NEW VATICAN SCANDAL: SEX ABUSE

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New Vatican Scandal

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Irish Republic and The "Holy See" Failed to Protect Irish Children

Spain Seeks Sainthood for Isabella of Castile

Vatican Financier "Murdered"

Priest Jailed for 20 years

Priest Who Was Shot by Abuse Victim Indicted on Rape Charges

Roman Catholics and Hinduism

Roman Catholic Bishop of Phoenix, Arizona Arrested in Fatal Hit-and-Run Case

Roman Catholic Priest to Judge "Miss Italy" Beauty Contest

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NEW VATICAN SCANDAL

SEX ABUSE



Pope John XXIII whose seal was on the document

COVER-UP EXPOSED IN 40 YEAR OLD SECRET DOCUMENTS

As you read this shocking exposure of Vatican intrigue, photographically reproduced from the prestigious “Observer” newspaper, remember the documents bear the seal of the man often called “good Pope John” who was responsible for calling the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and for promoting the Ecumenical or Church Unity movement. Now read on:-

Article by Antony Barnett

Public Affairs Editor

The Vatican instructed Catholic bishops around the world to cover up cases of sexual abuse or risk being thrown out of the Church.

The Observer has obtained a 40-year-old confidential document from the secret Vatican archive which lawyers are calling a ‘blueprint for deception and concealment’. One British lawyer acting for Church child abuse victims has described it as ‘explosive’.

The 69-page Latin document bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII was sent to every bishop in the world. The instructions outline a policy of ‘strictest’ secrecy in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and threatens those who speak out with excommunication.

They also call for the victim to take an oath of secrecy at the time of making a complaint to Church officials. It states that the instructions are to ‘be diligently stored in the secret archives of the Curia [Vatican] as strictly confidential. Nor is it to be published nor added to with any commentaries.’

The document, which has been confirmed as genuine by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, is called ‘Crimine Solicitationes’, which translates as ‘instruction on proceeding in cases of solicitation’.

It focuses on sexual abuse initiated as part of the confessional relationship between a priest and a member of his congregation. But the instructions also cover what it calls the ‘worst crime’, described as an obscene act perpetrated by a cleric with ‘youths of either sex or with brute animals (bestiality)’.

Bishops are instructed to pursue these cases ‘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’.

Texan lawyer Daniel Shea uncovered the document as part of his work for victims of abuse from Catholic priests in the US. He has handed it over to US authorities, urging them to launch a federal investigation into the clergy’s alleged cover-up of sexual abuse.

He said: ‘These instructions went out to every bishop around the globe and would certainly have applied in Britain. It proves there was an international conspiracy by the Church to hush up sexual abuse issues. It is a devious attempt to conceal criminal, conduct and is a blueprint for deception and concealment.’

British lawyer Richard Scorer, who acts for children abused by Catholic priests in the UK, echoes this view and has described the document as ‘explosive’.

He said: ‘We always suspected that the Catholic Church systematically covered up abuse and tried to silence victims. This document appears to prove it. Threatening excommunication to anybody who speaks out shows the lengths the most senior figures in the Vatican were prepared to go to prevent the information getting out to the public domain.’

Scorer pointed out that as the documents dates back to 1962. It rides roughshod over the Catholic Church’s claim that the issue of sexual abuse was a modern phenomenon.

He claims the discovery of the document will raise fresh questions about the actions of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Murphy-O’Connor has been accused of covering up allegations of child abuse when he was Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. Instead of reporting to the police allegations of abuse against Michael Hill, a priest in his charge, he moved him to another position where he was later convicted for abusing nine children.

Although Murphy-O’Connor has apologised publicly for his mistake, Scorer claims the secret Vatican document raises the question about whether his failure to report Hill was due to him following this instruction from Rome.

Scorer, who acts for some of Hill’s victims, said: ‘I want to know whether Murphy-O’connor knew of these Vatican instructions and if so did he apply it. If not, can he tell us why not?’

A spokesman for the Catholic Church denied the secret Vatican orders were part of any organised cover-up and claims lawyers are taking the document ‘out of context’ and ‘distorting it’.

He said: ‘This document is about the Church’s internal disciplinary procedures should a priest be accused of using confession to solicit sex. It does not forbid victims to report civil crimes. The confidentiality talked about is aimed to protect the accused as applies in court procedures today. It also takes into consideration the special nature of the secrecy involved in the act of confession.’

He also said that in 1983 the Catholic Church in England and Wales introduced its own code dealing with sexual abuse which would have superseded the 1962 instructions. Asked whether Murphy-O’Connor was aware of the Vatican edict, he replied: ‘He’s never mentioned it to me.’

Lawyers point to a letter the Vatican sent to bishops in May 2001 clearly stating the 1962 instruction was in force until then. The letter is signed by Cardinal Ratzinger, the most powerful man in Rome beside the Pope and who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the office which ran the Inquisition in the medieval ages.

Rev Thomas Doyle, a US Air Force chaplain in Germany and a specialist in Church law, has studied the document. He told The Observer: ‘It is certainly an indication of the pathological obsession with secrecy in the Catholic Church, but in itself it is not a smoking gun.’

Doyle added: ‘If, however, this document actually has been the foundation of a continuous policy to cover clergy crimes at all costs, then we have quite another issue. There are too many authenticated reports of victims having been seriously intimidated into silence by Church authorities to assert that such intimidation is the exception and not the norm.

If this document has been used as a justification for this intimidation then we possibly have what some commentators have alleged, namely, a blueprint for a cover-up. This is obviously a big “if” which requires concrete proof.’

(Read the English translation of the secret Vatican document at http://www.observer.co.uk)

Additional research by Jason Rodrigues

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OLD TACTICS - THE STONING OF PROTESTANTS



Curtis Martin

This is the face of little Curtis Martin, the five year old Protestant child, who had to undergo a five hour operation to save the sight of his left eye after a mob of Roman Catholic youths stoned the car in which he and his father were driving home through the Nationalist Roman Catholic Markets area.

The Martins were returning from the 12th July Orange demonstration. The tiny tot was wearing a Rangers Football top and his father a band uniform. Their only crime was to be Loyalists and Protestants. They were victims of the virulent anti-Protestant bigotry that we never hear about or else are told does not exist.

To date nobody has been arrested. We would have hoped that the Roman Catholic priests at nearby St. Malachy’s chapel would have called on their flock to hand over the perpetrators of this vicious outrage. We thought perhaps a rousing condemnation of such blatant sectarianism would have come from the Ecumenical clergy of South Belfast who carry crosses each Easter to Ormeau Park with priests and nuns.

Now we know the Roman Catholic/Republicans not only don’t want Orange feet on their streets but woe betide the defenceless Protestants who dare to drive in their area.

Of course the tactic is not new. It was in this same Cromac Street/Markets area that lawless Romanists in 1935 attacked the 12th July Orange parade, and again in 1966 a Roman Catholic mob attacked a procession of Free Presbyterians with stones, and lumps of metal.

Nothing seems to change.

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WHY PRAY FOR ROMAN CATHOLICS?


Above we see one of the thousands of Irish Roman Catholics who queued for hours to kiss a golden statue of St Anthony of Padua, described by Rome as the saint of “lost property” during a nine day tour of Dublin and Carlow.

The relics of the saint who died in 1232 are enclosed inside the idol of gold. Traffic was gridlocked outside one Roman Catholic church in Dublin. The faithful brought white lilies to these festivals of idolatry and the relics received a Garda (Irish Police) escort from Dublin Airport. All this in the new “Pluralist Ireland”.

THE BIBLE SAYS:

“THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THYSELF ANY GRAVEN IMAGE...... THOU SHALT NOT BOW THYSELF DOWN TO THEM” - (EXODUS 2O:4-5)

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IRISH REPUBLIC AND THE "HOLY SEE" FAILED TO PROTECT IRISH CHILDREN
A special UN Human Rights Committee hearing in Geneva will be told that the Holy See and the Irish Republic failed to protect children from abuse under the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Mr Colm O’Gorman, director of the One In Four abuse victims’ organisation, will highlight forced child labour in Ireland’s industrial schools and the sexual exploitation of Irish children.

He will also say that the response of Catholic dioceses (under the direct governance of the Holy See) has been one that sought at all costs to protect the institution rather than honour its commitments under the UN’s Declaration and Convention on the rights of the Child. The Holy See’s permanent representative at the UN in Geneva is the newly appointed Co-adjutor Archbishop Dublin, Most Rev Diarmuid Martin. He is in Geneva today.

Mr O’Gorman’s Invitation to the hearing arose from an interview he did with the BBC Radio 4 programme “Taking A Stand,” broadcast earlier this year.

He will argue that work, not education, was the lot of most children in Ireland’s industrial schools and that the effects of child sexual abuse can leave individuals enslaved to their traumatic experience long after childhood. As such they were entitled to have their rights vindicated under Article 39 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

He will say that the Irish experience was shaped largely by two States Parties to the UN Convention [any state or party which has agreed to adhere to it] - namely the Republic of Ireland and the Holy See. He will point out that from the foundation of the Irish State the Catholic Church had a primary role in providing social care, education, the formation of legislation and social policy, and was in reality as powerful politically as the Government.

He is expected to argue that human rights conventions should not just protect against future abuses but also respond to past failures and abuses. He will contend that the rights of abused children, now adults, are ignored and that any States Parties to the Convention had an obligation to vindicate abused children.

Article 39 says: “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.”

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SPAIN SEEKS SAINTHOOD FOR ISABELLA OF CASTILE
By

Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid

Senior churchmen led by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco, the Archbishop of Madrid, recently revived a campaign asking that Queen Isabella be beatified, the first step towards being made a saint. They hope for her to be beatified next year, the 500 anniversary of her death. During her tempestuous 15th century reign, Isabella conquered much of Latin America for the Vatican, ended the 700-year presence of Moors and Jews on the Iberian Peninsula and assured the hegemony of Castile and the Catholic Church in Spain.

"We have investigated every aspect of this controversial woman and it appears to be the time to abandon intransigence and see her in the context of her time and environment,” said Jose Delicado, Archbishop of Vallodolid.

Earlier attempts to canonise Isabella ended when her detractors accused her of exiling Jews and Muslims from Spain, instigating genocide in Latin America and setting up the Inquisition.

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VATICAN FINANCIER "MURDERED"




Roberto Calvi

PROSECUTORS investigating the 1982 death of a Vatican-connected financier who was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in central London have concluded he was murdered and did not kill himself, reports in Rome said. Roberto Calvi, nicknamed “God’s Banker”, was implicated in Italy’s biggest post-Second World War banking scandal. His body was found within days of the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, of which he was president and in which. the Vatican’s bank held a significant stake.

Four suspects in the case, including an alleged mafioso, have been notified of the conclusions, but have not been indicted, the ANSA news agency reported.

RAI state television said prosecutors believe that the Mafia killed Calvi because he had lost their money and knew too much about their operations.

Legal officials were not available to confirm the reports.

Last year, a panel of forensic experts also concluded that Calvi was killed. See the associated links below.

Classic Financial and Corporate Scandals

Roberto Calvi - God's Banker

Vatican's Banker 'was murdered'

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PRIEST JAILED FOR 20 YEARS
A Retired Catholic priest was jailed for 20 years for decades of sexual misconduct against children. Father Louis Miller (72) who admitted to 44 counts of indecent and immoral practices and six counts of sexual abuse, told the court in Louisville, Kentucky, that he took “full moral responsibility” for his crimes and said, “I stand before God to be judged later.”

He blamed his crimes on “whatever mental illness I might have had.”

”I hope some day I can have your forgiveness,” Miller said.

Miller is the first of four priests or former priests who face criminal charges in the state. The archdiocese expects to spend more than £600,000 on legal, settlement and counselling costs this year.



PRIEST WHO WAS SHOT BY ABUSE VICTIM INDICTED ON RAPE CHARGES

By

Kevin Eckstrom

(RNS) A Baltimore Catholic priest who was shot by his alleged abuse victim a year ago was indicted Wednesday (May 7) on child sex abuse charges

The Rev Maurice Blackwell is expected to turn himself in to authorities. Each of the four rape counts carries a penalty of 15 years in prison, according to the Associated Press.

Blackwell, 57, was shot last year by Dontee Stokes, who said he confronted Blackwell on a Baltimore street to demand an apology for raping him. Stokes, 27, was later acquitted of attempted murder after he pleaded temporary insanity, but was convicted on minor gun charges.

Blackwell was removed from his inner-city parish in 1998 after he told church officials about an inappropriate relationship with another minor. Church officials had investigated Stokes’ initial claims in 1993 but found them not credible. Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler later apologized to Stokes.

A church statement said it hopes the trial ”brings some measure of peace to those who have been harmed”. Stokes’ lawyer, Warren Brown, told the Associated Press, his client is “overjoyed“ by the indictment. “Its been a long time for Dontee,” he said.

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ROMAN CATHOLICS AND HINDUISM
Friday Church News Notes, November 15, 2002 (David W Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) -

Roman Catholicism is increasingly syncretised with Hinduism and Buddhism. In March, many Catholic priests, including the Pope’s nuncio (ambassador) to India, participated in the jubilee celebration of the Institute of Philosophy and Religion in that country, which has been training Catholic and liberal Protestant church leaders for decades in Hinduism. Students in the Institute are taught Yoga techniques.

The president of the Institute is Catholic priest Noel Sheth, who frequently quotes the Hindu scriptures in his talks. The Institute’s motto is taken from Hinduism. One of the attendees of the jubilee celebration, Swami Prabhudar, told The Hindu newspaper, “I am a swami [Hindu holy man] but also a Jesuit priest. I worship Christ but include tales from Hindu mythology and the Upanishads in my sermons!"

When my wife and I interviewed a nun in the mid 1990s who worked with Mother Teresa’s organization in Nepal assisting dying Hindus, we asked her what they did to prepare them for death. She replied, “We teach them to pray to their gods.”

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ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF PHOENIX, ARIZONA ARRESTED IN FATAL HIT-AND-RUN CASE
Conor O’Clery, New York

Bishop Thomas J O’Brien, the head of the Roman Catholic diocese of Phoenix, Arizona, has been accused of leaving the scene of a car accident in which a father of four was killed and left lying on a busy highway The hit-and-run charge comes just two weeks after the spiritual leader of Arizona’s 430,000 Catholics narrowly avoided indictment on obstruction-of-justice charges related to sex abuse cases in the diocese.

The extraordinary incident compounds the acute embarrassment for the Catholic Church in the USA over the resignation this week of the head of a lay sex abuse panel who accused some US bishops of mafia-like secrecy in their handling of sex scandals. Bishop O’Brien was said to have been driving his tan Buick sedan on Glendale Avenue, Phoenix, when it struck and killed Mr Jim Reed, 43, at 8:35 pm on a Saturday. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and released on bail of $45,000. The 67-year-old Bishop was also ordered to forfeit his passport and remain in Arizona prior to a court hearing on June 25th.

On the Sunday, according to court records, a fellow priest told the Bishop that police were looking for him after a witness gave them a partial registration number that was traced to a diocesan vehicle. However the Bishop did not contact police and on Monday morning made telephone calls to have his damaged windscreen repaired.

Police arrived at his residence soon afterwards and found front-end damage and a shattered windshield on the passenger’s side of his Buick. Phoenix police spokesman Sergeant Randy Force told reporters, “The damage was consistent with a pedestrian impact.” Agents impounded the car and the clothing the victim was wearing on Saturday.


Mr Reed was jay walking when he crossed the junction of two four-lane throughfares and was struck by two cars, the spokesman said. The second vehicle, which may have dragged him a considerable distance, has not been located. Bishop O’Brien had been celebrating a confirmation mass on Saturday evening. He acknowledged he was driving the car at the time when the accident occurred but told police that he believed he had hit a dog or cat or that someone threw a stone at the windscreen. When he was being charged in Maricopa County jail, the bishop suffered a dangerous rise in blood pressure and had to be taken for treatment to St. Joseph’s Hospital before returning for finger-printing.

The case has shocked a diocese that has been under scrutiny for months over reports that the Bishop covered up sex abuse cases and moved around abusive priests.

Two weeks prior, Bishop O’Brien finalised a deal with Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley under which he obtained immunity from prosecution. As part of the deal he admitted that he allowed priests “under my supervision to work with minors after becoming aware of allegations of sexual misconduct”. He apologised and agreed to diocesan reforms. Mr Romley said recently that he was “incredulous” when he was told that the bishop was involved in a hit-and-run case and he instructed his officials that he should not be treated any differently than anyone else.

He told a subsequent press conference that investigators were checking the Bishop’s activities in the hours before the accident to see if he had consumed alcohol or drugs that could have caused impairment. “They should remember that a person has died here, we can’t forgive that,” he said.

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ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST TO JUDGE "MISS ITALY” BEAUTY CONTEST
A Priest has accepted an invitation to be a judge in the Miss Italy beauty contest.

Mgr Carlo Crucianelli, 56. was asked to join the show by competition organiser Enzo Mirigliani.

It is the first time a priest has been invited on to the panel of judges for the three day pageant, which takes place in September and is broadcast live on television. Officials wrote and asked Mgr Crucianelli to the main event after he helped judge a preliminary contest at his home town of Sassaci, near Rome.

Mirigliani said: “He has a real forward-thinking mentality and he knows how to interact with young people. All priests should look to him as their role model.” He added that Mgr Crucianelli was on a spiritual retreat in Tuscany, and had accepted the invitation.

However not everyone is pleased with the priest’s role. One MP, Riceardo Pedrizzi, said: “As if we didn’t have enough with priests acting as social workers and trade unionists, now we have priests getting involved in television.”

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STATEMENT OF POLICY

It is not the aim or intention of Rome Watch to incite hatred of Roman Catholics but rather, by use of International Press reports already carried in newspapers, to show the religious and political advances of the Papacy in the light of Bible Prophecy, which foretells an end-time World Religion, Government and Economy.



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