1962 - Cardinal Ottaviani issued a papal decree involving homosexuality, child abuse and sexual activity by priests. It automatically excommunicated any parishioner who did not report an act. Local parishes were to use the decree "for their own guidance." This "highly confidential" letter was never to be reproduced, made public, or commented on in public. In later litigation, its existence was originally denied. It repeatedly described the victims as "Penitants" ie those who admit wrongdoing.
2001 - After Cardinal Rat'z efforts at covering up rampant, widespread, global sexual child abuse by the Church since 1981 were obviously failing, Pope JP2 issued a new letter with new rules on dealing with Priestly sex. The Rat is thanked for his efforts with a promotion in 2005.
COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
A little history here:
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the modern descendent of the 16th Century Roman Inquisition. Since the 1500s, its job was to stamp out witchcraft, midwifery, jewish influences, and heresy. It also was dedicated to policing the church itself, insuring that the papal decrees were enforced to the letter. The mere printing of an offending letter could subject the author to torture and death.
The Inquisition was directly involved in the wholesale murders of German and Italian women, accused of being witches, and the torture and death of countless numbers of innocents throughout the known world. Once Columbus inflicted his brand of slavery on the innocent Island peoples, the Inquisition followed shortly thereafter, insuring that torture and papal murder continued unabated in the new world.
The Inquisition set the tone for most of the religious practices for centuries to come, both in Europe and the Americas. Fear, it seemed, was a strong motivating force.
Given its nasty reputation as a hard headed, brutally violent organization, they changed their name in 1904 to Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.
In 1964, again due to its bloody history, and treacherous past, it was again renamed, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a name it continues to hold today.
In 1964, the first round of priestly sexual attacks on children became public. The world reacted in horror, and by judicious use of blackmail, threats, and covering up obvious crimes, the Church managed to survive unscathed. The Sacred Congregation was also tasked with investigating and dealing with all future allegations, mainly with an eye for cover-ups.
Less than 20 years later, the second round of widespread sexual child abuse by priests became public. Again, "deny, delay and defang" was the method employed. The cardinal assigned to this task, known familiarly as The Rat, Cardinal Ratzinger, personally ordered cover ups, transfers of priests, and destruction of evidence. As head of the CDF, he personally set the manner and technique in dealing with litigation throughout the Americas, and parts of Europe. He personally knew of, and covered up the horrific Irish abuse of children, and protected the priests and bishops involved.
In one seminal moment, the local priests in Poland were so aghast at the level of abuse and sexual misbehavior by a local bishop, that they gathered their pennies, and eventually saved enough to send one priest as a representative to Rome, to complain and to ask for help. The Rat ignored his pleas, and mostly ignored the priest, until the priest stated that he was becoming desperate. The Rat punished him, leaving the child abusing child fucker Bishop in Warsaw to continue in his merry ways.
Because of the explosion of litigation in the US, in 2001, a Commission of laypersons, bishops and cardinals, The United States Conference of Bishops, was created to investigate the situation. The first layperson heading the abuse, Robert Bennett was either fired or resigned, because of excessive "bad faith" on the part of the Catholic Church. He was replaced by Illinois Justice Anne Burke, (herself a Dame of Malta) who tried to repair the damage. (Janet Nepolitano, the DHS head, is another Dame of Malta. I guess spying on people is in their blood). Bennett made several explosive statements, including on Meet The Press. His resignation(?) followed shortly thereafter.
The Rat helped JP2 to issue the 2001 letter, publicly stating that sex with kids was bad for priests. However, both the 1964 letter and the 2001 decree both insisted that the CDF would have sole jurisdiction over any allegations. In fact, in both Illinois and Massachusetts courts, the Church tried to argue that no secular body could delve into church issues, and that adequate responses and fixes were provided by the CDF. Obviously the Church lost the argument.
Back to why the Papal Mexican visit is such a horror show.
Here is the list of US priests accused of serial sex abuse of children, hiding with Church authority in Mexico, beginning in 1985. The only one who could have sent them there was The Rat:
Francis Xavier Ochoa
Gerardo Beltran
Jose Urbina
Franscico Javier Garcia
Nicolas Aguilar Rivera
Joseph Briceno
Siegried Widera
Jose Chavarin
Austin Peter Keegan
Fernando Manza
Juan Guillian
Costellano Jose Pinal
Each one of these child fuckers was given permission to leave the USA by the Rat, in order to avoid prosecution for their crimes. Thousands of children were abused by these child fuckers for decades. Yet, now they live healthy, quiet, peaceful, comfortable, even
posh lives with no chance of extradition.
And then we have the horror known as Marcial Maciel.
Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, began his child fucking early in life, quite possibly causing his two dismissals from seminary school. He still eventually became a priest, and created the Legion of Christ as well its layperson counterpart, Regnum Christi. Since 1941, the Legion of Christ grew to 22 countries, with close to a thousand priests working for it.
Over the decades, he raised millions of dollars for the Vatican, and pulled in thousands of converts (70,000 by one count) and hundreds of future priests, while personally fucking hundreds, if not thousands of children in the process. He fathered at least one child, and repeatedly threatened to severely punish anyone who complained of his rampant child fucking.
There is clear evidence that The Rat knew of this child fucker as early as 1981, when he was first appointed to run the CDF. But, Maciel was a favorite of both the Rat and JP2, especially with the thousands of new devotees, and the strong political power exerted by the Legion of Christ. Despite their knowledge, Pope JP2 went out of his way to commend all the works of the Legion and Maciel in 2001.
Even now, as pope, The Rat continues to support the Legion, while trying to brush aside any responsibility for his prior knowledge of continual criminal activity by the head of the Legion.
To call the Legion of Christ a conservative organization, masked in secrecy, is to call an ocean wet. Even the Wall Street Journal criticized this group (although only AFTER Maciel's deeds became public).
So we have yet another papal visit to Mexico, with strong support for the Legion being expressed by Maciel's chief protector, The Rat.
And we wonder why the Catholic Church is so anti-woman and child here in the states?
Despite being a rhetorical question, the answer is clear. It is a dangerous, power-hungry institution, bent on self-promotion and self-protection, an evil cabal that should be prosecuted under RICO, instead of dictating social and political ideas to American politicians and voters.
On Edit
I just learned of a new story, and of course, a new cover up. Kansas City Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Finn deliberately covered up the sexual abuse by one of his priests:
Experts say a criminal conviction against Finn, the highest-ranking church official charged with shielding an abusive priest, could embolden prosecutors elsewhere to more aggressively pursue members of the church hierarchy who try to protect offending clergy.
“Cases can sit like land mines in files for a long time and suddenly come to light,” said Matthew Bunson, a senior fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and co-author of a book, “Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal.” ‘’Those cases may ultimately involve leaders in the church.”
Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph each were charged last year with one count of failing to report. The case involves the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who remains jailed on state and federal charges accusing him of producing and possessing child pornography. Both have pleaded not guilty, and a judge is scheduled to hear multiple motions in the case Tuesday, including one to dismiss the charges.
Kansas City Bishop accused of coverup