Posted on 04/26/2002 11:03:22 AM PDT by history_matters
I agree with you on this statement, and I cannot for the life of me understand what Cardinal McCarrick and Mahony are up to except CYA.
"One Strike and Your Out" is precisely what Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua declared today for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Cardinal Bevilacqua already had a strict policy weeding out homosexuals from the ranks of seminarians.
It should be as scrubber-out of the Holy septic tank; it seems Law has forgotten his vows regarding humility and now he believes he's above such menial tasks as disposing of the Church's sewage. Well, I've got news for him: He's not. And I hope the Pope gives him the same message.
How is this any different from what Law did
in reassigning the pedophile priest? And if
that made Law a pervert, what does this
make the pope?
Unbelievable statement. Does anyone have anything for a pounding headache?
Giving someone a 'kick upstairs' is an old bureaucratic maneuver, a way of covering up the removal of an incompetent executive with a pseudo-promotion.
In any event Law is now denying that such a deal is in the works.
Oh, brother. Don't even go there with me.
That same spokesperson last week said that Law was in prayerful seclusion when, in reality, he was in Rome.
This would yet another great sign of leadership from the Pope.
What a total embarrassment to the Christian community.
In effect, this would be a promotion.
Weak-kneed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This speaks volumes to me.
I am being charitable.
But seriously, who wants to raise their children in a church without a zero tolerance policy?
I support you Catholics, but you need to boot JP2.
What a bunch of hoohie. In the article in the Seattle Times today they quoted some official who said there were too many priests who had offended once, repented and were now on the straight and narrow and doing well. If that one offense was with a child, it was one too many.
But they're saying only serial offenders will be considered for removal. I can't believe you are going to tolerate and even support this.
The Divine Liturgy was in English, and she and her family felt genuinely cared for by the priest and deacon. I will be eternally grateful for that and that she didn't just give up on Christianity.
It could be a lie, but if it is, it's beyond stupid. Why totally destroy the meager shredds of credibility you have left?
Did any of you see 20/20 tonight with the gentlemen in their 60's who have tried to get one of the Pope's right hand guys ex-communicated for molesting them? They even brought a suit at the Vatican but no one even interviewed them. 20/20 tried to get the Italian cardinal who's closest to the Pope to speak about it and he was having none of it because he's protecting this priest. This cardinal, according to 20/20 (Rath-something) is apparently the one the Pope put in charge of looking into priest sexual abuse. Nothing like having the foxes guard the henhouse.
I have to agree with an earlier post, that this stuff in one way or another more than likely affects several of the American cardinals, and they fear if they call Law on his behavior, that they'll be called on theirs as well. Sad Sad Sad.
I also doubt that this problem is isolated to the American Catholic church. Interesting that we aren't hearing victims come forward, though, in Britain, Ireland, and Italy. I would have thought that we might by now.
You bet the US Cardinals know something. And Paul Shanley, the NAMBLA founder, knows a whole lot more. Like I said before, Shanley probably has a black book with all the names of NAMBLA charter members, including a Cardinal or five or six.
The men who have come forward with allegations against Maciel all sounded very credible to me. They were taken to Maciel's seminary as very young boys of ten or eleven. One told in graphic detail of Maciel's advances. He claims that Maciel made him bring the newest boys to his private quarters for sexual initiation rites. If this is true,--the way the Pope hugs and kisses and honors and favors Maciel-- I may be joining that long line of people going over to the Orthodox Church.
In the last decade hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by clergy have made headlines in Australia, Canada, and Europe. The media tend to separate the coverage of such stories from Pope John Paul II. The pope who performed so brilliantly on the geopolitical stage as a catalyst in the fall of Soviet communism and showed rare atonement in reaching out to Jews cannot, so the logic goes, be responsible for every priest.
But when the trail of accusations leads right into the Vatican, the obsession with secrecy and coverup is thrown into high relief.
In 1998 eight former members of the Legion of Christ religious order filed a petition in a Vatican canon law court at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. They sought prosecution of the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Legion's founder. The accusers included a priest retired in Spain and eight Mexicans, among them a professor of Latin American studies with a doctorate from Harvard, a professor of languages, a lawyer, an engineer, a college guidance counselor, a rancher, and a schoolteacher. A ninth man, a former university president and native Spaniard, dictated his own incriminating statement before his death years earlier. The men alleged that Maciel sexually abused them as seminarians in Spain and Rome in the 1950s and '60s. Maciel refused to be interviewed but denied the accusations in written statements.
The first accusation was made by one of the men before he left the priesthood, in a letter sent to the pope by diplomatic pouch in 1978. He received no reply. The Spanish priest also wrote Pope John Paul II with his own accusations. Again, Rome took no action.
The Vatican refuses to comment about Maciel. The pope, however, has showered him with praise as ''an efficacious guide to youth'' and, a year after the first news report, named him to a synod of bishops. In 1999 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger dismissed the canon law petition, giving no reason for his action.
Last year Ratzinger issued new rules to bishops ordering immediate investigations when priests are accused, saying that the Vatican will try such priests in secret trials if necessary.
Why is that hard to believe?
Jason Berry is the author of five books, including ``Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children.''
This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 2/3/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
Neither you nor I know how this will end up. I do know if you pull a tick too hard, you will kill the tick, but you won't get it all out. Lets all pray that the Pope pulling out this tick this way will root out all the evil he is attached to. Law is the tip of the iceburg.
Your questions contain their own answer.
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