Jonathan Luxmoore 28 November, 2019 Catholic Herald.

The priest is now in Belgium, receiving therapy at the Salesians’ Boortmeerbeek community (Getty)

‘I don’t think it helps much to start blaming people,’ says spokesman
Belgium’s Salesian order has defended its decision to send a priest convicted of child abuse to work with Caritas in Central African Republic, where he has been accused of abusing children again.
Fr Carlo Loots, Belgian provincial vicar and spokesman for the Salesians of Don Bosco, also said the order had learned from the incident and changed some procedures.
“We’ve learned that all communications involving such cases must be written and documented, rather than exchanged verbally at the risk of being passed over and forgotten,” Fr Loots told the Catholic News Service on November 26.
“We’ve also improved our safeguarding policy and learned to be much more prudent in dealing with an abuser. We thought at the time we’d taken the right decisions, but we must recognise doing our best at that moment wasn’t enough.”
Investigations continued into activities by Salesian Fr Luk Delft, who was accused in a CNN report of abusing children while working in Central African Republic.
In 2012, after being convicted of child abuse and possession of child pornography while working as a Salesian school teacher and aid agency director, Fr Delft was given an 18 months’ suspended jail sentence and 10-year ban from contact with children by Ghent’s correctional court.
However, in 2013 he was hired by Bishop Albert Vanbuel, a Belgian and fellow Salesian, to work with Caritas at a church camp for internally displaced people in Central African Republic’s Kaga-Bandoro Diocese. After Bishop Vanbuel retired in October 2015, Fr Delft was appointed national director of Caritas in Bangui.
However, CNN said Fr Delft continued to have access to poor and vulnerable children; it said there were allegations of abuse in Kaga-Bandoro.
Fr Loots told CNS sending Fr Delft to Central African Republic had seemed a “reasonable solution” in 2013 when Bishop Vanbuel requested help with “food deliveries and distribution” at his diocese’s refugee compound. He added that the Belgian court’s probation commission had had “no idea about the situation in the CAR” when it approved the priest’s assignment.
Although Bishop Vanbuel had been informed of Fr Delft’s background and agreed to supervise him, Fr Loots said, he also had “clearly no idea how a pedophile really functions.”
“Bishops and religious orders always face a big problem knowing what to do with abusers of young people – there’s no death penalty for this, so we can’t kill them, but nor can we send them to a desert island,” he told CNS. “Instead, we have to look for a solution, and the philosophy is that such people deserve a new chance – but not in the same context or situation as previously.
“You can say the Salesians shouldn’t have let him go to Africa, but we trusted the advice given by the probation commission, which should also have seen it was too risky. This case is very complex, and I don’t think it helps much to start blaming people,” Fr Loots said.
He said the priest was now in Belgium, being supervised and receiving therapy at the Salesians’ Boortmeerbeek community, where there were “no activities involving young people”.
The Vatican-based Caritas Internationalis, which coordinates 165 Caritas charities in 200 countries, said in a November 21 statement it was “saddened and outraged” by the accusations against Fr Delft and expressed “compassion and solidarity” with children and families identified in the CNN report. It added that it was assisting Caritas in Central African Republic “as it investigates the allegations, strengthens its safeguarding mechanisms and offers care and support to any possible victims”. It also asked Caritas organisations worldwide to “vet their governance, staff, volunteers and international staff”.
Michel Roy, former secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis, said in a November 23 statement he had been unaware of Fr Delft’s conviction until 2019. However, he added that he had been warned by a therapist in 2017 that Fr Delft “should not be in contact with children” and had alerted Caritas in Central African Republic and Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui, who had in turn relayed concerns to the Salesians.
Catholics make up a third of the 4.66 million inhabitants of Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest countries, which has been wracked by militia violence since 2013.
The Salesian centres at Damala and Galabadja took in around 70,000 youngsters during the height of violence in 2014 and continue to offer shelter, education, vocational training and psychological and medical care for “youth of all ages, cultures and religions,” according to a Salesian website.
Thierry Bonaventura, communication officer at Caritas Internationalis, told CNS on November 21 that the charity’s complaints handling committee had conducted a “rapid assessment” after the CNN report and asked Caritas-Central African Republic to dismiss Fr Delft.
However, he added that national Caritas staffers were not “Vatican employees” or subject to Vatican laws. He said responsibility for implementing Caritas Internationalis’ safeguarding policies, adopted in 2018, rested with autonomous member-organisations, governed by national bishops’ conferences.
Jesuit Fr Tommy Scholtes, spokesman for the Belgian bishops’ conference, said the conference had “immediately alerted” the public prosecutor’s office in Brussels when informed of claims against Fr Delft in June, adding that the priest’s “future functions” would be determined by the Vatican’s Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith.
Fr Loots said the Salesians now require men wanting to join the order to undergo rigorous screening and assessment procedures to exclude potential abusers. The order also conducts social media and criminal background checks.
He said an ecclesiastical investigation would follow the Belgian judicial process.
“Things are complicated since Luk Delft is here, and his possible victims are there. But we trust the competence of the judicial authorities in Belgium and the CAR. Although I think everyone did their best, we must conclude this wasn’t enough.”
Carol Glatz in Rome contributed to this story

PAT SAYS

The RCC crowd tell us they have learned their lesson and have changed.

But here we see the Belgian Salesians sending a priest convicted of paedophilia in 2012 to work with children in Africa until June 2019 !!!

Liars!

They cannot be trusted.

The RCC must be monitored EVERYWHERE by civic police and civil authorities.

The RCC is an international threat to children!

FRANCIS DROPS HIS MASK

Facebook page of Tullamore’s Catholic parish in Offaly was taken down amid criticism

The Tullamore parish Facebook post drew numerous comments, the great majority from women, strongly criticising the message and calling for the author to be identified. File image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Patsy McGarry

A Catholic parish in the midlands was at the centre of controversy over the weekend after circulating a message to parishioners critical of IVF treatment.

The Facebook page of Tullamore’s Catholic parish in Offaly was taken down following a virulent social media reaction to the Christmas Eve posting.

Published at 3.51pm on Tuesday by “Tullamore Parish, Offaly”, the message was accompanied by an image of a foetal Jesus with a halo over his head and the words “He’s on His way” and “Christmas starts with Christ”.

The message called for prayers “for couples struggling to naturally conceive life and who are avoiding IVF treatment”.

It continued: “The process of IVF damages embryonic stem cells and thus life and is therefore completely, clearly and totally incompatible with our Catholic faith. For all believers in God, all life is sacred at all times.”

The post drew numerous Facebook comments, the great majority from women, strongly criticising the posting and calling for the author to be identified.

One woman wrote “I actually had no words in response to it, I was so shocked, maddened and really upset by it all especially after being through the process. They are so far removed from the realities of people’s everyday lives in their ivory tower.”

Attempts by The Irish Times to speak to priests in Tullamore parish on the matter were unsuccessful. One priest who was contacted simply said “bye” and hung up when this reporter identified himself. A second attempt to speak to the priest elicited the response “no comment” before he hung up again.

There was no response from the diocese of Meath communication office or from spokespeople for the bishop’s conference.

PAT SAYS

The silly clerical ejits of Tullamore parish have put their big ignorant feet in by criticising IVF over Christmas.

They are also showing their absolute ignorance of the science of IVF.

Quite rightly, many people have protested and now the clerics have taken down their post.

They are now running away from The Irish Times and Patry McGarry, even hanging up the phone after saying a haughty “bye”.

Very courageous! High principles!

These ejits belong to a totally disgraced priesthood and institution.

What makes them think that they still have the right to lecture Irish men, women and couples about their bodies, their sexuality and family life.

It’s like asking Dr Crippen to give a lecture on the right to life.

TULLAMORE PRESBYTERY

Tullamore is where I was born and baptised.

A few years ago I attended a family function in the GAA club in Tullamore.

The then PP was touring the tables and was shocked to find me at one. Embarrassed, he sputtered out the line: “You must join us for lunch some day”.

I replied: “How about tomorrow”. He had no option but to agree.

The next day I bought two bottles of half decent wine and headed for the presbytery at lunch time – to the shock of the clergy.

The two bottles of wine were taken from me and put in a cupboard, the PP saying: “We will keep these for a feast day”.

Lunch proceeded with the clergy talking about football and golf – totally ignoring my presence

I was neither surprised or disappointed. Why didn’t one of them challenge me on my theology or my opposition to their “church”?

I’ll tell you why. Most priests do not halls the balls of a mouse.

They prefer to sit anonymously at a computer condemning those good couples who only chance of having a baby is IVF.

There will come a time when there are no priests in Tullamore.

Christmas Eve carolers for Cardinal Pell gathered at Melbourne prison

Ed Condon/CNA

26 December, 2019

Carolers gather outside Melbourne Assessment Prison on Christmas Eve, 2019. (John Macauley/CNA)

About two dozen local Catholics gathered outside the prison to sing carols and pray for the cardinal
A group of local Catholics gathered outside Melbourne prison on Christmas Eve to sing carols for Cardinal George Pell, currently incarcerated in the facility, and to pray for him, as well as the other inmates and prison staff.
At 8pm on December 24, about two dozen local Catholics gathered outside Melbourne Assessment Prison on the west side of the city center to sing Christmas carols and to pray for the cardinal and others in the jail.
One of the singers, John McCauley told CNA that “We just wanted the Cardinal to know he was loved and remembered at Christmas.” The songs included traditional carols like O Come All Ye Faithful and Once in Royal David’s City, as well as Australian favorites like The Three Drovers. Singers wrote messages of support and Christmas greetings in a copy of the carol book, which was left for Pell at the prison’s front desk.
After the caroling, Melbourne’s Vietnamese Catholic Youth Group led a rosary procession around the perimeter of the prison, which houses more than 300 inmates. Decades of the Sorrowful Mysteries were offered for the cardinal, for the prison staff, for the other inmates, for victims of sexual abuse, and for “the vindication of the rights of the Church and His Eminence’s full and speedy exoneration.”
Several of the Vietnamese youth attending explained that they were inspired to attend in support of Pell by the example of Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận, who was imprisoned by Communist authorities in Vietnam for 13 years, nine of them in solitary confinement. Pell and Cardinal Thuận were friends until his death in 2002.
McCauley said that the gathering “came together quite spontaneously after an individual going under the name ‘Albert Dreyfus’ suggested the idea on a social media earlier that day.”
Albert Dreyfus was a Jewish French military officer tried and convicted for treason by a secret court in 1895. His case polarized the country and he was later exonerated after years of imprisonment.
Cardinal Pell was Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996-2001, when he was made Archbishop of Sydney. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed him as head of the newly created Prefecture for the Economy, charged with overseeing and reforming Vatican finances.
In 2017, Pell was accused of sexually abusing two choristers after a Sunday Mass while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 and 1997. He was convicted Dec. 11, 2018, on five charges of sexual abuse and sentenced to six years in prison, of which he must serve at least three years and eight months before being eligible to apply for parole.
In November, the Australian High Court in Canberra agreed to hear his application for special leave to appeal, after the Court of Appeal in the state of Victoria upheld his conviction in July in a decision which deeply divided opinion both in Australia and abroad.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP of Sydney has said he “welcomed” the progress of Pell’s case to the High Court.
“The Cardinal has always maintained his innocence and continues to do so,” Fisher said. “The divided judgment of the Court of Appeal reflects the divided opinion amongst jurors, legal commentators and within our community.”
“For the sake of all involved in this case, I hope that the appeal will be heard as soon as possible,” Fisher said in November.
Pell, who remains an archbishop and a member of the College of Cardinals, has been held in solitary confinement and has not been permitted to celebrate Mass in prison. He was not permitted to see visitors on Christmas Day.
Earlier this month, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot what criticized by political opponents for visiting Pell in prison, with some politicians branding the visit “disgraceful” and a “cruel insult” to victims of abuse.
Abbot declined to comment on the criticism beyond saying he was ‘simply visiting a friend’ in Melbourne Assessment Prison.

PAT SAYS

Catholic carolers serenading an imprisoned cardinal.

Pell will be judged guilty or not be the Australian justice system. Let’s await the outcome.

____

Some straight acting gay priests?

Youtube video submitted by blog reader

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MC CARRICK’S $600,000 TO POPES, CARDINALS AND BISHOPS.

Cardinal ousted on sex abuse claims gave $600,000 to fellow clerics, including 2 popes, report says.

PUBLISHED FRI, DEC 27 2019 1:32 PM EST

UPDATED FRI, DEC 27 2019 4:40 PM EST

Yelena Dzhanova CNBC

KEY POINTS

A cardinal ousted from the RomaCathoChurch paid dozens of clerics, some of hom were involved in evaluating claims of his sexual misconduct, more than $600,000 over nearly two decades, according to The Washington Post.

Theodore McCarrick, who was archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 2001 to 2006, sent money donated to the church by wealthy donors to more than 100 Catholic officials, including two popes, according to financial records obtained by the Post.

Among the more than 100 recipients were Pope John Paul II, who received $90,000, and Pope Benedict XVI, who received $291,000, the Post reported.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, speaks during a news conference with senators and national religious leaders to respond to attempts at vilifying refugees and to call on lawmakers to engage in policymaking and not ‘fear-mongering’ at the U.S. Capitol December 8, 2015 in Washington, DC.

A cardinal ousted from the Roman Catholic Church paid dozens of clerics, some of whom were involved in evaluating claims of his sexual misconduct, more than $600,000 over nearly two decades, according to The Washington Post.

Theodore McCarrick, who was archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 2001 to 2006, sent money donated to the church by wealthy donors to more than 100 Catholic officials, including two popes, according to financial records obtained by the Post.
The Vatican removed McCarrick from public ministry in June 2018 amid allegations of sexual abuse decades earlier involving a teenage altar boy. It was revealed at that time that he had been accused over the years of sexual misconduct by three others.

Among the more than 100 recipients were Pope John Paul II, who received $90,000, and Pope Benedict XVI, who received $291,000, the Post reported.

A spokesman for Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who received $6,500 from McCarrick, told the Post the money “never had any effect on the Cardinal’s decision-making as an official of the Holy See.”

Clerics who received checks characterized the money from McCarrick as Christmas gifts and said it was spent on charity or other services, the Post reported.

McCarrick’s attorney declined to comment on the latest report when CNBC emailed.

But McCarrick, now 89, said last year in a statement that he had “absolutely no recollection” of the abuse involving the teenager.

“While I have absolutely no recollection of this reported abuse, and believe in my innocence, I am sorry for the pain the person who brought the charges has gone through, as well as for the scandal such charges cause our people,” he said.

McCarrick in September reiterated his claim, saying he does “not believe that I did the things that they accused me of,” and also saying that he believes his accusers and others with similar stories “were encouraged” to lie. “There were many who were in that situation who never had any problems like that,” he said.

Church officials said the Vatican will release an official report in 2020.
Earlier this year, the Washington Post published a report that showed that Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, the leader of the Catholic Church in West Virginia, gave about $350,000 to clergymen before he was ousted for sexual misconduct.
Among the recipients of the cash gifts were young priests who had accused him of allegations of sexual misconduct and at least a dozen cardinals. Bransfield took the money out of a personal account over a period of a decade.

PAT SAYS

McCarrick epitomizes the rot at the heart of the RCC – money, power and sex – even and especially child sex

The episcopate and clericaldom is a big secret space in which all this happens and in which perpetrators are protected.

The only commandment: “Thou shalt not be caught’.

And when you are caught you must submit to be thrown under the bus – but you be given a nice roof over your head and all the lolly you need.

McCarrick is carrying the can for so many others in the USA and Vatican – including corrupt popes like JP 11.

In new interview, Cardinal Marx speaks on same-sex blessings

Catholic News Agency 24 December, 2019

Cardinal Reinhard Marx at the German Bishops’ Press Conference at the Pontifical Teutonic College on October 5, 2015 (Bohumil Petrik/CNA)

‘I can bless them both in the sense of pastoral accompaniment, we can pray together. But theirs cannot be a marriage-like relationship.’

Cardinal Reinhard Marx has expressed the view that homosexual couples can receive a Church blessing “in the sense of a pastoral accompaniment” in the Catholic Church, but not in a manner that resembles marriage.

In an interview with the German magazine Stern, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising was asked, “What do you do when a homosexual couple asks you for an episcopal blessing?”

Marx responded: “I can bless them both in the sense of pastoral accompaniment, we can pray together. But theirs cannot be a marriage-like relationship.”

While there is room for differing interpretations of Marx’s comments, the website “katholisch.de,” funded by the German bishops, has reported on the matter using the headline “Marx: Homosexual couples can receive a blessing.”

After that report was published, Matthias Kopp, press director for the German bishops’ conference, told CNA that the conference has nothing to add to the published interview.

CNA asked the Archdiocese of Munich to clarify the cardinal’s remarks, and whether the blessing of homosexual couples is practiced in the diocese. The archdiocese has not yet responded.
In the magazine interview, Marx also said that he told the [Vatican] Synod on the Family in 2015 that homosexual couples, who are faithful to each other and support each other, should not be “negatively bracketed” by the Church or told by the Church that stable homosexual relationships are considered worthless.

At the same, Marx affirmed in the interview with Stern that a homosexual union “is not a marriage” in the Catholic sense of the word, and that the sacrament of marriage is between a man and a woman.

Marx also commented on the question of women’s ordination.

Asked about the sacramental ordination of women, Marx, who is referred to as “the most powerful Catholic in Germany” by the magazine, said that Pope Francis has told him that “the door is closed,” given Pope St. John Paul II’s statement of 1994. Nonetheless, the German prelate claimed that debate on the issue is “not over.”

The interview is not the first time Cardinal Marx has spoken on Catholic blessings of homosexual couples.
In a February 2018 interview with the Bavarian State Broadcasting Company, Marx agreed that a blessing is possible, however qualifying there could be “no set of rules” on the question – rather, the decision would be that of “a priest or pastoral worker.”

After CNA reported that, the German bishops’ conference requested a “correction” of CNA’s translation.
More recently, Archbishop Heiner Koch of Berlin, following consultations in early December, stated that both hetero- and homosexuality are “normal forms of sexual predisposition, which cannot or should be be changed with the help of a specific socialization.”

Koch, who attended the Vatican Synod on the Family together with Marx and is Chairman of the Marriage and Family Commission of the German bishops’ conference, spoke after the German bishops asserted they were committed to “newly assessing” the universal Church’s teaching on homosexuality – and sexual morality in general – ahead of a two-year “synodal process.”

WHEN MARRIAGE BETWEEN GAYS WAS RITE

The Irish Times.

A KIEV art museum contains a curious icon from St Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai. It shows two robed Christian saints. Between them is a traditional Roman pronubus (best man) overseeing what in a standard Roman icon would be the wedding of a husband and wife. In the icon, Christ is the pronubus. Only one thing is unusual. The “husband and wife” are in fact two men.

Is the icon suggesting that a homosexual “marriage” is one sanctified by Christ?

The very idea initially seems shocking. The full answer comes from other sources about the two men featured, St Serge and St Bacchus, two Roman soldiers who became Christian martyrs.

While the pairing of saints, particularly in the early Church, was not unusual, the association of these two men was regarded as particularly close. Severus of Antioch in the sixth century explained that “we should not separate in speech [Serge and Bacchus] who were joined in life”. More bluntly, in the definitive 10th century Greek account of their lives, St Serge is openly described as the “sweet companion and lover” of St Bacchus.

In other words, it confirms what the earlier icon implies, that they were a homosexual couple. Unusually their orientation and relationship was openly accepted by early Christian writers. Furthermore, in an image that to some modern Christian eyes might border on blasphemy, the icon has Christ himself as their pronubus, their best man overseeing their “marriage”.

The very idea of a Christian homosexual marriage seems incredible. Yet after a 12-year search of Catholic and Orthodox church archives Yale history professor John Boswell has discovered that a type of Christian homosexual “marriage” did exist as late as the 18th century.

Contrary to myth, Christianity’s concept of marriage has not been set in stone since the days of Christ, but has evolved both as a concept and as a ritual. Prof Boswell discovered that in addition to heterosexual marriage ceremonies in ancient church liturgical documents (and clearly separate from other types of non-marital blessings such as blessings of adopted children or land) were ceremonies called, among other titles, the “Office of Same Sex Union” (10th and 11th century Greek) or the “Order for Uniting Two Men” (11th and 12th century).

These ceremonies had all the contemporary symbols of a marriage: a community gathered in church, a blessing of the couple before the altar, their right hands joined as at heterosexual marriages, the participation of a priest, the taking of the Eucharist, a wedding banquet afterwards. All of which are shown in contemporary drawings of the same sex union of Byzantine Emperor Basil I (867-886) and his companion John. Such homosexual unions also took place in Ireland in the late 12th/early 13th century, as the chronicler Gerald of Wales (Geraldus Cambrensis) has recorded.

Boswell’s book, The Marriage of Likeness: Same Sex Unions in Pre- Modern Europe, lists in detail some same sex union ceremonies found in ancient church liturgical documents. One Greek 13th century “Order for Solemnisation of Same Sex Union” having invoked St Serge and St Bacchus, called on God to “vouchsafe unto these thy servants [N and N] grace to love one another and to abide unhated and not a cause of scandal all the days of their lives, with the help of the Holy Mother of God and all thy saints.” The ceremony concludes: “And they shall kiss the Holy Gospel and each other, and it shall be concluded.”

Another 14th century Serbian Slavonic “Office of Same Sex Union”, uniting two men or two women, had the couple having their right hands laid on the Gospel while having a cross placed in their left hands. Having kissed the Gospel, the couple were then required to kiss each other, after which the priest, having raised up the Eucharist, would give them both communion.

Boswell found records of same-sex unions in such diverse archives as those in the Vatican, in St Petersburg, in Paris, Istanbul, and in Sinai, covering a period from the 8th to the 18th centuries. Nor is he the first to make such a discovery. The Dominican Jacques Goar (1601-1653) includes such ceremonies in a printed collection of Greek prayer books.

While homosexuality was technically illegal from late Roman times, it was only from about the 14th century that anti-homosexual feelings swept western Europe. Yet same sex union ceremonies continued to take place.

At St John Lateran in Rome (traditionally the Pope’s parish Church) in 1578 as many as 13 couples were “married” at Mass with the apparent co-operation of the local clergy, “taking Communion together, using the same nuptial Scripture, after which they slept and ate together”, according to a contemporary report.

Another woman-to-woman union is recorded in Dalmatia in the 18th century. Many questionable historical claims about the church have been made by some recent writers in this newspaper.

Boswell’s academic study however is so well researched and sourced as to pose fundamental questions for both modern church leaders and heterosexual Christians about their attitude towards homosexuality.

For the Church to ignore the evidence in its own archives would be a cowardly cop-out. That evidence shows convincingly that what the modern church claims has been its constant unchanging attitude towards homosexuality is in fact nothing of the sort.

It proves that for much of the last two millennia, in parish churches and cathedrals throughout Christendom from Ireland to Istanbul and in the heart of Rome itself, homosexual relationships were accepted as valid expressions of a God-given ability to love and commit to another person, a love that could be celebrated, honoured and blessed both in the name of, and through the Eucharist in the presence of Jesus Christ.

PAT SAYS

The controversy of same sex marriage is a great challenge to the Christian churches.

Some respond to the issue with 5000 year old biblical bigotry. That does not work.

That civil society decides to have civil same sex marriage is not any church’business. It’s a matter for politicians representative of citizens.

But Christians have to accept that there is a precedent for gay couples being blessed in church.

And the Christian church did not take an active interest in any kind of marriage until the 12 th century.

I have been celebrating same sex blessings for 33 years.

I have celebrated a gay marriage last July in the Republic.

I will do so in Northern Ireland when the law changes in January.

I personally have had a Civil Partnership and am content with that.

I do occasionally wonder about there being two “wives” or two “husbands”.

Maybe new realities deserve new terms?

My partner and I introduce each other as “my partner”.

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
12.23.2019 8:45 AM ET

ROME (CNS) — Demonstrating a strong “chain of abuse,” the Legionaries of Christ said its founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, sexually abused at least 60 minors and that at least another 51 youngsters were abused by Father Maciel’s victims or victims of his victims.

The Rome-based headquarters of the Legionaries released a report Dec. 21 looking at the “phenomenon of abuse of minors” by members of the order from its founding in 1941 through December 2019.

At the same time, the Legionaries of Christ in the United States released the names of four members who had been “active in ministry” in the United States and against whom there were “substantiated sexual abuse allegations.”
The commission that drafted the international report “identified 175 minors as victims of sexual abuse committed by 33 priests of the congregation” in the 78 years since the order’s founding, according to “available records.” The commission noted, however, that it “does not claim that its study could have discovered all cases” or that all victims have come forward.
“The vast majority of the victims were boys between the ages of 11 and 16,” the report said.

The report found that 111 of the 175 victims — more than 63% — “were either victims of Father Maciel or were victims of his victims.”

Since its founding, the Legionaries said, “1,353 priests were ordained in the congregation, 367 of whom either since left or have passed away.” The 33 sexually abusive priests represent 2.4% of all those ordained.

In addition, the report said, 74 Legionaries novices and seminarians abused minors; three of the 74 went on to become priests who abused youngsters, and they are included among the 33 priests who abused.

Of the 74, it said, 60 never became priests of the order. The report did not give statistics on how many of the 60 decided to leave and how many were ejected from the order, although it said “most” of them were dismissed.

“Of the 14 who were ordained, two have since passed away, two have restrictions, four are under investigation, and six are no longer under the jurisdiction of the congregation,” the report said. “According to the historical records, of the three that were ordained after 2005, the superiors admitted them to ordination without knowledge of the facts.”

The report makes a distinction between what happened before and after 2005. After the Vatican re-opened an investigation into decades-old claims that Father Maciel was a serial abuser, the Mexican-born priest stepped down as head of the Legionaries in January 2005.
When then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI four months later, he accelerated the investigation and, in 2006, ordered Father Maciel to cease all public ministry and withdraw to “a life of prayer and penance.” At the time, the Legionaries continued to support Father Maciel’s claims of innocence.

The report on abuse within the Legionaries acknowledged that members became “aware, in a slow and painful process, of the abuses Father Maciel committed and of the consequences they had on the congregation.”

At least twice — in 2016 and again in February — Pope Francis has told reporters that Pope Benedict was the reason Father Maciel finally was dealt with after decades of allegations, including some made in the 1950s.
Pope Benedict tenaciously investigated the allegations and insisted “there was a need to clean the church’s dirt, the garbage,” Pope Francis said in 2016.
In February, flying back from Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis again spoke about Pope Benedict’s efforts to fight clerical sexual abuse. In his remarks, he did not mention the Legionaries of Christ, but it was widely presumed he was speaking of Father Maciel’s case.

As prefect of the doctrinal congregation, the pope said, then-Cardinal Ratzinger “had all the papers, all the documents, about a religious organization that had internal sexual and financial corruption.
His efforts, Pope Francis said, were repeatedly blocked. After finally being able to present a report to St. John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger returned to his office and “said to his secretary: ‘Put it in the archive, the other party won.'”
“We must not be scandalized by this, they are steps in a process,” Pope Francis told reporters.

Finally, when Pope Benedict succeeded St. John Paul, “the first thing he said was: ‘Bring those papers from the archive,'” and he began the process that removed Father Maciel from ministry, Pope Francis said.

The Legionaries’ report said 14 of the 33 priests who abused others were themselves abused in the order.

The order’s minor seminaries “were the most vulnerable environment” for abuse to occur, both by priests and by other seminarians, it said. Those institutions were a major focus when “safe environment policies” were implemented, beginning in 2015.

“The last known case of sexual abuse in a minor seminary of the congregation occurred seven years ago, in 2012,” the report said. And the last known allegation of sexual abuse in a Legionaries school was in 2013.

“We deplore and condemn the abuses committed in our history, as well as those institutional or personal practices that may have favored or encouraged any form of abuse or re-victimization,” the order said. ” We ask forgiveness of the victims, their families, the church and society for the grave harm that members of our congregation have caused.”

“Because of differences in national legislation and due to the ethical considerations at play, the report does not include a list of the names of priests who have credible allegations of abuse of minors,” the report said. But “the Legion of Christ in the United States has decided to publish its list, according to the practice of several dioceses and religious congregations.”

Two of the four Legionaries on the U.S. list have since died: Brother Francisco Cardona, who allegedly abused students at Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor, New Hampshire, in the 1980s; and Father Guillermo Izquierdo, who abused young men while novice director in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 1982-1993.

A third member, Father Benjamin Cieply, has been dismissed from the order, the Legionaries said, explaining “there is a high probability that he sexually abused a minor in 2016 during his probationary period in the Archdiocese of Miami. He was removed from ministry and his case was referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Judgment is still pending.”

The fourth is Fernando Cutanda, a former Legionaries priest, who, like Brother Cardona, “abused students during his tenure as a formator at the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School, in Center Harbor, New Hampshire, in the 1980s.”

PAT SAYS:

I do not believe the figures published by the Legionaries.

I believe the true figures are far higher.

The Legionaries have always been a secret, lying crowd.

Maciel gave the Vatican and John Pole 11 millions.

In return the Pole and Vatican covered up for him and allowed him to continue abuse.

The Legionaries should be completely suppressed

The Pole should be de-sainted.

PROFOUND DISRESPECT FOR THE MASS

In this video, you see a priest, who thinks the Mass is all about him, disrespecting the Mass.

These narcissistic, all singing and dancing priests, use the Mass to boost their ego.

Its one of the reasons some people hark after the reverence of the old Latin Mass.

Ns

THIS IS ONE THE NICE COMMENTS THAT COME INTO THE BLOG EVERY NIGHT – USUALLY WELL AFTER MIDNIGHT.

They come from clerical people – priests, former priests, seminarians, and ex seminarians – annoyed at the exposure of them and their rottenness over the past five years.

Its Its perfectly clear to me that these men are wicked in the extreme and have serious mental, emotional and sexual disturbances.

Its also abundantly clear that they have no place in ministry or in any kind of work with people. They are too sick and and too dangerous.

It also justifies this blog’s work in exposing them and their utter sickness.

And, of course, they are simpering cowards, pouring out their venom from the dark corners of the hell which is their minds.

Get behind me Satan!

THE ORATORY CRIB

The Vatican and IDI financial scandal: A CNA explainer

Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.

By Michelle La Rosa

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2019 / 10:02 am (CNA).- For more than a year, CNA has been following a Vatican financial scandal involatican ving a bankrupt Italian hospital, a potentially illicit loan from the Vatican’s central bank, and a controversial grant request to an American charitable foundation.

The financial scandal is one of several unfolding at the Vatican, and covered by CNA. Having trouble keeping them straight? You’re not alone. This is the first in a series of CNA explainers, designed to help you keep track of the money trails in and out of the Vatican.
Here’s the IDI scandal in a nutshell:

In 2012, an Italian hospital, owned by a religious order, went bankrupt, because its administrators had run up large debts while embezzling millions of dollars. The Vatican Secretariat of State then created a for-proft partnership with the religious order that had owned the hospital. The partnership agreed to purchase the hospital. To do so, it received – through a complex series of transactions – 50 million euro, through a loan from the Vatican central bank, APSA, despite the fact that APSA had agreed with European banking regulators not to make commercial loans.

In an attempt to take the loan off APSA’s books, officials in the Secretariat of State then asked the Papal Foundation, a U.S.-based charitable foundation, for a $25 million grant, which they reportedly requested under misleading or ambiguous pretenses. The grant was approved, but subsequent questions from board members ultimately led to controversy and opposition. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has said he organized the loan and the grant.

IDI hospital – The Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata (IDI), an Italian dermatological hospital. After a series of embezzlement scandals drove the hospital into bankruptcy, it was purchased by a for-profit partnership created between the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and the religious order that had owned and managed the hospital.

IOR – The Vatican’s commercial bank, also known as the Institute for Religious Works, or the Vatican Bank. In 2015, the IOR rejected a request for a 50 million euro loan to a for-profit partnership created between the Vatican Secretariat of State and a religious order with the intention of purchasing the bankrupt IDI hospital. IOR board members determined that the hospital would never be able to repay the loan.

APSA – The Vatican’s central bank, similar to a federal reserve. Under 2012 European regulatory agreements, APSA cannot make commercial loans. However, after the IOR in 2015 rejected a 50 million euro loan request to purchase the bankrupt IDI hospital, APSA approved the loan, raising questions of whether it violated European regulations in doing so. Officials with the Vatican Secretary of State then asked the U.S.-based Papal Foundation for a grant to help remove the loan from APSA’s books. That grant fell through, and APSA has now reportedly written off most of the loan.

Papal Foundation – A U.S.-based group that gives grants to causes endorsed by the pope, often in developing nations and typically of $300,000 or less. The Papal Foundation was asked in June 2017 for a $25 million grant to help with a temporary cash shortage at the IDI hospital. The funding was initially approved, with cardinal board members who supported the grant outnumbering lay board members who opposed it. However, some lay board members continued to object to the grant, questioning whether it was actually intended to cover the bad APSA loan. Amid increased scrutiny, the grant collapsed. $13 million of the grant has already been paid, which the Vatican Secretary of State now says is being treated as a loan that will be repaid through discounts against future grant requests.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu – Formerly the number two official at the Vatican Secretariat of State. Multiple Vatican sources have told CNA that Becciu, along with Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, was key in organizing the effort to acquire the IDI hospital and to pressure the Papal Foundation into approving a $25 million grant to help offset the potentially illicit APSA loan, removing it from the books. Becciu denies any involvement, saying he had lost interest in the project by the time of the Papal Foundation grant.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin – Vatican Secretary of State. Parolin told CNA that he was responsible for arranging the 2014 loan of 50 million euros from APSA, the Vatican’s central bank, to partially fund the purchase of the bankrupt IDI hospital. He said the arrangement was “carried out with fair intentions and honest means,” although the loan appears to violate 2012 regulations prohibiting APSA from making commercial loans. He also said that he had devised a plan, along with Cardinal Donald Wuerl, to ask the U.S.-based Papal Foundation for the money to cover APSA’s bad loan.

Theodore McCarrick – Former cardinal who has now been laicized for sexually abusing minors. McCarrick met with the secretary of APSA in July 2017. He later pressured lay board members of the Papal Foundation to support the grant, suggesting that questioning the Vatican funding request was inappropriate and would challenge the integrity of the foundation itself.

Cardinal George Pell – Former head of the Prefecture for the Economy, charged with overseeing the Vatican’s financial accountability. In this role, Pell reportedly objected to the APSA loan to buy the IDI hospital. After lobbying from Becciu, Pope Francis withdrew oversight authority of APSA from Pell’s office in 2015. Pell is currently in prison in Australia, convicted on controversial sex abuse charges, which he is appealing.

THE SAFEGUARDING OFFICER FOR THE THE JESUIT IRISH PROVINCE HAS INFOMED THREE MEN THAT THEY ARE SETTING UP A PANEL IN JANUARY TO INQUIRE INTO THEIR ALLEGATION INTO FATHER PAUL PRIOR. Father Prior was involved in the formation of seminarians in both the Irish College in Rome and in Maynooth. He left Maynooth last year and instead of returning to pastoral work in Kilmore diocese opted to become a Jesuit novice Those in the know in the clergy say that he is a protege of Cardinal Sean The Wounded Healer Brady. One of the complaints to the Jesuits is from an ex seminarian of Maynooth. The other two are from young lay men Fr Prior met since joining the Jesuits. All allegations allege inappropriate sexual conversation or inappropriate touching. The ex Maynooth seminarian has given me permission to publish his complaint