Chicago: Several 6-Year-Old Kids Handcuffed And Threatened For Hours For Talking In Their First Grade Class

6-year-old kids handcuffed in class (RT, Sep. 2, 2011):

A lawsuit out of Chicago, Illinois alleges that several 6- and 7-year-old students at a city public school were handcuffed and threatened for hours all for talking during their first grade class.

LaShanda Smith, one of the student’s mothers, is seeking $100,000 from the city for damages both “permanent” and “personal” that she says her son suffered as a result of the incident, which allegedly occurred in 2010 at a school in the south side of the city. Smith’s attorney Michael Carin tells the Chicago Tribune that he has attempted to resolve the issue without bringing the battle into the courtroom, but the school Board officials have ignored his attempts at reaching a settlement.

“Unfortunately, we had to file a lawsuit because the Chicago Board of Education ignored my client on the day of the imprisonment and every day thereafter,” Carin writes in an email to the Tribune. “We hope the Chicago Board of Education acknowledges its responsibility and resolves the matter quickly.”

Read moreChicago: Several 6-Year-Old Kids Handcuffed And Threatened For Hours For Talking In Their First Grade Class

RT: ‘If 9/11 Victims’ Phones Were Hacked By Murdoch’s People, Fox News Is Finished’ – DAILY KOS: Former Fox News Executive: Americans’ Phones Were Hacked


YouTube Added: 17.07.2011

Fmr. Fox News Executive: Americans’ Phones Were Hacked (DAILY KOS, July 17, 2011):

Former Fox News executive Dan Cooper has claimed that a special bunker, requiring security clearance for access was created at the company’s headquarters to conduct “counterintelligence” including snooping on phone records:

“Has Roger Ailes been keeping tabs on your phone calls?”That’s how Portfolio.com began a post back in 2008, when a former Fox News executive charged that Ailes had outfitted a highly secured “brain room” in Fox’s New York headquarters for “counterintelligence” and may have used it to hack into private phone records.

After helping chairman Roger Ailes create the Fox News channel in 1996, Cooper was fired for doing an anonymous interview with New York Magazine:

”I’m frightened right now,” said a former Fox employee, noting the vast array of powerful connections Ailes maintains throughout the political and media worlds.  “I’ve been told that if Ailes figures out I talked to you, he’ll hunt me down and kill me.”Negotiating the ground rules for an off-the-record meeting, Ailes came on like an Edward G. Robinson character in a B movie.  “Three people in the world hate me,” he blustered.  “You’re not going to get to them, and everyone else is too scared…. Take your best shot at me, and I’ll have the rest of my life to go after you.”

Cooper says that Ailes discovered he was the source by gaining access to his phone records through Fox’s “brain room”.

Cooper claims that his talent agent, Richard Leibner, told him he had received a call from Ailes, who identified Cooper as a source, and insisted that Leibner drop him as a client–or any client reels Leibner sent Fox would pile up in a corner and gather dust. Cooper continued:“I made the connections. Ailes knew I had given Brock the interview. Certainly Brock didn’t tell him. Of course. Fox News had gotten Brock’s telephone records from the phone company, and my phone number was on the list. Deep in the bowels of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, News Corporation’s New York headquarters, was what Roger called the Brain Room. Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News. But unlike virtually everybody else, because I had to design and build the Brain Room, I knew it also housed a counterintelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie.”

In a Rolling Stone piece, Tim Dickenson corroborates Cooper’s account of a “black-ops” room deep within Fox HQ:

Befitting his siege mentality, Ailes also housed his newsroom in a bunker. Reporters and producers at Fox News work in a vast, windowless expanse below street level, a gloomy space lined with video-editing suites along one wall and an endless cube farm along the other. In a separate facility on the same  subterranean floor, Ailes created an in-house research unit – known at Fox News as the “brain room” – that requires special security clearance to gain access. “The brain room is where Willie Horton comes from,” says Cooper, who  helped design its specs. “It’s where the evil resides.”If that sounds paranoid, consider the man Ailes brought in to run the brain room: Scott Ehrlich, a top lieutenant from his political-­consulting firm.  Ehrlich – referred to by some as “Baby Rush” – had taken over the lead on Big Tobacco’s campaign to crush health care reform when Ailes signed on with CNBC. According to documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Ehrlich gravitated to the dark side: In a strategy labeled “Underground Attack,” he advised the tobacco giants to “hit hard” at key lawmakers “through their soft  underbelly” by quietly influencing local media – a tactic that would help the firms “stay under the radar of the national news media.”

George Galloway’s Epic Rant Against Rupert Murdoch

George Galloway’s epic rant against Rupert Murdoch


Added: 09.07.2011

George Galloway delivers an angry, epic rant against Rupert Murdoch and his empire. This is probably the most angriest rant by Galloway since he shouted down a racist over the Haiti earthquake in 2010.( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T66Xupx7zOc )

He blasts Rupert Murdoch for the following:

YOUR RUPERT MURDOCH WAS HACKING THE PHONES OF DEAD SOLDIERS.

YOUR RUPERT MURDOCH WAS HACKING THE PHONE OF MILLY DOWLER.

YOUR RUPERT MURDOCH WAS HACKING THE PHONE OF THE FATHER OF JESSICA CHAPMAN.

YOUR RUPERT MURDOCH WAS HACKING THE PHONE OF THE MOTHER OF SARAH PAYNE.

Orginally broadcasted on 8th July 2011.

George Galloway speaks to dumb supporter of Rupert Murdoch


Added: 09.07.2011

George Galloway speaks to an idiotic caller who thinks that the hacking of the phones of Jessica Chapman’s dad, the British soldiers and Mily Dowler is somehow in the best interests of the British public.

Originally broadcasted on 8th July 2011.

Phone Hacking Scandal: MP Chris Bryant : ‘Murdoch Has Too Great A Sway Over National Life’, Compares Rupert Murdoch To Silvio Berlusconi

Phone Hacking: Chris Bryant compares Rupert Murdoch to Silvio Berlusconi (Telegraph, July 6, 2011)

News of the World phone hacking: Chris Bryant ‘Murdoch has too great a sway over national life

YouTube Added: 06.07.2011

Belgian Catholic Church Child-Sex Abuse Victims Sue Holy See

See also:

Vatican Warned Irish Bishops Not to Report Child Abuse (AP)


Belgian abuse victims sue Holy See (Sydney Morning Herald/AFP, June 3, 2011):

DOZENS of victims of a child-sex scandal in the Belgian Catholic Church are launching legal action against the Holy See, the first such suit in Europe.

Lawyers and victims said on Wednesday at a news conference that a summons was on its way to Rome, as well as to Belgian bishops, to appear before a civil court for failing to stop sexual abuse by priests and church workers. Lawyers said the group of some 80 plaintiffs was growing by the day.

”The Pope is the head of the Holy See,” said lawyer Walter Van Steenbrugge.

”He neglected to intervene himself and to give instructions, which meant that abuse was liable to continue and the damage was able to increase.”

Read moreBelgian Catholic Church Child-Sex Abuse Victims Sue Holy See

Scandal: Medical Students Perform Intrusive Exams On Unconscious Patients WITHOUT CONSENT

* “Examinations performed without consent”
* Students face ethical dilemma – study
* “Most people would not be pleased”



AUSTRALIAN medical students are carrying out intrusive procedures on unconscious and anaesthetised patients without gaining the patient’s consent.

The unauthorised examinations include genital, rectal and breast exams, and raise serious questions about the ethics of up-and-coming doctors, Madison reports.

The research, soon to be published in international medical journal, Medical Education, describes – among others – a student with “no qualms” about performing an anal examination on a female patient because she didn’t think the woman’s consent was relevant.

Another case outlined in the research describes a man who was subjected to rectal examinations from a “queue” of medical students after he was anaesthetised for surgery.

“I was in theatre, the patient was under a spinal (anaesthetic) as well and there was a screen up and they just had a queue of medical students doing a rectal examination,” a student confessed.

“[H]e wasn’t consented but because … you’re in that situation, you don’t have the confidence to say ‘no’ you just do it.”

The author of the study, Professor Charlotte Rees, voiced concerns about senior medical staff ordering students to perform unauthorised procedures, leaving the students torn between the strong ethics of consent in society and the weak ethics of medical staff.

Of students who were put in this position during the research, 82 per cent obeyed orders.

Read moreScandal: Medical Students Perform Intrusive Exams On Unconscious Patients WITHOUT CONSENT

Vatican Warned Irish Bishops Not to Report Child Abuse

Just go over the headlines of the related articles at the end of the following article.


DUBLIN (AP) — A 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland’s Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police — a disclosure that victims’ groups described as “the smoking gun” needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests.

The newly revealed letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided to The Associated Press, documents the Vatican’s rejection of a 1996 Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests following Ireland’s first wave of publicly disclosed lawsuits.

The letter undermines persistent Vatican claims, particularly when seeking to defend itself in U.S. lawsuits, that Rome never instructed local bishops to withhold evidence or suspicion of crimes from police. It instead emphasizes the church’s right to handle all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments in house rather than give that power to civil authorities.

Signed by the late Archbishop Luciano Storero, Pope John Paul II’s diplomat to Ireland, the letter instructs Irish bishops that their new policy of making the reporting of suspected crimes mandatory “gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature.”

Storero wrote that canon law, which required abuse allegations and punishments to be handled within the church, “must be meticulously followed.” Any bishops who tried to impose punishments outside the confines of canon law would face the “highly embarrassing” position of having their actions overturned on appeal in Rome, he wrote.

Read moreVatican Warned Irish Bishops Not to Report Child Abuse

Kiwigate: Global Warming Scam Revealed in Court

In the climate controversy dubbed Kiwigate,New Zealand skeptics inflict shock courtroom defeat on climatologists implicated in temperature data fraud.


New Zealand’s government via its National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has announced it has nothing to do with the country’s “official” climate record in what commentators are calling a capitulation from the tainted climate reconstruction. The story is also covered on web news aggregator site, icecap.com.

NIWA’s statement of defense claims they were never responsible for the national temperature record (NZTR).The climb down is seen as a legal triumph for skeptics of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC) who had initiated their challenge last August when petitioning the high court of New Zealand to invalidate the weather service’s reconstruction of antipodean temperatures. The NZCSC Petition may be read here.

According to the August official statement of the claim from NZCSC, climate scientists cooked the books by using the same alleged ‘trick’ employed by British and American scientists. This involves subtly imposing a warming bias during what is known as the ‘homogenisation’ process that occurs when climate data needs to be adjusted.

The specific charge brought against the Kiwi government was that its climate scientists had taken the raw temperature records of the country and then adjusted them artificially with the result that a steeper warming trend was created than would otherwise exist by examination of the raw data alone.

Indeed, the original Kiwi records show no warming during the 20th century, but after government sponsored climatologists had manipulated the data a warming trend of 1C appeared.

New Zealand Government Abandons ‘Official’ Climate Record

The NZCSC story reports that the NZ authorities, “formally stated that, in their opinion, they are not required to use the best available information nor to apply the best scientific practices and techniques available at any given time. They don’t think that forms any part of their statutory obligation to pursue “excellence.”

Read moreKiwigate: Global Warming Scam Revealed in Court

Vatican rejects resignations of Irish bishops over child sex abuse scandal

Here is what the catholic church did to child abusers and rapists:

The ‘Pedophile’s Paradise’: Alaska Natives are accusing the Catholic Church of using their remote villages as a ‘dumping ground’ for child-molesting priests (Flashback)


The Vatican has rejected the resignations of two Catholic bishops in Ireland who offered to quit in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal, the Archbishop of Dublin said.

vatican_1111111111
The Vatican rejected the offers of resignation Photo: REUTERS

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said in a letter to priests in his archdiocese that Auxiliary Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field will remain in their jobs but will be given “revised responsibilities”.

The bishops presented their resignations to Pope Benedict XVI in December following a judge’s damning report on the Dublin archdiocese that found the Catholic Church concealed the abuse of children by priests for three decades.

In the letter he said: “Following the presentation of their resignations to Pope Benedict, it has been decided that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field will remain as auxiliary bishops.”

The archbishop said they were “to be assigned revised responsibilities within the diocese.”

“This means that they will be available to administer confirmation in any part of the diocese in the coming year,” Martin added.

Read moreVatican rejects resignations of Irish bishops over child sex abuse scandal

The Intelligence² Debate – Stephen Fry: ‘The Catholic Church is Not a Force For Good in the World’

Highly recommended video!



Added: 16.01.10

Related information – “By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them!”:

Archbishop of Vienna accuses one of Pope Benedict XVI’s closest aides of sex abuse cover-up (Times)

Pope Benedict XVI accepts resignation of his close friend Bishop Walter Mixa in sex probe (Reuters)

Belgium: Top Catholic Bishop Resigns Over Child Sexual Abuse (Times)

Database of Catholic Priests Publicly Accused of Sexual Abuse in the US (BishopAccountability.org)

Illinois man is suing the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI for covering up sexual abuse (CNN)

Catholic priest, 84, receiving oral sex from a choirboy in front of a local church altar caught on video (AFP)

Priest Says He Was Bullied Into Taking Fall For Pope Benedict XVI In Abuse Scandal (The Local)

Catholic Church is ‘like the Mafia’ (The Telegraph)

Cardinal Praised Bishop’s Silence Over Paedophile Priest (BBC NEWS)

Catholic Priest Accused of Child Porn Possession (AP)

Belgian Bishops Failed To Punish Over 300 Paedophilia Complaints (AFP)

Connecticut Catholic Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill (CNN)

Richard Dawkins plans to arrest Pope Benedict XVI during his state visit to Britain ‘for crimes against humanity’ (Times)

Catholic Priest Raped Teenage Boy At Gunpoint (My San Antonio)

Norway Catholic Church Computer Server Crashed By Flood Of Pedophile Priests Abuse Claims (AFP)

Pope John Paul II Blocked Inquiry of Paedophile Cardinal Friend Who Abused 2,000 boys (Times)

Ireland Archbishop Stunned by Archbishop of Canterbury’s Criticism of Catholic Church (Times)

Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher: Abuse critique like anti-Semitism (AP)

ABC Nightline: What the Pope Knew About Father Maciel (ABC NEWS)

Pope Benedict Appointed Bishop Accused of Ritually Beating Orphaned Children (The Raw Story)

40% of Americans view Pope Benedict XVI favorably (Gallup)

1963 letter indicates former pope knew of abuse (AP)

Germany’s Catholic Church sexual abuse hotline received 1,000 calls the first day (Digital Journal)

Austrian Catholic Church Abuse Hot Lines Log 566 Reports This Year (Austrian Independent)

Australian Bishop says ‘vast amount’ of sexual abuse cases yet to emerge (Sydney Morning Herald)

Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of Priest’s Abuse FOR YEARS (New York Times)

Christopher Hitchens Slams Vatican, Pope Over Sex Abuse Scandal (Huffington Post)

The Pope Is Not Above the Law (Slate)

Sex Abuse Victims to Sue Vatican (Times)

Pope Benedict Signals Won’t Be Intimidated By Abuse Critics, Uses Popemobile For First Time On A Palm Sunday (New York Times/AFP)

Vatican knew of abuse in Ontario: Victim (Toronto Star)

Pope failed to defrock an American priest who molested hundreds of deaf boys, despite receiving letters from American bishops pleading with him to act (Times)

A church sex scandal where the truth is crucified (Toronto Star)

Sinead O’Connor: ‘There Should Be A Full Criminal Investigation Of The Pope’ (LA Times)

Catholic Church quietly expelling and punishing children, homeless (Irish Central)

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests (Flashback):

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests, according to formerly sealed testimony turned over to Milwaukee County’s district attorney on Thursday.

Swiss Catholic Church Investigating 10 Abuse Cases (Reuters)

Irish Catholic Church Paid Child Sex Abuse Victim To Keep Quiet (Guardian)

Catholic Church Child Abuse: Nuns Now Also Accused (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

Church: Pope Had Role in Moving Molesting Priest (Bloomberg)

Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with ministry (Times)

Pope will struggle to survive abuse scandal (Irish Independent)

Benedict’s involvement ’shows extent of cover-ups’ (Irish Independent)

Sinead O’Connor: I’d help Jesus to burn down the Vatican (Irish Independent)

RIGHTS-GERMANY: ‘Catholic Church Protects Paedophile Priests’ (IPS)

Child abuse claims sweep Catholic Church in Europe (AP)

India: Intelligence Agencies Bugged Senior Politicians

India denies phone-tapping (News24)


India’s opposition has warned that democracy is in danger following allegations that senior politicians’ telephones had been tapped by the government’s intelligence agencies.

bharatiya-janata-party-senior-leader-lk-advani
India’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader L.K. Advani Photo: AP

The agents secretly listened in to mobile telephone conversations of leading public figures have united opposition rivals and plunged the government into a new scandal at a crucial time, it has been claimed.

“Democracy has to be defended,” L K Advani, a veteran leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told the lower house of parliament, which was repeatedly adjourned amid uproar on the opposition benches.

“This house will not be satisfied until the prime minister comes to the house and makes a statement,” Mr Advani added, demanding new legislation to prevent such abuses of personal privacy.

Read moreIndia: Intelligence Agencies Bugged Senior Politicians

Belgium: Top Catholic Bishop Resigns Over Child Sexual Abuse

bishop-roger-vangheluwe
Roger Vangheluwe said he was ‘enormously sorry’ for the abuse

The longest-serving Roman Catholic bishop in Belgium has resigned after admitting sexually abusing a boy for years. Roger Vangheluwe, 73, said that he was “enormously sorry” for molesting the boy from before he was made Bishop of Bruges in 1985.

The Vatican accepted his resignation only a day after a lawsuit was filed in the US against Pope Benedict XVI over sex abuse committed by an American priest.

The Catholic Church is reeling from the departures of several senior figures over abuse scandals, including Walter Mixa, a senior German bishop close to the Pope, who resigned on Thursday after admitting beating children at an orphanage.

Mr Vangheluwe is the most senior cleric to step down over child sex abuse during the crisis. In a statement read by the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Archbishop André-Joséph Leonard, the bishop said: “When I was not a bishop, and some time later, I abused a boy. This has marked the victim mentally forever. The wound does not heal. Neither in me nor the victim.”

Church officials said that Mr Vangheluwe would not be prosecuted because the crime had not been reported within the country’s statute of limitations, understood to be ten years after the victim turns 18 for cases of child sex abuse.

Read moreBelgium: Top Catholic Bishop Resigns Over Child Sexual Abuse

Database of Catholic Priests Publicly Accused of Sexual Abuse in the US

This database is a MUST-SEE!

Access by last name, then you get an idea how big that database is.


Database of
Accused Priests

Access by
Main Search Page

Or by last name
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Or by clickable diocesan map

database-of-catholic-priests-publicly-accused-of-sexual-abuse-in-the-us


Source: BishopAccountability.org


Related information:

Illinois man is suing the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI for covering up sexual abuse (CNN)

Catholic priest, 84, receiving oral sex from a choirboy in front of a local church altar caught on video (AFP)

Priest Says He Was Bullied Into Taking Fall For Pope Benedict XVI In Abuse Scandal (The Local)

Catholic Church is ‘like the Mafia’ (The Telegraph)

Cardinal Praised Bishop’s Silence Over Paedophile Priest (BBC NEWS)

Catholic Priest Accused of Child Porn Possession (AP)

Belgian Bishops Failed To Punish Over 300 Paedophilia Complaints (AFP)

Connecticut Catholic Bishops Fight Sex Abuse Bill (CNN)

Richard Dawkins plans to arrest Pope Benedict XVI during his state visit to Britain ‘for crimes against humanity’ (Times)

Catholic Priest Raped Teenage Boy At Gunpoint (My San Antonio)

Norway Catholic Church Computer Server Crashed By Flood Of Pedophile Priests Abuse Claims (AFP)

Pope John Paul II Blocked Inquiry of Paedophile Cardinal Friend Who Abused 2,000 boys (Times)

Ireland Archbishop Stunned by Archbishop of Canterbury’s Criticism of Catholic Church (Times)

Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher: Abuse critique like anti-Semitism (AP)

Read moreDatabase of Catholic Priests Publicly Accused of Sexual Abuse in the US

Illinois man is suing the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI for covering up sexual abuse

pope-benedict-xvi
Pope Benedict XVI is named in a suit filed by an Illinois man alleging that the Vatican covered up sexual abuse by a priest.

(CNN) — An Illinois man is suing the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI for allegedly covering up sexual abuse by a priest at a Catholic school in Wisconsin.

The lawsuit demands the Vatican release the names of thousands of Catholic priests that the suit says have “credible allegations of sexual misconduct” against them.

The alleged victim, who is now an adult, says he was molested by Father Lawrence Murphy while a student at St. John’s School for the Deaf, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“The defendant, [the] Holy See, has known about the widespread problem of childhood sexual abuse committed by its clergy for centuries, but has covered up that abuse and thereby perpetuated the abuse,” the suit says.

Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, declined to comment on the case.

Pope Benedict XVI was named as a defendant because he has the ultimate authority to remove priests and because of his involvement in reviewing sex abuse cases when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the suit says.

Read moreIllinois man is suing the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI for covering up sexual abuse

Catholic priest, 84, receiving oral sex from a choirboy in front of a local church altar caught on video

(AFP) — An 84-year-old Brazilian priest caught on camera in a sex act with a choirboy has been arrested and put in detention.

The 30-day detention was ordered by a judge to prevent the priest, Luiz Marques Barbosa, fleeing pending the outcome of a criminal investigation for pedophilia, a spokesman for the police unit in the town of Arapiraca said.

“As Father Barbosa was chaplain for Sao Paulo’s military police, he has the privilege of being detained in our barracks instead of going to jail,” the spokesman said.

Barbosa’s case, which adds to a pedophile scandal tarnishing the Catholic Church, came to light a month ago when a Brazilian television channel broadcast video footage of the priest receiving oral sex from a choirboy in front of a local church altar.

The incident scandalised Brazil, where 74 per cent of the 190-million strong population is Catholic.

Read moreCatholic priest, 84, receiving oral sex from a choirboy in front of a local church altar caught on video

Pope John Paul II Blocked Inquiry of Paedophile Cardinal Friend Who Abused 2,000 boys

John Paul ‘ignored abuse of 2,000 boys’

Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer
Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer abused an estimated 2,000 boys for decades without sanction

When John Paul II died five years ago the crowd that packed St Peter’s Square for his funeral clamoured “Santo subito (Saint now)!” in a spontaneous tribute to the charisma of the Polish pontiff.

As the faithful marked the anniversary of John Paul’s death on Good Friday, however, he was being drawn into the scandal over child abuse in the Catholic church that has confronted his successor, Benedict XVI, with the worst crisis of his reign.

Allegations that the late pontiff blocked an inquiry into a paedophile cardinal, promoted senior church figures despite accusations that they had molested boys and covered up innumerable cases of abuse during his 26-year papacy have cast a cloud over his path to sainthood.

The most serious claims related to Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, an Austrian friend of John Paul’s who abused an estimated 2,000 boys over decades but never faced any sanction from Rome.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Groer’s successor, criticised the handling of that scandal and other abuse cases last week after holding a special service in St Stephen’s cathedral, Vienna, entitled “Admitting our guilt”.

Schönborn condemned the “sinful structures” within the church and the patterns of “silencing” victims and “looking away”.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – who became Pope Benedict – had tried to investigate the abuses as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to Schönborn. But his efforts had been blocked by “the Vatican”, an apparent reference to John Paul.

Read morePope John Paul II Blocked Inquiry of Paedophile Cardinal Friend Who Abused 2,000 boys

Ireland Archbishop Stunned by Archbishop of Canterbury’s Criticism of Catholic Church

archbishop-of-canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury made the comments during an interview with Andrew Marr for the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week, to be broadcast on Monday. (Times)

The Archbishop of Dublin today said he was “stunned” to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury declare that the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has lost all credibility because of the child abuse scandal.

Diarmuid Martin, the second most senior Catholic in Ireland, responded to a rare breach of ecumenical protocol by Dr Rowan Williams in an interview with BBC Radio 4.

Mr Martin said he had “rarely felt personally so discouraged” as when he woke to hear Dr Williams’ comments. Those working to renew the church did not deserve the remarks, which “will be for them immensely disheartening and will challenge their faith even further”.

Dr Williams criticised the Catholic Church over its handling of the paedophile priests crisis and made plain his anger over the Pope’s plans for

It comes after Dr Williams said the paedophile priest scandal had been a “colossal trauma” for Ireland in particular as he commented for the first time on the crisis.

“I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who was saying that it’s quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now,” he told Andrew Marr for the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week, to be broadcast on Monday.

“And an institution so deeply bound into the life of a society suddenly becoming, suddenly losing all credibility — that’s not just a problem for the Church, it is a problem for everybody in Ireland.”

Read moreIreland Archbishop Stunned by Archbishop of Canterbury’s Criticism of Catholic Church

Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher: Abuse critique like anti-Semitism

‘Anti-Semitism’???

The catholic church has all the ‘Nazis’ (in this case the rapists and abusers) in its ranks. The catholic church is not the victim here.

Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of Priest’s Abuse FOR YEARS (New York Times)

Pope failed to defrock an American priest who molested hundreds of deaf boys, despite receiving letters from American bishops pleading with him to act (Times)

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests (Flashback):

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests, according to formerly sealed testimony turned over to Milwaukee County’s district attorney on Thursday.

And now the catholic church wants to get away with it:

How Vatican Tries to Dodge Legal Fallout of Sex Abuse (AOL News)

Vatican offers 3 reasons it’s not liable for abuse (AP)

Religion: Pope claims legal immunity; Vatican, Bishops, defend cover-up (Examiner)

For all these children all around the globe we cannot allow this to happen.


Pope’s preacher: Abuse critique like anti-Semitism

VATICAN POPE HOLY THURSDAY
Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the feet-washing rite in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, Thursday April 1, 2010. The feet-washing ceremony symbolizes humility and commemorates Jesus’ last supper with his 12 apostles on the evening before his Good Friday crucifixion. (AP)

(AP) VATICAN CITY  – Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to “collective violence” suffered by the Jews.

See also:
Attacks on Pope over child abuse scandal are ‘akin to anti-Semitism’ (Times)

The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the pope listening in St. Peter’s Basilica that a Jewish friend wrote to him to say the accusations remind him of the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.”

Read morePope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher: Abuse critique like anti-Semitism

Pope Benedict Appointed Bishop Accused of Ritually Beating Orphaned Children

pope-appointed-bishop-accused-of-ritually-beating-orphaned-children

The child abuse scandal rocking the Vatican grew yet again Wednesday when former children in a German orphanage submitted written statements that a German bishop habitually beat them.

The Bishop of Augsburg, Walter Mixa, was a controversial conservative churchman appointed by Pope Benedict in 2005 and has been called his friend.

According to the statement, Mixa used to hit and degrade the children repeatedly during sessions of punishment at the Catholic orphanage. Among other details, Mixa is accused of using a carpet beater on the bare behinds of victims as he screamed: ‘Satan is in you and I must drive him out.’

Read morePope Benedict Appointed Bishop Accused of Ritually Beating Orphaned Children

Germany: Catholic Church Abuse Hotline Overrun Amid New Allegations

urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:100324-10-11157
Images of abuse victims displayed on Wednesday in Berlin by the victims’ group SNAP.

A hotline set up by the Catholic Church in Germany to counsel victims of sexual abuse was overrun on its first day, with almost 4,500 calls. Further allegations have continued to emerge even as Chancellor Angela Merkel says the church is taking “necessary measures.”

It was a much criticized idea. Earlier this month, Germany’s Catholic Church announced that it was planning a hotline for sexual abuse victims to call should they be in need of counselling or advice. Given the ever-increasing wave of abuse allegations being levelled at clerics in Germany this spring, however, many critics doubted whether victims would phone up the organization that was responsible for their suffering in the first place.

The critics were wrong. On Wednesday, the first full day of the hotline’s operation, fully 4,459 people phoned up — far more than the therapists hired to man the phones could handle. Indeed, they were only able to conduct 162 counselling sessions, ranging from five minutes to an hour in length. Andreas Zimmer, head of the project in the Bishopric of Trier, admitted that he wasn’t prepared for “that kind of an onslaught.” Zimmer insisted, however, that those who leave a message will be called back.

Read moreGermany: Catholic Church Abuse Hotline Overrun Amid New Allegations

40% of Americans view Pope Benedict XVI favorably

What does this say about 40% of Americans?!


pope-benedict-xvi_handsign_satan_666

Pope Benedict Favorable Rating Drops to 40% in US (Gallup)

PRINCETON, NJ — A new low of 40% of Americans view Pope Benedict XVI favorably amid new criticism about the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse by priests. Now, nearly as many Americans have an unfavorable view of the pope as have a favorable view.

The current results represent a major shift from two years ago, when the pope’s favorable rating jumped to 63% as he was concluding a well-received visit to the United States that included personal meetings between the pope and victims of sex abuse by U.S. priests. The latest allegations of lax handling of abusive priests mostly concern past abuse cases in Europe, but they implicate the pope, who had a central role in the Catholic Church’s handling of sex abuse cases prior to his becoming pope.

Pope Benedict’s image has deteriorated about equally among Catholics and non-Catholics from its 2008 high — by 20 and 23 points, respectively. Catholics continue to view him much more favorably than non-Catholics.

And now the Vatican wants to shield the Pope from any liability:

How Vatican Tries to Dodge Legal Fallout of Sex Abuse (AOL News):

(March 31) — Developments in a Kentucky court case suggest that the Vatican will seek to shield Pope Benedict XVI and the church from liability in the worldwide clerical sex abuse crisis by distancing itself from individual dioceses.

In legal documents filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville last week, the Vatican claims that as the head of a sovereign state, the Vatican City, the pope is immune from prosecution. The papers further assert that American bishops are not employed by the Holy See.

The Vatican will also likely deny that a 1962 church decree about clergy and the reporting of clerical pedophilia is a “smoking gun” that led to a worldwide cover-up of sexual crimes.

Vatican offers 3 reasons it’s not liable for abuse (AP):

The Vatican is seeking to dismiss the suit before Benedict XVI can be questioned or secret documents subpoenaed.

Religion: Pope claims legal immunity; Vatican, Bishops, defend cover-up (Examiner):

While a cardinal at the Vatican, Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, wrote a 2001 letter instructing bishops worldwide to report all cases of abuse to his office and keep church investigations secret under threat of excommunication.

The letter is the smoking gun; the Pope is a criminal.

The continuing moral failure of the Pope and Vatican is astonishing. Like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, they continue to deny what has now become obvious to the most casual observer.

Related Information:

1963 letter indicates former pope knew of abuse (AP)

Germany’s Catholic Church sexual abuse hotline received 1,000 calls the first day (Digital Journal)

Austrian Catholic Church Abuse Hot Lines Log 566 Reports This Year (Austrian Independent)

Australian Bishop says ‘vast amount’ of sexual abuse cases yet to emerge (Sydney Morning Herald)

Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of Priest’s Abuse FOR YEARS (New York Times)

Christopher Hitchens Slams Vatican, Pope Over Sex Abuse Scandal (Huffington Post)

The Pope Is Not Above the Law (Slate)

Sex Abuse Victims to Sue Vatican (Times)

Pope Benedict Signals Won’t Be Intimidated By Abuse Critics, Uses Popemobile For First Time On A Palm Sunday (New York Times/AFP)

Vatican knew of abuse in Ontario: Victim (Toronto Star)

Pope failed to defrock an American priest who molested hundreds of deaf boys, despite receiving letters from American bishops pleading with him to act (Times)

A church sex scandal where the truth is crucified (Toronto Star)

Sinead O’Connor: ‘There Should Be A Full Criminal Investigation Of The Pope’ (LA Times)

Catholic Church quietly expelling and punishing children, homeless (Irish Central)

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests (Flashback):

Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests, according to formerly sealed testimony turned over to Milwaukee County’s district attorney on Thursday.

Swiss Catholic Church Investigating 10 Abuse Cases (Reuters)

Irish Catholic Church Paid Child Sex Abuse Victim To Keep Quiet (Guardian)

Catholic Church Child Abuse: Nuns Now Also Accused (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

Church: Pope Had Role in Moving Molesting Priest (Bloomberg)

Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to continue with ministry (Times)

Pope will struggle to survive abuse scandal (Irish Independent)

Benedict’s involvement ’shows extent of cover-ups’ (Irish Independent)

Sinead O’Connor: I’d help Jesus to burn down the Vatican (Irish Independent)

RIGHTS-GERMANY: ‘Catholic Church Protects Paedophile Priests’ (IPS)

Child abuse claims sweep Catholic Church in Europe (AP)

Germany’s Catholic Church sexual abuse hotline received 1,000 calls the first day

Amid growing reports of sexual abuse and scandals, Germany’s Catholic Church has launched a sexual abuse helpline, which has angered one organization who helps those victims. However, on its first day the hotline received 1,000 calls.

Trier, Germany – The Roman Catholic Church in Germany launched a telephone hotline for those victims who have been sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests on Tuesday, according to BBC News. A NBC News report shows that the hotline received more than 1,000 calls on its first day.

The helpline, which is based in the western city of Trier, appointed the church’s bishop, Stephen Ackerman, for handling the investigations of any allegations made against its clergy, “We want to be responsive, we want to know what has been suffered and want to support those affected,” said Ackerman.

Many people believe the church should be a last resort to report sexual abuse as they should first contact either police or family members, according to David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, “Victims should tell loved ones and police first. Victims should tell loved ones and police first.”

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