Vatican makes clear bishops must report sex abuse

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican responded Monday to allegations that it had concealed years of clerical sex abuse by making it clear for the first time that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report such crimes to police if required by law. Victims have charged that the Catholic Church created what amounted to a conspiracy to cover up abuse by keeping allegations of abuse secret and not reporting them to civil authorities.

.............

"The statement confirms what has been long known, that where the civil state creates an obligation to report, bishops like anyone else are required to examine the law and determine what they have to do to obey it," Lena told the AP.

Read the entire article. news.yahoo.com...

Apparently the way I read this, is the church still never says it is wrong to molest little boys. You just have to tell the police when you do it for it to follow Vatican rules.

Reminds me of the southpark episode where they're trying to stamp out kiddy fiddling, but all the priests are saying "you mean stop getting caught"

The whole church needs to be shaken upside down, and all the dirty little nonces weeded out and criminally charged.

I think the most telling part of that statement quoted in the OP is:

"If required by law"

"If"

Not regardless of required, not any means to protect children that have been harmed.

Yeah, the if required by law. Too funny. He didn't say it was wrong. Just, if it was, they had to report it.

reply to post by webpirate


what a dissappointment!!!!! How are the followers of the vatican supposed to feel they are following a POSITIVE ENERGY FORCE WHEN THIS TYPE OF FKERY GOES ON. All this does is make it hard for many who want to go to church and learn the proper things to take the church serious. HOW DONT THEY KNOW THESE ACTIVITIES SPAWN EVIL WITHIN?????

This behavior is equvilent to the ignorance demonstrated within Islam with the radical self killers who are BRAINWASHED BY EVIL ONES WHO WONT MARTER THEMSELVES BUT WILL AGAIN!!!TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE YOUTH AND DECIEVE THEM INTO DOING EVIL WORKS.

The demon beast NATAS***has been busy impurifying these many religions one can see and its sad for WERE ARE THE PEOPLE TO LOOK FOR SUPPORT FROM ABOVE WITH SO MUCH CONFUSION AND IGNORANCE.....NO GOD servent should ever touch another sexually especially if thats was the oath they took and they REALLY THINK the HEAVEN GATES WILL OPEN FOR THEM LMAO....OK how do they explain it on the day of judgment for their souls, HOW.... LIKE, (Oh yea GOD I was doing good deeds spreading your light but when I needed some darkness I just couldnt help it) EVIL AT ITS BEST AND THOSE WHO DID THESE EVIL DEEDS SMMFH @ YOU, just as a normal HUMAN wont sit back and look away knowing some child is being sexually hurt neither will a light bound soul,so?????????????? TO THOSE WHO KNEW AND SAID NOTHING MIND AS WELL TAKE A DIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edit on 4/12/10 by Ophiuchus 13]

OMG the catholic church is so evil!!!

the catholic church does not exist in isolation, it never has. if the abuse was happening, the dogs in the street knew it was happening and no-one did a thing. if the bishops knew, especially in an official capacity, the local police knew, there's no doubt in my mind.

the fact is, in most of the communities in which this happened, the catholic church was the highest moral authority.

the catholic church didn't , probably still doesn't, see child abuse as being any worse than the breaking of vows of chastity, homosexuality or extra marital affairs, they're all in the same sphere of sexual sin. they don't have to say that sex with children is wrong because they say "sex outside marriage is wrong".

the "problem" is not -the catholic church- and it isn't -evil priests-, the problem is with the attitude that sexuality is something which should be routinely repressed.

[edit on 12/4/10 by pieman]

Deny Ignorance.

Well,I had thought of starting a thread on this subject,but I will just respond here instead.

Jason Berry has written a book titled "Vows of Silence"about sexual abuse within one order of the Catholic church which goes by the name of the Legion of Christ. It's founder was a priest named Marciel Macielwho passed away in 2008.

A quote from Wikipedia.

Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado (March 10, 1920 – January 30, 2008) was a Mexican-born Roman Catholic priest who founded the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi movement. From 1956 to the end of his life he was engulfed in scandals after accusations of a lifetime of financial and sexual misconduct and drug abuse.

In 2006 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, removed Maciel from active ministry, inviting him to spend the rest of his days in prayer and penance.

The one thing I find interesting is this particular order through it's lay movement called Regnum Christi has established a number of schools of learning in numerous countries, only for boys.

It operates centers of education (minor seminaries, seminaries, schools and/or universities) in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, the United States, and the Philippines.

They also numerous youth programs mostly directed toward young boys.

I find it interesting that a Catholic organization embroiled in controversy about allegations of pedophile sexual abuse would name a boys ONLY youth program,Conquest.

Recognizing the obstacles and false ideals that youth encounter in today's culture, Conquest empowers boys to face and overcome these difficulties rather than ignore and succumb to them. Conquest organizes exciting adventures and challenges; through these experiences boys learn that human and spiritual development can go hand-in-hand with many of their favorite activities.

I will let you follow the links I provided for a more in depth look into this organization of the Catholic church.

A short video from a newscast.



If you have read this post and have gotten this far,research this educational term I found on their 'Conquest" web site,Pedagogy.

The word comes from the Greek in which (paidos) means "child" and (ágō) means "lead"; so it literally means "to lead the child". In Ancient Greece, a slave supervised the instruction of his master’s son (girls were not publicly taught). This involved taking him to school or a gym , looking after him and carrying his equipment.

[edit on 12-4-2010 by Oneolddude]

[edit on 12-4-2010 by Oneolddude]

reply to post by pieman


Clearly the "problem" certainly for the multitudes of victims IS the catholic priests and that seemingly that the catholic church is going out of its way to hide the abuse. To the highest levels they have attempted to cover-up for peadophile priests and relocate them.

Originally posted by pieman
if the abuse was happening, the dogs in the street knew it was happening and no-one did a thing.

Disturbing you can treat a subject like this so flippantly, may I ask how you presume the dogs knew?

Originally posted by pieman
the "problem" is not -the catholic church- and it isn't -evil priests-, the problem is with the attitude that sexuality is something which should be routinely repressed.

Which is an attitude inherent within the catholic church and in this case, it is everything to do with the catholic church.

Also - and I may be taking this in the wrong way, would you care to elaborate further on what you mean specifically by "the attitude that sexuality is something which should be routinely repressed."

Originally posted by jokei
Disturbing you can treat a subject like this so flippantly, may I ask how you presume the dogs knew?

it's an expression, it means that the abuse was common knowledge.

i can't talk about every country with certainty but in the case of the irish sex abuse scandals, often, the police were informed about it and did nothing and in a few cases it's been shown that the government at the time were informed about it and did nothing. the press didn't cover abuse stories and the wider communities often ostracized the victims.

the church is a handy scapegoat for that generation to vent the shame they feel for the part they played.

would you care to elaborate further on what you mean specifically by "the attitude that sexuality is something which should be routinely repressed."

we live in a society that seems to think consensual loving sex between a married couple is more shameful and taboo than intense violence and murder!! I'm not even talking about TV or movies, most people would feel far more comfortable punching a stranger in the middle street than they would about having a quicky.

if you think about exactly how warped that is, how backwards we seem to have things, of coarse there are tons of messed up people.

the structure of the catholic church distilled the problem, but the problem isn't the church, the problem is the messed up attitude to sex.

if this attitude didn't exist at every level of society, the abuse could never have happened and the hidden abuse that takes place today is allowed to continue because of these attitudes.

[edit on 13/4/10 by pieman]

OK, they are reporting sexual abuse.


Well, ha ha ha, are they reporting mind abuse?

Churches have brainwashed kids forever - END IT NOW!

i wonder if they will report the incidents on text forms or by video taped depositions?

does the vatican want to hear all the selacious incidents, compile & remaster a tape or video, for future reference?

or for some type of perverted vouyerism...
these are the 'synagog of satan'...railed on in scripture,
the 'wolves in sheeps clothing'

the vatican seems to want to treat them as rascals instead of predators