The bad news for Papa Ratzi continues to unfold as more coverage of priests shielded from defrocking by now ope Benedict XVI hits the news media. As I and others previously commented, Benedict XVI was previously directly linked to protecting a priest who abused over 200 deaf boys. Now yet another case has come to light. While Benedict has feigned sorrow over the sexual abuse scandal, he has yet to confess any personal guilt for his transgressions and actions that allowed sexual predators to ruin the lives of children and youths. *
The Associated Press has accessed more documents that confirm that Benedict covered up for yet another sexual abuser before he became Pope. While there are some that have alleged that I am anti-Catholic. This charge is not true. What I am against is lies and hypocrisy. Something that Benedict XVI and most of the Church hierarchy is guilty of in spades. While continuing to denigrate LGBT individuals and involving itself in political efforts to deny gays equality under the civil laws, the Church leadership continues to brazenly act holier than thou even with all the evidence on the table as to the criminal conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse of children and youth. Adding to this utter hypocrisy is the Vaticans claims that it does not exercise control over diocese and ultimately ever parish around the world. The Virginian Pilot has a story today that shows just how untrue such claims are and that they trace all the way to Benedict himself. It is a disgusting state of affairs and the lies and hypocrisy need to be exposed over and over again until the laity demands a full house cleaning of the Church. Here are some highlights:
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The future Pope Benedict XVI refused to defrock an American priest who confessed to molesting numerous children and even served prison time for it, simply because the cleric wouldn't agree to the discipline. The case provides the latest evidence of how changes in church law under Pope John Paul II frustrated and hamstrung U.S. bishops struggling with an abuse crisis that would eventually explode.
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Documents obtained by The Associated Press from court filings in the case of the late Rev. Alvin Campbell of Illinois show Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, following church law at the time, turned down a bishop's plea to remove the priest for no other reason than the abuser's refusal to go along with it.
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Campbell's is one of several decades-old cases to emerge in recent months raising questions about Ratzinger's decisions and the church law he was following involving abusive priests as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office, a position he took in 1981. The round of scandals worldwide left the Vatican initially blaming the media and groups supporting abortion rights and gay marriage, but recently Benedict has denounced the "sin" that has infected the church.
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Campbell's misdeeds date back at least 15 years before his defrocking.As an Army chaplain, he was reprimanded and ultimately left the service after abusing at least one boy, according to military and church correspondence. An Army letter in his file said he had exploited his rank and position as a chaplain "by engaging in indecent homosexual acts" with a child under 16 who had been under his supervision.
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Even so, Bishop Joseph McNicholas, then at the helm of the Springfield diocese, wrote to him, "Be assured that we will welcome you with open arms here at home." While church officials overseeing clergy in the military were alerted of Campbell's actions, and reference is made to the molestations in Ryan's letter to Ratzinger, it's not clear whether McNicholas knew.
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Campbell became a pastor upon his return to the diocese. In at least three instances after returning to diocesan work, he was forced to depart jobs as parish pastor or administrator "for reasons of health," a euphemism for sexual abuse used within the church that Ryan himself put in quotes.
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After workers at a rape crisis center alerted authorities that they were treating one of Campbell's victims, police found he had been plying boys with video games, bicycles, watches and other gifts to get them to the waterbed in his second-floor rectory bedroom. Ryan sent Campbell to a New Mexico treatment facility after the arrest.
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Campbell was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1985, after admitting to molesting seven boys during his time as pastor of St. Maurice Parish in Morrisonville, Ill. He was released in 1992 after serving about seven years for sexual assault and sexual abuse.
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Ryan apparently waited four years after Campbell went to prison, according to church files, before asking for the priest's defrocking. . . . In his 1989 letter to Ratzinger, Ryan outlined Campbell's many offenses against children and asked for his laicization. He pointed out the local notoriety of the priest's case and said his crimes and those of another abusive priest had already cost the diocese $1.5 million in damages and legal fees.
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Ratzinger refused, citing Vatican policy, and told the bishop to proceed with a church tribunal.
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Hmm . . .Ratzinger/Benedict XVI condemns gays in committed relationships and describes same sex marriage as an abomintation. Indeed, he calls gays "inherently disordered." I'm sorry, but in my humble opinion, it's Benedict XVI who is disordered and - if he had any integrity - would resign from office.
*
The future Pope Benedict XVI refused to defrock an American priest who confessed to molesting numerous children and even served prison time for it, simply because the cleric wouldn't agree to the discipline. The case provides the latest evidence of how changes in church law under Pope John Paul II frustrated and hamstrung U.S. bishops struggling with an abuse crisis that would eventually explode.
*
Documents obtained by The Associated Press from court filings in the case of the late Rev. Alvin Campbell of Illinois show Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, following church law at the time, turned down a bishop's plea to remove the priest for no other reason than the abuser's refusal to go along with it.
*
Campbell's is one of several decades-old cases to emerge in recent months raising questions about Ratzinger's decisions and the church law he was following involving abusive priests as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office, a position he took in 1981. The round of scandals worldwide left the Vatican initially blaming the media and groups supporting abortion rights and gay marriage, but recently Benedict has denounced the "sin" that has infected the church.
*
Campbell's misdeeds date back at least 15 years before his defrocking.As an Army chaplain, he was reprimanded and ultimately left the service after abusing at least one boy, according to military and church correspondence. An Army letter in his file said he had exploited his rank and position as a chaplain "by engaging in indecent homosexual acts" with a child under 16 who had been under his supervision.
*
Even so, Bishop Joseph McNicholas, then at the helm of the Springfield diocese, wrote to him, "Be assured that we will welcome you with open arms here at home." While church officials overseeing clergy in the military were alerted of Campbell's actions, and reference is made to the molestations in Ryan's letter to Ratzinger, it's not clear whether McNicholas knew.
*
Campbell became a pastor upon his return to the diocese. In at least three instances after returning to diocesan work, he was forced to depart jobs as parish pastor or administrator "for reasons of health," a euphemism for sexual abuse used within the church that Ryan himself put in quotes.
*
After workers at a rape crisis center alerted authorities that they were treating one of Campbell's victims, police found he had been plying boys with video games, bicycles, watches and other gifts to get them to the waterbed in his second-floor rectory bedroom. Ryan sent Campbell to a New Mexico treatment facility after the arrest.
*
Campbell was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1985, after admitting to molesting seven boys during his time as pastor of St. Maurice Parish in Morrisonville, Ill. He was released in 1992 after serving about seven years for sexual assault and sexual abuse.
*
Ryan apparently waited four years after Campbell went to prison, according to church files, before asking for the priest's defrocking. . . . In his 1989 letter to Ratzinger, Ryan outlined Campbell's many offenses against children and asked for his laicization. He pointed out the local notoriety of the priest's case and said his crimes and those of another abusive priest had already cost the diocese $1.5 million in damages and legal fees.
*
Ratzinger refused, citing Vatican policy, and told the bishop to proceed with a church tribunal.
*
Hmm . . .Ratzinger/Benedict XVI condemns gays in committed relationships and describes same sex marriage as an abomintation. Indeed, he calls gays "inherently disordered." I'm sorry, but in my humble opinion, it's Benedict XVI who is disordered and - if he had any integrity - would resign from office.
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