Sex-abuse victims want apology from pope

[emad]

Monday, November 28, 2005 · <br><br>By ARIEL DAVID<br>ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER<br><br>VATICAN CITY -- Victims of sexual abuse by a former California priest brought a letter to the Vatican on Monday asking Pope Benedict XVI to apologize to all victims of clergy abuse and dismiss any official involved in covering up the scandal.<br><br>The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest, lawyer and longtime advocate for sex abuse victims, briefly entered one of the Vatican's gates to deliver the letter, which also asks the pope to instruct bishops to cooperate in the investigation of suspected abuse cases.<br><br>"I just put it in a blue box up there, I didn't know what else to do," Doyle told The Associated Press after delivering the letter.<br><br>The appeal was signed by Ann Jyono and Nancy Sloan, two victims of defrocked Irish priest Oliver O'Grady, who admitted molesting as many as 25 children while a parish priest in Northern California. He served seven years in prison for abusing two brothers and was deported to Ireland in 2001.<br><br>"I've often said that it's soul murder. Their souls are taken away from them by the priests that do it, but what makes it worse is the way they are treated by their bishops," Doyle said.<br><br>Victims of sexual abuse by clergy charge that bishops covered up the scandal, ignoring the victims' complaints and protecting pedophile priests by moving them from parish to parish each time new cases surfaced.<br><br><br><br>"Until they acknowledge us and help us to weed out the bad people in the church ... how can I heal?" Jyono said as she broke down in tears in front of the Vatican gates. "I want my faith back but I need their help."<br><br>Sloan said she requested an audience with Benedict to ask him to instruct U.S. bishops to disclose documents on the abuse cases and to meet with the victims.<br><br>Doyle had little hope the letter would have an impact.<br><br>"I'm not quite sure if the leadership of the Catholic Church even is able to understand how damaging this is to people. They look at their image, they look at the drainage of money," he said.<br><br>U.S. dioceses calculate they have paid more than $1 billion in settlements and other costs related to guilty clergy since 1950 and more than 11,500 claims of molestation have been made against American priests during that period.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Vatican_Sex_Abuse.html">seattlepi.nwsource.com/na...Abuse.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br> <p></p><i></i>

[chiggerbit]

11,500 claims--probably the tip of the iceberg. <p></p><i></i>

[mother]

And it is such a humble request that it breaks my heart. They aren't even asking for Masses offered on behalf of the victims of those whom Ratzinger sheilded, they aren't asking for a Rosary to be said, or a Votive, or a Novena for healing the innocence and faith sodomised out of the kids...Mind you, the Novus Ordo clergy are not the only ones brutalizing(SOUL_MURDERING) little ones, but they are by far the most culpable of all the world's perverts, because of Whom they claim to represent. Rottweiller of the faith, bosh. Lotsa luck getting anything from this heretic. Yet I applaud the action taken by these survivors, and I pray with all my heart for their full recovery from the satanic abuse they have endured. If B16 really were a valid pope, the first thing he would have done is laicised and criminally prosecuted the predators. This would have been the very first order of necessity; getting straight to work on this epic atrocity by serving justice. <p></p><i></i>

[banned]

...cover story from this week's San Francisco Bay Guardian. The Pastor of Most Holy Redeemer, Fr. Meriwether, used to be pastor at my church and is a wonderful man who literally saved my life one night when I was acutely suicidal. I always assumed he was gay because I have generally flawless gaydar, but the article doesn't say he is or isn't. He's also Native American (a Pacific Northwest tribe I believe), I saw a cool photo of him in native garb kneeling before Pope JP2 at the beatification ceremony for Kateria Tekakwitha. Unfortunately he wasn't popular with many parishioners whose idea of a priest was the Irish bullshitmeister type who sucked up to the rich--he's a very soft spoken and thoughtful man, a canon lawyer, and as the article makes clear a champion of social justice, not church socials. <br><br>The Church needs more men like Fr. Meriwether and fewer like Bennie the Ratz and his new lackey William Levada.<br><br>====<br>THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY Nov.23 - Nov.29, 2005• Vol. 40, No. 08<br><br>Cross purposes<br>The Vatican is about to issue a new directive condemning homosexuality and keeping gay priests out of the Catholic Church. In San Francisco, that would threaten one of the most vibrant Catholic parishes.<br>By Joe Dignan<br><br>MOST SUNDAY MORNINGS at about 9:30, three blocks from the corner of 18th and Castro, a small group of men and women kneel just off the sidewalk and pray.<br><br>They kneel in front of a roughly life-size statue of the Blessed Virgin Mother near the entrance to Most Holy Redeemer Catholic church and say the rosary. They rest their knees on an uncomfortable-looking metal platform, which is connected to a metal rail with a latticework grill with the word Maria wrought in metal letters.<br><br>Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.<br><br>They repeat the prayer about 50 times.<br><br>It's an ancient ritual, and these days, in most Catholic churches, the people saying the rosary are old women in black veils.<br><br>At this church, the rosary ladies are gay men.<br><br>----<br>rest of article at:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.sfbg.com/40/08/cover_vatican.html">www.sfbg.com/40/08/cover_vatican.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>