Editor’s note: Power is finally restored! Thank you for your patience.
Click here to read: “U.N. Panel Criticizes the Vatican Over Sexual Abuse,” by Laurie Goodstein, Nick Cumming-Bruce and Jim Yardley, The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2014
Excerpt: The report, however, was sharply critical of the church’s current practices, not just those of the past. “The committee is gravely concerned that the Holy See has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators,” the report concluded.
Unfortunately, the U.N. report got in to other issues like abortion and Women”s rights.Although many feel all of these issues are interconnected, We know that the Church and its allies will use these issues to spin their own web. The issue of sexual abuse has more than enough merits to stand on its own. While calling on the Church on the sex abuse issue, the U.N. has given them leeway to change the dialogue to other issues and we know from its history , it will certainly do that.
They also got into the trafficking of children, and the treatment and terminology of “illigitimate” children.
Maybe at last the Argentinian mothers and grandmothers will learn of the fate of their daughters and their newborns, by opening up the Vatican files already requested on the elevation to pope during his time as lead ecclesiastic of the country.
I think bringing in those other issues has weakened the UN’s position on the sexual abuse of children by those clerics and others representing the RCC along with the the cover-up, the collusion and the conspiracy of the hierarchy. The UN report has given fodder to the RCC (look at the newspaper and blog articles) to further deflect attention from their failures, particularly in holding bishops accountable, and bring the public’s attention to areas that are not in the UN’s purview. The hierarchy has already begun its spin making this into an orchestrated attack on religion generally and on the RCC in particular.
We need to do all we can via Letters to the Editor, letters, emails and faxes to our bishops etc., etc., to get the attention back where it belongs: on the crimes that were committed, the cover-ups, the conspiracies, the collusion and the continued orchestrated attacks on SOL in PA, NY, NJ and elsewhere.
Most dioceses have not publicly listed convicted, known or credibly accused sexual predators on diocesan or parish websites and they have held up diocesan records from being made public for years. Look at Chaput who has returned known sexual predators to ministry because they won’t do it again.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com
CatholicWhistleblowers.org
And Australia isn’t far behind even with the Royal Commission.
I’ll bet not one bishop will be held accountable and I can’t imagine any of them breaking ranks.
The minute after the U.N. report went public the attacks began which is really no surprise.
As a Catholic friend of mine explained “it feels like the church is acting as one of those parents who say their child is a good boy and he is an angel and he could do no wrong, at the same time the son is sitting in a prison cell with the video evidence showing the son being not so good of an angel as they thought.”
Considering all of the insular and protective RC spin emerging in commentary on the UN report, don’t you dare tell me that Francis is changing the Church or that he offers hope. Let’s hear Francis’ thoughts on the UN report because, as long as he remains silent, he’s spinning.
The fact that the UN made the mistake of mixing Church culture issues with the crime of sexual abuse, and that it is being used to make clerical enablers, colluders, and pedophiles disappear from the crime and sin picture, is abominable. People get it! We get how the UN compromised sexual abuse organizations, advocates, and victims. But we also know the truth! No! Don’t tell me that, in the 21st century, the truth gets lost in the spin. As a commenter notes on Bilgrimage, the Church is ready and willing to downsize into a right wing group of conservatives who protect it with their spin and provide clerics with spin cover-up material. To hell with the rest of us.
The UN Report clearly challenges the “Vatican State” ( not the religion) for failing to use its power over its “servants”, the bishops and priests, to control one of the most heinous crimes of religious history, the horrible crime of child abuse. This crime is not just one of recent memory ( from the 1950’s – the present). Surely this crime has gone on for hundreds of years but never reported publically. Surely the “secret archives” of the Vatican and each diocese would be a “gold” mine of information if one would be able to investigate.
I also believe that one of the real crimes perpetrated by this institution and protected by legal action is the “code of silence” imposed upon victims as the church “bought off” victim after victim while allowing perpetrators to disappear to other dioceses unfettered.
The issue is not money. The issue is deception from an entity that is supposed to be the paragon of virtue and of the highest moral code. Lies, collusion and silence speak to us of cheap and slimy politicians, yet here is corruption found in the sacred halls of a church which sees “sin” everywhere but in its own corridors.
Let it cry out “foul” and “persecution”. It is just squirming in its own lies as so many public politicians who try to throw the blame elsewhere.
In deepest sadness we can cry out, ” my Church, my Church, why have you forsaken us??”
As they say, this isn’t rocket science……….The Roman Catholic Church did next to nothing to stop certain sexual abusing clergy who were preying on the most innocent of our faithful other than to move them from one location to another and put other children and young adults at risk, some of whom became additional victims of the most evil, criminal and life-destroying conduct and behavior that man is capable of on this earth. This occurred in towns, neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries around the globe and to this day, not a single religious leader, cardinal or bishop, has been held accountable for his failure to stop the physical and psychological carnage that was perpetrated on the victims and their families.
Michael Skiendzielewski
Captain (Retired)
Philadelphia Police Dept.
The context of concerns related to abortion in the UN report is the 2009 case of the 9 year old Brazilian girl impregnated by her step-father. She was carrying twins and given an abortion because the pregnancy was life threatening. The local bishop excommunicated the mother and the doctor for the abortion. No consequences for the step father and if there was any thought of pastoral care for this little girl, no word of that was made public.
Maybe you should jog the mind of Director of Media Relations Sr Mary Ann Walsh….