Ongoing religious scandals

Hotblack Desiato

Kivaro wrote: »

"I apologize for my error in judgment and feel shame for the disgrace I have brought upon the Church and myself," he said. "I pray that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, will bring some good out of this."

Any chance he'll use the 'water miraculously turned into wine' defence?

Penn

ninja900 wrote: »

Any chance he'll use the 'water miraculously turned into wine' defence?

"And how much wine had you had to drink?"
"None. Never touch the stuff. I did have a few glasses of Jesus' blood though..."

ShooterSF

Penn wrote: »

"And how much wine had you had to drink?"
"None. Never touch the stuff. I did have a few glasses of Jesus' blood though..."

Know the glass of christ's blood that's one too many. Be religious sensibly.

Penn

Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said that teens act as seducers in some sexual abuse cases involving priests.

It's been close to decade since an investigation into clergy sex abuse cases by The Boston Globe unearthed a shocking scandal and cover-up that rocked the foundations of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and around the world.

Ten years may have passed, but the wounds have yet to fully heal in America, especially in light of the recent Penn State allegations, as well as the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, former secretary for the clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

In light of this, the recent comments by Groeschel seem both puzzling and jarringly out of step with current sentiments.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register posted this week, Groeschel was asked about his work with the very conservative Friars of the Renewal, a breakaway order he founded 25 years ago. The conversation took an interesting turn, however, when the editor asked about the 78-year-old's work with sexual abuse perpetrators.

"People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath," Groeschel said. "But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer."

Pressed for clarification, the New York State-based religious leader explained that kids looking for father figures might be drawn to priests to fill a hole.


Furthermore, Groeschel expressed a belief that most of these "relationships" are heterosexual in nature, and that historically sexual relationships between men and boys have not been thought of as crimes.

"If you go back 10 or 15 years ago with different sexual difficulties — except for rape or violence — it was very rarely brought as a civil crime. Nobody thought of it that way... And I’m inclined to think, on [a priest's] first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime."

Well, let's face it, when a 14 year old boy "tries to seduce" a Man of God, what's a priest to do? Not f*ck him? That'd be ridiculous.

Sarky

So the church thinks the number 1 cause of paedophilia really is sexy children.

Penn

Sarky wrote: »

So the church thinks the number 1 cause of paedophilia really is sexy children.

Yeah. It's about " kids looking for father figures might be drawn to priests to fill a hole."

I never looked at it that way before. I wonder if we'll hear Pope Benny issue a similar statement.

robindch

Penn wrote: »

"kids looking for father figures might be drawn to priests to fill a hole."

Less sick-making than the opposite.

Mr Groeschel, btw, has his own show on EWTN were you can watch this kind of verbal gymnastics happen any day of the week.

robindch

An Australian priest has now been charged with covering up child sex abuse:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-30/priest-charged-with-alleged-cover-up/4233508

ABC wrote:

In what is believed to be an Australian first, a Hunter Valley Catholic priest has been charged with failing to report the alleged child sex offences of another priest.

Toronto Catholic priest Tom Brennan, 74, has been charged with 14 offences. They include sexually assaulting a boy while he was a priest at Waratah in the 1980s as well as common assault and performing acts of indecency at the same church.

But the ABC has been told some of the charges relate to Brennan's alleged actions in relation to defrocked former priest John Sidney Denham. Police say while Brennan was a school principal he failed to report sexual abuse by Denham at a Newcastle Catholic High School in the late 1970s. Denham is yet to enter pleas to nearly 50 charges relating to 14 boys.

Police have told the ABC the case will set a precedent. There are scores of clergy abuse victims in the Hunter Valley prompting growing calls for a Royal Commission into sexual assaults by priests. The State Opposition has backed the calls for the Royal Commission, but Premier Barry O'Farrell says police are best equipped to deal with the issue.

"Victoria is going down a different route," Mr O'Farrell said. "They've got an inquiry. We have active police investigations underway and nothing should happen that gets in the way."

The Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Bill Wright, says he is saddened by the charges against Brennan.

"These charges represent [the] most grievous crimes, however as with all citizens Father Brennan is afforded the presumption of innocence," Bishop Wright said.

"I also ask you to pray for all those who have been harmed by the trauma of child abuse, for Father Brennan that he may find the grace to repent if he is rightly accused or to endure the burden of being wrongly accused and for the families and friends of all those involved. I urge all the faithful not to rush into judgement and accept the wisdom and justice of our legal system."

That last sentence is the sound of the bishop saying "Yer on yer own, mate".

robindch

Kivaro wrote: »

San Francisco archbishop-elect charged with drunken driving

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57501212/san-francisco-archbishop-elect-arrested-for-dui/

While across the country in Michigan, a priest had a few too many, then leaped into his car for a drive, but forgot to get dressed first:

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20120808/NEWS01/120808007/Michigan-priest-accused-nude-drunken-driving

Livingston Daily wrote:

DEARBORN, MICH. — The pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Dearborn was suspended Monday after the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit learned he had been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving - in the nude.

The archdiocese issued a statement Tuesday saying the Rev. Peter Petroske, 57, had been placed on administrative leave. A knowledgeable city source told the Free Press that Petroske was arrested early Friday about a block from the church on Michigan Avenue, and had a laptop computer with him in the vehicle.

His blood-alcohol level was just over the limit at which someone can be convicted of drunken driving in Michigan, the person said. Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad declined to comment, saying the matter was under investigation.

The archdiocese statement said that when Petroske was arrested, he was alone in his vehicle and “was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and indecent exposure. Archdiocesan officials met with parish staff on Monday.” Archdiocese spokesman Joe Kohn said the leave is indefinite. He said he could not discuss the laptop but confirmed that Petroske was not dressed at the time of the arrest.

Kohn said Petroske conducted mass on Sunday and that the archdiocese learned about his arrest that night. Kohn said Petroske then “fully cooperated” with the diocese. With 1,900 member families, Sacred Heart Parish is Dearborn’s second-largest Catholic church. Petroske has been pastor since 2008. The parish also operates a school.

Church members said they were shocked by the news about their pastor, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, who was orphaned at a young age. Following his ordination in the Diocese of Marquette in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, his first assignment was as associate pastor at St. Anne in Escanaba.

According to his biography on Sacred Heart’s website, Petroske drove 70 miles a weekend to offer mass in four different UP communities. His first assignment in the Detroit Archdiocese was in 1991 at St. Rene Goupil in Sterling Heights. He also served at St. Anne in Warren and St. Pius X in Southgate before arriving in Dearborn four years ago.

“He’s been just a fantastic pastor, an inspiring speaker. Obviously something very strange must have occurred,” said Ned Nikodem of Dearborn, a former vice chairman of the church’s Pastoral Council. “He has just a devout appreciation for the liturgy and scripture, and he can interpret it in ways that make it moving and meaningful.”

Hotblack Desiato

robindch wrote: »

That last sentence is the sound of the bishop saying "Yer on yer own, mate".

If only our clerical child rapists would hear the same? Instead of the church funded heavyweight legal defence, the church funded church run 'counselling' producing bogus grouds for leniency, the church funded 'halfway house' on release from their short jail term, the church funded pension, etc...

Kivaro

robindch wrote: »

While across the country in Michigan, a priest had a few too many, then leaped into his car for a drive, but forgot to get dressed first:

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20120808/NEWS01/120808007/Michigan-priest-accused-nude-drunken-driving

"Naked Drunk Priests".

WooHoo! I just found the name for my new punk band.

Bannasidhe

Kivaro wrote: »

"Naked Drunk Priests".

WooHoo! I just found the name for my new punk band.

Apparently* that's في حالة سكر الكهنة عارية in Arabic.





*google translate so it could mean anything at all.

ShooterSF

robindch wrote: »

While across the country in Michigan, a priest had a few too many, then leaped into his car for a drive, but forgot to get dressed first:

http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20120808/NEWS01/120808007/Michigan-priest-accused-nude-drunken-driving

“He has just a devout appreciation for the liturgy and scripture, and he can interpret it in ways that make it moving and meaningful.”

In other words "He's handy to have around because he can manipulate passages so they no longer support things we can't be seen to support".

robindch

Reports at eleven

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0905/breaking13.html

Irish Times wrote:

The findings of reviews into child-safeguarding practices since 1975 will be published this morning by four Catholic dioceses and three religious congregations.

This second tranche of such reviews by the church’s child protection watchdog, the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), includes religious congregations for the first time. The reports will be put on the groups’ respective websites at 11am. The first tranche of such reviews, involving the six dioceses of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Derry, Dromore, Kilmore, Raphoe and Tuam Archdiocese, was published on their websites last November.

The four dioceses expected to publish reviews this morning are Clonfert in east Galway, Cork and Ross, Kildare and Leighlin, and Limerick. The religious congregations expected to do so are the Dominicans, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Spiritans (Holy Ghost Fathers). Two of the dioceses, Limerick, and Kildare and Leighlin, have been without a bishop since the resignations of Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray and Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Jim Moriarty in December 2009 following publication of the Murphy report. Both were auxiliary bishops in Dublin during the period investigated by the Murphy Commission.

The Spiritan (Holy Ghost) congregation runs some of the best-known schools in Ireland, including Blackrock College, St Mary’s, Templeogue College and St Michael’s in Dublin, as well as Rockwell College in Co Tipperary. A former pupil of St Mary’s College in Rathmines, Mark Vincent Healy, who was abused while a pupil there, said last June he had established that as many as 12 Holy Ghost/Spiritan priests had been accused of abuse, whether in Ireland or Africa.

In March 2009, Fr Henry Maloney was convicted of abusing Mr Vincent Healy and another man, who died last June, when both were pupils at St Mary’s College, Rathmines, between 1969 and 1973. Fr Maloney had already been convicted of child abuse in 2000. He taught at St Mary’s between 1968 and 1973, before being transferred to Sierra Leone.

In August of last year, it emerged that gardaí, the HSE and NBSC were investigating abuse allegations made by as many as 20 former students at the Sacred Heart College in Carrignavar, Co Cork. It is now a co-educational secondary school managed by Catholic Education, an Irish Schools Trust (CEIST), a trustee body for secondary schools of the Daughters of Charity, Presentation Sisters, Sisters of the Christian Retreat, Sisters of Mercy, and Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. In June 2010, it emerged that the Bishop of Clonfert, Dr John Kirby, and the Redemptorist congregation there were refusing to remove two accused priests from its retreat centre at Esker which is attended by young people.

This was despite a strong recommendation for their removal by a lay group appointed by Bishop Kirby to address child protection in Clonfert diocese.

Bannasidhe

THE Bishop of Clonfert has apologised for moving two priests from one parish to another in the 1990s after they abused children.

John Kirby said he had a lack of understanding about the sinister and recidivist nature of the child abuser and the lifelong damage that the destructive behaviour has on victims.

"Most of all - whilst I did notify the civil authorities at the time of these complaints - I profoundly regret and apologise for moving the priests concerned to different parishes, thereby placing others at serious risk," he said.

Bishop Kirby said the decision to transfer the abusive priests in the early to mid-90s was a grave mistake.

"I operate very differently now and will continue to do so in the future," he added. "Finally, I wish to reiterate my regret for the terrible damage caused by these two priests."

The revelation was included in one of seven reports following audits by the Catholic Church's own watchdog into four dioceses and three religious orders.

A separate audit of Cork and Ross Diocese uncovered concerns about priests retiring to Cork from Britain, including three with convictions for child abuse.

It warned that information from their dioceses in the UK was "not as forthcoming as it should have been", leading to a lack of awareness of potential risk.

The report said the issue underscored the need for good priests to get a celebret acting as a licence to minister.

Ian Elliot, chief executive of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), carried out the reviews on behalf of the church.

He examined child protection in Clonfert, Cork and Ross, Kildare and Leighlin and Limerick, and the Religious Orders the Dominicans, the Spiritans, who were formerly known as the Holy Ghost Fathers, and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Dr Elliot warned about the damage to a priest who is forced to step down from duties while complaints are examined.

He said the issue of three priests in Cork and Ross subsequently allowed to return to ministry highlighted whether it is just and fair to force suspension.

Dr Elliot said paucity of evidence and the length of investigations may have added to avoidable distress and public ignominy.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bishop-says-sorry-for-moving-abusive-priests-3220866.html

He didn't know about the 'recidivist nature of the child abuser and the lifelong damage that the destructive behaviour has on victims' so instead of educating himself a bit he moved them to a different parish. What a Twank.

robindch

Meanwhile, Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby said that pedophilia was "friendship that crossed a boundary line."

http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/2012/0905/ireland/bishop-i-thought-paedophilia-was-friendship-that-crossed-a-boundary-line-565803.html

Breakingnews wrote:

Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby said today that he had previously regarded paedophilia as a "friendship that crossed a boundary line"

He told Galway Bay FM that he has learned "sadly since" and it was a very difficult experience. The bishop was speaking after the publication of seven audits into child safeguarding practices in the Catholic church and religious orders.

Three religious orders were also examined - the Dominicans, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Spiritans. Speaking on 'The Keith Finnigan Show' on Galway Bay FM this morning, Bishop Kirby also apologised for moving two priests - who sexually abused children - to different dioceses.

"I think that, without making excuses, the mood of the time, very little was known about the insidiousness and the compulsiveness of child sexual abuse," said Bishop Kirby. I think that was true not only in the church, but in society at large.

"I hadn't a clue as to how paedophiles operated, I saw it as a friendship that crossed a boundary line. I have learned sadly since, it has been a very difficult experience."

Sarky

Wow. I went to school in his area if influence. If I'd known he thought that way when he came visiting the school there would have been interesting times.

joseph brand

Bannasidhe wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bishop-says-sorry-for-moving-abusive-priests-3220866.html

He didn't know about the 'recidivist nature of the child abuser and the lifelong damage that the destructive behaviour has on victims' so instead of educating himself a bit he moved them to a different parish. What a Twank.

Later, in an interview on Galway Bay FM Bishop Kirby tried to explain his actions in the 1990s, saying he had no comprehension of paedophilia. “I saw it as a friendship that crossed a boundary line," he said.

Friendship? Like that short-lived friendship between a rapist and the victim, or a mugger and his victim? There's a bond, albeit a dangerous, or disgusting bond.

Funny how they only admit it when they've been caught with their pants down. Don't they know that 'god' is watching? Of course not. They know it's all bull.

Bannasidhe

joseph brand wrote: »

Friendship? Like that short-lived friendship between a rapist and the victim, or a mugger and his victim? There's a bond, albeit a dangerous, or disgusting bond.

Funny how they only admit it when they've been caught with their pants down. Don't they know that 'god' is watching? Of course not. They know it's all bull.

Been listening to this on the radio today. No-one is buying this 'we didn't know what pedophilia was back then' line, as commentators have pointed out we are talking about 1990, not 1890 (though they had a pretty good idea what it was then too, just didn't have a term for it) and this 'we were naive' defense just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. After all, Roman Catholic Bishops 'knew' enough to stick their oar in to the Abortion debate in 1983, and enough to speak against divorce in 1995- it's not like either abortion or divorce was going to become a personal issue for celibate men. Yet, even though there were known pedophiles among them they were incapable of doing any research into that... Yet, people will still defend them. :mad:

robindch

Bannasidhe wrote: »

[...] this 'we were naive' defense just doesn't stand up to scrutiny [...]

For centuries, the church has spoken out against extra-marital sex. It's bizarre that they expect people to believe that they thought that sex was not an issue, just because there were kids involved.

G.K.

Sydney: Christian doctor banned for prescribing chemical castration ‘gay cure’ to teen

An Australian doctor and member of a conservative Christian sect has been banned from practicing medicine after he prescribed a teenager a chemical castration drug for use as a ‘gay cure’.

In 2008, GP Mark Craddock, prescribed the 18-year-old the anti-androgen therapy cyproterone acetate, sold under the brand name Cyprostat, during a 10-minute consultation in his home.

According to AFP, the drug is used to treat prostate cancer.

The patient was also a member of the same branch of the Exclusive Brethren Church as the doctor, and was told by church members that “medication” would him with his sexuality.

In a hearing before the professional standards committee of the Medical Council of New South Wales, Mr Craddock admitted he did not obtain a medical history, failed to conduct a physical examination, and also did not take an adequate sexual history or arrange a follow-up appointment for the patient.

He also did not refer the teenager to a counsellor or a psychologist, despite the drug manufacturer’s recommendation, and did not order a liver test or discuss the side effects, which include impotence.

Mr Craddock conceded it was potentially dangerous for a patient to have that much medication unsupervised. He said that he should not have prescribed it at all, the committee found.

In May of this year, a Christian psychotherapist in England lost her appeal against a ruling by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy after a 2009 undercover investigation by the journalist Patrick Strudwick found that she was trying to provide gay conversion therapy through counselling.

Disgusted.

Nodin

Sarky wrote: »

Wow. I went to school in his area if influence. If I'd known he thought that way when he came visiting the school there would have been interesting times.

Mooning may have been counter-productive.

Galvasean

Nodin wrote: »

Mooning may have been counter-productive.

Like a rag to a bull?

Nodin

robindch wrote: »

Meanwhile, Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby said that pedophilia was "friendship that crossed a boundary line."

http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/2012/0905/ireland/bishop-i-thought-paedophilia-was-friendship-that-crossed-a-boundary-line-565803.html

I read that, and thought 'maybe he means his moving of the pedophiles'. Then I saw him on the news, and no, he means the offenders relationship with the victim.

As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia, or paedophilia, is defined as a psychiatric disorder in persons who are 16 years of age or older typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children (generally age 13 years or younger, though onset of puberty varies). The prepubescent child must be at least five years younger than the adolescent before the attraction can be diagnosed as pedophilia

(my bold and underline)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

Given the church attitude towards sex between consenting adults, there is no way in fucking hell that position is even remotely believable.

optogirl

Will be interesting to see how the apologists deal with this one. Just another sickening admission of incompetence (at best).

robindch

Nodin wrote: »

Given the church attitude towards sex between consenting adults, there is no way in fucking hell that position is even remotely believable.

In all fairness, the church does expect people to believe the frankly unbelievable.

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

In all fairness, the church does expect people to believe the frankly unbelievable.

This is very true. The whole thing is based on the frankly completely unbelieveable. *Sigh* and yet they believe and therefore they will not only defend, they will insist unbelievers have no sense of morality. Sometimes it all just melts my head .

the culture of deference

With bishops like this speaking their mind it really must be only a matter of time before the alleged 92% of census catholics cop on.


Another nail for RCC.




Here we go again.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0906/1224323652793.html


CLONFERT: THE BISHOP of Clonfert Dr John Kirby has said it never occurred to him that he should consider resigning after it emerged that he had moved two priests at the centre of child sex abuse allegations to other parishes in the 1990s.


He also dismissed a suggestion that it was unwritten church policy in the early 1990s to move priests suspected of abusing children to other parishes rather than report them to the Garda.


Dr Kirby (73) said he “hadn’t a clue” about how paedophiles operated 20 years ago and thought that it was a case of “a friendship that crossed a boundary line”.


It noted that the Clonfert diocese safeguarding committee was established in 2007 but was suspended a year later. It was reactivated in 2009 but in May 2010, there was “a difference of approach” which led to a dispute between Dr Kirby and five members.

robindch

A priest says that it's all far worse than what's been reported so far:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/countrywide-audit-would-reveal-many-more-abuse-skeletons-dublin-priest-565885.html

Breaking News wrote:

A Dublin priest has said that if an audit were done of every religious congregation in the country, many more cases of child abuse - and their cover-up - would be revealed.

The reports of seven audits of religious congregations and dioceses by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church were released yesterday.

They found more than 330 allegations of abuse against 146 priests and members of congregations.

Records dating back to 1975 were examined in the dioceses of Clonfert in Galway, Cork and Ross, Limerick and Kildare and Leighlin, as well as the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Dominicans and the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

Augustinian priest in Meath Street in Dublin Michael Mernagh said many still refused to acknowledge the nature and extent of abuse carried out by members of the Church.

"There is that culture of denial there. It is at the heart of the cancer which is at the heart of the institutional Church," he said.

"If an audit were done on each religious congregation, especially male congregations, in the country, one would find an awful lot of skeletons in the cupboard and the cover-up that has gone on."

Hotblack Desiato

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0906/1224323653661.html

Those who have defended the church on the basis of the “historical” nature of abuse complaints against priests must feel sickened by these reports. Despite their valiant efforts at upholding a beleaguered and beloved institution, they too have been badly let down by senior church figures, again, when it comes to implementing basic child safeguarding practices.

It is risible for the Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby to expect people to believe that in the 1990s he saw the sexual abuse of a minor by a priest in his diocese “as a friendship that crossed a boundary line”. He then just moved the accused priest to another parish. He did so where a second similarly accused priest was concerned there, too.

It is beyond belief that anyone in Ireland would have thought, in the early 1990s or beforehand, that sexual abuse/interference with a child by an adult was anything other than wrong. That a bishop did not do so, particularly where a priest was concerned, belongs to the realms of fantasy.

That alone renders meaningless Bishop Kirby’s “if-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now” apology yesterday. It was merely repetition of an all-too-empty formula employed by senior Catholic Church figures caught in sticky situations and with which we have become mind-numbingly familiar.

Plenty of other disgusting stuff at that link too :mad:

The review praised the child protection work of Bishop Donal Murray while bishop of Limerick but noted that an unnamed predecessor there, believed to be Bishop Jeremiah Newman, allowed a priest whom he knew had a history of child abuse to minister in Limerick. That priest then allegedly abused Peter McCloskey (37) who took his own life in April 2006 following a fractious meeting with diocesan authorities in Limerick.

:mad: :mad:

These people and their supporters claim moral authority over us all, but they have no moral authority, quite the opposite in fact.

I hope these horrific disclosures will finally open the eyes of those of my fellow countrymen and women who still believe in the moral authority of the roman catholic church.