Did Pope Ratzinger Abdicate Over A Much Worse Boy Rape Scandal In The Vatican Hierarchy Than Has Ever Been Reported Before?

Gays? Where?

There are all sorts of reasons being given for Benedict's unprecedented abdication and his decision to be shut up, incommunicado, in a cloister for the rest of his life. On the positive side, he could have done it because he knew he was no longer physically and mentally (or even spiritually) up to the job and wanted to do the right thing for the organization and for the more than a billion Catholics who profess at least a nominal allegiance to his sect. More discerning critiques said the Pope stepped aside because of another in a series of scandals involving the Vatican Bank.

But what about the predilection of Catholic priests for getting up into the pants of the young children of their faithful? Conventional wisdom among the Catholic hierarchy is that boy rape is just confined to a few hundred rogue priests here and there with maybe a bit of cover-up by compassionate higher-ups once in a while. A series of scandals along these lines have cost the Vatican billions of dollars in payoffs and fines. But no top Vatican officials have been charged, let alone tried or imprisoned, despite evidence that the cover-up was orchestrated by the Pope and his henchmen themselves. And is it just lowly priests who are addicted to sex with underage children? What about when the lowly priests ascend the ladder of authority and become bishops and cardinals? Does that happen too?

The biggest newspaper in Italy, La Repubblica, reports that some top Vatican prelates were indeed boinking the boys-- and being blackmailed by males prostitutes to keep it under wraps. The Pope is neither confirming nor denying the devastating reports. “What’s coming out is very detailed X-ray of the Roman Curia that does not spare even the closest collaborators of the Pope,” wrote respected Vatican expert Ignazio Ingrao in the magazine Panorama. “The Pope was no stranger to the intrigues, but he probably did not know that under his pontificate there was such a complex network and such intricate chains of personal interests and unmentionable relationships.”

The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign-- the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair.

Last May Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with having stolen and leaked papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting.

According to La Repubblica, the dossier comprising "two volumes of almost 300 pages-- bound in red" had been consigned to a safe in the papal apartments and would be delivered to the pope's successor upon his election.

The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were "united by sexual orientation."

In an apparent quotation from the report, La Repubblica said some Vatican officials had been subject to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of a "worldly nature." The paper said this was a clear reference to blackmail.

It quoted a source "very close to those who wrote [the cardinal's report]" as saying: "Everything revolves around the non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments."

The seventh enjoins against theft. The sixth forbids adultery, but is linked in Catholic doctrine to the proscribing of homosexual acts.

La Repubblica said the cardinals' report identified a series of meeting places in and around Rome. They included a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said: "Neither the cardinals' commission nor I will make comments to confirm or deny the things that are said about this matter. Let each one assume his or her own responsibilities. We shall not be following up on the observations that are made about this."

He added that interpretations of the report were creating "a tension that is the opposite of what the pope and the church want" in the approach to the conclave of cardinals that will elect Benedict's successor. Another Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, alluded to the dossier soon after the pope announced his resignation on 11 February, describing its contents as "disturbing."

...La Repubblica's report was the latest in a string of claims that a gay network exists in the Vatican. In 2007 a senior official was suspended from the congregation, or department, for the priesthood, after he was filmed in a "sting" organised by an Italian television programme while apparently making sexual overtures to a younger man.

In 2010 a chorister was dismissed for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. A few months later a weekly news magazine used hidden cameras to record priests visiting gay clubs and bars and having sex.

Just pretending to be gay... for research on those awful homosexuals. Ever hear that one before? Watch this tepid report from CNN:

Jesus Died For Somebody's Sins, But...

Roland and I are getting ready for our trip to Kerala. I was there in 1970, driving between Goa and Sri Lanka. I've never been back and Roland, who loves India and has been there several times, has never seen Kerala except on YouTube. He asked me what I could remember from my trip there over 40 years ago. A lot of lush green, a broken down, abandoned old synagogue and dacoits who had put a big boulder in the middle of the road so they could rob us (although they screwed it up and we were able to drive around the boulder). I'm not great with specifics. Oh, and I remember that if you ate in a "high class" joint the food was served on a banana leaf; otherwise they just slopped it down onto the table in front of you.

I'm so bad at remembering specifics though. I remember impressions but almost never details. Roland's great at it. He remembers every little detail of everything. He describes meals we ate in restaurants in towns I don't even remember going to. With all the hubbub in Israel-Palestine last week, he asked me if I remembered much about our trip to the West Bank. I recalled the Israeli Army presence in Bethelhem on Christmas Eve and I remember it was cold and that we saw the spot where Jesus was born. Roland put his head in it in the hopes he'd keep his hair and then told me to put my head in it so my hair would grow back. I didn't-- and it didn't. He's 40 already and no signs of baldness whatsoever. And then, yesterday I was struck with the revelation that Jesus might not have even been born in the silver encased spot Roland put his head on His birthday eve-- nor was that even remotely His birthday.

Pope Benedict, the Nazi Pope, has a brand new book out, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives. Ratzinger, the Nazi Pope, claims Jesus was born several years earlier than Christian bullshit tradition has always asserted. But no one knows what year, what month, what day or even where. And, despite public nativity scenes that are so crucial to Fox News' War Against Christmas ratings drive, there were no oxen, donkeys or other animals at Jesus's birth. Nazi Pope: "There is no mention of animals in the Gospels" but he continues "No one will give up the oxen and the donkey in their Nativity scenes."

The belief that animals were in the stable where Christ was born has proved an enduring tradition even in the Vatican-- the elaborate Nativity scene set up in St Peter's Square in the weeks before Christmas each year has featured livestock such as sheep. Virgin birth, on the other hand, that's absolutely true, "an 'unequivocal' pillar of Christian belief," according to the Nazi Pope. But where Jesus was born... well, the Nazi Pope has something to say about that too; he says Bethelhem, not Nazareth. Thank goodness!

John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oriel College, Oxford University, said most academics agreed with the Pope that the Christian calendar was wrong and that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly thought, probably between 6BC and 4BC.

"There is no reference to when he was born in the Bible-- all we know is that he was born in the reign of Herod the Great, who died before 1AD," he told the Daily Telegraph. "It's been surmised for a very long time that Jesus was born before 1AD-- no one knows for sure."

The idea that Christ was born on Dec 25 also has no basis in historical fact. "We don't even know which season he was born in. The whole idea of celebrating his birth during the darkest part of the year is probably linked to pagan traditions and the winter solstice."

..."The accounts of Matthew and Luke are not myths taken a stage further. They are firmly rooted, in terms of their basic conception, in the biblical tradition of God the Creator and Redeemer," he writes.

The virgin birth and the story of Christ's resurrection were "cornerstones of faith."

...The Pope also sounded a note of caution over the popular belief that angels sang to the shepherds to proclaim Christ's birth, as recalled in the Christmas carol "Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the new-born King."

He writes that when the gospels refer to the "heavenly host" of angels "praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest," they in fact spoke the words rather than sang them.

"According to the evangelist, the angels "said" this," Benedict writes. "But Christianity has always understood that the speech of angels is actually song, in which all the glory of the great joy that they proclaim becomes tangibly present."

The misunderstanding spawned the tradition of carol singing, the Pope said. "To this day... simple believers join in their caroling on the Holy Night, proclaiming in song the great joy that, from then until the end of time, is bestowed on all people."

I don't want to get Roland crazy about his hair falling out, so I'll just keep this whole thing to myself. And there is still just one partridge in a pear tree.

From 2001 Forward Every Single Priest Sex Abuse Case Went To Ratzinger

The Vatican is finally holding one of its own accountable, but not a member of the pedophile ring that has completely taken over the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy or of the financial swindlers who run the Vatican. Instead, they're punishing a whistleblower, the fascist Pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison "for leaking confidential documents to the media."

Mr. Gabriele, 46, remained impassive as the chief judge, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, pronounced the sentence “in the name of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning,” in a wood-paneled room in the Vatican City tribunal, in a nondescript palazzo near to the apse of St. Peter’s Square.

The verdict capped one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent Vatican history after a tell-all book based on dozens of the documents leaked by Mr. Gabriele revealed accusations of financial misdeeds, infighting and widespread tensions within the Vatican.

The court formally sentenced Mr. Gabriele to three years in prison and required him to pay court costs. But the sentence was reduced to 18 months after the court acknowledged several extenuating circumstances, including the butler’s public recognition that he had betrayed the pope’s trust. The court also took into account Mr. Gabriele’s belief, “albeit erroneously” that his motivations for leaking the documents had been pure.

Before the verdict, Mr. Gabriele addressed the court and told the three judges: “I am not a thief.”

Speaking with little emotion in his voice, Mr. Gabriele said that “he felt the strong conviction deep inside to have acted exclusively for love, a visceral love, for the church” and the pope.

For several months, beginning in November, the butler gave a number of documents to a journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi, who published many of them in the book “His Holiness: the Secret Papers of Pope Benedict XVI.” The most embarrassing revelations pointed to alleged misdeeds within the Vatican’s administration and its chief financial institution.

Two weeks after the book was published in May, Mr. Gabriele was arrested when hundreds of photocopied documents were found in his apartment inside Vatican City, where he lived with his wife and their three children. Mr. Gabriele spent nearly two months in a holding cell at the Vatican before being released to house arrest.

The Pope is said to be considering pardoning his former butler. Normally Vatican criminals don't get convicted of anything or even face trial. The real Vatican crimes get covered up-- and very, very systematically. In Chris Hayes' book about the crisis of authority, Twilight Of The Elites, he gets into the notorious case of Jesuit child rapist John Leary, then president of Gonzaga University in Spokane. Hayes' point was not about the rapes, per se, but about the cover-up, which went beyond the Church right into the police department. Instead of arresting Leary, the police just told him to get out of town within 24 hours. That kind of thing happens all the time when elites are caught in criminal acts. It's rare, for example, that a congressman is arrested and tried for his crimes. They're just told to resign and disappear. Mark Foley may be the most recently notorious of that lot but even more recently Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) was caught in serial electoral fraud and was let off the hook by the Michigan Attorney General (a "law and order" Republican) in return for a resignation. No arrest, no trial, no accountability. McCotter will be back on top of the world in no time. Foley, by the way, was a guest on Bill Maher's show Friday night.

Because Leary was a brilliant and charming university president, his case hasn't ever been treated for what it was, a serials of grubby criminal attacks on young boys.

[I]n 1965, Leary spotted a young adolescent boy of around 12, who lived in the neighborhood near Gonzaga University, riding his bicycle by the school. Leary lured the boy into his office and molested him. University officials found out about it somehow and called a meeting with the boy. They asked if Leary had done anything inappropriate. He explained what happened, said attorney Michael Pfau, who is representing the alleged victim in the planned lawsuit.

According to Pfau, the officials said, "Don't tell your parents; we'll take care of it."

And take care of it they apparently did, orchestrating a stunning cover-up that allowed Leary to expand his pedagogical legend despite allegations that he'd abused several boys. He left Spokane, and Gonzaga in 1969 at the private insistence of the Spokane police. The university said he left for "health reasons."

...In 1965, an 18-year-old freshman at the Jesuit Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., learned he'd landed a plum assignment.

The boy was from a Washington family of committed Catholics. He was considering a vocation in the priesthood... The idea was that the Gonzaga student would drive Rev. Leary to a town across the state where the university president was speaking. They'd rent separate hotel rooms, spend the night, and drive back to the university. According to the boy's now late-middle-aged recollections, he fell asleep in his own bed. Leary stripped naked, got on top of the sleeping boy, and tried to penetrate him. Leary wasn't extremely violent, but he was forceful, persistent, and the boy had to fight Leary off. Eventually, Leary relented and made up an excuse for his behavior.

The next day Leary persisted, this time talking about sexual matters, embarrassing the young man. The few hours' drive home was excruciating, he recalls, according to Doug Spruance, a Washington state attorney representing the former student in possible litigation over the alleged attack. Because of the nature of the case, Spruance did not name his client, nor make him available to interview.

The young man became depressed. His grades plummeted. He dropped out, and remained bitter during the next 40 years that he'd been unable to complete his college education.

Soon after there was an agreement between the Jesuits and the Spokane police "under which Leary wouldn't face charges of molesting victims if he left town within 24 hours." He went on molesting boys in similar situations for years to come. As the biggest newspaper in eastern Washington state wrote, "the Spokane Police Department and Jesuit hierarchy orchestrated a stunning cover-up that preserved the reputation of the institution and a man revered as a leader in Spokane," which has a long and very sordid history of tolerating child rape among it's elites. "Jesuit leaders created an 'artificial scenario' in which they stated Leary had resigned for health reasons during a trip to the East Coast. Gonzaga officials perpetuated the story of Leary's 'illness,' even as the priest moved from one Western university to another in the years that followed. Leary died in 1993."

Rev. John D. Whitney, the Jesuits' current provincial superior, issued a statement calling the reports "deeply distressing," though he admitted rumors of Leary's predatory activities had churned in university and Catholic circles for four decades. Gonzaga President Robert Spitzer refused to comment but sent out a boiler plate Catholic statement claiming the university regretted its actions and sought to assure the community that it has made changes to the way it reports and investigates inappropriate sexual behavior. "We're not like this anymore," said Whitney. But they are-- right up onto St. Peter's throne. And everyone conspires to make believe the Church is something other than a pedophile criminal operation. That's why Hayes included them in a book about the breakdown of Authority in society. The Pope himself, after all, forced the Irish Church to back off from plans to start turning priest rapists over to the police. Hayes:

The broad outlines of the scandal are familiar. For decades priests sexually molested children, using their clerical status as protection. When church authorities were alerted, they simply moved the predators to new parishes, where the abuse would continue. This didn't just happen a few times: it was, it appears, a policy. In 2007, when the Irish Church dealt with its own burgeoning crisis by crafting a policy that would require bishops to report suspected abusers to civil authorities the Vatican sent a letter expressing its reservations about "mandatory reporting" and instructing the bishops that the Code of Canon Law (as opposed to secular law) "must be meticulously followed." The command, in other words, was for bishops to shield their wayward priests from prosecution, to administer whatever justice would be administered in secret, within the fold of the church.

Will Eric Cantor Name The 7 Legion Of Christ Child Predators To His Young Guns Mob?

Father Maciel and his prey

Some of the air and oomph was taken out of Cantor's Young Gun initiative this year when he and his Illinois operative, sneaky closet case Aaron Schock, used it to take down veteran conservative Don Manzullo on behalf of their Young Gun pal Adam Kinzinger. But the NRCC is still using the name the same way the DCCC uses the Red-to-Blue program, highlighting to donors which candidates have the party establishment's seal of approval. Many low-info donors write checks based on who the party bosses put in Red-to-Blue and Young Guns. Because they have the same name, the NRCC program is often confused with Cantor's sleazy Young Guns PAC, which is widely hated inside the GOP congressional caucus these days.

Half of the Young Guns inductees are waging competitive bids against Democratic incumbents. They are: Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania, Matt Doheny and Randy Altschuler of New York, Richard Tisei of Massachusetts, Andy Barr of Kentucky, and Ricky Gill of California.

The party is also providing support for several candidates, such as Jackie Walorski of Indiana and Jason Plummer of Illinois, who are seeking seats that Democratic members are vacating. Also tapped to be part of the program is Arizona Republican Jesse Kelly, who’s running in the June special election to complete the term of former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The committee has also inducted two contenders who are seeking seats that were created in redistricting and that do not have an incumbent, David Valadao of California and Mia Love of Utah.

One Young Gun is running for a seat a Republican member is vacating: Tony Strickland of California, who is waging a bid for the Ventura County-area district of retiring GOP Rep. Elton Gallegly.

But there's a whole stock of perfect Republican candidates just watching for Sessions and Cantor to recruit for the Young Guns. Perhaps young Schock should get right on this one. The Vatican has been forced into investigating 7 priests from the child rape organization they were running called the Legion of Christ. All 7 were active participants in sexual abuse of minors and other criminal activities. Just over a year ago, we looked at the horrific career of papal favorite Marcial Maciel, the serial rapist who headed the Legion of Christ and who was always protected by "former" Nazi, Pope Ratzinger. But the pressure to investigate the whole den of child rapists, including a recent rape of a child, has been mounting to the point that even Ratzinger had to give in. (I wonder if they'll conclude that the rapist priests were just sending inappropriate texts and IMs to their victims.)

The investigations mark the first known Vatican action against Legion priests for alleged sexual assault following the scandal of the Legion's founder, who was long held up as a model by the Vatican despite credible accusations-- later proven-- that he raped and molested his seminarians.

The Legion, which is now under Vatican receivership, has insisted that the crimes of its late founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, were his alone.

But the Vatican investigation of other Legion priests indicates that the same culture of secrecy that Maciel created within the order to cover his crimes enabled other priests to abuse children-- just as abusive clergy of other religious orders and dioceses have done around the world.

...While the investigation is under way, the accused priests are being kept away from children, the Legion said.

"Over the past few years, in several countries, the major superiors of the Legion of Christ have received some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offenses ... committed by some Legionaries," the statement said.

...Preliminary investigations of an unspecified number of other priests accused of abuse found them innocent, the Legion said.

The scandal of Maciel and the Legion ranks as one of the worst of the 20th-century Catholic Church, since he was held up as a model for the faithful by Pope John Paul II. The orthodox order, which has about 900 priests around the world, was praised for attracting both money and vocations to the priesthood.

Documentation from Vatican archives, however, has shown that as early as the 1950s, the Vatican had evidence that he was a drug addict and pedophile.

Only in 2006 did the Vatican sanction Maciel to a lifetime of penance and prayer for his crimes. He died in 2008 and a year later the Legion admitted he had fathered three children with two different women and had abused his seminarians.

The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 and is pushing through a process of reform.
Aaron Loughrey, 35, was a 17- or 18-year-old Legion seminarian in Ireland in the spring of 1995 when he says he was forced by a superior to masturbate him in bed. Loughrey, who left the Legion before being ordained, says he has been in counseling almost ever since as he seeks justice from the order.

He said that the vow he took as a seminarian never to criticize the actions or deeds of a superior made him unable to question what the priest had told him to do. In a parallel to the way Maciel abused his seminarians, Loughrey says his superior had told him that an unnamed illness gave him terrible cramps in his lower abdomen that could only be eased with massage.

"In my heart and in my conscience I believed that I had acted that night like a true Legionary-- putting my superior's needs before my own-- and I stuffed the unsavory thoughts and feelings to the back of my mind," Loughrey has written.

In an email Friday, Loughrey said he was certain there were more than just a handful of abusers in the Legion. Those currently under investigation represent about 1 percent of Legion priests.

"I would like to say I am glad about this (investigation), but I am honestly not hopeful that anything will come of it," he said.

This is, of course, the problem of forcing people-- priests and Republicans-- to live their miserable lives in closets. They always go insane. Always. Closets are for clothes, not for humans.

Can The Roman Catholic Hierarchy Fight A Two Front War-- One Against America And One In The Hague?

With a national election on the horizon, the Roman Catholic hierarchy has decided to pressure Obama against his Administrations recently accelerated pace in backing equality for the LGBT community. They had their top general bishop in the U.S., Tim Dolan, who runs their NY operations and heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, send an offensive and threatening letter to President Obama.

I write with a growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken by your Administration that both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage. This past spring the Justice Department announced that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, a decision strongly opposed by the Catholic Bishops of the United States and many others. Now the Justice Department has shifted from not defending DOMA-- which is problem enough, given the duty of the executive branch to enforce even laws it disfavors-- to actively attacking DOMA's constitutionality. My predecessor, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, and I have expressed to you in the past our strong disappointment about the direction your Administration has been moving regarding DOMA. Unfortunately the only response to date has been the intensification of efforts to undermine DOMA and the institution of marriage.

The Justice Department's move, in addition to other troubling federal decisions occurring recently, prompts me yet again to register my grave concerns. The content of this letter reflects the strong sentiment expressed at a recent meeting by more than thirty of my brother Bishops who serve on the Administrative Committee of our episcopal conference. I know they are joined by hundreds of additional Catholic bishops throughout our nation. My observations are offered in the spirit of respectful, but frank dialogue.

The Catholic Bishops stand ready to affirm every positive measure taken by you and your Administration to strengthen marriage and the family. We cannot be silent, however, when federal steps harmful to marriage, the laws defending it, and religious freedom continue apace. Attached you will find an analysis prepared by my staff detailing the various executive activities of late that warrant our increasing apprehension.

...We as Bishops of the Catholic Church recognize the immeasurable personal dignity and equal worth of all individuals, including those with same-sex attraction, and we reject all hatred and unjust treatment against any person. Our profound regard for marriage as the complementary and fruitful union of a man and a woman does not negate our concern for the well-being of all people but reinforces it. While all persons merit our full respect, no other relationships provide for the common good what marriage between husband and wife provides. The law should reflect this reality.

Mr. President, I respectfully urge you to push the reset button on your Administration's approach to DOMA. Our federal government should not be presuming ill intent or moral blindness on the part of the overwhelming majority of its citizens, millions of whom have gone to the polls to directly support DOMAs in their states and have thereby endorsed marriage as the union of man and woman. Nor should a policy disagreement over the meaning of marriage be treated by federal officials as a federal offense-- but this will happen if the Justice Department's latest constitutional theory prevails in court. The Administration's failure to change course on this matter will, as the attached analysis indicates, precipitate a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions.

Thus, on behalf of my brother Bishops, I urge yet again that your Administration end its campaign against DOMA, the institution of marriage it protects, and religious freedom. Please know that I am always ready to discuss with you the concerns raised here and to address any questions that you may have. I am convinced that the door to a dialogue that is strong enough to endure even serious and fundamental disagreements can and must remain open, and I believe that you desire the same. Also please know that you, your family, and your Administration continue to be in my prayers.

I hope-- though sincerely doubt-- that President Obama sent it directly to the IRS to start proceedings to solve the current U.S. economic problem by taxing the Catholic Church since they are clearly-- and have been for decades-- taking political positions, both directly and by secretly funding hard right, overtly political organizations like NOM (as does the Mormon church and several evangelical operations). This isn't a theocracy; the Pope-- particularly not the current fascist thug who grabbed the throne-- and his hierarchy don't rule in America. The Constitution and democracy do.

The Catholic Church thinks it should control exclusive sexual access to the children of its parishoners for its employees. Child rape cases-- which always involve a pattern of cover-up and obstruction of justice-- involving the Catholic Church never end and the Catholic Church hierarchy should have been rounded up and tried for their egregious systematic criminal activities against children decades ago.

And speaking of which... last week SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and the Center for Constitutional Rights announced a new push for Justice against the Roman Catholic hierarchy's pattern of sexual abuse of children by urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor to investigate the Vatican for crimes against humanity. LONG OVERDUE! Their long and detailed complaint charges that "Vatican officials tolerate and enable the systematic and widespread concealing of rape and child sex crimes throughout the world. Together with the complaint, they submitted more than 20,000 pages of supporting materials consisting of reports, policy papers, and evidence of the crimes by Catholic clergy committed against children and vulnerable adults."

SNAP members from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the U.S. traveled to The Hague to insist that the ICC take action and prosecute the Pope and three other high-ranking Vatican officials for their direct and superior responsibility for the crimes against humanity of rape and other sexual violence committed around the world.

“Crimes against tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, are being covered up by officials at the highest level of the Vatican. In this case, all roads really do lead to Rome, ” said CCR Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees. “These men operate with impunity and without accountability. The Vatican officials charged in this case are responsible for rape and other sexual violence and for the physical and psychological torture of victims around the world both through command responsibility and through direct cover up of crimes. They should be brought to trial like any other officials guilty of crimes against humanity.”

Said SNAP President Barbara Blaine, “SNAP wants to prevent even one more child from being raped or sexually assaulted by a priest and we hope that victims around the world will know today that they are not alone and that it is safe to speak up and report their abuse. We as victims are mobilizing across the globe, and every survivor is invited to join us.”

Said 21-year-old SNAP member Megan Peterson, who spoke publicly of her abuse for the first time last week, “It’s important that the Court understand that this is still happening and that they need to take this case seriously and do the right thing. I don’t want any more kids to go through what I went through.”

Clergy sex crimes have been perpetrated and concealed in nearly every country. In the United States alone, church authorities admit that nearly 6,000 priests have been publicly accused of molesting children over the past few decades. SNAP estimates that there are as many as 100,000 American victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and that in other nations, where child-protection laws may not be as robust as in the United States, the number of victims is equally staggering. As many as 20,000 sexually abusive or violent predator priests are still working even after having been accused of a crime; often, these priests are simply shifted to areas where the Church has extreme power or influence, or to remote areas isolated from mechanisms of support, prevention, and accountability.

The jurisdiction of the ICC names rape, sexual violence assault, and torture as crimes against humanity. It also provides for individual criminal liability for those with command or superior responsibility over those who directly commit such crimes. These are the mechanisms through which the complaint urges investigation and prosecution of Vatican officials for their roles in the rape, sexual assault, and torture of thousands of individuals around the world. This could be the first time that an international court asserts jurisdiction over the Vatican for crimes committed by its agents worldwide.

The Vatican is a beautiful museum but historically it's a center of predatory sexual abuse and crimes against... well, you name it. The Vatican will have this classic Penn and Teller video pulled down within a week. They've been doing so for years. So watch it while you can!

The Pope Is In SHOCK That Belgians Aren't Paying Due Deference To Priestly Child Rapists

Lucky for the Belgians the Nazi Pope has no divisions. The monstrous old bitch is fit to be tied-- and wants revenge. In case you've never heard Howie's Theory Of Religion, let me run that by you real fast before we get to the latest attempts by the Vatican to protect what their employees insist is a hard-earned perk of their jobs-- access to the innocent young bodies of their parishioners' children.

Back even before John McCain was born, life was very hard and brutal-- even more so than in Afghanistan today in some ways (not counting the predator drones). Imagine if you had to leave the relative safety of the communal cave every day with a bunch of smelly, grunting Neanderthals and a knobby club you made from a tree and go hunt some animal you could eat-- one that could well be as eager to eat you. Anyone with any amount of natural guile would look for a way to play hooky as fast as possible. Problem of course was obvious. If you didn't join the hunt for the clan's daily bread, you could starve. No one likes a parasite. What to do, what to do...

And then religion was born. Some guile guy got the idea that he could persuade a bunch of dumb Neanderthals he could hear voices from a stone or channel a message from a dead ancestor or a sacred flame. It worked. He didn't have to work anymore! They went out and hunted the saber-toothed tigers and he stayed home and invented tricks to explain what happened to the hunter Smilodon ate for lunch. Much warmer and safer in the cave-- and those nice little children he was left to take care of...

Anyway, there has been so much progress since then. In fact, social parasites have almost completely taken over society. And the chief of one of the biggest, best organized and most richly adorned of the parasitic guilds makes sure that that "special perk" keeps the mostly mentally-deranged applicants coming. So you can only imagine Ratzinger's furor when the damned Belgians-- a country with barely more divisions than his own-- had the temerity to do what other nations, including our own of course, only give lip service to-- putting an end to the age-old relationship between religionistic parasites and defenseless young children.

The incident that so offended Ratzinger happened last week, June 24th at 10:30 AM, to be precise-- at the residence of the Archbishop of Malines-Brussels, where 9 Roman Catholic bishops were gathered for their monthly meeting. Police and court officials barged in just as the meeting was getting started and announced they would be searching the joint because there were credible allegations made that cases of sexual abuse had taken place there. All the princes and princesses of the Church had their mobile phones confiscated; documents were seized, and the bishops, who have always been treated as though they were above the laws of mere mortals-- that's convenient when you're running a criminal operation; it's like Congress-- were all interrogated. No one was tortured. This is, after all, Belgium, not the Inquisition or the U.S. The bishops have been shrieking about the indignity of it all-- the media having been informed in advance-- and claiming that that the tombs of Cardinals Jozef-Ernest Van Roey and Léon-Joseph Suenens, were violated. The Church is astonished, outraged and even contemplating suing Belgium.

This weekend Ratzinger was on the attack.

Once again proving his startling lack of concern over the main point, Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out against what he is calling ‘deplorable’ police actions, after authorities raided a Belgian church believed to be part of the ongoing child abuse allegations.

The church was part of a fresh wave of allegations, in which several priests are believed to have abused children, or have known about the abuse of children.

Computers and accounts were taken, phone records requested, and the church swept for evidence.

“I want to express, dear brother in the Episcopate, as well as to all the Bishops of Belgium, my closeness and solidarity in this moment of sadness, in which, with certain surprising and regrettable methods, searches were carried out including in the Malines cathedral and in the premises where the Belgian episcopate was meeting in plenary session,” he was quoted by the Telegraph as saying in a message that appeared in a Vatican publication.

His anger is sure to raise a few eyebrows.

So far, the investigation into decades of child abuse, and the possible cover-ups by prominent members of the Church, has been met with a significant amount of waffling, pointing fingers, and outrage by a papacy that is appearing more and more corrupt.

While the serious allegations of child rape are showing recent accounts, and the church and priests were treated in the same way that anyone would be in a raid, the Pope has called the actions “deplorable” and “unexpected."

"Unexpected" indeed-- and we're not just talking about Belgian waffles here. Imagine if the Belgians get away with treating the high status parasites like ordinary criminals and governments no longer ignore their crimes and their coverups, and stop allowing them to have safe havens right in the middle of our cities and towns! No telling where it could lead next. There could even be a day far in the future when these guys have to go get real jobs like everyone else-- and deal with their psychiatric dysfunctions without victimizing... the guileless.

Does The Pope Get Down With The Beatles?

- by Noah

Yesterday, I came across an article from the Calgary Herald headlined “Pope Finally Forgives Beatles For Past Excesses.”  Wow, I thought. That’ll really make a difference in the lives (and afterlives) of everybody! Thank you soooo much!

It seems that for over 40 years, the Vatican has not turned the other cheek but held a grudge for the Beatles dope smoking, sexually promiscuous, and long hair growing lifestyle. The Vatican has even claimed something about “Satanic messages.” “Satanic messages?” The Beatles? Beats me. But, of course, the centerpiece de resistance of the Vatican (Vatanic?) 40 year snit fit has always been John Lennon’s infamous 1966 “We’re bigger than Jesus” quote; never mind that at the time, he was probably right, never mind that he didn’t say it in a boastful manner and there was more than a bit of incredulity in his voice as he uttered the damning words. The result was the Bible Belt burning of Beatles records and Lennon’s books, and an over the top reaction from the Catholic Church that made the church sound like they were needlessly insecure about their position in the great world order of things. The exact quote was:

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.”

Fair enough: there’s no telling which will go first in the long flow of time. Religions and musical styles have always come and gone in the long course of history. Usually, they are just absorbed into the next thing that comes along, not unlike Christians adopting the symbol of the Christmas tree from the European pagans in order to help spread their word. Even two years ago, the church forgave Lennon, saying his remark had only been “the boasting of an English working-class lad struggling to cope with unexpected success.” Well, no one could have predicted success on the scale of what the Beatles achieved. It’s well known that Lennon had a hard time with it and, as talented as he was, became increasingly incredulous over it. Listen to his songs “I’m A Loser”, “Help”, “I Found Out” or even “God” now. The man seemed to have some sort of love/hate thing going on with religion anyway. Hindsight is more than 20/20.
 
So, here we are in 2010 and the Vatican is dismissing perceived moral outrages that they’ve directed to the Beatles for all of these years. They offer “complete absolution.” Yeah? Well, who the hell are you? A bunch of old guys in funny clothes who, like some politicians we could name, claim to speak for a god that would, if even half of the allegations about you were true would have nothing to do with you?

The Pope? Mr. Hitler Youth himself? The Vatican? The team that not only remained silent at best during World War Two but even helped usher nazi war criminals over to a new life in South America? Rampant pedophilia? Priests likening those who make charges to anti-semites? Hell, Mr. Popo, you’re damn lucky some old testament god hasn’t hurled a few megawatt lightning bolts at you or turned you into a pillar of petrified dogshit to be sniffed and urinated upon by centuries and centuries of happy puppies! Who the hell are you to forgive ANYONE? Mr. Popo, you are truly the emperor without clothes. As Ringo said yesterday:

“I think the Vatican has more to talk about than The Beatles.”

Well said, Ringo. As usual, you are a man of few but very succinct words.
 
So what’s this forgiving The Beatles all about? What happened? Why now? Could this all be just a little diversion thrown out there when you’re getting some mighty bad press? I hardly think it will change The Beatle’s lives, including the two that are gone. Is John’s soul happily rejoicing over the proclamation today? Hey, if you’re the Pope and if things are bad and you’re worried about being pelted with the finest rotten Italian tomatoes the next time you venture out. If you’re El Popo, why not take it even further, saying you’ve always loved The Beatles. Some of your people have said as much this week, but it was just that damn sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll stuff. It was so bothersome. Hmmm, maybe it’s all the sin of envy, eh? C’mon, Ratboy. Come out of the closet and admit… that you’ve always been a Beatles fan, ever since their Hamburg days! Maybe you even knew their manager, eh? Knew him well, did ya? What better time than now? You need to create a little more diversion. Align yourself with The Beatles! There’s nothing like choosing to align yourself with a winner that millions adore the world over when the chips are down. Is that what this is all about? It’s like saying you love a nice spring day or “I like winning the lottery.” What’s not to like? Is this a case of “See, I’m not so bad. I’m so much just like you. Love me. PLEASE LOVE me!”
 
This afternoon, I received a vision from God. The Pope was whizzing around the seven hills of Rome in an Italian sports car. I think it was a 1966 Ferrari. He was smoking a bone and noshing on an over-sized bratwurst with some sauerkraut while listening to an 8-track of “Abbey Road,” or was it the Lennon produced David Peel and The Lower East Side album entitled “The Pope Smokes Dope.” That wild hat stayed on the whole time. The Jesus on the dash just smiled and bobbed to the sounds.

Is Ratzinger A Pedophile Himself?

If you were Satan, where would you hide?

If the successful gut fighter in the most richly brocaded gown in the Vatican has a yen for young boys, like so many of the corrupt men who work for him, there hasn't been any evidence provided yet. The Vicar of Christ has a startlingly un-Christ-like record both when it comes to protecting young children against his predatory employees, most of whom feel that free sexual access to children is an entitlement or at least a long established perk of the Roman Catholic priesthood, and when it comes to the universal messages of love and acceptance at the heart of Jesus' message. Ratzinger is a political animal and a far right extremist who clawed his way to the top of his company. He doesn't give a shit about young children or mundane issues like serial rapists in his employ. He cares about keeping the Roman Catholic Church a vehicle for a kind of conservatism that Jesus railed against and abhorred.

We've often found that the loudest and most homophobic voices in the political arena against the LGBT community belong to twisted and deranged closet cases. Currently two of the most anti-gay members of Congress, screaming fanatics Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), are both self-loathing closet cases, not unlike notorious Republican predators Jim West (R-WA), Larry Craig (R-ID), David Dreier (R-CA), Mark Foley (R-FL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and the countless other frightened and delusional right-wing hate-mongers and hypocrites, as former Congressman and American Conservative Union founder Robert Bauman explains in great detail in his book, The Gentleman From Maryland: The Conscience Of A Gay Conservative, written after he was caught having sex with an underage boy in a public toilet and kicked to the curb by his wife, family and right-wing collaborators inside Congress and out. Makes for a good read. Ratzinger ought to make it required reading for all his employees.

In 1972 Stephen Kiesle was ordained a Catholic priest in Oakland, California. Like so many lay conservatives-- the devout Catholic Robert Bauman being just one of many examples-- he started sneaking around and looking for ways to take advantage of young boys. Priests have an in-built advantage over young boys they can get into their clutches, and Kielse embarked on a perfectly normal-- normal within the Roman Catholic Church-- career of raping the underage sons of his parishioners. Just six years after being ordained, he was arrested for "molesting" two boys he had gotten his hands on at his church. He was charged with tying them up and getting to "know" them in a way the Bible-- not to mention the laws of California-- say older men are not to do with children. He pled "no contest" to a lesser charge and was sentenced to three years probation, and his record was expunged, because conservative society is as eager to protect these predators as is the conservative church.

In 1981 John Cummins, the Bishop of Oakland, a rare prelate who buys into the Jesus thing and takes it seriously, started petitioning the Vatican to defrock Kiesle, whom he saw as a danger to children. Ratzinger, who had been shielding predator priests all over the world for his whole career, stalled and drew out the process for years. As the months turned to years, Cummins repeatedly wrote to Ratzinger and then traveled to Rome to get him off his ass. Ratzinger's office used every bureaucratic trick in the book-- "the dog must have ate the file; can you recreate everything and resubmit it?"-- to avoid defrocking Kiesle, who admitted he needed to stop being a priest. Ratzinger refused to move for years, and eventually Kiesle took a job as a youth minister in Pinole, just north of Oakland. Where else but the Catholic Church would a convicted child molester be given a job as a youth minister?

By the end of 1985 Ratzinger made it clear that his concern was scandal for the already scandalized Church. He didn't care about how many boys and girls Kiesle would rape going forward, only that if he was defrocked it would be a tacit admission that priests should be removed for raping children, a slippery slope that could leave the Roman Catholic Church with a few dozen priests and a whole lot of nuns. Cummins eventually impressed on Ratzinger that it would be a much worse scandal if Kiesle wasn't defrocked, and he got caught molesting more children, which, of course, he was busy doing. Again, Ratzinger didn't give a rat's ass about the children being raped but the idea that the serial predator could get the church into trouble-- with the media and donors, no doubt-- piqued his interested and he finally agreed to defrock Kiesle in 1987.

In 2002 Kielse was charged with molesting 13 children, but thanks to Ratzinger-- and the conservative Supreme Court-- the statute of limitations invalidates 11 of the cases. In 2004 Kiesle pled "no contest" to molesting a girl and was sentenced to six years in prison, the year before Ratzinger maneuvered himself into the papacy and changed his name to Benedict. Kiesle got out on parole, violated parole and went back to prison, but is now out of prison living in a Walnut Creek senior citizens' community as a registered sex offender. Ratzinger (aka- Benedict) has never been punished and is still running around in richly brocaded gowns, protecting predator priests from the authorities.

Yesterday's L.A. Times reported the official Vatican line on the Kiesle case, which, of course, puts all the blame for the scandal on... Cummins. Who else? (Well, Jews, apparently.)

The Vatican insisted Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI had done nothing wrong when, earlier in his career, he hesitated to defrock a California priest who had admitted to molesting two boys.

A Vatican lawyer said that it was the local bishop, John Cummins of Oakland, who bore primary responsibility for protecting children from the abusive priest, Stephen Kiesle, and that the pope, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had acted appropriately when he declined to take immediate action.

"It's the job of the bishop to discipline the priest," said the lawyer, Jeffrey S. Lena of Berkeley, in an e-mail to The Times. "The pope is not a five star general ordering his troops around. That is simply an incorrect idea about the allocation of authority as between the pope and his fellow bishops."

Did you give your offering in Church today?

Popes Come, Popes Go, But The Roman Church's Perfidy Is Always There Laughing In Your Face

That Francis Bacon dude was so damned impious

I have a feeling that on this Good Friday there are Catholics all over the world sorely disappointed in the savvy politician who maneuvered himself into the Vicar of Christ chair at the head of the table over in Italy. As one notorious Catholic sex addict reminds us on Twitter:


Many Catholics, in fact, assumed that when Gabriele Amorth, Rome's chief exorcist, decreed a few days ago that Satan is active inside the Vatican, he was referring to the Pope. He wasn't; he claims the Anti-Christ is waging war against the Holy See from within. (I wonder if it was the same Anti-Christ the right-wing terrorists in Michigan heard howling inside their heads-- or channeled through Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh). This one, apparently features "people who are possessed by Satan [and] vomit shards of glass and pieces of iron." Although Ratzinger's propaganda machine is concentrating on attacking the NY Times, the Papal boy-rape scandal is becoming as shocking in Europe as it has been in the U.S. It demands to be addressed... seriously, something all popes have avoided for all times.

"The Devil resides in the Vatican and you can see the consequences," said Father Amorth, 85, who has been the Holy See's chief exorcist for 25 years.

"He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, or even appear to be sympathetic. At times he makes fun of me. But I'm a man who is happy in his work."

While there was "resistance and mistrust" towards the concept of exorcism among some Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI has no such doubts, Father Amorth said. "His Holiness believes wholeheartedly in the practice of exorcism. He has encouraged and praised our work," he added.

The evil influence of Satan was evident in the highest ranks of the Catholic hierarchy, with "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus and bishops who are linked to the demon," Father Amorth said.

Gee he sounds like he's been reading Digby or Katha Pollitt this week!

My favorite moment of the whole child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was when Father Klaus Malangré suggested that Peter Hullermann, the redoubtable German pedophile priest, might be sent to work in a girls' school. No boys, no molestation. Or, in churchly language, no occasion of sin. Problem solved! Plus, the good father would spend his life warding off female cooties. Malangré must not have heard about priests-- and they do exist-- who abused both male and female children. Nor had he learned the lesson of Watergate: the cover-up is worse than the crime.

The church has yet to learn that lesson. There is a positively Nixonian smarmy truculence in the response of church hierarchs to the ongoing scandal, which now involves Pope Benedict XVI himself. On Palm Sunday, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan urged worshipers at St. Patrick's Cathedral to show "love and solidarity for our earthly shepherd now suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob and scourging at the pillar, as did Jesus." On his blog, Dolan explains that what gets Catholics angry is not just the molestations themselves but also that "the sexual abuse of minors is presented as a tragedy unique to the Church alone." Oh, really? Does the name Mary Kay Letourneau mean nothing to him? This man needs to read the tabloids, which have for years featured an endless parade of molesting teachers, doctors, dentists, therapists and scout leaders. To go by the news, looking at child pornography on one's office computer is so common, it's a wonder anyone finds the time to abuse real kids. At this late date I doubt anyone is unaware that the sexual abuse of children is a widespread phenomenon.

The difference is, when other professionals who work with children are caught out, justice takes its course. People are fired. Licenses are lost. Reputations are ruined. Sometimes jail is involved. No human institution is perfect, and it would be foolish to suggest that incidents are always investigated and that abusers who don't happen to be priests are never protected by colleagues or superiors. Still, it's probably safe to say that if a principal was accused of overlooking a child molester in his classrooms or recycling him to other schools, nobody would compare his suffering to Christ's.

And nobody would be asking for his views about sex, reproduction, women, homosexuality or healthcare either. The moral authority granted the Catholic Church in the secular world is for me the most repellent aspect of the current crisis. In the succinct words of Jodi Jacobson, editor of RHRealityCheck.org, "Why is a pedophilia-ridden, pedophilia-hiding, child-abusing Church allowed to write laws controlling women's rights?" To which one might add: what gives a church in which celibacy is equated with holiness, in which males have almost all the power, the right to a place at the table where laws are made about women's bodies? The same institution that has dealt so indulgently with its ordained pedophiles had no problem excommunicating a Brazilian mother who sought an abortion for her 9-year-old daughter, raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather, or pushing for laws in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chile banning abortion even to save the woman's life.

Digby and Tristero seemed to be wondering if the Vatican thought it was still April Fool's Day today. "A senior Vatican priest speaking at a Good Friday service compared the uproar over sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church-- which have included reports about Pope Benedict XVI’s oversight role in two cases-- to the persecution of the Jews, sharply raising the volume in the Vatican’s counterattack. The remarks, on the day Christians mark the crucifixion, underscored how much the Catholic Church has felt under attack from recent news reports and criticism over how it has handled charges of child molestation against priests in the past, and sought to focus attention on the church as the central victim. In recent weeks, Vatican officials and many bishops have angrily denounced news reports that Benedict failed to act strongly enough against pedophile priests, once as archbishop of Munich and Friesing in 1980 and once as a leader of a powerful Vatican congregation in the 1990s." Digby then goes through a unbiased history of the Roman Church highlighting the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust and wonders aloud about the concept of chutzpah, which, I believe, is originally a Yiddish word.

That said... what Good Friday would ever been complete without listening to Patti Smith's fantaboolus G-L-O-R-I-A?




Easter Sunday Update

What we're watching rise today, alas, is hypocrisy. A.P. uncovered documents that show clearly that Ratzinger was covering up for rapist priests... in not just Germany but in Arizona-- and endangering more 7 and 8 year old boys. Time for the Pope to devote the rest of his miserable life to prayer and repentance... in a monastery.

In 1997, a Catholic tribunal in Tucson formally determined that a local priest had solicited sex while hearing confession, saying that evidence in the case against the Rev. Michael Teta showed that his "insidious ‘rape’" of his victims was "so heinous that the only solution is that he take up some other occupation."

In a sentencing document that runs more than 100 pages, the tribunal recounted the evidence against Teta, saying at one point that "there is almost a satanic quality in his mode of acting toward young men and boys."

Despite the urgency of the findings, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a top Vatican official, took more than six years to review the case before Pope John Paul II affirmed a decision to strip Teta of his status as a priest, or laicize him.