Brace yourselves! The MSM may now have a newspeg to revive their anti-Church, anti-Pope campaign...
Victims of priest abuse plan
protest at the Vatican this afternoon
ROME, Oct. 31 (AFP) -
People from across the world who have been abused by priests will gather outside the Vatican Sunday afternoon to condemn the Catholic Church's handling of the scandal, its worst crisis in years.
Several hundred protestors -- victims of abuse and their families -- are expected to demonstrate at the home of the powerful Church before leading a candle-lit vigil at which they will leave personal messages for the Vatican.
"This isn't an attack on faith or religion, it's about behaviour and ethics," said Marco Lodo Rizzini, a spokesman for child victims of abuse from Italy's Antonio Provolo institute for the deaf.
Sixty-seven deaf-mute children at the Catholic institute in the city of Verona were allegedly abused by priests and lay staff between the 1950s and 1980s.
Similar claims have emerged from across Europe and the United States, with the Church accused of not acting quickly or firmly against priests involved and even covering up the problem.
"Society has failed to address the problem of child abuse by priests, but we can't let this go unresolved, it's time to act," Bernie McDaid, co-founder of the US group Survivors Voice that is behind the event, told AFP.
"We're hoping to expose the cover-up and ensure that children all over the world who suffer abuse receive help," said McDaid, who was abused by a priest when he was a boy.
The protest, due at 1600 GMT, will draw people from 13 countries including Australia, Belgium, Britain, The Netherlands and the United States, organisers said.
McDaid founded Survivors Voice with a fellow victim of clerical child abuse, Gary Bergeron, "to bring survivors and supporters from around the world together for the first time" and to recognise the issue's "global impact."
"We're gathering at the Vatican because we want the world to realise that if a child can be abused somewhere that is supposed to be the ultimate safe place, it can happen anywhere," said Bergeron.
"If children can be abused by a person who represents God -- in any faith -- they can be abused by anyone," he said.
Bergeron, who told his parents in 2002 he had been abused before discovering that his father was also a victim of clerical paedophilia, said the demonstration was not about making an example of the Catholic Church.
"Sadly it has already made an example of itself," he said.
The Church is grappling with its worst crisis in recent years since the publication in November 2009 of a report revealing serial abuse of children by priests in Ireland and a subsequent cover-up, with similar cases unveiled in countries including Belgium and Germany.
Senior clerics were accused of protecting guilty priests by shifting them to other parishes, where some offended again, instead of handing them over to face justice.
Pope Benedict XVI himself has faced allegations that, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he headed the Vatican morals watchdog and earlier as the Archbishop of Munich, he failed to take action against predator priests.
The Pope has stepped up his displays of contrition towards victims of paedophile priests on state visits as part of a concerted effort to convince Catholics and the wider world that the Church is now serious about tackling abuse.
The US association plans to mark the demonstration in Rome by announcing "The Year of the Survivor" and has started a global online petition to call on the United Nations to define paedophilia a "crime against humanity."
UPDATE
I was curious to find out how many protesters would turn up. Now we know... This report is from RTE, the official Irish TV news channel, so one must assume it is accurate. It would not knowingly underplay the event... Remember the last time the victimhood advocates planned 'a huge protest at the Vatican'? Exactly four protesters showed up... But the sicko advocates never learn!
Abuse victims bring
protest to Vatican
31/10/2010
ROME - Clerical sex abuse victims from across the world on Sunday took their calls for justice from Pope Benedict XVI to the doors of the Vatican itself.
Close to a hundred protesters _ victims of abuse and their families _ gathered in Rome before leading a candle-lit vigil to the edge of St Peter's Square on which they will leave personal messages for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
[So how many in the group were actual victims? The 'about a hundred' probably included many victimhood advocacy activists, too!.. Or maybe most of them were the 67 victims from Verona?]
The US group behind the event, Survivor's Voice, said the victims had not been given permission to enter the square as a group, but would attempt to go in small numbers to leave letters and stones to mark their visit.... [YADA YADA YADA....]
[The rest of the story is a recycling of what AFP has in the earlier story...]
Not to minimize the gravity of the offenses committed against the victims, but evidently, few of them felt the urgency to spend money and time to join the organized - and in many ways, contrived - protest. The organizers are merely interested in scoring propaganda points, which MSM is only to glad to give them, but I can almost bet the number of media present to cover the protest was easily at least twice the number of protesters.
Victims should campaign insistently with their local bishop to seek redress if they have not yet been listened to. At the same time, they shoudl write Mons. Scicluna at the CDF to let him know.
But it defies common sense to think that any of them needs to do any grandstand play, such as as that staged at the Vatican today, to call attention to their plight. Surely, local, regional and national media have already given everyone willing to talk about his experiences as much of a public forum as they can wish for! And in the United States, at least, many of them who had sustainable accusations have been given their day in court. And for the victimhood advocates to continue exploiting victims for PR purposes is victimizing them all over, not to mention promoting the very unhealthy affliction of victimhood, which has never done anyone any good!
Police block sex abuse
survivors near Vatican
By NICOLE WINFIELD
ROME, Oct. 31 (AP) – Italian
paramilitary police
[They're your usual carabinieri who carry out security functions around the Vatican. But suddenly inserting the word 'paramilitary' to describe them makes it all sound more ominous and sinister! Winfield, your bias is SOOOO obvious!] blocked a boulevard leading to the Vatican to prevent a march Sunday by some 100 survivors of clergy sex abuse [Nice try, but RTE already told us that number includes their families] from reaching St. Peter's Square, but later allowed two protesters to approach Vatican soil so they could leave letters from the abused at the Holy See's doorstep.
The pair, including one of the organizers, Gary Bergeron of Boston, were escorted by police as they carried thick, lit candles to the edge of the square.
Then, after the two were told to put out the candles, Vatican security guards accompanied them to the foot of the staircase leading to the Apostolic Palace's bronze entrance doors.
There, according to Bergeron's account, the two deposited the sealed letters at the foot of the stairs, and after their passports were examined they were accompanied to the obelisk in the middle of the square. There they were allowed to leave a dozen stones, to indicate a symbolic path marker so other survivors might know they have company in their suffering.
Bergeron then went into a meeting with Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, who earlier had beaten a hasty retreat to his office when a protester shouted "Shame, shame" in Italian....
I won't bother to post the rest of Winfield's biased ballast, but even she could not inflate the number of protestors. Also, she ignored a statement from Fr. Lombardi, translated below:
"There was no problem nor any incident with the protestors gathered in front of Castel Sant'Angelo. I approached them to speak to the organizers. Newsmen and TV coverage teams were there but I did not see the promoters, so I went back to Vatican Radio. That's all. Nothing happened while I was there.
The fact that one of the promoters did 'go into a meeting with Fr. Lombardi afterward', according to the AP story itself, validates Lombardi's statement.... Indeed, one must commend Lombardi for even thinking of walking up to the protesters!
So, alright already! MEDIA GO HOME, and lick your wounds in private. You expected a media-tailored bang - all you got was a whimper and a fizzle. Of course, not one of the MSM reports on the protest mentioned that 50,000 faithful were at St. Peter's earlier in the day for the Holy Father's Angelus. We can be sure, however, that he has been saying prayers for the victims and their advocates and the media.
P.P.S.
John Allen has this informative follow-through account, with the text of a very beautiful Christian letter from Fr. Lombardi. Thanks, Mr. Allen, for working this Sunday; nobody else appears to have this story. (However, Fr. Lombardi's personal initiative - though I don't doubt it was cleared 'upstairs' - should not be automatically attributed to 'the Vatican'.)
Vatican asks victims to see Church
as ally in fighting abuse
by John L Allen Jr
Oct. 31, 2010
After roughly sixty victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in various nations held a vigil today near St. Peter’s Square, a delegation of the victims met with Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson. Lombardi gave the victims a letter pledging to work towards “solidarity and consensus between us.”
“Of course, we must continue to do more. And your cry today is an encouragement to do more,” Lombardi wrote.
“But a large part of the church is already on the good path. The major part of the crimes belong to times bygone. Today’s reality and that of tomorrow are more beckoning. Let us help one another to journey together in the right direction.”
Lombardi asked the victims to see the Catholic church as an "ally" in the fight against abuse, wherever it occurs.
“This fight must be fought by us together, uniting our forces against the spread of this scourge,” he wrote.
Lombardi acknowledged that the church has learned about the reality of abuse in part because of what the victims of priestly abuse, including victims' groups, have taught it.
Lombardi provided the full text of his letter to the victims to NCR, which appears below.
The vigil, billed as “Reformation Day,” was organized by “Survivors Voice,” a group led by two Boston-area abuse victims from the United States, Gary Bergeron and Bernie McDaid. In April 2008, McDaid was one of five victims who met Pope Benedict XVI in Washington, D.C., the pontiff’s first encounter with victims of sexual abuse.
According to Italian news reports, Lombardi walked from his Vatican office to the area near Castel Sant’Angelo, roughly five minutes away, where the victims had gathered. They had been denied permission to assemble in St. Peter’s Square itself, though a few victims entered the square individually to deliver letters to the Vatican, where were received by a Swiss Guard.
ANSA, an Italian news agency, reported that when Lombardi approached the victims, a couple yelled “Shame!” Later, however, Lombardi met with a group of eight victims in his office at Vatican Radio for almost an hour.
In comments to the media, McDaid and Bergeron were critical of the church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis.
“No other institution would be permitted to protect its own management the way they do,” McDaid was quoted as saying.
Bergeron said “there’s no person, in any position or any institution, in any part of the world, whose importance ought to rank above defending children or the law.”
Fr. Lombardi's letter:
The windows of my office at Vatican Radio are just a few metres away, and therefore it seems fitting to me to listen, and to make a tangible sign of our attention, to your meeting.
This intervention of mine is not an official one, but because of my deep insertion and identification with the Catholic Church and the Holy See, I believe I can express the feelings shared by many regarding the object of your manifestation.
In this, I feel encouraged by the attitude of the Pope, made manifest many times, that is, to listen to the victims, and show the will to do everything necessary, so that the horrible crimes of sexual abuse may never happen again.
I must say that, even though I do not share all of your declarations and positions, I find in many of these the elements on which one can develop a pledge, that will bring solidarity and consensus between us.
It is true that the Church must be very attentive so that the children and the young, who are entrusted to her educational activities, may grow in a completely secure environment.
Yesterday morning, a hundred thousand young people were present in these places for a great celebration of their faith and of their youthfulness, and they are but a small part of the youths who take part with trust and enthusiasm in the life of the Church community.
We must absolutely ensure that their growth be healthy and serene, finding all the protection which is rightfully theirs. We all have a great responsibility with regards to the future of the youth of the world.
It is true that the procedures of investigation and of intervention must be ever swifter and more effective, whether from the Church or from the civil authorities, and that there must be a good collaboration between these two, in conformity to the laws and situations of the countries concerned.
I know you think that the Church should do more, and in a quicker way. From my point of view – even though one may and should always do more – I am convinced that the Church has done, and is doing a lot.
Not only the Pope, with his words and example, but many Church communities in various parts of the world have done and are doing a lot, by way of listening to the victims as well as in the matter of prevention and formation.
Personally, I am in contact with many persons who work in this field in many countries, and I am convinced that they are doing a lot. Of course, we must continue to do more. And your cry today is an encouragement to do more.
But a large part of the Church is already on the good path. The major part of the crimes belongs to times bygone. Today’s reality and that of tomorrow are more beckoning. Let us help one another to journey together in the right direction.
But the more important thing that I wanted to say to you is the following, and I feel encouraged to say it, because it seems to me that you also are aware of it.
The scourge of sexual abuses, especially against minors, but also in a general way, is one of the great scourges of today’s world. It involves and touches the Catholic Church, but we know very well that what has happened in the Church is but a small part of what has happened, and continues to happen in the world at large.
The Church must first free herself of this evil, and give a good example in the fight against the abuses within her midst, but afterwards, we must all fight against this scourge, knowing that it is an immense one in today’s world, a scourge which increases the more easily when it remains hidden; and many are indeed very happy that all the attention is focussed on the Church, and not on them, for this allows them to carry on undisturbed.
This fight must be fought by us together, uniting our forces against the spread of this scourge, which uses new means and ways to reach out today, helped in this by internet and the new forms of communication, by the crisis hitting families, by sexual tourism and traffic which exploit the poverty of the people in various continents.
What the Church has learnt in these years – prompted also by you and by other groups – and the initiatives that she can take to purify herself and be a model of security for the young, must be of use to all.
For this, I invite you to look at the Church ever more as a possible ally, or – according to me – as an ally already active today in the pursuit of the most noble goals of your endeavours.
P.P.S. 11/1/10
For the record, here is the CNS account of the episode. :
Sex abuse survivors
hold vigil near Vatican
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY, Nov. 1 (CNS) -- Gary Bergeron and Paola Leerschool, who had hoped to observe a moment of silence in St. Peter's Square with a large group of sex abuse survivors and their supporters, ended up walking to the Vatican alone, leaving letters for Pope Benedict XVI and leaving a small pile of stones to show survivors they had been there.
"The journey of a survivor is one step at a time. This is one step," said Bergeron, a native of Massachusetts and one of the numerous youngsters abused in the 1960s and 1970s by then-Father Joseph Birmingham, who once served as a priest in the Boston Archdiocese and since has been laicized.
Even though Italian military police prevented
the whole group of about 100 people -- sex abuse survivors and their supporters -- from walking together to St. Peter's Square Oct. 31, Bergeron said the event "was very powerful for many of the survivors and, to me, that's a success."
Bernie McDaid, who also was abused by Father Birmingham, told the survivors, "My anger, your anger, our anger is justified."
He said that while the church has enacted new norms for preventing and dealing with abuse cases, the fact that new revelations of abuse erupted again this year, shows that more must be done.
"We cannot heal until things change," he said.
McDaid and Bergeron, founders of Survivors Voice, organized the event for Oct. 31, which many Protestants celebrate as Reformation Day, the anniversary of Martin Luther writing a letter in 1517 protesting the sale of indulgences and setting off what became the Protestant Reformation.
The two called on the United Nations to declare sex abuse a "crime against humanity."
Bergeron told Catholic News Service, "This is not a protest. This is a gathering of people standing with survivors and in one voice saying, 'Enough.'"
He said he and McDaid did not ask in advance for a meeting with anyone at the Vatican, but did ask dozens of U.S. bishops to help them get permission to hold a vigil in St. Peter's Square. Only two of the bishops answered and both said they couldn't help, Bergeron said.
The group did not have a permit from the Italian government to hold a public gathering, although police allowed them to give interviews, make speeches and observe their moment of silence in front of Castel Sant'Angelo down the street from St. Peter's Square.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, went to the castle grounds to speak to McDaid and Bergeron, but left after more than 100 photographers and reporters crowded around him and after one of the Italian survivors shouted "shame."
When the survivors' group tried to leave the castle grounds to walk down the boulevard to St. Peter's, a row of Italian police stopped them. In the end, a couple of police officers and dozens of journalists walked with Bergeron and Leerschool -- the wife of a Dutch survivor of abuse -- to the square while the rest of the survivors' group stayed behind.
Italian police also accompanied Bergeron and Leerschool to the Bronze Doors, a Vatican entrance, where they left about 75 letters from sex abuse victims. The two said the police held their passports for about 10 minutes before returning them and escorting the two into St. Peter's Square.
In the square, Bergeron and Leerschool left a dozen stones at the foot of the obelisk as a sign to other survivors that they had been there and were in solidarity with them, they said.
Bergeron and McDaid and six others later met with Father Lombardi.
The Jesuit said, "We spoke for almost an hour. They told me their position and their concerns."
Father Lombardi said that when he had gone earlier to Castel Sant'Angelo he had done so to greet the organizers, but since they had not yet arrived "and there was a certain confusion," he returned to his office at Vatican Radio after letting people know he'd be willing to meet the survivors.
Bergeron went up to his office briefly before the vigil began and Father Lombardi gave him a statement he had prepared as a sign that he and other Vatican officials were aware of the survivors' presence.
"I know you think that the church should do more, and in a quicker way," Father Lombardi's statement in English said. "From my point of view -- even though one may and should always do more -- I am convinced that the church has done, and is doing a lot. Not only the pope, with his words and example, but many church communities in various parts of the world have done and are doing a lot, by way of listening to the victims as well as in the matter of prevention and formation," he said.
Most of the survivors and supporters at the event were from a school for the deaf in Verona, Italy [I was right then to surmise earlier that probably most of them represented the victims from Verona!]; they said dozens of priests on the staff abused students over the course of decades and were never arrested or punished in any way. Other survivors came from Ireland, the Netherlands, England and Australia.
I may be quibbling, but this is a newsman's observation: Since the group of 'nearly 100' also included families and supporters of the victims, it might have been fairly easy for any reporter to do a headcount of the actual victims and the countries they came from. No one apparently bothered to do so. BTW, the few pictures posted by the news agencies of the protestors were all tight shots that made it appear there were so many more people - like the photos they took of the demonstrators in London.
I must also note that none of the MSM news agencies used Fr. Lombardi's letter at all - perhaps because it places the Vatican in a 'sympatthetic' light. But thank you, Fr. Lombardi, for that beautifully Christian letter. I think it is one of the best things you ever wrote and did!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/11/2010 16:14]