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09 April 2010 By Stephen
Lendman
Lest anyone think members of
organized religions are above reproach, take note.
In his new book "God and His
Demons," Michael Parenti confronts both Old and New
Testaments saying:
"The god of the Holy Bible - so
much adored in the United States and elsewhere - is
ferociously vindictive, neurotically jealous,
intolerant, vainglorious, punitive, wrathful, sexist,
racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sadistic and
homicidal. As they say, it's all in the Bible. Beware
of those who act in the name of such a god. Were we to
encounter these vicious traits in an ordinary man, we
would judge him to be in need of lifelong
incarceration at a maximum-security facility. At the
very least, we would not prattle on about how he works
his wonders in mysterious ways."
In fact, 'biblical Jesus
qualifies quite well as founder and forerunner of an
intolerant Christianity."
Leaving child molestation implied
but unaddressed, the Bible deals with sexuality in
broader terms, including incest, adultery,
homosexuality, and rape - children vulnerable to all
except adultery.
Jesus also preached love your
enemies and return good for evil, a message saying
child molesters deserve forgiveness, not punishment,
that's an open invitation for pedophiles, an epidemic
now raging in the Catholic church but one with
longstanding roots.
In his Pastoral Psychology Volume
45, No. 4, 1997 article titled, "Child Sexual Abuse
and the Catholic Church: An Historical and
Contemporary Review," Paul Isely said:
"Although the recent revelations
of clergy sexual abuse (13 years ago) suggest an
unusual and recent epidemic among the Catholic church,
the historical record suggests this difficulty has
plagued the church over the centuries." Though times
change, human nature doesn't, and when constrained by
celibacy vows, it's expressed in other ways.
Isely said while criminal and
civil cases successfully challenged church negligence,
judicial decisions tend "not (to) hold churches (or
the Vatican) liable for the sexual acts of their
clergy."
Further, despite high-profile
press coverage and litigation, earlier "research on
priest offenders is virtually nonexistent, (and)
claims of unprecedented treatment success with clergy
offenders has not been supported by published data.
Given the recidivism rates of sex offenders, the
Catholic church should reconsider its policy of
placing known sex offenders back into active ministry"
- a longstanding practice by transferring them to
another diocese or country, giving them a fresh crop
of kids to abuse....and get away with it.
In 2004, John Jay College of
Criminal Justice's (JJCCJ) Professor Karen Terry et al
published a report commissioned by the US Conference
of Catholic Bishops, based on Catholic diocese
surveys. It learned that under age 18 child
molestation occurs in:
"more than 95% of dioceses and
approximately 60% of religious communities. Of the 195
dioceses and eparchies that participated in the study,
all but seven have reported" at least one case of an
offending priest. "Of the 140 religious communities"
surveyed, only 30 reported none, but not reporting
them doesn't mean they didn't happen. Given the
reluctance of victims to come forward, it's virtually
certain many other incidences took place.
Covering the period 1950 - 2002,
study findings included:
-- diocese and eparchy
allegations made against 4,692 priests and deacons
"for incidents that took place while these men were
serving in ecclesiastical ministry;"
-- religious community
allegations made against 647 priests; dioceses
reported another 282 for a grand total of 929;
-- all regions averaged from 3 -
6% of priests accused;
-- over 80% of victims were boys,
mainly aged 11 - 17;
-- over 10,000 children were
harmed;
-- these estimates don't
"describe the extent of the problem;" more important
is the incidence of sexual abuse and how many priests
were accused annually;
-- the most prevalent abuse
period was 1960 - 1984, lower subsequent numbers
reflecting the declining percent of priests ordained
annually; and
-- most important is not knowing
the number of abuse cases never reported and not
reflected in survey results.
A Global
Problem
Priest child abuse accusations
occur globally, especially in Europe, North and Latin
America, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines,
areas with large Catholic populations. Cover-up is
commonplace, Ireland one of many examples revealed by
the 2009 Murphy Report stating:
"The Commission has no doubt that
clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the
Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities.
The structures and rules of the Catholic Church
facilitated that cover-up. (In addition), State
authorities facilitated that cover-up by not
fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the
law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church
institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law
enforcement processes."
The report held four archbishops
culpable, but top Vatican officials share
responsibility, including Pope Benedict XVI, his
predecessor, Jean Paul II, and others before him -
complicit for decades of cover-up to put Church
interests ahead of child safety and well-being, the
unacknowledged Church policy today.
Pope Benedict
XVI
When he was Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger in 2001, he opposed reform, John Allen
saying in his biography titled, "Cardinal Ratzinger:
The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith:
"Ratzinger today believes that
the best antidote to political totalitarianism is
ecclesial totalitarian-ism. In other words, he
believes the Catholic Church serves the cause of human
freedom by restricting freedom in its internal life,
thereby remaining clear about what it teaches and
believes."
As cardinal and pope, he opposes
liberal morality, including ordaining women,
homosexuality, contraception, abortion, diluting
top-down authority, and Vatican II's softening of
traditional orthodoxy on salvation outside the Church,
ecumenical relations, and liturgical rites, saying two
forms functioning together is impermissible.
Nationwide
Scandals in America
In America alone, scandals hit
many dioceses, several declaring bankruptcy, including
Portland, Oregon, Tucson, Spokane, Washington,
Davenport, Iowa, Fairbanks, Alaska, San Diego, and
Wilmington, Delaware. Boston considered it, but sold
assets to avoid it. In July 2007, AP reported that the
Los Angeles Archdiocese announced a $600 million
dollar settlement to about 500 plaintiffs, "by far the
largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal."
The Catholic News Service at the time cited $660
million.
Other large payouts included $100
million in 2004 by the Orange, CA Diocese for over 90
claims, Boston agreeing to pay $85 - $100 million or
more for 552 cases, Covington, KY a similar amount for
360 claims, and numerous smaller ones throughout the
country to settle claims that keep mounting.
Earlier
Scandals - Hidden Canadian and American Holocausts in
Church-Run Schools
The grassroots Truth Commission
into Genocide in Canada reveals the 1880s through the
20th century systematic rape, torture and murder of
tens of thousands of Aboriginal children in church-run
residential schools. According to its Secretary, Kevin
Annett, a former United Church of Canada minister
until fired and expelled for exposing these ugly
truths:
"The government and the
multinational corporations wanted the Indian land, and
so native children from as young as three years old
were forcibly taken from their families and sent to
residential schools (including Catholic ones), where
they underwent 'acculturation' programs. Between fifty
and one hundred thousand ended up dead, murdered by
the church and the government."
In charge were Catholic,
Anglican, and United Church of Canada authorities
complicit with the federal government.
In his book "Kill the Indian,
Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian
Residential Schools," Ward Churchill documented
America's hidden holocaust, begun under Captain
Richard H. Pratt (a former prison warden), architect
of US residential schools as superintendent of the
prototype Carlyle, PA Indian Industrial School in
1879. His objective - "kill the Indian, save the man"
in every child, but he and others did both for five
generations.
Half the children didn't survive,
the result of extreme cruelty, torture, beatings,
systematic rape and other sexual abuse, malnutrition,
disease, forced labor, no contact with family members
or cultural traditions, and despair-driven suicides.
Survivors were permanently scarred, one in 2000,
Sharon H. Venne, saying:
"Genocide is genocide, no matter
what form it takes and no matter what you call it."
Canada adopted America's model.
In both countries, genocide never stopped. It's
hidden on reservations plagued by broken promises;
extreme poverty and neglect; low life expectancy;
epidemic disease levels; high levels of alcoholism,
suicide, infant mortality, unemployment, and
incarceration; stolen resources; and lost lives in the
name of progress - genocide as jurist Raphael Lemkin
defined it:
"the destruction of a nation or
of an ethnic group" that corresponds to other terms
like "tyrannicide, homicide, infanticide, etc." (It)
does not necessarily mean the destruction of a nation,
except when accomplished by mass killings....It is
intended....to signify a coordinated plan (to destroy)
the essential foundations of the life of national
groups" with the intent to eradicate or substantially
weaken or harm them. "Genocidal plans involve the
disintegration....of political and social
institutions, culture, language, national feelings,
religion, economic existence, personal security,
liberty, health, dignity, and" human lives.
In legal terms, the 1948 Genocide
Convention used the same definition, binding
principles today, but systematically violated by
America, Canada and numerous other nations with
impunity.
Milwaukee -
Epicenter of Today's Crisis
On March 26, New York Times
writers Laurie Goodstein and David Callender
headlined, "For Years, Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of
Priest's Abuse" saying:
About 200 boys at Milwaukee's St.
John School for the Deaf "were deaf, but they were not
silent" about decades of Father Lawrence C. Murphy's
abuse. Then and later "They told other priests. They
told three archbishops of Milwaukee. They told two
police departments and the district attorney. They
used sign language, written affidavits and graphic
gestures to show what exactly (he) did to them. But
their reports fell on the deaf ears of hearing
people."
We now know then Cardinal
Ratzinger got letters about him in 1996 from
Milwaukee's Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, saying the
deaf community needed "a healing response from the
Church." He did nothing, "then equivocated, and when
Father Murphy died in 1998, he died a priest" instead
of in prison where caught and convicted lay felons are
sent.
Marquette University Professor of
Moral Theology Daniel C. Maguire's March 28
consortiumnews.com article headlined "Why Pope
Benedict Must Resign," saying:
Despite a "lifetime of child
rape, (Father Murphy was buried) with full priestly
honors. Pope Benedict XVI now faces a major hypocrisy
test. He has been accepting resignations from bishops
around the world who failed to take action against
priest rapists. It is now no longer in dispute that he
himself is guilty of the same criminal
negligence...."
A secular official would be
forced to resign and face criminal prosecution. His
ecclesiastical obligation is to do it. "He has no
moral right to hide behind Vatican walls." Today's
"perfect storm" includes the pope, "a Vatican
cardinal, two members of the Papal Apostolic
Delagature, three Milwaukee archbishops, and (what's
usually overlooked) the collusion of the local police
and District Attorney."
Except for the press, especially
the Milwaukee Journal, perhaps none of this would have
come out. Yet the Vatican remains in damage control,
AP reporting on April 1 it's "lash(ing) out against
sex abuse coverage," in particular The New York Times
for some rare journalistic integrity, notably on
Laurie Goodstein's March 24 article headlined,
"Vatican Declined to Defrock US Priest Who Abuses
Boys," saying:
"Top Vatican officials -
including the future Pope Benedict XVI - did not
defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf
boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly
warned them that failure to act on the matter could
embarrass the church...."
Instead of acting, Ratzinger and
other officials' "highest priority was protecting the
church from scandal," no matter how many boys were
harmed. Better them than the church, the way it's been
for centuries.
On April 2, Goodstein and Susan
Saulny headlined, "Exiled Pedophile Priest May Have
Continued Abuse," saying:
According to interviews with
victims and new church documents, Father Murphy "also
used his family's lakefront cottage as a lure in his
sexual advances, bringing youths from the school (and
the Northwoods region) into his home beginning at
least in the early 1960s."
Times spokesperson Diane McNulty
added:
"The allegations of abuse within
the Catholic church are a serious subject, as the
Vatican has acknowledged on many occasions. Any role
the current pope may have played in responding to (or
covering up) those allegations over the years is a
significant aspect of this story," and a serious black
mark on his name and position as head of the church.
Yet as Professor Maguire states:
"....the Vatican is still engaged
in cover-ups of these crimes by attacking the press,
trying to kill the messenger" and conceal a scandal
that's a "public relations disaster." Calling criminal
priests "only a few bad apples - and the failure to
report the crimes to law enforcement - is the (real)
scandal," especially with a culpable pope.
Protecting the church, not its
victims, is a criminal offense. Enforced celibacy (a
"gift of the Holy Spirit") is also at issue for
letting perversions replace natural sex and cause harm
to thousands of young children, not priests who prey
on them without accountability or public penance for
their crimes. Nor Ratzinger, as cardinal or pope, for
directing cover-ups from the top and getting bishops
to order kids to keep quiet or be excommunicated.
When he headed the influential
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the
church's department charged with promoting Catholic
teachings on morals and matters of faith, Ratzinger
was nicknamed "God's pit bull" for his role as
enforcer. He cracked down on liberal challenges to
conservative Catholicism, and in 2001, sent an updated
version of the notorious 1962 Crime of Solicitation,
asserting strict instructions to cover up sex
scandals. It was so secret that bishops were ordered
to keep it locked in a safe at all times, and say
nothing.
Ratzinger also introduced a new
Exclusive Competence principle, ordering all child
abuse allegations handled by Rome. Former Vatican
lawyer Father Tom Doyle explained it saying:
"What you have here is an
explicit written policy to cover up cases of child
sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who
would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.
When abusive priests are discovered, the response has
been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them
from one place to another. So there's total disregard
for the victims and for the fact that you are going to
have a whole new crop of (them) in the next place.
This is happening all over the world."
Archbishop of
Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Goes Public
On April 3, AP reported Williams
(speaking out for the first time on Ireland's Roman
Catholic church scandal), telling the BBC (for airing
April 5 on its "Start the Week" program):
For "an institution (to be) so
deeply bound into the life of a society,
suddenly....losing all credibility - that's not just a
problem for the church, it is a problem for everybody
in Ireland, I think." He added that church officials
protected child abusers for decades in many countries,
choosing to sacrifice children to preserve their
credibility.
International
Criminal Court (ICC) Authority to Prosecute the Pope
The ICC is empowered to prosecute
individuals for crimes of genocide, war, against
humanity, aggression, abortion, homosexuality, and
sexual slavery, very likely including pedophelia. As a
result, according to ICC authority, Brigham Young
Professor Richard G. Wilkins, offending priests and
church officials are liable to criminal prosecutions
under the Court's mandate, including the pope.
The ICC complements national
judicial systems, but may act when they don't. Some
experts believe the Vatican is a state, the pope its
head. Others like noted jurist, UN Justice Council
member, and president of the Special Court in Sierre
Leone, Geoffrey Robertson, told the AP on April 3:
"The Vatican is not a state. It
was a construct of Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini."
Robertson believes it's time to
challenge the pope's immunity, Britain's the place,
and said so in a London Guardian April 2 article
headlined, "Put the pope in the dock."
He wrote:
"Legal immunity cannot hold. The
Vatican should feel the full weight of international
law. (Pedophelia is) a crime against humanity. The
anomalous claim of the Vatican to be a state - and of
the pope to be a head of state and hence immune from
legal action - cannot stand up to scrutiny."
Robertson's argument is powerful,
expert, important, and convincing, and imagine the
possibilities if high church officials and the pope
are prosecuted - long indeed though the odds.
Their predecessors aside, might
George Bush, Dick Cheney, all culpable Bush
administration officials, Barack Obama and all of his,
then find themselves in the dock for high crimes so
severe and so many it would take volumes of indictment
material to list and explain, and perhaps years for
full accountability, let alone for a start to make
equitable restitution.
A Final
Comment
Because this scandal is
longstanding, widespread, and in the open, the church
worries most about losing its moral authority. Its
main concern should be top to bottom reform, new
leadership, and a changed mindset that compromised
priests and complicit officials, including the pope,
be fully accountable for crimes demanding punishment.
No longer are cover-ups, ducking
the issue, defending the indefensible, forgiveness, or
immunity permissible, nor should judicial authorities
allow them.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://prognewshour.progressiveradionetwork.org/
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