Vatican blasts anti-Catholic 'hate' campaign

[defendandprotect]

By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer Frances D'emilio, Associated Press Writer – 51 mins ago

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican heatedly defended Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, claiming accusations that he helped cover up the actions of pedophile priests are part of an anti-Catholic "hate" campaign targeting the pope for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

(snip)

"By now, it's a cultural contrast," Sodano told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. "The pope embodies moral truths that aren't accepted, and so, the shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church." The pope "has done all that he could have" against sex abuse by clergy of minors, Lajolo said on Vatican radio, decrying what he described as a campaign of "hatred against the Catholic church."

Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based minister in the United Church of Christ who is faith work director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, described the cardinals' comments as "diversionary counterattacks" that are an affront both to the victims of clergy abuse and to gays and lesbians. "It makes me heartsick," she said.

Sex abuse allegations, as well as accusations of cover-ups by diocesan bishops and Vatican officials, have swept across Europe in recent weeks. Benedict has been criticized for not halting the actions of abusive priests when he was a Vatican cardinal and earlier while he was the archbishop of Munich in his native Germany.

snip --

In Germany, nearly 2,700 people called the church's sexual abuse hot line in the first three days it was operating, a Catholic church spokesman said Tuesday.A team of psychologists and other experts have spoken with 394 people so far, ranging from several minutes up to an hour, Trier Diocese spokesman Stephan Kronenburg said. "Most callers reported cases of sexual abuse," he told The Associated Press. "He's a strong pope," he told reporters after arriving Tuesday in Chile. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted him as calling Benedict a "great prophet of the Third Millennium."

Bertone, now the Holy See's secretary of state but formerly Benedict's deputy when the future pope, then-called Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the Vatican's morals office, has himself been swept up in the scandals.

During a May 1998 meeting at the Vatican, Bertone told Wisconsin bishops to halt a church trial against an ailing priest who was accused of sexually abusing 200 deaf children, according to a Vatican transcript. The priest died soon afterward.

"It's not true, it's not true! We have documented the opposite," ANSA quoted Bertone as saying in Chile. "Let's not talk about this topic now, because otherwise we'll be here all day verifying precisely the action taken by me and by his eminence."

snip --

Vatican Radio, presenting listeners with some of the most vehement counterattacks yet, depicted the church as a victim.

"There are those who fear the media campaign of anti-Catholic hatred can degenerate," Vatican Radio said. It noted anti-Catholic graffiti on walls of a church outside Viterbo, a town near Rome, and reminded listeners that a bishop was attacked by a man during Easter Mass in Muenster, Germany. The bishop fought back with an incense bowl. The radio likened the recent campaign to the persecution suffered by early Christian martyrs. "The crowds, incited by the slanders of the powerful, would lynch the Christians," the radio said.


___

Associated Press Writer Juergen Baetz in Berlin contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_re_eu/eu_church_abuse_vatican

[JuniperLea]

1. Ok, fair enough, but the pedophilia hatred will continue...

Got pedophiles? Better buck up... cuz this ain't over.

[Speck Tater]

2. Shameful! It's as bad as that anti-Hitler hate campaign of the 40's. nt

[DefenseLawyer]

3. Sodomy of children always gets a bad rap

Endeavor to persevere, Pope, endeavor to persevere.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Pathetic. eom

[JBoy]

5. WTF is this "church trial" bullshit?

Since when does anyone that sexually abuses children get a "church trial"? That then gets called off?

The Catholic church will regain some credibility when they start turning in each and every abusing priest for a good old-fashioned slap-the-cuffs-on and throw-your-ass-behind-bars criminal prosecution.

[Bluebear]

6. "Let's not talk about this topic now" - that does seem to be the attitude

[TroglodyteScholar]

14. Not quite...

Try "Let's not talk about this topic ever."

[Incitatus]

7. I'm no lawyer so maybe someone here can explain why no one has been charged with aiding and abetting

If felonies were committed and several people in the church knew about it, did not report it to the police, and helped cover it up, is that not a crime they should be charged with?

[beam me up scottie]

10. Good question, if a teacher is diddling kiddies after school aren't other teachers obligated to act?

Even if said teachers are morally ambivalent about pedophilia, wouldn't they still lose their jobs and be persecuted?

[TorchTheWitch]

11. statute of limitations mostly

And that needs to be changed. In the case of sexual abuse particularly with children there should be no statute of limitations just as there isn't with homicide.

[Cleobulus]

26. statute of limitations shouldn't apply since the crimes in question are ongoing...

the coverup is a crime to cover up molestation, a criminal conspiracy that, since its ongoing shouldn't be limited by statute of limitations.

[defendandprotect]

18. Think the LAW requiring Churches to report pedophiles are fairly recent . .. .

going back to 10-15 years when we first began to hear about this sexual abuse?

That's what I recall -- don't take my word for it.

Meanwhile, don't know about other countries?

But, agree with you -- these guys were aiding and abetting crimes against children!

[spanone]

8. brought on by the v a t i c a n

[Johonny]

9. his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

is read by many as HATRED OF GAYS AND WOMEN. So who's shocked hating on others leads to others hating on you?

For the record the current situation has a lot of self identified western Catholics unhappy with the church. So it's not like a hate campaign so much as a general disgust from within. These people aren't anti-Catholic. Many are Catholic. If you were Catholic and hoping for a little modern enlightenment on such issues as birth control or homosexuality, it's a little disheartening to find the church hasn't even moved past covering up pedophilia :(

[Catshrink]

12. That's right, blame the victims.

Circling the wagons and denial are what got them into this mess, aside from the crimes themselves. It isn't going to work anymore.

[defendandprotect]

20. +1000% -- and the RCC has certainly had its own LONG list of enemies they've bashed to hell + back-!

Begin with Nature, actually --

But who was bashing women, except the RCC -- ?

"Hammer of Witches" and still running the church propaganda vs women/females!

Africans enslaved here -- Papal Bulls -- enslave them or kill them --

same with Native Americans. How much property did they steal from the Native American?

Kidnapping their children, brainwashing them, beating them in US/Government Church schools

run by Catholic + Mormon Church!

Jews -- ??? Who was bashing them except the RCC -- having taught hatred for Jews for 1,500

years! Pope had Jews confined to Jewish ghettoes in Papal States until 1863-64?

That's the same period as the Emancipation Proclamation in America!

And, actually, the Jews were finally freed by the French - "Equality for all!" -- and

by Italian government, who then moved the Vatican back into the area they now occupy!

Popes forced Jews to wear Yellow Stars -- isolated them from society. Barred them from

education and professions! And, of course, the Catholic Crusades!!

Homosexuals--??

Who but the RCC has preached hatred and intolerance for homosexuals -- calling them an

"obomination" from their pulpits!!

Who's left?

Pagans -- and others called "heretics" by the church -- and killed?

Oh, yeah -- Pope JPII told us that the Elites are actually "nice guys" . . . !!!


The question is, how long can the Vatican keep conning Catholics and others?


How about Obama stops giving them out money?

How about we get on with teaching kids what they have a right to know about normal human

sexuality?

[walldude]

13. Quote: shortcomings and errors of priests are used as weapons against the church"

So raping children is now a "shortcoming and an error". Using your position of absolute power over a child to abuse them is a shortcoming?

Maybe what the Catholic Church needs is a new "moral truth". Here's one.. When you not only cover up a crime, but hide the criminal and give him a new place to commit ore crimes, you are just as guilty as the criminal. It's called facilitation. And the entire fucking church is GUILTY.

Fuck the Vatican and Fuck The Pope, and Fuck Bill Donahue.

[RainDog]

15. pope. moral truths. lol.

he's damn right that those the church chooses to HATE and OPPRESS attack the church.

but if the church hadn't operated what was essentially a pedophile ring within its structure, for whatever misguided reasons (even assuming it was the best of them... give me a fucking break... cut off from reality much?) then no one would say anything about pedophile priests who are shielded from prosecution while victims were told to shut up or only talk to a priest. for decades.

these are such lame attempts at trying to deflect blame.

so far we've had: the German govt, the press, the GBLT community, the pro-choice/pro-women community, Satan...

Hmmmm. Who would I trust to have anything of value to say about women's lives? A man who spent a decade, at least, keeping a pedophile scandal covered up or a doctor who is trained in his profession? Who would I trust to have anything of value to say to women about their birth control choices? A man who denies he covered up pedophile abuse or a woman who actually knows what it's like to be pregnant, give birth and raise children?

I didn't mind when the church was merely irrelevant. When it was obvious it was also criminal, that's when I really got pissed at their ignorant opposition to women's rights.

anyone in the American govt. who claims he or she makes any decision based upon religious belief that stems from this sickness that is the modern RCC is part of the problem too.

[old mark]

16. If the church had shown even a little honest remorse, this would have gone

much better. This lying and blustering and covering up may finally kill the old dinosaur, and I certainly hope it does. It is about time,


mark

[marmar]

17. Apparently the mirrors are all broken at the Vatican.....

...... because no one seems to be looking into them.

[nickinSTL]

19. curious how Catholics view this

I mean, this is a desperate, blame someone else ploy by an organization that has institutionalized the business of hiding pedophiles. They alone are to blame for the vitriol that is now aimed their direction, and they look pathetic and desperate to be complaining about it.

It further feeds the perception that the Church does not see anything all that wrong with what their pedophilic priests are doing.

[defendandprotect]

21. In a strange and ironic parallel . . .

we might compare the members of the church to members of the Democratic Party --

We know there is total corruption, but we continue to stay -- ???

[ZombieHorde]

22. I don't give the Democratic Party money because I have some serious issues with

many of their policies.

[defendandprotect]

23. Same for me . . ..

Of course, I don't mean to suggest that sexual abuse of children and covering it up

is equivalent -

but certainly losing government to corporations/corporatism effects the well-being of all Americans!

[walldude]

24. It's a lot easier to walk out of a church then it is to pack up your family

and leave the country. My parents moved a lot when I was a kid, it sucked. I won't do it to my kids. Having said that as soon as they are out on their own I'm gone. Seriously. New Zealand, Australia, whoever will take us.

And as far as the party is concerned I have been registered independent for years now, I left "the party" a long time ago. Not liberal enough for me.

[amborin]

25. sickening ! k and r

[DaveinJapan]

27. "The pope embodies moral truths..." Seriously? Embodies? FUCK HIM. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Bertone, 2003: "civil society must respect the ‘professional secrecy’ of priests"

Four senior Catholic leaders, including two Vatican officials and a cardinal widely viewed as a leading candidate to be the next pope, have opposed policies that would require bishops to report sexual abuse charges against priests to the police.
...
Bertone’s comments came in a February interview with 30 Giorni, an Italian Catholic magazine directed by former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Bertone argued that a priest should be able to confide in his bishop without fear of legal consequences.

“In my opinion, the demand that a bishop be obligated to contact the police in order to denounce a priest who has admitted the offense of pedophilia is unfounded,” Bertone said. “Naturally civil society has the obligation to defend its citizens. But it must also respect the ‘professional secrecy’ of priests, as it respects the professional secrecy of other categories, a respect that cannot be reduced simply to the inviolable seal of the confessional.

“If a priest cannot confide in his bishop for fear of being denounced,” Bertone said, “then it would mean that there is no more liberty of conscience.”

http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/053102/053102h.htm

So he's saying that if a priest admits to his bishop he's a paedophile, outside of the confessional, then the bishop can't 'denounce' (ie report, but 'denounce' sounds more like a false accusation, doesn't it?) the priest to the legal authorities. So, even in 2003, Bertone wanted to cover up child rape.