Should we Catholics be angry at the Pope for ignoring the sex abusers of 200 deaf boys as in this report?
The Pope's New Outrage by Barbie Latza Nadeau As more emerges about the pope's role in a sex-abuse cover-up involving more than 200 deaf boys, the Vatican is in crisis mode. Barbie Latza Nadeau talks to victims who still can't get heard. The seedy Vatican pedophilia scandal that has rocked Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland for the last few weeks has just taken an even more lurid turn. Allegations that a Wisconsin priest sexually abused as many as 200 deaf children over the course of 24 years are compounded by the fact that his superiors all but ignored the travesty. And worse still, a paper trail between the Wisconsin diocese and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith shows that the current pope was well aware of the cover up. The priest, Lawrence C. Murphy, who was head of the St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis Wisconsin, even wrote directly to the man who now leads the Catholic church, appealing for leniency. The letter, published on The New York Times website, is addressed to “His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger,†now Pope Benedict XVI. In the letter, Father Murphy pleads for leniency based on the fact that the church’s statue of limitations had run out. “I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood,†he wrote to the man who is now Pope. “I ask your kind assistance in this matter.†The Wisconsin victims described how Murphy abused them in his car, in the confessional, and even at Father Murphy’s mother’s private home. • Big Fat Story: The Vatican Fires Back The Vatican did order that Murphy be tried in a secret Vatican tribunal, but after the elderly priest appealed to Ratzinger, the investigation was mysteriously dropped. Murphy was never defrocked, and died in 1998 with a full Catholic funeral and full Vatican honors as a priest. “I wish I knew what this pope was thinking,†Barbara Blaine, head of Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests, told The Daily Beast in Rome on Thursday. She and other survivors of abuse held a small protest outside the walls of Vatican City, passing out copies of photos of predator priests and letters from victims, pleading for help from the Vatican. “What did he think this lack of action would accomplish? These were at-risk kids. They were deaf kids who had been taken from their homes to be cared for by the church. It was outrageous.†Blaine and her group, which includes an abuse survivor from a different Wisconsin parish, were forcibly removed from near Vatican City by Roman police after about 20 minutes for protesting without a permit. Blaine says they were taken in squad cars to a local police station where they were detained for nearly three hours. The police confiscated the posters and letters they were handing out and let them go. Protests were held in Chicago, Milwaukee and other US cities, as well. The group will hold similar events in Munich over the weekend. “I’m still hopeful that this pope will do the right thing,†Blaine says. She and other survivors would like the church to lift the veil of secrecy and turn over criminal child investigations to the local authorities the moment they are reported, rather than treating accusations as an internal church affair. “Criminal investigations should not be the business of the Catholic church.â€
Religion & Spirituality - 13 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
No we should be happy that the church has forgiven and moved on, JUST as Jesus himself said to do. I swear some of these "Christians" I just don't know about.
2 :
No need to get angry. But there's no need to give credence to any person—pope or otherwise—who wouldn't stand up for what's right. And it's worse for the pope to look the other way, because he's in a position of power. Really, what would the harm be in the pope decrying this atrocious sin? He stands against so much else. Why not this? I've never understood why the Vatican doesn't stand up more strongly on behalf of the innocent. We simply can't acknowledge the pope as the mouthpiece of God if he can't get this one right. But still, no need for anger. Just walk away.
3 :
You'll have to speak up......I can't hear very well since Father O'leary did that thing to my ear
4 :
Maybe not so much angry as fed up and move to a religion that follows God's rules with some form of consistency and bases its teachings on the Bible instead of doctrines made by Pagan Romans in 400 years after Jesus died.
5 :
Absolutely, yes you should. AND, you should boycott the Church until the current Pope apologizes and steps down. But of course you won't do that, so you can be as angry as you want but you won't do shyt about it, so the Pope has no reason to fear and he knows it. Blessings on your Journey!
6 :
seems to me that you are not really asking a question , you are soliciting agreement with a predetermined answer. too much info
7 :
What will anger accomplish. Nothing. Work with all your might to keep out (in a kind Christian non-judgmental way) all homosexuals from the seminaries. I have great experience in this area. I went to CUA, was in a few religious orders, visited several others, lived in a monastery. It cannot happen if those people are not even in a position to be tempted or whatever. Would you assign an alcoholic to a job at a bar.
8 :
>>Allegations that a Wisconsin priest sexually abused as many as 200 deaf children over the course of 24 years are compounded by the fact that his superiors all but ignored the travesty.<< Victims didn't come forward until the mid-70s, at which point the priest was removed. >>shows that the current pope was well aware of the cover up.<< What cover-up? The police knew, the victims were public, the newspaper covered it -- all back in the mid 70s when the now-pope was himself a mere priest teaching theology in Germany! >>“I wish I knew what this pope was thinking,†Barbara Blaine, head of Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests, told The Daily Beast in Rome on Thursday. She and other survivors of abuse held a small protest outside the walls of Vatican City, passing out copies of photos of predator priests and letters from victims, pleading for help from the Vatican. “What did he think this lack of action would accomplish?<< The statute of limitations had passed, the priest was old, sick, already retired, had suffered multiple strokes, and was four months from death. He was no threat to any children, and he would have been dead before the trial was over. What would Jesus do?
9 :
just for the catholic church to ask forgiveness, doesnt seem right, what about those boys whose lives have been ruined, and besides does even compensation like money make up for them covering up their misdeeds? Just think of the anguish those boys suffered whom did they have to turn too?
10 :
If I were Catholic, I would be pretty upset about it.
11 :
so lets see the crimes took place in the 60's he was reported to the cops the cops droped the case for lack of evidence.. not one of the victims prosecuted or gave evidence.. Funny how they are coming out of the woodwork now.. he was ordered not to have contact with no one and not to celerbrate the mass with the laity .. the then cardnal ratizinger gets a letter in 1996 from this dope saying he repented and is on his death bed.. so the then cardinal ratzinger who supossedly read they letter. Let him die in peace on his death bed where he had no contact with the public.. First prove the Pope indeed read his letter.. as to secret trial all trials are done in secret just as police investigtions,and also to protect the innocet from scandal Im fine with it since nothing can be proven just alligastions as the times article stated
12 :
That's not a "report"; it's a puff piece backing their money-grubbing lawyer, who is trying to drag the Pope into this to embarrass the church into a bigger settlement. Don't get me wrong; what Murphy did was bad, and the church's failure to stop him was bad, too. But the lawyer has been flooding the media (including my local TV stations and newspapers) with attacks directed at the Pope, all of which depend on ignoring the chronology. His objective is to blame the Pope for things that happened two decades before his first involvement. What happened was this: Murphy was found to be molesting deaf students in 1974 and transferred. Somebody allowed him to have contact with students at another school, where he apparently molested some more before he was prohibited from any further opportunities. In 1996 (yes, a full 22 years after the first action) a Wisconsin bishop decided that Murphy should be punished by being defrocked, and wrote to the Vatican office, then headed by Cardinal Ratzinger (the present Pope), for permission. A subordinate of Ratzinger's gave permission for a trial, and preparations for that took a couple years. (I've seen no accounts suggesting that Murphy, who was quite old by then, was still molesting anyone at that time.) In 1998, Murphy wrote to Ratzinger's office saying that he had repented and wanted to be allowed to die a priest. The same subordinate who had issued instructions for the trial issued an order to stop it, and Murphy died that year. The lawyer for the deaf victims of Murphy's abuse has repeatedly used the media to blame this action in 1998 for abuse that happened no later than 1974. He's been pretty successful, because scandal sells advertising in the media business, but he's playing very fast and loose with the facts. Both TV and newspapers have contradicted their own collected information. The calculation is simple: the higher up the church hierarchy they can manufacture blame, the more they hope to get paid. But when they fake the facts to do it, it's not about justice; it's about money.
13 :
this case was referred to police , they dropped it as there was no evidence forth coming and yet the priest being dead for years, they're coming out of the woodwork
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