The Vatican is not a Country as other European Countries. It’s an artificial State created by Mussolini in 1929. It now wants power in European Union

The Vatican is not a Country as other European Countries. It’s an artificial State created by Mussolini in 1929. With its wealth, its diplomatic service, its influence on political parties, its willingness to exploit its treaties and privileges, the Vatican seems determined to consolidate its position in the corridors of power of the European Union. Hence, the visit of the Pope to England is one of the first step to this consolidation with the EU.

The Vatican is an artificial State created by the fascist dictator Mussolini on the 11th of February 1929 and that consolidated its power with a Concordat with Hitler, subsequently signing Concordats with many other Countries and adversely affecting the lives of millions of people wherever the influence of the Vatican is strong enough to push their sectarian agenda, which is not even shared by lay catholics or other christian denominations.


Why it is important to join the “Protest the Pope” Campaign in this large-scale march against the State Visit of Pope Ratzinger in the UK.

The protest march will assemble at 1pm at Hyde Park Corner (full details will be made available nearer the time). It will then proceed through central London and arrive in the vicinity of the Parliament (details currently being discussed with New Scotland Yard).



Please put this date in your diary and make every effort to be there.

Spread the news of this event as far as you can. Local groups might consider getting a coach party to come and if you’re coming from outside London and could offer a lift to someone in your area, please let us know and we’ll put you in touch.


The final Rally will be held in the proximity of the Parliament to highlight our opposition to the State Visit as opposed to a Pastoral Visit like the one of the previous Pope.

As a Head of State, Joseph Ratzinger will be allowed to address the Parliament.

In his role as a religious leader, it is highly likely that the Pope will abuse this occasion to promote his harsh intolerant views, criticising our democratically agreed legislation, as with his attack to British Equality Laws when this visit was announced.

With its wealth, its diplomatic service, its influence on political parties, its willingness to exploit its treaties and privileges, the Vatican seems determined to consolidate its position in the corridors of power of the European Union.

The EU is getting more important by the day. It’s no longer just about markets and trade and tariffs. Its significance is increasing in many other areas: HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDICAL RESEARCH, FAMILY LAW, EDUCATION.

With privileged access to the very top levels of the EU, the Vatican is able to influence legislation at the early stages, before any proposal reaches public consultation.


Education Policies will be affected with directives that entrench subsidies for Catholic Schools and Universities.


When the EU begins to influence Research Policy, the Vatican will use its influence for funding to be cut off for genetic research. And when it comes to Family Law, the Vatican will promote its pernicious policies on gays and on abortion.


Not to mention the ban on condoms for family planning and AIDS protection, especially as the Vatican urges the cutting of funding by Western governments to Developing Countries when “abstinence” programmes aren’t prioritised over condom education and distribution, so causing 1.5 million deaths a year, with 12 million orphans.

The Vatican is not a Country as the other European Countries. It’s an artificial State created by the fascist dictator Mussolini on the 11th of February 1929 and that consolidated its power with a Concordat with Hitler, subsequently signing Concordats with many other Countries and adversely affecting the lives of millions of people wherever the influence of the Vatican is strong enough to push their sectarian agenda, which is not even shared by lay catholics or other christian denominations.

We protest against honouring the Head of the Vatican with a State Visit and therefore we will march towards the British Parliament in support to our Democracy, rejecting strongly the undemocratic interference of the Vatican.

1pm – Assembly at Hyde Park Corner

2pm – 3pm – March: through central London (details currently being discussed with New Scotland Yard)

3pm – Rally at the arrival point, in the proximity of the Parliament (details currently being discussed with New Scotland Yard)

See the Facebook event for more information on groups joining the march and to tell us you’re coming!

Local humanist and secularist groups:


* http://www.humanism.org.uk/meet-up/groups

* http://www.secularism.org.uk/join-an-affiliated-group.html



Protest the Pope at Pride London

Oregon lawsuit against Benedict XVI will proceed: Dismissal of Kentucky case has no bearing on Oregon case

UNITED STATES
Anderson Advocates Blog

http://andersonadvocatesblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/dismissal-of-kentucky-case-has-no.html

The fact that attorney William McMurry decided to dismiss claims against the Vatican -- thereby abandoning the lawsuit he filed six years ago on behalf of plaintiffs in Kentucky – has no bearing on our Oregon case against the Vatican. Our courageous client is determined to move forward to expose the Vatican’s role in concealing child sex abuse and we have the resolve and the resources to support that mission.

One reason McMurry cited for dismissing the claims is that he was unable to find new victims who have not yet settled with the Church. We have not found that to be true. In fact, we receive numerous calls on a daily basis from survivors across the country and throughout the world. There are likely thousands of survivors of clergy sex abuse who have yet to break their silence. As always, we encourage survivors to come forward and seek justice. In the meantime, in honor of all survivors, we promise to push forward with our case against the Vatican and face any challenge.

Statements made by Jeffrey Lena, the attorney representing the Vatican, are very misleading. Lena claims that this recent development somehow confirms that there has never been a Holy See policy requiring concealment of child sex abuse. How could that possibly be confirmed or denied if the Kentucky case never went to discovery, no Vatican officials were deposed, and no documents were turned over?

We are more determined than ever to prove that Church officials did in fact conceal abuse, and thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling that allows our Oregon case to proceed, we can now move forward into the crucial phase of discovery. We are optimistic about the future and determined to see our case through.

Stop tithing to the Church --- give your money to help the poor whom they oppress -- here's how

And and on the other hand, we have the thuggish dictator, the capo di tutti, getting in his way. We have Joey Rats, the Holy (God)father who extends his ringed hand to kiss, not in peace, but in princely petulance, as he sacrifices the lives of all who might be spared the torments of SOA-trained butchers, for the greater good of upholding the foolish doctrine of his misogynistic Magisterium on the matter of women's ordination.

It's tricky, the question of parish giving. If people of conscience stop giving to parishes run by men of conscience, parishes with conscience won't survive. Therein lies the rub. That's what the head of the Syndicate wants. The capo di tutti capi wants parishes like mine to fold.

Joey Rats wants to ice feminists, dissenters, and homosexuals. He wants to put two in the back of the head of Social Justice do-gooders and progressives. And he wants "the faithful" to pay for these hits.


Full article


Church Collection: Should Conscientious Catholics Stop Giving?

Michele Somerville

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-somerville/church-collection-should_b_674610.html

My friend Louise, who writes a newspaper column and covers local and neighborhood news on her popular Brooklyn website, taps me, now and then, to serve as her go-to person for background on Catholic matters. She and I were talking not long ago about a Roman Catholic pastor who had been transferred to another parish. Louise made a face.

"Oh, no!" I exclaimed. "He didn't do anything wrong! The diocese moves them after about a dozen years." She wanted to know how it worked -- who decides (the bishop of the diocese) and why? I explained the part I knew, and ventured a few theories. Economics, I suggested, sometimes plays a role.

"Sometimes the boss moves a 'big earner' to a parish where tithing is low --"

She interrupted, laughing. "I notice you do that a lot."

"Do what?"

"Use 'mobspeak' when you talk about the Church. Terms like 'big earner.'"

It makes sense. When I think about my Church, lately, I can't help but think about "spinach,"
"scratch," "scarole" ...

Why? Because people whose opinions on Catholic things I most value have exhorted me to stop putting money in the basket at mass, and I am starting to think they're right.

But I'm torn. I'm just not sure.

I love my parish, our parishioners, our liturgies, our church building. My pastor is a Prince -- and not the Machiavelli kind, either. Were it possible to tithe to the parish alone, I'd tithe double! I know my offertory gift supports the overburdened rectory staff, several social justice programs and the upkeep of the architectural masterpiece my church is, a landmark building many non-Catholics enjoy. I know a small core of middle-class parishioners and many poor and elderly people generously stretch to contribute what they can in order to keep my diverse, active parish afloat, and I want to help.

But I'm torn. For I know that the capo di tutti capi skims his take off the top first.

I receive a lot of Roman Catholic "shakedown" mail. Most of these solicitations wind up shredded or deleted. Last week, however, I responded to one by giving a contribution to SOA Watch, a 20-year-old organization that peacefully advocates against torture in Latin America. SOA (School of the Americas), which currently goes by the name of WHINSEC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperations), is located at Fort Benning in Georgia and is funded by U.S. tax dollars. The school is an academy for torture. In the latter half of the 20th Century, roughly 60,000 Latin American military personnel and law enforcement trained at SOA have employed their expertise in torture and mass-murder for the purpose of keeping dictators in power and rendering humanitarian workers, teachers, clergy, journalists, intellectuals, activists and "insurgents," neutralized or dead. More than a few hundred civilians have been murdered in the last three decades by School of the Americas-trained personnel.

Graduates of SOA include Manuel Noriega; many of Augusto Pinochet's generals; and Roberto d'Aubuisson, the commander of El Salvador's notorious death squads, who executed tens of thousands of Salvadoran civilians, including El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, three nuns and a church worker (whom they raped before murdering) in 1980. Moved by the extrajudicial killings of seven Jesuit priests (in 1989) and the deaths of the aforementioned martyred women (two of whom were his friends) Roman Catholic priest Father Roy Bourgeois and other activists working in Latin America to challenge U.S. policy there co-founded SOA Watch in 1990.

Roy Bourgeois was born and educated in Louisiana, served four years the Navy, spent a year in Viet Nam, was awarded a Purple Heart, and was ordained into one of the Maryknoll orders in 1972. He has spent more than four years in U.S. federal prison for non-violent protest, and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Each year in November, SOA Watch stages a vigil outside of Fort Benning to honor the lives of the men, women and children who were butchered by SOA graduates and to protest the existence of the "School for Assassins." Since 1990 SOA Watch has led a campaign to shut WHINSEC down.

Up until recently the Maryknolls supported this work with an annual grant of $17,000.00, but on July 22, U.S. Catholic reported that the Maryknoll order had withdrawn this $17,000 grant -- without issuing an explanation. Perhaps there is one.

Why did SOA Watch lose this $17,000 grant?

The Maryknolls aren't saying ("Code of Omerta?") many feel (word on the street) is that the boss has a beef and is sending Bourgeois a message. Father Bourgeois, who has long been a fervent and outspoken advocate for women's ordination, was publically excommunicated in 2008 for taking part in a the Roman Catholic ordination of a woman. Perhaps this order does not come from the top, but public excommunication does, and if the order did come from the big boss, the it is likely the Maryknolls might be loath to sing like a canary.

Bourgeois is now currently trying to raise $17,000 to cover the amount the Maryknolls' grant used to provide in support of SOA Watch.

So I think I'll tithe to Bourgeois and SOA Watch this Sunday, resting assured that the Holy (God)father won't get a piece of that action.

I won't have to worry this week that he'll use my dough to bankroll consiglieri who get bosses off the hook when they're charged with pimping out children, or nabbed on tax code and RICO violation counts; nor fear my contributions will be used to fund cheese-eaters on Apostolic Inquisition teams (technically Apostolic Visitation teams), Vatican snitches who spy on women in convents.

This week leg-breakers who muscle impoverished women in developing nations, warning them that contraception leads to eternal damnation, won't do so on my nickel. I won't have to fret this week over my complicity in subsidizing hatchet-men who preach that it pleases God when women give birth to more children than they can feed, or over underwriting enforcers who exhort Catholics in AIDS-ravaged regions not to use condoms in order to preserve their lives. I can take a break this week from worrying that my "tributes" make me an accessory to spreading AIDS in nations like Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria where both Catholicism and transmission of HIV are on the rise.

I'll tithe to SOA Watch this week.

It's hard not to notice the ironies at hand: On one hand, we have a priest who is actually consecrating his life -- his flesh, blood and soul -- to living Christ's example.

And and on the other hand, we have the thuggish dictator, the capo di tutti, getting in his way. We have Joey Rats, the Holy (God)father who extends his ringed hand to kiss, not in peace, but in princely petulance, as he sacrifices the lives of all who might be spared the torments of SOA-trained butchers, for the greater good of upholding the foolish doctrine of his misogynistic Magisterium on the matter of women's ordination.

It's tricky, the question of parish giving. If people of conscience stop giving to parishes run by men of conscience, parishes with conscience won't survive. Therein lies the rub. That's what the head of the Syndicate wants. The capo di tutti capi wants parishes like mine to fold.

Joey Rats wants to ice feminists, dissenters, and homosexuals. He wants to put two in the back of the head of Social Justice do-gooders and progressives. And he wants "the faithful" to pay for these hits.

My hope is that pastors will work with parishioners to seek a workaround for supporting parishes, but at least for the present time, I plan to use my Catholic donation dollars to support women priests' congregations, ministries that serve the poor, LBGT Catholic ministry, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), The Catholic Worker, Pax Christi, and SOA Watch.

I'll be at mass this Sunday, and I admit that as I contemplate my plan to liberate myself from the papal vigorish, I'll twitch. I'll anguish a little as the offertory basket on a stick passes, but I believe right now that it would be a sin for me to give even one thin dime to Joey Rats and his bagmen.

I'm torn, and still not sure.

But there's one thing I am sure of, however: if Father Bourgeois were a bishop, say, instead of a "stand-up guy" -- if he were a bishop, say, whose only sin was covering up the serial rapes of a few 10-year-old children, and not taking part in a woman's ordination -- Father Roy Bourgeois might still have that "17."

Benedict XVI the most callous hearted Pope of the 21st Century -- celebrates 5 years of autocracy in out-of-touch-with-reality holiday Castel Gondolfo

updated August 13, 2010

Benedict XVI is rubbing salt on the wounds of victims by refusing the resignation of 2 Irish Bishops who admitted to their role in the cover-up of John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in Ireland. (There is no other way to hammer on the heads of 1.1 billion Catholics that John Paul II must never be called a saint in this generation and all generations to come than by identifying the most heinous crimes against children with his name). This latest papal despotic act proves the hypocrisy of Benedict XVI beyond reasonable doubt: He is apologizing to victims one day and then glorifying their criminal oppressors the next day. And imagine Benedict XVI will soon be widely declared as the “Conscience of the Age” in Rome's Santa Cruce Pontifical University this coming September. Go figure what conscience is being imposed to children of this Age, see our article http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/06/opus-dei-fabricate-age-of-benedict-xvi.html

Clericalism: Benedict XVI ask us to "love priests in spite of their weaknesses" -- meaning put priests above the laity and above the law http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/07/baloney-benedict-xvi-you-ask-us-to-love.html

Now that the three lawsuits against him by Kentucky victims have been dropped because of his political immunity, Benedict XVI is riding high in his totalitarian powers at the Vatican. He will use all his powers to eradicate the memory of the victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army so he can go ahead and beatify and canonize his Papal Idol. We were right last year when we said: John Paul II is declared “Venerable” as the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in Ireland explodes. Only in the Catholic church are criminals are glorified. See John Paul II Millstone http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

So why does Benedict XVI glorify these two guilty Irish Bishops by refusing their resignations? Simple, so that they can continue their holy sorcery of the 9-seconds reincarnation of Christ in the Eucharist. See Eve and Benedict XVI blame the Devil. Analysis of Pope’s homily in Year for Priests -sorcerers of Christ’s flesh and blood http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/06/eve-and-benedict-xvi-blame-devil.html

Benedict XVI is a perfect clone of John Paul II and is actually is worse than him. At least John Paul II accepted the resignation of our criminal Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, but Benedict XVI is not accepting the resignations of two Irish Bishops who were first discovered by the Irish Ryan and Murphy Reports to have covered-up pedophile priests.

Benedict XVI want all criminal Cardinals and Bishops to act AS IF nothing has happened in the Catholic Church, AS IF the sexual abuse scandal never happened, AS IF the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army never existed for over a quarter of the last 20th Century.

The Catholic myth continues: Confess your sins and it is forgiven. There is no need for jail time for criminals within the Catholic Church, not even if it is the government who has proven them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Worse, they have personally confessed to their sins – exactly as the government has described them.

We are right, “Sins and crimes are not synonymous. Sinners and criminals are not one and the same" http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/05/sins-and-crimes-are-not-synonymous.html





Benedict XVI at his holiday in Castel Gandolfo, July 23, 2010, continues to rule out-of-touch with reality in his papal vacation castle

Benedict XVI is the most callous-hearted pope of the 21st century, next in line to Pope John Paul II the most callous-hearted pope of the 20th century. Together, they both did nothing to save hundreds of thousands of Catholic Children who suffered from tens of thousands of pedophile priests during the 26+ years papacy of John Paul II. At his papal vacation in the castle of Castel Gondolfo, Benedict watched a film to celebrate his 5 years of papacy. (This film was strategically produced by his native Bavaria in Germany to counter and segue the priest-pedophilia explosion in Germany). At the papal viewing, Benedict acted as if the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army never existed, as if the most heinous crimes against Catholic children under his watch as Cardinal Ratzinger never existed. It should not surprise us that Benedict XVI can make the papal crimes and the Vatican’s crimes against humanity -- which innumerable pedophile priests committed in the last quarter of the 20th century -- disappear in smoke. After all he is the most prominent magician or sorcerer of Christ’s reincarnation in 9-seconds (see Benedict XVI versus Mary : Priests' transubstantiation instant reincarnation of Christ VERSUS Mary’s 9 months pregnancy& child birth http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/ )

How does Benedict XVI get away with his part in the Vatican’s crimes against humanity in the last quarter of the 20th century? He uses the same strategy that all popes have been doing for the last 2,000 years of Catholicism: By blaming the Devil and by using Christ as his papal crutch...and subjugating Mary and women (more on this later) Benedict XVI will use the Devil and Christ to his advantage as long as both of them will keep him in power and keep the trillion dollar Vatican Bank rolling. During the closing ceremony of the Year for Priests, he used the Devil as the sole responsible leader for all the pedophile priests in the Catholic Church and for the 26 years pedophiliac papacy of John Paul II, see "Eve and Benedict XVI blame the Devil. Analysis of Pope’s homily in Year for Priests -sorcerers of Christ’s flesh and blood" http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/06/eve-and-benedict-xvi-blame-devil.html

At his papal retreat castle, Castel Gandolfo, surrounded by centuries of papal pomp as in the Vatican Palace, he perpetuates his autocracy and dictatorship as pope by using Christ to reiterate his absolute power as pope. He said: "It was for me personally very moving to see some moments, above all the one in which the Lord placed on my shoulders the Petrine service," he continued. "A weight that no one could carry by himself with his limited strength, but which can be carried because the Lord carries it and carries me.” He manipulates Christ by saying that he became Pope because “the Lord placed on my shoulders the Petrine service." So for all the sins of pedophilia, Benedict XVI blames the Devil and for all his Petrine power, Benedict XVI uses conveniently the power of Christ- Christ’s power is his equal papal power as well. (see Zenit.org articles below)


Benedict XVI talks down on Mary the Mother of God

At the his speech after viewing the film, Benedict said: "I also found it beautiful that the film ends with the visit to the Mother of God, who teaches us humility, obedience and the joy that God is with us."

The film of Benedict XVI’s 5 years autocracy ends with Mary the Mother of God as role model of “humility, obedience and joy” to hammer on 1.1 billion Catholics and the whole world to be humble, obedience and joyful like Mary -- to obey the Petrine Pope.


This culmination reference to Mary reiterates also the misogynist stance against the ordination of women in the newly revised Code of Canon Law, see a compilation of reactions from around the world to the Pope's latest autocratic suppression on women http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

Benedict XVI can talk down on Mary because he as pope and priests claim to have more power than her in that he can reincarnate Christ’s flesh in 9-seconds formula of “transubstantiation” in the Eucharist while Mary had to carry full term Jesus Christ for 9 months in her human womb http://stella0maris.blogspot.com/

It is unbelievable how the Roman Catholic Church can get away with crimes and not be punished with true justice - like all other lay people who are caught in grievous crimes. Only in the Catholic Church can one commit crimes of Biblical Proportions and be forgiven instantly in the Sacrament of Confession. See our article, When it comes to justice, secularism trumps Catholicism. Sacraments of Penance, Eucharist & Priesthood are worthless in our justice system http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/03/when-it-comes-to-justice-secularism.html

‘Forgiveness’ is a gizmo of injustice to victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. To Vaticanista chiesa.espresso Sandro Magister, Baloney! http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/03/forgiveness-is-gizmo-of-injustice-to.html


Biggest Vatican Stories of the Decade: John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army Committed Holy Es Eucharist-and-sodomy of Biblical Proportions http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/01/biggest-vatican-stories-of-decade-john.html

Benedict XVI the Pollyanna Pope

A Pollyanna is a person regarded as being foolishly or blindly optimistic. Benedict XVI is the Pollyanna Pope foolishly and blindly optimistic of the defiled and pedophiliac Roman Catholic Church that is no longer “holy”. See our article in our sister weblog The John Paul II Millstone “The Roman Catholic Church is no longer « Holy ». All Catholic churches, sacristies, rectories are not «holy» but potential priestly pedophile places" http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/07/roman-catholic-church-is-no-longer-holy.html

Benedict XVI is the Pollyanna Pope who says that the “Church Is Young and Joyful” to make the whole world forget that the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army existed in the last quarter of the 20th century – so that he can go ahead and beatify and canonize John Paul II as soon as possible (before he dies as pope).



Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity

It is time for the French Revolution at the Vatican: Benedict XVI must resign, Cardinal Bernard Law et al must resign …Shut-down the Vatican http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/it-is-time-for-french-revolution-at.html

John Paul II miraculously cures his German barber of hernia in Rome… as the John Paul II Pedophile Priest Army jolts Germany http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/03/john-paul-ii-miraculously-cures-his.html

John Paul II's official spokesman Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls reveals the true reasons why there's the Pope and the Pedophile Scandal http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/04/john-paul-iis-sole-official-papal.html

Sins and crimes are not synonymous. Sinners and criminals are not one and the same http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/05/sins-and-crimes-are-not-synonymous.html

Theology and John Paul II are heartless and together they made the immoral Fr. Marcial Maciel thrive http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2010/05/theology-and-john-paul-ii-are-heartless.html

BENEDICT promises “CHEAP JUSTICE”. Costly justice means: Fire Cardinals Law, Mahony & guilty Bishops! Expose John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army

http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/benedict-promised-cheap-justice-costly.html

Beware! Benedict XVI-Cardinal Ratzinger and his allies can be violent http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/benedict-xvi-cardinal-ratzinger-and-his.html)

John Paul II the Great clashing cymbal of St. Paul http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-paul-ii-great-clashing-cymbal-of.html

Benedict XVI beatify John Paul II is “brought to nothing” by St. Paul http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2009/11/benedict-xvi-to-beatify-john-paul-ii-is.html

Vatican segue Benedict XVI sex abuse scandals into the Devil, celibacy and role of women. Who’s biting the Vatican bait of deception? http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/vatican-segue-benedict-xvi-sex-abuse.html

Who’s responsible & to blame: The Devil or Benedict XVI-Cardinal Ratzinger? Satan as scapegoat for Vatican's chaotic sex scandals http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/whos-responsible-to-blame-devil-or.html

German man demands Benedict XVI’s apology and compensation "even if the church goes bankrupt" for his abuse as an altar boy by a pedophile priest http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/german-man-demands-benedict-xvis.html

Benedict XVI and Jon Sobrino http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/08/benedict-xvi-vicar-of-christ-and-jon.html

Beware! Benedict XVI-Cardinal Ratzinger and his allies can be violent http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/benedict-xvi-cardinal-ratzinger-and-his.html

Pope Rejects Resignations of Irish Bishops Accused in Sex Abuse Crisis

David Gibson
Religion Reporter

If Pope Benedict XVI is trying to dig the Catholic Church out of the sex abuse scandal, he only seems to be making the hole deeper.

That's the apparent consensus after it was reported that the pope has rejected the resignations of two bishops in Ireland who asked to quit last December after they were named in an independent report for their lack of diligence and action in the country's awful history of the sexual and physical abuse of children by priests.

The bishops, Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field, are auxiliary, or assistant bishops, to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who was sent to Dublin to clean up the abuse mess. Martin, who was profiled by PoliticsDaily earlier this year, had pushed Walsh and Field to resign, which they did in Christmas Eve letters to the pope.

Two other bishops criticized in the government's report on church abuse -- Bishop Donal Murray and Bishop Jim Moriarty -- have had offers of resignation accepted by the Vatican. A fifth bishop named in the report, Bishop Martin Drennan of Galway, has resisted calls for his resignation.

The Vatican's rejection of the resignations of Walsh and Field is seen as a blow to Martin's efforts.

"The Vatican [was] not impressed with the way Diarmuid Martin went on PrimeTime [an Irish television news program] and called on other bishops to be accountable," Garry O'Sullivan, editor of the Irish Catholic newspaper in Dublin, told The Associated Press. "It's not the way business is done in Rome."

The Irish Catholic first obtained a copy of a letter Martin sent to priests, in which he said the Vatican decided that the bishops would remain in office but would be "assigned revised responsibilities within the diocese." Neither Archbishop Martin nor the auxiliaries would comment or detail what those new responsibilities would entail.

Other analysts suggested that behind the Vatican's rejection was the fear of a "domino effect" in which any bishop or cardinal implicated in the abuse crisis could be pushed to resign, which is a nightmare scenario to a tradition-minded pope like Benedict XVI.

"In other words, there may still be many Irish bishops with 'mishandling/bureaucratic,' sex abuse skeletons still in the cupboard who would also have to resign," Paddy Agnew wrote in The Irish Times.

That would be fine with sex abuse victims, who were outraged at the decision to reject the resignations.


"So much was expected of the pontiff, and so little was delivered," said John Kelly, leader of Survivors of Child Abuse, an Irish advocacy group. "The pope said that priests and bishops needed to surrender themselves to the demands of justice. Here were two of many who did surrender themselves -- and they've been refused," Kelly said. "That sends out a signal that there is to be no change, no closure for victims and no accountability."


Abuse survivor Marie Collins also said she was "at a loss" and "past being angry."

The church was not "going to be accountable or take responsibility." She felt "people, survivors in particular, are also entitled to an explanation as to why Bishop Moriarty's resignation was accepted but Bishop Walsh's and Bishop Field's were not."

In the United States, SNAP, or The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, chastised Benedict for "rubbing more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of thousands of child sex abuse victims and millions of betrayed Catholics."

Media reaction was blistering as well.

Writing in The Herald of Ireland, Terry Prone accused the Vatican of "arrogance." He said the way the news was communicated was typical of the Vatican, and said that "somewhere along the line, the officer class in the Catholic Church decided they no longer needed to explain and persuade and motivate. They could just tell the faithful. Or not tell them, as in this case."

"Latest Papal diktat spells doom for people's church" ran the headline in John Cooney's column in the Irish Independent, while Kevin Clarke, writing on the blog of America magazine, a leading Catholic weekly in the United States, searched for an explanation.

"Could the Curia [the pope's advisors] truly be so oblivious to the anger and frustration of average Catholics worldwide trying to make sense of the church's response to years of sexual abuse by clergy on Catholic children?" Clarke asked. "It doesn't seem possible."

For many, it now seems more than possible, but highly probable.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/12/pope-rejects-resignations-of-irish-bishops-accused-in-sex-abuse/

Benedict XVI fails to lead the Church

Here are articles that analyze the failure of Benedict as leader of the Catholic Church. His handling of the explosion of pedophile priests in Ireland and in Europe shows that his strategy is to act AS IF nothing happened, AS IF no crimes were committed and it will be BUSINESS AS USUAL at the Vatican. And he will proceed to beatify and canonize John Paul II. For 2,000 years, the Popes committed crimes against humanity and always got away with them, the Crusades where they pillaged and murdered all Muslims in Jerusalem, the Inquisition where they burned women and witches, and now the most heinous crimes against Catholic Children by the hundreds of thousands sexually abused by the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. This time WE will not let him get away with it because we are living witnesses of their crimes and therefore we have a right to judge Benedict XVI, John Paul II, the Opus Dei who controlled these two popes' papacy, and we must condemn them and strip them of their autocratic powers.

Compare the crimes and sins - Victims - criminals and sinners - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 pedophile priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity



Pope Benedict fails to lead his Church through crisis in Ireland



The out-of-touch-with-reality- Vatican meeting room

http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/father_tim/pope-benedict-fails-to-lead-his-church-through-crisis-in-ireland-84478342.html

My friends:

As many of you know, the extraordinary "summit" in Rome between Pope Benedict XVI and the Bishops of Ireland has concluded. The official statements have been released -- as expected, deploring the terrible crime of child sex abuse in the Irish Catholic Church and acknowledging that nothing was done about it for decades in spite of it being widely known.

Language is very important to the Vatican, and this meeting in particular shows that the summit was nine parts strategy and one part theology. In a way, that is to be expected: After all, there is no theological disagreement about pedophile priests and the abuse, in any way, of innocent children.

But back to language: The Vatican statement is critical of the Church for its "failure to act."

That's honest and true -- as far as it goes. Nothing, however, is said about the acts the Church did take: deliberately covering up its crimes, coercing the abused into silence, transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish and even from Ireland to other countries, and refusing to cooperate with civilian authorities whose job it is to prosecute child abusers and those who conspire to cover up what is unquestionable criminal activity.

It was all just a terrible mistake, says the Pope: "There is no doubt that errors of judgment and omissions stand at the heart of the crisis."

Errors of judgment? What about crimes?

The Vatican seems to think the summit was "a good first step" -- an astonishing tone given the longevity and severity of the problem -- as well as Rome's knowledge of it.

Those who thought that the Holy Father would call for the resignations of more Bishops implicated in the various government reports on Ireland's shame went away very disappointed.

"It was not addressed," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

And incredibly, Lombardi also defended the Pope's representative in Ireland for refusing to testify to lawmakers there about the decades of systematic cover-ups by the Church hierarchy.

With this utterance, we see the Vatican strategy coming into play, and sadly, it is still a strategy of avoiding the whole truth, and controlling the damage -- the extent of which it greatly fears and so far, can only imagine.

In its own language, the Church did not "make a good Confession."

It is always important for the Church -- or at least for the Vatican -- to speak of ITself rather than for the Pope or Bishops to speak of THEMselves. This is of course the correct stance when the Church speaks on matters of faith.

But it would be disastrous to delve into the personal level of individual responsibility when it comes to the child abuse scandal.

And who would know that better than the man at the head of the table, Pope Benedict himself?

In his pre-Papal days as Cardinal Ratzinger, he was probably the best-informed man in the Vatican, being both Prefect of the powerful Congregation of the Faith and Dean of the College of Cardinals. These offices mean that he was privy to the ever-swelling tide of reports on clerical sex abuse which poured into the Vatican during his tenure in office from every diocese in the world.

It's a little late in the game for him to be "shocked" by anything relating to pedophile priests, or be ignorant of any part of the huge problem in Ireland.

And of course, the Bishops who sat around the table with him all know that. If they ignored the problem, so did he. If they covered it up, so did he.

Nothing from the so-called summit will change a leaf of grass in Ireland. But there is still hope that the Ponstiff's pastoral letter to the Faithful of Ireland, coming on Ash Wednesday, will strike the right tone and at the very least, outline concrete steps on how the Church will deal with this terrible issue going forward.

Going forward, however, is not a typical direction for the Vatican to take. But it had better open the shutters and see the sun: If the Church doesn't handle the problem, prosecutors, police and judges will -- as they may anyway.

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim



Pope Benedict fails victims of Irish child sex abuse

http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/kellys_corner/pope-benedict--fails-victims-of-irish-child-sex-abuse-84477182.html

It seems to me as if Pope Benedict has squandered an opportunity to inspire Irish Catholics.

The pope today described the decades of child sex abuse in the Irish church as a "heinous crime," but failed to take action on calls for top bishops to resign.

Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope "shares the outrage" over the abuse and said Benedict pope had "already expressed profound regret."

However, Lombardi said that the topic of resignations "was not addressed."

Lombardi also defended the pope's envoy in Ireland who refused to testify to Irish authorities about decades of cover-ups within the church hierarchy.

Is it me or does this signify an implicit contempt for Irish Catholics?


Full statement from Vatican on Irish sex abuse crisis http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Pope-calls-pedophilia-a-heinous-crime-84465492.html