Most Definitive & Scathing Report Yet

"There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.

Matthew 13:13
: : : 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables:    "Though seeing, they do not see;       though hearing, they do not hear or understand.       
 Jeremiah 5:21
: : : Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8059826.stm

Ireland
The Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse, an investigative body commissioned by the Irish Church just completed a 9 year inquiry into  child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland has found church leaders knew that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions.

decades of cover-up in the Dublin Archdiocese involving approximately 170 priests 

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said "This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society,"
"It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty: neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, perpetrated against children."

The five-volume study concluded that church officials used rape, and  encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest amid a "culture of self-serving secrecy".

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, said those who perpetrated violence and abuse should be held to account, "no matter how long ago it happened".
"Every time there is a single incident of abuse in the Catholic Church, it is a scandal. I would be very worried if it wasn't a scandal... I hope these things don't happen again, but I hope they're never a matter of indifference," he said.

The commission said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt "It was systemic
Irish complaints that have topped 15,000

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8059826.stm

Father Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown Univeristy's Woodstock Theological Center, responded: "I'm afraid that in Europe they may be making some of the same mistakes that the American bishops made. It does no good to attack the media. This all sounds like excuses."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100313/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_church_abuse
It's inevitable that all bishops of the day, including Ratzinger, handled abuse complaints against priests in-house, said the Rev. Fergus O'Donoghue, editor of the Irish Jesuit journal Studies.

"The pope was no different to any other bishop at time. The church policy was to keep it all quiet — to help people, but to avoid scandal. Avoiding scandal was a huge issue for the church," he said. "Of course there was cover-up," he added. But worse was "the systematic lack of concern for the victims."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100313/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_church_abuse


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1364

The Vatican hierarchy has been swamped with accusations concerning sexual abuse of children perpetrated by priests in Wisconsin, Germany, and Ireland. The emerging stories all suggest that church leaders had been, at best, grossly negligent in handling the abuse charges brought to their attention. And at worst, they suggest that the Vatican had a hand in covering up crucial details in all cases.

From 1981 to 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected Pope Benedict XVI n 2004, headed the Vatican department responsible for investigating and acting on such allegations, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Wisconsin
Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy molested approximately 200 young boys at a for deaf children.  Several bishops alerted the Vatican,  though his behavior was never brought to the attention of local law enforcement. Instead, Murphy was quietly transferred to another parish, where he worked with children for another 24 years.
Wisconsin bishops finally initiated disciplinary action against Murphy through a secret canonical trial in the mid-'90s.
Murphy wrote letter of protest to Cardinal Ratzinger. Shortly after Cardinal Ratzinger received the letter, the trial was halted. Father Murphy died a fully decorated priest..

Germany

German priest Peter Hullerman working in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, which Ratzinger then administered, was accused of molesting boys. Hullerman was subsequently permitted to resume pastoral duties — a move that Ratzinger approved.
Hullerman continued working with boys, and was convicted in 1986 on sexual molestation charges. Even so, he retained his position within the church until earlier this month. A man whose wedding was to be officiated by Hullerman revealed his criminal history to his congregation — and only then was Hullerman suspended from his work as a priest.
"The German cases are growing every day," said the attorney appointed by the German church to investigate abuse charges.

There was immediate skepticism that Benedict, as archbishop, would not have known of the details of the case.
The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, who once worked at the Vatican Embassy in Washington said  "Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He's the old style. Anything like that would have been brought to his attention.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/world/europe/13pope.html
Austria suspended five priests pending investigations into allegations they had molested students.

The church in the Netherlands has said more than 200 people came forward in recent weeks.

A Switzerland abbot said in an interview published Saturday that 60 people have reported being victims of abuse by Catholic priests in Switzerland.

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"There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.

Matthew 13:13
: : : 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables:    "Though seeing, they do not see;       though hearing, they do not hear or understand.       
 Jeremiah 5:21
: : : Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: