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Anonymous

03-06-2002, 01:49 AM

American church forced to sack paedophile priests

Oliver Burkeman in New York
Tuesday March 5, 2002
The Guardian

Panicked by a mushrooming child abuse scandal among priests in Boston, the Roman Catholic church in the United States has begun a purge of suspected paedophiles.

Yesterday it emerged that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles had asked up to 12 priests to leave their ministries, while two priests in St Louis, Missouri, were suspended from duty at the weekend.

Across America, the story is the same, as the church responds to the scandal ignited by Father John Geoghan of Boston, convicted of child molestation in January after more than 130 complaints were filed against him.

Nine clergymen have been dismissed in Pennsylvania in recent days, and several are under investigation in New York state, as church leaders nationwide announce "zero tolerance" policies, where complaints were formerly handled internally...

In a separate case in California, Father Michael Pacharich, who admitted molesting a teenage boy 19 years ago, was dismissed at the weekend - six years after church authorities were informed of the complaint against him...

The leader of the church in Philadelphia, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, publicly apologised last week to 47 people who have made claims of misconduct against 35 priests.

Found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,661909,00.html (http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0%2C7369%2C661909%2C00.html)

Anonymous

03-06-2002, 01:56 AM

03/03/2002

St. Louis priest accused of child sexual abuse

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Archdiocese of St. Louis has removed a second priest over an allegation of past child sexual abuse, citing a tougher standard imposed after revelations of the child-molestation scandal involving the Boston archdiocese.

Archdiocesan officials on Saturday identified the Rev. Michael Campbell as the priest forced to resign. Campbell is pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows and a member of the St. Louis Housing Authority board.

Last week, the removal of the Rev. Joseph D. Ross from St. Cronan Church became public after Ross sent a letter to parish members advising them of his departure. Ross' ouster was in response to sexual abuse charges against him 15 years ago when he was with a different area church, the archdiocese said...

But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in Sunday's editions that at least three priests who have been accused in civil court of sexual abuse remain active in the archdiocese today, two in contact with children.

The Rev. Bruce Forman is a director of a youth choir in Soulard. The Rev. Thomas Graham is chaplain at a nursing home in south St. Louis County, and the Rev. Leroy Valentine is an associate pastor in Florissant.

Dolan said accusations against the priests were unsubstantiated, and the archdiocese had no plans to remove them...

In Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law has announced a "zero tolerance" policy on abuse, and has given prosecutors the names of 80 priests suspected of molesting children during the past four decades...

Geoghan is serving a nine-to-10 year prison sentence for fondling a 10-year-old boy, and faces two more criminal trials and 80 lawsuits.

Found at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/03/03/priest.htm

Anonymous

03-08-2002, 05:29 AM

Abusive priests could face charges

The County Attorney's Office says the diocese is cooperating in the probe.

BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen
March 7, 2002

An investigation is under way to determine whether criminal charges will be filed in the child abuse sex allegations that priests in the Catholic Diocese of Tucson molested boys, said a Pima County prosecutor.

This is the first time the Pima County Attorney's Office is looking into the allegations that led to the diocese settling in January, for an undisclosed sum, 11 damage lawsuits filed by men who said they were molested by priests...

The lawsuits claimed four priests in the diocese molested boys during the 1960s and 1970s and that the diocese knew and failed to protect the boys.
Of the four priests, two are alive: Monsignor Robert Trupia and Father Michael Teta. They no longer work with youths.

The other priests named in the suit are Pedro Luke and William T. Byrne...

Found at: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/3_7_02diocese.html

Anonymous

03-08-2002, 05:33 AM

Parishes pay dearly for abuse by priests

Diocese of Dallas, other cities have gone into debt to pay sex-misconduct victims

By Rachel Zoll Associated Press

Sexual misconduct by Roman Catholic priests has cost the church in lost faith and broken lives. Yet the damage from the scandals has been financial as well as spiritual. ...

The Diocese of Dallas had to mortgage and sell property to pay $11 million that its insurance didn't cover in the more than $30 million settlement against pedophile and former priest Rudy Kos.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., was brought to the brink of bankruptcy, and had to borrow from parish savings accounts to pay more than $50 million to settle 40 abuse cases in the 1990s.

The Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., says it likely will have to borrow money from a bank or from parish accounts to pay what insurers won't in a settlement reached last month...

Bishops customarily pay therapy costs for priests suspected of sexual misconduct. Counseling at institutes that treat clergy costs up to $350 a day, with an average stay lasting between four and seven months, according to the Rev. Stephen Rosetti, a psychologist and consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

March 4, 2002

Found at:
http://www2.caller.com/ccct/state_texas_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_876_1013418,00.html (http://www2.caller.com/ccct/state_texas_news/article/0%2C1641%2CCCCT_876_1013418%2C00.html)

Anonymous

04-04-2002, 04:03 AM

Bishop resigns after abuse claims
By Toby Helm in Berlin
(Filed: 29/03/2002)

A POLISH archbishop accused of sexually abusing young clerics after sneaking into their dormitory through an underground tunnel resigned yesterday, casting a shadow over celebrations to mark Holy Thursday.

Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, 67, bowed to intense pressure to step down following claims by fellow priests that he had molested young seminarians during late-night visits to their lodgings.+++

As the Vatican confirmed that the resignation had been accepted, the Pope made a clear reference to the scandal in his native Poland as he called on the world's 400,000 priests to "confess" their "infidelities".

"Let us pray for our brothers who have failed to live up to the commitments required of their priestly ordination or who are going through a time of difficulty or crisis," he said at a Mass in St Peter's.

The disgraced archbishop worked closely with the Pope from 1978-1982, organising his travel schedule.

In an annual letter sent to priests last week the Pope lamented the fact that some had succumbed to evil.+++

The scandal has traumatised the religious establishment in Poland where 95 per cent of the population are nominally Catholics and the Church hierarchy holds enormous influence.+++

The archbishop is believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic churchman to resign over a sex scandal since the Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer was forced into retirement in 1995 after charges of molesting former students.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;?xml=/news/2002/03/29/wpaet29.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/03/29/ixworld.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml)

Anonymous

04-04-2002, 05:02 PM

AMIGOS DEL PERU Y DEL MUNDO, FAMILIAS AFECTADAS POR EL SODALITIUM:
Abramos un foro en esta página para discutir y denunciar la condición de Secta Destructiva del SODALITIUM DE VIDA CRISTIANA. La oportunidad que nos brinda FACTnet es única e internacional. No la desaprovechemos. MASA PERU es una organización que tiene los mismos objetivos de FACTnet y nos felicitamos por esta brillante iniciativa.

Anonymous

04-07-2002, 05:52 AM

Family split by sect takes state, police to court
By Leonie Lamont
April 3 2002

Stephen Quintano says it took him only six days to track the whereabouts of his missing wife, who had left their home in Sydney and taken their son and baby to join a secret religious sect.

But it took him 17 months to locate them again, and take custody of his children, after a policeman phoned the house of a sect member.

...The Quintanos are suing over what they say is a police failure to exercise duty of care. The children are alleged to have suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse during their time with the sect, called the Traditional Catholics.

In documents read out in court, it is alleged the children were starved and, as part of the extreme discipline imposed by the sect, subjected to enemas to cleanse them.

Luke was eight and Ashlee a 10-week-old baby when their mother joined the sect.

...However, Eric White, for the Quintanos, argued that the police action did not amount to an "investigation", and as such the service was not immune.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/02/1017206205967.html

Anonymous

04-08-2002, 01:41 PM

Estimados amigos de masa_peru.
En este articulo se muestra como los cristianos en
general y los catolicos especialmente tapan con los
"misterios" lo que son simples absurdos para el
pensamiento.
Conocedor de su tarea de difusion valiente del
pensamiento. Le ruego la difusion de este pequeño
articulo.
Su amigo y servidor
Jose Maúrtua

Misterios para la religión y
adefesios para la lógica,
el pensamiento
y hasta el sentido común.

Por José Maúrtua
j_maurtua@yahoo.com
Filósofo
Presidente de la Asociación Cultural y Educativa BUHO ROJO

1-El misterio o la aceptación de sus "limitaciones"del
pensamiento.-

Los términos "divinidad" y "misterio" son términos
contiguos y cuasi conyugales en la práctica religiosa
en general y en las práctica católicas, en
particular. Dentro del conjunto de las religiones, una
de las que más gusta en su práctica de apelar a los
"misterios" es la religión cristiana católica. Ello,
debido a que los misterio religiosos le permiten a la
iglesia dar un paso fundamental sobre usted: Que
usted acepte el sometimiento al "misterio divino" y
por ello, el sometimiento al dios, administrado por la
Iglesia; generalmente al Dios administrado por la
religión que le advierte del misterio a aceptar.

Pero ¿ qué es el misterio para la religión? Misterio
religioso es aquello que no podemos explicar mediante
el uso de nuestras facultades racionales; es decir, ni
por nuestra razón, ni por nuestro entendimiento. Así,
el "misterio" religioso, implica para los religiosos y
los sometidos (los "creyentes, "fieles" en términos
religiosos) algo sumamente "grande", "sublime",
"misterioso", "superior a nuestras capacidades",
"inexplicable y por todo ello digno de "respeto,
veneración y sobretodo sometimiento"..

2. "Tás conmigo... tás con Dios ¡!!!!.-

Sin embargo, una vez que usted ya ha aceptado y
concedido que hay misterios superiores que no los
puede explicar por medio de sus facultades y de su
razón, usted ya ha dado el primer paso hacia su
sometimiento a la religión y todas los peligros que
ello implica. La aceptación del misterio, implica la
negación por su parte a ejercitar sus facultades
mentales porque otro, un tercero, el sacerdote, el
pastor , el shaman, o como se le llame al
administrador religioso, le va a facilitar a usted, un
cómodo sometimiento en "armonía" con aquello, que
ellos denominan dios.

De esta manera, dicen las iglesias y la iglesia
católica en especial- dado que es la que más gusta de
los misterios-; los sacerdotes se vuelven los
administradores, -en términos educativo
constructivistas actuales "los facilitadores"- de esa
relación problemática de dos naturalezas: una débil,
imperfecta, mortal, "tendiente al mal" naturaleza como
la suya , "revitaminizada", "fortalecida",
"santificada" por el administrador correspondiente: el
cura o sacerdote quien logra según este esquema, que
usted, pobre hijo de la tierra "amiste", "se ponga a
derecho", haga las paces, previo sometimiento al
sacerdote, con el susodicho dios.

3.- El misterio del "Dios- hombre"... el Cristianismo.

Una de las religiones mas audaces en términos lógicos
es el cristianismo. Postula nada mas y nada menos que
Jesús de Nazaret es nada mas y nada menos que Dios.
Un razonamiento lógico sumamente sencillo tumba por
completo esta proposición.

Veamos:
Postulemos lo que Dios podría ser:
Si asumimos que existe un Dios, este sería infinito,
sin comienzo, ni fin en el tiempo, inmortal; nunca
moriría; perfecto; es decir realizaría todas sus
potencialidades y potencias,
todo poderoso; todo lo podría y toda cuanta virtud
infinita pudiera pensarse de un tal ser.

Asumiendo que este ser, un dios, con todas estas
características existiese; ¿por qué un hombre que
habría nacido hace 2000 años y muerto hace 1969 años:
o sea un mortal: murió, lo crucificaron.- Por eso
mismo Finito; es decir con comienzo y fin. Un hombre
in-perfecto es muchos flancos: no cumplía con todas
sus potencialidades: familiares: no tuvo ni siquiera
familia, ni hijos, ni responsabilidades a quien cuidar
y según dicen tampoco tuvo padre; intelectuales: no
escribió nada (los así llamados evangelios, o relatos
los escribieron otros) ; laborales (sola habría
trabajado algunos años como carpintero). Murió: Fue
colgado de una cruz y por lo tanto no era todo
poderoso: No pudo siquiera bajarse de la cruz e
imponer justicia sobre los supuestos "malos" que lo
crucificaban, antros etceteras sería Dios ?

Aun habiendo sido Jesús de Nazaret "perfecto" como
humano, el mejor hombre, el más sabio, el más justo y
otras virtudes, ....Jamas podría ser Dios.
Por lo tanto el más mínimo sentido lógico nos dirá
que:

1) Jesús de Nazaret no fue ni pudo ser dios. Y
2) Que ningún hombre o mujer o niño podrían haberlo
sido.

Porque: Lo Infinito, (Dios, de existir) no puede
coincidir con lo finito (Jesús).
Porque: Lo perfecto (Dios, de existir) no puede
coincidir con lo in-perfecto. (Jesús).
Porque: Lo Todo poderoso (Dios, de existir) no podría
coincidir con lo in-potente (Jesús)

En términos formales:

Para la lógica: Es imposible que "p Ù Ø p";
es imposible aceptar violar la ley de no
contradicción .
Para la religión: Es posible que p Ù Ø p",
es posible violar la ley lógica de no
contradicción.

Es imposible aceptar la contradicción por parte del
pensamiento lógico.

4- "O sea, si la droga no te deja estudiar, o sea,
...mejor deja el estudio".-

Este subtítulo, que es tan sólo una broma que
circulaba al interior de las universidades y las
calles hace algunos años y motivo de risa entre los
estudiantes y público en general, posee, ni más, ni
menos que la misma estructura lógica que pretenden las
iglesias que uno haga con la lógica y mas aun si es
la lógica la que viene a impedir una adecuada
ingestión de los "Misterios". O sea de eso
"inexplicable por tus facultades racionales pero que
nosotros (la iglesia) te lo contamos como un
"misterio" para que te sometas, a la Iglesia.

La lógica, la ciencia son, han sido y serán los
principales enemigos por parte de la religión. La
razón de ello es que la ciencia, y la lógica aclaran
allí justo donde la religión prefiere la oscuridad.
La lógica explica al igual que la ciencia, permite
ver, y enfocar sobre el misterio y la iglesia gusta de
apagar la luz y dejarlo como "misterio"

Por eso les molestaba tanto Galileo Galilei, y lo
silenciaron en su momento, luego de humillarlo como
científico y como ser humano. Porque echaba luz sobre
la oscuridad. Por eso lo quemaron a Giordano Bruno y
a Miguel Servet. Por eso hasta ahora les friega
Darwin, y dificultan su enseñanza y difusión aunque
formalmente lo hayan aceptado de "dientes para afuera"
según el Vaticano, (si no la historia los sigue
dejando atrás con sus talegos de oscuridad y humo").
Ahora bien, la asociación que realizo en este
subacápite 4 entre la droga y "el misterio" no es
casual.

Si atendemos a la raíz de la palabra "mist-erio", (en
el inglés es mas notorio que en el español), la raíz
es "mist" y "mist" en inglés es una palabra que
significa "humo".

Martin Heidegger, diría que esto no es casual. Dado
que en la raiz de las palabras encontramos bastante
mas de lo que las tradiciones ocultan o des-ocultan
con sus propias prácticas. Así el misterio, alude a
una suerte de "humo sobre la visión, un alucinógeno
del pensamiento, un adormecedor
de la realidad. He allí el misterio.

5.- Pidiéndole peras al olmo o lo antinatural como
misterio.

Hay un capítulo en los evangelios, relativo a la
llegada de Jesús de Nazaret cansado después de una
prédica, el pasaje se encuentra en el evangelio de
Marcos 11:12 Luego de que Jesús llegaba de Betania
con los doce apóstoles" Y Jesús entró en Jerusalén en
su camino hacia el templo; y cuando llego a Betania
con los doce, por la mañana, estaba hambriento y
viendo un árbol de higueras con sus hojas caídas, se
acercó a él, pero no encontró mas que hojas en el
árbol pero no era tiempo de la higuera; en Marcos
11: 14, se afirma que: Jesús respondió a sus
discípulos y con una maldición sobre la higuera "Que
ninguno coma de este árbol de ahora en adelante y sus
discípulos lo escucharon".

Aun cuando en el mismo texto se aclara que "no era
época del árbol de higuera", el susodicho personaje
que quieren hacer divino, Jesús de Nazaret, yendo ya
no contra la lógica, sino aun contra el sentido común,
maldijo a la higuera porque no tenia higos fuera de
época!

Este comportamiento no tiene precedentes y es como si
usted quiere comer uvas y sandia en invierno y al no
encontrarlos frutos, se molestara con dichas plantas,
o quisiera comer naranjas en verano, que diría de una
persona que maldice porque no hay su capricho en su
momento, y es más, les dice a sus amigos, seguidores o
lo que sean, que no coman el fruto de ese árbol,
porque el, el jefe de la pandilla no encontró la
fruta en el momento que le dió su gana, en cualquier
época! O sea, yendo contra los tiempos de la
naturaleza.

6.- Epilogo

Con este pequeño aporte estamos señalando uno entre
tantos puntos en donde se muestra como los religiosos
y en especial los religiosos cristianos y católicos
han usado la sinrazón para imponer una creencia, y
como cuando se viola las leyes de la lógica y el
razonamiento y aun el mínimo sentido común, se le
recubre de la palabra "misterio". Para ello es
esencial el sometimiento, esto es, que usted niegue
sus propias potencialidades y su propio razonamiento.
La fórmula de los atropelladores de inteligencia es
simple: "Neguemos la lógica, neguemos la ciencia; la
creencia ciega o sea la fe, es mucho mas importante y
sobretodo: sométase y acepte la sinrazón, cosa que
usted puede aceptar el mito. En términos sencillos
¿Cómo hacemos pasar piola a la gente nuestro gran
cuento del Dios hombre, de las anécdotas de la higuera
y otras mas (que ya iremos develando) ...simplemente
con una buena envoltura....el mist-erio.

P.D. Ah, no se olviden! Este miércoles 10 de Abril a
las 8:00 p.m. en el marco de las charlas del
Movimiento Peruano Arreligioso en el local de la
Asociación Cultural y Educativa Buho Rojo, Jr. Callao
181, Pueblo Libre, se llevará a cabo la conferencia
"Derechos Humanos e Iglesia Católica". La Conferencia
estará a cargo del Doctor Jose Antonio Donayre,
presidente de PROLIBCO. Los esperamos muy
cordialmente!

Anonymous

04-08-2002, 02:13 PM

Estimados amigos de masa_peru:
Les hago entrega de este articulo en respuesta a la entrega del señor Garreaud donde exponiendo una
retorica mediocre, pretende "demostrar", sin siquiera haber contrargumentado en absoluto uno solo de mis argumentos...
Ruegoles, por tanto, su difusión
Un abrazo fraterno...
Su amigo y servidor
Jose Maurtua

Los Reyes del Humo
Por José Maúrtua
j_maurtua@yahoo.com

Exponer pretendiendo estremecer a un auditorio o a un público con un discurso iniciado con palabras
conmovedoras es un estilo retórico. Esto es el ámbito de la apariencia, del conmover sin demostrar. Al arte de aparentar verdad mediante el discurso. He aquí a la retórica, denunciada por Platón como el arte del engaño y de uso común por parte de los sofistas del siglo V A.C. en Grecia

Argumentar y oponer un razonamiento a otro, con el
animo de demostrar verdad, distinguir lo que es de lo que no es, y lo que no es de lo que es... esto es la lógica. Menos pomposa, menos teatral, más austera....pero con la contundencia que le otorga la fuerza del pensamiento frio sin melcochas ni edulcorantes retóricos. He aquí pues la lógica.

Dentro de la primera especie, dentro de la retórica ha habido a lo largo de la humanidad grandes disertadores que acompañaban la elocuencia de su verbo, a este arte que aunque no probatorio como la lógica podría llamarse altamente conmovedor y hasta artístico. Era famoso Cicerón por sus dotes elocuentes en la antigua Roma cuanto lo fue por su brillantez en la elocuencia un Gorgias de Leontini o un Protágoras en la antigua Grecia.

Pero hay también, por cierto, una retórica barata,
edulcorante y carente de sincera emoción. Una retórica de esos espíritus que llevan la fuerza de la decadencia del cristianismo con su mensaje de muerte en cada uno de sus gestos o palabras "niegate a ti mismo y a tus facultades (razón y entendimiento) y ama a "dios", pero sobretodo ama a la Iglesia y a sus representantes. Llamaré a este el discurso del cristianismo decimonónico y hasta dieciochesco.

Mas, hay por último, diría yo, el discurso del
cristianismo mas bajo y decadente, del cristianismo abusivo, decadente y pervertido que vive del enrolamiento de niños, niñas y jóvenes para poder subsistir a costillas del dinero de sus padres o de las influencias políticas que pudieran obtener de parte de sus padres ... A dichos niños, niñas y jóvenes, se les suele ganar por este ultimo discurso meloso, brutal por su vulgaridad en ocasiones y que apela a lo mas bajo a la terapia psicológica dirigida a lavar cerebros y embrutecer razonamientos y del que ya he dado cuenta en mi articulo Los Sodalitium: Los Colinas de la Religión quienes intentaron, con malos resultados por cierto, captarme en la preparación del rito de Confirmación por el año 1984, en los locales del colegio San Agustín de Lima.

Muy bien, como amigos y reyes del humo, del "mist" en términos anglicistas, los sacerdotes siempre han apelado a los misterios es decir como señale en reciente artículo a negar la logica y enfatizar su mito del hombre-dios. A tanto llega la apelación a los humos del misterio que confunden patológicamente el mito con la realidad y la realidad con el mito, y se pretende estremecer con ese relato como si se tratase de un argumento.

Asi, el sacerdote sodalitio E. Garreaud, asume como realidad incontestable una serie de aserciones basados en el mito del individuo Jesus de Nazaret aserciones como las siguiente:

1) Que hubo un hombre llamado Jesús de Nazaret, quien murió y resucitó.
2) Que hubo un tal Tomas que buscaba las pruebas y nadie sabe como "terminó creyendo el mito".
3) Que "Cristo", nombre míst-ico (que significa
iluminado)y que atribuyen al individuo "Jesus de
Nazaret" era el "Mesias"(nombre hebreo designado al individuo que traera paz al mundo).
4) Que al individuo que fue colgado en una cruz se le debe llamar "el Señor".
5) Que todos debemos tener "fe" en " el señor"
6) Que hay que intentar ser como el individuo Jesus de Nazaret
7) Que el individuo mitológico Tomas tuvo un encuentro con la persona "Hijo de María".

Por ahora solo me limitaré a responder a todo esto
punto por punto.

Respecto a (1).Los casos de gente que pareciendo haber muerto, no han muerto en realidad porque "resucitan" son casos que felizmente están bien documentados por la ciencia. De allí que legalmente se suele esperar 24 horas después del fallecimiento de la persona para proceder a su entierro, no vaya a ser que el fallecido haya tenido un ataque de catalepsia u otro similar donde solo se aparente muerte debido a este tipo de ataque. Se le declara "muerta" a la persona o "fallecida" una vez que se ha verificado su inactividad cerebral, no su paralización de los latidos del corazón. Si asumimos que Jesús de Nazaret murió, consecuentemente tendríamos que asumir que su actividad cerebral cesó, durante tres dias. (asumiendo el mito de la resurrección al tercer día) y que al tercer día revivió.

No hay casos comprobados de revitalizacion de señal cerebral después de tres días por la ciencia médica o de un hecho semejante. Es completamente falso y carente de lógica pretender que un individuo fallezca, cese su actividad cerebral y al tercer dia, dicha actividad se reinicie, como si nada hubiese pasado..

Aun asumiendo que esto se hubiese dado, la
revitalizaron de los signos cerebrales del individuo Jesús de Nazaret (cosa ya de si imposible, pero asumamos desde un punto de vista teórico) esto no lo convierte a ese individuo en Dios. Solo a un caso digno de estudio por parte de la ciencia.

Y no es Dios por las razones aludidas en el articulo anterior dados las características que dios tendría y las de un humano son incompatibles con las características divinidad postulada.

La idea del mito del señor Garreaud, es aun mas
increible, se dice que el individuo Jesus de Nazaret subió a los cielos "en cuerpo y alma".... a esto solo se puede decir que esto es o una broma de mal gusto o un atentado contra la inteligencia de las personas. Es una absoluta falsedad para ser siquiera contraargumentado..

Respecto a (2), que sobre el caso del tal Tomas, nada hay documentado por la ciencia Y, de haber existido era un tipo que "no quería que le den gato por liebre" hasta allí correcto. Si después se creyó el mito, no es asunto de mi incumbencia , el problema es del tal Tomas, que se dejo engatusar. Nada hay que nos obligue a imitar la conducta de ese señor Tomás, al menos su parte de creyente del mito cristiano. Si el tal Tomás creyó bueno pues... problema de él.

Respecto a (3). Llamarle Cristo a Joshua o Jesús de Nazaret es un asunto de los creyentes. Cristo
significa iluminado y todos los míst-icos gustan de poner a sus lideres nombres semejantes.
Respecto a que Jesús era el Mesias, se sabe si, que en esa época en Jordania una multitud de personas pretendían ser "Mesias". Fue una oleada un tiempo. Mesias es el personaje que los hebreos afirman los salvara de la esclavitud e imperará la paz en el mundo apenas llegue. Por los acontecimientos de Medio Oriente entre Palestina e Israelies, es seguro que ese momento no ha llegado... y no llegará.

Respecto a (4) al Señor Garreaud se le ha quedado la manía medieval de llamar "Señor" al personaje "Jesús de Nazaret". Esto como digo es un rezago feudal, que hace alusión y analogía al "Dominus"= Señor. Debe ser que pretende establecer nuevamente un feudo donde su mito domine. Recuérdese que los reyes y reyezuelos europeos gobernaban como señores por "Gracia divina" y ejercieron el dominium o señorío a sangre y fuego mediante el pacto feudal..

Respecto a (5): El cambiar la razón por la fe es el sueño dorado de los fanáticos y autócratas de toda especie. Sin embargo una cosa no tiene que ver con la otra. Ellos, los sacerdotes buscan que la gente "tenga fe" es decir crea y para ello debe renunciar al uso de sus facultades mentales. (Léase acápite 4, de articulo anterior " O sea si la droga te impide el estudio, ..o sea deja el estudio" en articulo "misterios para la religion, adefesios para la lógica")

Respecto a (6) habría que decir que mejor que imitar a nadie, lo cual implica ya una grado de alienación, ser otro y no uno mismo, No hay pues razón alguna para imitar a Jesús (a) Cristo.

Respecto a (7) el Sr Garreaud exagera cuando da a
"María" una tal importancia en esa época. El culto a María es un culto que surge en el siglo XI A.D., es decires una practica del cristianismo medieval tardío, el protagonismo de "madre" es posterior..

Epílogo

Muy bien, a los reyes del humo y a su seguidores ,
como he dicho, gustan de confundir al mito con la
realidad. Para ello, como digo, se someten al
sacerdote y gustan que todos se sometan a ellos. El estilo pertenece al de los retóricos decadentes o a los Reyes del humo. Nosotros aplicaremos la lógica donde otros reclamen fe y creencia ciega..

Anonymous

04-08-2002, 02:32 PM

Sotana en peligro
Diario Correo / Chiquitas /pag.2 / 05.04.2002

Ha trascendido que doña Eliane Karp, primera dama de la Nación, sería
acérrima partidaria de modificar el criterio preferencial a favor de la
Iglesia católica, dentro de un régimen plural de confesiones, establecido en
la Carta Política de 1993. Semejante criterio habría puesto en estado de
alerta a las derechas e izquierdas del catolicismo que, postergando sus
diferencias, estarían cavando trincheras y levantando barricadas para
resistir la ofensiva elianista.

Comentario de un católico comprometido:
La Iglesia y la Constitución

"Sotana en peligro" (Correo,05.04.02), Cipriani "Echa chispos" (Ojo, 07.04.02), son unos de los titulares periodísticos que expresan la preocupación de la jerarquía católica para que en la nueva Constitución se reconozca la importancia de la Iglesia Católica en la formación de la República.

Que semejante reconocimiento no tenga ninguna razón de figurar en una Constitución de nuestros tiempos, es obvio, a menos que lleve consigo privilegios particulares frente a otros credos, lo que estaría en contradicción con los Derechos Humanos.

Personalmente le debo a la Iglesia Católica el mérito de haberme abierto el acceso al Evangelio de Jesús de Nazaret. Sin embargo, lo mismo me hubiese ofrecido cualquier otra iglesia cristiana, quizás en forma más directa y con menos fárrago dogmático, normativo y ceremonial.

Por la misma razón y por otras más, no veo razones porque un país como Perú u otro con mayoría católica le debería a la Iglesia Católica favores o agradecimiento. Su efecto moralizador no convence. Cierto es que no hubiese habido la práctica secular de la inquisición, si Perú hubiese sido conquistado y, más que conquistado colonizado, por países protestantes. Tampoco se hubiere dejado utilizar desde la conquista hasta el siglo pasado por reyes y dictadores para sujetar conciencias y creencias a la fuerza.

Es cierto: la sociedad ha de defenderse de sectas destructivas. Sin embargo no a todas las denominaciones eclesiales que hoy convencen a mucha gente, hay que considerarlas como tales. Tampoco el tamaño numérico es el distintivo entre secta y secta, sino su potencial transformador en el sentido positivo. "En los frutos se reconocerán a mis discípulos", dijo Cristo.

Me hace dudar de la institución de mi Iglesia, cuando gente, al prestarle un servicio desinteresado, me pregunta: "Es usted evangélico?". Me hace dudar de la autenticidad de mi Iglesia, cuando me entero que los países con mayoría católica (de 80 a 90%) en cuanto a la transparencia, en general, están muy por debajo de países protestantes e, incluso no cristianos. Según TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, una organización multinacional que estudia anualmente el grado de corrupción en los diferentes países, aquellos con mayorías católicas están, desde Ecuador hasta Las Filipinas, con honradas excepciones, todos en rojo.

Con esto no se niega que también en la Iglesia Católica existan creyentes de hecho. El espíritu de Dios, de libertad y justicia, no conoce fronteras, ni reclama privilegios o reconocimiento por parte del poder político. Son aquellos que se convirtieron "en dueños de nuestra fe, en vez de servir al Evangelio" (Pablo), que hoy como desde la era Constantina se arrodillan ante el poder secular para pedir favores ajenos al espíritu de Cristo. Nada ha de reconocer el pueblo peruano a la Iglesia Católica como institución, pero sí puede anhelar que sirva con humildad y desprendimiento como su fundador lo hizo.

Anonymous

04-11-2002, 02:14 AM

Church Knew of Abuse Priest
Wednesday, 10th April 2002

Court documents have shown that the archdiocese of Boston and the Vatican knew that at least one of its priests, who has been accused of rape, had spoken in favour of sex between men and boys in 1979.

The documents also showed that the Rev. Paul Shanley continued to be given access to children in different parishes despite the fact that archdiocese officials had known of sexual misconduct complaints made against him since 1967.////

Roderick MacLeish, an attorney for the family of alleged abuse victim Gregory Ford, showed the court a newsletter from a gay organisation describing a 1979 meeting where Shanley spoke in favour of sex with boys. Ford alleges the priest repeatedly raped him in the 1980s.

MacLeish said: "This we believe was the start of the so-called NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association) organisation. Paul Shanley was there at its inception. And within the Archdiocese of Boston is a record confirming his attendance and quoting him."

He continued: "All of the suffering that has taken place at the hands of Paul Shanley, a serial child molester for four decades - three of them in Boston - none of it had to happen." //////

http://www.rainbownetwork.com/content/NewsLife.asp?newsid=2751

Anonymous

04-11-2002, 02:19 AM

Southern California priest resigns after admitting 1992 battery of boys
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 8, 2002

SAN BERNARDINO – A Roman Catholic priest has resigned after admitting he attacked boys, and a second priest assigned to the diocese more than a decade ago has been accused of similar allegations in Boston.

Parishioners at St. Mary of the Valley in Yucca Valley were notified Sunday that the 55-year-old Rev. Ponciano Ramos had resigned a day earlier.

####Ramos had been charged with child molestation for allegedly fondling three boys in Indianapolis in 1992, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges of battery and received an 18-month suspended sentence, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday.

#####Meanwhile, the Boston Globe reported Sunday that another priest in the San Bernardino Diocese had been transferred from Boston in 1990 even though he had faced decades of sexual abuse complaints.

A lawsuit alleges the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, 71, repeatedly raped a boy during the 1980s when he was pastor of a church in Newton, Mass. The molestation allegedly started when the boy was six and continued until he was 11.

##### In 1991, the Boston Archdiocese reportedly paid a $40,000 settlement to a man who claimed that Shanley had raped him in 1972.

It was two years later that the Boston Archdiocese notified the diocese about allegations Shanley had molested minors, Lincoln said.

The diocese then investigated and stripped Shanley of pastoral duties, although it found no evidence that Shanley had committed sexual misconduct during his tenure in the diocese, Lincoln said. #####

Complete article is at -
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20020408-0306-ca-clergyabuse.html

Anonymous

04-11-2002, 02:23 AM

Vatican is blamed in child abuse lawsuits
By Sam Leith
(Filed: 05/04/2002)

A PAEDOPHILE scandal sweeping the Roman Catholic Church in America now threatens to involve the Vatican, with the Holy See and the Pope named in two lawsuits.

The lawsuits, filed in Florida and Oregon, allege that the Church knowingly and deliberately covered up child abuse by priests by transferring them to different dioceses or countries.

Jeffrey Anderson, the lawyer representing both plaintiffs, argues that in each instance obstruction of justice was sanctioned by the international policies of the Church.

He said: "It's not about mistakes. It's about deceit. It's about the concealment of wrongdoing. Every road leads to the Vatican because it's the Vatican that has said to these bishops and superiors, 'keep this secret'."

Previous attempts to sue the Vatican have failed because of the protections the Holy See has as a sovereign nation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$BGF0P0IAAAZ0TQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQ YIV0?xml=/news/2002/04/05/wvat05.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/04/05/ixworld.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml)

Anonymous

04-12-2002, 01:32 AM

S.F. archbishop to give sex case data to D.A.
Levada to provide 75 years of records

Kelly St. John, Ryan Kim, Suzanne Espinosa Solis, Chronicle Staff Writers Thursday, April 11, 2002

San Francisco -- The San Francisco Archdiocese will comply with an extraordinary request from the district attorney to turn over any information it has about reported sex abuse cases involving clergy and staff, a church spokesman confirmed last night. Church officials have been asked to go back through 75 years of records to comply with District Attorney Terence Hallinan's request, which puts San Francisco on a growing list of cities nationwide that have pressured Catholic Church officials to release the names of potential violators.

"We've responded that we will cooperate voluntarily with his request," said Maurice Healy, a spokesman for the archdiocese. "We have nothing to hide."

------Church officials were surprised to receive the letter, Healy said, describing it as a "broad brush" request not prompted by a specific case or complaint.

"We have reported suspected child abuse to the authorities as California law dictates for more than five years," Healy said. "I haven't seen any D.A. across the country ask for 75 years of records."

-----While the San Francisco Archdiocese maintained that no children are currently at risk, it is still reeling from the case of former Monsignor Patrick O'Shea, who was charged almost two years ago with more than 200 counts of child molestation.

O'Shea is being held on $5 million bond awaiting a court decision on whether an exemption to the state's six-year statute of limitations applies in his case.

The archdiocese's review was criticized by some victims rights advocates, who said the files should have been handled by independent observers. Others worried that some priests who were removed from their posts over the years still maintained access to minors.

E-mail the writers at kstjohn@sfchronicle.com, rkim@sfchronicle.com and sespinosa@sfchronicle.com

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/11/MN232009.DTL

Anonymous

04-16-2002, 11:58 PM

German Bishop Quits Amid Sex Abuse Allegations
Tue Apr 16, 1:09 PM ET

MAINZ, Germany (Reuters) - A German bishop resigned on Tuesday after allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman during an exorcism, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Mainz said.

A spokesman for the archdiocese of Mainz said Auxiliary Bishop Franziskus Eisenbach, 58, had denied the allegations and his decision to resign was not an admission of guilt. ----

"The woman was a Protestant and wished to convert. At the same time she had private visions that she couldn't cope with. The auxiliary bishop was familiar with the spiritual issues involved," Strickstrock said.

He said Eisenbach accompanied the woman through the process of trying to exorcise her demons and converting to Catholicism.

"During this long process there was close physical proximity. But contact was not sexual in a narrow sense."

The woman, a science professor in her 40s, lodged a complaint with prosecutors in Koblenz, the state capital of the Rhineland Palatinate, in September 2000. ---

Extract from
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020416/wl_nm/germany_church_dc_1&printer=1

Anonymous

04-24-2002, 12:03 AM

Two Florida Priests Sued for Alleged Sex Abuse
Tue Apr 23, 4:19 PM ET
By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - The parents of a former altar boy at a Florida Roman Catholic church sued two priests on Tuesday, saying their son became a drug user and promiscuous homosexual who ultimately died of AIDS (news - web sites) after being molested by the clergymen, their lawyer said.

Miguel and Rita Chinchilla of Coral Gables, Florida, said in the lawsuit that two priests sexually abused their son 25 years ago and the Archdiocese of Miami covered up the abuse.

The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, named Ricardo Castellanos and Alvaro Guichard as defendants, saying the two priests swapped the boy back and forth for a three-year period until Miguel was 16. Castellanos privately referred to Miguel as his "lover" and abused him during trips to Disney World and Europe, the suit alleged. ****

In the Florida lawsuit, Herman said Guichard, then a pastor at the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables, near Miami, introduced Miguel Chinchilla to Castellanos in 1975, when the boy was 13 years old.

The teen-ager developed a strong friendship with Castellanos, who "initiated Miguel into sex acts, including sodomy" during a trip to Key West in 1976, he said.

"It became an almost daily activity. At some point Castellanos turned him over to his friend Guichard," Herman said. "It was a perverse, perverse episode."

Miguel confronted the archdiocese about the abuse and was threatened and coerced to remain silent, Herman said.

The abuse caused Miguel severe psychological and emotional problems, the lawyer said. He became a drug user and engaged in "promiscuous homosexual activity" from which he contracted AIDS and died in 1993.

The lawsuit alleged negligence, fraudulent concealment and sexual abuse and seeks unspecified damages. ****

Complete article is at
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020423/ts_nm/crime_priest_lawsuit_dc_1

Anonymous

04-27-2002, 06:41 PM

Powerful Cardinal in Vatican Accused of Sexual Abuse Cover-Up
By Brian Ross

April 26 — A trusted ally of Pope John Paul II has been accused of sexually abusing boys a half-century ago at an elite seminary for the Catholic Church.

The alleged victims say the Vatican knew of the allegations against Father Marcial Maciel and chose not to pursue them.
In fact, the pope has continued to praise 82-year-old Maciel, a Mexico native, as an effective leader of Catholic youth, despite detailed allegations sent to the Vatican four years ago saying the man was also a long-time pedophile. ++++

Maciel is the founder of the little-known but well-connected and well-financed Legion of Christ which has raised millions of dollars for the Church. Operating in the United States and 19 other countries, the Legion of Christ recruits boys as young as 10 years old to leave their families and follow a rigorous course of study to become priests.

"I think Father Maciel is one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church today and also arguably the most mysterious," said Jason Berry, author of Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children.

Maciel is alleged to have molested some of the young men under his control, some 50 years ago, at the well-manicured seminary and headquarters of the Legion of Christ, a few miles from the Vatican. It is hidden behind high walls and a steel gate that warns of a watch dog inside.

"He pushed my hand onto his penis. And I didn't know anything about masturbation," Juan Vaca, who was first abused when he was 11 years old, told ABCNEWS. "And he says, 'You don't know how to do it. Let me show you.' And he gets my penis himself and starts to masturbate me. I was in shock."

Now 65 years old and a psychology professor at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., Vaca, the former superior of the Legion of Christ in Orange, Conn., says he was one of some 30 boys abused by Macial during his studies at the Legion in Rome.

Vaca also told ABCNEWS how he was instructed to bring other boys from their bedrooms to Maciel's room. Vaca said Macial had different boys visit his rooms on different nights. "In some instances, two were together with him — myself and another one," he said.

Vaca said Maciel rewarded him with special privileges, such as a private meeting with Pope Pius XII, who served as pope from 1939 to 1958. Maciel always assured Vaca he was doing nothing wrong. When Vaca admitted concerns of committing a sin, Vaca said Macial absolved him from his sin "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

He told him not to worry and to forget about it. But Vaca said he could not forget. +++++

Vaca is not alone. He is one of eight former students, now all in their 60s, who have signed sworn affidavits submitted to the Vatican that they were abused by Maciel. ++++

"I would say he has the pope eating out of his hand. Who is going to touch him no matter what he does?" said J. Paul Lennon, a member of the Legion of Christ for 23 years, who has since left and has been helping those claiming to be victims. "He's untouchable."

Lennon said Macial is a master of Vatican politics: "He's worked with several popes, knows the inner workings, knows monsignors, knows cardinals, knows maybe the men who are really in power, knows that so well, so well." ++++

The accusers say Vatican-based Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican office to safeguard the faith and the morals of the church, quietly made the lawsuit go away and shelved it. There was no investigation and the accusers weren't asked a single question or asked for a statement. +++++

"Cardinal Ratzinger is sheltering Maciel, protecting him," said Berry, who expressed concerns that no response was being given to the allegations against the man charged with sex abuse. "These men knelt and kissed the ring of Cardinal Ratzinger when they filed the case in Rome. And a year-and-a-half later, he takes those accusations and aborts them, just stuffs them." +++++

Extracted - http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_Vatican_coverup_020426.html

Anonymous

04-28-2002, 04:47 PM

AP: 176 Priests Removed in 28 States
By Rachel Zoll
AP Religion Writer
Saturday, April 27, 2002; 9:31 PM

At least 176 priests suspected of molesting minors have either resigned or been taken off duty in 28 states and the District of Columbia since the clerical sex scandal erupted in January, a nationwide review of Roman Catholic dioceses by The Associated Press found.

The review also showed that in 18 other states, where priests have not been taken off the job, dioceses still have responded to the crisis in a variety of ways. They include turning over allegations to prosecutors, scouring personnel records to see whether old claims were properly handled, and reviewing and publicizing policies for handling complaints.....

bishops have given law enforcement authorities details of claims against at least 260 clergymen. Some of those priests are among those taken off duty but others are long retired, and state attorneys say many of the cases are probably too old to prosecute.....

While the church had faced abuse scandals in the past, Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's admission in January that he allowed a pedophile priest to continue to serve sparked a new level of public anger.

Bishops were pressured to disclose details of abuse claims, and hundreds more people came forward to say they had been molested. In California and Massachusetts alone, prosecutors and private lawyers said nearly 550 people have made new allegations of abuse this year......

Victims also say it's unrealistic to expect children to come forward immediately after they've been assaulted.

"You don't see 5- and 10- and 15-year-olds walking into the chancery to disclose abuse by priests," said David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "The unfortunate psychological reality is that it takes years, sometimes decades, for victims to realize they've been hurt.".....
© 2002 The Associated Press

Ex - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60721-2002Apr27.html

Anonymous

04-30-2002, 02:19 AM

An alleged victim is called negligent
By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff, 4/29/2002

In his first legal response to charges that the Rev. Paul R. Shanley began molesting a Newton boy when he was 6 years old, Cardinal Bernard F. Law has asserted that ''negligence'' by the boy and his parents contributed to the alleged abuse. +++

Carmen Durso, a Boston lawyer who represents others who say they are victims of abuse, said he found no legal fault with the language. But for Law to make use of it, Durso said, ''is dumb beyond belief. It is a stupid argument to make when you know that Catholics are already angry at you.''+++

''To say my son is legally responsible for his own abuse at the hands of this monster Shanley when my son was only 6 years old is horrific,'' Rodney Ford, the father of Gregory Ford, said in an interview. In the lawsuit, the Fords charge that Law was negligent in overseeing Shanley, who he knew, or should have known, was a danger to children.

A. W. Richard Sipe, a former priest and a psychotherapist who has treated both pedophile priests and their victims, said the language chosen by Law's attorney ''is absolutely reprehensible, as reprehensible as any defense I have ever seen in one of these cases.'' Sipe said the message that Catholics will take from Law's claim is that ''the cardinal is saying that every Catholic child and every Catholic parent should have been watching out for every Catholic priest.''+++

Walter Robinson's e-mail address is wrobinson@globe.com.

This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 4/29/2002.

Rest is at - http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/119/metro/An_alleged_victim_is_called_negligent+.shtml (http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/119/metro/An_alleged_victim_is_called_negligent%2B.shtml)

Anonymous

05-04-2002, 05:00 AM

Victims say police helped keep priest abuse private
By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press
May 1, 2002, 10:31PM

PHILADELPHIA -- Katie Chrun says that when she told police in 1982 that her three sons had been molested by their priest in St. Louis, the sergeant gave her this advice: Forget about a trial. Talk to the archdiocese. Work it out in private.

"He told me that it would be better that way, that it would be better for the church and better for my kids," she says. ---

"The fear was that everyone was going to be embarrassed, and the victim, whether it was an adult or a child, would be put on trial by the defense lawyer," said Gus Sandstrom, a district attorney in Pueblo, Colo., and an adviser to the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse.

As a result, he said, well-intentioned police officers tried to keep the most scandalous cases behind closed doors. ---

"Time and time again, law enforcement people have essentially bent over backward to allow church leaders the leeway to handle these things quietly," said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

"It's not a decision that police made unilaterally," Clohessy said. "In a lot of cases, we're talking about some diocesan official quietly picking up the phone and calling the investigating officer and saying, `We know we have a problem. We'll take care of it.' And in far too many cases the police have been content to let them do just that." ---

A former police inspector told the Philadelphia Inquirer recently that during the 1970s and early '80s, the department routinely shelved investigations of clergy accused of sexual abuse. ---

Rest is at - http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/1393463

Anonymous

05-04-2002, 03:05 PM

We are facing the crisis of the Christian clergy in all its forms. The time has come to evaluate if all of that religious nonsense is what our culture is all about.

Anonymous

05-13-2002, 12:04 AM

Cardinal No-Knowledge
Boston Cardinal Bernard Law has become very forgetful
NEWSWEEK

May 20 issue — During nine hours of testimony last week...Boston Cardinal Bernard Law showed signs of a presidential-quality forgetfulness, saying “I don’t recall” often enough to evoke memories of Nixon, Reagan and Clinton alike. The occasion for his memory lapse was a long-anticipated deposition in a civil suit that charges defrocked priest John J. Geoghan with molesting more than 130 kids.

As his supervisor, Law has also been sued on charges that he showed reckless disregard by transferring a known pedophile from parish to parish, enabling him to abuse again. Earlier this month Law abruptly withdrew a settlement in the suit, saying the archdiocese could not afford to compensate all of Geoghan’s victims....

Lawyers who attended the closed sessions say Law, 71, appeared sad and tired. And extremely forgetful. He did not recall ever discussing Geoghan, though his handwriting appears on many documents related to his troubles. He did not recall ever reading Geoghan’s personnel files, which bulged with 10,000 pages of complaints and psychiatric reports. He did not even recall receiving a heartbreaking letter from a woman who said seven of her nephews were victimized....
© 2002 Newsweek, Inc.

See - http://www.msnbc.com/news/751069.asp

Anonymous

05-13-2002, 12:20 AM

Priest forced to quit
By: Chad Halcom, Macomb Daily Staff Writer May 11, 2002

A Catholic priest formerly assigned to a Clinton Township parish was barred from the ministry Friday, and at least two other priests in Macomb County are now under investigation for sexual misconduct cases.

The Rev. Walter Lezuchowski, 69, last assigned as administrator two years ago to St. Ronald Church on 15 Mile Road, began a leave of absence Friday by order of the Archdiocese of Detroit.>>>

"There are statements from these (priests) like, 'This is God's way of using me to help make your life a better one,'" Marlinga said of cases he has been reviewing. "That's why I think these are some of the worst offenders we've dealt with. They're using religion with their victims to justify their crimes.">>>

The developments in Macomb County follow a decision this week by Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan to open investigations into 16 priests. At least 15 clerics have stepped down or been removed in Michigan this year amid worldwide attention to the sexual misconduct scandal.>>>

©The Macomb Daily 2002

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4110450&BRD=988&PAG=461&dept_id=14 1265&rfi=6

Anonymous

05-13-2002, 04:48 AM

I don't quite get it:

FACTNet published a whole main page about the scandals in Scientology, their lost law suit and the almost nine million dollars paid to an ex-Scientologist in order to stop public scandal; there is also a lot to read about the Lisa McPerson story. But, why aren't you guys publishing the serious problem in the Catholic Church, which is:

a) an organization much larger and much richer than Scientology
b) a publicly declared center where pedophylian priests have been getting away with it for years.
c) and it is currently discussed as a public scandal everywhere.

It really looks like we are here out to get the targeted groups and not all groups that are acting against standards in society and against the law. Is the Catholic Church too well established for FACTNet to write about this topic?

Anonymous

05-13-2002, 09:16 PM

Looks like there's something at http://www.factnet.org/CIF/child_abuse.htm?FACTNet#Catholic (http://www.factnet.org/CIF/child_abuse.htm?FACTNet)

Anonymous

05-14-2002, 01:51 AM

I can see that the first page of FACTNet presents a whole lot of information against scientology, while no word is shed about the problems with the Catholics, while those problems are meanwhile more delinquishing and public than all the stuff we read about Scientology. It really seems that someone in FACTNet is really mad at Scientology but he/she can still compromise with the accomodated religions, as long as they belong to the conservative mainstream.

Anonymous

05-14-2002, 04:35 AM

Why don't you read what FACTNet is supposed to be about at http://www.factnet.org/mission.htm and http://www.factnet.org/factpack.htm

Nowehere does it say that FACTNet has a gripe against any particular theology. So the site is not supposed to be about whether any theology is batter than any other. (I think)

But it does seem to say that FACTNet's mission is to espose organisational abuse that takes on the form of mind control.

...and now they have some extra stuff about child abuse. Which is not about mind control per se. But it is about religious organisations abusing their status in the community and covering up abuses committed by their own members.

So it kinda fits.

But their net seems to cast quite wide and this notice board (which seems to be offered freely for people to voice their opinions and tell others about their experiences without fear of being censored. Although their intructions say that personal abuse is not on.)

As for the front page: well crises come and go. Scientology just happens to be flavour of the month and have had at least 3 international stories connected to them this year. See: http://www.factnet.org/archives.html

Scientology have had so many stories related to them that Steve Hassan's site has a special rider in his news page at http://www.freedomofmind.com/resources/news.asp

"Special Note on News Concerning Scientology
There are always so many stories about Scientology that it will only be possible to have a fraction of them here. A good weekly summary of Scientology news stories is Rod Keller's weekly email "A.R.S. Week in Review", archived at http://www.xenu.net/archive/WIR/. If you wish to subscribe, write to Rod at rkeller@voicenet.com.

Another excellent resource for Scientology news is Mark Bunker's site, http://www.xenutv.com."

You can also see a list of the latest Scientology stories at http://tinyurl.com/4c9i

There also seems to be a lot of data at http://www.xenu.net/

When the "conservative mainstream" get this amount of press regarding abuse I would lay bets that FACTNet will cover the stories.

Anonymous

05-14-2002, 02:01 PM

Yes, but it seems that the site is mainly about Scientology. Look at all that information about Scientology in the first page of FACTNet. Do you think this site was formed by ex-Scienties who are mad at that organization? They are somehow obsessive. Scientology does not seem to withhold much more "danger" than Catholicism, Mormonism, the Southern Baptists or Sokka Gakai. All those groups brainwash people with some kind of a self-invented crap, this is why I can't understand what makes Scientology "more dangerous" than the other psycho groups.

Anonymous

05-18-2002, 10:33 PM

A Vatican Lawyer Says Bishops Should Not Reveal Abuse Claims
Sat May 18, 2:52 PM ET
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN The New York Times

An influential canon lawyer at the Vatican (news - web sites) has written an article to be published today in a Vatican-approved Jesuit journal saying that Roman Catholic bishops should not turn over allegations or records of sexual abuse by priests to the civil authorities.

The article in the magazine Civilta Cattolica by the Rev. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, dean of the canon law faculty at Gregorian University in Rome, is the second indication in recent weeks that inside the Vatican, influential church officials may disapprove of the response of American bishops to the abuse scandal. Last month, the head of a Vatican council, Archbishop Julián Herranz, also said that the bishops should not be required to turn over records on abusive priests to prosecutors. ---

In the article, Father Ghirlanda also wrote that a priest who is reassigned to a new parish after being treated because of a history of sexual abuse should not have his "good reputation" ruined by having his background revealed to the new parish. It would be better simply not to place the priest in a new parish if the bishop lacks confidence about the priest, Father Ghirlanda said.

Bishops have also been sued in civil court for failing to remove abusive priests, but Father Ghirlanda wrote, according to a translation from the Italian by the Catholic News Service, "From a canonical point of view, the bishop or religious superior is neither morally nor legally responsible for a criminal act committed by one of his clerics."

However, he wrote, if a bishop knew of accusations and failed to investigate, or if he failed to remove a known abuser from the ministry, then under canon law he would have some legal and moral responsibility.---

Short extract from http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20020518/ts_nyt/a_vatican_lawyer_says_bishops_should_not_reveal_ab use_claims&printer=1

Anonymous

05-19-2002, 03:29 AM

Whistle-blowing teacher says archbishop told her to resign
Copyright © 2002 AP Online
By AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (May 18, 2002 8:23 p.m. EDT) - A teacher at a Catholic school says the archbishop of Omaha asked her to resign because she told police that a priest had used a church computer to look at child pornography on the Internet.

Archbishop Elden Curtiss acknowledges that he talked with Norfolk Sacred Heart kindergarten teacher Linda Hammond, but did not say if he asked her to resign. She did not resign.

***Hammond has been identified in court as a witness in the case against the Rev. Robert Allgaier, a former Norfolk priest charged in February with attempted possession of child pornography.

***Hammond said the archbishop immediately told her that she ruined Allgaier's life.

"He started off by saying 'You shouldn't have done this. We had it handled,'" Hammond said.

She said the archbishop asked her to resign from her job at the Catholic school in Norfolk.

***"If it hadn't been for Linda Hammond, the police and people ... probably would never have known" about Allgaier, Smith said. "So treating a person like Mrs. Hammond rudely is significant."

***Allgaier remained at the Ralston parish until he was arrested in February.

see http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/406265p-3235939c.html

Anonymous

05-20-2002, 08:30 PM

Priest tied to sex abuse hangs self
From staff and wire reports
Friday, May 17, 2002

A 64-year-old priest who resigned from his parish in Connecticut amid allegations of sexual misconduct apparently killed himself yesterday at the same Catholic psychiatric hospital where convicted pedophile priest John J. Geoghan was treated.:::

Bridgeport Bishop William Lori relieved Bietighofer last month of his priestly duties at St. Andrew's parish and ordered him to undergo psychiatric evaluation. Two men told diocesan officials Bietighofer abused them when they were boys in the late 1970s and early 1980s, church officials said.:::

Geoghan spent three months at the St. Luke facility in 1989. He was released with the diagnosis of ``atypical pedophilia, in remission,'' church documents show.

extracted from http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/suic05172002.htm

Anonymous

05-23-2002, 01:40 AM

Priest Pleads Guilty to Making Date-Rape Drug
Wed May 22, 5:23 PM ET

DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - A 31-year-old Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring with five other men to manufacture and distribute the illegal drug commonly known as the "date-rape drug."

Rev. Jeffrey Windy of rural central Illinois admitted to the scheme to make gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GBH, which is called the date-rape drug because it can incapacitate its user and is used in sexual assaults on unsuspecting victims. ::::

ex http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=10&u=/nm/20020522/ts_nm/crime_priest_drugs_dc_1

Anonymous

05-25-2002, 09:54 PM

16 Priests Have Committed Suicide
Saturday, May 25, 2002

CLEVELAND (AP) - At least 16 Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children, including 12 priests in the United States, have killed themselves since 1986, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The numbers were found in an investigation by the Plain Dealer after the suicide April 4 of the Rev. Don Rooney, a priest in the Cleveland Roman Catholic Diocese who faced allegations that he sexually abused a child.+++

http://webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200205251147000139236_aolns. src

Anonymous

06-25-2002, 01:08 AM

New Zealand church admits to sex abuse payouts
22 June 2002 14:01

The Catholic Church in New Zealand has become the latest ministry to be embroiled in allegations of misconduct, admitting publicly on Saturday to 38 cases of sexual abuse committed by men of the cloth.

Senior church figures on Friday confessed the extent of the problem and that way of the church had dealt with offenders in the past was wrong, the New Zealand Herald reported on Saturday.

+++In Australia, the church's most senior prelate, Sydney Archbishop George Pell has been accused of trying to cover up cases of abuse by paedophile priests and buy off victims.

The new openness in dealing with sex abuse here is reflected in the New Zealand Catholic church's new stance on confidentiality clauses, which formerly prohibited revealing details of settlements.

The St John of God Brothers said they had ordered lawyers to remove confidentiality clauses from deals worth 300 000 NZ dollars ($150 000 US) already made with five victims and to ensure future agreements do not have them.

The largest order of priests in New Zealand, the Society of Mary, also gave a written undertaking it would not take action against victims who spoke out.

Bishops from the country's six dioceses said committees set up in the early 1990s to deal with sexual abuse complaints had substantiated 38 claims dating back to the 1950s.

They included complaints against priests, brothers and lay members of the church in positions of authority, and covered cases involving children and teenagers, as well as adults receiving pastoral care.

In one of the most serious cases just revealed, Marist Brother Charles Afeaki was sentenced in 1994 to eight years imprisonment for 15 sex offences against boys, including sodomy.

Afeaki was criticised on sentencing for being "a wretched hypocrite" for maintaining his innocence. Church authorities declined previous requests to reveal the number of cases but the bishops decided this week to give the figures.

+++Offenders are now sent for treatment in Australia and removed from public ministry upon their return. - Sapa-AFP

ex http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.jsp?a=13&o=5129

Anonymous

07-09-2002, 02:51 AM

Philippines Church apologises for sex abuse
Monday, 8 July, 2002, 13:57 GMT 14:57 UK

The Philippines Catholic Church has apologised for sexual abuse by hundreds of its priests over the last 20 years.

---The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said on Monday that it was now drafting guidelines on how to deal with such offences by its clergy.

When sexual scandals involving Catholic priests in the US came to light earlier this year, the Philippines media began reporting on abuses by local priests.

Monday's statement was the first official response from the Church in the Philippines, where at least 85% of the 76 million-strong population is Catholic.

Hundreds suspected

According to the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, about 200 of the country's 7,000 priests may have committed "sexual misconduct" - including child abuse, homosexuality and affairs - over the past two decades.

"To the various crises in society, we must now, with great sorrow and shame, add problems in the Church", said a statement by the bishops read to a news conference on Monday.

"Sexual misconduct on the part of shepherds of the flock betrays the holy priesthood that Christ has shared."

---Bishops in Australia and New Zealand have apologised to dozens of victims of sexual abuse carried out by priests and police are investigating several priests in Hong Kong for alleged indecent assault.

rest at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_2116000/2116154.stm

Anonymous

07-18-2002, 01:48 AM

Taken from http://www.WorldNetDaily.com

SUFFER THE CHILDREN
Sex scandal death knell for Church?
Catholics take matters into own hands after Bishops' 'band-aid' solution

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: July 17, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Toby Westerman
© 2002 International News Analysis Today

As the crisis of confidence grows in the scandal-ridden American Catholic Church, many in the laity and clergy are skeptical that Church hierarchy will take effective corrective action and are moving toward reforming the institution from the grass-roots level.

According to long-time observers of the Church, June's conference of bishops arrived at no real solution to the decades-long problem of clerical abuse, providing only vague reassurances and a "charter" on abuse to a thoroughly disgusted nation.

The "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" promises in its preamble: "We reach out to those who suffer. We apologize to them and offer our help for the future." The body of the charter guarantees that child abuse will be reported and the faithful supported in their grief.

"If they [the bishops] think they've solved the underlying problem, they're deluding nobody but themselves," declared the Rev. Charles Fiore, a veteran of the struggle to expel abusers from the Catholic priesthood.

Fiore, a Catholic priest for 42 years, has fought the homosexual influence in the clergy almost from the date of his ordination. With degrees in philosophy and theology, as well as clinical training at Menninger's and the State Hospital in Topeka, Kan., Fiore has both condemned the actions of homosexual priests and counseled the victims of their abuse.

The solutions offered by the bishops were nothing but a "band-aid applied to the real problem of the pandemic corruption of the Church in the United States," Fiore declared, adding that the bishops gave no evidence of "an intention of addressing the skeletons in their own episcopal closets."

The charter itself remains voluntary until the Vatican gives its approval and may, in fact, never have the force of law. Negotiations over the charter may take years, and the American bishops have for decades ignored Vatican directives they found to be objectionable.

While allowing some priests to go behind bars, American Catholic bishops have a firm track record of protecting their brother bishops, even under the most adverse circumstances.

The Catholic reform group Roman Catholic Faithful, or RCF, closely follows the continuing careers of disgraced bishops and, among many similar instances, has noted the following:

Bishop Keith J. Symons resigned from his diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., in 1998 after he admitted abusing five boys, and since then has led at least one retreat entitled "A Marian Day of Prayer." After Roman Catholic Faithful made Symons' abuse record public, Bishop Kenneth J. Povish, the retired bishop of the Lansing Diocese, condemned RCF and referred to Symons as a "wounded healer."

Bishop Patrick Ziemann resigned his post in the Santa Rosa, Calif., Diocese in 1999 after admitting to a two-year affair with one of his clergy. The priest who was involved in the affair claimed Ziemann had forced the relationship by threatening to bring allegations of theft of church funds if the priest did not cooperate. Ziemann is still active giving retreats in Arizona, according to RCF.

Bishop Daniel Ryan, disgraced former leader of the Springfield, Ill., Diocese, resigned one week prior to the filing of a lawsuit naming him as one of its defendants. The lawsuit charges Ryan with misconduct with priests and male prostitutes, and creating "an atmosphere of tolerance to the sexual abuse of minors …" in his diocese. Ryan, however, remains active in both the Springfield and Joliet dioceses, offering Mass, giving retreats and participating in confirmations.

By mid-year 2002, four Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Rembert Weakland, had resigned after admitting their sexual activities.
Currently, Bernard Cardinal Law, Roger Cardinal Mahony and Edward Cardinal Egan are among the top Church officials under legal and media scrutiny for their handling – or mishandling – of child-abuse cases in their jurisdictions.

Roman Catholic Faithful, founded in 1996 by Stephen Brady and located in Petersburg, Ill., has devoted itself to bringing to account priests and bishops for their moral outrages and criminal activity. By 1999, Ryan resigned under pressure initiated by RCF, while not admitting any guilt.

Brady's group also has brought to the public's attention a priest-oriented international homosexual Internet site called St. Sebastian's Angels, which continues to operate at various Web locations.

Brady's activities have earned him the enmity of the homosexual community.

One individual with ties to the Catholic homosexual group Dignity, as well as St. Sebastian's Angels, published Brady's private home address and phone number on the Internet, referred to RCF as a "hate group," described Brady as motivated by "evil purposes" and labeled him as a "perpetrator."

In another incident, which was reported to the FBI, Brady learned from a second-hand source that an e-mail message was circulating on the Internet stating that someone has placed a "contract" out for Brady's assassination.

Murder tied to priests' club?

While the threats against Brady are unsettling, there are indications that those who delve too deeply into the connection between clerical homosexuality and child abuse – finding perversion slipping into an abyss of satanic ritual – may pay for their curiosity with their lives.

In the late 1980s, two young Chicago private investigators, Bill Callaghan and Hank Adema, agreed to assist a "friend of a friend," whose child had been molested by a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese.

The parents of the abused child sought help after the Archdiocese under Joseph Cardinal Bernardin threatened to counter-sue following their original allegations. Before the scandal of clerical child abuse came to the public's attention through the efforts of the mass media, it was common practice for a diocese to file a libel suit against parents who charged diocesan clergy with abusive behavior.

As their investigation into the background of the abusive priest proceeded, Callaghan and Adema discovered the existence of a homoerotic group, made up mostly of priests, calling itself The Boys' Club.

During their inquiry into the membership and activities of The Boys' Club, a woman identifying herself as the girlfriend of a murdered church organist contacted the investigators and stated that she had information that would be useful to them.

The woman's friend was one Frank Pellegrini, once the organist and choir director at All Saints-St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side. Pellegrini had also served as chair of the Sociology Department of Loyola University of Chicago.

According to the information obtained from the girlfriend, Pellegrini had a homosexual relationship with one of the priests involved in The Boys' Club, but was in the process of leaving the priest-lover and marrying her.

Before completely severing ties with the priest, however, Pellegrini discovered that The Boys' Club was involved with far more than homosexual relations. Tied closely with their sexual exploits was ritualistic satanic worship and the regular abuse of young children from low-income, ethnic families.

Pellegrini informed the Chicago Archdiocesan Chancery, and scheduled a meeting with one of the archdiocese's top officials.

The day before the meeting, Pellegrini was brutally murdered in his home, which showed no signs of forced entry.

Callaghan, who spoke with police personnel originally working on the case, stated that Pellegrini was found with his hands tied with barbed wire and had been stabbed repeatedly.

Even Pellegrini's dog was slashed, leaving it seriously wounded but alive.

In the opinion of police detective/profilers working on the case, the brutality and manner of the killing indicated that it was carried out either by a woman or a homosexual, Callaghan stated.

Pellegrini was stabbed 47 times – the same number of years he had lived.

Just after Pellegrini's body was discovered, and while police were still on the scene of the murder, police observed two unusual incidents, Callaghan reported.

The first involved the arrival of then-Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago – and one of the most powerful men in the American Catholic Church – Joseph Bernardin. Although there was never an indication that Bernardin met Pellegrini, he arrived at the murder scene and quizzed police personnel on the progress of the investigation.

Left unanswered was how Bernardin learned of the killing and why he should personally visit the scene of a relatively unimportant individual whom he had no reason to know.

The second incident involved Pellegrini's dog. As the police conducted their investigation at the scene, the dog remained quiet, still suffering from its wounds. When the dog saw priests come into the apartment, it suddenly became aggressive and barked wildly.

The Pellegrini murder occurred in 1984 and was "reopened" with federal funds in the early 1990s, but many of the investigation's informal police notes have been "lost," and important leads in the case have never been fully followed up, according to Callaghan. The Pellegrini case, at present, remains one of the many hundreds of unsolved Chicago murders.

Although Callaghan never met Pellegrini, nor participated in the original investigation, he and Adema found that whatever secrets the case entailed posed a direct threat to their own lives.

As Callaghan and Adema pressed on with their investigation on behalf of their client, they learned of a warning, which came through contacts in the Chicago Police Department.

Callaghan learned that mob informants had stated that a contract had been offered on his life, and on that of Adema, by an individual closely tied to the Pellegrini case.

Although no one in the local underworld was interested, there did exist the real possibility that the contract could be accepted by "a black or biker gang," Callaghan revealed.

The full extent of The Boys' Club influence in Chicago – and beyond – still remains unclear, as does the extent of ritual abuse associated with clerical assaults on children.

Hush money?

There is, however, ample evidence that ritual abuse does occur, and it is most obvious in the case of "Agnes."

In the opening pages of his best-selling book, "Windswept House," The Rev. Malachi Martin describes a satanic ritual carried out on a young girl. Although Martin used a degree of literary license in the description of the event, there is a real individual behind the story and an actual instance of satanic abuse.

"Agnes," a pseudonym for her actual name, met Fiore some years ago for assistance with spiritual guidance and counseling for the long-term effects of cult abuse she had suffered at age 11.

Agnes has consented to and passed several polygraph examinations and is now married with a family in a Southern city. She has made her accusations in sworn affidavits, written statements to Vatican officials and has directly confronted those whom she has accused.

Among those Agnes has implicated in the attack upon her was a young, rapidly advancing priest named Joseph Bernardin.

Agnes states that in the fall of 1957, in Greenville, S.C., with her father present, Bishop John Russell of the Charleston Archdiocese and his chancellor, Bernardin, raped her as part of a satanic ritual, which included, as a RCF report stated, "a perverted, sacrilegious use of a [consecrated] host."

According to Catholic teaching, a consecrated host is the true and total body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Agnes also became acquainted with Steven Cook, another individual who accused Bernardin of abuse. Cook accused Bernardin of coercing him into homosexual acts while he was a seminarian and Bernardin was archbishop in Cincinnati, Ohio.

While the media consistently have reported that Cook "recanted" his accusation against Bernardin, Cook, who was dying of AIDS, simply stated that he could "no longer trust his memory."

Callaghan interviewed Cook as part of his own investigation, and verified that Cook did not "recant." He learned that the dying homosexual, formerly of very modest means, suddenly had developed considerable financial resources. Estimates of the value of the newly established estate range from $250,000 to several million. After Cook's death, the money was divided between his mother, his sister and his male lover.

Bernardin, who said he had never met Cook, also left the dying man a costly chalice, which Bernardin had used to offer Mass in Cook's Philadelphia apartment. In addition to Cook and Bernardin, Cook's homosexual lover was also in attendance at the Mass. Cook made no secret of his homosexuality, and there is no indication that Cook would have hidden the identity of his male lover.

Giving Holy Communion under such circumstances, according to traditional Catholic teaching, constitutes sacrilege.

Bernardin also was implicated in an alleged incident of abuse perpetrated against seminarians attending the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minn., in the 1980s.

According to a Boston Globe report, Bernardin, along with several "top prelates," were accused of "coercing seminarians at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary … into having sex."

The rector of the seminary, the Rev. Robert H. Brom, was also implicated in the sex-abuse charges. At the time the seminarian made his allegations, Brom served as Bishop of Duluth, Minn. Brom now is bishop of San Diego, Calif.

The Winona seminarian later retracted his charges, but he received a settlement payment of "less than $100,000," according to the Globe report, which quoted Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz, of Anchorage, successor to Brom as bishop of Duluth.

The circumstances of the seminarian's retraction, however, recently have come into question.

In a sworn affidavit, Mark Brooks, a friend of the seminarian who received the settlement payment, claims that the retraction of the charges against the bishops is false, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The retraction was issued, according to Brooks, because the seminarian "needed the money."

Brooks' affidavit was filed in San Diego Superior Court in connection with a press investigation of abuse allegations against Brom.

In the mid-1980s, the Diocese of San Diego settled a lawsuit initiated by Brooks claiming abuse. The Diocese settled for an undisclosed sum.

Accountability to the laity

Confronted with constant scandal, and a sometimes callous, hostile clergy, many Catholics have lost their faith and left the Church.

Other Catholics, however, have banded together and are seeking to support the faithful clergy, while denying money to those elements that they feel are bent upon the destruction of the Catholic Church.

Michael J. Tario, who works closely with Wall Street traders, is leading a group called the Ad Hoc Committee for the Prevention of Clergy Sex Abuse.

Tario is suggesting that Catholics redirect – not boycott – contributions to the Church.

"Good Stewardship," said Tario, "is not just sending money to the chancery for a cover-up." Tario is urging Catholics to contribute only to Church organizations that use their funds for charitable purposes, rather than legal expenses and costly settlements.

Tario lives in the Chicago Archdiocese and personally knows parents whose children have been abused by archdiocesan clergy. Their callous treatment at the hands of the Archdiocese and a growing awareness of the extent of clerical abuse in the Chicago area and around the United States have compelled Tario to take action. Tario's group works closely with other organizations having similar goals across the nation.

The group is demanding that the Chicago Archdiocese implement four basic reforms:

The chancery open all its files regarding abuse, including those considered most secret.

All "gag" orders be lifted. No individual should fear a Church libel suit if he or she speaks of their experience with clerical abuse.

A "Blue Ribbon Committee," independent of the archdiocese, be put in place to examine archdiocesan financial records, as well as all abuse files.

All archdiocesan financial reports be independently audited to ensure transparent financial operations.
Tario periodically cites a statement of Bishop William B. Friend of the Diocese of Shreveport, La., on the right of the laity to know where and how the money they contribute is spent. "The Church consists of the people, so the people ought to know what is going on," declared Friend, who was a banker before becoming a priest.

Chicago Archdiocesan Financial Director Tom Brennan claims, however, that Tario's group is having little impact. Brennan expressed his confidence that archdiocesan revenues would continue to flow, stating that "we're expecting growing revenues," according to a report from the Rome-based Zenit news agency.

Quizzically, Brennan also stated in the same report that "he has not yet seen hard numbers from the past six months."

Others dispute Brennan's claim of financial tranquility.

Tario cites reports from several of the wealthiest parishes in the Archdiocese where contributions have significantly fallen, with some estimates noting a drop by as much as 25 percent. The information confirms an earlier Business Week article documenting a steep decline in donations as well as an increased need for funds from a top-heavy, lay bureaucracy.

As Tario's campaign of redirected giving gains momentum, another ominous threat to the American Catholic Church's money supply is appearing on the horizon.

What one attorney terms the "unholy trinity of litigation" – liability, damages and "deep pockets" – may prove to be the most potent stimulus for reform and relief to a hard-pressed laity, since Church structures would no longer be able to support the abusers within its ranks.

The possibility of a poorer but more faithful Church does not appeal to all.

When Tario proposed a program of redirected giving to Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, the cardinal archbishop asked in response if Tario wanted the archdiocese to go back to an "immigrant Church," poor and struggling.

Many observers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, are pressed to respond that, if necessary to gain a more faithful Church, the answer would be, "Amen."

Visit http:MyOwnMind.com (http://www.MyOwnMind.com) for more information on mind control and cultic situations.

ecoleburn

07-25-2002, 09:31 PM

I realize this was quite a while ago, but I just wanted to respond to a comment made comparing Scientology and other groups

"Scientology does not seem to withhold much more "danger" than Catholicism, Mormonism, the Southern Baptists or Sokka Gakai. All those groups brainwash people with some kind of a self-invented crap, this is why I can't understand what makes Scientology "more dangerous" than the other psycho groups."

I am Catholic. Although you probably won't believe me, I am not brainwashed. I don't agree with many of the positions taken by the Catholic Church. If you look at the postings on this message board, all discuss the same topic. Sexual abuse is horrible. It should be stopped. It also, unfortunately, occurs in every organization and every society. As far as I know, Catholicism, Mormonism, and Southern Baptism have never recommended unhealthy "purification" treatments, and do not try to financially ruin members who disagree or seek to leave. I am not familiar with Sokka Gakai. I am free to stop being a Catholic whenever I want, and no one will pressure me to change my mind. Your view of religion as "self-invented crap" does not make the religions you mentioned controlling or dangerous. I believe that most religions are equally right, and all are human attempts to define the same feeling or question. I believe the danger comes when, as in Scientology, the entire system is based on the interpretation of one person who is then seen as infallible.

Anonymous

07-31-2002, 01:16 AM

I think the biggest and the largest cult that ever existed since the Roman Empire is the Roman Catholic Church. That organization is based on the worship of idols, and the sacrifice of infants, which is done during infant baptism. It also teaches its believers to worship a "mother of God" by repeatedly saying the rosary.

I may not be an expert in cults, but when an organization puts idols on their so-called churches, brings babies to their priests as a form of sacrifice and treats a woman as a "mother of god" they are nothing more than just an organized cult.

I also personally believe that any organization or any religion who offer services, worships or mass on SUNDAYs is definitely a cult. Those who worship on SUNDAY are offering it to a pagan SUN god.

Anonymous

08-28-2002, 03:59 PM

Yuma priest faces sexual abuse charges
From the National Desk
Published 8/27/2002 11:22 PM

YUMA, Ariz., Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A priest in southern Arizona Tuesday faced several counts of sexual conduct with a minor and child molestation after a third alleged victim came forward, accusing the Rev. Juan Guillen of molestation.

At an arraignment, Guillen, 58, was charged with 11 counts of sexual conduct with a minor and chilled molestation. Yuma County Justice Court Judge Richard W. Donato raised Guillen's bail from $72,000 to $108,023 and scheduled a preliminary hearing for next week.

+++Guillen, who served as associate pastor at the Immaculate Conception Parish in Yuma since 1986, was arrested Friday after the Diocese of Tucson told police of the allegations.

He is accused of molesting one of his alleged victims for nearly a decade, starting with a 1988 incident, court records said.

Yuma police reported that the victim recorded a telephone conversation allegedly capturing Guillen admitting to molesting a second victim, the Citizen said.

According to police, the alleged molestation of the second victim reportedly began in 1994 and continued three to five times a week for the next year and a half.

The third victim came forward after seeing news reports of Guillen's arrest last week.

Guillen, a native of Periban de Ramos in Michoacan, Mexico, was ordained a minister in 1974 and applied for a position in the Tucson diocese in 1982. He has served in Yuma, Somerton and San Luis.

Copyright © 2002 United Press International

Ex http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020827-111616-2681r

Anonymous

09-29-2002, 11:45 PM

Abuses by Catholic priests appear quite widespread. A large number of Catholics seem to support the Catholic Church in spite of abuses. One has to believe that an abusive culture within the Church could lead to abuses by the members. Have any studies been done about the relative frequency of child abuse as a function of religion, Catholic or otherwise?

Anonymous

10-07-2002, 01:50 AM

"List of Clergy Crimes"

http://community.webtv.net/cyberministry/Articles

Anonymous

10-13-2002, 09:08 PM

Sainthood for 'sect' founder

As the Pope canonises Opus Dei leader Escriva, Liz Nash in Madrid looks at the pull of the secret order accused of female submission, brainwashing and political influence

SOME 300,000 pilgrims -- including three Spanish cabinet ministers -- are to pack St Peter's Square in Rome today to witness the canonisation of Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, controversial founder of the secretive and ultra-conservative Opus Dei organisation, who has achieved sainthood in record time.

Escriva was born in the Aragonese town of Barbastro in 1902, the son of a shopkeeper. Ordained as a priest, he claimed in 1928 to have received a message from God that inspired him to promote 'a search for holiness in ordinary life among men and women from all sectors of society'.

His vision blossomed into a worldwide movement renowned as much for its covert influence in politics and the media as its medieval practices of flagellation and mortification.

Escriva's book of 999 maxims, El Camino, (The Way) has been translated into 39 languages and is followed by some 85,000 Opus members worldwide. Maxim One says: 'With your apostolic life, wipe out the trail of filth and slime left by the corrupt sowers of hatred. And set aflame all the ways of the Earth with the fire of Christ that you bear in your heart.' Maxim 793 urges: 'Proselytism. It is the sure sign of true zeal.'

Spain has some 30,000 Opus members, but the order's rule of secrecy -- they say 'discretion' -- prevents exact numbers being disclosed. Similarly, no details are given on the organisation's wealth, estimated by one Spanish newspaper at £120 million annually.

The order has become influential in political, business and media circles in Spain and Italy and in Latin America, with the creation of schools, universities and business academies. Opus leaders, none the less, deny that the organisation amounts to a church within a church, or a sect, as critics claim.

>>>Critics deplored the order's powerful influence on the right-wing General Francisco Franco's dictatorship, when several Opus members were ministers. Their 'technocratic' drive for excellence was credited with modernising Spain's semi-feudal economy in the 1960s. It was in these years that the movement gained its reputation for elitism.

Initially a marginal, little-known grouping within Catholicism, the Opus swiftly gained ground to become one of the most influential voices in the Vatican after it found favour with Pope Paul II, who prayed at Escriva's tomb before addressing cardinals for the first time after he was elected in 1978. The Pope shares Escriva's vigorous anti- communism and his insistence on the most conservative interpretation of Catholic dogma on matters such as abortion, homosexuality and contraception.

Opus members close to the Pope include the Vatican's spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls, his financial adviser Jose Angel Sanchez Asiain and his private secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz.

The organisation, which is predominantly lay but has 1800 priests, has gained political influence in Spain in recent years, having several members within Jose Maria Aznar's conservative government, and other ministers are openly sympathetic.

Federico Trillo, the defence minister, is a 'supernumerary', a member of the organisation's elite who tithe a share of their earnings but who are permitted a normal family life. Numeraries, by contrast, swear vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and live in monastic residences while at the same time moving in the secular world, often holding high-profile jobs.

Other prominent Opus supporters include Spain's state prosecutor, Jesus Cardenal, the former police chief, Juan Cotino, and three former ministers, Isabel Tocino, Jose Manuel Romay and Loyola de Palacio, who is now a European commissioner. Spain's deeply Catholic foreign minister, Ana Palacio, is attending today's ceremony in Rome. Aznar sent two of his children to Opus schools and his wife Ana Botella is openly sympathetic. They share conservative, traditionalist views and oppose progressive ideas.

Still more traditional, carrying a whiff of the medieval, are Opus practices of mortification: members may wear a spiked chain around their thigh so that it and the wounds it inflicts are unseen; and some whip themselves with lead-tipped thongs while saying the prayer Salve Regina. 'It's no more painful than a workout in the gym,' Navarro Valls says. 'And I've tried both.'

Outsiders may spot Opus members in Spain by their fastidious speech and dress, the presence of a model donkey on their desk or home -- representing the ass on which Christ entered Jerusalem, and the symbol of 'perseverance' -- and their penchant for Atkinson's eau de cologne, Escriva's favourite.

The Opus has gained force in the Italian church and among powerful public figures. Sympathisers include Leonardo Mondadori, head of the publishing empire, former presidents Giulio Andreotti and Francesco Cossiga and the former right-hand man of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Marcello dell'Utri, who briefly became an Opus member. Some left-wing Italian MPs condemned the organisation as similar or worse than a secret Masonic lodge, and asked parliament to ban it.

>>>The press and the media are targeted by Opus as a channel for influencing decision-makers. Volunteer stewards at today's masses bear waistcoats sponsored by Italy's Il Tempo magazine. The government-controlled Spanish Radio and Television (RTVE), which is broadcasting today's ceremony live in full, is widely regarded as Opus territory. Socialists criticised the planned blanket coverage as 'disproportionate', but a spokesman said they always carried the canonisation of Spaniards live.

Critics, and disaffected former Opus members, condemn the organisation for 'brainwashing' adolescent recruits. A former member, Isabel de Armas, recently published a book, Being a Woman In Opus Dei, in which she accuses Escriva of 'machismo', and says women in the movement are subjected to practices of 'submission'.

Certainly Saint Josemaria, as he will be from today, assumed his followers would be men: maxim 888 says 'Let your prayers be virile. To be a child does not mean being effeminate.' Armas criticises Opus for insisting members submit to the words of Escriva, 'while at the same time during the indoctrination they never stop talking to you of liberty and personal responsibility'.

ex http://www.sundayherald.com/28208

Anonymous

12-07-2002, 10:57 PM

Head Count of Ousted Bishops at:
http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/may02/index.php3?ft=oustedbishops.html

Priest Database at:
http://www.survivorsfirst.org/db.html

**Please** report any errors or updates to priestdatabase@aol.com. It helps everyone to keep this based solely on up-to-date facts.
SurvivorsFirst.org is dedicated to reporting only facts and absolutely does not want to convey information that is outdated
Volunteers are also needed to search internet to keep list accurate and up-to-date. Contact us to volunteer.

Database includes priests and seminarians in the United States
Database includes sexual misconduct: rape or assault with minors or adults, child porn, sex solitiation

Anonymous

12-14-2002, 02:32 AM

Vatican Announces Law's Resignation
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP)--Cardinal Bernard Law, under intense fire in a church sex abuse scandal, resigned Friday as Boston archbishop, the Vatican announced.

The Vatican said Pope John Paul II had accepted the resignation after the two men met Friday morning. The pope named Bishop Richard Lennon, an auxiliary bishop in Boston, to run the diocese temporarily.

+++Law is the highest ranking church figure brought down by the current scandal. In April, he offered to resign in a meeting with the pope, but the pontiff rejected the idea.

Abuse victims, lay members and even some priests had intensified calls for Law's removal after 18 years at the helm of the Boston archdiocese, as more cases of sordid conduct by priests were brought to light with the release of church files.

+++Law has been accused of having shuffled from parish to parish priests who were accused, often repeatedly, of sexually abusing minors.

Recent days have been marked by some of the most shocking revelations in the year-old scandal in Boston, with the release of thousands of pages of the archdiocese's personnel files.

Victims have accused Law of being more mindful of his personal reputation than honestly dealing with the scandal, and dozens of priests under his command demanded he step down.

The Boston archdiocese is also facing enormous payments in settlements with sex abuse victims, and the Vatican may decide whether the local church should declare bankruptcy to protect itself from creditors.

+++There have been several other resignations in the scandal, including an archbishop in the pope's native Poland, but they have been directly accused of sex abuse. A decade ago, an archbishop from Newfoundland accused of covering up a sex abuse scandal was forced to resign.

Also Friday, the pope also appointed a new bishop for Lexington, Ky., a post vacant since the previous bishop resigned in June following accusations of sex abuse. The new bishop is Monsignor Ronald William Gainer, 55, an official in the diocese of Allentown, Pa.

Whenever a bishop offers to step down, for age, illness or other problems, it is up to the pope to accept the offer or to ask the churchman to stay on, as the pontiff did back in April when Law also journeyed to Rome to seek out John Paul's guidance.

After Law, now 71, returned in the spring from his meeting with the pontiff, he said he was ``encouraged'' in his efforts to provide ``the strongest possible leadership'' in ensuring no child is ever abused again by a priest in his archdiocese.

In recent years, sex abuse scandals have engulfed dioceses across the United States and in Ireland, France and the pope's native Poland.

But Boston has been at the epicenter of the scandals because of the archdiocese's centuries-old prestige and Law's insistence that he stay at the helm.

Last month, Law, in an apology delivered during Mass in Boston's Cathedral, acknowledged his responsibility for decisions that ``led to intense suffering.''

AP-NY-12-13-02 0657EST

http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/wsbtv/news/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V7498.AP-Vatican-Boston-.html

Anonymous

01-05-2003, 05:57 PM

Nuns as sexual victims get little notice
By Bill Smith Of the Post-Dispatch
01/04/2003 02:40 PM

Already shaken by a yearlong sex abuse scandal involving priests and minors, the Roman Catholic Church has yet to face another critical challenge - how to help thousands of nuns who say they have been sexually victimized.

A national survey, completed in 1996 but intentionally never publicized, estimates that a "minimum" of 34,000 Catholic nuns, or about 40 percent of all nuns in the United States, have suffered some form of sexual trauma.

Some of that sexual abuse, exploitation or harassment has come at the hands of priests and other nuns in the church, the report said.

+++The study, recently obtained by the Post-Dispatch, indicates that the victimization often has had devastating psychological effects on the women. Many of the nuns said they were left with feelings of anger, shame, anxiety and depression. Some said it made them consider leaving religious life, and a few said they had attempted suicide.

"These women have been the stalwarts of the church for centuries, and a significant percentage of them have been victimized as a result of the structure of the very institution to which they have dedicated their lives," said study co-author John T. Chibnall, a research psychologist and associate professor at St. Louis University.

+++"The bishops appear to be only looking at the issue of child sexual abuse, but the problem is bigger than that," Wolf said. "Catholic sisters are being violated, in their ministries, at work, in pastoral counseling."

+++Of the more than 1,100 surveys returned to the university, several included brief, personal stories from women who said they had been targeted. One woman wrote that after a priest fondled one of her breasts during confession, she remained so upset that she did not return to confession for the next 18 years.

Another wrote that as a young girl, her uncle, who also was a priest, insisted on touching holy oil to her genital area "to keep me safe while dating." Later, her superiors forced her to attend religious retreats with the same uncle, she said.

Still another wrote that a priest-therapist treating her for severe depression encouraged her to become involved in "sexual experimentation." The woman said she later began a relationship with another nun.

+++Chibnall said researchers agreed not to prepare a press release about the findings because a national women's Catholic group, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, believed that the information would be sensationalized.

"It was like this: 'We don't wash our dirty laundry in public; we'll take care of it,'" Chibnall said.

+++Female church leaders can be "as much a part of this toxic environment" of cover-up and denial as male church leaders, Dixon said.

+++The survey dealt with three main types of victimization.

The first, child sexual abuse, was defined as any sexually oriented contact with a person of the same or opposite sex where the target is younger than 18.

The second, sexual exploitation, was defined as any sexual advance, request for sexual favors, or other verbal or nonverbal sexual conduct that occurs when a woman entrusts her property, body, mind or spirit to another person acting in a professional role.

The third, sexual harassment, was defined as any unwelcome sexual advance that affects employment decisions, interferes with work, or creates a hostile or intimidating work environment.

Among the key findings:

Nearly one in five nuns said she had been sexually abused as a child. While most of the abuse came at the hands of a male family member, about 9 percent of the cases were attributed to abuse by priests, nuns or other religious people.

One in eight nuns said she had been sexually exploited. Of those, nearly three of every four maintained she was victimized by a priest, nun or other religious person. The exploitation included everything from pressure for "dates" to requests for sexual favors to sexual intercourse. Two of every five nuns who said they had been sexually exploited said the exploitation involved some form of genital contact.

Slightly fewer than one in 10 nuns said she was the focus of sexual harassment at least once during her religious life. Almost half of those were reported to be at the hands of priests, nuns or other religious people. More than half of the total harassment cases involved some type of physical contact, according to the survey.

In their report, the researchers noted that they believe the figures are more likely to underestimate rather than overestimate the true prevalence of sexual victimization among sisters. "The fear and pain of disclosure would be sufficient enough to discourage responding in some sisters," the report said.

+++While the St. Louis University study of American nuns has received little attention within the Catholic Church, the church has addressed the issue of abused nuns internationally.

In March 2001, two major Catholic groups pushed for action by the Vatican after news accounts of abused nuns. Those stories primarily concerned sexual abuse of nuns by priests in Africa.

+++Researcher Wolf, who now works in Catholic education, said few nuns have come forth publicly to talk about their experiences. She said that is no surprise. Many may feel shame or guilt and recognize they could have a lot to lose if they come forward.

"These women have to ask themselves what are the benefits and what are the costs," she said. "The church is the only corporation in town."

Reporter Bill Smith:
E-mail: billsmith@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8125

http://stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/263AD85EB409BD2786256CA40076DBA4?OpenDocument&Head line=Nuns+as+sexual+victims+get+little+notice (http://stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/263AD85EB409BD2786256CA40076DBA4?OpenDocument&Head line=Nuns%2Bas%2Bsexual%2Bvictims%2Bget%2Blittle%2 Bnotice)

Anonymous

01-11-2003, 11:48 PM

Trail of Pain in Church Crisis Leads to Nearly Every Diocese
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN The New York Times

The sexual abuse crisis that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church in the last 12 months has now spread to nearly every American diocese and involves more than 1,200 priests, most of whose careers straddle a sharp divide in church history and seminary training.

Those are among the conclusions drawn from an extensive New York Times survey of documented cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests over the last six decades.

The survey, covering cases through Dec. 31, 2002, compiled the names and histories of 1,205 accused priests. It counted 4,268 people who have claimed publicly or in lawsuits to have been abused by priests, though experts say there are surely many more who have remained silent.

The survey, the most complete compilation of data on the problem available, provides a statistical framework for viewing the sexual abuse crisis against the modern history of the American Catholic Church. It found, for example, that most priests accused of abuse were ordained between the mid-1950's and the 1970's, a period of upheaval in the church, when men trained in the traditional authoritarian seminary system were sent out to serve in a rapidly changing church and social culture.

Most of the abuse occurred in the 1970's and 1980's, the survey found. The number of priests accused of abuse declined sharply by the 1990's.

But the data show that priests secretly violated vulnerable youth long before the first victims sued the church and went public in 1984 in Louisiana. Some incidents date from the 1930's and 1940's.

"This has been going on for decades, probably centuries," said Richard K. O'Connor, a former Dominican priest who says he was one of 10 boys sexually assaulted by three priests in a South Bronx parish in 1940, when he was 10. "It's just that all of a sudden, they got caught."

+++ "My assessment is it's only the tip of the iceberg," said William R. Stayton, professor and coordinator of the human sexuality doctoral program at Widener University in Chester, Pa., who was shown the results of the Times study. "You really don't have a true picture. I have worked with many clergy sexual abuse cases over the years, and very, very few of them were reported."

+++ Because in the nearly 20 years since the problem surfaced the American bishops have refused to cooperate with researchers who sought to initiate studies, the Times study offers the fullest picture possible of the extent of sexual abuse within the church. These are among the other findings:

¶Half of the priests in the database were accused of molesting more than one minor, and 16 percent are suspected of having had five or more victims.

¶Eighty percent of the priests were accused of molesting boys. The percentage is nearly the opposite for laypeople accused of abuse; their victims are mostly girls.

¶While the majority of the priests were accused of molesting teenagers only, 43 percent were accused of molesting children 12 and younger. Experts in sexual disorders say the likeliest repeat offenders are those who abuse prepubescent children and boys.

¶Those ordained in 1970 and 1975 included the highest percentage of priests accused of abuse: 3.3 percent. More known offenders were ordained in the 1970's than in any other decade.

¶Of the 432 priests removed from ministry last year, 183 were suspended, living in limbo while waiting for church panels to decide their cases. Bishops were known to have begun the most drastic step, defrocking, for only 11 priests, despite agreeing to a policy at their Dallas meeting last year that encouraged them to use this option. At least nine priests have been reinstated.

¶The Boston Archdiocese, which received the most scrutiny in news reports last year, did have the most accused priests 94 but not the worst problem proportionally. More than a dozen other dioceses had a higher rate of accused priests when taken as a percentage of their active priests.

The study shows only what has become public about a crime usually kept secret by both abuser and victim. Some experts contend that the sharp drop in priests accused of abuse in the 1990's is less a result of efforts by the church to confront the problem than a reflection that the victims from that decade have not yet come forward.

+++ The first significant number of priests accused of abuse to emerge in the study were trained and ordained in the 1950's and early 1960's. It was the heyday of American Catholicism, when newly comfortable middle-class Catholics financed hundreds of new parochial schools and seminaries, and many of the faith's best and brightest enlisted to serve their church. Many are bishops today.

"The priesthood was riding high," said Jay P. Dolan, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of "In Search of American Catholicism" (Oxford, 2002). "A lot of boys were entering the seminary. It appealed to your altruism, your desire to help others, and it was a profession very highly valued by Catholics and others."

To qualify, a young man needed little more than to say he felt "called" to a priestly vocation.

"Getting in the seminary then was a rather easy process," said Mr. Dolan, who entered a seminary in 1954. "There was no screening of candidates at all. They accepted anybody, and the numbers were incredible."

It was typical then for boys to begin their training in a minor seminary at age 13 or 14, continuing directly through for 10 or 12 years until ordination. Many of the minor seminaries, most of which were phased out starting in the 1970's, were essentially boarding schools. There young men lived together in semi-monastic isolation, missing most of the social, sexual and developmental milestones their peers were experiencing back home.

"If you remained in the system, you were treated the same way when you were 26 as when you were 14 basically as little children," said the Rev. Robert J. Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests Councils, who studied to be a priest in northern California in the 1950's. "On Thursdays, you signed out to go to town and buy what you needed. You couldn't go to a movie, to a restaurant. You went to a drugstore, and you came home. Once a month when we were younger we used to get what we called a walk into town. We could go and get milkshakes, but we always went together. You rarely socialized with other people."

Seminary instructors warned students to stay away from temptations, but they never mentioned altar boys and teenagers. Their chief concerns, Mr. Dolan remembers, were "Punch and Judy" alcohol and women.

Diocesan priests take a vow of celibacy, promising never to marry or have sex with women. Seminarians were taught that all other sexual activity was unchaste and sinful, but not a violation of the celibacy vow.

Some priests relied on this distinction to rationalize to their victims, the authorities or church superiors that mutual masturbation, fellatio or touching children's bodies, however wrong, left their celibacy vow intact, according to some victims, therapists who treated the abusers and court records.

In general, though, the entire subject of sexuality was taboo in seminaries.

"It amounted to don't ask, don't tell, don't touch," said Paul E. Dinter, a former priest ordained in 1965 and the author of a new book, "The Other Side of the Altar" (Farrar Straus & Giroux). "In my lifetime there were still seminaries handing out paddles so you could tuck your shirt into your pants and never touch yourself. There were nuns showering in gowns so they were never naked."

Psychologists who have treated priest offenders now say that such a sexually repressed environment appealed to some young men who felt guilty about being sexually stimulated by children, male teenagers or adult men.

+++ Mr. O'Connor, who is now 73, said that when he was raped at age 10 by priests at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Church in the South Bronx, he did not dare tell anyone. He said his mother found out only when she discovered blood on his underwear. (The New York Archdiocese said it was unable to comment on the allegation because the director of priest personnel was traveling abroad.)

Mr. O'Connor said that his parents wrote a letter complaining to the senior pastor, and even threatened to hire a lawyer. But he said he knew of 10 other boys who had been similarly attacked, and whose mothers had learned of the molestations but said nothing. He says the women, devout Catholics, refused to confront the priests.

"In the 40's and 50's, when you were talking to a priest, it was like you were talking to Jesus Christ himself," Mr. O'Connor said.

+++ "The American Priest: Psychological Investigations" found that 57 percent of priests were psychologically "underdeveloped."

+++ "You will see some kind of a bubble in 2005, when the people who were abused in the 1990's come forward," said Dr. Frawley-O'Dea, who has treated many abuse victims. "It takes a lot of survivors until their mid-20's, when they have accumulated enough life experience, to know they were messed up."

But there could be another explanation for the 1990's decline: the church is still covering up cases. Despite the pressure on bishops over the last year to reveal the extent of the abuse, some refused to release the number of accusations or the names of the accused priests.

ex http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=68&u=/nyt/20030111/ts_nyt/trail_of_pain_in_church_crisis_leads_to_nearly_eve ry_diocese&printer=1

ed mcgilk

01-16-2003, 06:11 AM

Priest molestation of little boys seems to be the dominant discussion here. I must admit i haven't read all of the above posts, (Mi espanol es muy malo), but i wanted to inject my personal theory as to WHY this happens with such frequency.

Before i start with my theory i should tell you that i was born and raised catholic (UN-molested). When I was 18 i heard the gospel for the first time...Jesus paid the price for my sin, if i would trust in Him i would be saved. THAT is something a catholic doesn't hear very often, if ever. That had a life changing and profound impact on me. Since then i have relied on Jesus and HIS character to satisfy the requirements that God has. i will be saved because of what Jesus did, NOT by my own efforts or works, and definitely not by some hocus pocus that a religious system invented by men would claim to impart.

ALMOST BACK TO my theory... First, I have heard allegations that some gay priests got into positions of power in 2 or 3 of the seminaries where priests are trained and they actually encouraged and even recruited homosexuals to become priests. I don't know if this is true or not but it really has nothing to do with my theory.

HERE is my theory...
Picture this situation...you are a young catholic boy. You have been raised well in the catholic church. Your parents are very devout and have taught you to love and respect the church. Then you enter into puberty. Your feelings and sexual urges, for whatever reason, are not inclined towards girls, but to boys. This confuses you. You confide in a priest or parent. They tell you to pray and God will set you straight but that doesn't happen. Your faith in the church is not diminished, but refocused. You begin to believe that God made you this way for a reason. Maybe you were not meant to get a wife and have kids. Maybe you were meant to devote your life to the church and to God. Maybe the best way you can deal with your homosexuality and still remain a faithful catholic is to become a priest! GREAT! That sounds right and makes you feel like you have found your life's calling. But even then the urges don't go away. You have consumed your life with helping and benefiting others, but your intimacy remains unfulfilled. The urges and thoughts continue. You see many young men around you, some are teenagers some younger, just boys. Your mind goes wild with thoughts and images of the possibilities. Eventually, you give in and the unthinkable happens. Once you get away with it, the next time doesn't seem so bad. The taboo has lost its edge. You begin to wonder why the boy wouldn't want the same thing. After all, in your frame of mind it is very pleasurable and becomes more normal all the time. Thus the problem grows ever worse.

THE MOST DISTURBING uncertainty i have is HOW in the world did a man, even one who likes men, go from lusting after a man to molesting little boys?!?!?!?! Most men in the world are heterosexual but few would consider having sex with little girls. So why do 'so many' priests molest little boys? Here the next level in my theory...one not for the faint of heart. In order for a man to sink to the point of having sex with a child there surely must be some extremely deviant practices that led up to it. My UNANSWERED question is...WHAT IS GOING ON BEHIND CLOSED DOORS BETWEEN THE PRIESTS THEMSELVES THAT WOULD LEAD TO ONE, MUCH LESS MANY, TO PREY ON LITTLE BOYS? That is the big question i have. One that will probably never be answered until Jesus comes back and everything is revealed.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT >>>> Just because some guy has sex with another guy, it doesn't make him any less deserving of God's mercy. Also, if it isn't OK for him to lust after a man, then it isn't OK for me to lust after a woman, either. LUST IS LUST, sin is sin. My conclusion is that we are ALL guilty of lust and other sin. Jesus doesn't care what huge sin you have(Luke5:8). He wants you to trust Him(John6:29). Simple, pure, undefiled...attributes of Jesus and should also be of your faith in Him.

The only answer to the wanderings and uncertainties of life is to give up and simply trust God.

OTRO SENDERO

08-15-2003, 02:17 PM

A new abusive sect

Under the name of BUHO ROJO a new sect is comming as replacemente of SHINNING PATH. For now they follow an agresive campaign agaist priests, sisters and other christians.

Open your eyes

They meet with young children for indoctrination. Just as the 9-11 people. They have a good number of teachera that follow Teacher Maurtua a new Professor Gusman, the Shinnig Path leader.

They have several facade organizations, that meet under de BUHO ROJO cover.

Let us follow up their actions...

If you can read Spanish, this is one of their ads.

Ah, no se olviden! Este miércoles 10 de Abril a
las 8:00 p.m. en el marco de las charlas del
Movimiento Peruano Arreligioso en el local de la
Asociación Cultural y Educativa Buho Rojo, Jr. Callao
181, Pueblo Libre, se llevará a cabo la conferencia
"Derechos Humanos e Iglesia Católica". La Conferencia
estará a cargo del Doctor Jose Antonio Donayre,
presidente de PROLIBCO. Los esperamos muy
cordialmente!

ExCatholic

12-14-2003, 08:19 PM

Inquisition

The Inquisition was a permanent institution in the Catholic Church charged with the eradication of heresies. Unlike many other religions (e.g., Buddhism, Judaism), the Catholic Church has a hierarchical structure with a central bureaucracy. In the early years of the church, there were several competing sects that called themselves Christian. But after the Emperor Constantine I (280?-337 CE) made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire and the local administrative structures were pulled together into one hierarchy centered in Rome, doctrinal arguments were settled by Church Councils, beginning with the Council of Nicea in 325 (which formulated the Nicean Creed). Those whose beliefs or practices deviated sufficiently from the orthodoxy of the councils now became the objects of efforts to bring them into the fold. Resistance often led to persecution.

Heresies (from L. haeresis, sect, school of belief) were a problem for the Church from the beginning. In the early centuries there were the Arians and Manicheans; in the Middle Ages there were the Cathari and Waldenses; and in the Renaissance there were the Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Rosicrucians. Efforts to suppress heresies were initially ad hoc. But in the Middle Ages a permanent structure came into being to deal with the problem. Beginning in the 12th century, Church Councils required secular rulers to prosecute heretics. In 1231, Pope Gregory IX published a decree which called for life imprisonment with salutary penance for the heretic who had confessed and repented and capital punishment for those who persisted. The secular authorities were to carry out the execution. Pope Gregory relieved the bishops and archbishops of this obligation, and made it the duty of the Dominican Order*, though many inquisitors were members of other orders or of the secular clergy. By the end of the decade the Inquisition had become a general institution in all lands under the purview of the Pope. By the end of the 13th centuries the Inquisition in each region had a bureaucracy to help in its function.

The judge, or inquisitor, could bring suit against anyone. The accused had to testify against himself/herself and not have the right to face and question his/her accuser. It was acceptable to take testimony from criminals, persons of bad reputation, excommunicated people, and heretics. The accused did not have right to counsel, and blood relationship did not exempt one from the duty to testify against the accused. Sentences could not be appealed Sometimes inquisitors interrogated entire populations in their jurisdiction. The inquisitor questioned the accused in the presence of at least two witnesses. The accused was given a summary of the charges and had to take an oath to tell the truth. Various means were used to get the cooperation of the accused. Although there was no tradition of torture in Christian canon law, this method came into use by the middle of the 13th century. The findings of the Inquisition were read before a large audience; the penitents abjured on their knees with one hand on a bible held by the inquisitor. Penalties went from visits to churches, pilgrimages, and wearing the cross of infamy to imprisonment (usually for life but the sentences were often commuted) and (if the accused would not abjure) death. Death was by burning at the stake, and it was carried out by the secular authorities. In some serious cases when the accused had died before proceedings could be instituted, his or her remains could be exhumed and burned. Death or life imprisonment was always accompanied by the confiscation of all the accused's property.

Abuses by local Inquisitions early on led to reform and regulation by Rome, and in the 14th century intervention by secular authorities became common. At the end of the 15th century, under Ferdinand and Isabel, the Spanish inquisition became independent of Rome. In its dealings with converted Moslems and Jews and also illuminists, the Spanish Inquisition with its notorious autos-da-fé represents a dark chapter in the history of the Inquisition. In northern Europe the Inquisition was considerably more benign: in England it was never instituted, and in the Scandinavian countries it had hardly any impact.

Pope Paul III established, in 1542, a permanent congregation staffed with cardinals and other officials, whose task it was to maintain and defend the integrity of the faith and to examine and proscribe errors and false doctrines. This body, the Congregation of the Holy Office, now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, part of the Roman Curia, became the supervisory body of local Inquisitions. The Pope himself holds the title of prefect but never exercises this office. Instead, he appoints one of the cardinals* to preside over the meetings. There are usually ten other cardinals on the Congregation, as well as a prelate and two assistants all chosen from the Dominican order. The Holy Office also has an international group of consultants, experienced scholars of theology and canon law, who advise it on specific questions. In 1616 these consultants gave their assessment of the propositions that the Sun is immobile and at the center of the universe and that the Earth moves around it, judging both to be "foolish and absurd in philosophy," and the first to be "formally heretical" and the second "at least erroneous in faith" in theology. This assessment led to Copernicus's De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium to be placed on the Index of Forbidden Books, until revised and Galileo to be admonished about his Copernicanism. It was this same body in 1633 that tried Galileo.

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Sources
Because of the nature of this subject, care must be taken in choosing readings. Until recently, Protestant literature on the Inquisition tended to be hostile to the Catholic Church, while Catholic literature tended to be apologetic and justificatory. A balanced introduction to the early period is Bernard Hamilton, The Medieval Inquisition (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1981). For a frank Catholic discussion of the Inquisition and its problems, see John A. O'Brien, The Inquisition (New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, 1973). For a more historiographical approach, see Edward Peters, Inquisition (New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988). For the Inquisition and its procedures in Italy during Galileo's time, see John Tedeschi, The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy (Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1991).

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Glossary terms
Dominican Order -- The popular name for the Order of Friars Preachers. The order was founded by Domingo de Guzman (known as Dominic) between 1215 and 1221. Like the Franciscans, the Dominicans were mendicant friars.
cardinal -- High ecclesiastic appointed by the pope to the College of Cardinals and ranking above every other ecclesiastic but the pope.

Click here to go to the full Glossary.

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galileo@rice.edu

Copyright ©1995 Albert Van Helden

Anonymous

12-30-2003, 04:09 PM

Hundreds sue Roman Catholic Church claiming abuse
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Californians are rushing to file hundreds of lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church before the year-end deadline established under a state law that opened a window for old molestation claims.

Attorneys handling the cases predict that up to 750 people will sue statewide and that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, will pay a colossal sum to settle as many as 500 cases.

Ray Boucher, who represents 300 plaintiffs, said such a settlement could surpass the record-breaking $85 million the Archdiocese of Boston is paying.

"I think the settlements in other states will pale in comparison to what should happen in Southern California," he said. "If you just do the math, you're talking about 25 to 30 years of trials, which will never happen."

An informal survey by The Associated Press of attorneys and church officials found that at least 670 plaintiffs had filed cases or were about to file as of mid-December.

The flood of litigation is the result of a California law that took effect Jan. 1, 2003, lifting for one year the statute of limitations for molestation lawsuits. Previously, alleged victims could sue only until their 26th birthday, or within three years of discovering they had emotional problems linked to the molestation.

Those accusing priests of abuse were further frustrated in June when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a California law that erased the statute of limitations for molestation in criminal cases. That ruling led the state to overturn convictions or drop charges against hundreds of suspects.

Timothy McDonnell, 44, said he tried to sue the Los Angeles Archdiocese and his childhood church more than 10 years ago but was thwarted by the statute of limitations. McDonnell, who said he was molested repeatedly by a priest when he was an altar boy in the early 1970s, sees the law as a second chance at justice.

"The statue of limitations is what the Catholic church has been hiding behind for many, many years," he said. McDonnell said he has suffered severe depression because of abuse.

Attorneys for the church say it is unfair to dust off allegations after the passage of so much time - in one case, more than 70 years.

...Both the archdiocese and the neighboring Diocese of Orange, which faces about 50 claims, are trying to work out a settlement.

But the archdiocese has refused to turn over the personnel files of priests suspected of child molestation. The files contain reports by people claiming abuse, psychological evaluations of the priests and transcripts of their interviews by bishops.

Similar files from the Boston Archdiocese, made public by court order in 2002, proved explosive. They revealed the church had protected pedophile priests. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned last December as archbishop, and the archdiocese is selling or mortgaging property to pay the huge settlement.

"We feel that if we can force disclosure of the corresponding documents from the various dioceses in California, and particularly in Los Angeles, the result will be much the same," said Laurence Drivon, a lawyer who represents 350 plaintiffs.

The church says releasing the files would violate priest-penitent confidentiality, freedom of religion and the privacy given to medical records.

For now, the documents remain under seal and are the focus of a legal battle, elements of which could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

... http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/12/30/build/nation/55-churchabuse.inc

jesus (jesus)

11-30-2004, 08:15 PM

Man.. It sure looks like there is terrorism by the devil to the Catholic Church.. Possessing those priest to molest children.. Only the true believing priest are untouched by the devils power.. BELIEVE IT!!! Terrorism is EVERYWHERE! The devils terrorist are trying to destroy the FIRST church of CHRIST..! The Catholic Church..!

paul_howey (paul_howey)

03-31-2005, 03:03 AM

When I was much younger I was a Catholic. All throughout my childhood and throughout my teenage years, going to Mass almost every week, NEVER ONCE was the Gospel of Jesus Christ ever presented to me. I was taught the dogma of Rome: works, works and more works and giving, giving and more giving as a requirement of my salvation (contrary to Eph 2:8-9). Catholic “Mass” was a nightmare of, among other things, uninspired repetition and ridiculous sit-stand-kneel, sit-stand kneel nonsense. (Many protestant churches do similar things but simply in a different form.)

In Catholicism, the “bread and wine” was presented in such as way as a vain attempt to BE an additional sacrifice, completely denying the COMPLETE sacrifice that Jesus Christ fulfilled once and for all by his death and bodily resurrection. This is heretical. Catholicism teaches that the wafer and wine are REALLY Jesus’ body and blood, not the remembrance of Him that the Bible teaches us to observe. This is also heretical. Catholicism teaches the deification of Mary as literally “the Mother of God” and as co-redemtrix (co-redeemer) with Christ. These are terrible heresies as well.

Add to this papal dominion and “papal infallibility” where Catholics believe that various things that the Pope teaches under certain circumstances are considered infallible and supercedes what the Scriptures teach! Add to this Catholicism’s unbiblical beliefs in purgatory, praying to Mary and praying to “saints”. The Bible teaches that EVERY Christian is a saint (Rom 1:7, 1Cor 1:2, Eph 4:12). Add to this the incredibly heretical beliefs that Christ plus works, not Christ alone saves and that ONLY members of the Catholic church are supposedly going to heaven.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph2:8-9).

Add to this the unbiblical requirement of confessing sins to “priests” in dark wooden boxes, and doing whatever “penance” these mere men tell you is “absolution” of your sins. According to the Bible, EVERY Christian is a priest (1Pet 2:5, 2:9, Rev 1:6) and a king (Rev 1:6) under Christ and there is One Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus (1Tim 2:5), not two, not three, and certainly not a man in decorated robes.

While we can forgive each other of offences, no earthly man can dispense forgiveness for sins. Christ already did so through His death and resurrection. Our job is to receive this free gift of forgiveness and salvation by grace through faith (see Eph 2:8-9), repenting of our sins (turning the other way in belief and actions), believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died and rose from the dead in bodily form, and by putting our full faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation (not trusting in how good of a person we think we are, how many times we go to church or how much money we’ve given away).

All the bunk Catholicism teaches is what was presented to me NOT Jesus Christ, at least not the REAL Jesus Christ of the real Bible. Catholics in general believe some wacky way out stuff. But so do many protestants as well. Just like Catholics, many protestants have added false teachings, worldliness and traditions of men (such as opulence, pomp and circumstances to name a few) to the simple clear teachings of the Bible and the simple way in which Christ asked to be remembered. I’m just a Christian, looking not the Catholic Bible with its changes such as added books, but to the real Bible as my standard of faith and practice in this life. I’ve got no problem with Catholics as people, just Catholicism.

Paul Howey
paulhowey@captivesfree.org