Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby Julian the Apostate » Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:04 am

seemslikeadream wrote:
The Great Catholic Cover-Up
The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it.
By Christopher Hitchens|Posted Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, at 12:00 PM ET
Citing wavering strength of mind and body, Pope Benedict XVI announced his decision to resign from the papacy at the end of February. He will be the first pope to abdicate in nearly six centuries. In 2010, as allegations of pedophilic priests continued to swirl, Christopher Hitchens decried individual and institutional corruption within the church’s sacred walls. His original article is reprinted below.

Pope Benedict XVI
On March 10, the chief exorcist of the Vatican, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican," and that "when one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true—including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia." This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good material explanation.
Concerning the most recent revelations about the steady complicity of the Vatican in the ongoing—indeed endless—scandal of child rape, a few days later a spokesman for the Holy See made a concession in the guise of a denial. It was clear, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, that an attempt was being made "to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse." He stupidly went on to say that "those efforts have failed."

He was wrong twice. In the first place, nobody has had to strive to find such evidence: It has surfaced, as it was bound to do. In the second place, this extension of the awful scandal to the topmost level of the Roman Catholic Church is a process that has only just begun. Yet it became in a sense inevitable when the College of Cardinals elected, as the vicar of Christ on Earth, the man chiefly responsible for the original cover-up. (One of the sanctified voters in that "election" was Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, a man who had already found the jurisdiction of Massachusetts a bit too warm for his liking.)
There are two separate but related matters here: First, the individual responsibility of the pope in one instance of this moral nightmare and, second, his more general and institutional responsibility for the wider lawbreaking and for the shame and disgrace that go with it. The first story is easily told, and it is not denied by anybody. In 1979, an 11-year-old German boy identified as Wilfried F. was taken on a vacation trip to the mountains by a priest. After that, he was administered alcohol, locked in his bedroom, stripped naked, and forced to suck the penis of his confessor. (Why do we limit ourselves to calling this sort of thing "abuse"?) The offending cleric was transferred from Essen to Munich for "therapy" by a decision of then-Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, and assurances were given that he would no longer have children in his care. But it took no time for Ratzinger's deputy, Vicar General Gerhard Gruber, to return him to "pastoral" work, where he soon enough resumed his career of sexual assault.
It is, of course, claimed, and it will no doubt later be partially un-claimed, that Ratzinger himself knew nothing of this second outrage. I quote, here, from the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a former employee of the Vatican Embassy in Washington and an early critic of the Catholic Church's sloth in responding to child-rape allegations. "Nonsense," he says. "Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He's the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he's trying to do, obviously, is protect the pope."
This is common or garden stuff, very familiar to American and Australian and Irish Catholics whose children's rape and torture, and the cover-up of same by the tactic of moving rapists and torturers from parish to parish, has been painstakingly and comprehensively exposed. It's on a level with the recent belated admission by the pope's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, that while he knew nothing about sexual assault at the choir school he ran between 1964 and 1994, now that he remembers it, he is sorry for his practice of slapping the boys around.
Very much more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the so-called "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" (formerly known as the Inquisition). In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church's own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated "in the most secretive way ... restrained by a perpetual silence ... and everyone ... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office … under the penalty of excommunication." (My italics.) Nobody has yet been excommunicated for the rape and torture of children, but exposing the offense could get you into serious trouble. And this is the church that warns us against moral relativism! (See, for more on this appalling document, two reports in the London Observer of April 24, 2005, by Jamie Doward.)
Not content with shielding its own priests from the law, Ratzinger's office even wrote its own private statute of limitations. The church's jurisdiction, claimed Ratzinger, "begins to run from the day when the minor has completed the 18th year of age" and then lasts for 10 more years. Daniel Shea, the attorney for two victims who sued Ratzinger and a church in Texas, correctly describes that latter stipulation as an obstruction of justice. "You can't investigate a case if you never find out about it. If you can manage to keep it secret for 18 years plus 10, the priest will get away with it."
The next item on this grisly docket will be the revival of the long-standing allegations against the Rev. Marcial Maciel, founder of the ultra-reactionary Legion of Christ, in which sexual assault seems to have been almost part of the liturgy. Senior ex-members of this secretive order found their complaints ignored and overridden by Ratzinger during the 1990s, if only because Father Maciel had been praised by the then-Pope John Paul II as an "efficacious guide to youth." And now behold the harvest of this long campaign of obfuscation. The Roman Catholic Church is headed by a mediocre Bavarian bureaucrat once tasked with the concealment of the foulest iniquity, whose ineptitude in that job now shows him to us as a man personally and professionally responsible for enabling a filthy wave of crime. Ratzinger himself may be banal, but his whole career has the stench of evil—a clinging and systematic evil that is beyond the power of exorcism to dispel. What is needed is not medieval incantation but the application of justice—and speedily at that.



I remember that article when it first came out, thanks for reposting. I really like Hitchens, he is like Gore Vidal in his wit, intelligence, sarcasm, and writing style.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 15, 2013 1:43 pm

Pope Benedict hints he will retire into seclusion

Pope Benedict to seek immunity and protection from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on February 23
Posted on February 14, 2013 by itccs
International Tribunal calls on Napolitano to "not collude in criminality", and announces global campaign to occupy Vatican property and launch human rights inquiry in Italy
Rome

Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, has scheduled a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano for Saturday, February 23 to discuss securing protection and immunity from prosecution from the Italian government, according to Italian media sources.

Ratzinger's meeting follows upon the apparent receipt by the Vatican of a diplomatic note from an undisclosed European government on February 4, stating its intention to issue an arrest warrant for Ratzinger, who resigned from his pontificate less than a week later.

In response to the February 23 meeting, the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS), through its field Secretary, Rev. Kevin Annett, has written to President Napolitano, asking him to refrain from assisting Ratzinger in evading justice.

The ITCCS letter states, in part,

"I need not remind you, Mr. President, that under international law and treaties that have been ratified by Italy, you and your government are forbidden from granting such protection to those like Joseph Ratzinger who have aided and abetted criminal actions, such as ordering Bishops and Cardinals in America and elsewhere to protect known child rapists among their clergy.

"Your obligation to the Vatican through the Lateran Treaty does not negate or nullify the requirements of these higher moral and international laws; nor does it require that you give any protection or immunity to a single individual like Joseph Ratzinger, especially after he has left his papal office."

A copy of the complete text of the ITCCS letter follows.

In response to the documented crimes of child torture, trafficking and genocide linked to Pope Benedict and Vatican officials, the ITCCS will be sponsoring a series of ongoing protests and occupations of Roman Catholic churches and offices through its affiliates around the world beginning in Easter week, March 24-31, 2013, and continuing indefinitely.

These actions will accompany the legal efforts to bring Joseph Ratzinger and other Vatican officials to trial for their proven complicity in crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy.

The Easter Reclamation Campaign will seize church property and assets to prevent their use by child raping priests, who are protected under Catholic canon law. Citizens have this right to defend their communities and children when the authorities refuse to do so, under international law.

Rev. Kevin Annett and an official delegation from the ITCCS Central Office will also be convening a formal human rights inquiry in Rome commencing the week of May 13, 2013, to consider further charges against the Vatican and its new Pope for crimes against humanity and obstruction of justice.

Rev. Annett and his delegation will be working with organizations across Italy in this investigation. In 2009 and 2010, he held rallies outside the Vatican and met with media and human rights groups across Italy to charge the Vatican with the death of more than 50,000 aboriginal children in Canada.



——————-

An Open Letter and Appeal to Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Republic of Italy from Rev. Kevin D. Annett, Secretary of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State

14 February, 2013
Al Presdente della Repubblica Italiana Giorgio Napolitano
Presidenza della Repubblica
c/o Palazzo del Quirinale
00187 Roma
Italia


Dear President Napolitano,

On behalf of our Tribunal and people of conscience everywhere, and of the millions of victims of church abuse, I am making an appeal to you regarding your upcoming meeting with Joseph Ratzinger, who will retire soon as Pope Benedict, the Pontiff of the Church of Rome.

Our understanding is that, in the wake of pressure to have him resign his office because of his proven complicity in concealing child trafficking in his church and other crimes against humanity, Joseph Ratzinger is seeking the assistance of the Italian government in securing protection and immunity from legal prosecution.

I need not remind you, Mr. President, that under international law and treaties that have been ratified by Italy, you and your government are forbidden from granting such protection to those like Jospeh Ratzinger who have aided and abetted criminal actions, such as ordering Bishops and Cardinals in America and elsewhere to protect known child rapists among their clergy.

Your obligation to the Vatican through the Lateran Treaties does not negate or nullify the requirements of these higher moral and international laws; nor does it require that you give any protection or immunity to a single individual like Joseph Ratzinger, especially after he has left his papal office.

The need for you to abide by international law and not be seen to collude with Joseph Ratzinger is even more true when one considers the enormity of the crimes of which the Vatican and its highest officials are clearly guilty, according to considerable evidence gathered and documented by our Tribunal and other groups, and acknowledged by many governments.

In Canada alone, the Roman Catholic Church and its Vatican agents have been found guilty of responsibility for genocide and the deaths of at least 50,000 aboriginal child children in the Jesuit-initiated Indian residential school system, that operated until 1996.

In Ireland, more than 10,000 women suffered and were exploited in the Catholic-run Magdalene Laundries, where many of them died. Similar church-run institutions all over the world have caused enormous mortality, disease and ruination for millions of children. And yet the church has never been held accountable or prosecuted for these deaths and the theft of enormous wealth from entire nations.

With the recent initiative of at least one European government and a host of lawyers to bring Joseph Ratzinger and other church officials to trial for these crimes, we feel it is incumbent on you neither to assist nor to be seen to assist or condone the attempt by him to evade, obstruct or delay justice, lest you open yourself to a charge of being an accessory to a crime.

On behalf of our Tribunal and of many people who cannot speak, I call on you to stand on the law of nations and humanity, and offer no support or protection to Joseph Ratzinger or his accessories in their efforts to evade responsibility for their proven crimes.

I look forward to your reply, and to discussing this with you more when I visit your country in May with a human rights delegation to investigate this matter more closely.

Sincerely,

Kevin D. Annett, M.A., M.Div.

Secretary, The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State
Central Office, Brussels

cc: world media


Category The International Common Law Court of Justice, The Vatican

Pope Benedict resigned to avoid arrest, seizure of church wealth by Easter
Posted on February 13, 2013 by itccs
Diplomatic Note was issued to Vatican just prior to his resignation
New Pope and Catholic clergy face indictment and arrest as "Easter Reclamation" plan continues
A Global Media Release and Statement from The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State
Brussels:

The historically unprecedented resignation of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope this week was compelled by an upcoming action by a European government to issue an arrest warrant against Ratzinger and a public lien against Vatican property and assets by Easter.

The ITCCS Central Office in Brussels is compelled by Pope Benedict's sudden abdication to disclose the following details:

1. On Friday, February 1, 2013, on the basis of evidence supplied by our affiliated Common Law Court of Justice (itccs.org), our Office concluded an agreement with representatives of a European nation and its courts to secure an arrest warrant against Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict, for crimes against humanity and ordering a criminal conspiracy.

2. This arrest warrant was to be delivered to the office of the "Holy See" in Rome on Friday, February 15, 2013. It allowed the nation in question to detain Ratzinger as a suspect in a crime if he entered its sovereign territory.

3. A diplomatic note was issued by the said nation's government to the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, on Monday, February 4, 2013, informing Bertone of the impending arrest warrant and inviting his office to comply. No reply to this note was received from Cardinal Bertone or his office; but six days later, Pope Benedict resigned.

4. The agreement between our Tribunal and the said nation included a second provision to issue a commercial lien through that nation's courts against the property and wealth of the Roman Catholic church commencing on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013. This lien was to be accompanied by a public and global "Easter Reclamation Campaign" whereby Catholic church property was to be occupied and claimed by citizens as public assets forfeited under international law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

5. It is the decision of our Tribunal and the said nation's government to proceed with the arrest of Joseph Ratzinger upon his vacating the office of the Roman Pontiff on a charge of crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy.

6. It is our further decision to proceed as well with the indictment and arrest of Joseph Ratzinger's successor as Pope on the same charges; and to enforce the commercial lien and "Easter Reclamation Campaign" against the Roman Catholic church, as planned.

In closing, our Tribunal acknowledges that Pope Benedict's complicity in criminal activities of the Vatican Bank (IOR) was compelling his eventual dismissal by the highest officials of the Vatican. But according to our sources, Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone forced Joseph Ratzinger's resignation immediately, and in direct response to the diplomatic note concerning the arrest warrant that was issued to him by the said nation's government on February 4, 2013.

We call upon all citizens and governments to assist our efforts to legally and directly disestablish the Vatican, Inc. and arrest its chief officers and clergy who are complicit in crimes against humanity and the ongoing criminal conspiracy to aid and protect child torture and trafficking.

Further bulletins on the events of the Easter Reclamation Campaign will be issued by our Office this week.

Issued 13 February, 2013
12:00 am GMT
by the Brussels Central Office



THANK YOU Allegro :hug1:

Kevin D. Annett | itccs and hiddennolonger
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Feb 15, 2013 2:27 pm

Pope accused of crimes against humanity
The Pope and top Vatican cardinals have been accused of possible crimes against humanity for sheltering guilty Catholic priests, in formal complaints to the International Criminal Court.

Pope Benedict XVI Photo: AFP/GETTY
By Our Foreign Staff 2:51PM BST 13 Sep 2011
The Centre for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based non-profit legal group, requested an ICC inquiry on behalf of the Survivors Network, arguing that the global church has maintained a "long-standing and pervasive system of sexual violence" despite promises to swiftly oust predators.
The Vatican said it had no immediate comment on the complaint.
The complaint names Pope Benedict XVI, partly in his former role as leader of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which in 2001 explicitly gained responsibility for overseeing abuse cases; Cardinal William Levada, who now leads that office; Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state under Pope John Paul II; and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who now holds that post.
Lawyers for the victims say rape, sexual violence and torture are considered a crime against humanity as described in the international treaty that spells out the court's mandate. The complaint also accuses Vatican officials of creating policies that perpetuated the damage, constituting an attack against a civilian population.
Barbara Blaine, president of the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by priests, said going to the court was a last resort.
Related Articles
Senator names and shames priest accused of sexual abuse 13 Sep 2011
Vatican rejects child abuse cover-up claims 03 Sep 2011
Vatican recalls ambassador to Ireland 25 Jul 2011
"We have tried everything we could think of to get them to stop and they won't," she said. "If the Pope wanted to, he could take dramatic action at any time that would help protect children today and in the future, and he refuses to take the action."
The odds against the court opening an investigation are enormous. The prosecutor has received nearly 9,000 independent proposals for inquiries since 2002, when the court was created as the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, and has never opened a formal investigation based solely on such a request.
Instead, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has investigated crimes such as genocide, murder, rape and conscripting child soldiers in conflicts from Darfur to this year's violence in Libya. Such cases have been referred to the court by the countries where the atrocities were perpetrated or by the UN Security Council.
Also, the Holy See is not a member state of the court, meaning prosecutors have no automatic jurisdiction there, although the complaint covers alleged abuse in countries around the world, many of which do recognise the court's jurisdiction.
The prosecutor's office said in a statement the evidence would be studied. "We first have to analyse whether the alleged crimes fall under the Court's jurisdiction," it said.
The Survivors Network and victims are pursuing the case as the abuse scandal, once dismissed as an American problem by the Vatican, intensifies around the world. Thousands of people have come forward in Ireland, Germany and elsewhere with reports of abusive priests, bishops who covered up for them and Vatican officials who moved so slowly to respond that molesters often stayed on the job for decades.
Vatican officials and church leaders elsewhere have apologised repeatedly, clarified or toughened church policies on ousting abusers and, in the US alone, paid out nearly $3 billion in settlements to victims and removed hundreds of priests.
The Vatican is fighting on multiple legal fronts in the US against lawsuits alleging the Holy See is liable for abusive priests.
Those prosecutions also could form an impediment to the ICC taking the case. The tribunal is a court of last resort, meaning it will only take cases where legal authorities elsewhere are unwilling or unable to prosecute.
Also, the court does not investigate crimes that occurred before its 2002 creation. A study commissioned by the US bishops from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York found abuse claims had peaked in the 1970s, then began declining sharply in 1985, as the bishops and society general gained awareness of the problem.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Take Off Your Shoes | Sinéad O’Connor

Postby Allegro » Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:46 pm

SLAD, Annett must have kept the lion charging! I would not have known had it not been for you. Thank You :hug1:

And thanks to Jeff for posting again Sinéad O’Connor’s song on another page.

^ Take Off Your Shoes | Sinéad O’Connor
http://www.sineadoconnor.com/
Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away.
~ Timothy White (b 1952), American rock music journalist
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For protection, Joseph Ratzinger will hide in the Vatican.

Postby Allegro » Sat Feb 16, 2013 7:02 pm

Roman Church admits the Pope’s Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and “protection”
Posted on February 16, 2013 by itccs

    Exclusive Breaking News: Friday February 15, 2013
    12 midnight GMT
    An Urgent Update from the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) – Brussels

    Rome:

    In a statement to Reuters today, Vatican officials announced that Joseph Ratzinger will remain a permanent resident of Vatican City after his resignation. Doing so will offer him legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources said today.

    “His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless”.

    This startling admission of guilt by the church is also a direct obstruction of justice, and lends more weight to the charge by the ITCCS and others that the Vatican has arranged with the Italian government to shield Ratzinger from criminal prosecution, in violation of international laws ratified by Italy.

    Commentary:

    The Vatican decided today to give permanent sanctuary to a proven war criminal by allowing Joseph Ratzinger to obstruct justice and evade prosecution for crimes against humanity. And the government of Italy is colluding in this abrogation of international law.

    This decision validates our claims about the criminal conspiracy surrounding Ratzinger and his Vatican co-conspirators. It also makes it clear that the Vatican is a rogue power that is flaunting every law to conceal its own criminality.

    In response, the ITCCS calls upon its affiliates and all people of conscience to use our upcoming Easter Reclamation Campaign to converge on Rome and the Vatican to force the extradition of Ratzinger from Vatican City, and place him and his accessories on trial for crimes against humanity.

    Commencing Sunday, March 24, 2013, our activists and others will begin an escalating series of Catholic church occupations and seizures of church property to bring about Ratzinger’s extradition and reclaim stolen wealth from the criminal corporation known as Vatican Inc. – in the name of the legion of their victims, both living and dead.

    .. and from Kevin Annett – The Rat Scurries Back to Vat!

    Those whom the gods destroy, they first drive insane. Especially, it seems, in Rome.

    Why would the oldest and wealthiest institution on our planet deliberately prove what its critics say about it, by first tossing their leader, a proven crook, out of his office after he’s threatened with arrest, and then giving him shelter to avoid prosecution? That’s the kind of panic and illogic displayed by a junior document-shredder, not a credible or wise body of men.

    And that gives all of us hope.

    Rome’s incredible admission that they can’t have the Pope stand trial has strengthened our cause and legitimacy enormously, proving that no matter how big is your guilty opponent, provoking him for long enough will cause him to destroy himself by his own fear and stupidity.

    Protecting Ratzinger within the walls of the Vatican may halt justice for a moment, but it violates a basic rule of warfare, which is to never give your enemy a permanent focus for their attack. Ratzinger, the evil Emperor, now a permanent fixture in the Vatican? The absurdity of offering such an ongoing focus to the civilized world’s hatred of catholic criminality is also a sign that the church is adrift and improvising. But it also shows how genuinely worried is the Vtaican about the legal offensive mounted by our affiliates, lawyers for torture survivors, and the International Criminal Court.

    The Vatican is pulling out all stops to keep Ratzinger out of court. Their loyal, one-man owned Italian media is assaulting the crap out of yours truly and our ITCCS these days, playing the “Deny, Distract and Discredit” strategy of any damage-controlling corporation.

    Tottering Liz Windsor, aka Queen of England, is making a special and unprecedented trip to Rome on March 6 to kiss the ring, or other parts, of the new CEO of Vatican Inc. And Italian President Napolitano is meeting with President Obama today in Washington to undoubtedly line up more American backing for the Pontiff – not that Obama needs much encouraging, having stood loyally behind Ratzinger’s claim of “diplomatic immunity”.

    But all to no avail, ultimately. When the Bloody Emperor stands naked, only our illusions keeps him protected and immune from the final accounting that is coming.

    The tornado that followed my first exorcism outside the Vatican in 2009, and the lightning that struck it on the day of Benedict’s resignation, were not accidental. Joe Ratzinger should know from the history of his own former SS buddies that criminal institutions can run, but they can’t hide – even behind all the wealth and pomp in the world.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby elfismiles » Sun Feb 17, 2013 10:45 am


Pope resignation update: RI judge releases “Legion of Christ” docs
2/16/2013 10:00am by Gaius Publius

This is an update to our earlier post about Pope Benedict (former Cardinal Ratzinger) and his possible reasons for resigning from the papacy. For the details, click here; the short version is that as cardinal, Ratzinger oversaw the response of the Church to many sex scandals.

Among the worst of the scandals were those involving the highly charismatic, sexually prolific, and Vatican-favored Fr. Marcial Maciel and his powerful organization the “Legion of Christ.” Pope John Paul II was a huge Maciel fan, Maciel was a money machine for the Pope (more on that below) and sent lots of his takings to the Pope, and Ratzinger at the time was John Paul’s “enforcer” with regard to sex scandals.

A tricky combo. Ratzinger and his Vatican organization the CDF (formerly know as “the Inquisition” — seriously) oversaw the response to all of the child-sex scandals, including the ones involving Pope John Paul’s golden goose, Fr. Maciel and the Legion of Christ. Ratzinger, John Paul, and Maciel are knee-deep in each other’s history.

We know what the Vatican response to decades of scandal looked like from the outside — an obvious and massive worldwide cover-up of global criminal activity. To read one example of how the Church responded to just one set of criminal revelations, try this: “Catholic Church enslaved 30,000 Irish women as forced unpaid labor in Magdalene Laundries until 1996” — horrible stuff; truly the devil at work. Or consider the cushy retirement of Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law, or former New York Cardinal Edward Egan’s retracted apology for the child-sex scandal (Egan now says the church didn’t do anything wrong.)

Vatican-City_640px-St_Peter's_Square,_Vatican_City_-_April_2007Now thanks to a woman in Rhode Island, we may get a look at the Papal cover-up process from the inside. She has a lawsuit against Maciel’s Legion of Christ for defrauding her now-dead aunt out of $60 million, by influencing her to rewrite her will. This suit has been going on for years. A Rhode Island judge has just ordered all documents in that suit be made public.

That’s all documents; according to the lawyer for the plaintiff, there are “yards” of them — all depositions, all discovery, everything will be made public. If anything involving the Legion of Christ’s relationship with the Vatican — and in particular John Paul and Ratzinger — is in those documents, they will be public as well.

No one knows (yet) what’s in them except the lawyers, but we’re about to find out. For fans of fixing the Church, this is good news indeed. Again, click to see just how closely tied Maciel, John Paul, and Ratzinger were; it’s an interesting story all on its own.

News first, then some public speculation, then a glimpse of the scale of the alleged fraud itself.

■ First the news, from David Klepper at the AP, who’s been following this closely (my emphasis and some reparagraphing):

RI ruling means release of Legion of Christ docs

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Documents related to a disgraced Roman Catholic organization called the Legion of Christ could soon be unsealed and available to the public following a decision Thursday by the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

The state’s high court issued an order declining to delay the release of the sealed documents, which are related to a lawsuit contesting the will of a woman who left $60 million to the Legion. … The documents could be available as early as Friday [February 15]].

The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Providence Journal and the National Catholic Reporter had asked a Superior Court judge to unseal the documents, saying there was no justification to withhold documents that could shed light on the Legion’s operations. … Depending on how the documents are stored, some could be available Friday, according to Joseph Cavanagh, the attorney for the media organizations.

From another AP story on the release of documents:

[Plaintiff Mary Lou] Dauray’s lawyer, Bernard Jackvony, said Friday that the documents being released show an orchestrated effort by higher-ups at the Legion to get Mee’s money and cover up Maciel’s misdeeds. … Among the documents being released are depositions given by top-ranking leadership of the Legion, including the Rev. Anthony Bannon, who was once Maciel’s deputy, and the Rev. Luis Garza, current head of the Legion’s North American operations.

Keep in mind that the charismatic Maciel frequently abused (or seduced) the seminarians in the Legion itself.

■ For more on what this means, we have this is from the Global Post:

The release of the voluminous court records by Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein came within days of the stunning resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, who ordered an investigation into allegations against Legion founder Fr. Marcial Maciel when Benedict played a powerful prosecutorial role in the Vatican as a cardinal and again in the early years of his papacy.

These documents are expected to shed new light on a scandal Benedict inherited from John Paul II, whose unwavering support of Maciel, even after allegations against him were filed in the Vatican in 1998, bolstered Legion fundraising campaigns. Pope Benedict’s trip to Mexico last year ignited a blaze of negative media coverage due to his failure to meet with sexual victims of the late Father Maciel, who symbolized the global scandal that has cast a shadow on Benedict and his papacy.

■ Even before he was made pope, Ratzinger was oddly touchy about his role in the Maciel scandal:

Then, four years ago, some of the men tried a last ditch effort, taking the unusual step of filing a lawsuit in the Vatican’s secretive court, seeking Macial’s excommunication.

Once again they laid out their evidence, but it was another futile effort — an effort the men say was blocked by one of the most powerful cardinals in the Vatican.

The accusers say Vatican-based Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican office to safeguard the faith and the morals of the church, quietly made the lawsuit go away and shelved it. There was no investigation and the accusers weren’t asked a single question or asked for a statement.

He was appointed by the pope to investigate the entire sex abuse scandal in the church in recent days. But when approached by ABCNEWS in Rome last week with questions of allegations against Maciel, Ratzinger became visibly upset and actually slapped this reporter’s hand.

■ And for details of the alleged fraud itself, the Global Post article also points this out:

Fleet Bank, which later merged with Bank of America, facilitated the Legion’s access to the flow of money from Mee and the charitable trust of her late husband, Timothy. According to Jackvony, the bank should have maintained a wall between its duty to administer a trust and the Legion’s aggressive action to gain control of the funds.

“The Legion’s business relationship as a customer of the bank facilitated a sharing of information on the Mee trust that should have been kept in confidence,” Jackvony said. With access to the trust and Mee’s donations, the Legion bought a $35 million corporate campus from IBM in Thornwood, N.Y. in the 1990s.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs stated that the Legion used Mrs. Mee “like a piggy bank. They saw her as an economic engine and used her for $30 million in donations for 16 years. The defrauding of Mrs. Mee looms over this entire case.” Something needs to break the Vatican wide open. Let’s hope these documents will do it.

Side note: I agree with this commenter that we need to stop calling this behavior “sexual abuse” and start calling it by its real names — rape and torture. “Abuse” minimizes the horror that many victims went through. You can practice this as you speak about it. It’s not a “sex abuse” scandal; it’s a “child rape” scandal. In the case of the Magdelene Laundry children, it’s a “child slavery” scandal. Words count, which is why the other side distorts them so often.

GP

http://americablog.com/2013/02/pope-res ... -docs.html
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby lupercal » Sun Feb 17, 2013 11:54 am

^^ elfie, this is absolutely not a personal criticism, so I hope you won't mind if I take your post as a particularly shameless example of a rhetorical swindle I've pointed out a few times already here on RI: when filtered through the BBC-Murdoch media and its ilk, any complaint against the RCC gets amplified into "child rape," despite the fact that when we get down to brass tacks, there's typically no there there.

Take this article, for instance: I can find only two actual complaints of wrongdoing, one a grotesque exaggeration -- "Catholic Church enslaved 30,000 Irish women as forced unpaid labor in Magdalene Laundries until 1996" -- that renders the the word "enslaved" ridiculous and makes no attempt whatever to support an allegation of child rape except in the imagination of the reader.

The second complaint is an alleged clerical shakedown of an elderly widow that, per the article, is still being litigated. As far as such shakedowns go, there wouldn't be religious establishments Catholic or otherwise if there weren't widows bequeathing fortunes to them, period. That's the way it goes and has gone for two millennia. If the aggrieved relations can wrestle a few million back, fine, but unless an actual crime such as forgery, fraud, or extortion has been committed, which I very much doubt, they're probably SOL if auntie signed away her nest egg to the golden-tongued priest. AFAIK Maciel was an ordained cleric representing an established church, not a fly-by-night Elmer Gantry, and if the docs were legal, well, niece can take comfort knowing it went to a good cause, namely paying off the current pack of sex-crime litigants and their attorneys. But once again, no "child rape" or anything close to it.

And yet the article concludes with this righteous boilerplate:

    Side note: I agree with this commenter that we need to stop calling this behavior “sexual abuse” and start calling it by its real names — rape and torture. “Abuse” minimizes the horror that many victims went through. You can practice this as you speak about it. It’s not a “sex abuse” scandal; it’s a “child rape” scandal.
How the author gets child rape out of either complaint is a wonder, especially as he concludes with this unintended self-indictment: "Words count, which is why the other side distorts them so often." Why yes, they do, and yes, he does. :shrug:
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:29 pm



'Dirty War' priest gets life term

Von Wernich showed no emotion as he was sentenced
A court in Argentina has convicted a former Roman Catholic police chaplain of collaborating in murders during the country's military rule.
Christian Von Wernich, 69, was convicted for involvement in seven murders, 42 abductions and 31 cases of torture during the 1976-83 "Dirty War".

Survivors say he passed information he obtained from prisoners to the police.

As he was sentenced, Father Von Wernich showed no emotion. Protesters torched his effigy outside the court.

The trial in the town of La Plata, 60km (35 miles) south of Buenos Aires, had lasted for three months.

Father Von Wernich initially avoided prosecution by moving to Chile, where he worked as a priest under a false name.

However, he was eventually tracked down by investigators and extradited to Argentina in 2003 when amnesty laws passed at the end of military rule were declared unconstitutional.

Participant

At the trial, several former prisoners said the former Roman Catholic priest used his office to win their trust before passing information to police torturers and killers in secret detention centres.


False testimony is of the devil, because he is responsible for malice and is the father of evil and lies
Christian Von Wernich

Q&A: Argentina's grim past
They say he attended several torture sessions and absolved the police of blame, telling them they were doing God's work.

"Von Wernich participated assiduously and maintained direct contacts with the detainees," the prosecution said in its indictment.

Father Von Wernich's lawyers said the case against him had more doubts than certainties and that he had been obliged to visit police detention centres as part of his duties.

The priest said he had never violated the prohibition against revealing information obtained in the sacrament of confession and accused those torture victims who gave evidence in court of being influenced by the devil.

"False testimony is of the devil, because he is responsible for malice and is the father of evil and lies," he said.

Outrage

Once the judge announced the sentence, observers inside the courthouse erupted with relief and jubilation. Outside, crowds cheered and set off fireworks.


Human rights activists and former prisoners celebrated the verdict
"It's a historic day, a wonderful day... it's something we mothers didn't think we'd live to see," said Tati Almeyda, a member of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of women seeking their sons and daughters who disappeared under military rule.

"Justice has been done. The Catholic Church was an accomplice," she told the Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Daniel Schweimler in Buenos Aires says Father Von Wernich's actions caused particular outrage in Argentina because he had abused the trust that believers placed in him.

While human rights activists and survivors will be celebrating the verdict, they will now shift their attention to the Roman Catholic Church in Argentina, our correspondent says.

The Church remained silent on the case ahead of the verdict, but it will again face questions about the role it played during military rule, he adds.

Between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed or disappeared before Argentina returned to civilian rule with the election of President Raul Alfonsin in October 1983
.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby lupercal » Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:43 pm

^ from the great complainer about British abuses comes a steady stream of same:

seemslikeadream wrote:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7035294.stm


:doh:

hypocrisy thy name is SLaD
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 17, 2013 2:04 pm

Téigh trasna ort féin

from indymedia irleand - saormheain eireann

Catholic Priest convicted for kidnapping, murder and torture
international | miscellaneous | other press Dé Céadaoin Deireadh Fómhair 10, 2007 18:09 by Guy de Cervens
The first Argentinean Roman Catholic priest charged with killings, torture and kidnapping was convicted and sentenced to life on Tuesday. Father Christian von Wernich was convicted on all counts: 7 murders, 31 cases of torture and 42 kidnappings between 1976 and 1983 when the military ran Argentina with the support of the Catholic Church.

Father Von Werner - Murderer, Torturer and kidnapper

Over 70 witnesses testified that Father von Wernich conspired with police to help extract information from prisoners under the guise of giving them spiritual assistance. Father Von Wernich was linked to at least five detention camps in Buenos Aires where clandestine torture and murder was carried out.

Father Von Wernich also denied revealing information obtained in confession even though he had. He professed his innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence and pleaded with the judge to reprieve him.

13,000 people are officially listed as dead or missing during the dictatorship but human rights groups have put the number at 30,000.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 17, 2013 2:15 pm

Kathy's story : a childhood hell inside the Magdalen laundries / Kathy O'Beirne

Image
Summary In 'Kathy's Story', the author recounts her tragic experiences in unflinching detail, along the way stirring up many extreme emotions. She details her will to survive horrific circumstances and her subsequent fight for justice.

Description Kathy O'Beirne's earliest memories are of being battered and sexually abused. Unable to confide in anyone about the beatings she regularly received from her father or about the boys who made her play dirty games, she became withdrawn and self-destructive, leading a psychiatrist to diagnose her as 'a child with a troublesome mind'. As a result, aged only eight, Kathy was removed from the family home and incarcerated in a series of institutions. In the first, a reformatory school run by a holy order on behalf of the Irish State, she was raped by a visiting priest. When she tried to get help, she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, where the abuse continued, along with the administration of large amounts of drugs and electric shock treatment. At the age of twelve, Kathy was sent to a Magdalen laundry. These notorious workhouses operated in Ireland throughout the twentieth century and during that time thousands of young girls, some orphans, some pregnant and some considered 'at risk' in the community, were forced to slave in horrendous conditions.;Locked away from their families and the outside world, many of the girls were cruelly punished and sexually abused by the staff or lay visitors. Kathy fell victim to one of these predators and gave birth to baby Annie just weeks before her fourteenth birthday. The little girl had a serious bowel condition but lived to the age of ten, providing the only light in Kathy's blighted life. After all that she has suffered, Kathy has now come forward to tell her harrowing story in the hope that more will be done to help survivors of institutional abuse. She recounts her tragic experiences in unflinching detail but what is most remarkable is the strength of character that shines through such a dark tale. It is this strength that has enabled her to survive and fired her continuing struggle for justice.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 17, 2013 2:30 pm

Alessandro Vantini, told the AP last year that priests sodomized him so relentlessly he came to feel “as if I were dead.”

Pedophilia in the Catholic Church: Coverup Operation at the Vatican?

Pope Ratzinger's Swan Song

By Mike Whitney
Global Research, March 31, 2010
30 March 2010

Pope Benedict should do everyone a favor and resign. By hanging on, he’s just making matters worse. Who does he think he’s fooling anyway? Everyone knows that he was involved in the sex-scandal cover up. Does he really think that a few papal apologies will make a difference? He was in charge and knew everything that was going on. That makes him responsible. His best option now is to “man up” and face the consequences. He needs to arrange a press conference, tell the truth, and resign. End of story.

It’s clear that the problem isn’t going to go away. In the last week, three more incidents have surfaced adding more fuel to the fire. In Wisconsin, Father Lawrence Murphy abused as many as 200 boys at a Milwaukee school for the deaf. One of the victims, Arthur Budzinski, has been all over TV telling his story and blaming the pope. It’s pretty heart-wrenching stuff, too. According to Budzinski’s daughter Gigi:

“The pope knew about this. He was the one who handled the sex abuse cases. So, I think he should be accountable, because he did nothing.”

This is bad. Anyone can see that the Vatican was shuffling predators from one spot to another trying to keep the details out of the news. Maybe Benedict thought he was doing the right thing? Maybe he thought he was just being loyal or protecting the church from litigation? Who knows what he thought; it’s beside the point. The bottom line is that people’s lives have been ruined and someone has to pay.

Here’s another bombshell which appeared in the Associated Press last week:

“In a signed statement last year, the 67 former pupils at a school for the deaf in Verona described sexual abuse, pedophilia and corporal punishment from the 1950s to the 1980s. They named 24 priests, brothers and lay religious men at the Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf.

One victim, Alessandro Vantini, told the AP last year that priests sodomized him so relentlessly he came to feel “as if I were dead.”

“How could I tell my papa that a priest had sex with me?” Vantini, 59, said through a sign-language interpreter. “You couldn’t tell your parents because the priests would beat you.” (“Sex abuse scandal in US, Italy taints papacy”, Nicole Winfield, AP)

67 victims here, 200 victims there; this is industrial-scale sex abuse, a veritable pedophile conveyor belt!

Naturally, the Vatican has circled the wagons and is lashing out at the media. But it’s a hopeless cause. As the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger (as Benedict was known at the time) took steps to silence priests who wanted to reveal what they knew. In a 2001 letter to the bishops, Benedict “ordered them to keep sexual abuse allegations secret under threat of excommunication – updating a noxious church policy… that both priests accused of sex crimes and their victims “observe the strictest secret” and be “restrained by a perpetual silence.” (Washington Post)

This is obstruction of justice, and Benedict should be prosecuted. No man is above the law; not even the pope. Religious freedom isn’t license to rape children.

Benedict’s letter helps to illustrate a larger point, too. It shows that the sex abuse scandal isn’t really about sex abuse at all. It’s about the people in positions of authority who violated the public’s trust. That’s the real story. It’s about people who pretend to be “spiritual advisers”, but don’t even do the right thing when a child is sexually molested. And, these are the people who are giving advice on issues like homosexuality and birth control?

Benedict has also been implicated in a German case involving Father Peter Hullermann who was suspended from his duties but then, allowed to return to work “without restrictions” as a priest in Munich, even though a psychiatrist described him as a potential danger.

According to the New York Times: “In September 1979, the chaplain (Hullermann) was removed from his congregation after three sets of parents told his superior, the Rev. Norbert Essink, that he had molested their sons, charges he did not deny, according to notes taken by the superior and still in Father Hullermann’s personnel file… “Reports from the congregation in which he was last active made us aware that Chaplain Hullermann presented a danger that caused us to immediately withdraw him from pastoral duties.”

Hullermann was allowed to return to his parish work on Feb. 1, 1980. He was finally convicted in 1986 of molesting boys in Bavaria.

Can you see a pattern here? These are more than isolated incidents. It’s like some gruesome papal crime-ring; Ratzinger’s Sopranos.

A few weeks ago, Benedict issued an apology to Catholics in Ireland for decades of cruelty and abuse. In the papal communique Benedict opined, “I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way Church authorities in Ireland dealt with them.”

Benedict’s comments are predictably insincere. He knew exactly what was going on. As Catholic theologian, Hans Kueng points out:

“There was not a single man in the whole Catholic Church who knew more about the sex-abuse cases than him, because it was ex officio (part of his official role)… “He can’t wag his finger at the bishops and say, you didn’t do enough. He gave the instruction himself, as head of the Congregation of Doctrine of the Faith, and repeated it as Pope.”

Sinead O’Connor, Irish musician and abuse-victim, was so incensed by Benedict’s fake empathy, she wrote a fiery article for the Washington Post where she said:

“Irish Catholics are in a dysfunctional relationship with an abusive organization. The pope must take responsibility for the actions of his subordinates. If Catholic priests are abusing children, it is Rome, not Dublin, that must answer for it with a full confession and a criminal investigation. Until it does, all good Catholics… should avoid Mass. In Ireland, it is time we separated our God from our religion, and our faith from its alleged leaders.”

This case goes way beyond the sleazy details of one man’s repeated attempts to conceal the criminal activities of serial molesters and child rapists. The real issue is whether people in positions of power are to be held accountable for their actions and whether the law really applies to everyone equally and without exception. That’s what’s at stake here. Ratzinger needs to be indicted, prosecuted and – if found guilty – sentenced to prison.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby Hammer of Los » Sun Feb 17, 2013 2:36 pm

...

hypocrisy thy name is SLaD


Loopy, you got one hell of a fucking nerve.

Seriously man.

I'd say the hypocrisy is in the roman church, not in those who point it out.

...
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby lupercal » Sun Feb 17, 2013 2:53 pm

^ ask SLaD if she's paid a nickel in the last 20 years toward the retirement of clergy who ran that Catholic school she likes to brag about. That's collection plate money and if she has I'd be very surprised.

As for hypocrisy, when Britain returns the property it stole from British and Irish churches in the 1530s and 40s, at a fair price with interest and with damages for losses, I'll think about giving a shit what BBC spooks and professional liars (same thing) have to say about anything including the Vatican.
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Re: Pope to resign (first in 600 years)

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:02 pm

lupercal wrote:^ ask SLaD if she's paid a nickel in the last 20 years toward the retirement of clergy who ran that Catholic school she likes to brag about. That's collection plate money and if she has I'd be very surprised.

As for hypocrisy, when Britain returns the property it stole from British and Irish churches in the 1530s and 40s, at a fair price with interest and with damages for losses, I'll think about giving a shit what BBC spooks and professional liars (same thing) have to say about anything including the Vatican.



Show me where I bragged about that Catholic school I don't know what the fuck you are talking about...and I have paid in spades psychologically for the lessons the nuns and priest bestowed on me and my family...and now you want me to fund their retirement???? Are you fuckin' shittin' me? The Catholic Church should be paying me!
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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