Clergy: An uncompromising film about the hypocrisy and corruption of the Catholic Church in Poland
Clergy, the new film from director Wojciech Smarzowski, reaffirms his place as one of Poland’s leading directors. His 2016 film Hatred (Wolyn), dealing with a traumatic event in Polish-Ukrainian history, stirred up controversy and attracted a wide audience in Poland.
Clergy
Smarzowski’s latest offering, Clergy, was released in Poland in the autumn of 2018 and broke several box office records. Nearly a million people viewed the film on its opening weekend, the best result for a Polish film in Poland in three decades. To date over five million people have seen the work, which depicts in uncompromising fashion the hypocrisy and corruption of the Catholic Church in contemporary Poland.
At a recent festival of Polish films held in Berlin, the individual introducing Clergy noted that Smarzowski had been denied permission to film his movie in any Polish church. Instead he had to move production to the neighbouring Czech Republic to complete the film. It was also pointed out that the target of Smarzowski’s film was the institution of the Catholic Church and not individual believers.
Clergy opens with a drinking session involving the film’s three main protagonists—the priests Leszek Lisowski (Jacek Braciak), Tadeusz Trybus (Robert Wieckiewicz) and Andrzej Kukuła (Arkadiusz Jakubik). Between shots of vodka, Trybus is quizzed on passages from the Bible, all of which he knows by heart. At the end of their drinking orgy, the three priests set up their own obstacle race through the rooms of the house. Every successful round is rewarded with yet another shot.
It turns out all three have secrets to hide. Trybus shares his house with a woman whom he makes pregnant. When confronted with the news, the shocked priest asks his lover, “But … how … didn’t you take any precautions?” “My faith didn’t allow me,” she replies. The priest is adamant. To avoid a scandal, “You must get rid of it.”
The second priest, Lisowski, is higher up the clerical ladder and acts as adjutant to the thoroughly crooked and foul-mouthed Archbishop Mordowicz (Janusz Gajos), who is up to his neck in sordid deals with criminal gangs and politicians. When crossed, the archbishop is quite ready to blame “Jewish” so-and-sos for the consequences of his own misdeeds.
Mordowicz drives around in a brand new Bentley with chauffeur and dispatches servile priests to an anteroom in his palace to fetch huge sacks of money to pay off bribes to building firms and politicians. In one scene, we see the collection plate being passed around in a church where ordinary Poles donate what they can afford. The funds from such collections, swelled by numerous generous donations from the Polish state, provide the mounds of money needed to finance the archbishop’s lavish life style, as well as the drinking bouts of ordinary priests.
Jacek Braciak, Arkadiusz Jakubik and Robert Wieckiewicz in Clergy
In another scene, we witness the archbishop urging a leading politician to insert one of the Polish Catholic Church’s main demands, a “total ban on abortion,” into the government’s program. The politician starts to speak, but is promptly put in his place. “With all due respect, dear MP, now I’m talking,” declares the archbishop in the manner of an autocrat.
Lisowski has the job of carrying out and covering up for his master’s dirty work. He dreams of a transfer to the Vatican and is prepared to go to any lengths to achieve it, including blackmailing his boss.
Through the figure of the third priest Kukuła, Smarzowski addresses the issue of the clerical abuse of young boys and girls. Kukula is accused of abusing a boy from a broken family and is promptly shunned by his congregation. The archbishop’s office immediately goes into damage control mode. The accused priest is transferred to a monastery that functions as a sort of clinic for the recuperation and rehabilitation of clerics with all sorts of problems and crimes on their conscience. The young victim of the priest is paid to keep quiet with a television and video game console.
In the course of a series of flashbacks, we realise that Kukula himself was the subject of brutal abuse as a young boy in a home run by a sadistically cruel nun. The perpetrator Kukula is himself the victim of the Catholic Church’s inhuman policy of celibacy for its priests—a vicious circle destined to perpetuate physical and mental abuse.
Smarzowski’s target is the organised Church, not its individual representatives. The figures in the film are not caricatures, not least due to the outstanding performances by the cast of actors. Two of the priests, Trybus and Kukula, recognise their wrongdoings and seek to make some amends. The archbishop’s plans to suppress details of Kukula’s pedophilia come unstuck when the latter decides to go public and reveal the true extent of child abuse by members of the clergy. Once again the archbishop’s team go into action to ensure that Kukula’s revelations are smothered. The next morning they are able to report: Mission accomplished. There is barely a word in the press about the priest’s misdeeds.
Kukula is ditched by the Church. The priest is unstable (“For some time, his behaviour revealed that he suffered from some kind of mental health problems”), Archbishop Mordowicz tells the media, which is quite prepared to print his version of events.
In addition to its portrayal of a Church official who controls a financial empire, the media and leading politicians, Clergy includes one scene in which a fascist group practice their racist chants from within the secure walls of a church building.
The reaction to Smarzowski’s film in Poland by the Church and the government was predictably prompt and ferocious. It was dismissed by Church officials as “vulgar clergyphobia.” Some towns, under the influence of the Church, sought to prevent showings of the film.
Senior members of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which relies heavily on the Church for electoral support, called for the film to be banned. The deputy culture minister in the PiS government, Jaroslaw Sellin, accused Clergy of fostering “negative stereotypes,” while Paweł Soloch, head of the National Security Bureau in Poland, compared the film to Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda.
Poland’s leading news program, which is closely aligned with the PiS, described Clergy as “yet another attack on the Catholic Church, brutal and untrue.” The right-wing newspaper, Gazeta Polska, responded by whipping up anti-communism and reproduced the film’s poster on billboards across Poland using the image of a priest who was a victim of the Stalinist security services. The text to the poster read: “The clergy: our treasure in the fight against Nazism, communism, LGBT and Islamists.”
Janusz Gajos in Clergy
In fact, the criminal activities addressed in the film realistically reflect the deeply reactionary role of the Catholic Church in Poland.
Smarzowski spoke with victims of clerical abuse before making his film, which includes statements from such victims read by actors. Some are too traumatised by what had taken place to properly speak out. Since the film’s release, the number of victims reporting mistreatment has increased ten-fold.
In regard to the abortion issue, it is no secret that the Catholic Church is the driving force behind the campaign to ban all medical assistance to pregnant women. A bill to ban abortion was introduced by the far-right Catholic organization, Ordo Iuris [Legal Order], in 2016 and agreed by parliament. The bill would have provided for a complete ban on abortions, including for minors and victims of sexual assault. It was only dropped after massive protests swept the country.
Smarzowski’s film also realistically portrays the links existing between ultra-right and fascist groups, the media and the organised Church.
The ultra-conservative priest Tadeusz Rydzyk runs a Catholic media empire, including the pro-government Radio Maryja station, a television station and a daily newspaper, which all pump out anti-Semitic, homophobic and Islamophobic content. Rydzyk was fined for illegal fundraising in 2011, but his business empire continues to receive government grants and contracts worth millions of euros.
In 2016, the Islamophobic and anti-Semitic priest Jacek Międlar held a mass at Bialystok cathedral for members of the neo-Nazi group National Radical Camp (ONR). Another far-right group, All Polish Youth, campaigns against abortion and gay marriage under the slogan of “Great Catholic Poland.”
Smarzowski is a courageous filmmaker. Clergy deserves a wide international audience.
PRIESTS COULD HAVE SEX UNDER AUSTRALIAN PROPOSAL TO END CHURCH
CHILD ABUSE
Jesuit Pope Francis is Coming Out; Backsliding on Pedophile
Crackdown, Catholic Official Says
The Jesuit is coming out.
1Fr. Julio César Grassi
2Fr. Rubén Pardo
3Brother Fernando Enrique Picciochi, S.M.
4Rev. Mario Napoleon Sasso
5Rev. Carlos Maria Gauna
Must See Video: The Bodies
and Atrocities are Piling up at The Vaticans Door
6Works Cited
One in 50 priests is a paedophile: Pope
Francis says child abuse is 'leprosy' infecting the Catholic Church
RELATED
ARTICLES
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2690575/Pope-Francis-admits-two-cent-Roman-Catholic-priests-paedophiles-interview-Italian-newspaper.html#ixzz51S0q4nak
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El Salvador continues crackdown on pedophile priests
Read more at http://latincorrespondent.com/2015/12/el-salvador-continues-crackdown-on-pedophile-priests/#DWGqOHPbogmvmJSs.99
Cardinal
Bernard Law, symbol of church sex abuse scandal, dead at 86
Story highlights
Survivors recount betrayal
Rise of Boston's spiritual leader
Calls for resignation
Catholic Church abuses under scrutiny
PRIESTS COULD HAVE SEX UNDER AUSTRALIAN PROPOSAL TO END CHURCH
CHILD ABUSE
SHARE
A five-year investigation of
thousands of child abuse victims in Australia has led to one stunning
recommendation: that the Catholic Church should allow priests to have sex in
order to curb child abuse.
The Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse reviewed more
than 8,000 cases since 2013, and found that
schoolteachers and religious ministers accounted for the most child abuse
complaints. Catholic priests accounted for 61.4 percent of the alleged
religious perpetrators.
With that
stat in mind, the final report released Friday offered hundreds of
recommendations, including an end to the Catholic Church's centuries-old policy
for compulsory celibacy, The
Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The
report said celibacy
was "not a direct cause of child sexual abuse" but
certainly "contributed to the occurrence of child sexual abuse,
especially when combined with other risk factors."
Pope
Francis deemed child
sex abuse by Catholic priests a "monstrosity" last year and
promised to crack down on priests who violated the compulsory celibacy
rule.
“We will
counter those priests who betrayed their calling with the most strenuous
measures. This also applies to the bishops and cardinals who protected these
priests—as happened repeatedly in the past,” Pope Francis wrote.
It is unclear how well the
anti-celibacy proposal will go over. Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney
immediately sought to widen the discussion beyond pedophilia by priests, saying
that child abuse is "an issue for everyone, celibate or
not." The commission also recommended that priests should have to report
child abuse cases that they hear in confessionals to authorities, asking
bishops to appeal the secrecy law to the Vatican. But that also may be a
nonstarter.
"The seal of the
confessional, or the relationship with God that's carried through the priest
and with the person, is inviolable," said Australian Archbishop Denis
Hart.
In any event, changes are
coming. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Trumbull said the report
"exposed a national tragedy" and called for a task force to
start acting on the recommendations as early as next month.
*
Jesuit Pope Francis is Coming Out; Backsliding on Pedophile
Crackdown, Catholic Official Says
By
-
03/14/2017
Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, has rescinded his policies
regarding the crack down on pedophilia, Catholic officials claim. In fact, the
last abuse survivor of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors
recently left the commission, citing resistance coming from Vatican offices
against implementing recommendations.
It is not clear exactly where the opposition is coming from within
the Catholic Church, claimed the last abuse survivor Marie Collins, on the
Pontifical Commission. However, she resigned as a direct result of the Catholic
Church’s inability to implement recommendations that could curb sexual abuse
within the Catholic Church.
In Australia, the cases of abuse are quite prevalent, and
according to the chief executive of the church’s Truth Justice and Healing
Council, Francis Sullivan; “You have to seriously wonder whether this isn’t the
Pope backsliding on what has been a strong and determined crackdown on
offending priests and the circumstances that allowed abuse to take place,”
According to Sullivan, it is a very dangerous time, he cites both
the resignation of Marie Collins, and the resistance from the Church to curb
pedophilia. “Together these two developments paint a picture of the Vatican
establishment, its bureaucrats, and courtiers, doing all they can to either
undermine the Pope or driving an agenda that is about maintaining the status
quo and protecting the institution.”
Sullivan also said; “If the church in Australia doesn’t see
continuous, concerted change from our leaders driven and backed by an active
and demanding Catholic community, then our church as a religion will become a
marginalized rump, stripped of credibility and relevance, left to preach to an
ever aging congregation with eyes on an ever dimming hereafter.”
Resistance to stop pedophilia within the Catholic Church stretches
all the way throughout the Vatican bureaucracy, and it is evident that Pope
Francis is aware of the scandals and is continually attempting to cover them
up, hush them up, and push them aside.
The Jesuit is coming out.
Before Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, he was
potentially involved in at least five abuse cases. The following comes
from Bishop-Accountability:
1Fr. Julio César Grassi
·
Grassi was convicted in 2009 of molesting a boy who had lived in a
home for street children that Grassi founded. After Grassi’s conviction,
Bergoglio commissioned a secret study to persuade Supreme Court judges of
Grassi’s innocence. Bergoglio’s intervention is believed to be at least part of
the reason that Grassi remained free for more than four years following his
conviction. He finally was sent to jail in September 2013. See our detailed
summary of the Grassi case with links to articles.
2Fr. Rubén Pardo
·
In 2003, a priest with AIDS who had admitted to his bishop that he
had sexually assaulted a boy was discovered to be hiding from law enforcement
in a vicarage in the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, then headed by Bergoglio.
Pardo also was reportedly hearing children’s confessions and teaching in a
nearby school. One of Bergoglio’s auxiliary bishops, with whom he met every two
weeks, appears to have lived at the vicarage at the same time. Typically, an
ordinary must give permission for a priest to live and work in his diocese. It
is unlikely that Pardo lived and ministered in Buenos Aires without Bergoglio’s
approval. See our detailed summary of the Pardo case.
3Brother Fernando Enrique Picciochi, S.M.
·
After a victim discovered that his abuser had fled Argentina to
the US, eluding law enforcement, the victim sought Bergoglio’s help in getting
released from the confidentiality order imposed by the cleric’s religious
order. He conveyed his request in meetings with Bergoglio’s private secretary
and with the auxiliary bishop, current archbishop Mario Poli. The archdiocese
would not help. See our detailed summary of the Picciochi case.
4Rev. Mario Napoleon Sasso
·
In 2001, following a diagnosis as a pedophile at a church-run
treatment center, Sasso was made pastor of a very poor parish with a community
soup kitchen in the Zárate-Campana diocese. In 2002-2003, he sexually assaulted
at least five little girls in his bedroom off the soup kitchen. In 2006, with
Sasso in jail but not yet convicted, the parents of the little girls reportedly
sought Bergoglio’s help. Bergoglio was then president of the Argentine bishops’
conference, and the soup kitchen was just 25 miles from the Buenos Aires
archdiocese. Bergoglio would not meet with them. See our detailed summary of
the Sasso case.
5Rev. Carlos Maria Gauna
·
Gauna was an archdiocesan priest under Bergoglio’s direct
supervision. In 2001, two girls at a school filed a criminal complaint saying
Gauna had touched them inappropriately. Bergoglio reportedly was going to look
into it. Gauna still works in the Buenos Aires archdiocese. Notably, he’s now a
deacon and a hospital chaplain – possible indicators that Bergoglio considered
the allegations credible but decided to demote him rather than remove him from
ministry. See our detailed summary of the Gauna case.
It is no wonder that Pope Francis is ‘backsliding’ on pedophilia
because he himself could be involved in some of the scandals listed above.
Marie Collins further states;
“It is devastating in 2017 to see
that these men still can put other concerns before the safety of children and
vulnerable adults,” she said in an editorial published online March 1 by the
National Catholic Reporter.
“However, despite the Holy Father
approving all the recommendations made to him by the commission, there have
been constant setbacks,” Collins said in a statement published on her website,
mariecollins.net.
“This has been directly due to
the resistance by some members of the Vatican Curia to the work of the
commission. The lack of cooperation, particularly by the dicastery most closely
involved in dealing with cases of abuse, has been shameful,” she said.
She said the “last straw” that
led to her handing in her letter of resignation was when she learned that the
same dicastery that refused to cooperate on the safeguarding guidelines had also
refused “to implement one of the simplest recommendations the commission has
put forward to date.”
The recommendation, which the
pope instructed that all Vatican departments follow, asked that every Vatican
office “ensure all correspondence from victims/survivors receives a response. I
learned in a letter from this particular dicastery last month that they are
refusing to do so,” she said.
“I find it impossible to listen
to public statements about the deep concern in the church for the care of those
whose lives have been blighted by abuse, yet to watch privately as a
congregation in the Vatican refuses to even acknowledge their letters!”
“It is a reflection of how this
whole abuse crisis in the church has been handled: with fine words in public
and contrary actions behind closed doors,” she said.
The Vatican is against protecting children and the Pope is against
defending children. Sexual abuse cases surrounding the Catholic Church are
stacking higher and higher. Which is why according to Kristina Keneally, in
Australia, “Catholicism
has done more harm to Australia than Islam.” What say
you reader?
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6Works Cited
Australian Associated
Press. “Pope may be backsliding on paedophile crackdown, Catholic official
says.” The Guardian. . (2017): . .
Kristina Keneally .
“Catholicism has done more harm to Australia than Islam. Where's the
outrage?” The Guardian. . (2017): . .
Carol Galtz. “Abuse survivor
quits papal body, citing Vatican resistance to safeguarding.” Catholic
News Service. . (2017): . .
BishopAccountability.org.
“Pope Francis and Clergy Sexual Abuse in Argentina.” BishopAccountability.org.
. (NA): . .
One in 50 priests is a paedophile: Pope
Francis says child abuse is 'leprosy' infecting the Catholic Church
·
Pope
Francis quoted as saying figure included bishops and cardinals
·
He condemned
child sex abuse as 'leprosy in the church', in interview
·
Vatican has
said quotations 'didn't correspond to what pope actually said'
·
·
·
·
·
Pope Francis has revealed that
around one in every 50 Catholic priests is a paedophile.
Condemning the issue as a ‘leprosy’
which infects the Church, the Pontiff was yesterday reported as claiming that
even bishops and cardinals are among the ‘2 per cent’ carrying out child abuse.
He also said that many more in the
Church are guilty of covering it up, adding: ‘This state of affairs is
intolerable.’
+3
·
Damning reports by the UN this year
have accused the Vatican of ‘systematically’ adopting policies that allowed
priests to rape and molest thousands of children over decades, failing to
report allegations to the authorities and transferring offenders to new
dioceses where they could abuse again.
In a wide-ranging interview with
the Italian newspaper La Repubblica yesterday, Francis denounced the corruption
of children as ‘the most terrible and unclean thing imaginable’ and vowed to
‘confront it with the seriousness it demands’.
The Pope’s comments come as
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warned that fresh child abuse would be
uncovered in the Church of England.
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Asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show
yesterday whether more cases would emerge, he said: ‘I would love to say there
weren’t but I expect there are.
‘There are in almost every
institution in this land.’
He added that the Church needed to
apologise and explain how ‘utterly devastated’ it was about its history child
abuse.
He said: ‘It is becoming clearer
and clearer that for many, many years things were not dealt with as they should
have been dealt with. We must show justice to survivors of abuse.’
While Pope Francis has carried out
sweeping reforms to the Vatican, he has been accused of not doing enough to
tackle the child abuse crisis.
+3
·
In his interview, Francis was
quoted as saying: ‘The Church is fighting for the eradication of the habit and
for education that rehabilitates.
'But this leprosy is also present
in our house. Many of my colleagues who are working against it tell me that
paedophilia inside the Church is at the level of 2 per cent.’
He said that the figures supplied
by Church officials were supposed to reassure him, but added: ‘But I have to
say that they do not reassure me by any means.
‘On the contrary, I find them
deeply concerning. Among the 2 per cent who are paedophiles are even bishops
and cardinals.’
Last night Vatican spokesman Father
Federico Lombardi said the newspaper’s report had ‘captured the spirit’ of the
conversation, but denied that Francis had said there are some cardinals who are
paedophiles.
In his interview, the Pope
acknowledged that paedophilia was common and widespread in the Catholic Church,
and reportedly called the requirement for celibacy among priests ‘a problem’
for which he is ‘finding the solution’ – although the Vatican also denied that
he said this.
Last week Pope Francis issued his
strongest words on paedophile priests so far as he held a historic three-hour
meeting with six abuse victims, including two from Britain and two from
Ireland.
+3
·
In a mass before the meeting, he
begged abuse survivors for forgiveness for the ‘sacrilegious’ crimes committed
by ‘the sons and daughters of the Church who have betrayed their mission’.
British abuse victim Peter
Saunders, 57, who was molested for more than five years by two priests, a
teacher and a member of his family from the age of eight, described the
experience as ‘life-changing’.
The first cases of abuse at the
hands of priests came to light in the US and Canada in the 1980s. In the 1990s,
revelations began to emerge of widespread abuse in Ireland, before cases were
exposed in more than a dozen countries in the last decade.
In 2009, two damning reports into
allegations of paedophilia in Ireland revealed the extent of cover-ups spanned
decades and involved thousands of victims.
Last week the Pope said the
Catholic Church had been guilty of ‘complicity’ in covering up what he called
‘despicable actions’ and ‘grave sins’.
He said members of the Catholic
Church should ‘weep before the execrable acts of abuse which have left
life-long scars’.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2690575/Pope-Francis-admits-two-cent-Roman-Catholic-priests-paedophiles-interview-Italian-newspaper.html#ixzz51S0q4nak
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El Salvador continues crackdown on pedophile priests
image:
http://cdn.latincorrespondent.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/AP070819015366-940x580.jpg
A
Catholic priest at mass in the main square in Pisco, Peru. Photo: AP
Photo/Martin Mejia
El
Salvador’s Roman Catholic Church revealed that it suspended another priest
for sexual
abuse after a preliminary investigation.
The
Archbishop of San Salvador Jose Luis Escobar announced on Sunday that Juan
Francisco Galvez, a parish priest in the town of Rosario de Mora, was relieved
of ecclesiastical duties after the conclusion of a preliminary investigation
carried out in October 2015. Escobar said that Galvez victimized several
people, but declined to give details on the victims’ identities.
Galvez
denied the charges.
“I
invite all those who have experienced sexual abuse from priests to come forward
and directly approach me, Bishop Gregorio Chavez, or Monsignor Rafael
Urrutia,” Escobar said.
He also
reiterated the Catholic church’s zero tolerance towards sexual abuse.
Galvez’
case comes less than a week after the announcement of a high-profile priest’s
suspension on charges of rape.
Even
a “well-loved”
priest is not exempted
Monsignor
Rafael Urrutia, head of external affairs for the archdiocese of San Salvador,
told reporters on Thursday that Jesus Delgado was suspended on November 15 for
raping a minor multiple times.
“Monsignor
Jesus Delgado has been suspended from all priestly, pastoral and administrative
roles because of a complaint of sexual abuse of minors,” said Urrutia.
A
42-year-old woman told authorities that Delgado, now
77, raped her when she was eight years old. The abuse continued for
nine years until the victim turned 17. The accused priest said that he’s
willing to meet the victim and apologize.
It
is unclear if charges will be pressed against Delgado as the alleged crime took
place more than 20 years ago. According to Urrutia, the victim only wants the
priest to leave the priesthood and apologize.
“We
deeply regret these facts, we apologize to the victim, society and ask the Lord
to call us to conversion. Our archdiocese will not cover up any cases of abuse.
We will always be in favor of justice and truth, and will defend the children,”
Urrutia added.
Bishop
Delgado is a notable priest in the country. He served as the biographer and
personal secretary of Archbishop Oscar Romero, a Salvadoran priest who was shot
in 1980 while giving mass. Archbishop Romero was recently beatified by Pope
Francis in Vatican.
Vanda
Pignato, secretary of the country’s social inclusion ministry, expressed
her outrage on
Delgado’s inclusion to the delegation of El Salvadoran priests who traveled to
Rome to thank the Pope for Romero’s beatification. According to her, the
Catholic Church already know of the victim’s affidavit when they let Delgado
attend the ceremony in Vatican.
“Not
only is he included in the delegation, but he was also sitting at the front
row,” Pignato said in an interview.
Accused
priests take refuge in Latin America
A
year-long study by GlobalPost titled Fugitive Fathers revealed
many priests who were accused with sexual abuse relocating to poorer countries
in Latin America. The report was published early this year.
GlobalPost
found out that the Catholic Church only transferred accused priests, mostly
from the United States, to less-developed countries instead of turning them
over to the authorities. The priests were able to start new lives, far from the
reach of the media and investigators until eventually, their cases are
forgotten. Some are even leading mass or hold high ranks in their
local church.
“As
developed countries find it tougher to keep predator priests on the job,
bishops are increasingly moving them to the developing world where there are
less vigorous law enforcement, less independent media, and a greater power
differential between priests and parishioners,” said David
Clohessy, spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
(SNAP).
The
report also told the stories of several
victims who are still carrying the traumas and scars from the
actions of the abusive priests.
One
priest preaching in the a small Peruvian village even admitted to GlobalPost
that he had molested a 13-year-old boy when he was with the diocese of Jackson,
Mississippi. He has since moved to Peru because he is now barred from working
in the U.S.
Since
the publication of GlobalPost’s report, two priests have been suspended.
Namely, Jan Van Dael from Brazil, and Federico Baeza from Colombia.
According
to the GlobalPost, official representatives of the Roman Catholic Church
declined to speak with them or give a statement.
Read more at http://latincorrespondent.com/2015/12/el-salvador-continues-crackdown-on-pedophile-priests/#DWGqOHPbogmvmJSs.99
Cardinal
Bernard Law, symbol of church sex abuse scandal, dead at 86
Updated 6:58 PM ET, Wed December 20, 2017
Former Archbishop Bernard Law dies at 86 02:21
Story highlights
·
Law's funeral will be
Thursday at St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican says
·
He resigned as Boston's
archbishop in 2002 amid scandal
(CNN)Cardinal Bernard Law, the former Boston
archbishop who resigned in disgrace during the Catholic Church's sex abuse
scandal, has died, the Vatican confirmed. He was 86.
Law died early Wednesday in Rome following
a long illness, the Vatican said. Law moved to Italy to serve as archpriest of
the Papal Liberian Basilica of St. Mary Major after he was forced to resign in
2002 as archbishop of Boston.
Law's name became emblematic of the scandal that continues to
trouble the church and its followers after a Boston Globe investigation
revealed that he and other bishops covered up child abuse by priests in the
Boston Archdiocese.
Law at the time apologized to victims of John Geoghan, a priest
who had been moved from parish to parish, despite Law's knowledge of his abuse
of young boys. Geoghan was convicted in 2002 of indecent assault and battery on
a 10-year-old boy.
Cardinal Bernard Francis Law looks on as Pope Francis celebrates
Mass in 2016 in Vatican City.
Law never faced criminal sanctions for his role in allowing
abusive priests to remain in parishes. The scandal reverberated through the
church, exposing similar allegations worldwide that compromised its moral
authority and led to years of multimillion-dollar settlements.
Law
will get a full cardinal's funeral at the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday afternoon,
with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, presiding. Pope Francis will give a
"final commendation," or blessing, as he has for cardinals' funerals
previously.
Survivors recount betrayal
To his detractors, Law's second career at the Vatican was a slap
in the face to victims of clergy sex abuse, one that further undermined the
church's legitimacy.
"Survivors of child sexual assault in Boston, who were
first betrayed by Law's cover-up of sex crimes and then doubly betrayed by his
subsequent promotion to Rome, were those most hurt," according to a statement
after his death from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "No words can
convey the pain these survivors and their loved ones suffered."
Pope open to married men becoming priests 04:17
The group advised the Vatican to keep the abuse survivors in
mind when planning Law's funeral.
"Every single Catholic should ask Pope Francis and the
Vatican why," the survivors' group said. "Why Law's life was so
celebrated when Boston's clergy sex abuse survivors suffered so greatly? Why
was Law promoted when Boston's Catholic children were sexually abused, ignored,
and pushed aside time and time again?"
Widespread child abuse by the Catholic clergy in the Boston
Archdiocese was uncovered by The
Boston Globe's Spotlight investigative reporting team, which won a Pulitzer
Prize for its efforts. A big-screen dramatization of the team's investigation
in the 2015 movie, "Spotlight," won the 2016 Best Picture Academy
Award, bringing the story to a much wider audience.
Law's successor as Boston's archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley,
reacted to Law's death in part by apologizing to victims of sex abuse by
clergy.
"I recognize that Cardinal Law's passing brings forth a
wide range of emotions on the part of many people. I am particularly cognizant
of all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were
so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones,"
O'Malley said.
"Cardinal Law served at a time when the church failed
seriously in its responsibilities to provide pastoral care for her people, and
with tragic outcomes failed to care for the children of our parish communities.
I deeply regret that reality and its consequences," O'Malley said.
However, he called it a "sad reality" that the scandal
has come to define Law's legacy, overshadowing his work in the civil rights era
and leadership in the interfaith movement following the Second Vatican Council.
"I think all of us are more than one dimensional and I
think, to be realistic, we have to recognize that there was more to this man
than his mistakes," he said in a news conference on Wednesday.
Rise of Boston's spiritual leader
Law was born in Torreon, Mexico, on November 4, 1931, to Helen
and Bernard Law, an Air Force colonel. He completed his postgraduate studies at
St. Joseph's Seminary in Louisiana and at the Pontifical College Josephinum in
Columbus, Ohio. He was ordained as a priest on May 21, 1961, in the diocese of
Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi, and became vicar general of that diocese in 1971.
In 1973, he was appointed bishop of the Springfield-Cape
Girardeau diocese in southern Missouri. He served as chairman of the Bishops'
Committee on Ecumenical and Interracial Affairs, and in 1976, he was named to
the Vatican Commission on
Religious Relations with Jews.
The posts were stepping stones to his becoming the spiritual
leader of Boston's large and influential Catholic community. In 1984, Pope John Paul II appointed Law to be
the archbishop of the Boston Archdiocese, with its 362 parishes serving 2.1
million members. That same year, Law received a letter from a bishop expressing
concerns about then-Rev. Geoghan. Law assigned Geoghan to another parish
despite the allegations.
In 1985, Pope John Paul II elevated Law to cardinal, one of just
13 Americans holding that office at the time.
A Catholic Church cover-up? 03:16
Calls for resignation
Law attempted to resign as archbishop of Boston in April 2002,
but Pope John Paul II rejected his request. In 2002, a judge presiding over the
child rape case of the Rev. Paul Shanley ordered Cardinal Law to be deposed by
lawyers of one of Shanley's victims.
Law testified about his supervision of Geoghan in 2002, saying
he relied on his assistants to investigate charges of abuse. In May 2002, he
apologized for his role in the clergy abuse scandal in a letter distributed
throughout the archdiocese. But he denied knowledge of sexual abuse allegations
against Shanley until 1993.
In August 2002, Law appeared in court to testify about a
settlement reached between the archdiocese of Boston and victims of clergy
abuse. The archdiocese rescinded the monetary offer shortly afterward.
That December, as calls grew for him to resign, Law was
subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigating "possible
criminal violations by church officials who supervised priests accused of
sexually abusing children." Days later, he resigned as chairman of the board of
trustees of the Catholic University of America, followed by his resignation as
archbishop of Boston.
Catholic Church abuses under scrutiny
The breakdown of trust in the Catholic Church continues to
reverberate around the world.
Archbishop: 'This is a shameful past' 01:03
This month, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered, after five
years of work, 189 recommendations to address what it described as a "serious
failure" by Australia's institutions to protect its most vulnerable
citizens.
The country's senior Catholic leaders, however, rejected
recommendations by the wide-reaching investigation, declining to end mandatory
celibacy for priests and break the secrecy of confession.
Of survivors who reported abuse in a religious institution, more
than 60% said it occurred in a Catholic organization, the report found.
When asked if he forgave Law, O'Malley said that forgiveness is
what Christianity is all about. But he acknowledged that in Law's case,
forgiveness did not come easy.
"Hopefully, out of this, it will help to remind all of our
Catholics that this is not something that has been solved," he said
Wednesday. "The healing is still necessary and we must all be vigilant,
particularly for prevention of child abuse."
He surmised, though, that the church would handle such
transgressions differently today.
"I think there's a much greater understanding and
sensitivity to the situation," he said. "There's been enough growth
and consciousness of this problem in the Holy See that that would not happen.
CNN's Delia Gallagher, Hada Messia and Richard Allen Greene
contributed to this report.
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