Cardinals defend Pope, criticize
media coverage of sex abuse scandal
By JUERGEN BAETZ
BERLIN, April 2 (AP) - The head of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops issued a statement on Good Friday denouncing past failures and mistakes in the church's handling of abuse cases.
Clerics have neglected helping abuse victims by a "wrongly intended desire to protect the Church's reputation," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg said on the day that Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The news about sexual and physical abuse of children by priests and other employees leaves the Church with "sadness, horror and shame," the dean of the German bishops' conference said.
Zollitsch's unusually forthright statement on the Church's past policy of allegedly covering up abuse cases comes amid a widespread debate about the openness of the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI on the issue. [WHOA! How can this writer claim that - 1) as if, at the very least, the Holy Father had never written the Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, and 2) as if Mons. Zollitsch was saying these things for the first time!]
In neighboring Austria on Friday, a group that created a hot line for Church abuse victims late last month said more than 150 people have called report cases of alleged abuse in institutions run by the Catholic Church.
"We're dealing with a lot of sadistic education methods from the 60s and 70s," Holger Eich, who supervises the hot line, told a news conference. "I hope that most of these methods are no longer being used in Church institutions — but I'm not sure."
[OK, so the hotline calls have been about disciplinary abuse, not sexual abuse! Is that not a welcome extenuating circumstance? Though it must also be remembered that corporal punishment to discipline children and students was the usual upbringing for the generations born before the 1960s!]
Meanwhile, in Vienna, an artist protested Church abuse on Good Friday by hanging above the entrance of St. Stephen's Cathedral in a pose reminiscent of the crucifixion.
In Germany, Zollitsch condemned what he called "the appalling crimes of sexual abuse" and urged the German Catholic Church to face its painful record on the handling these cases.
The Church is appalled by the harm done to victims who were often unable to speak about their pain for decades, he said.
"Wounds were inflicted that are hardly curable," the bishop added.
Zollitsch urged all priests in his diocese to pray during Good Friday services for abuse victims whose bodies and souls were hurt within the Church's community, to whom "great injustice was done."
Britain’s most senior Catholic admits
'evil' clergy abuse has led to
'great public humiliation' of the Church
By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
02 Apr 2010
Child abuse committed by priests has led to “a great public humiliation” of the church, according to the most senior Roman Catholic in Britain.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, will also tell worshippers on Easter Sunday that the cover-up of “evil” paedophilia by senior clergy “brings shame on us all”.
However he insisted that the faithful must not turn away from the church, just as voters disillusioned by the state of politics should still cast their ballots.
His forthright comments on one of the most important days in the Christian calendar highlight the concern felt at the highest levels of the Church about the effect of
clergy sex abuse scandals unfolding around the world.
[Excuse me! Ireland, Germany, Austria, Holand, Switzerland, even throw in Italy - that's 'around the world'???? How convenient - and typical of irresponsible journalists - to use a loose generalization in order to make the problem worse than it actually is!]
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, is under intense pressure to stand down
following two damning official reports in the past year which found that sexual abuse was “endemic” in Church-run schools.
[That's not the reason for the pressure on Brady. It's his disclosure that in 1975 he interrogated two boys in a sexual abuse case against a Norbertine priest whom his bishop then relieved of diocesan assignments and sent back to his order for appropriate discipline. Bishops have no canonical jurisdiction over members of religious orders. Brady is faulted because 1) he asked the boys to sign a document not to make the incident known to the public; and 2) he did not report the priest to the police.
Also, in the interests of accuracy, only one of the two reports (Ryan) specifically looked into all abuses in Catholic schools and institutions of Ireland since the 1930s. The second report (Murphy) looked into sexual abuses committed in the Archdiocese of Dublin from 1956-2004. ]
The country's hierarchy was said to have had allowed known abusers to move to other parishes rather than reporting them to police, in order to protect its reputation.
Police in Northern Ireland announced on Thursday that they have set up a dedicated team to look into child abuse by clergy “in light of the number and nature of recent allegations”.
Meanwhile historic cases of abuse in Germany and America have led to accusations that Pope Benedict XVI himself, in his former roles during the 1980s and 1990s, had allowed guilty priests to escape punishment.
[Two cases, two priests, exactly. To say 'historic cases' and 'guilty priests' - when the reporter knows very well only two cases adn two priests are referred to here - is to insinuate that there were a number of cases and a number of priests involved! Another trick of deliberate innuendo!]
The Pontiff warned of the dangers of “the petty gossip of dominant opinion” in his Palm Sunday address at St Peter’s.
Anger at the Church from abuse survivors, equality campaigners and secularist groups is likely to mean higher security is required when the Pope makes his historic first state visit to England and Scotland in September. He may also hold a private meeting with victims, as he did on earlier trips to Australia and the US.
In his Homily to be delivered at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh on Easter Sunday, Cardinal O’Brien will acknowledge the harm done to the Catholic church worldwide and its one billion followers by the recent claims, and apologise to victims.
He will say: “We have become more aware of the failures of some members of our Church whether Bishops and Priests, religious or lay people, and indeed Pope Benedict XVI in a recent letter indicates how he is aware of the human frailty of us all.
“Many evils have been committed throughout the world particularly with regard to the sexual abuse of children and young people. I myself as long ago as 2002 indicated my own personal abhorrence of this terrible crime and said at that time that I apologised to ‘anyone who has suffered any abuse at the hands of any one representing the Catholic Church’. I restate and reiterate that apology today.
“Crimes against children have indeed been committed and any Catholics who were aware of such crimes and did not act to report them, brings shame on us all. We can take no comfort from the fact that only a small percentage of priests committed such crimes – the impact of their sinful acts is very large – their actions, harmed the lives of their victims, caused great hatred to be directed at their innocent brother priests and left ordinary Catholics demoralised and confused.
“One might say that there has been a great ‘public humiliation’ of the Church as in some way or another we realise that we have not been as alert as we should have been to the evils being perpetrated around us whatever our particular position. Those involved in these crimes must apologise and ask forgiveness from those who have been offended as well as of course from Almighty God himself.”
Cardinal O’Brien, the head of the Church in Scotland who has been an outspoken critic of Labour’s laws and secularisation, will go on to say that “things are not always as they should be” in society at large.
He will call on voters to cast their ballots according to their conscience, after assessing candidates by Christian standards.
The Cardinal will draw a parallel between the loss of public trust in MPs and clergy, saying: “I would suggest that we should no more turn away from the Church than we should turn against our democracy.
“Whatever flaws or personal failings afflict them, it remains the case that the overwhelming majority of priests and politicians are honourable and honest – seeking to live out their beliefs and serve society around them.”
The day when crowds stop coming to St. Peter's Square is the day we should start worrying that the repeated attacks of the killer media may be getting to the faithful! Despite itself, AP cannot help reporting the following:
It's Good Friday, and pilgrims
fill St. Peter's Square
VATICAN CITY, April 2 (AP) – Pilgrims and tourists flocked to the Vatican ahead of Good Friday ceremonies as the Catholic Church defends itself against accusations that Pope Benedict XVI played a role in covering up sex abuse cases.
The Pope was scheduled to preside over a prayer service and listen to reflections from the papal household preacher in St. Peter's Basilica on Friday evening.
Hours later, thousands of faithful Catholics, clutching candles and prayer books, were expected to gather at the Colosseum to see the Pope at night during at the traditional Way of the Cross procession commemorating Christ's crucifixion.
Amid reports of clerical sex abuse cases in several European countries, including Benedict's native Germany, the Vatican has fired back at the Western media, but the Pope has not publicly addressed the crisis this week.
For pilgrims, the credibility crisis over the Pope's record on combatting clergy abuse of minors didn't color their Holy Week activities in Rome.
Anne Rossier of Boston, Massachusetts, said the moment was "difficult" and that "lots of people have been turned against the church" but "we could not have been in a better place right now for Easter."
Boston was at the epicenter of sex abuse lawsuits and allegations that U.S. bishops in many dioceses shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish instead of removing them from contact with the faithful. Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, at the center of the storm, resigned as archbishop, to be assigned to a prestigious post in Rome by the late Pope John Paul II.
Tourists snapped photos and strolled through St. Peter's Square on a breezy, sunny day. Valeria Misuri, 38, from Livorno, Italy, studied a map in the square as she visited Rome with her family.
"I haven't let the recent scandals change how special this place is at this time for me," said Misuri. "The Church is made up of men, and men have always erred and will always continue to do so."
[There you are, all you sanctimonious media mavens!]
Pointing heavenward, she said: "In the end, the conscience lies there."
(BTW, the AP's Victor Simpson has updated his malicious piece from yesterday with a new lead today - the story about some deaf children in a Verona institution who complained about sexual abuse, a story first reported last year in Italy and only now getting the media spotlight. Simpson says the deaf children will appear today(!) on Italian state TV RAI to tell their stories. Could RAI not have waited until after Easter Sunday to do this?????]
Pittsburgh bishop denounces
media furor over the Pope
by ANN RODGERS
Friday, April 02, 2010
Diocesan priests of Pittsburgh line prepare to enter the cathedral for the Chrismal Mass on Holy Thursday; right, Bishop Zubik.
Bishop David A. Zubik drew a standing ovation for an emotional homily describing his pain over the furor surrounding Pope Benedict XVI's past response to two sex abuse cases.
At the Holy Thursday Mass that celebrates the priesthood, Catholic Bishop David Zubik drew a standing ovation for an emotional homily describing his pain over the furor surrounding Pope Benedict XVI's past response to two sex abuse cases.
"There is no way we can mark this great moment in our liturgical year ... without recognizing the elephant in the cathedral," he said. His litany of pain ranged from harm done to victims to what he described as biased media coverage.
"I ache. I'm sick and tired. I'm angry. I'm insulted. I'm confronted by the headlines of newspapers and ongoing stories that seek to once again annihilate the body of Christ," he said, preaching without notes from the pulpit of St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland.
"It would be an absolute lie on my part to stand here today to say we bear no responsibility for great sins committed in the past by people who were trusted leaders of the church, by priests, deacons, bishops and others. So that is not what gives me the ache.
"What gives me the ache is not only the hunger and thirst to rush to judgment without an honest look at the facts, but the absolute hatred ... and disrespect for who we are and especially for what we believe."
Two stories have embroiled the pope. One is from the German archdiocese that he led from 1977 to 1982. In 1980 a priest who had molested children was reassigned to a parish days after starting therapy intended to cure him. One of the future pope's aides has claimed full responsibility for that decision, though the
archbishop ran the meeting where the assignment was approved.
[WRONG! What he approved at the meeting was to provide the priest with parish lodgings.]
The second case, from 1996, involved a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting hundreds of deaf students from 1950 to 1974. Because some of the abuse had occurred during confession, the Milwaukee archdiocese wanted to try the case as an abuse of the sacrament of confession, which carries the Vatican's stiffest penalties.
Confession cases were handled by the office then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict. But officials in that office, citing the priest's advanced age and ill health,
didn't approve a canonical trial to laicize him, though he remained banned from ministry.
In an interview, Bishop Zubik said some stories implied that Cardinal Ratzinger had been in charge of sex abuse cases since 1981, when he only took over that duty in 2001. Bishop Zubik credits the Pope with being far stronger in his efforts to remove predators than anyone before him.
"The conclusion they're drawing is that the Pope is guilty and they're not looking at all the facts," he said.
In his homily, he named many groups who he said his heart ached for. They included "anyone who has been victimized by a priest or deacon or bishop or mother or father or teacher" and for families of those victims "who carry the heavy cross of what their sibling or son or daughter has been through."
He cited faithful priests who live under a cloud of suspicion and Catholics tempted to leave the church due to shame.
"I ache for the Holy Father, Pope Benedict, who ... has spoken out not only on the wrong and the sin, but especially the crime, of abuse," he said.
But all of this pain, he said, comes from the sin that Jesus died to atone for.
"We would not be celebrating the Eucharist today if God did not ache," he said.
He closed his homily with a prayer for priests. The laity rose first in a standing ovation, and were joined by the hundreds of priests who had come to renew their vows of ministry.
Barbara Lewis, a parishioner from Holy Wisdom on the North Side, said she applauded to express her unity with the church.
"I was grateful that the bishop expressed the pain that we parishioners feel for the sorrow we have caused and for the scandal. I'm grateful that he said how much he loved his priests and saw that they are suffering," she said.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 05/04/2010 23:34]