Pope Francisco Vows to Grapple with Sex Abuse

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On Friday, Pope Francisco Bergoglio urged Vatican congregations to act “with determination” against sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic clergy, the Holy See said in a statement, the pope’s first public pronouncement on the topic. The Vatican said, referring to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles such cases, after the pope met with its director, “In particular, the Holy Father asked that the congregation … act with determination in cases of sexual abuse”.

The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Wilfrid Fox Napier, described paedophilia as a psychological “illness, not a criminal condition”. The South African cardinal told the BBC that people who were themselves abused as children, and, then, abused others, need to be examined by doctors. He was one of 115 cardinals who took part in the Vatican conclave that elected Pope Francisco.

Recently, clerical sexual abuse scandals have dogged the Catholic Church. In an interview with the Stephen Nolan programme on BBC Radio 5 Live, Cardinal Napier referred to paedophilia as “a psychological condition, a disorder. What do you do with disorders? You’ve got to try and put them right. If I… as a normal being… choose to break the law, knowing that I’m breaking the law, then I think I need to be punished”. He said he knew at least two priests, who became paedophiles after themselves being abused as children, adding, “Now, don’t tell me that those people are criminally responsible like somebody who chooses to do something like that. I don’t think you can really take the position and say that person deserves to be punished. He was himself damaged”.

Cardinal Napier’s comments triggered immediate criticism. Barbara Dorries, who was abused by a priest when she was a child, works for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, based in Chicago IL. She told the BBC, “If it’s a disease, that’s fine, but it’s also a crime, and crimes are punished, criminals are held accountable for what they did and what they do. The bishops and the cardinals have gone to great lengths to cover these crimes to enable the predators to move on, to not be arrested, and to keep the secrets within the church”.

Michael Walsh, who wrote a biography of late Pope John Paul II Wojtyła, said Cardinal Napier’s remarks were similar to the position once taken by the Catholic Church in the UK and the USA. Mr Walsh told the BBC, “At one time, they actually believed it was a condition that could be dealt with. Many bishops were simply moving priests and trying to disguise the fact that they’d been committing these crimes”. Marie Collins, who was a victim of abuse, told the BBC, “I think it’s appalling that we have a cardinal, a man at this level in the church, that can still hold these views. He’s totally ignoring the child”.

16 March/5 April 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_04_05/Pope-Francis-vows-to-grapple-sex-abuse/

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_16/Paedophilia-not-a-criminal-condition-Catholic-Archbishop-of-Durban/

Priest Pleads Guilty to One Count of Attempted Rape

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Thursday afternoon, a Greek Orthodox priest accused of trying to solicit sex from young boys entered a guilty plea in court. Patrick Nicholas Hughes was sentenced to six years in prison after being arrested last week on one count of attempted rape and one count of attempted unlawful conduct with a minor. Hughes admitted to posting an Internet ad for “taboo sex with no age restrictions” when he tried to solicit two boys, ages 9 and 14, for sex. The same day he posted the ad, he learned he was actually corresponding with sheriff’s detectives, who arrested him. In court, Hughes called the events a catastrophe, saying, “I’m abjectly sorry for, and I know I cannot repair, but nevertheless need to express that sorry to everybody”. As part of a plea deal, the judge sentenced the Hughes to six years in prison and five years post community control. Hughes will also have to register as a Tier 3 Sex Offender for the rest of his life.

27 September 2012

WNBS TV10.com

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/09/27/columbus-greek-orthodox-priest-court-plea.html

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Hughes was a priest at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. This afternoon, the acting dean of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Columbus OH pleaded guilty to a bill of information accusing him of trying to meet two boys for sex. Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott sentenced Patrick N Hughes, 56, to six years in prison. Prosecutors and defence attorneys recommended the sentence. The maximum for one count of attempted rape is eight years. Deputy sheriffs arrested Hughes last week. He was accused of posting an online ad “looking for taboo sex with no age restrictions”, a prosecutor said during Hughes’ initial appearance in court. A detective from the Internet Crimes Against Children task force followed up on the ad, leading Hughes to set up a meeting for what he thought would be sex with two boys, ages 9 and 14. The Metropolis of Pittsburgh, which oversees the congregation, immediately suspended him from his work at the cathedral, pending an investigation.

27 September 2012

John Futty

Columbus (OH) Dispatch

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/09/27/priest-to-plead-guilty.html

Editor’s Note:

Observe how quickly this happened. This scumbag got arrested last week, and, only a week later, they’re throwing his arse in the slam for hard time after a plea deal. This is “clout in action”. That is, the GOAA has political pull, and it isn’t afraid to use it. In Russian terms, they have blat to spare… they didn’t even let this turkey get bail… they let him rot in a jail cell until the court date… to “encourage the others”, no doubt. Compare this to the OCA and Saliba. They’ll pay for Storheim and Abdelehad, just you wait… Lyonyo, or no Lyonyo…

Now, that there’s been a conviction, I can speak openly of paedophile priests. Hughes has been the only one caught… or caught under “unfriendly” circumstances. If half of what’s whispered about certain OCA clergy and hierarchs is true… trust me, the konvertsy don’t whom they’re defending. If they did… but I fear that wouldn’t change a thing. They’re nutter fanatics and cultists… the sooner they’re gone, the better.

BMD

19 April 2012. Atheism is On the Rise… and We’re the Main Culprits…

In God’s Country, That Is, The USA

N Kogout

1930

Bezbozhnik

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Things haven’t changed much in some ways… we should turn our gaze not to notional “sinners” outside us, but rather to our own very real shortcomings and failings, and try to remedy THEM…

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Atheism is on the march, and I believe that so-called “Christians” are the main cause of it all. Firstly, read this. Note the following from it:

Only between 1.5 and 4 percent of Americans admit to so-called “hard atheism”, the conviction that no higher power exists. However, a much larger share of the American public (19 percent) spurns organised religion in favour of a non-defined scepticism about faith. This group, sometimes collectively labelled the “Nones”, is growing faster than any religious faith in the USA. About two-thirds of Nones say they are former believers; 24 percent are lapsed Catholics and 29 percent once identified with other Christian denominations. …

It’s primarily a backlash against the religious Right, say political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In their book, American Grace, they argue that the religious Right’s politicisation of faith in the 1990s turned younger socially-liberal Christians away from churches, even as conservatives became more zealous. The churches’ Old Testament condemnation of homosexuals, premarital sex, contraception, and abortion turned off the dropouts. The Catholic Church‘s sex scandals also prompted millions to equate religion with moralistic hypocrisy. Putnam and Campbell wrote, “While the Republican base has become ever more committed to mixing religion and politics, the rest of the country has been moving in the opposite direction”. As society becomes more secular, researchers say, doubters are more confident about identifying themselves as non-believers. Author Diana Butler Bass said, “The collapse of institutional religion in the first 10 years of this century [has] freed so many people to say they don’t really care”.

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Now, let’s look at a possible reason. Read this. Here’s some of the guts of that:

The Catholic Church is up in arms over President Obama’s upcoming rule requiring “Catholic institutions” to provide free contraceptive coverage in their healthcare plans. That’s hogwash because the institutions themselves aren’t Catholic. They’re business entities, not living humans with brains, and, as such, can hold no religious belief. They aren’t Catholic institutions. They’re institutions run by Catholic people.

The Catholic Church is really objecting to Catholic executives being unable to impose their dogma on others. Question: Whose religion prevails if the employee’s religion requires sexual acts? The CNN report also mentions the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) releasing a document called Our First, Most Cherished Freedom that repeats the claim that religious liberty is under attack. Unless “freedom to impose your religious will on others who do not want it” is the definition of religious liberty, it isn’t under attack at all.

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Let’s not put too fine a face upon this. The Catholic Church is upset that it can’t ram its beliefs down the throats of employees of Catholic institutions, people who may NOT be Catholics. This isn’t about religious freedom at all… it’s about the Catholic Church being above the law. Look at how they dealt with their paedophilia scandals. That certainly doesn’t raise one’s confidence in their credibility, does it? The Catholic hierarchy REFUSED to deal with the scandal until they were dragged kicking and screaming into court. Indeed, the current ranting about “religious freedom” is an attempt to divert people’s attention from the rather sorry state of the Catholic Church in the USA. The only thing that saved their gnarly arse from penury is that there’s no “Catholic Church in the USA, Incorporated” registered as a legal entity in any US state. Legally, nothing exists above the individual diocese in the Catholic Church. Therefore, no court can recover damages from any body higher than that.

Here’s something for Orthodox to think about. Legally, “umbrella” corporations DO exist, such as the “Orthodox Church in America” and the “Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’ (to name two). This means that a court CAN assess recovery for damages against a national body, as it’s a “legal person” with “legal existence”. The “Catholic Church in the USA” certainly has an existence in actual, objective, and existential terms, but it has no legal embodiment, ergo, no one can make claims against it. So far, we’ve “dodged the bullet”… I think that’s ending. I’d watch the Storheim case in Canada carefully.

Why is atheism rising? One reason is that we’ve failed the test, as far as character, honesty, and honour goes. Another is that we’ve allowed the “loudest” faction to grab the wheel, making it appear as though the Church is more in favour of the Radical Right agenda than it actually is. Lastly, we’re allowing mewling infants to speak for us; putting us in the same boat as such Sects as White Evangelicals, Mormons, Moonies, and Pentecostalists, just because they’re part of the American Right.

The Church is the Big Tent… it isn’t Gideon’s Band… it isn’t the Little Flock. Christ came for all us sinful-ginfuls, and the conventional goodthinkers of his time saw to it that He was tacked to a cross to die slowly, painfully, and horribly. Today’s “Christians” would do likewise, to speak bluntly. That’s why atheism’s on the march. We’ve not lived up to our profession of faith. Why should anyone put credence in those who demand freedom for themselves, but deny it to others? I’m not alone in wondering that…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 19 April 2012

Albany NY

27 February 2012. A Point To Ponder…

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A friend sent me this:

In a way, I do find Santorum less of a threat because he’s sincere and straightforward… you can see exactly what his agenda is, without having to sift tea leaves. Give me a Santorum any day over a Cheney or a Gingrich… wise as serpents and just as gentle.

I agree… emphatically. Remember, evil often comes in innocuous guise, and it fools many. A vote for Santorum is a vote for religious dictatorship… with everything subject to the veto of Rightwing Sectarians and hypocritical Catholic bishops (they scream about artificial birth control, but paedophile priests and crooked Vatican banking practises didn’t bother them one little bit). Interesting, isn’t it?

DO vote in November… we still have that right… FOR NOW.

BMD