Opus Dei Pope #2-Benedict XVI's apologies are HOLLOW for survivors of CSA Clergy Sexual Abuse

THE SHARK POPE


Those American Catholics who spend fortune buying Shrek DVDs and memorabilia are the same who spent millions on the GAY Pope Benedict XVI's visit to America and praise his few words of apologies to CSA Clergy Sexual Abuse victims. Unbelievable how ugly and effeminate Benedict XVI is that it is nicer to look at Shrek! (Thanks to Jon Stewart for pointing out the weakling wimp voice of the GAY Pope at the White House Lawn, I'll post the show soon as it is in YouTube)

So what that Benedict XVI apologized with a few words on 4 occasions of his American visit. Would it have been enough for those Enron crooks and Conrad Black or Martha Stewart to apologize -- and avoid jail time? The American Catholics are as stupid as elephants on Octopus Dei leash for buying into Opus Dei Zeffirelli advertising and lies of "the Infallible Pope"...the Shark Pope!

All roads lead to Rome because those Romans (more realistic and smarter than Americans) at La Sapienza University made Benedict XVI cancel his visit and speech. La Sapienza is right in the Vatican front yard and Benedict XVI didn't dare put his red shoes feet in their campus. But he could fly into America and wallow in papal self-glory receiving a criminal King Herod welcome as he spoke with his most effeminate voice and deceive Americans and suck their millions of American dollars that could have been better served by feeding tens of villages in Africa or the Katrina victims in New Orleans.

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Tom Doyle:

They are probably going to make a couple of minor changes in the process and maybe even add to the years before the SOL runs out. On the other hand his remarks about the bishops are typical....he claims some bishops told him they didn't know the score etc. His sources for any information about this nightmare have been the bishops.....the guys who caused it. That's like the blind leading the blind. One lies and the other swears to it. They don't get it. They won't get it. They can't get it. (Bold emphasis added)

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And Frater G contributed this copy and pasted from a political website:

The papal visit had one major institutional crisis to deal with—the long-running scandal over the sexual abuse of children by thousands of Roman Catholic priests. This dimension of the visit brought another display of media adulation and ideological reaction.

The press portrayed Benedict—who adamantly rebuffed sex abuse victims for years while serving John Paul II—as deeply moved by their suffering. In his initial remarks about the scandal, however, as he flew to the US on board his personal jet, the pope bemoaned only the damage done to the Church, not to the victims themselves. The US Catholic Church has paid out more than $2 billion in legal settlements to some 13,000 victims, including $660 million in the Los Angeles diocese alone, and several dioceses have been compelled to file for bankruptcy.

The pope's closed-door meeting with five sex-abuse victims was presented by Church officials and the media as a major breakthrough, although the five had been carefully vetted by the Boston archdiocese to ensure a relatively harmonious session.

A spokesman for the archdiocese said the five had "ongoing relationships" with archdiocesan officials, and had "stayed engaged with the office"—i.e., they had remained loyal to the hierarchy despite the Vatican's continued defense of Cardinal Bernard Law.

As Boston archbishop, Law protected priest-abusers and allowed them to transfer from parish to parish when exposed, rather than removing them from the priesthood.

Benedict even sought to blame the sex-abuse scandal on the excessive sexual permissiveness of modern culture, rather than the repressive practice of priestly celibacy which the Catholic Church, alone of major religious institutions, continues to enforce.

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Q&A: Abuse survivor unmoved by papal gesture

By Blair Anthony Robertson - brobertson@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, April 21, 2008
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B3


Pope Benedict XVI has addressed the Catholic Church's sweeping sex abuse scandal on four occasions since arriving in the United States on Tuesday.

He has prayed for healing on the matter in New York and, in a first for a pope, met in the nation's capital with victims of abuse from the diocese in Boston.

To many observers, the scandal, which has reportedly involved some 13,000 victims and has cost the church $2 billion in settlements and legal fees, is a defining issue of Pope Benedict's six-day visit.

One such observer is Paul Cultrera, the 58-year-old general manager of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. Known as much for his dry wit as his commitment to buying and selling organic foods, Cultrera startled many when he went public about having been abused by a Catholic priest as a teen in Boston.



In early 2007, Cultrera was the focus of a "Frontline" documentary made by his brother Joe. "The Hands of God" detailed his battle to come to terms with the sexual abuse he experienced in 1964 as a 15-year-old altar boy in Salem, Mass., outside Boston. He said the priest was Joseph Birmingham.

The acclaimed documentary can be seen online at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/ frontline/handofgod/view/.

Thirty years after the abuse, Cultrera sought to address the ordeal by placing ads in small-town newspapers where the priest had served. The ad asked a single question: "Do you remember Father Birmingham?" Cultrera received scores of letters. He eventually received a settlement from the Boston diocese.

As Pope Benedict addressed large audiences last week, Cultrera shared his views on the papal visit and the abuse scandal.

What was your reaction when you learned the pope had met with sex abuse victims from Boston, which was your boyhood diocese?

He met with them for 25 minutes. If you think that this has gone on for 10 centuries, he met with them for about a second per year. I actually know two of the people because they were victims of the same priest who abused me.

When I heard that he agreed to finally meet, I thought, well, give him credit. I know there was a lot of pressure for him to go to Boston.

Didn't your actions reveal Boston to be the epicenter? You were the one who pushed it.

I was one of them. The Boston Globe in 2001 really broke the story. I had already reached my out-of-court settlement seven years before. Eventually, the cardinal (Bernard Law) who was there was pushed out of Boston. But where did he end up? They gave him a plum job in Rome.

You were in Rome, you went to see Law, but you were told he was out to lunch. What would you have said?

I would just ask him to explain himself. It would be the same thing if I met with the pope. I would say, 'You've got a lot of explaining to do.' This is the same pope who used to be in charge of the Office of the Doctrine of Faith … the office in the Vatican that was in charge of keeping all this stuff quiet.

The pope is generally getting credit for reaching out and showing good will, but you don't see it that way?

I understand he had them come into a room and pray and then he gave them rosary beads. Frankly, if he asked me to pray, I'd walk out of the room.

Every interaction I've had with the Catholic hierarchy is they put on this, 'Oh, my God, I'm going to pray for you.' I don't want your prayers. Your prayers are what got me into this.

To me, it's like a battered woman going back and accepting gifts from her abusing husband. Why would you want to reconcile with these people?

Do you think the church hierarchy understands what happened to you and the others?

No. They are so blind and so arrogant and so detached. The way they get away with this is they make these pious statements and then people give them the benefit of the doubt. They are so used to getting away with it.

Obviously, I'm quite cynical about this issue. I've lived through it, and I've watched the way they operate. When I first reported it, the person I reported it to was the person who was in the next room while this stuff was happening to me.

How is it impacting you to this day?

It has left me with a lot of anger. On a day-to-day basis, I really don't think about it that much. For all those years I wasn't talking about it, it was eating away at me, and I was frightened someone was going to find out about it because it was this big secret in my life.

Once I realized that it wasn't something I did but something that happened to me, and was able to deal with it as an adult, at least the guilt, shame and embarrassment have gone away. The deeper thing was that it ate away at my ability to deeply trust people.

How do you express your spirituality these days?

I think I express it when I go out in my garden. I go out there and talk to the tomatoes. I don't go to church.

Is the reaction to the movie continuing to resonate?

Yes, just yesterday, I just got an e-mail from someone who saw it. I get e-mails on a regular basis. When Joe said he was going to make the film, I thought, OK, maybe a thousand people would see it. When PBS picked it, all of a sudden, 3 million people saw it. I hope 17 million people see it because I think it's a story that needs to be told.

Comments

imaami at 7:05 AM PST Monday, April 21, 2008 said:

I don't believe the Pope

The Pope knew about the abuses long before he became the Pope and one of his right hand men has even been involved in the cover ups. These men steal the inocents of children as well as their future spiritual lives. I will never go into a cathlic church again. The priest have been hurting children for years and using the church for protection and a feeding ground for their sick games. If there is a God he left the cathlic church years ago when the devil moved in protecting the preditors from the victims.

russbianchi at 7:59 AM PST Monday, April 21, 2008 said:

"Unmoved" By Papal Gestures

As a postive first step, Benedict XVIth's comments remain HOLLOW. Within 24 hours of the Pope saying he was "deeply ashamed", known cardinals & bishops, who have engaged in DECADES of pedophile enabling, obstruction of justice, racketeering, embezzlements, perjury, etc., were absolving themselves as the primary problem, with zero personal accountability to themselves. www.bishop-accountability.org/abusetracker for daily verified coverage on why no laity should be donating any monies until these guilty miters/red hats are severely punished for their crimes, costing laity to date at least $2.8 Billion Dollars in the USA, with no end, or correction, in sight. Perpetrators & Enablers in massive crime sprees cannot be part of the solution. Fellow Laity, STOP DONATING & FORCE ROME'S HAND TO REMOVE THE LIKES OF ROGER MAHONY & MANY OTHER EVIL OFFICE HOLDERS.


Daily vetted global coverage of the ongoing criminal ENABLING & COVER UP costing laity, who pay 100% of the bills in the Roman Catholic Church, may be found at: www.bishop-accountability.org/abuse tracker There is but one solution to totally unaccountable multi-decade enablers like Weigland, Walsh, Mahony, Curry, Brown, Brom, Barnes, Steinbock, Egan, George, Rivera, Pilla, Law, O'Malley, Chaput, etc, who are still harboring child molesters in active ministries, while hush moneying, pensioning, annuitying hundreds more in Mexico, Asia, Ireland, the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the UK, EU, Eastern Europe, India & elsewhere...PAY OR DONAtE no monies TO ANY CAUSE OR COLLECTION in the Church until these criminal co-conspirators & enablers are GONE! Bernie Law in Boston was only removed after revenue dropped by over 75% two years in a row, & have never recovered. Rome pretends to get little, until the money stops!! The laity controls the purse strings!

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The Pope's Visit: Shame or Disgrace?

By Stephen Pizzo
OpEd News
April 21, 2008

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__080421_the_pope_s_visit_3a_sh.htm

Before I unload, let me set some markers down:

- I was raised Catholic.
- I went to Catholic schools.
- But no, I was not molested by a priest.
(In the interest of full disclosure it is only fair to note that I was not an attractive child.)

I mention all that only to nix charges that I am anti-Catholic. To be so I would have to be anti-my-parents and entire family. And I am not "bitter" because I was molested by some guy in a black dress. (Though I was a regular customer of Sister Superior's yardstick.)

Now, onto the meat of the matter.

We are such suckers for pomp and circumstance, and we got a TV full of the stuff last week as the Pope dropped by for a holy howdy-do. The cable channels, which can fixate on subjects large and small like nothing before, fixated on the man in the flowing gold and white robes and red slippers.

If there ever is a second-coming it would be tough to cover it more than CNN and MSNBC covered the Pope's visit. For four days there was no war in Iraq, the Taliban stopped winning in Afghanistan and the primarily elections called a time-out --or at least one would have thought so trying to find real news among the blanket coverage of all things Pope.

I don't mean to be a bad host. I just think the news coverage was decidedly one dimensional. Here's what CNN and MSNBC left out of their 100 hours of coverage and commentary:

- Why the Pope came:

Historically being Pope really did mean never having to say you're sorry. No longer. The Pope's visit was entirely an apology tour. He came to apologize for the priest abuse scandal. And he did so at every opportunity. He was soooooo sorry. Now.

But wait, the scandal has been raging for well over 15 years. Why now? The Church's initial response to the crisis was a combination of denial and Cheney-esk hide the evidence. (Even if that meant hiding the perps, which the Church regularly did.)

During those years (1981–2005) the current Pope, Benedict, headed the Vatican's ancient and powerful "Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith." That's the new name for the office. The Church had to change the name for marketing reasons. It used be called "The Holy Office of the Inquisition." But, apparently, the office was involved in some unpleasantness 800 years ago -- something about water-boarding, drawing and quartering, etc.

While the re-named office had long ago ended its "kinetic" operations against suspected heretics, it remains the Church's version of the NSA/CIA. If something is amiss in the Holy Force, Ratzinger knew about it and was part of the Church's response -- which initially was to vilify and stonewall victims.

That strategy backfired and backfired badly on the Church. I tried to find the total amount the Church has had to pay out to American victims of sexual abuse, but apparently no one has compiled a total. Maybe that's because it's too early still. The total must be approaching $2 billion dollars and cases continue to be filed. Almost weekly I read of an new multi-million payout.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Children accused more than 4,000 priests of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002, according to a draft survey for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops...The survey, to be released February 27, found that children made more than 11,000 allegations of sexual abuse by priests. The 4,450 accused priests represent about 4 percent of the 110,000 priests who served during the 52 years covered by the study.

That's why the Pope decided he just had to see Washington and New York in April.

That, and the fact that, thanks to the stain on the clergy caused by all this kid-diddling, the Church was having trouble attracting new priests. That threatened to compound the Church's financial losses as priests are the Vatican's representatives at the point of sale. What good is it, for example, to have a classy department store but no check out clerks. Priests man the checkout booths and, collect the money. And we're not talking chump change. A recent study concluded that the Vatican and it's American dioceses collect at least $8 billion from the faithful in their pews each year.

That's why the Pope was here. He'd tried everything else to staunch the hemorrhage of funds and clergy and failed. He was left with only one remaining option... apologize and plead for "healing."

"Although it counts the number of children who have been abused, the number of priests who have abused children, the total financial cost to the church, it does not chronicle the number of bishops who knowingly re-assigned priests who had abused children," said Steve Krueger.

"Without that kind of investigation, there can be no accountability," Krueger said. The editor of the National Catholic Reporter agreed the church scandal is not just about sex. "This has long ceased to be just a scandal about sex abuse. It's a scandal about abuse of power and trust, and a breech of faith with people," said Tom Roberts. (CNN)

Here's one more thing no one in the media seemed to want to explore on this issue. America is unique in that we have a vital -- and often much maligned -- plaintiff's bar. They are the only reason we even learned that there was priest sexual abuse going on. These class-action pit bull lawyers moved right on from disemboweling tobacco companies to disemboweling the Church.

Nowhere in the rest of the world does this kind of independent judicial "punisher" exist ... especially in under-developed -- largely Catholic nations, like Mexico and much of Latin America.

Which raises an interesting question -- at least one would think it's an interesting question: are we to believe that sexual abuse by priests is solely and American phenomena?

No way. I suspect that it's been, and remains, rampant in the under-developed world. But those countries don't have our kind of laws or our kind of lawyers. Which is why you haven't, and won't, be seeing the Pope on an apology tour down there.

(A musing: Interestingly, the Church is having trouble keeping the Hispanic parishioners in Latin America from jumping ship to growing evangelical movement throughout the region. Maybe parents down there are something less than enthusiastic to put their kids into the hands of Father Way Too Friendly.)


Human Rights:
Another theme the Pope trotted out during his visit was the importance of promoting human rights around the world.

"The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and increasing security."

And, of course, everyone applauded like trained seals. I mean, who could be against promoting human rights?

Well, the Pope for one. It seems you get pass these days if your religion's doctrines demand fewer human rights. (Think of religious doctrine as the religious equivalent of presidential signing statements that allows religions a kind of cafeteria human rights policy. They're four square for human rights, until you get down to specific human rights.)

Let's examine which human rights the Pope and clergy are allowed to deny followers:

- The right of women to control their own reproductive functions.
- The right of women to hold any ruling posts within the Church.
- The right of poor families to the knowledge or tools needed to keep their family's size within sustainable limits. (This is especially troubling now that the earth has entered a period of food scarcity.)
- The right of priests to have loving life partners who are not made out of cold marble.
- The right of nuns to marry. (In my day nuns wore wedding rings because they were "married to Christ." How creepy is that?)
- The right to use condoms, not just to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but to protect against AIDS, even on continents like Africa where AIDs has already nearly wiped out one entire generation and is working on the next.
- The right to live as you were born, especially if that means you were born gay.

One would think that at least one of those "journalists" gushing all over the Pope during his visit might just have asked him a few probing questions about all that. And asked him how he jives his stated support for human rights with his Church's own rules against some of mankind's most fundamental human rights, like controlling how many kids they have.

I have to wonder if a few thousand poor Catholic families in Africa who, thanks to the Church's rules against artificial birth control, had unwanted children, children that suffered or even died of starvation, sued the Church and won. I wonder if that's what it would take to spur the Pope to change the rules against birth control and, of course, spark a Papal apology tour of Africa.

I'm betting it would.

Okay, I won't beat that horse any further. You get the point. The very week Texas officials were rescuing 400 kids from a Mormon cult that allows grown men to have their way with underage girls, the Pope got a total pass on his Church's own sins against the rights of humans.

But, clearly, if you're the Pope you get a pass for discriminating against women and running a well-oiled pedophile protection racket for decades. You can come to America and get royal treatment from politicians and the press.

Hell, no one less than the President of the United States himself picked him up at the airport!

Then again, why should that surprise me. After all, the George W. Bush and Benedict have a lot in common. They both prefer to keep the wings of the human spirit well trimmed.

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Point of Convergence: Was the Pope's Spotlight on the Catholic Church's Sex Abuse Scandal an Act of Contrition or Damage Control?

By Mario A
Politics
April 21, 2008

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977328620&grpId=3659174697241980&nav=Groupspace

With Pope Benedict XVI ending his visit to the U.S., the biggest question will be whether his very public efforts to address the Catholic priest sex scandal that has rocked the Church for the past six years have helped begin the healing process among disillusion faithful; faithful who felt betrayed by the way the Church initially covered it up, then vehemently denied it, then quickly tried to quell the controversy by paying off the alleged victims.

At this point, the scandal has exposed more than 5,000 abusive priests and revealed more than 13,000 victims. It has caused the Church more than $2 billion in litigation and severely bruised the image of the institution. In many neighborhoods, parishioners are still skeptical of priests who pat a young boy on the head or make physical contact with children in any way.



Blowing smoke?


Shooting the Messenger

The biggest revelation of the scandal was not the number of priests who were full-blown sexual predators in every sense of the world. It was, rather, the rampant corruption within the institution of the Catholic Church in its handling of these guilty priests. Instead of disciplining them and turning them over to the authorities, it shuffled them off to other, unsuspecting parishes where they were able to resume their pedophilic behavior.

In fact, it's hard to point to any instant in recent history when the Church itself has identified and punished clergy discovered to be abusing their young victims. The behavior of such priests only come to light when the victims themselves point them out and the law steps in, supplanting the Church's "internal review process." Even then, the Church rarely - if ever - accepts guilt until the victims win their cases in court.

Much was made in the media about the fact that, during his visit to the U.S., Pope Benedict met privately with a number of victims to offer them "encouragement and hope." Yet, interestingly enough, only a few of the victims considered their meeting a positive experience; the others were disappointed. Among those who were not invited, many remained critical of the Pope's actions, demanding that the Pope do more than express sorrow and regret: He must end the Church's pervasive practice of protecting its guilty priests.

But will he? The answer may lie in the Pope's own words to reporters: "It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing, to give love of God to these children," he said.

A careful review of the statement reveals that Pope Benedict is actually placing all the blame on the individual priests themselves. He does not fault the institution that, through its policy of shifting guilty priests to other parishes, encourages and protects them - and worse, places potentially more unsuspecting victims at risk. As far as Pope Benedict is concerned, it appears to be business as usual for the Catholic Church.

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Abuse Victims Dubious
Pope's Apology Called 'Empty'

By Thomas Caywood
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
April 20, 2008

http://www.telegram.com/article/20080420/NEWS/804200436/1116

WORCESTER— Some local clergy abuse victims and Catholic activists yesterday dismissed Pope Benedict XVI's historic apology for the priest abuse scandal, and his private meeting Thursday with a group of victims from Boston, as empty gestures.

"This is just, as far as I'm concerned, a dog and pony show," said clergy abuse victim David Lewcon of Uxbridge. "It's all deceptive. Too little too late. Staged."

Mr. Lewcon successfully sued the Diocese of Worcester over abuse he suffered at the hands of convicted child molester Thomas H. Teczar, who has been stripped of his priestly duties and jailed in Texas.

"This has brought some of us together. I've heard from more victims in the last week or so than I have for years. You get those e-mails that say, 'How are you handling this?' " Mr. Lewcon said. "I'll be very happy when the pope goes home and starts cleaning his own house."

Another Uxbridge victim of Mr. Teczar, George "Skip" Shea, said he was encouraged to hear the pope expressing regret over clergy abuse of children, but that he's holding out for deeds to back up the words.

"Will they settle lawsuits for a decent rate? Will they stop fighting efforts to eliminate the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse of children? Will they support those efforts? Those are the types of steps I want to see," Mr. Shea said.

"My hope is that I'll see that action," he added, "but my fear is that he'll get on the plane, and people will say, 'OK, it's over now.' "

The pope met with five victims for about 25 minutes Thursday afternoon in Washington, D.C. The meeting was kept secret until it was over.

Local victims and clergy abuse victim advocates said the participants in the secret meeting were picked by Boston Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, and that no victims from Central Massachusetts were asked to participate.

"We're always hopeful that every time there's additional recognition of the harm that's been done that, hopefully, it will help move people toward healing," said Raymond L. Delisle, a spokesman for the Diocese of Worcester.

Representatives of local Catholic lay groups critical of the church's handling of pedophile priests said they don't share the diocese's sense of hope.

"The model for dealing with the abuse crisis will not really change," said Daniel Dick, a spokesman for Worcester Voice of the Faithful. "Bishops will continue to do as they please. The laity — the victims, in particular — have no way of being confident the system will change as to how victims are treated."

Worcester Voice founder Mary Jean was equally skeptical that the pope's apology would be a catalyst for change and healing among local victims — and those estranged from the Roman Catholic Church by the scandal.

"His words continue to ring empty when looked at from the perspective of the Worcester Diocese's actions against those who were victims," said Ms. Jean, a Leominster resident.

Mr. Lewcon, who now works with fellow clergy abuse victims, said that while people are expressing sorrow for the abuse and the way it was handled by the Vatican, church lawyers are aggressively fighting victims in court and depositions.

"When a clergy abuse victim comes forward, they don't even know what they're in for. They have what I call 'pit bull, hired-gun attorneys,' and they just victimize you again," he said.

Mr. Dick of the local chapter of the Voice of the Faithful said some victims he has spoken to welcomed the pope's apology.

"That's a great step forward," he said. "But people here are saying that nothing is going to change."

Mr. Delisle, the diocesan spokesman, said the diocese understands the pain it has caused victims, and that some simply aren't ready, and may never be ready, to return to the church.

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14,000 Felonies, Rapes by 4500 Priests, the Kingpin Comes to America, and US Media Write What Vatican Pr Tells Them: Shameful Media Manipulation

By Kay Ebeling
City of Angels
April 13, 2008

http://cityofangels4.blogspot.com/2008/04/14000-felonies-rapes-by-4500-priests.html

If you are not specifically Googling “pope” and especially “pope sex abuse” this week, you probably won’t hear or read much about the thousands of felonies committed by pedophiles and other sexual predators operating as priests in the American Catholic Church the last 50 years. In its “complete coverage” of the papal press event, the New York Times does have an article about Catholic school enrollment being half what it was in the 1950s but you have to read between the lines to say, Thank you God that Catholic parents are getting their children out of danger.

Don’t expect mainstream media to do much more than respond to press releases and for that I’m grateful to VOTF and SNAP. In fact the stream of demands from advocates in the past week may have caused the pontiff to change his upcoming speeches to at least acknowledge the crimes, crimes like these:

Sodomy with children. Men grabbed altar boys and forced oral sex on them before going out to serve Mass. Regularly. Altar boy rape before Mass shows up over and over again in the documents that have come out so far. In one LA coastal town, the church had a carnival every Saturday plus Catechism class, and a network of pedophile priests picked children up from the carnival rides and forced them into nearby rooms to have sex, on church property, when the children were supposed to be learning church doctrine. Instead the children were developing their gag response. Children sexualized before age 10 while staring at the stained glass and statues of saints to take their minds off the horror.

On Saturday Yahoo reported: “Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's second-in-command, said the church had already 'responded with great dignity' to the situation, and added that the ‘clamour created in the US around this scandal is really unbearable.'" On Sunday morning, Reuters quoted Fox News saying Bertone seems to have changed his tone: "The pope will talk about it -- talk about it in a specific way," (in an upcoming interview on Fox) said Cardinal Bertone.

But when you go to the actual front pages of mainstream press, as usual, thousands of felonies aided and abetted in the Catholic Church are barely mentioned, and only then as an upsetting dollar figure. The New York Times refers to the thousands of felonies in its Page One Sunday piece as “the sex-abuse scandals that racked the church and are now costing it millions (sic) of dollars in legal fees and settlements with victims.”

That's a factual error in the New York Times, what was once the “official record.”

The Times itself reported $1.6 billion dollars last week, today AP says it is $2 billion the church has paid out in settlements. No one knows how much more the Vatican has paid out to PR consultants and the legions of law firms attached to each case.

And once again it’s all about money.

No one mentions the hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives were damaged by predator priests. Even the Times’ use of the word “scandal” implies an element of gossip, like something bad happened and then the media turned it into something worse.

Mainstream media reporters today do little more than read press releases and make a few phone calls for quotes to file their stories. They are understaffed in corporate owned news organizations. If you want real reporting you have to turn to places like City of Angels Blog, rapidly becoming City of Angels Network (CAN) with webasting of videos.

Here is a place to put comments at the New York Times, because the religion reporter apparently is submitting questions to the Pope’s office and getting them “answered”

Copy and paste into blogger and go down to comments:

http://thepope.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/laurie-goodstein-answers-questions-about-the-pope/#comment-414

Instead of acknowledging the thousands of felonies and crime victims in the United States, the Associated Press article today has this quote:

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, notes that "religion is deeply rooted in American life despite the separation of church and state."

Reuters reports the Pope brings a message of peace. However, security is so tight that a religious sikh leader could not attend any papal event because he would have to remove his ceremonial sword.

Detroit Free Press: Hundreds flocking to see the Pope because “they don’t know much about the pope.” You will hear that message repeated throughout the coming week: "Americans do not know much about this pope" and then biographical information with a lot of stock footage.

In the New York Times "Complete Coverage" is the article about closing schools and declining membership in parishes, but it never mentions the thousands of felonies.

Oh, and the pope will be reaching out to other religions in his “first visit to an American synagogue by a pope.” That's another sound byte you will hear over and over again, his first visit to an American synagogue, about the same time A Matter Of Truth will be holding its vigil in New York City next Friday night.

When I read a report out of Arkansas that they were doing bingo and car wash to raise cash to go see the pope, I had to stop searching.

This made me laugh out loud, not for reasons you’d think, quoted several places from a press release:

“The Church has changed its rules so that it is easier to dismiss priests whenever there is a credible claim of abuse, according to Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Walsh could not say how many priests were removed - many had died or retired by the time the report came out.

“But she said the Pope would address the victims' suffering. 'It's very close to Holy Father's heart. He is horrified by this crime,' Walsh said.

I'm not laughing because you know it’s not true, that's old news.

I'm laughing because I knew someone named Mary Walsh in college. Hmm, the Mary Walsh I knew was a journalism grad and hmm, a lesbian, could she have gone on to become a nun?

Does anyone know if Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the US conference of bishops, is a lesbian who went to The University of Texas at Austin in the 1970s?

These were felonies committed by 4500 known pedophile priests (and counting)

More than 4.5 thousand priests who were pedophiles committed 14 thousand felonies in the form of child rape, and that is only the number the church has acknowledged so far, through settlement of civil lawsuits. Statistics show with 14 thousand admitted pedophile acts there are most likely ten times that number of crimes committed -- while the Catholic Church aided and abetted the crimes.

The motive is not yet clear, some say the coverup and protection of pedophiles was to “save face” and “avoid scandal” but since face is lost and the scandal has not been avoided, why is the Catholic Church still spending millions on defense attorneys and PR consultants?

To manipulate the media and justice system and keep the truth from coming out about the Sex Crimes in the Catholic Church.

MEANWHILE IS IT A COINCIDENCE?

Same date and time as the Pope’s Mass in Washington on April 17 is a significant hearing on the status of the women and children taken in the West Texas raid on the fundamentalist Mormons.

So anybody who Googles pedophile clergy that day will come up with stories about the FLDS cult in West Texas:

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Children removed from a polygamous sect's Texas ranch will remain in facilities here until a scheduled April 17 hearing on their status, officials said Friday.

(Salt Lake Tribune 4.11.08)

Amazing public relations at a very behind the scenes level, using that bottomless briefcase of cash.

Meanwhile Take Back The Churches

Onward and more to come. . .

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Vows of Silence, Jason Berry's New Film, Now Available on DVD

Voice from the Desert
April 12, 2008

http://reform-network.net/?p=1573

Jason Berry's new film Vows of Silence, about Legionaries of Christ founder Father Marcial Maciel, who won the favor of Pope John Paul II despite years of pedophilia accusations, is now available for purchase on DVD.

Click here to visit the film's website and purchase the DVD.

The film summary below is from the film's website, which I recommend that you visit.

Following the film summary, is an article from the Marquette University Tribune, 4.10.2008., which was brought to my attention by SNAP Midwest Director Peter Isely.

Thanks, Peter.

* * *

Vows of Silence is an anatomy of the Vatican justice system, following the haunting saga of Father Marcial Maciel, who won the favor of Pope John Paul II despite years of pedophilia accusations. The greatest fundraiser of the modern church, Maciel founded the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order with a $650 million budget and history of controversial tactics.The film tracks 1998 abuse charges against Maciel filed with Cardinal Ratzinger. The Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, tries to abort the case. In 2004, with Pope John Paul II dying, Ratzinger takes action.

The film follows a secret investigator as witnesses testify about Maciel's sexual abuse, psychological tyranny, and the secret vows he imposed to secure Legionaries' silence.

With location shoots in Rome, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Milwaukee and New Orleans, the film tracks Maciel's rise from war-torn Mexico, gaining the support of the Spanish dictator, Franco, and cementing ties with Vatican officials. A former Vatican official breaks his silence in an interview criticizing the Legion's cult-like atmosphere. As the evidence mounts, Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict XVI, must decide the price of justice.