http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11740898
The rest of the article is more shocking
The rest of the article is more shocking
Australian RC Church sent 5-paedophile priests to one parish
- Thread starter jimbob
- Start date
GodMark2
Master Poster
The article says "child-molesting", your headline says "paedophile".
When will people finally figure out that the two are not synonymous?
When will people finally figure out that the two are not synonymous?
Given that he seemed to get sexual gratification from children, I don't see why this matters so much.
Paedophile who acted on his impulses.
Given the sending of five paedophile* priests in a row to that parish I would not be surprised.
The priest also behaved sufficiently badly that even if all the child-abuse allegations were disbelieved he should have been defrocked.
*I can't see what the problem is with that term but if there is a good reason to change it, I will.
Carnivore
Salad Dodger
Sadly, not shocking at all. It seems to conform exactly with how the Catholic church dealt with child sexual abuse by clergy for decades world wide. Complaints by parents ignored, offenders extracted when there is a threat of criminal proceedings, pressure applied to victims to stay quiet and recycling of child abusers into new hunting grounds.
The policy of the Church -globally- seemed not just to protect the Church's reputation but to actually enable predators to reoffend as much as possible.
Fortunately we're past all that now and the most recent Pope has undertaken to "redress the legacy" of child abuse by Catholic clergy. Therefore the 2016 guidelines to new bishops did not tell them they have to keep child abuse a secret from secular authorities. They just said the bishops do not "necessarily" have to report such crimes to the police.
See? Progress!
The policy of the Church -globally- seemed not just to protect the Church's reputation but to actually enable predators to reoffend as much as possible.
Fortunately we're past all that now and the most recent Pope has undertaken to "redress the legacy" of child abuse by Catholic clergy. Therefore the 2016 guidelines to new bishops did not tell them they have to keep child abuse a secret from secular authorities. They just said the bishops do not "necessarily" have to report such crimes to the police.
See? Progress!
Elagabalus
Philosopher
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That he, himself, committed? Or just his handling/mishandling (yes, pun intended!) of the alleged priests?
Are you sure?
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/op...p/news-story/78c0dc91c79b77137b53059271acfaf0
ponderingturtle
Orthogonal Vector
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Think they will get him out of the country and to the vatican before then?
Carnivore
Salad Dodger
Coincidentally I rewatched "Spotlight" last night and to my mind one of the main villains of that story was Cardinal Bernard Law, Archbishop of Boston. While not a child molester himself he protected scores of them for decades while flat out lying to victims, law enforcement, parishioners and the public. He arranged off the record out of court settlements with dozens of victims, sending clergy to swear that this was a one off case, that nothing like it had happened before and that the offender involved would be removed from having access to children. He signed off on pressuring the victims and their families not damage the Church by going public and made them sign an NDA to get a meagre settlement from the Church. He OKed the reshuffling of dozens of child abusers through "safe houses" for a few months or years then letting them have access once more to kids in a community facing role. After the publication of many incriminating documents gave the lie to his constant public denials, he was forced to step down from his position - and went on to an honoured and influential career in the Vatican.
Cardinal Pell's long running criminal investigation for sex crimes aside, I will be interested to see how much in common his behaviour concerning other child rapist priests has with Cardinal Law.
Segnosaur
Penultimate Amazing
That's something people should always remember with regards to the current catholic church. Pope Francis may seem like a reformer in many ways, and he has spoken out against abuse (and even brought in new vatican laws to handle it), but Cardinal Pell still has a significant position within the vatican... although "innocent until proven guilty" is a general rule, you should still be hesitant in allowing someone facing these issues to continue in their role.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...hurch-law-paedophile-priests-catholic-bishops
Damien Evans
Up The Irons
3 things:
That article is behind a paywall
It's written by Andrew Bolt, the most notorious far-right partisan hack non-journalist in the country
It's in the Herald Scum, which apart from a decent sport section is a disgrace to the industry
Damien Evans
Up The Irons
He's been hiding there for over a year already.
Elagabalus
Philosopher
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TA posted about Bell a couple of months ago. IIRC, I thought the evidence for his alleged abuse was ... problematic i.e. he had a lot of wiggle room.
Rooming with Law, is he?
Trebuchet
Penultimate Amazing
The fourth word in the linked article is "paedophile". Followed by "psychopath" and "thief".
ddt
Mafia Penguin
Colour me surprised. The Vatican also helped Eichmann escape to Argentina, as well as many of his buddies. They have a bit of a history of helping evil scum.
Too late to worry about that.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-whatever-he-is-now-irrelevant-to-australians
He's in the Vatican. And he will not be charged with enabling child abusers, but being one himself. I have that from a victim who also worked at the Vatican. Whether the authorities have the balls to charge Australia's most senior Catholic and one of the most influential members of the Vatican Mafia remains to be seen.
I was just reading that the Italian police have authority in Vatican City, excluding the steps of the basilica and beyond. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Treaty
And we do have an extradition agreement with Italy.
I agree that it will require some balls from our PTB to actually charge Pell. The Catholic vote is not to be trifled with. But I wonder how many Catholics would actually oppose the move anyway. They're all about sacrifice, right? They may be happy for him to take the heat, and go some way to putting the church in a better light.
We can but dream. Maybe I'll pray.
And we do have an extradition agreement with Italy.
I agree that it will require some balls from our PTB to actually charge Pell. The Catholic vote is not to be trifled with. But I wonder how many Catholics would actually oppose the move anyway. They're all about sacrifice, right? They may be happy for him to take the heat, and go some way to putting the church in a better light.
We can but dream. Maybe I'll pray.
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Pell will play the "too ill to travel" card, and will probably win. He deserves to face court. As I said earlier (I think), Vicpol does not send two detectives to Rome for two days on a fishing expedition. They have this creep on the hook.