BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

A great initiative which the communications people for the papal visit should be undertaking and on a massive scale:


'Protest the Pope’ accusations
of Pope Benedict’s ‘crimes’ -
they are simply wrong!
July 22, 2010


Peter Tatchel & Protest the Pope accuse Pope Benedict XVI of the following so called ‘crimes’. Protect the Pope has begun to refute each one of them:

Opposing the distribution of condoms,
thus increasing large families in poor countries
and the spread of AIDS

o Dr. Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, told National Review Online last week that despite AIDS activists and media outlets pounding the Pope for downplaying the effectiveness of condoms, the science actually supports the Catholic leader’s claim.

”The pope is correct,” Green told NRO, “or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the Pope’s comments.”

“There is,” Green added, “a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded ‘Demographic Health Surveys,’ between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by ‘compensating’ or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology.”

o Whiteside (University of KwaZulu-Nataland) Parkhurst (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) partially attribute the low rate of HIV prevalence in predominantly Muslim countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia to the ban on sex during daylight hours during the month of Ramadan. (Other contributing factors to this low prevalence rate are the practice of universal male circumcision and strict teachings on alcohol use, homosexuality and extra-marital sex.)

o The Catholic Church provides 27% of the healthcare worldwide for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, making no distinction between Catholics and non-Catholics.


Promoting segregated education

The UN Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children (Art 26,3) & ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief inteaching, practice, worship and observance.’ (art.18).

‘You can be proud of the contribution made by Scotland’s Catholic schools in overcoming sectarianism and building good relations between communities. Faith schools are a powerful force for social cohesion, and when the occasion arises, you do well to underline this point. (Pope Benedict’s Address to Scottish Bishops, 2010)’.


Denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women

The Second Vatican Council document, The Church in the Modern World, states: "To these problems there are those who presume to offer dishonorable solutions indeed; they do not recoil even from the taking of life. But the Church issues the reminder that a true contradiction cannot exist between the divine laws pertaining to the transmission of life and those pertaining to authentic conjugal love.

"God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator. (Gaudium et Spes, 51, 27)


Opposing equal rights for lesbians,
gay, bisexual and transgender people

"The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided’. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2358).


Failing to address the many cases of abuse
of children within its own organisation.

Pope Benedict on child sexual abuse in the Church: "On several occasions since my election to the See of Peter, I have met with victims of sexual abuse, as indeed I am ready to do in the future. I have sat with them, I have listened to their stories, I have acknowledged their suffering, and I have prayed with them and for them.

"Earlier in my pontificate (2006), in my concern to address this matter, I asked the bishops of Ireland, “to establish the truth of what happened in the past to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected, and above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes”. (Pope Benedict’s letter to the Irish, 2010).


'Rehabilitating' a bishop who denies the Holocaust
and Pope Pius XII, 'appeaser of Hitler'

o Pope Benedict XVI has told American Jewish leaders that any denial of the Holocaust is “intolerable”, especially if it comes from a clergyman.

“The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah (Holocaust) was a crime against humanity. “This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures…” (BBC report 12 February 2009)

o During the war, the New York Times called Pius XII “the only ruler left on the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all…the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism…he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christmas peace.” (Christmas 1941).

o New research has found that Pope Pius XII may have arranged the exodus of about 200,000 Jews from Germany just three weeks after Kristallnacht, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

The research is being carried out by Dr. Michael Hesemann, a German historian who is combing through the Vatican archives for the Pave the Way Foundation, a U.S.-based interfaith group. (Haaretz, 7/7/10).

o On the day of Pius XII’s death in 1958, Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, cabled the following message of condolence to the Vatican: “We share in the grief of humanity…When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims.” (Wikipedia).

o As early as December of 1940, in an article published in Time magazine, the renowned Nobel Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein, himself a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, paid tribute to the moral “courage” of Pope Pius and the Catholic Church in opposing “the Hitlerian onslaught” on liberty.

0 Sir Martin Gilbert, described as “a British historian and the world’s leading expert on the Holocaust”, is quoted as saying that the Pope should be considered as a “Righteous Gentile” by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority.


Prominent barrister challenges false allegations of
'a world-wide criminal conspiracy by the Church'

July 24, 2010

Neil Addison, Barrister at Law and National Director of the Thomas More Legal Centre, has sent Protect the Pope.com his in-depth analysis of the general allegation that the Church has been engaged in an international conspiracy to cover up child abuse.

Protect the Pope.com is honoured to be associated with the work undertaken by the Thomas More Legal Centre which aims to challenge religious discrimination and protect religious freedom in England and Wales.

The full peper is posted in the section ‘Benedict XVI’
protectthepope.com/?page_id=16

Mr Addison concludes: "Church authorities in individual countries can be criticised for responding inadequately to allegations of child abuse ,and those situations have to be dealt with country by country, but the main allegation being made against the Church and the Pope is an allegation of criminal conduct and that allegation is not justified by any proper analysis of the facts, the evidence or the law."

Here are some excerpts from Neil Addison’s legal analysis:

1. It has been suggested in various newspaper articles, media interviews, blogs etc that documents revealed during the Catholic Church child abuse scandal have implicated the Church in general and Pope Benedict in particular in a criminal conspiracy to facilitate child abuse or alternatively to obstruct justice by failing to report allegations of child abuse to public authorities.

4. In English Statute Law, the crime of conspiracy requires two or more persons to agree to carry out a course of conduct which “will necessarily amount to or involve the commission of any offence”, whilst the Common Law definition of conspiracy accepted by the US Supreme Court involves “an agreement to commit an unlawful act” and the Canadian Criminal Code requires “an intention in common to carry out an unlawful purpose”.

5. In his Guardian article suggesting that the Pope should be arrested when he visits Britain, Geoffrey Robinson QC (Queen's Counsel) accused the Pope and the Church of “aiding and abetting sex with minors.”

Under English Law “aiding and abetting” requires the accused person to perform “an act capable of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence” either “intending” or “believing” that the act will “encourage or assist its commission” similar provisions apply in the criminal laws of Canada Australia and the USA.

6. Therefore in order to have the basis for a criminal prosecution either of conspiracy or aiding and abetting, it is necessary to prove that the defendant (in this case the Pope and/or other Church officials) did acts (actus reus) which helped sex offenders to commit their crimes and/or to evade justice and that the intention (mens rea) of the Church was to assist in the commission of those crimes or the evasion of justice.

In order for there to be a conviction for criminal conspiracy or aiding and abetting, under English law,there must be a deliberate intention that a crime should be committed and my reading of the law in USA Australia and Canada is that the rules are the same in those jurisdictions.

8. Therefore in order to prosecute the Pope or the Church on the basis of the 1962 Crimen Solicitonis or the 2001 De Delictis Gravioribus, it is necessary to show that the intention behind the letters was to assist crime.

Careful reading of both letters show that they were in fact mainly aimed at dealing with acts which were not criminal

9. When examining the two letters it is important to bear in mind that they apply to the Church throughout the world and as such, attempts to apply consistent internal Church rules to countries with a range of different legal rules and cultures.

In the 2001 letter for example, the age of a minor is set as up to 18 whilst across the world the legal age of consent for sexual intercourse can range from 13 in Spain or Nigeria to 18 in Swaziland or Idaho; similarly whilst consensual homosexual sex between adults is legal in most countries it is still illegal in many countries and indeed was illegal in England until 1967.

10. More importantly, the two letters only deal with the internal procedures to be adopted by the Church in deciding whether a Priest accused of acts (which might or might not be criminal in the country in which they occur) should be disciplined by the Church and possibly removed from the priesthood. Nowhere in the letters is there any instruction that the civil authorities (Police) should not be told about allegations of criminal behaviour.

11. There is, of course, the criticism that neither letter gives direct and clear instructions that the civil authorities must be informed. However, that ignores the fact, already mentioned, that many allegations may be criminal in one jurisdiction but not criminal in another and many of the acts mentioned in the 1962 and 2001 letters are not criminal in any jurisdiction.

For example, a priest who has sex with a 14 year old girl in Spain does not commit a crime but would in England; a priest who has an adulterous heterosexual relationship would not commit a crime in England but would commit a crime in Iran which could lead to him and the woman being stoned to death, similarly with homosexual behaviour by a priest. All of those would be regarded by the Church as offences contrary to the two letters but would be regarded in entirely different lights by law enforcement officials in different countries.

13. In addition it should be remembered that the 1962 letter was a reissue of an earlier letter issued in 1922. and that year must also be seen in its historical context. The Bolsheviks had just finalised their grip on power and persecution of the Church and Church authorities was intense. In Mexico, anti-clerical violence and state- sanctioned murder of priests was beginning. China was in chaos being ruled either by warlords or under Japanese occupation.

Once again, it is unrealistic to expect that an instruction to the Church throughout the world would give instructions that in every country the civil authorities should automatically be informed that a criminal allegation had been made. After all, how does a Bishop report a crime to the police when being a Bishop is itself a crime ?

14. Though the main attention on the 1962 letter has concentrated on the issue of child abuse, any suggestion that it is intended to assist in a conspiracy of child abuse has to take account of the fact that the 1962 letter primarily deals with “Solicitation in the Confessional” which would not constitute a criminal offence in most legal systems.

The letter then mentions in para 71 homosexual relationships, and deals in para 73 with sexual relationships with minors or with animals and applies the same rules to those offences as it has applied to the (non criminal) practice of solicitation in the confessional.

15. Therefore if the 1962 letter is to be regarded as evidence of a criminal conspiracy, that is inconsistent with the fact that its primary focus is on an activity which is not criminal. Because if the primary focus is on an activity which (though reprehensible) is legal, then there is no evidence that the intention of the document or the drafters of the document was to aid unlawful acts.

These excepts do not do justice to the fine legal argument that Neil Addison makes against the accusations of criminal conspiracy. Protect the Pope.com encourages you to read his full paper. protectthepope.com/?page_id=16


Of course, the main problem with all the accusations levelled by detractors against the Pope and the Church for supposed 'criminal acts' arises from their willful misreading of statements or deliberately ignoring objective facts.

In the case of the sex abuses committed by priests, the detractors are willfully misreading internal Church documents describing the application of canon law to a range of offenses, and interpreting canon law procedures by the criteria of the civilian justice system.