Page change before the end of the reporting day!
See preceding page for earlier entries today, 3/20/10.
Cardinal Schoenborn's unexpected (given his spotty record in the past two years) but most welcome statements recently in 'defense' of Benedict XVI's record against pedophilia by priests was thankfully given some play in the MSM, though not quite as much as they gave to raving lunatics like Ali Agca or Sinead O'Connor. Here's the BBC report.
NB: I find the word 'defense' or 'defend' used in this context inappropriate because they imply there is something to defend. I prefer rebut' or 'refute', which imply an answer that contradicts the very premise of an accusation...
Austrian cardinal defends
Pope over Church abuse
March 29, 2010
A senior Austrian cardinal has defended Pope Benedict XVI's record on tackling child abuse within the Church.
Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said efforts by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to investigate a 1995 case were blocked by then Pope John Paul II.
[That's not exactly right. Schoenborn was careful to avoid making any such direct attribution to the late Pope - his references were all to "some in the (Roman) Curia". But of course, probably the main reason the MSM paid attention at all to his statements, made to Austrian TV, is because they were about obstructionism in the Curia - which supports the MSM working premise that the Church hierarchy in general has been responsible for stifling the pedophilia problem among priests.]
Cardinal Schoenborn said the Vatican had argued an investigation would generate bad publicity.
The cardinal's comments follow a week when the Vatican's record on child abuse has been intensively scrutinised.
Cardinal Schoenborn told Austrian television that the current Pope tried to establish a Church investigation into abuse allegations against a previous Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer.
The Austrian Church was rocked by allegations in 1995 that Cardinal Groer had molested youths at a monastery in the 1970s.
But it was not until 1998 that, on Vatican orders, Cardinal Groer relinquished all religious duties and sought exile in Germany. He died in Austria in 2003.
At the time of his resignation, Cardinal Groer, in a statement released by the Church in Vienna, asked for forgiveness but made no admission of guilt.
At the time, the Vatican drew sharp criticism from many Austrians for taking three years to act against Cardinal Groer.
[At least it did act finally. And against a cardinal. It's always better late than never.]
Cardinal Schoenborn, who replaced Cardinal Groer as Archbishop of Vienna in 1995, said Joseph Ratzinger was blocked in his efforts to confirm if there was a case to answer.
According to Cardinal Schoenborn, Vatican officials persuaded Pope John Paul II that the allegations were exaggerated and that an investigation would open the Church up to negative publicity.
"I can still very clearly remember the moment when Cardinal Ratzinger sadly told me that the other camp had asserted itself," Cardinal Schoenborn told ORF television.
"To accuse him of being someone who covers things up - having known the Pope for many years - I can say that is certainly not true," he added.
This is not the first time that Christoph Schoenborn has intervened in the scandal currently confronting the Church.
Earlier this month, he said clergy celibacy should be examined in trying to uncover the causes of abuse by priests.
In her blog, Lella notes that strangely, only the obsessively anti-Church ultraliberal mouthpiece Repubblica saw fit to run a story on Schoenborn's statement - but I suppose that proves the point I made earlier: That the anti-Church elements find it useful 'evidence' to buttress their premise that the Church hierarchy was more interested in avoiding scandal than in confronting criminal priests, and by extension, in redressing the wrong inflicted on innocent victims - both of which are appallingly wrong and un-Christian.
The March 29-30 issue of L'Osservatore Romano carried an item about two other weekend statements of support for the Pope by two prominent Churchmen:
In the campaign against the Pope,
the Archbishop of New York and
Cardinal Kasper speak up for him
Translated from
the 3/29-3/30/10 issue of
An 'almost frenetic campaign' is under way to implicate the Pope in cases of sexual abuses committed by priests and religious against children, according to the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Michael Dolan, in his homily at the Palm Sunday Mass in Manhattan's St. Patrick Cathedral.
[Slight factual error there - the remarks were made separately at the end of the Mass, not during the homily.]
The archbishop called Benedict XVI "a leader in the purification, reform and renewal of the Church" and called on the faithful to pray for the Pope.
Referring to the scourge of pedophile offenses by priests, he said: "Every time that this horror, this nauseating crime, is denounced - as it should be - victims and their families are wounded anew, the vast majority of priests hand their heads in shame, and sincere Catholics are exposed to another dose of schock, displeasure and even rage".
Archbishop Dolan added that the sadness is made worse by the "unrelenting insinuations against the Holy Father himself, as certain sources seem frenzied to implicate the man who, perhaps more than anyone else has been the leader in purification, reform, and renewal that the Church so needs'.
The progress made by the Catholic Church in the United States to combat this 'disgusting crime', he continued, "could never have happened without the insistence and support of the very man now being daily crowned with thorns by groundless innuendo".
On this same issue, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said this during a Palm Sunday homily at the Church of Ognissanti (All Saints) in Rome:
"These days, not just the Pope but the whole Church, and therefore every faithful, each of us, is frontally attacked and denounced by some influential media in a way that goes beyond good faith and even beyond truth".
"We are not surprised," he continued. "Jesus predicted this. The acclamations of 'Blessed is he who comes" can at any time rapidly change to hostile shouts of "Crucify him!" But there is no reason to be discouraged or to feel beaten down."
"We know that the people who blessed Jesus with singing and palms were right ultimately. Believers in Jesus triumphed. Because the Via Crucis did not end with the Crucifixion but with the Resurrection on Easter.
"The Church today needs a humble cleaning up of the unacceptable filth within, and we all need that, each of us in his own way. But if we repent and purify ourselves, the Church will emerge from this present crisis renewed, more splendid and more beautiful".
The German cardinal later said in an interview to be published in
La Stampa today (March 30): "All the experts have documented that the overwhelming majority of child abuses cases takes place within families, not in ecclesiastical circles".
Kasper said what is taking place is "an instrumentalization of the incidence of pedophilia among priests", going on to denounce its corollary: "To blame priestly celibacy for this is the true adn proper abuse above all abuses".
"The Pope," he reminded, "teaches us that the priest no longer belongs to himself, but that through the sacramental seal that he received in Holy Orders, becomes the property of God".
He believes that it is most of all 'inopportune' to raise the question of celibacy "in the present atmosphere that is poisoned by polemic and scandals over the sexual abuses committed by some priests and religious".
Meanwhile, the national bishops' conferences around the world are taking strict measures that will make clear the Church's position against sexual abuse of children.
In Austria, the bishops have named an 'independent representative' of the victims to conduct an inquiry. This was announced by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who said the role has been given to Waltraud Klasnic, ex governor of the state of Styria.
[I am surprised the OR did not carry Schoenborn's statements to ORF, but then its news reporting and selection is normally erratic, seemingly random and editorially perplexing. Case in point!
And I do thank Cardinal Kasper, and salute him sincerely for having volunteered public statements quite a few times in recent weeks to speak up for the Pope on this issue. It sort of makes up for his at best questionable remarks in 2009 in the wake of the Williamson case.]
in his blog yesterday, Damian Thompson picks up Cardinal Schoenborn's statements and chooses not to show the Austrian cardinal's discretion and deference with respect to the late Pope:
John Paul II ignored Ratzinger's pleas
to pursue Austrian cardinal for sex abuse
March 29, 2010
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger tried to persuade Pope John Paul II to mount a full investigation into a cardinal who abused boys and young monks, one of the Church’s most senior figures revealed yesterday. But Ratzinger’s opponents in the Vatican managed to block the inquiry. As the future Benedict XVI put it: “The other side won.”
The pervert cardinal was the late Hans Hermann Groer, removed as Archbishop of Vienna in 1995 following sex allegations. The source for the story is Groer’s successor in Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, an intellectual whom some commentators have tipped as a possible future Pope.
That’s quite a revelation, in my book – but it doesn’t fit the script that the Benedict-hating media have written, so we’re not hearing too much about it.
Also, I suspect that former advisers to John Paul would rather not remind us that the late Pope didn’t do enough to curb sex abuse and cover-ups. Safer to blame Benedict, eh?
Here’s the quote from a report by Philip Pullella of Reuters:
Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, in defence of the Pope, told ORF Austrian television on Sunday that Benedict wanted a full probe when former Vienna Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer was removed in 1995 for alleged sexual abuse of a boy.
But other Curia officials persuaded the then Pope John Paul that the media had exaggerated the case and an inquiry would only create more bad publicity.
“[Ratzinger] told me, ‘the other side won’,” Schoenborn said.
The other side. I suspect he was referring to a Vatican old boys’ club that Cardinal Ratzinger never joined, and which didn’t want sex abuse cases to “damage the good name of the Church” (ie, disturb their back-slapping suppers in favoured trattorie).
And the irony is that the journalists who have written lazy and hate-filled articles about Benedict XVI are unwittingly providing protection to the really compromised figures in the Vatican and bishops’ conferences.
Groer, who was as guilty as hell, died in 2003. Here is a BBC report from 1998:
The news agency of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria says a former Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, is to go into exile, because of accusations against him of sexual misconduct.
The report follows the release of a statement by the Church in Vienna in which Cardinal Groer, 78, asked for forgiveness but made no admission of guilt.
“In the past three years there have been many often incorrect statements concerning me. I ask God and the people for forgiveness if I have brought guilt upon myself,” he says in the statement.
Cardinal Groer stepped down as head of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria in 1995 following charges that he had sexually abused a schoolboy 20 years earlier. After his resignation there were further allegations that he sexually molested monks.
The charges were ignored by the Church hierarchy until two months ago when a papal investigation commenced. The inquiry was ordered by the Pope after appeals from Church leaders to settle the controversy and restore the Church’s status in Austria.
Now the statement follows a request from the Pope that Cardinal Groer give up his duties and is being taken as a sign that the investigation has found against him.
The BBC correspondent in Vienna says many Catholics in Austria are bitterly divided over the issue and some have accused the Church of covering up.
The Bishop’s chancellery in Vienna said no further steps are expected from Rome. The correspondent says this is likely to further offend the many Catholics who think Hermann Groer should no longer be a cardinal.
No further steps from Rome. Why? Probably because, according to Cardinal Schoenborn – who has some maverick views but is certainly not a liar – the future Benedict XVI had lost his battle to mount a proper investigation of a sex abuser Cardinal, instead of the secretive and inconclusive one that apparently took place. No wonder he demanded full authority to investigate these cases and assumed greater responsibility for them in 2001.
He’s facing a terrible situation, no doubt about it;
and no doubt also he made mistakes himself: the fact that he was far more vigilant than other cardinals doesn’t mean he was vigilant enough. [Et tu, Damian? After Father Z? To say that after one tenuous case unearthed so far that seems to reflect more about archdiocesan, institutional bureaucracy than personal lack of vigilance on the part of Cardinal Ratzinger????]
But history will show that it was Benedict XVI, not John Paul II, who initiated the “purification” of the Church to remove its “filth” – his words - and uttered long before this current crisis arose.
STATEMENT OF SUPPORT
FROM U.S. CATHOLIC BISHOPS
March 30, 2010
On behalf of the Catholic bishops of the United States, we, the members of the Executive Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, write both to express our deep concern for those harmed by the crime and sin of sexual abuse by clergy and to express our profound gratitude for the assistance that Pope Benedict XVI has given us in our efforts to respond to victims, deal with perpetrators and to create safe environments for children.
The recent emergence of more reports of sexual abuse by clergy saddens and angers the Church and causes us shame. If there is anywhere that children should be safe, it should be in their homes and in the Church.
We know from our experience how Pope Benedict is deeply concerned for those who have been harmed by sexual abuse and how he has strengthened the Church’s response to victims and supported our efforts to deal with perpetrators.
We continue to intensify our efforts to provide safe environments for children in our parishes and schools. Further, we work with others in our communities to address the prevalence of sexual abuse in the larger society.
One of the most touching moments of the Holy Father’s visit to the United States in 2008 was his private conversation with victims/survivors at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington. Pope Benedict heard firsthand how sexual abuse has devastated lives. The Holy Father spoke with each person and provided every one time to speak freely to him. They shared their painful experiences and he listened, often clasping their hands and responding tenderly and reassuringly.
With the support of both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, we bishops have made a vigorous commitment to do everything in our power to prevent abuse from happening to children.
We live out this commitment through the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which calls us to respond with compassion to victims/survivors, to work diligently to screen those working with children and young people in the Church, to provide child abuse awareness and prevention education, to report suspected abuse to civil law enforcement, and to account for our efforts to protect children and youth through an external annual national audit.
As we accompany Christ in His passion and death during this Holy Week, we stand with our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in prayer for the victims of sexual abuse, for the entire Church and for the world.
Cardinal Francis George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago
President
Bishop Gerald Kicanas
Bishop of Tucson
Vice-President
Bishop George Murry, SJ
Bishop of Youngstown
Secretary
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz
Archbishop of Louisville
Treasurer
Bishop Arthur Serratelli
Bishop of Paterson
Elected Member
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/04/2010 19:37]