Categories
Uncategorized

FRENCH POLICE INVESTIGATE SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM AGAINST VATICAN NUNCIO

Carol Glatz – Catholic News Service February 15, 2019

Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the Vatican nuncio to France, meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican in this file photo from Oct. 18, 2018. French authorities confirmed Feb. 15 they are investigating an allegation of sexual assault filed against Archbishop Ventura. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Italian Archbishop Luigi Ventura, 74, a Vatican diplomat who once served in Canada, Chile and western Africa, is under investigation by police in Paris for allegedly sexually assaulting a city official.
The Vatican learned from news reports that the investigation had been launched and it was “waiting for the results of the investigation” by city prosecutors, said Alessandro Gisotti, interim director of the Vatican press office, in response to reporters’ queries.

A French judicial official confirmed to the Associated Press Feb. 15 that the prosecutor’s office in Paris had opened an investigation into an allegation of “sexual aggression.”

The French newspaper, Le Monde, reported that the diplomat was suspected of having sexually molested a young male employee at the Paris city hall Jan. 17, the day the mayor was giving her New Year’s address to diplomats and other leading figures.
Archbishop Ventura has been serving as apostolic nuncio to France since 2009. Prior to that posting, he was the Vatican’s representative in Canada between 2001 and 2009, helping with preparations for St. John Paul II’s visit to Toronto for World Youth Day in 2002.
He served as the nuncio in Chile from 1999 to 2001 and, before that, in Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Niger from 1995 to 1999.
A Vatican nuncio plays an important role in compiling recommendations to the pope concerning the appointment of new bishops and archbishops in the country he is placed.

PAT SAYS

Another big one hits the dust.

What was he thinking of – assaulting a young man at a state function.

It all shows how indemic the rottenness is – especially at the top.

And we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

There is a lot more to come out.

83 replies on “FRENCH POLICE INVESTIGATE SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM AGAINST VATICAN NUNCIO”

What indeed was Ventura thinking of at so public a celebration? Could it be that this was his normal urge with others and it happened spontaneously, such was his custom? It beggars belief that this Cardinal would compromise himself so publicly. We can only hope and pray that with the defrocking of McCarrick all clerics in power and authority anywhere will take note. The world is watching. We are as a Church is crisis – all centred around sexual misdemeanours and predatory behaviour. There is so much good social justice and real Christian charity being practised in the name of the Church by wonderfully committed Catholics, laity and religious and these scandals throw a long dark shadow over their work and lives. God help us. Slowly a cleansing is happening.

Like

8:53
‘Slowly a cleansing is happening’.
Watch what’s going to happen in the weeks and months ahead!
Watch and pray….

Like

Ooh hi la la but. They are throwing out despensible auld bucks while trying to save their own little bum bums in the background. Sort it from the ground up. Start with the parishes of holy Ireland hi. R C LLC has forgot about Jesus hi

Like

10:15
Hi Fly, you could be on to something hi Fly.
If only fly , if only they’d start on the ground as
you suggest with the parishes of Ireland.
Maybe you’re being too religious hi Fly.
Bye Fly.

Like

10.15 Right again Hi I forgot the church was a religion No wunder everyone s lost the plot. I Claudius & co but

Like

I think I’ve learned over the decades to be careful in rushing to hasty judgement about things. Time will tell. It is too easy to think that something is as it is reported, and is a open and shut case. So often the reality is much more complicated and does not fall out as you first think.

So, in the matter of the French Nuncio I’d prefer to see how this thing develops and wait until he is charged and or convicted before making a judgement. Actually, that is the law as well !

We can sometimes fall in to a feeding frenzy of shock, horror, revelation, embellishment, conflation etc. etc., and work ourselves up in to a frenzy, trampling on the facts and the truth that are inconvenient to our need for instant judgement and conviction.

So, let us wait and see what happens with the French Nuncio. As, indeed, I am prepared to watch and wait on the Cardinal Pell case in Australia which has some disturbing issues attached to it. Commentators that I have read suggest that this is a flawed judgement and in time will be appealed and quashed. I know that Pell is not particularly liked by many, and has many enemies, but the truth is the crucial thing. This is not to diminish any potential victims, because unless the truth is respected and true justice done, then they are diminished because they have not got to the truth.

Remember, an Archbishop Philip Wilson who was convicted on covering up and accusation of abuse in his diocese many decades ago, was found guilty and then comprehensively had his conviction quashed on appeal.

In respect of Pell, have a look at this: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/cardinal-pells-sex-abuse-conviction-makes-no-sense Surely it hints at some reservations about his case ?

Like

9:07
What you’ve learned ‘over the decades’ is a spirit of timidity.
How the hell do you think this is going to develop? Seriously? That man will, as expected, claim diplomatic immunity, just like the prelate in England has done, or is about to do, over his refusal to hand over vital documentation to a legally convened State inquiry into the handling of sexual abuse allegations by Roman Catholic hierarchs there.

Like

9:07

Rusing to hasty judgement? Grow up! Do you really believe that a French waiter in his thirties didn’t know when his private parts were being fondled? You utter fool and apologist for these crimes!

You, and your kind, are just as dangerous as the clerical rapists and molestors, because your excuses for them help facilitate the continuation of a vile culture of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church that is enabled and encouraged, like and aphrodisiac, by inequality, and the misuse of it.

Like

as predicted you respond with insane rage. You don’t know what Ventura is accused of much less whether he is guilty as charged. And you resort to nasty smears as usual. “You and your kind” etc.

Like

7.07 Perhaps so but the key is in the message Sadly the hi bit is a necessary construct at this time hi

Like

9.07: You make very valid points about the necessity to establish the full facts before rushing into our definitive judgment. It us, sadly, all too frequently assumed that if any cleric makes a gesture as Ventura did recently, we conclude the worse possible scenario, that he is guilty of sexual abuse. Let us await the investigation. There are many enemies in the French media and elsewhere, including Ireland, who delight in slaying the Church. I accept the principles of accountability and truthfulness and judgment, but only when all the facts are properly established. I am as disgusted as anyone else on hearing of repeated stories of sexual abuse and abusive leadership, but we cannot assume to play judge, juror and executioner on the basis of another person’s hatred of the Church and its personnel. Full facts and disclosures are imperative first and foremost.

Like

10:27
You’re an apologist for Roman Catholic clerical criminality. You’re the worst kind of Catholic, the kind that would have allowed sexual abuse by priests to flourish, because you always, like many before you, want to give ‘Father’ the benefit of doubt.
Are you really so stupid as to believe that the young French waiter was too immature to realise when his private parts were being fondled? The waiter is in his thirties, for crying out loud! I believe the waiter.
No more excuses for Roman Catholic clerical molestors!

Like

2:06

Magna,
you’re so right!
Giving ‘Father,(Mother, Sister, Brother,’),
the benefit of the doubt,
has exacerbated this cancerous cultural criminal behavior for yonks!
You sound in rockin’
form buddy! 👍

Like

Magna:
1. How do you know that the waiter (if he was a waiter) had his private parts fondled ?
2. How do you know any specifics that are relevant to this case ?
3. Allowing the course of justice to take its path and for all the facts to emerge and then be adjudicated upon by a court, judge and jury, is not being an apologist for RC clerical criminality. It is simply being patient, prudent and avoiding a rush to judgement.
4. I’m not sure how many Magnas there are on this blog, but so often what is put out by Magna is ill considered and intemperate, which doesn’t inform the debate that much.

Like

2:06
You’re right MC.
This cancerous clericalist culture of criminality has been exacerbated for yonks because so many ‘Fathers’, ‘Mothers,’ ‘Bros’or ‘Srs’, got the benefit of the doubt.
As if…..!

Like

Magna at 2.06. You should just shut up or preferably stay under your rock. You add nothing constructive to any debate about serious moral issues or Church crises. Your keyboard screaming is pathetic and ignorant. If you have any justice in you – which you do not have – you would, like any rational human being accept the principle of innocent till proven guilty. You do not have all the facts, the person fondled is not a waiter and you, asshole, do not have the authority to be the judge, juror and executioner. If you read my comment properly at 10.27, you would clearly understand that I am no apologist for any proven wrongdoing. Never was and never will be. You just love the role of being a nasty, venomous, vengeful smart guy. You spout only hatred. Drink has completely poisoned any human decency in you. Sadly. And it all goes back to your experience of being found unsuitable and unstable for priesthood and for marriage or any meaningful relationship with anyone, apart from your mirror image. Let proper justice be done to anyone accused of sexual wrongdoing. Now Mags, go back to sleep.

Like

I have to agree with you, Magna. Every time a new story about a ranking cleric appears here, out of the woodwork appear the posters saying – as people of integrity we must wait and see. But they are really trying to prevaricate and take the sting out of it and whisper it away with their distractions. They so need to hide the guilt in case their own guilt is seen. But the day of reckoning advances.

Like

2:53
You are being obduate.
It has officially been confirmed that Ventura was accused of sexual molestation (inappropriate touching), which alludes to wilful, and sexually motivated, contact with a person’s intimate body parts, particularly the genitals or buttocks.
Obduracy doesn’t inform this debate either, but it does point to one unassailable fact: there are still those, like you, (even after the deluge of proven sexual assualt (rape) by Roman Catholic priests and its concealment by a self-interested and self-protecting hierarchy) who seek to defend these men.
Ventura’s reported brazenness in making these unwanted advances would, if proven, fit much of the pattern of historical sexual molestation by Roman Catholic clerics, since this often took place openly, in full view of witnesses. It is testament to the ‘untouchability’ felt by these criminals, that the power differential between clergy and laity made them unlikely to face legal or other consequences for their actions.
As I expect, Ventura will invoke diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution, and Pope Francis will publicly back him all the way.

Like

so now he patted the waiter’s bum rather than fondling his genitala as you previously alleged? isn’t this all just homosexual panic?

Like

4:01 & 10:27
You really are a tangle of contradictions, aren’t you? But at least you’re an amusing one. This, I suppose, makes more tolerable your intellectually labyrinth (confused) posts.😅
At 10:27, you implicitly, and without evidence, accuse those who take as credible allegations of sexual impropriety against Roman Catholc priests as being secularist ideologues who want to ‘slay’ the Church; and yet, you see no contradiction between this and your arbitrary dismissal of their points of view.😕
I’ll make you a deal (And I’ll keep it simple, given your tendency to self-confusion.): I’ll crawl back under my ‘rock’ if you place your head under a freezing gush from a farmyard pump. For it might just clear that underachieving brain of yours.😕

Like

5.22: Magna, your brain is indeed damaged. Your ability to discern the TRUTH of other commentators is greatly reduced by your bitterness and impoverishment of spirit. You are simply incapable of respectful argument. You deserve all the harsh criticisms you receive on this blog. You haven’t changed much since college days, trucculent, nasty, rude, abusive….Yes, drink and you are not a happy mix. P. S. – take your head from between your legs…

Like

5.22: Darling Magna, my wee little child. I told you yesterday not to allow yourself to be bullied even if it means being a bully. But today you have gone over the top in responding to your enemies. You are becoming all too full of rage and angst. It’s not good for your fragile well being. I have some cookies ready if you want to call for a cuppa – not your favourite tipple but hot chocolate or cocoa, the ones from M & S. I have a bag of minstrels which you also like. So calm down my little chick. Remember mum knows best…

Like

Your Ma has a much more elegant style. It’s funny how the way we write is almost a fingerprint. There’s a poor imposter about.

Like

Is going forward to the Altar to receive the Body and Blood of Christ while in a state of mortal sin and while being a public ‘ obstinate sinner’ who publically renounces the teachings of the Church serious anymore?
As Cardinal Sarah has said, reception of Holy Communion is not a tea party.
Rather, is the RECEPTION of Our Lord’s sacred Body and Blood without bothering about the proper wedding garment taken seriously any more?
Is this another “Right” that such as yourself is about to kick off about as your entitlement?
Toddler tantrums. Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Like

It won’t be very surprising if other laicizations of bishops follow Ted McCarrick’s. For example, John Nienstedt the former Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He was vehemently anti-gay in his public pronouncements but see link below for the other side of the story.

July 19, 2015

The Star Tribune obtained a 2014 letter sent by a former student at Sacred Heart Seminary (Detroit) to former auxiliary bishop Lee Piché, who oversaw the Nienstedt investigation, alleging that Nienstedt touched his buttocks after a dinner together one night between 2000 and 2002 (when he was already a bishop) Joseph Rangitsch said he protested and Nienstedt replied he could “make things unpleasant for you very quickly.”

https://sites.google.com/site/johnnienstedt/gay

Like

La Monde is reporting that the Nunci-mo touched up the young man three times, once in front of witnesses.
The complainant isn’t a waiter. He is a junior official in the external affairs office in Paris city hall and he’d been assigned to look after a number of guests, including the mo, who was like a diabetic in a sweet shop.

Like

According to La Monde the city hall official complained that the nuncio touched him on the buttocks “very profoundly”. It’s a disgrace, a sin, nobody should have to put up with it and it’s bad but not as bad as “sexual assault” sounds.

Like

I know most of you are inclined not to be masculine but surely changing LE Monde to LA is taking it a bit far.

Like

Yes, he likes a man in uniform though he usually has to make do with a binman.
Back in the 80s poor Magna went to Lourdes and like every good pilgrim he went for a dip in the healing baths.
“Sorry” the attendant said, “we don’t do faces”.

Like

On February 15 the gay magazine Têtu claimed that there is another, anonymous person accusing Ventura of a similar action during another January ceremony.

Like

It won’t be very surprising if other laicizations of bishops follow Ted McCarrick’s. For example, John Nienstedt the former Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He was vehemently anti-gay in his public pronouncements but see link below for the other side of the story.
July 19, 2015
The Star Tribune obtained a 2014 letter sent by a former student at Sacred Heart Seminary (Detroit) to former auxiliary bishop Lee Piché, who oversaw the Nienstedt investigation, alleging that Nienstedt touched his buttocks after a dinner together one night between 2000 and 2002 (when he was already a bishop) Joseph Rangitsch said he protested and Nienstedt replied he could “make things unpleasant for you very quickly.”
https://sites.google.com/site/johnnienstedt/gay

Like

Doesn’t our Magna come to life mid afternoon having slept off a little of his drunkenness but what a nasty, arrogant, all knowing little Miss she is!! The real mother of this pseudonym must be a saint to have endured his petulance, bullying and abusive behaviour. Thank God he never made it to priesthood. We’d have many horror stories on our hands.

Like

4:04
I’m inclined to agree with poster @ 4:28. This ‘wait and see’ mantra is wearing very thin at this stage. I think it’s partially due to fair play,(fine), partially due to , oh no, not again, disillusionment from some clergy; but I strongly suspect some members of the clergy/hierarchy fear being caught.
MC is also right @ 4:25. This is part of a pattern rooted in the abusive corrupt misuse of power.
Why the time of day MC posts on the blog, or what your nasty abusive comment to him regarding priesthood, have got to do with todays topic, is beyond me. The church has numerous horror stories, in the thousands, in the public domain as it is and God only knows how many more will be popping up in future. I have no idea if MC is or is not a Priest, but he sounds to me to have his heart in the right place and he sounds like a very smart astute intelligent man.

Like

6.22: Magna thinks he knows everything in the clerical book. Apart from his abject failure to achieve the honour of priesthood, his clerical friends are, sadly, like him, embittered old sods. They hate the Church and are only happy when drinking and pouring out their hate inciting language. He/She (Magna) and they are all diminished human beings….by choice.

Like

5.22: You’re out of your mind if you believe Magna has his heart in the right place. The man was thrown out of Maynooth. His abusive attitude to almost everyone on this blog is unacceptable. While he may make good points, all too often he incites hatred towards priests. I guarantee you this man would not have the same courage to express his racist, ugly and inflammatory comments publicly. He knows where he’d end up. Trolls like him are moral cowards. They hide behind keyboards.

Like

7:42
How do you know?
Look at the harm priests have caused to countless children and vulnerable adults, to women religious, to God only knows how many women.etc. Don’t tell me…they were just being human and weak and fulfilling needs.
Is Maynooth another pink palace? Tell me, what’s in the clerical book, guys are banging on about?

Like

6:22, 7:35, 7:42, and their like
For the last time, Magna is one person, and he was not ‘thrown out’ of Maynooth. You know absolutely nothing about me, beyond your malicious, and false, speculation. Which means ‘you know nothing at all, but vindictive emotion’.
It suits some of you here (morally frightened priests, I suspect, and their lay cheerleaders) to think of me in certain ways, in order to diminish the truth that I post.
Continue to deceive yourselves, and to lie to other posters and readers here. But your lies about me remain as they are: lies. As MMM might put it, ad hominem offered, not in place of intellectual counter-argument, but as the only ‘argument’ possible for these ecclesial rednecks, inherently incapable of refuting any of Magna’s points.
Let me assure you that my posts are always carefully researched, nuanced, and otherwise weighed before sending off to Bishop Pat’s blog.
As I said, this is the last time that I am going to correct abusive, untruthful posts claiming biographical knowledge of me; none of those already posted was even close to Magna’s reality. But I (he 😆) fully expect these posts to continue, because they are coming, I believe, from some, very frightened, misguidedly loyal Catholics who wouldn’t know Christ if his sacred blood spilled on them from Heaven.
These are latter-day Pharisees and, as in Jesus’ time, they are losers in this spiritual war. And their defeat is becoming more and more apparent as the flowing tide of abuse scandals rises, and their posts here (and probably elsewhere) grow shrill through desperation from the knowledge that their cosy little world of ‘Church’ (almost tempted to snap my own fingers for this cliché) is being unstoppably chipped away.
As was said of Herod the Great, your days are numbered.

Like

@ 7.42
Are you the eejit who calls everything you disagree with”racist”?
Every other day on this blog: racist.
What the hell did poor oul Magna say that was “waycist”?

Like

7:35 & 7:42
Is ‘gaslighting’ included
in the clerical book?
Just wonderin’ like….?
Guffaw guffaw!🤪

Like

Thanks, 5.22. Extraordinary attacks on Magna today. They really hate it when he tells it as it is. But Jesus promises that all will be brought into the light. So those who are trying to hide the facts are working against Jesus.

Like

Who are the priests formerly on the staff of Maynooth who are now exercising their ministry outside of Ireland?

Like

7:35;
How would you know? You sound a little confused.
Far too many priests who achieved ‘the honor of priesthood’ have brought abject humiliating dishonor on themselves, their families and the Church. The clerical book needs revising.!

Like

7:35. The honour of priesthood? Are you friggin mental. 7:42. Hide behind keyboards ? Pot kettle black. Are you not doing the same by posting as anonymous . Some posters on here are wired to the moon

Like

8.24: Magna, the only way to prevent nasty commentary about you is to refrain from the obnoxious, vindictive and hateful comments you crucify others with. You can’t expect respect when you refuse it to others. Respect, tolerance and a little human decency are traits worth possessing. Criticisms, yes, hate inciting, no.

Like

8:24
Thanks for that MC. You said so much I have suspected. You’re bang on re latter day Pharisees who seem to use Priesthood for All the wrong reasons. My impression is, a number of clerics, posting on this blog, are colluding together, keeping an eye on what’s posted.
The willie watchers club!
They and the likes of them do nothing to honor Priesthood or the Church and are defending neither. I get the distinct impression they are trying to defend their priestly on the ‘job’ perks. They don’t sound very Christian to me. You are
a lightening rod for their iresome, tiresome, vicious rants. I wonder why? Might it have something to do with bad conscience? Whether or which, I consider much of what you say as prophetic!
8:45, Jesus is light and Jesus is Lord. The clerical book!
What’s that, I wonder?

Like

8.24 You display very poor judgment. These MC characters are ill and you are encouraging them!
Look at their vulgar, intemperate, vile, disgusting, crude, ignorant and mindless rants.
In their sober moments the cut and paste from Wikipedia. But facts without judgment, knowledge without wisdom, passion with humanity is anything but prophetic.

Like

9:06
‘Look at their vile, disgusting, crude, ignorant and mindless rants.’
Wow! Did you say all that in one breath?😅
😆

Like

“A lightning rod”. I like your analogy KC. Bright; sharp; cuts through the murk; enlightening; and raises a storm. Very appropriate in these circumstances.
MMM

Like

What’s it like living up your own arse hole, KC? Dark and foetid, I’d say. Faecal even?
The “number of clerics colluding together”, “keeping an eye on what’s posted”?? “Willie watchers”???
That’s the MC composite, you clown.
Prophetic???? PATHETIC more like.

Like

Why does Noelle Treanor wear those hideous zipped up albs which always look a bit dirty round the neck? Surely in Lisbreen Palace he has room for some proper liturgical attire?

Like

6:35
Sorry, but no, he hasn’t.😕
The poor fella’s broke now: spent his last few shillings rennovating/refurbishing his home.😂
Poor Noel can’t even afford to keep the heatng on 24/7 anymore.😢
He has a gofundme page if you’d like to help him out and help him smile again. ☺ (Minimum donation: £500)

Like

Leave a comment