Pope Benedict hit by new Catholic Church child abuse allegations

[Netto Azure]

Pope Benedict hit by new Catholic Church child abuse allegations

The Vatican has reportedly confirmed Cardinal Ratzinger's signature

Pope Benedict XVI has become embroiled in new revelations over child sexual abuse, over a letter he is said to have signed in 1985 before becoming pontiff.

Associated Press said it had obtained the letter, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, resisting the defrocking of offending US priest Stephen Kiesle.
Cardinal Ratzinger said the "good of the universal Church" needed to be considered in defrocking, AP reported.
It said the Vatican had confirmed the cardinal's signature on the letter.
However it quoted Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi as saying it was "not strange that there are single documents which have Cardinal Ratzinger's signature".
He added: "The press office doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context regarding particular legal situations."
The Catholic Church has been hit by a series of child abuse scandals, including in Ireland, the US, Germany and Norway, and has faced criticism for failing to deal adequately with the problem.
'Grave significance'
AP said the Rev Kiesle was sentenced to three years of probation in 1978 for lewd conduct with two young boys in San Francisco. It said the Oakland diocese had recommended Kiesle's removal in 1981 but that that did not happen until 1987.
Cardinal Ratzinger took over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with sex abuse cases, in 1981.
AP says the 1985 correspondence, written in Latin, shows Cardinal Ratzinger saying that Kiesle's removal would need careful review.
Cardinal Ratzinger urged "as much paternal care as possible" for Kiesle.
Kiesle was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 after admitting molesting a young girl in 1995.
Kiesle is now 63 and is on the registered sex offenders list in California.
The Vatican on Friday urged Catholic dioceses around the world to co-operate with police investigating sex abuse allegations against priests.
Father Lombardi acknowledged that the Church had lost public trust and said Church law could no longer be placed above civil laws if that trust were to be recovered.
He also said Pope Benedict was prepared to meet more victims of abuse to offer them moral support.
BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says this is an abrupt change of tone by the Vatican.
He says officials had previously accused critics of trying to smear the Pope personally and only last weekend said he should ignore petty gossip directed at him.
Meanwhile Italian media have reported that the Vatican is to issue guidelines on its website on Monday on fighting paedophilia.
The Vatican has ruled out any possibility of a papal resignation over the scandals.

I've been planning on making this thread for a while.
But anyways as a Catholic myself these sex abuse scandals are just very disturbing.
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[RavenKingSage]

I think I heard that Catholic leaders have a long history of sex scandals...

 

[Cross Poison]

The Pope? Child abuse? Thats fucking nonsence, who the hell would want to say that! It's practicly an offence!

 

[Izumoshep]

The priests who committed the offences should be excommunicated and charged. Just to clarify, the Pope never committed the act merely asked while an archbishop or such to cover it up.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

The Pope? Child abuse? Thats fucking nonsence, who the hell would want to say that! It's practicly an offence!

As Izumoshep pointed out, nobody here is accusing the Pope of child abuse; I'm sure you'd discover this yourself if you read the article. The evidence indicates that he may've been involved in covering up such crimes by another.

However, the notion that even speaking against the man is an "offense" because of his position? That's very dangerous thinking, indeed.

Just to clarify, the Pope never committed the act merely asked while an archbishop or such to cover it up.

Which, admittedly, is a pretty questionable act, itself (if true). Nobody of sound mind or moral judgement should be able to willingly cover up something as abhorrent as this kind of crime.

 

[Our Wasted Years]

Priests have a long history of sexually abusing children and being guilty on it. I don't doubt for one second they aren't innocent and for the Pope to be covering it up is pathetic.

 

[Mitchman]

Richard Dawkins is actually going to attempt a legal ambush on the Pope for arrest. Its getting crazy, too crazy I think.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7094310.ece

 

[CLASSIFIED]

Honestly, Im not surprised that the Pope would do something like that. The Catholic religion has truly changed in the past two thousand years.

 

[Archaic]

Actually....they haven't. Watch the video here, should be available in all regions. Has a lot of background info. This stuff has been going on for a long time.

 

[Izumoshep]

Actually....they haven't. Watch the video here, should be available in all regions. Has a lot of background info. This stuff has been going on for a long time.

oh lol you did not just use Hungry Beast.

Total lack of anything in that video, except pointing out that the Church as been against child sexual abuse.

Richard Dawkins is actually going to attempt a legal ambush on the Pope for arrest. Its getting crazy, too crazy I think.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7094310.ece

He is a complete atheist and has personal vendetta against the religious authorities, child sex abuse is not a crime against humanity.

And once again, child sex abuse happens with atheists, catholics, muslims, hindus, and everyone else. Do you know why that is? Because the people that make up the religions are humans, and humans make mistakes and commit sin. Therefore punish those people and stop taking swings at the community of similar believers.

The first problem is that the Pope is a head of state and is entitled to complete criminal and civil immunity under customary international law and the State Immunity Act 1978. Hitchens and Dawkins and their lawyers have suggested that the Vatican is not a state under international law, but their view is not supported by authority.

The second problem facing the pair is the absence of any crime that would be justiciable in the English courts. They have been noticeably coy about specifying any offence that the Pope may have committed that a court in the UK could try, which tends to suggest that there isn’t one. With certain limited exceptions the English criminal law concerns itself only with matters occurring in the UK, and so far no one has identified any offence over which the criminal courts here would have jurisdiction.

 

[Fig]

Child sex abuse happens with everyone, true.

But when an institution begin covering up child abuse, when representative of that institution fight to keep a statute of limitation on child abuse (Diocese of Connecticut) - why do you think? - and when they try to pin the blame on anyone but themselves ("Media conspiracy", "The jews" and "homosexuality" have all been mentioned!)...

That institution needs to be cleansed.

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

The lovely little debate we had going on has been shifted over to the relevant thread in the Soap Box; happy debating.