Posted on 04/05/2010 6:43:33 AM PDT by phoenix07
LONDON – Protests are growing against Pope Benedict XVI's planned trip to Britain, where some lawyers question whether the Vatican's implicit statehood status should shield the pope from prosecution over sex crimes by pedophile priests.
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition on Downing Street's web site against the pope's 4-day visit to England and Scotland in September, which will cost U.K. taxpayers an estimated 15 million pounds ($22.5 million). The campaign has gained momentum as more Catholic sex abuse scandals have swept across Europe.
Although Benedict has not been accused of any crime, senior British lawyers are now examining whether the pope should have immunity as a head of state and whether he could be prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction for an alleged systematic cover-up of sexual abuses by priests.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I agree! And we also need to prosecute Obama for the many thefts and robberies committed by others in Atlanta throughout 2009!!!
That’s probably more reasonable considering he is committing treason in DC......
This is truly turning into a witch hunt....
Or an inquisition?
What do you expect from a Muslim country?
The evil embodied in today’s “liberal” movement knows no bounds.
Since when do we prosecute, er... persecute, someone for the crimes committed by another?
The Pope should throw holy water on all of them and watch them scream.......
I double dare them.
Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
The church’s response has been akin to Toyota’s initial response to safety issues with their cars.
The Pope needs to act very boldly to quell the anger. Remove and excommunicate anyone, regardless of their position, who was involved in the sex abuse and implement a zero-tolerance policy where abusers are immediately turned over to the police.
Why is this so hard?
Concealing the commission of a felony makes one an “accessory” to the crime concealed; but, that’s not what’s going on here.
>but, that’s not what’s going on here.
Agreed, so the question still stands.
The Catholic Church was not of the tradition of turning people over to the police.
Britain is not a muslim country. Its proportion of muslims is similar to that of the US. And besides, what makes you think that a religion founded by a prophet who was a practicing paedophile would have any objections to child sex abuse?
The irony is that this pope is the one who didn’t mess around and called for the clean up of the “filth”, getting rid of Maciel and others. With all the earthquake activity as well as floods, etc., UK ought to think twice about this possible attempt to assist Satan.
Benedict may be the pope of prophecy who will be forced to leave Rome and go into hiding. The salivating apostates of the past decades will then use the chaos (does that sound familiar?) to place their false pope (allowing all that is forbidden now by natural law/morality) into Peter’s seat - the “false prophet” and his “false church” who will assist the man/tyrant of the New World Order (anti-Christ?). How long now before the mass persecution begins?
They would object because it would help bring down their enemy. There may be the same percentage, though I would like to see that information. However, that proportion seems to have the London government on a leash. Everything, even fast food, is going halal. More and more the policies of the government are made not to offend their Muslime masters.
You wrote:
“The Pope needs to act very boldly to quell the anger.”
There is no way to quell the anger of liberals. It is ideological not incidental.
“Remove and excommunicate anyone, regardless of their position, who was involved in the sex abuse and implement a zero-tolerance policy where abusers are immediately turned over to the police.”
All those involved in sexual abuse were already removed from ministry years ago. You pop up in all of these threads, but it’s as if you never pay attention. There already is a zero tolerance policy. That’s why there were only a tiny handful of cases for all of 2009 in the USA. Many names of abusers were turned over to police years ago. If the police refuse to act on the information that is their choice.
“Why is this so hard?”
Why is it so hard for you to understand that the Church is slow to act and is no in the retribution business? This pope has done a great deal to stop the abuse and it has dropped dramatically in just seven years. And most of the cases you hear about are decades old to begin with. It is amazing to me that all of this escapes your notice no matter how many of these threads you pop in on. Do you even read what’s in the thread - ever?
That is the current policy. These cases are 20-60 years old. By the time the CDF got these cases, law enforcement already knew about them. The judicial system in the U.S. and elsewhere is reluctant to punish any pedophile. Instead of blaming the Judges and Prosecutors, they blame the Pope because he is a Catholic Conservative.
I could document all the wrist slapping the liberal DA's and Judges do if you would like. Bill O'Reilly has done his share of reporting. What do these people want? Perhaps they want the Pope to be the Attorney General?
No kidding, I am no fan of the papacy but this is like saying you can arrest a sitting president because an ambassador has a sex abuse scandal.
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