Have you heard about what’s happening right now in the Vatican? The Vatican is where the Pope lives, in case you don’t know. The Catholic Church has been hammered with allegations that thousands of priests are pedophiles and the Vatican has been hiding lawsuits and has been paying off sexually abused victims to protect the church from exposure in the courts. Praise God! Hallelujah! There are very many boys who have been sexually abused by priests - many thousands of them! Praise God! Hallelujah! There are some female victims but the number is not as staggering as the number of male victims. Oh yeah… it’s very sad.
There is speculation that Pope Benedict may be forced to resign. Mahitabo unta! He hasn’t been cooperating with the police authorities. Well, kana nagpasabot nga anaa’y lihok-pagtabon sa mga crimes committed by these priests ang iyahang gihimo. Dakong masayponon kaayo ang maong pagtabon. Dakong bakak ang iyahang gihimo. Dili lang ang mga victims of sexually abuse mao ang gilinlang ug gipahimuslan niining ilahang (Vatican and the Pope) gipanghimo’ng pagtabon kon dili ang tibook katilingban of Catholic faith. There were thousands who were sexually abused in Ireland over the years and up to the present day. These victims are now filing lawsuits and talking openly about these pedophile priests. There were also several cases of sexual allegations in the United States. These victims and their families are doing something that may fry the Pope’s ass. These sexual abuse allegations are worldwide. The Pope must take responsibility. He must take action so that these crimes will be prosecuted in public civil courts to ensure that justice can be done. I’ve read in many articles that there has been an on-going cover-up by many bishops, archbishops, cardinals and even late Pope John Paul 2nd of truly shocking sexual behavior by priests. There are staggering numbers of alleged sexual molestations. Unbelievable! It makes me sick. I bet you, we also have sexually abused male and female inviduals here in our country (Philippines) but they’re not talking. They’re afraid, I guess. I just hope that they will talk about it openly. It would be good for them to speak out. Speaking out will help them ease their burden and put these priests behind bars. I hope so.
Nakahinumdom ko, anaa’y usa ka pari nga nag-ngala’g Father Sante, Santa, Santo? I forgot his name. Nagkahimamat kami ani niya didto sa Laguindingan, pista kadto. Man! Ayha pa ‘ko nasayod nga palahubog man pod diay ang pari; dili lang kana, mahilig pod ug chicks. He was very nice and friendly, though. My cousin and I liked him very much. Because he liked us so very much (haha!), he took us home in his Volkswagen. I’m telling you, it wasn’t a fatherly-like gesture ang iyahang gihatag namo. It was something else – pang-chicks nga style. There was nothing wrong at all with him taking us home, pero ang mga hagikhik, hikap (chancing touch) ug pahiyum was beyond me. My point is: gamay ra g’yud unta siguro’ng child molesters, ug anaa’y sekretong kapikas ang mga pari kung hatagan lang unta sila sa katungod nga makabaton ug kaugalingong pamilya. This applies to gay priests as well. We’re human beings. Ang pakighilawas kay usa kana sa atong lawasnong panginahanglanon. It’s human nature that we have the desire to have SEX. Period! Tanang hayop mangita gayud niana, tawo pa kaha? Catholicism is such a weird religion, don’t you think?
I’m positive that we have so many children (mostly boys) - sa atong nasud mismo - who are being molested or have been sexually abused in the past by priests. Ug kini nga mga mapasipad-anon ug mahilab’tuno’ng pari, sa pagkakaron nagapadayon sa pagsangyaw sa PULONG sa Ginoo ngadto sa nagkalain-laing congregations sa atong nasud. I remember sa akong kapanahunan sa dihang bata pa ako, kadaghanan sa mga pari kay gikan sa Ireland. Mao siguro kato silang mga pari-a ang gi-reassign tungod sa ilahang mga ngil-ad, hugaw ug ngilngig nga gipanghimo. God only knows! When I was in Manila year 1998 or 1999, I went to this church in Makati, I noticed most of the priests were foreign nationals: black and white (pula’g hasang). There was only one Filipino priest. I believe there were 10 priests altogether in that parish. I was very surprised, and guess what? I liked it. I went to that church many times. Hahaha! Dili lang ako maka-ampo sa akong Ginoo atong panahona, makapanan-aw pa ako ug nindot nga talan-awon - mga pari’ng tisoy - nga sa akong hunahuna, mga gwapong agtaa, puti ug itom – nga (maybe) sa kinailadman diay kay decolores ug yawan-on. Not all of them of course… Why can’t I remember the name of that church? Ang paagi man gud sa mga top leaders sa Catholic Church kay: kung ang usa ka pari had done something really awful in his congregation, like molesting a child, i-reassign siya para magpabiling limpyo ang panagway sa maong simbahan ug sa Katoliko mismo. And the worst part of it is bayaran nila ang mga nag-reklamong biktima to keep ‘em quiet. They pay them big bucks. The Catholic Church has so much money. The Catholic Church is cruel to its own people.
A 2009 public inquiry into church sexual abuse, found that the church’s motivation was: “The maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets.” - Sinead Kennedy of www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=20737
You know what the Pope is saying right now? Ang Vatican mao kuno ang biktima sa maong mga pag-atake sa media ug sa mga hugyaw gikan sa mga nagkalain-laing dapit. Oh my God! Buhaton unta niya ang tanan para mapahamtanga’g silot ang mga pari nga napamatud-ang child molesters, ug mangayo unta siya ug pasaylo sa nahitabo sa mga nabiktima kung usa siya ka responsible’ng Pope.
I’m glad I no longer practice Catholicism. I used to be a very devoted parishioner and a devout Catholic -rosayro pa’y imo, I did it thousands of times. I did many religious services. I was even considering becoming a nun. I’m glad I didn’t. I would have been screwed. Illegally! Ahem! Remember - ginadili ang pagpakasala sa pulong, sa buhat ug sa hunahuna, apan mao kini kasagaran ang akong namatikdan: pipila lang ka mga Catholics ang tinu’d-anay nga nagatuo ug nagasubay (somewhat) sa pagtuo. Kadaghanan sa mga Katoliko kay libakera, tabi-an, hilabtanon sa isig-kaingon, kawatan, korakot, mapasipad-anon, bugal-bugalon, himantayon, palahubog, bakakon, sugarol, kabitero/a, yawan-on ug unsa pa nga ginadili isip Katoliko, ginahimo. And by the way, tungod sa atong pagka-religious isip Katoliko, illegitimate childrens are all over the map of the Philippines. Ang mga Katoliko ang pinakadakong HYPOCRITE sa tibook kalibutan. I’d rather be a Bhuddist or not practice any religion at all. I do have a GREAT POWER in my life that I call God. I pray but I only pray to a God of my understanding - a God who does not punish or otherwise hurt any of HIS people – HE is a God of LOVE. I can go to any church or any place I want and pray to my beloved God. A God who punishes “sinners” by visiting so-called “calamities” (disasters) is not any God of mine. I used to think nga kanang gitawag nga mga katalagman kay silot kuno kana sa mga makasasala, matud pa sa mga katigulangan - nga sa pagkakaron mao pod kini ginatuho-an sa katilingbang Katoliko. Kana nga mga katalagman nagagikan kuno sa atong Dakong Makagagahum isip pahamtang silot sa mga makasasala. I don’t know about that. Such a God is an invention of mankind. Kung anaa man gani usa ka God of the Highest Power, Ginoo siya nga mapasayloon, mahigugmaon ug mabantayon sa mga dautang panghitabo nga dili kini mahitabo ngadto sa iyahang pinalanggang katawhan. I do the best I can to be a very good person and a very good citizen. That’s all that matters to me. Religion kay namugna isip instrumento sa pagpangwarta, pag-brainwash ug uban pa. I just want to let you know that Pope John Paul 2nd believed in the theory of evolution. Pope Benedict XVI also believes in it. Wala’y scientific basis nga nag-prove nga there was a person who rose from the dead named Jesus Christ. Nada! I have heard and read that there are so many inconsistencies in the Bible (watch all the videos). I have been brainwashed by the Catholics since I was a little kid. Well, I’ve learned. To me, I just do the best I can nga mamahimong usa ka matinud-anon, mahigugmaon ug maalagaron nga pagkatawo, dili lang sa akong kaugalingon, pamilya, kaparentehan, kahigalaan kon dili sa tibook katawhan. Amen!
I don’t believe in Heaven and I don’t believe in Hell. My heaven and hell is how I live my life. Right now, I’m in Heaven. Thank God for that.
God bless. May you live in peace!
Nun of The Above, Lugaitnon
Watch these videos right below:
To watch videos on Human Evolution, Origins of Life, Why is Christianity False, etc. - go to the bottom of this page.
Gathering storm over Vatican’s cover-up
by Sinead Kennedy
It is sometimes said that politicians think in terms of weeks, statesmen in terms of decades and the pope in terms of centuries.
Yet even by these standards of longevity, the Vatican’s response to an avalanche of sexual abuse claims is outrageous.
Not only did the church fail to protect thousands of children from sexual abuse, it facilitated that abuse by moving the offenders from parish to parish where they continued to abuse and then cover-up their crimes.
Indeed, the extent of the cover-up is beginning to read like a plot from a Dan Brown novel.
Earlier this month the pope was forced to issue a letter of apology to Irish Catholics for the long history of sexual abuse by priests, nuns and Catholic orders.
Unsurprisingly, the letter failed to address the systematic concealment of this abuse by Irish bishops.
A scandal emerged just last week around the current head of Irish Catholic church, Cardinal Sean Brady.
In 1975 he forced two boys to swear an oath of secrecy and concealed the abuse inflicted upon them by paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth.
A 2009 public inquiry into church sexual abuse, found that the church’s motivation was: “The maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets.
“All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities.”
Instinctively
But as Eamonn McCann recently commented, “That’s the point. There was no decision involved. They will have acted naturally, instinctively.
“It is not that they rejected the idea of reporting the abuse to the secular authorities. The thought will not have occurred to them.”
However, the cover?up by the Irish church is simply a microcosm of a wider campaign of deliberate concealment that stretches across the globe and into the highest levels of the Vatican.
Benedict is deeply implicated in this suppression, despite protestations to the contrary by Vatican officials. Indeed, it would be astonishing if he were not.
Between 1982 and 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as he was then, was head of the powerful orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Inquisition.
This body is the discipliner of clerics who violate the church’s moral and theological doctrine.
The Vatican’s policy under his leadership was one of orchestrated concealment. He himself is directly implicated in two cover-ups.
But it is not just Benedict who was involved. Pope John Paul II, who is being fast-tracked for sainthood by Benedict, declined to investigate a priest called Father Marcial Maciel.
Maciel founded a cult-like order known as the Legion of Christ and systematically engaged in sexual abuse of minors for 40 years. But John Paul claimed that he had “discerned” that Maciel was innocent.
Right from the beginning the church has failed to address the scale and magnitude of sexual abuse that occurred. John Paul II, pope for much of this period, took an entirely mystical view of the paedophile crisis.
Homosexuality
He called it a mysterium iniquitatis or “mystery of iniquity”, an apocalyptic reference to the influence of satanic powers.
And worse, he tried to equate the sexual abuse of children with homosexuality, claiming that the abuse was restricted to a small number of gay priests.
Benedict has continued with the view that the phenomenon is a matter of sinfulness rather than criminality, and he cites secularism and even the influence of liberals within the church for causing the abuse.
There is no indication that larger, structural causes are even contemplated, much less in line to be addressed.
Even now, despite almost daily revelations of horrific child sexual abuse, the church continues to deny its role in concealing and perpetuating it.
Indeed, the Vatican is now claiming that the church itself is the victim in all this.
Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, an aide to the pope, set the tone, telling reporters on Thursday: “This is a pretext for attacking the church… There is a well organised plan with a very clear aim.”
It is becoming increasingly clear that this is an institution that is rotten to its core and whose only priorities are to defend itself and, of course, the Vatican’s assets.
Sinead Kennedy is a lecturer at NUI Maynooth in Ireland
Vatican offers 3 reasons it’s not liable for abuse
By NICOLE WINFIELD (AP) – 1 day ago
VATICAN CITY — Dragged deeper than ever into the clerical sex abuse scandal, the Vatican is launching a legal defense that the church hopes will shield the pope from a lawsuit in Kentucky seeking to have him deposed.
Court documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press show that Vatican lawyers plan to argue that the pope has immunity as head of state, that American bishops who oversaw abusive priests weren’t employees of the Vatican, and that a 1962 document is not the “smoking gun” that provides proof of a cover-up.
The Holy See is trying to fend off the first U.S. case to reach the stage of determining whether victims actually have a claim against the Vatican itself for negligence for allegedly failing to alert police or the public about Roman Catholic priests who molested children.
The case was filed in 2004 in Kentucky by three men who claim they were abused by priests and claim negligence by the Vatican. Their attorney, William McMurry, is seeking class-action status for the case, saying there are thousands of victims across the country.
“This case is the only case that has been ever been filed against the Vatican which has as its sole objective to hold the Vatican accountable for all the priest sex abuse ever committed in this country,” he said in a phone interview. “There is no other defendant. There’s no bishop, no priest.”
The Vatican is seeking to dismiss the suit before Benedict XVI can be questioned or secret documents subpoenaed.
The preview of the legal defense was submitted last month in U.S. District Court in Louisville. The Vatican’s strategy is to be formally filed in the coming weeks. Vatican officials declined to comment on Tuesday.
Plaintiffs in the Kentucky suit argue that U.S. diocesan bishops were employees of the Holy See, and that Rome was therefore responsible for their alleged wrongdoing in failing to report abuse.
They say a 1962 Vatican document mandated that bishops not report sex abuse cases to police. The Vatican has argued that there is nothing in the document that precluded bishops from calling police.
With the U.S. scandal reinvigorated by reports of abuse in Europe and scrutiny of Benedict’s handling of abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich, the Kentucky case and another in Oregon have taken on greater significance. Lawyers as far away as Australia have said they plan to use similar strategies.
At the same time though, the hurdles remain enormously high to force a foreign government to turn over confidential documents, let alone to subject a head of state to questioning by U.S. lawyers, experts say.
The United States considers the Vatican a sovereign state — the two have had diplomatic relations since 1984. In 2007, U.S. District Court Judge John Heyburn rejected an initial request by the plaintiffs to depose Benedict.
“They will not be able to depose the pope,” said Joseph Dellapenna, a professor at Villanova University Law School an author of “Suing Foreign Governments and their Corporations.”
“But lower level officials could very well be deposed and there could be subpoenas for documents as part of discovery,” he said.
McMurry last week filed a new court motion seeking to depose the pope; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, currently Vatican secretary of state but for years the pope’s deputy at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal William Levada, an American who currently heads the Congregation; and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican’s representative in the U.S.
On Tuesday, McMurry filed a memorandum in support of his demand to depose the pope based on documents publicly released last week detailing the role of the Congregation in shutting down a canonical trial for a Wisconsin priest who allegedly molested up to 200 deaf boys.
“These documents confirm that the CDF, under Pope Benedict XVI’s lead, discouraged prosecution of accused clergy and encouraged secrecy to protect the reputation of the church,” wrote McMurry, who represented 243 sex abuse victims that settled with the Archdiocese of Louisville in 2003 for $25.3 million.
Jeffrey Lena, the reclusive architect of the Vatican’s legal strategy in the U.S., is seeking to have the court rule on the Vatican’s other defenses before allowing the pope to be deposed, in hopes that the suit will be dismissed. Lena noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that when a defendant enjoys immunity, a court shouldn’t allow a “discovery fishing expedition on claims that are baseless or speculative.”
Lena also has argued that the pope’s deposition would violate the Vatican’s own laws on confidentiality, and would set a bad precedent for U.S. officials.
“If Pope Benedict XVI is ordered to testify by a U.S. court, foreign courts could feel empowered to order discovery against the president of the United States regarding, for example, such issues as CIA renditions,” Lena wrote in a 2008 brief.
McMurry is eager to find out what the Vatican knew and did, in particular, about Rev. Louis Miller, who was removed from the priesthood in 2004 by the late Pope John Paul II. Miller pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexually abusing one of the Kentucky defendants and other children in the 1970s. He is serving a 13-year prison sentence.
In a deposition transcription obtained by The Associated Press, Miller said he had offered to resign as early as 1962 to his then-Archbishop John Floersh, and that two subsequent archbishops knew of his crimes but continued to keep him as a priest, moving him from parish to parish.
In explaining why he wanted to resign, Miller said: “I just knew that the crime was so horrendous in my own mind that I didn’t feel that I was worthy to remain a priest.”
But he said Floersh was “compassionate,” kept him on, and told him, “You will always be a good priest.”
Crucial to the Kentucky lawsuit is the 1962 document “Crimen Sollicitationis” — Latin for “crimes of solicitation.” It describes how church authorities should deal procedurally with cases of abuse of children by priests, cases where sex is solicited in the confessional — a particularly heinous crime under canon law — and cases of homosexuality and bestiality.
McMurry argues that the document imposed the highest level of secrecy on such matters and reflected a Vatican policy barring bishops from reporting abuse to police.
Lena declined to comment Tuesday, but he has tried to shoot down McMurry’s theory by arguing that McMurry’s own expert witness, canon lawyer Thomas P. Doyle, has rejected theories that Crimen was proof of a cover-up.
The plaintiffs, Lena wrote in a 2008 motion, “fail to offer any facts in support of their theory that Crimen caused their injuries, nor indeed any facts that Crimen was ever in the possession of the Louisville archdiocese or used in Kentucky.”
McMurry insisted Tuesday that Crimen is a smoking gun.
“The fact is, this document and its predecessors make it an excommunicable offense to reveal any knowledge of allegations that a priest has sexually abused,” he said in an e-mail.
The existence of Crimen did not become publicly known until 2003, when a lawyer noticed a reference to the document while reading a 2001 letter written by Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. McMurry is seeking to subpoena Ratzinger’s letter, which instructed all bishops to send cases of clerical sex abuse to him and to keep the proceedings secret.
In 2008, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the go-ahead for Kentucky lawsuit to continue, ruling that an exception to sovereign immunity, which shields most foreign governments from U.S. lawsuits, should be applied.
The 6th Circuit eliminated most of the plaintiffs claims’ in its late 2008 ruling before returning it to district court.
Favoured: 0
it’s very sad.
Here you can find who played well in our game section. Watch the scores