Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Vatican Letter Genuine


A group of Catholics who were abused by priest have been pushing for the church to come clean about the sexual abuse by its clergy. A letter from the Vatican to Irish Bishops telling them to keep the abuse secret has been discovered.
From the BBC online news: Joelle Casteix, a director of the US group Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests, described the letter as "the smoking gun we've been looking for".
She said investigators had long sought a document showing the Vatican "thwarting any kind of justice for victims".
"We now have evidence that the Vatican deliberately intervened to order bishops not to turn paedophile priests over to law enforcement," she told the Associated Press news agency.
"This letter shows what victims have been saying for dozens and dozens of years: What happened to them involved a concerted cover-up that went all the way to the top."
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the letter was genuine.
This is more of an issue of a human organization trying to protect itself than it is a faith issue. The two issues are however intertwined.

It is interesting to me, as a protestant clergy, that a priest I know had a sexual affair with an adult woman in his parish and was instantly defrocked. It was a violation of his oath of celibacy. Compare that with many priest who have sexual contact with young boys and they get a transfer to another parish where their history is unknown. How is it that the church did not see that as a violation of their oath of celibacy?


2 comments:

  1. because it's run with a bunch of old men afraid to lose their influence! Or, they deep down didn't want to believe it happened.

    Why was celibacy introduced to begin with? Because men thought they were surpreme and didn't need women. That those men still had physical needs was ignored.

    And it's not just the Catholic church.... who knows what goes on with the Islams or the Buddist! We just don't know!

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