthur McGowan
Of course, Hendrie was speaking of absolute numbers. Last time I check, there were not a billion Hell’s Angels.

As I recall, Phil Hendrie was speaking proportionately. He was also speaking about the clergy/management and not about the rank-and-file.

43 posted on 02/11/2016 12:42:44 PM PST by snarkpup (My goal in life is to die of old age before the country does.)
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To: Impala64ssa

If they find a priest diddling a child, the bishop should call the priest to his office and have him sit down. Then they should call in media. Then the bishop should grab the perv by his collar and drag him to the police station. Every time the bishop’s foot hits the ground, he should kick the priest in the ass all the way to the police station.

Short of that, I don’t think they are coming close to gaining our trust.


44 posted on 02/11/2016 12:44:05 PM PST by Vermont Lt
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To: Impala64ssa

Immigration and Climate Change are the big issues, buggery, not so much.


45 posted on 02/11/2016 12:56:57 PM PST by Fido969 ("The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes" - Albert Einstein)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
The fact that you now hear Away In a Manger played in Catholic Churches at Christmastime seems a tacit admission that the clergy knows it too.

Actually, Luther had nothing to do with the song:

"False attribution to Luther
The earliest known publication, in The Myrtle, ascribed the lyrics to German Protestant reformer Martin Luther, explicitly referencing his 400th birthday (which was in 1883). For many years this attribution continued to be made: for example Dainty songs for little lads and lasses for use in the kindergarten, school and home, by James R. Murray,[5] (Cincinnati, The John Church Co., 1887) repeats The Myrtle's title of "Luther's Cradle Hymn" and the claim that it was "[c]omposed by Martin Luther for his children, and still sung by German mothers to their little ones".[6] However, this attribution appears to be false: the hymn is found nowhere among Luther's works.[7] It has been suggested that the words were written specifically for Luther's 400th anniversary and then credited to the reformer as a marketing gimmick.[8]"

46 posted on 02/11/2016 1:35:03 PM PST by Jed Eckert (The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem)
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To: George from New England

As a Catholic parent, I’ve gone through this training/screening. I liken it to the TSA security theater nonsense, where they pat down grandmothers and six year olds, instead of dealing with the real problems.


47 posted on 02/11/2016 1:54:28 PM PST by catbertz
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To: catbertz

Just as absurd ... when you get a Florida gun carry permit, you only submit your fingerprints once to the state. The state recognizes that your prints don’t change.

The diocese are a joke, my wife has to resubmit to the whole process every five years. She gets stuck traveling over 30 minutes multiple times cause their finger print machines break. Nothing more than ‘feel good’ harassment safety.


48 posted on 02/11/2016 2:52:33 PM PST by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
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To: Impala64ssa

If you read the linked article the guy is actually very anti gender bending and homosexual promotion.


49 posted on 02/11/2016 4:39:40 PM PST by Al Gore Vidal
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To: WilliamIII

“The Reformation - 500 years old next year - was about freedom and legitimate institutional accountability”

Looking back, how did that work out? The Catholic Church acknowledged the necessity of the Reformation with the Counter-Reformation, and while it has many problems today, the Catholic Church would be more easily recognized than the Protestant Churches if someone flashed forward 500 years to today. While most Masses are no longer in Latin, the idea of a “married” female homosexual presiding over services would be quite a shock for the Protestant time traveler. Based on the “Canterbury Tales”, I don’t think the homosexual scandal in the Catholic Church would be so shocking.


50 posted on 02/11/2016 5:15:55 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Impala64ssa

The victims sometimes have a hard time speaking out. This policy is unChristian. Shame on the Vatican.


51 posted on 02/11/2016 6:55:42 PM PST by mom of young patriots
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To: WilliamIII
Vatican Tells New Bishops They Don’t Have to Report Sexual Abuse to Police

Thank God - literally - for the Reformation

Your thanks are between you and God, but I wouldn't do it on account of sexual abuse of minors.

First stats I come across are these, from an apparently Baptist site. Over a 50-year period that has now been extensively investigated (1950 to 2002), credible complaints against Catholic priests in the U.S. were an average of 228 per year.

The article points out that the Catholic church is far more centralized than the various Protestant denominations and churches, not all of which maintain records, so the number of cases involving Protestant ministers is likely to be comparatively under-reported. But quoting from just three insurance companies that cover Protestant churches, the average number of credible complaints against ministers annually was about 260.

The figures for public-school teachers are dramatically worse than either of the above. A 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education found that of public-school students in grades 8 to 11, 6.7 percent were physically molested by a teacher or coach.

That's about 25,000 kids per year in that age group.

(The study is called, "Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature").

The investigator, Charol Shakeshaft of Hofstra U, told a reporter that, compared to the Catholic church, the problem in public schools is "100 times worse."

Molesting children is a problem of human nature--particularly male human nature. Personally, I think abusers should be hanged. The Catholic Church is the source of the Christian teaching that human nature is flawed, and that molesting children is gravely sinful. However much we despise sin, we have to admit the Church tells the truth.

52 posted on 02/11/2016 8:36:42 PM PST by SamuraiScot
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To: SamuraiScot

“Molesting children is a problem of human nature”

I didn’t say otherwise. I said that the Catholic Church is a bureaucracy that — like all bureaucracies — needs to be exposed to competition, or it becomes corrupt. That’s what the Reformation did, it injected competition into the Christian Church.

The corruption of institutions is a problem of human nature.

You don’t overcome that problem by giving an institution unchecked control, insulated from accountability and competition. We conservatives know that this fact is true about the public schools — they need competition. So does the Catholic Church, and indeed all churches. That’s why I say, Thank God for the Reformation.


53 posted on 02/11/2016 10:37:48 PM PST by WilliamIII
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To: kearnyirish2

How did the Reformation work out? Very well, by giving Christians liberty to worship Christ according to their consciences, and not all be forced to belong to a single top-down institution run by an unaccountable and self-protecting bureaucracy.


54 posted on 02/11/2016 10:53:42 PM PST by WilliamIII
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To: Impala64ssa
This pope is unaware of history: Bishop Finn of the Diocese of St Joseph Kansas City resigned after he did not inform authorities. SNAP will tear down every brick of the Roman church in the USA.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/bishop_robert_finn_has_been_ousted

55 posted on 02/12/2016 1:00:26 AM PST by x_plus_one (Obama say, 'no worries, Islam is peace. But the weather is gonna getcha!')
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To: SamuraiScot
SNAP is on the job:

http://www.snapnetwork.org/bishop_robert_finn_has_been_ousted

Perhaps they will go after the Baptists next.

56 posted on 02/12/2016 1:01:26 AM PST by x_plus_one (Obama say, 'no worries, Islam is peace. But the weather is gonna getcha!')
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To: WilliamIII

Where is the Reformation today? Most of the offshoots haven’t a trace of Christianity left in them; they take no issue with divorce (despite Christ’s own words on the issue), they embrace homosexuality, and they are dwindling.


57 posted on 02/12/2016 3:13:06 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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