|
Papacy, Vatican, “Pope Benedict XVI” Price Tag Mounts – Cover-up Deepens Revelation 13 Cracks Open a Little More
No system exists, religious or secular, whose hierarchical and homogenous character is so closely bound with sex and power as the Roman Catholic Church. The origin of this ecclesiastical structure is traceable to Christian documents back to 309 A.D., according to former priest/attorney A. W. Richard Sipo of LaJolla, California. Within this homogenous structure, clerics have violated the celibacy oath through-out the Catholic Church’s history. It is not a recent aberration. The extent of improper sexual activity of the priests is not known. What is known through careful study between 1960 and 1985 is that six priests out of one hundred are pedophiles. That adds up to nearly 3000 religious leaders of the Roman Church in the U.S. alone.1 [up to that year] It was in the 1950’s that abused victims began to speak out. The church, alarmed by its implications, issued a most interesting document in 1962. This was entitled Crimen Sollicitationis – the Crime of Solicitation. It came from the Vatican and was written by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani. For nearly 40 years it was classed as “sacred archives” and always to be under lock and key. It ordered Bishops to pursue sexual cases “in the most secretive way” “restrained by perpetual silence” and even the victim must be ordered to “observe the strict secret … under penalty of excommunication.”2 This became the Catholic Church’s a blueprint for deception. Since pedophilia is a crime, it is nothing short of racketeering. The 1962 document was allegedly a device to “protect pedophiles from adverse publicity.” It was to shield the Church from exposure to illegal activity. It’s now becoming clear that illegal sexual activity cover-up has occurred in every diocese in the United States. The church has gotten away with most civil actions by its fascinating appeal to its own Canon laws, which are allegedly better able to deal with priestly misconduct. Most action, however, has been nothing more than changing the priest to another parish with occasional “treatment” and released back to “duty.” In spite of pedophilia being an extremely serious crime, “As recently as May 20, 2002 a judge on the Roman Rota (highest Vatican court) wrote in a Vatican approved periodical that bishops should not report sexual violations to civil authorities lest the image and authority of the Church be compromised and victims harmed instead of being protected (P. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J.). According to Richard Sipes, secrecy is a strict code within the clerical system, even when they have to lie. That rationalization is common on the basis of “protecting the church.” “Cardinals make a vow to the Pope to keep secret anything confided to them that if revealed would cause harm or dishonor to the church. [‘I vow … not to reveal to anyone what is confided to me in secret, nor to divulge what may bring harm or dishonor to “Bishops and priests being, as they are, God’s interpreters and ambassadors, empowered in His name to teach mankind the divine law and the rules of conduct, and holding, as they do, His place on earth, it is evident that no nobler function than theirs can be imagined. Justly, therefore, are they called not only Angels, but even gods, because of the fact that they exercise in our midst the power and prerogatives of the immortal God.”4 Celibacy has collapsed as a Church dictum in the United States. In addition, enough priests know about other clerical sexual activity, extensively against female adults, that the fear of being exposed rivets the secrecy more tightly. In recent documents from the Conference of Bishops dealing with the sex scandal, then in a subsequent document, decisions were formulated so shrewdly that the bishops were excluded from oversight! Only underling priests could be held accountable. Only recently have victims of abuse been treated with respect. This has not been from any action of the Catholic Church but only as a response to the courts of law and the press. Yet the church continues to resist divulging information and releasing files, even when subpoenaed. “In spite of the church’s regard for the preservation of documents, I have interviewed a person who was hired as a personal assistant to an archbishop (Atlanta, 1988). One of his duties was specifically to ‘cleanse’ the personnel files of priests. That meant to destroy some, secrete others in separate files or the Secret Archives of the archdiocese. I also interviewed a priest, abused as a young seminarian, who was investigating the trail of his own priest abuser. When he went to the chancery office of another large archdiocese (NY), secretaries there told him that some files had been cleaned out. A bishop, recently appointed in the U.S., reassured his priests that his diocese was starting with a clean slate; the old files had been removed. It is well known that when Bishop James Quinn addressed all the American bishops (1991), he instructed them on procedures to secrete documents in the office of the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington DC, where they would be protected by diplomatic immunity.”5 Since 1950 the Roman Catholic Church has paid out $1.19 billion in compensation, mainly in pedophilia cases of a now known 4,983 accused priests. Very few have been incarcerated. Most have been put into rehabilitative tasks. Thirty-three percent of religious orders and six percent of diocese never reported their data, which makes these figures as under-reported.6 Tom Doyle, former Vatican Attorney is speaking out. The then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 2001 issued a “sacred” Vatican edict to Catholic bishops – worldwide – instructing them to put the Church‘s interest ahead of child safety. All parties must be compelled to remain secret. Hush funds were to be encouraged if needed. Ratzinger’s report came out of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith that he headed for twenty-four years, charged in promoting Catholic teaching on morals and matters of faith. This put enforcement teeth into the 1962 documents, The Crime of Solicitation. One man, Patrick Wall, who was a “cop” for the Vatican to enforce its laws said recently, “I found I wasn’t working for a holy institution but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself.” Attorney and Priest Tom Doyle is now publicly declaring that the Church is involved in a major worldwide cover-up of illegal activity.7 This is most interesting. At a time when the pope is trying to mend ties with Muslims who have strict sexual codes, this issue is receiving growing international attention. Silencing the opposition has been the modus operandi over the centuries. What technique will they use now? In 2002 the late Pope John Paul II said that the sexual issue was only a problem because of how the world “perceived [the Church] to have acted.” That dismissive spirit was Vatican “spin,” which is now coming also directly from Pope Benedict XVI. At the end of 2005 Benedict was the target of a civil law suit. He was personally accused of conspiring with the archdiocese of Galveston (Houston, TX) in a pedophilia cover-up case. There are documents implicating his direct involvement in a conspiracy to break the law and block justice. The judge dismissed the law suit on the basis of “Diplomatic Immunity.” Papal lawyer Jeffrey Lena stated that the pope “is entitled to immunity like any foreign sovereign without any special limitations imposed upon his immunity just because he is a religious leader.”8 Prophecy notes that at the end of time “the world wondered after the beast” (Revelation 13:3). But it says more. It notes that the dragon who is “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan” (Revelation 12:9) gave power to that papal beast. Then the world asked two intriguing rhetorical questions: “Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
References: 1 www.richardsipe.com 2 www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/06/eveningnews/main566978.shtml 3 www.richardsipe.com 4 The Catechism of the Council of Trent (The Roman Catechism), translated by John A. McHugh, O.P., S.T.M., LITT.D. and Charles J. Callan, O.P., S.T.M., LITT.D., published by Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., Copyright 1992, Rockford, Illinois, 51105, Sacrament of Holy Orders, Dignity of this Sacrament, p. 318. 5 http://www.richardsipe.com/Articles/Knowledge%20of%20sexual%20activity.html – item 54 6 Kevin Eckstrom, Price Tag on Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal Tops $1 Billion, Religious News Service, 2006. 7 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369148-details/Pope+%2527led+cover-up+of+child+abuse+by+priests%2527/article.do 8 Fox News, December 23, 2005.
|