By now people are well aware of the criminal acts against children that occur within the walls of Catholic churches and schools throughout the world. Yet parents continue to send their children to these Catholic venues with the mindset that the things that have happened to other kids will somehow not happen to their own. In my mind this is a problem, but not the only problem.
The real issue is that these people continue to support the Catholic Church by giving them their money and entrusting them with the lives of their children. To me this is insane. How can it be that individuals continue to support an organization that is corrupt, and that has been corrupt throughout its long history? For centuries the Catholic Church has tortured, murdered and raped innocent men, women and children; while at the same time making incredible profits – sums of money beyond the imagination. Isn’t it about time that people realized that this mob is not worthy of support, but rather one that should be condemned for its lawlessness?
By the way, who’s to say that the Vatican is not cutting deals (offering large sums of money) to these bishops and priests who are supposedly resigning. It very well may be that in order to keep them from disclosing information about Church officials higher up in the chain of command, that they are essentially being paid off to keep quiet, and in doing so protecting others within the Church; maybe even within the Vatican who are known to having committed crimes against children or at the very least for covering them up. While there is no proof that this scenario is real, with the tainted history of the Catholic Church I am certainly not blind to the possibility that it may be. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday accepted the resignation of an Irish bishop who admitted he didn’t challenge the Dublin church’s policy of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests.
Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare is the third Irish bishop to resign in four months as a result of the Irish sex abuse scandal. Another two have offered to go, as the Vatican comes under increasing pressure to get rid of the bishops who covered up for priests who sodomized and molested children for decades unchecked.
Hundreds of people have come forward in recent months, including in Benedict’s native Germany, accusing priests of raping and abusing them while bishops and church higher-ups turned a blind eye.
Moriarty said Thursday he was stepping down because he realized that “renewal must begin with accepting responsibility for the past.”
On Wednesday, Benedict had promised unspecified “church action” to confront the scandal, and the Vatican has said it would do everything in its power to bring justice to abusive priests and to protect children.
No details — other than the resignations — have been offered.
Moriarty, 73, offered to step down in December after admitting he didn’t challenge the Dublin Archdiocese’s past practice of concealing child-abuse complaints from police. He served as an auxiliary Dublin bishop from 1991 to 2002.
“The truth is that the long struggle of survivors to be heard and respected by church authorities has revealed a culture within the Church that many would simply describe as unchristian,” Moriarty said in a statement Thursday. “This has been profoundly dispiriting for all who care about the church.”
Two auxiliary Dublin bishops, Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field, have offered to resign as well.
All three bishops were identified last year in an Irish government-ordered investigation into decades of cover-ups of child-abusing clergy in the Dublin Archdiocese. The report found that all bishops until 1996 colluded to protect scores of pedophile priests from criminal prosecution.
The November report did not directly criticize Moriarty. But the bishop offered his resignation after accepting he should have taken personal responsibility for challenging the bishops’ practice of keeping abuse complaints within the church.
In March, the pope accepted the resignation of Irish Bishop John Magee, who was accused of mishandling complaints against priests in his diocese of Cloyne. In December, Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick stepped down after an investigation into child sex abuse by clergymen accused him of ignoring reports of crimes by priests in his diocese.
There have been demands for more Irish bishops to resign, including for the country’s top prelate, Cardinal Sean Brady, who has been accused of helping to cover up activities of pedophile priests.
Brady has said he would resign if he was found to have endangered children by his actions.
On Thursday, Brady praised Moriarty for his contributions to the Irish church, said he would be missed and prayed for and wished him well.
Moriarty said that in stepping down, he hoped to honor the victims who courageously came forward and said he hoped his gesture would help the church renew itself and reform.
The pope accepted his resignation under a code of canon law that allows bishops to step down if they are ill of for some other “grave reason” that makes them “unsuited for the fulfillment of his office.”
Moriarty is 73, two years shy of the normal retirement age for bishops.
Benedict addressed the situation in the Irish church in a March 20 letter, in which he chastised Irish bishops for leadership failures and “gross errors of judgment” in handling abuse cases. But he put no blame on the church hierarchy, whom critics blame for mandating a culture of secrecy that encouraged bishops to keep abuse quiet.
Three Irish government-ordered investigations published from 2005 to 2009 have documented how thousands of Irish children suffered rape, molestation and other abuse by priests in their parishes and by nuns and brothers in boarding schools and orphanages. Irish bishops did not report a single case to police until 1996 after victims began to sue the church.
The reports have faulted Rome for sending confusing messages to the Irish church about norms to be followed and, in general, for what it called the absence of a coherent set of canon laws and rules to apply in cases of abuse.
On Thursday, the head of the Catholic Church in Britain, Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, apologized for clerical abuse and said the actions of some priests had brought “deep shame to the whole church.”
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Associated Press Writer Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report.
