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Pope admits Vatican has 2000-case backlog of sexual abuse cases
The Associated Press via globalnews.ca ^ | May 13, 2017 | Nicole Winfield

Posted on 09/17/2017 12:46:23 PM PDT by Jyotishi

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) -- Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that the Vatican has a 2,000-case backlog in processing clerical sex abuse cases and says criticism of the slow pace was justified. But he says more staff are being added and insists the Vatican is "on the right path."

Francis was making his first comments about the criticism leveled at the Vatican's handling of sex abuse cases by Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor who resigned from Francis' sex abuse advisory commission in March. Collins quit because of what she said was the "unacceptable" level of resistance within the Vatican to implementing the group's proposals to better care for victims and protect children from priests who rape and molest them.

READ MORE: Pope's sex abuse advisory board to go on without abuse survivor member

Speaking to reporters while flying home Saturday from a trip to Portugal, Francis called Collins "a great woman" and said she was "a bit right" to complain about the slow pace in processing cases.

"Marie Collins was right on that point. But we are on the right path, as there were 2,000 cases backlogged," he said.

Francis didn't respond to the other issues raised by Collins, including the refusal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- which handles abuse cases -- to create a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests. Instead, he focused on explaining why cases can take so long to process.

(Excerpt) Read more at globalnews.ca ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catholic; catholicchurch; catholicpedophiles; catholicpedophilia; clergy; falsehoods; francis; pedophile; pedophilescandal; popefrancis; popefrancissexabuse; priest; sex; sexabuse; vatican
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To: Jyotishi

i recognize that not all charges are valid
and that care must be taken to get to the honest truth
of each case

but it sure would be NICE if the RCC could manage, somehow, to (sorry for this phraseology) put this baby to bed...ASAP

having 2000 charges lingering against its priests...for years and years.... does the Church no good at all

and justice delayed is justice denied, for that matter, too


21 posted on 09/17/2017 2:18:50 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicans are not born, they're excreted." -- Marcus Tillius Cicero)
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To: Jyotishi

And probably half of them are false accusations.


22 posted on 09/17/2017 2:18:52 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: PGR88; DoughtyOne
Whenever I read articles like this, I can’t help but remember a priest I knew in high school. He went on to be in charge of all the Catholic schools for the local diocese. i only heard this story many years later after he died and knowing him and some of the details, I believe it to be true.

He was a former Marine, and when he got a few reports that a younger priest (who we all suspected was queer) had some questionable approaches or comments to some young men, after investigating, he approached the priest privately and told him: “If I hear one more report like this, I will come after you and personally beat the sh** out of you.”

The priest in question later left the priesthood and indeed came out as as a homosexual. Also, there have been no public complaints or lawsuits against any of the schools in the diocese - for many years, especially in the worst years of these revelations against the Church.

Handled properly? Handled too roughly?

I think (personally) this was handled just fine.

In our own diocese, growing up, we had a priest who was very affectionate with us kids and we looked forward to his visits in our Saturday CCD class. I never knew of any bad behavior on his part. I inquired about his whereabouts years later, and was told (soberly) by the person I asked that "he retired."

There were a couple of boys, maybe even three of them, in my CCD class, who were later said to have taken their own lives. They were pretty young when they did this. One was still in his teens.

I still wonder about that priest. Maybe he wasn't involved in their deaths. Maybe it was someone else.

Still, I wonder about all that.

23 posted on 09/17/2017 2:19:26 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: Salvation

Then I would certainly feel better only 1,000 cases after three decades of not fixing the problem..


24 posted on 09/17/2017 2:20:14 PM PDT by morphing libertarian (Imprison Obama, Clintons, Holder, lynch now.)
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To: LongWayHome; All
Fox News Report
In fundamentalist and evangelical churches -- sexual abuse
Other non-Catholic churches and sexual abuse
25 posted on 09/17/2017 2:20:39 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: DoughtyOne; PGR88
Seems there is hardly every a guy that has to pay for what he has done along these lines in the church.

That’s where I really fault the church.

I also fault it for merely transferring priests without telling the new location what he was involved in.

Thus these people got to start off all over again, doing the same things until caught years later. Meanwhile, more kids’ and families lives are destroyed.

Following up on my #23, I think the priest I was thinking of had been "transferred" (they didn't say where to) rather than "retired."

26 posted on 09/17/2017 2:22:37 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: thecodont

The negative impacts are terrible. No doubt about it.

I can’t imagine a kid in those situations and not thinking what was happening to them wasn’t something very wrong/terrible.

The personal behavior of the founder of Islam destroys his own standing with that 9 year old wife of his.

Good grief.


27 posted on 09/17/2017 2:30:24 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (DACA: Their dream, our nightmare... will the rule of law prevail or not?)
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To: thecodont

Doesn’t look good. That’s all I can say.


28 posted on 09/17/2017 2:30:59 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (DACA: Their dream, our nightmare... will the rule of law prevail or not?)
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To: Jyotishi

Christ built his church on the rock that was Peter. Both must be very ashamed.


29 posted on 09/17/2017 2:35:40 PM PDT by Terry Mross (Liver spots And blood thinners.)
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To: thecodont

Not so fast.

I know of a priest that is in jail. I know nothing about the accusations or his trial.


30 posted on 09/17/2017 2:45:55 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Jyotishi

How much of this story is true? It SEEMS likely given this pope. Though it’s from the AP news.


31 posted on 09/17/2017 2:46:46 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric Cartman voice* 'I love you, guys')
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To: Salvation

All I can say is: may justice be done. May the facts be revealed.

There was another church (same diocese) where the priest made mention of a priest who had taken his own life over allegations of sexual abuse. I don’t remember the name of the accused priest and don’t know what really happened there.


32 posted on 09/17/2017 3:07:40 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: Jyotishi

My feeling is that this is the fruit of an unnecessary and unwise celibate priesthood. How can we expect the Catholic church to defend the heterosexual contract between man, woman, and Maker when the Catholic church (largely) does not participate in such marriage? When God stated "it is not good for man to be alone" and thereby made woman, who are we to say this does not apply to priests? Pope Gregory VII got it wrong in 1075 when he banned marriage within the priesthood. A decree in 2017 undoing the decree in 1075 would go a long way in correcting the course. My opinion, anyway.


33 posted on 09/17/2017 4:01:36 PM PDT by so_real ( "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.")
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To: so_real
The Catholic Church raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. I don't know what more she could have done to exalt it

Nobody is required to become a priest. Those who do are given an ample opportunity to reflect on what they're potentially giving up.

Do you blame sexual abuse among teachers (where it is a much bigger problem) on celibacy, too?

34 posted on 09/17/2017 4:07:22 PM PDT by Campion (Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
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To: so_real

Peter took his “believing wife” along with him on his gospel travels. Payl, otoh, was celibate,so there are Biblical examples of both states.


35 posted on 09/17/2017 4:18:11 PM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Inernet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: Jyotishi
After hearing about the orgy @ the Vatican a few weeks ago that the police had to break up and another high ranking official this week in the news and now this.....

Tell me why we shouldn't shut the Vatican down for 100 years and move the center of the Church to Poland. The Poles would not put up with any of this crap...

36 posted on 09/17/2017 4:20:44 PM PDT by taildragger (Do you hear the people singing? The Song of Angry of Men!....)
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To: Fantasywriter

Payl = Paul


37 posted on 09/17/2017 4:25:40 PM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Inernet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: Lurkinanloomin
They have so many cases because they shuffled pedophile priests around instead of locking them up.

Calling them pedophiles actually creates cover for what has been happening. It's typical predatory homosexual behavior to go after naive, post-pubescent boys. They're not interested in sexually immature boys. Call it what it is, unfettered typical "chickenhawk" predation by homosexuals who had no fear of being held to account for their behavior.

38 posted on 09/17/2017 4:26:01 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry

The average age was between 8 and 10 yos. They were homosexual pedophiles.


39 posted on 09/17/2017 4:27:48 PM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Inernet artifacts is fraught with pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: Fantasywriter

That does not jibe with what I’ve read and understood for many years. Source, please.


40 posted on 09/17/2017 4:28:50 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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