In times past, priests accused of pedophilia were sometimes allowed to go to confession, get counseling and be transferred to other parishes, where they often found new victims. Even with the new steps one church official stated, "They still don't get it."
As the Roman Catholic church is currently embroiled in the case of former priest John J. Geoghan, who is accused of abusing 130 children, a priest who was shifted around for years, the State Senate of Massachusetts is now taking matters into their own hands by voting on a bill to require that clergy members report past evidence of sexual abuse to state authorities and not just evidence of current sexual abuse. This new bill will go beyond the new Boston archdiocese rule that does not require reporting past abuse. In a letter from American Cardinal Ratzinger to U. S. Bishops that at "even a hint" of a case of pedophilia an investigation must be open and reported to Rome. While these secret tribunals have no direct effect on civil cases, they do settle the question about who pays the defense lawyers in criminal cases, since a priest found not guilty by these church trials would be presumably entitled to the support of the diocese
http://ww2.moriel.org:8004/discernment/catholicism/vatican_pedophilia.htm
Curtis also testified that records of complaints against priests would usually be put into the diocese's "secret archive, a canonically required cache of historical documents accessed only with keys kept by the bishop and the vicar. He said he would occasionally go into the archive and remove what he called "antiquated abuse complaints and destroy them.
http://www.survivorsnetwork.org/News_New_York/NewYork_News_BackPage_1.htm
Porter told Pope Paul VI in 1973 that he had been sexually molesting children, nearly 20 years before victims stepped forward to reveal the abuse they had suffered. Porter's confession is among newly released records which show that Catholic church officials -- including the late Cardinal Humberto Medeiros -- knew of child molestation allegations against Porter as far back as the 1960s. The court document is among hundreds of pages obtained by the Boston Herald and reported today.
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1656.cfm
He told Park and other jurors that when he was Bishop of Stockton, he didn't know Father Oliver O'Grady was a molester. Mahony transferred the priest weeks after a police investigation. He claimed he never read the secret file his diocese kept which contained O'Grady's confession.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/04/23/eveningnews/main507039.shtml
We are in the business of forgiveness," said the veteran pastor. "People go to confession, we forgive them and send them on their way. The problem is they [the bishops] did not know that pedophilia was incurable. They sent them [priests accused of abusing boys] to a psychiatrist who said they were OK. But it was a serial thing, and they should have been canned."
http://loper.org/~george/trends/2002/Jan/82.html Rev. Donald Cozzens states priests have confessed to him http://www.stjohnsmn.org/response/letter_053002.htm Then look into the amount of Bishops who have said they were in err when they reassigned priests who confessed to the act of pedophilia, ephebophilia or hebephilia which are all sins under the Catholic law. http://www.innocenceindanger.org/innocence/news_scandal.htm Cardinal Bernard Law has he not said in public that he moved priest to other facilities upon confession and now regrets this? http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/00882888.htm 'The Vatican has issued new rules saying it will use secret ecclesiastical courts to try priests accused of sexually abusing children and will oversee the cases directly from Rome. The rules, which were quietly issued, are intended to 'protect the rights of the accused,' according to a high-ranking Vatican official.
http://www.cwnews.com/Browse/1997/10/6140.htm Catholic priests are men and, as unredeemed sinners, it should not be viewed as surprising that they sometimes yield to temptations of the flesh. What is shocking is that these 'priests of the order of Melchizedec,' though they be given over to pedophilia, homosexuality and other forms of lewdness and debauchery are still considered 'ritually clean' and in no way hampered in the performance of their priestly duties. In other words, a priest who has just defiled himself with an altar boy is deemed fit to call down the Catholic Christ from the side of the Catholic Father and convert him into a wafer and glass of wine, which are then offered in 'bloodless sacrifice' for the sins of men. The Catholic priest who may have broken his oath of celibacy with a child in his parish is still considered ritually clean to sit in the confessional and dole out absolution and penance for sins confessed to him. Yet the Catholic layman must be ritually clean if he is to receive communion. He must be in a state of grace, free of the disqualifying burden of unconfessed mortal sin, else he will be guilty of sacrilege.
http://sxws.com/charis/odds18.htm We are in the business of forgiveness," said the veteran pastor. "People go to confession, we forgive them and send them on their way. The problem is they [the bishops] did not know that pedophilia was incurable. They sent them [priests accused of abusing boys] to a psychiatrist who said they were OK. But it was a serial thing, and they should have been canned."
http://loper.org/~george/trends/2002/Jan/82.html In the latest high profile case, former priest John Geoghan goes to trial this month in Massachusetts. More than 130 people have accused him of fondling or rape during the three decades he served in Boston area churches. Eighty-four civil lawsuits have been filed against him. Archdiocese records show that he was simply moved from one parish to another even though Church leaders had evidence that he was abusing children.
What was this evidence? Confession perhaps? http://www.chick.com/bc/2002/confession.asp The rest of the world should follow suit IMO... Australian Anglican Priests Permitted To Break Confession Seal SYDNEY (CWN) - The Anglican Diocese of Sydney announced on Thursday that priests will no longer be bound by the seal of the confessional when penitents confess criminal acts in order to protect potential victims.
The diocesan synod voted to change the rule as a result of an official report on child sexual abuse in August which found that the crime is widespread in New South Wales state. That report criticized churches for protecting members who have engaged in pedophilia by reacting to them as moral problems rather than criminal acts. "The intention is to put potential victims ahead of clergy concerns about things like the obligation to protect a person in the confessional or defamation," said a diocesan spokesman.
Reverend John Woodhouse, who proposed the change, said that it could be immoral to do nothing to prevent further abuse of victims if the priest has knowledge of the crime. "The situations in which the clergy feel an obligation to break a confidence will be rare but it is a scandal that the church should set in law a requirement that we protect the perpetrator ahead of the victim," Woodhouse told the synod. However critics said the change could drive people away from seeking spiritual help if they think their deepest confidences are not safe. "Who now will seek solace in clergy in whom they are unsure they can trust?," said Garth Blake before the vote. "Surely we risk alienating people in a spiritual sense."
http://www.cwnews.com/Browse/1997/10/6140.htm http://www.sltrib.com/2002/may/05112002/saturday/735973.htm www.manilatimes.net/national/2002/ jun/06/opinion/20020606opi1.html http://www.dontbelieve.com/Content/WofS/Yahoo!%20News%20-%20Priest%20Who%20Admitted%20Sex%20with%20Teen%20Shot%20in%20Baltimore.htm http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:3Z5XRr9q_jAC:www.thewandererpress.com/march28.pdf+Confessed%2Bpriests%2Bpedophilia&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 http://www.sptimes.com/2002/07/07/Floridian/An_artist_speaks_his_.shtml http://www.saintmarynb.org/pedophilia.htm http://www.foody.org/atheist/insanity0202.htmlhttp://www.matriarch.com/sex4.htm Priests Confession, Nuns, Rape and Aids http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/news_results.asp?us=1&global=1&Title=Special+Series&Body=&Day=&Month=March&Year=2001&Submit=Find+the+Article%21 Edited by - cassiline on 11 January 2003 20:48:10
