European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 1 April | 94 comments (94 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

BBC News - Swiss Roman Catholic bishops apologise over abuse

Roman Catholic bishops in Switzerland have admitted that they underestimated the extent of sexual abuse committed by priests, and have offered an apology.
The Swiss Bishops' Conference said it was "ashamed" and suggested victims should consider pressing criminal charges against the perpetrators.
The bishops did not, however, support the publication of a list of priests who have been found guilty of abuse.
An estimated 60 cases of abuse are now under investigation by the authorities.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Mar 31st, 2010 at 01:40:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Is not 'Crimen sollicitationis' (none / 1)

a form of institutionalized witness intimidation and/or perverting the course of justice and thus illegal (at least in the USA, Ireland, UK and Canada)?

Frank Schnittger:

Given that these procedures were governed by the same code of Canon law and Vatican documents like Crimen sollicitationis, it is hardly surprising that the same patterns are evidenced worldwide. All the Bishops who did this reported directly to Rome where their reports remain held in secret to this day despite the fact that they contain details of criminal behaviour on a vast scale.

The point is not to be right, but to get to right.

by marco on Thu Apr 1st, 2010 at 02:30:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Is not 'Crimen sollicitationis' (none / 0)

The Vatican Spins; The NYT Wins - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The Vatican came out swinging yesterday against the New York Times. And whiffed bad. The Vatican accused the Times of reporting "deficient by any reasonable standards of fairness," and insisting that then-Cardinal Ratzinger had nothing to do with the decision by his deputy to suspend a canonical trial against Father Lawrence Murphy, an unrepentant multiple rapist of deaf children, because he was nearing death.
The only way this can be the case is, again, if control-queen Ratzinger knew nothing of the final decisions of his number two in a meeting in Rome on a case where hundreds of defenseless deaf children had been raped and molested by an unrepentant priest for decades. That's the agit-prop being pushed out by some Vatican-sympathizers. They argue that because Ratzinger's CDF only got responsibility for child abuse cases in 2001, he cannot have been responsible for the 1998 decision. But Ratzinger was in charge of the case in 1996 to 1998 because

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Thu Apr 1st, 2010 at 10:49:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 4)

German bishop faces allegations of physical punishment | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 31.03.2010

According to allegations published Wednesday in a German newspaper, leading Catholic bishop Walter Mixa physically abused children in a church orphanage three decades ago. The bishop's office has denied the accusations.
The German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung published a report on its website on Wednesday alleging that Bishop Walter Mixa had "slapped, punched or spanked the behinds of boys and girls who had misbehaved" at an orphanage in the southern town of Schrobenhausen in the 1970s.
The newspaper said three women and two men had given statements under oath that Mixa had beaten them repeatedly.

One of the women, a 47-year-old who asked to remain unidentified, confirmed the report on Wednesday, telling the German Press Agency that she had been punched while at the orphanage.

"They were blows to the face with the palm of his hand or his fist," she said.

This, btw, is the very same prelate who blamed sexual abuse by priests on "the sexual revolution".

For those who read German, the SZ is all over this.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Thu Apr 1st, 2010 at 02:48:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 1 April | 94 comments (94 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)