The Vatican has released its long-awaited report on former American cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was expelled from the priesthood for sexual misconduct. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports for TODAY.
The previous two popes ignored complaints of abuse by a cardinal
Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, the predecessors of the current Pope, have ignored or downplayed complaints of sexual abuse against US American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. That is stated in a report from the Vatican. Pope Francis ordered the investigation into whether complaints about the cardinal have been covered up.
The investigation shows that in 2000, Pope John Paul II knew that accusations against McCarrick had been made to the Holy See. According to anonymous letters, the American cardinal was guilty of, eg, the sexual abuse of underage family members. Investigators also found that the Vatican received additional information on previous allegations in April 2005, shortly after Pope Benedict XVI took office.
McCarrick was instructed to remain somewhat in the background, according to the report. Benedict thought no further steps were necessary.
Deprived of priestly status
McCarrick retired in 2006. In 2018, Pope Francis stripped him of priestly status for sexual abuse. American bishops and other representatives of the Vatican have also been guilty of ignoring or downplaying reports of McCarrick sexual abuse, the investigation shows.
in the 6,000-word essay published today in the German monthly magazine Klerusblatt, the Catholic News Agency, and other conservative media. According to Benedict, the germ of the abuse lies in the early 1960s. … Benedict saw the formation of homosexual cliques” in seminars “that acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate”. …
Penance
When he retired in 2013, Benedict wanted to devote the rest of his life to penance and prayer.
Massimo Faggioli, theologian at Villanova University, argues that Benedict’s analysis is meager because he actually attributes the abuse to the sexual revolution and ignores major issues before that time. “It’s a caricature of what happened.”
The Bishop of Alcalá de Henares is under investigation after it emerged that conversion therapy courses which told homosexuals to “pray away the gay” were being held in his diocese.
These pseudo-therapies practised also on minors, have allegedly taken place since 2009 when Juan Antonio Reig Pla became the city’s bishop.
According to the lawyer Ulrich Weber, 67 out of 500 children have been victims of physical violence as well as sexual abuse. The lawyer put that in the final report he has written for the diocese. Weber started his research seven years ago when the first cases came to light. It’s about crimes between 1945 and the early 1990s.
Looking away
Weber identified 49 priests and teachers who are guilty of ill-treatment and abuse. In the report, the former bishop of Regensburg and the former choir leader get fierce criticism. The latter is Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Emeritus Pope Benedict. He was looking the other way and is criticized for lack of intervention while he knew of the abuse.
The current bishop of Regensburg apologized last year.
1. Wide of “Regensburger Domspatzen” boys’ choir school building
2. Sign on school building reading (German) “Regensburger Domspatzen”
3. Boys walking up to school entrance
4. Close-up of glass panel over school entrance
Munich – 11 March 2010
5. Wolfgang Blaschka sitting at table in cafe, drinking coffee
6. SOUNDBITE (German) Wolfgang Blaschka, student at Etterzhausen Elementary School from 1966 to 1967:
“My earlobe was ripped off in one punishment. One day I found myself hanging in the air by my hair – my whole bodyweight – in the claw of this Principal Meier. And when I then tried to support my bodyweight by grabbing his arm, he beat me very badly.”
7. Close-up of Blaschka’s eyes
8. SOUNDBITE (German) Wolfgang Blaschka, student at Etterzhausen Elementary School from 1966 to 1967:
priest, director of the Regensburger Domspatzen children’s choir (which he made perform, eg, at the NATO summit in Germany in 1982), and elder brother of Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI
, and it was particularly painful when he pulled me up here by my sideburns, that was very mean. Although I was not a bad singer. But when it was about the music, he was a full-blooded musician, he really was quick-tempered and forgot about everything.”
Regensburg – 10 March 2010
9. Wide tilt down of house of Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI
10. Close-up of memorial plaque on wall of house in honour of Pope Benedict XVI‘s visit in 2006, reading (German) “The monastery chapter of St. Johann remembers the visit of the Holy Father Benedict XVI to his brother Georg Ratzinger on 13 September 2006.”
11. Georg Ratzinger walking to door of his house
12. Close-up of Ratzinger’s name next to door bell
13. Ratzinger at door
Munich – 11 March 2010
14. Wide of Rudolf Neumaier, student from 1981 to 1982 at Etterzhausen Elementary School, entering office at “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” publishing house, sitting down
15. SOUNDBITE (German) Rudolf Neumaier, student at Etterzhausen Elementary School from 1981 to 1982:
“The responsible persons in Regensburg knew that there was something wrong. They did not act and therefore I was quite surprised, at the beginning of this week, that (Johann) Meier was still there in 1991 and that a witness had said that nothing had changed and Meier was still beating students in 1991.”
16. Neumaier talking on the phone
17. SOUNDBITE (German) Rudolf Neumaier, student at Etterzhausen Elementary School from 1981 to 1982:
“Well, then he was beating this boy, he shouted and screamed at him and then he pulled him out of his seat and struck him on the back with the chair, so that the chair broke into two pieces. This was the worst incident I witnessed.”
Regensburg – 10 March 20100
18. Wide of Regensburg cathedral, tilt up to cathedral spires
Germany’s top education representative sharply criticised the church on Thursday for failing to report cases of physical and sexual abuse in a timely fashion.
The uproar came a day before Germany’s highest bishop was to meet Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.
Wolfgang Blaschka, a 52-year-old graphic designer, said that corporal punishment was the rule, not the exception, when he was a student at the Etterzhausen school just outside Regensburg.
“One day I found myself hanging in the air by my hair – my whole bodyweight – in the claw of this Principal Meier,” he said, referring to then-director Johann Meier.
Since last year research has been done about abuses at the Bavarian choir in the period 1945 to 1992. The sexual violence ranged from fondling to rape. Boys also said they were beaten until bloody with a stick, key ring or seal ring. If a child had wet the bed, then he was banned from drinking anything.
End of next year a committee will decide on compensation. Victims can look forward to financial compensation of between 5,000 and 20,000 euros and are offered therapeutic help. There will also be an investigation into the causes of the abuse at the choir.
Benedict
The perpetrators of abuse are now deceased. Georg Ratzinger [still alive], the older brother of former Pope Benedict, was between 1964 and 1994 the leader of the choir. The lawyer of several victims thinks he knew about the abuse. Ratzinger is in denial about that.
The Regensburger Domspatzen is the choir of the cathedral of Regensburg. The choir is more than a thousand years old.
This 2015 video is a German documentary about the abuse scandal in the Regensburger Domspatzen children’s choir.
Priests and teachers of the world famous choir of the cathedral in the German city of Regensburg have in recent decades abused at least 231 choristers and mistreated them. These are many more than the 72 cases that the diocese itself had already admitted.
Lawyer Ulrich Weber spoke last year on behalf of the diocese with those involved. He could also consult secret archives. Weber fears that the actual number of victims is even higher.
The lawyer suspects that on about a third of the 2100 students who came to Regensburg between 1953 and 1992 physical violence has been inflicted.
Rape
The sexual assaults ranged from fondling to rape. Furthermore, boys said they were beaten bloodily with sticks, key rings or seal rings. Children who wetted their beds were not allowed to drink anything any more.
Most of these crimes are now barred. Within the diocese, Weber says people already knew what was happening, but for fear of personal consequences and implications for the choir, nothing was done about it.
The diocese has promised victims 2500 euros as compensation.
1000 year
The Regensburger Domspatzen is one of the most famous choirs in the world and the oldest boys’ choir in Germany. In 1976 it celebrated its millennium.
Between 1964 and 1994 the choir was led by Georg Ratzinger, the now 91-year-old brother of Pope Benedict XVI. The choir has also a school and a boarding school connected to it.
This DPA photo shows Pope Benedict XVI visiting the Regensburger Domspatzen.
Sexual assault reports surge at three US military academies by more than 50%: here.
Pope Approves Martyrdom Declaration for Oscar Romero, Slain Salvadoran Archbishop
FEB. 3, 2015, 10:06 A.M. E.S.T.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis decreed Tuesday that slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed in 1980 out of hatred for his Catholic faith, approving a martyrdom declaration that sets the stage for his beatification.
Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down by right-wing death squads March 24, 1980 while celebrating Mass. A human rights campaigner, Romero had spoken out against repression by the Salvadoran army at the beginning of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war between the right-wing government and leftist rebels.
His assassination presaged a conflict that killed nearly 75,000.
Romero’s sainthood cause had been held up by the Vatican for years out of concern over his perceived association with liberation theology, the Latin American-inspired Catholic theology that holds that Jesus’ teachings require followers to fight for social and economic justice.
Over the summer, Francis told reporters that Romero’s case had been “blocked out of prudence” by the congregation, but that it had been “unblocked” because there were no more doctrinal concerns.
No date for the beatification has been set. Francis has all but ruled out celebrating it himself, saying recently that it would be up to the head of the saint-making office, Cardinal Angelo Amato, and the prelate who for decades has spearheaded Romero’s cause, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, to decide who would get the honor.
Paglia was to meet with reporters Wednesday to discuss the historic case.
Unlike regular candidates for beatification, martyrs can reach the first step to possible sainthood without a miracle attributed to their intercession. A miracle is needed for canonization, however.
Traditionally, the church has restricted the martyr designation to people who were killed out of hatred for the Catholic faith. Romero’s case lagged in part over questions about whether he was killed for his politics, or for his faith.
The decree signed Tuesday by Francis makes clear that Romero was a martyr in the classic sense, killed out of hatred for the faith.
But in discussing Romero’s cause this past summer, Francis suggested that the definition of martyr could be expanded. …
Francis told reporters during an airborne press conference that, with reference to Romero, he wanted theologians to study if someone who is killed for “doing the work for the other that Jesus commands” could also be considered a martyr.
On 13 March 2014, Dutch daily De Volkskrant published an article by Sarah Venema on the Vatican.
On that 13 March, Francis I had been pope for one year. During the reign of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, Ms Venema wrote (my translation):
Cardinals denounced each other as gays, liars and frauds and leaked anonymous messages about each other to Italian papers. …
A monsignor who cut extravagant expenses -500,000 euro for a nativity manger on St Peter’s square was too much- was kicked upstairs, safely away to the USA.
Ms Venema writes that the new pope sacked cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a Berlusconi crony. He also sacked all cardinals, save one, who used to be on the Vatican bank board.
The ancient Greek myth on a demigod and hero mentioned that Heracles managed to clean the extremely dirty stables of king Augias with very unconventional means: by diverting a river through the royal stables.
Does Pope Francis I have the courage, intelligence and strength of that mythical demigod? It is too early to tell after one year.
Wenders offers hagiography. The director’s undoubted cinematic achievement is lessened by his undue reverence for Pope Francis which leaves too many vital questions unanswered, writes MARIA DUARTE.
But, maybe as a positive note among negative notes: it seems that, at least, Pope Benedict XVI did not want to hold on to big power at all costs. I hope that other heads of state and prime ministers who have done much wrong will follow his example and resign.
One should hope that Ratzinger‘s successor will correct what went wrong under Benedict XVI. But I don’t have a crystal ball. So, I cannot predict the future.
“Instead of a message of peace and love, the Pope chooses Christmas time for a frontal attack on gay men and women”, says COC President Tanja Ineke. “I find that amazing and unloving. It is hurtful to LGBTQ people in general, wounds Catholic LGBTQ people in their very souls, and alienates many heterosexual Catholics from their church.”
Ineke calls the “obsession” of the Vatican with homosexuality ‘remarkable’. “While wars rage and people are dying of hunger, the Vatican chooses to condemn people who love each other. About Uganda, where the most horrible religion-based anti-gay legislation is likely to be introduced, the Vatican is silent.”
Ever since 1985 Dutch growers donate every year at Easter flowers to the Pope. But why should someone who routinely condemns homosexuality and LGBTQ people be given flowers?
POPE: ‘GOD IS NOT AFRAID OF NEW THINGS’ “Pope Francis has closed an assembly of Catholic bishops that revealed deep divisions on how to respond to homosexuality and divorce, saying on Sunday the Church should not be afraid of change and new challenges.” [Reuters]
In his Christmas speech the Pope said that homosexuals destroy “the essence of humankind”. Families, according to him are “threatened to the core” by opening marriage to LGBTQ couples. Previously he called gay marriages a threat to world peace.
Pope Benedict XVI is getting into the festive spirit by taking his opposition to gay relationships to new heights.
The Catholic leader made his latest homophobic attack on Friday in his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican – one of his most important speeches of the year and one in which he dedicated to opposing equal marriage. …
In January, the Pope warned that introducing equal marriage would risk the future of humanity itself.
So, Pope Ratzinger does not link Christmas to love. Rather, he links it to hatred of people who love each other enough to want to marry.
Accusing gay people of threatening world peace is a grave accusation indeed. People threatening world peace might start World War III, with the most horrible (nuclear) bloodshed ever.
While criticizing the Vatican and popes, I should also give them credit where credit is due. The present pope’s predecessor condemned the Iraq war; so did Pope Ratzinger, though less strongly so than John Paul II.
However, Pope Ratzinger granted Tony Blair a private audience. Many pious and peace-loving Roman Catholics lay people can only dream about ever getting a private audience with the pope. While Archbishop Tutu does not want to be on the same stage with war criminal Blair.
So, Pope Ratzinger does not treat Blair like he treats gay people. He did not treat anti-Semitic Holocaust denier Richard Williamson like he treats gay people. Quite the contrary. Williamson had been expelled from the Roman Catholic church. By re-admitting Williamson, the pope not only recognized Williamson as a Roman Catholic; but also as a Roman Catholic bishop in good standing.
What is the source of Pope Ratzinger’s homophobia? Not Jesus Christ’s tradition. Rather the near-universal homophobia of the mid-twentieth century, when Ratzinger was young. Homophobia which killed British anti-nazi code breaker and computer inventor Alan Turing. Homophobia climaxing in nazi Germany which murdered many people in concentration camps for being gay. As a member of the Hitler Youth, young Ratzinger may very well have been indoctrinated in homophobia.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 