Sounds like The Watchtower, doesn't it?

by Nathan Natas 9 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Nathan Natas

  http://www.kxly.com/common/getStory.asp?id=30410

  The Smoking Gun?
  
  Local survivors of Catholic priest sexual abuse say its the smoking gun: a 40 page document, uncovered by News4 lays out in great detail exactly how the Vatican instructed all of his Diocese world wide to silence all claims of sexual abuse by priests. Texas Attorney Daniel Shea, who is at the center of the legal battle to bring criminal charges against former Archbishop of Boston Bernard Law, provided the document. He says he has been looking for it for over a year after seeing a reference to it in a Bishops letter. Another widely respected catholic priest, Fr. Tom Doyle, found the document, translated it from Latin to English and gave it to Shea late last week. Shea filed it with the US Attorney's office in Boston this week. He is working to legally authenticate it.
  The document is dated March 16, 1962. If authenticated, Shea says it could prove all priests were under direct orders from the Vatican to keep secret allegations and investigations of priest sex abuse. The document details exactly how the Diocese was to set up a church tribunal, which priests were to be selected to serve, how the evidence was to be presented, and how the accused priest was to be treated.

  The document requires any person who knew about the abuse allegations or the tribunal to take a vow of silence or face ex-communication if they ever revealed what they knew. It orders priests to be transferred if possible. It also directs all record of an accusation that is not proven to be destroyed. According to the document, a single priest could be accused repeatedly, but unless he was ever found guilty by the tribunal of his peers, his record was never to reflect it.

  This document could serve as the staple for a criminal case in Boston, Spokane, and cities around the world. In Spokane, the victim's support group, SNAP, will be meeting early next week to decide how to continue legally. If they can build a criminal case it could result in racketeering charges similar to cases built against organized crime.

  This policy is no longer in place. The Bishops and the Vatican approved a new policy for dealing with allegations of abuse last year.

  News4 made repeated attempts to contact the Diocese of Spokane for a comment. Bishop Skylstad's office was dark and locked and none of our phone messages were returned.
• 

  Pistoff

  Wow. I hope to see more about this, this is a bombshell.
• 

  Hamas

  You know,

  we should research more on the unreported cases of Rabbi peadophiles !

  If this had media attention, it would put them in the same light as the Catholics and the Witnesses.
• 

  waiting

  Hello Hamas,

  This same issue hit the Canadian Angelican Church a couple years ago. What made that unique was that the Anglelican Church was sanctioned by the Canadian Government to run gov' schools for Canadian Indians. The priests (primarily) physically, emotionally, and sexually abused many Indian kids for decades. I'm working from memory here, so all my facts might not be 100% - but the gist is.

  The Canadian government and the Angelican Church had to pay heavily (last I heard anyway) after several lawsuits brought this to public attention.

  The Angelican Church in one province (area of Canada?) said it was going to be forced into bankruptcy and wouldn't be able to pay. It was later reported that what the Angelican Church actually did was move their assets to another province. Ain't that just like a religion.

  Thanks, Nathan!

  I've read this twice now......and look forward to coming back to it - but my statements are just sitting there on my desk.....waiting.
• 

  Satanus

  Hamas

  we should research more on the unreported cases of Rabbi peadophiles !

  Well, that wouldn't be allowed. It would be antisemitism

  SS
• 

  Kenneson

  Hamas,

  Why not report on whether pedophilia occurs in Islam? Has anyone looked into it yet?
• 

  Satanus

  Kenn

  A news article a while ago described it in afghanistan. It was an accepted tradition there. Well off men would woo boys w gifts and favours. Sometimes there were even fueds as two powerful/rich men wanted the same catamite. The taliban put a stop to this practice by killing the perps. I suppose since the taliban was pushed out, this tradition along w poppy growing has come back.

  SS
• 

  rocketman

  Ain't that just like a religion.

  Indeed.
• 

  Gamaliel

  Hamas,

  When I was still a JW I started college and took four years of Hebrew with nearly 100% Orthodox Jews as classmates. I was made aware of some of these abuse issues (mostly wife-beating issues) and was completely disgusted, thinking that these people should know better because of their respect for the Bible. An on-campus rabbi once gave a talk at the Jewish Student Union on child abuse problems in families, and I would read some of the Jewish college newspapers and read of "abuse" news and discussions. I got the impression that it was a real problem, and wondered why they couldn't be as good as JWs.

  Then the next year my own sister, a good JW started getting beaten up by her JW husband, and my own father, along with another elder convinced her not to make an issue of it so as not to bring reproach on the congregation. My sister tried that for a couple years more. Finally she broke free from the JWs even though by then I had already left for "apostate" and for a while she would have nearly spit in my direction if she saw me. I did know about a couple other JW cases, but assumed (back then) they were exceptions with JWs.

  I now know that most cultures, Muslim, Indian, Chinese, have issues, but I've always wondered since those college days if Jews and Arabs (and JWs, even) might have had more troubles based on the similarities of their religion.

  Gamaliel
• 

  Yerusalyim

  Curious that these documents aren't provided, don't you think?