Slate: The Great Catholic Cover-Up

[RainDog]

http://www.slate.com/id/2247861

Hitchens unbound.

(Tracing) the awful scandal to the topmost level of the Roman Catholic Church is a process that has only just begun. Yet it became in a sense inevitable when the College of Cardinals elected, as the vicar of Christ on Earth, the man chiefly responsible for the original cover-up. (One of the sanctified voters in that "election" was Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, a man who had already found the jurisdiction of Massachusetts a bit too warm for his liking.)

There are two separate but related matters here: First, the individual responsibility of the pope in one instance of this moral nightmare and, second, his more general and institutional responsibility for the wider lawbreaking and for the shame and disgrace that goes with it.

more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the so-called "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" (formerly known as the Inquisition). In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church's own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated "in the most secretive way ... restrained by a perpetual silence ... and everyone ... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office … under the penalty of excommunication."

[LuckyLib]

1. Cult? Oh, yeah.

[UTUSN]

2. Ratz needs to RESIGN. I won't even dignify with "ABDICATE"!1 n/t

[Catshrink]

3. more from article - not for the weak of stomach

This makes me want to :puke:

"There are two separate but related matters here: First, the individual responsibility of the pope in one instance of this moral nightmare and, second, his more general and institutional responsibility for the wider lawbreaking and for the shame and disgrace that goes with it. The first story is easily told, and it is not denied by anybody. In 1979, an 11-year-old German boy identified as Wilfried F. was taken on a vacation trip to the mountains by a priest. After that, he was administered alcohol, locked in his bedroom, stripped naked, and forced to suck the penis of his confessor. (Why do we limit ourselves to calling this sort of thing "abuse"?) The offending cleric was transferred from Essen to Munich for "therapy" by a decision of then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, and assurances were given that he would no longer have children in his care. But it took no time for Ratzinger's deputy, Vicar General Gerhard Gruber, to return him to "pastoral" work, where he soon enough resumed his career of sexual assault.

It is, of course, claimed, and it will no doubt later be partially un-claimed, that Ratzinger himself knew nothing of this second outrage. I quote, here, from the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a former employee of the Vatican Embassy in Washington and an early critic of the Catholic Church's sloth in responding to child-rape allegations. "Nonsense," he says. "Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He's the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he's trying to do, obviously, is protect the pope."

[RainDog]

4. discrimination against gays and women? Pope approves!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010961613_apeubritainpope.html?prmid=obinsite

The church wants to be able to get money from governments while they uphold their regressive stances against women and gays.

And, while they are doctrinally wed to the abuse of women and gays as second-class citizens, they give lip service to the issue of pedophilia endemic in their organization.

yes. lip service.

[Fleshdancer]

5. Forgive my ignorance regarding how the catholic church operates, but...

how in the world did Ratzinger become Pope after issuing this confidential letter to every bishop?

[AngryOldDem]

6. How does any corrupt and incompetent CEO get where he/she is?

Politics. Pure and simple. People in the Vatican are master players at this. The shine had worn off JPII with a lot of conservative and ultraconservative Catholics, so Ratz got the job. He is about as far right as you can go; as evidence, look at how he wants to regress the Church from Vatican II, back to almost the Middle Ages.

For decades everyone knew what was going on with the sex abuse coverup, and they allowed it to continue. And as long as it's still a closed, men's only club, expect the stables to remain mucked.

[LibertyLover]

7. Simple - he knows where the bodies are buried -

both literally and figuratively - and who buried them. And he is an archconservative. I have heard that he favors a return by the Church to mass in Latin and the altar and priest facing away from the congregation, similar to what the Church was pre - Vatican II and John XXIII. There are many upper level clergy in the Church who do not favor the Vatican II reforms and would be happy to return to the older ways. Ratzinger may, if he doesn't die too soon, give them some of what both they and he want.

[Maru Kitteh]

8. This is the same Pope who upheld Xcommunication of an 8-yo RAPE VICTIM's mom

for seeking the medical care that would save her own little girls tiny life when the girl was impregnated with twins that would almost certainly kill her or destroy her little body.

[SharonAnn]

11. But remember, the rapist was not ex-communicated. Just the victim's mother.

[Maru Kitteh]

16. And the doctor and staff that saved the poor little girls life.

[riderinthestorm]

9. A furious K and R. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. K&R

[Skidmore]

12. NPR had a story on earlier today about Catholics in Ireland

who were rejecting the church because of these abuse issues. They were actively seeking ways to get around being forced to educate their children in Catholic schools, which apparently are 90% of the nation's schools.

[RainDog]

14. yes, happyslug, I think it is, has some posts about the church in Ireland

the church is part of the state. I asked a question about why the nation was held liable for the one billion in damages the Guardian said had been levied against the church in those abuse cases.

I also read that Ireland used to send priests all over the world but now they are down to one seminary.

Ireland is treated like the Harlem of GB and it was attracting companies wanting cheap labor after the dotcom boom - so, the abuse revelations came about just as young people were finding jobs and... Ireland is an interesting place, the little I know about it.

[MichiganVote]

13. Uh-oh...gonna be time to 'off' another Pope soon...

[troubledamerican]

15. Yawn -- more Tinfoil Conspiracy Theory

like Watergate, BCCI, Iran-Contra, Gulf of Tonkin, Downing Street Memos, ENRON, Tyco, Worldcom, Iraq WMD, Valerie Plame outing, COINTELPRO...

Everybody knows there are no conspiracies or cover-ups

It just doesn't happen