All 34 Catholic bishops resign over
Chile child abuse scandal
The Santiago Times
SANTIAGO – All of Chile’s 34 Roman Catholic bishops announced their resignation Friday in the wake of a child sex scandal and cover-up in Chile.
“We, all the bishops present in Rome, have tendered our resignation to the Holy Father so that he may decide freely for each of us,” the bishops said in a statement after three days of intense meetings with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
“We want to ask forgiveness for the pain caused to the victims, to the Pope, to God’s people and to our country for the grave errors and omissions we have committed,” the statement continued.
Never a confession of sin toward God!!!??? Assuming God will forgive you because you are a Catholic Bishop may very well be presuming too much. In Matthew's description of the Judgment, Jesus states that whatever we did to the least person, we did to Him, and also, whatever we didn't do to the least person, we didn't do to Him. Bishops failed to protect God's children and even enabled ravenous wolves to tare them apart. I don't hold much hope for your salvation!
In announcing their willingness to resign, the Chilean bishops said that they had offered freely to step down and had left their future status “in the hands of the Holy Father,” allowing the Pope to decide which bishops should be removed. The bishops thanked the Pope for his “fraternal correction” and offered their apologies to the victims of sexual abuse.
It was not immediately clear whether the pope had accepted all or any of the resignations.
Fire them all! And vette their replacement very carefully.
The unprecedented mass resignation follows a series of events that caused mounting tensions within the Church in Chile: the 2011 conviction of Father Fernando Karadima, a highly influential priest, on abuse charges; the Pope’s 2015 decision to promote Bishop Juan Barros, a prelate with close ties to Karadima; and the Pope’s own public statements that criticism of Bishop Barros was based only on “unfounded allegations of leftists.”
The controversy reached a peak in January, when the Pontiff visited Chile, and responded to questions by saying that he had never received evidence of wrongdoing or negligence by Bishop Barros. That public statement by the Pope was called into question when one of Karadima’s victims revealed that he had sent a letter to Pope Francis, explaining the bishop’s negligence; the letter was reportedly hand-delivered by Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
In answer to increasingly urgent questions, Pope Francis commissioned Archbishop Charles Scicluna, formerly the Vatican’s top sex-abuse prosecutor, to investigate the situation in Chile. After receiving a lengthy report from Archbishop Scicluna, the Pope issued an emotional apology for his handling of the matter, acknowledging “serious mistakes.” He then arranged personal meetings with some Chilean sex-abuse victims, and summoned the Chilean bishops to Rome for a thorough discussion.
In a letter made public at the conclusion of this week’s three-day meeting, the Pope urged them to return home with a new commitment to build a “prophetic Church, capable of putting at the center what’s important: the service to her Lord in the hungry, the imprisoned, the migrant, the abused.”
But in a confidential 10-page document leaked Friday by Chilean TV channel T13, the Argentine pope used much stronger language to denounce the “absolutely reprehensible things that have happened in the Chilean Church,” citing not only sexual abuse but “unacceptable abuses of power” and a loss of “prophetic vigor.”
The damning letter also outlines findings of an investigation, ordered by Pope Francis, into the abuse allegations.
In this longer letter the Pope revealed that Archbishop Scicluna’s report had uncovered clear evidence of “grave negligence” among the Chilean bishops, as well as evidence that some bishops had covered up abuse and put pressure on Church officials to do the same.
“No one can exempt himself and place the problem on the shoulders of the others,” the Pope wrote. “We need a change,” he said. While acknowledging that the removal of some bishops would be a positive step, he wrote: “I insist, it’s not enough.”
The dramatic resignation by the entire Chilean hierarchy leaves Pope Francis in a position to write his own conclusion to the story. The most urgent question, clearly, is which resignations the Holy Father will choose to accept, and which Chilean bishops will be allowed to continue in ministry.
The mass resignation of an entire delegation of bishops is almost unheard of, having last happened two centuries ago.
Bishops have, however, previously been summoned to the Vatican over abuse scandals.
In April 2002, Pope John Paul II summoned 13 American cardinals and bishops to Rome after a huge paedophilia scandal within the clergy. Following another abuse scandal in Ireland in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI also organised a meeting of Irish prelates at the Vatican in February 2010.
Quick and dirty rundown of sex abuse
within the Catholic church
By Agence France-Presse
All of Chile’s bishops offered to resign Friday over child sex cover-up claims dating back decades, the latest in a series of abuse scandals facing the Catholic Church globally.
Here is a rundown of other notable cases:
Australia
The third-highest member of the Vatican hierarchy, Australian George Pell was ordered in May to stand trial on “multiple” historical sex charges, which he denies.
His case coincided with an Australian public enquiry that found that seven percent of priests were accused of paedophilic acts between 1950 and 2010.
In some orders the rate of Paedophilia was conservatively estimated at about 40%.
Austria
Two scandals forced the Vatican to revoke two high-ranking ultra-conservative clerics, Viennese Archbishop Hans Hermann Groer in 1995 and the bishop of Sankt-Poelten, Kurt Krenn, in 2004.
Belgium
In 2010 the bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned after acknowledging sex abuse of two nephews. Since 2012 the Catholic Church in Belgium has received hundreds of complaints and paid almost 4.13 million euros ($4.8 million) in compensation.
Canada
In the late 1980s, a huge scandal broke out regarding the mistreatment of children at Mount Cashel, an orphanage in Newfoundland in the 1950s-1960s.
Chile
Some 80 members of the Chilean clergy have been implicated in a series of sex abuse affairs over the past few years.
Pope Francis caused outrage during a visit in January by appearing to support a bishop accused of covering up for paedophile priest Fernando Karadima during the 1980s and 1990s. This is the case over which the 34 Chilean bishops presented their resignations Friday.
France
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and six others will face trial in January 2019 for allegedly covering up for a priest, Bernard Preynat, accused of abusing around 70 scouts in the 1980s.
Germany
Since 2010 hundreds of cases of sex abuse against children or adolescents in religious institutions have emerged.The most high-profile involve the Jesuit-run Canisius college in Berlin and the choir in Ratisbonne, southern Germany, where at least 547 children were allegedly victims of abuse, including rapes, between 1945 and 1992.
Ireland
Accusations of child abuse in Catholic institutions date back several decades, with the number of underaged victims estimated at around 14,500. Several bishops and priests accused of committing or covering up the abuse have been punished.
Mexico
Mexican bishop Gonzalo Galvan Castillo was forced to resign in 2015 after being accused of protecting a paedophile priest.
The late founder of the ultraconservative Legion of Christ congregation, Marcial Maciel, was forced to resign in 2006, accused of committing sexual abuses of minors.
The Netherlands
In 2011 a study found that tens of thousands of minors had been sexually abused within the Dutch Catholic Church institutions between 1945 and 2010. Some 800 suspects have been identified.
Poland
In 2013 Pope Francis sacked the Vatican ambassador, to the Dominican Republic, Poland’s Jozef Wesolowski, who was charged with sexually abusing minors. He died in 2015 on the eve of his trial.
United States
Between 1950 and 2013 the US Catholic Church received 17,000 complaints of sexual abuse between 1950 and 1980 involving around 6,400 clerics.
Experts speaking at the Vatican said in 2012 the number of abused American minors is probably close to 100,000.
Among senior church members forced to resign for protecting paedophile priests were the late cardinal Bernard Law in Boston and cardinal Roger Mahony in Los Angeles.
Pope Francis tells gay man: 'God made you like this'
Juan Carlos Cruz, who was sexually abused, says pontiff told him
God did not mind that he was gay
The Pope breaks with thousands of years of of Biblical interpretation and completely contradicts scripture
The Guardian
Juan Carlos Cruz said some of Chile’s bishops had sought to depict him as a pervert as they accused him of lying about abuse.
Juan Carlos Cruz, who spoke privately with the pope two weeks ago about the abuse he suffered at the hands of one of Chile’s most notorious paedophiles, said the issue of his sexuality had arisen because some of the Latin American country’s bishops had sought to depict him as a pervert as they accused him of lying about the abuse.
They called him a pervert but they don't call the priests who made him that way such names.
“He told me, ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and I don’t care. The pope loves you like this. You have to be happy with who you are,’” Cruz told Spanish newspaper El País.
I wonder what the scriptural address of that doctrine is? It's certainly not anything like what I have ever read in the Bible.
Now 87, Fernando Karadima, the man who abused Cruz, was found guilty of abuse by the Vatican in 2011.
Greg Burke, the Vatican’s chief spokesman, did not respond to questions about whether Cruz’s statement accurately reflected his conversation with the pope.
It is not the first time it has been suggested Francis has an open and tolerant attitude toward homosexuality, despite the Catholic church’s teaching that gay sex – and all sex outside of heterosexual marriage – is a sin. In July 2013, in response to a reporter’s question about the existence of an alleged “gay lobby” within the Vatican, Francis said: “Who am I to judge?”
If you don't know the answer to that, Pope, the day will come when you will.
The new remarks appear to go much further in embracing homosexuality as a sexual orientation that is designed and bestowed by God. It suggests that Francis does not believe that individuals choose to be gay or lesbian, as some religious conservatives argue.
As ALL religious conservatives argue!
Austen Ivereigh, who has written a biography of the pope, said Francis had likely made similar comments in private in the past, when he served as a spiritual director to gay people in Buenos Aires, but that Cruz’s public discussion of his conversation with Francis represented the most “forceful” remarks on the subject since 2013.
It did not, however, represent a shift in church teaching, Ivereigh said, since the church had never formally made any pronouncements on why individuals were gay.
Christopher Lamb, the Vatican correspondent for the Tablet, said the comments were remarkable and a sign of a shift in attitudes taking place. “It goes beyond ‘who am I to judge?’ to ‘you are loved by God,’” said Lamb. “I don’t think he has changed church teaching but he’s demonstrating an affirmation of gay Catholics, something that has been missing over the years in Rome.”
But is he not also justifying paedophile priests, since most of them are gay. Is he not taking responsibility for accepting perverts as representatives of the Catholic Church away from the church and placing it squarely on God? I have a feeling God is not very impressed with this. He may even see it as blasphemous.
I have another feeling that the 'End Times' are ever closer as the Vatican is rapidly morphing into the ideology of Sodom.
The remarks come as several high profile members of the clergy have sought to publicly make inroads with gay Catholics, many of whom have felt shunned and unwelcome in the church and have been ostracised.
Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest in New York who has nearly 200,000 Twitter followers, has led the outreach effort and was chosen last month to serve as a consultor to the Vatican’s secretariat for communications.
Martin has argued in his book Building a Bridge that the onus is on the church to make LGBT Catholics feel welcome in the church and to stop discriminating against people based on their “sexual morality”.
And, of course, there is no doubt where The Guardian's sentiments, and morality for that matter, lie.
Irish primate urges No on abortion vote,
says not a ‘Catholic’ issue
Charles Collins
In this file photo, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, leaves after attending Pope Francis's celebration of Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican June 29, 2015. (Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.)
LEICESTER, United Kingdom - Ireland can expect “a very liberal abortion regime” if the country votes to repeal its constitutional protections for the unborn child on May 25, according to the Archbishop of Armagh.
Archbishop Eamon Martin, who is Primate of All Ireland, said in a May 19 statement “unborn children in Ireland will have absolutely no constitutional rights” if the country’s Eighth Amendment, which was passed in 1983, is repealed.
Ireland currently has some of the most robust protections for the unborn in the European Union, although most European abortion laws are more restrictive than those in the United States.
If repealed, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said his government would draft legislation to permit abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, although there would be nothing to prevent the legislature from passing more liberal laws.
“When you go inside the voting booth on 25 May, pause and think of two lives - the life of the mother and the life of her baby - two hearts beating; two lives which are both precious and deserving of compassion and protection,” Martin said, urging voters to reject the proposal.
The archbishop reminded the Irish people the Eighth Amendment recognizes the “equality of life of a mother and her unborn baby,” and said women’s lives “are precious, to be loved, valued and protected.”
But he said babies’ lives are also “precious, to be loved, valued and protected.”
Martin also said abortion is not a Catholic issue, but one of human dignity which is rooted in “reason as well as in faith,” and is a value for people of all faiths and none.
“In recent months we have been reminded about the miracle of life in the womb - how your heart started beating from around week five, or your unique fingerprint began to form only ten to twelve weeks after conception,” the archbishop said.
“That little unborn child who moves her fingers or kicks around in the ultrasound scan is the same baby that will be born and grow further through infancy to adolescence to adulthood to old age - all that is needed for that life to grow, is time, nourishment, love, and a chance to survive,” he continued.
The May 25 referendum comes as the Catholic Church is rapidly losing influence in the once staunchly Catholic country.
Revelations about clerical sexual abuse has left public confidence in the Church at its lowest level in the history of Ireland.
In 2015, Ireland held a referendum on same-sex marriage in which 62 percent of the voters backed changing the constitution to allow the practice.
Pope Francis will visit Ireland Aug. 25-26 for the World Meeting of Families, which is taking place in Dublin.
According to a poll published on May 17 by the Irish Times, 44 per cent of voters said they will vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment, while 32 percent said they will vote No. The Yes vote has declined by 10 points since late April, but the pro-life side still has a lot of ground to cover before May 25.
If you have been reading my blog for awhile you know that I am definitely a feminist at heart. You might know that I am totally, well, almost totally pro-choice in that I believe a woman has a right to choose whether or not to be pregnant. However, I believe, if possible, she must exercise that right before she becomes pregnant not after. There are myriad ways to avoid pregnancy these days, failing to use them then opting for abortion is using abortion as a form of birth-control. That is not acceptable in my eyes and I seriously doubt that God sees it as acceptable.
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