(Shaking head..)
Sex abuse rife in other religions, says Vatican
The Vatican has lashed out at
criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis by saying the
Catholic church was "busy cleaning its own house" and that the problems
with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger.
In
a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the
UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of
Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but
homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.
The
statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's
permanent observer to the UN, defended its record by claiming that
"available research" showed that only 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were
involved in child sex abuse.
He also quoted statistics from the
Christian Scientist Monitor newspaper to show that most US churches
being hit by child sex abuse allegations were Protestant and that
sexual abuse within Jewish communities was common.
He added that
sexual abuse was far more likely to be committed by family members,
babysitters, friends, relatives or neighbours, and male children were
quite often guilty of sexual molestation of other children.
The
statement said that rather than paedophilia, it would "be more correct"
to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males.
"Of
all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual
orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys
between the ages of 11 and 17."
The statement concluded: "As the
Catholic church has been busy cleaning its own house, it would be good
if other institutions and authorities, where the major part of abuses
are reported, could do the same and inform the media about it."
The
Holy See launched its counter–attack after an international
representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Keith
Porteous Wood, accused it of covering up child abuse and being in
breach of several articles under the Convention on the Rights of the
Child.
Porteous Wood said the Holy See had not contradicted any
of his accusations. "The many thousands of victims of abuse deserve the
international community to hold the Vatican to account, something it
has been unwilling to do, so far. Both states and children's
organisations must unite to pressurise the Vatican to open its files,
change its procedures worldwide, and report suspected abusers to civil
authorities."
Representatives from other religions were dismayed
by the Holy See's attempts to distance itself from controversy by
pointing the finger at other faiths.
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, head
of the New York Board of Rabbis, said: "Comparative tragedy is a
dangerous path on which to travel. All of us need to look within our
own communities. Child abuse is sinful and shameful and we must expel
them immediately from our midst."
A spokesman for the US
Episcopal Church said measures for the prevention of sexual misconduct
and the safeguarding of children had been in place for years.
Of all the world religions, Roman Catholicism
has been hardest hit by sex abuse scandals. In the US, churches have
paid more than $2bn (£1.25bn) in compensation to victims. In Ireland,
reports into clerical sexual abuse have rocked both the Catholic
hierarchy and the state.
The Ryan Report, published last May,
revealed that beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common
at institutions that held up to 30,000 children. A nine-year
investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades
terrorised thousands of boys and girls, while government inspectors
failed to stop the abuse.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/28/sex-abuse-religion-vatican
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The Vatican has always dragged their feet when it comes to sexual abuse within the church. In this case 30 years.
Vatican launches inquiry into 'abusive' religious order
The Vatican has launched an investigation into the Legionaries of
Christ, a religious order whose secretive founder stands accused of
sexually abusing numerous children over decades.
While the Vatican has been rocked by numerous sex-abuse scandals in
recent decades, through it all one religious order seemed immune to
scrutiny: The Legionaries of Christ, also known as the Legion of
Christ, a conservative group with some 800 priests, 2,500 seminarians,
and a following of 70,000 across 21 countries, including the United
States.
The Pope has convened an "apostolic visitation," or council of
bishops, to investigate the group's nearly 70-year-long history, its
controversial founder Maciel Degollado, and the accusations of sexual
assault and financial mismanagement now swirling around the recently
deceased religious leader.
And the investigation may have to grapple with an uncomfortable
question: If the entire religious order was based on lies and
deception, should it be disbanded?
In an article at GlobalPost, reporter Jason Berry states:
The issue facing Benedict has no precedent in modern
church history: whether to dismantle a movement with a $650 million
budget yet only about 700 priests and 2,500 seminarians, or to keep the
brand name and try to reform an organization still run as a cult of
personality to its founder. Excessive materialism and psychological
coercion tactics continue Maciel’s legacy.
Founded in 1941 by Maciel Degollado -- a Mexican national who at the
time was so young he hadn't even been ordained as a priest -- the
Legionaries of Christ developed a large following and unquestioning
support from numerous popes over the years.
For decades, the Legion shunned the media while Maciel
cultivated relationships with some of the most powerful, conservative
Catholics in the world. He also forced his priests and seminarians to
take vows never to criticize him, or any superior. The legion built a
network of prep schools and an astonishing database of donors. ...
Behind the silence he imposed, Maciel was corrupt — abusing seminarians
and using money in ways that several past and present seminarians liken
to bribery, in forging ties with church officials.
The silence Maciel imposed on his followers allowed Maciel to pursue a double life.
Maciel, who was born into a wealthy ranching family in Mexico, wooed
cardinals and bishops with money, fine wines, $1,000 hams and even a
new car — and in so doing secured support for his religious order
inside the Roman Curia.
in the 1990s, as sex abuse scandals linked to the Catholic church
came to light, victims of Degollado's sexual abuse began to come
forward. Though the Vatican first recognized the claims in 1998, it
wasn't until 2004 that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Pope John Paul
II's right-hand man, launched the first inquiry into Degollado's
actions.
Starting in 2004, at least 30 witnesses testified to
Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the C.D.F. investigator, that Maciel abused
them as youths. But the 2006 Vatican order punishing Maciel failed to
specify what exactly he had done, nor did it acknowledge the victims.
Last week, the UK's Independent ran a profile
of the Legionaries of Christ, in which the paper described Degollado as
a "narcissistic sociopath" whose religious schools "brainwashed"
children into submission.
Parents of youngsters recruited as Legionaries described
it as a cult that targeted the young and naive in particular, some of
them just 13, and then "brainwashed" them. But it is Maciel himself who
has proved most controversial. Nuestro Padre was, according to one
biographer, "a narcissistic sociopath" with a taste for flights on
Concorde and five-star hotels. He is acknowledged by the Legion to have
fathered at least one child – a 23-year-old daughter said to be called
Norma Hilda and now living in Madrid.
...
Much has been made of the power wielded by the secretive Opus Dei
under John Paul II, not least by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code, but
many Vatican-watchers believe that the Legion of Christ was bigger,
richer (annual budget £435m), more influential, and even more sinister.
In Maciel's case, it took 30 years – until 2006, after John Paul's
death – for the new pope, Benedict XVI, finally to issue a public
rebuke, and then it was simply an order that he should see out his days
in private prayer rather than face a court. The long delay is evidence,
some have suggested, that the Vatican still does not take the issue of
paedophile priests sufficiently seriously.
As the investigation into the Legionaries of Christ gets underway,
it appears for now that things are still business as usual for the
religious order. Last week, the Southern Catholic College in Atlanta announced it is partnering with the Legion of Christ, adding to the legion's already impressive roster of 176 schools across the world.
Source: http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/07/religious-order-faces-possible-extinction/
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Tags: greta christina, why are atheist angry? |
Categories: Articles, Atheist, Catholicism, Christianity, Evolution, God, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Mormonism
Posted by
Christina on
7/9/2009 4:55 AM |
Comments (8)
Stumbled across a very good article on Greta Christina's Blog.
Excerpt:
"I want to talk about atheists and anger. This has been a hard piece to write, and it may be a hard one to
read. I'm not going to be as polite and good-tempered as I usually am
in this blog; this piece is about anger, and for once I'm going to
fucking well let myself be angry. But I think it's important. One of the most common criticisms lobbed
at the newly-vocal atheist community is, "Why do you have to be so
angry?" So I want to talk about:
1. Why atheists are angry;
2. Why our anger is valid, valuable, and necessary;
And 3. Why it's completely fucked-up to try to take our anger away from us."
....
"I'm angry that atheist soldiers -- in the U.S. armed forces -- have had prayer ceremonies pressured on them and atheist meetings broken up by Christian superior officers, in direct violation of the First Amendment."
....
"I'm angry that women are dying of AIDS in Africa and South America
because the Catholic Church has convinced them that using condoms makes
baby Jesus cry."
....
"I'm angry about what happened to Galileo. Still. And I'm angry that it took the Catholic Church until 1992 to apologize for it."
....
"I'm angry -- enraged -- at the priests who molest children and tell
them it's God's will. I'm enraged at the Catholic Church that
consciously, deliberately, repeatedly, for years, acted to protect
priests who molested children, and consciously and deliberately acted
to keep it a secret, placing the Church's reputation as a higher
priority than, for fuck's sake, children not being molested. And I'm
enraged that the Church is now trying to argue, in court, that
protecting child-molesting priests from prosecution, and shuffling
those priests from diocese to diocese so they can molest kids in a
whole new community that doesn't yet suspect them, is a Constitutionally protected form of free religious expression."
Rad the full article here.
Source: http://gretachristina.typepad.com
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I hope this one isn't serious..
11 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
A book of non-lies!,
May 13, 2006
"For anyone that has read the Bible, it is easy to see why this is one
of God's most popular, ground-breaking published pieces of work.
Skillfully written and complete with tons of surprising plot twists,
this book is, literally and figuratively, a work of God.
Though the exposition is universally considered to be a bit weak,
God shows his true skills as an author leading to Jesus's crucifixion.
When I read the climax of this stirring story, the part where God
brilliantly portrays his one true son, Jesus Christ, being nailed to a
cross, I felt as if I were in the story itself, witnessing the
atrocious acts in real life.
The Bible has many themes that can be discovered in many places
throughout the work. One of the most powerful themes are the many
agones between God and his children, the people on Earth (which he
crafted after his own image).
Though God never backed away from a good story, he also took smart
advantage of his book to explain the world around us. One of the most
rewarding reads is discovering why women are inferior to men (Spoiler:
They are responsible for the expulsion of man from the Garden of Eden).
God also thoroughly exposes evolution as being nothing but lies by
proving the existence of creationism and showing how it is the true
reason for life on Earth.
In all, the Bible is one of the most powerful reads of the last
2,000 years, and I highly recommend it to any sane, intelligent human
being interested in learning about the true word of the Lord."
Find more Amazon Bible Review's here.
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