Pope's Abuse Accountability Tribunal Going Nowhere Fast

By NICOLE WINFIELD, ASSOCIATED PRESS VATICAN CITY — Mar 9, 2016, 7:57 AM ET

Pope Francis' proposed Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests is going nowhere fast.

Despite fresh focus from the Oscar-winning film "Spotlight" on how Catholic bishops protected priests who raped children, Francis' most significant sex abuse-related initiative to date has stalled. It's a victim of a premature roll-out, unresolved legal and administrative questions and resistance both inside and outside of the Holy See, church officials and canon lawyers say.

The surprise proposal made headlines when it was announced on June 10 as the first major initiative of Francis' sex abuse advisory commission. A Vatican communique said Francis and his nine cardinal advisers had unanimously agreed to create a new judicial section within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to handle "abuse of office" cases against bishops accused of failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles.

Ex-priest greets Pope Francis with a sign. (Image taken from - http://www.phillyvoice.com/popes-abuse-accountability-tribunal-going-nowhere-/

But the proposal immediately raised red flags to canon lawyers and Vatican officials alike.

For starters, the congregation, which since 2001 has been the clearing house for all church abuse cases around the world, wasn't consulted or even informed. As is, the congregation is understaffed and overwhelmed processing hundreds of backlogged cases of priests who molested children, advising dioceses on how to proceed.

"In reality, the congregation knows nothing about this. The question has just been left there. It hasn't been dealt with," said the Rev. Davide Cito, canon lawyer at Rome's Pontifical Holy Cross University who has helped investigate abuse cases for the congregation.

The Vatican communique said a new secretary for the congregation and staff would be appointed, and adequate resources allocated. But nine months later, no appointments have been made. Francis recently repeated that he would appoint the secretary, but even once in place, he will be starting from scratch on an uphill battle.

"We're confident that the Holy Father's announcement of his intention to name a secretary for the Discipline Section is a clear sign that the implementation of his earlier decisions will be expedited," the head of the sex abuse advisory commission, Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, said in a statement to The Associated Press. - PLS. CLICK HERE and CONTINUE Reading...

Mirror Link - http://www.phillyvoice.com/popes-abuse-accountability-tribunal-going-nowhere-/

The Roman Catholic Church protected pedo-priests for hundred of years.

YOUTUBE VIDEO: Did the Church Protect Pedophiles?

http://fprnradio.com/did-the-church-protect-pedophiles/

Why Is Pope Francis Protecting a High-Ranking Pedophile? - Steve Russell (8/28/14)

The latest pedophile scandal involving the Roman Catholic Church raises a distressingly familiar question: is the Church fighting to end sexual abuse by its priests, or still trying to avoid responsibility? Even worse, from the Church’s perspective, the current outrage calls into question the personal ethics of Pope Francis, whose popularity with rank-and-file Catholics and with the faith community generally is in the same league with that of John XXIII or John-Paul II.

Pope Francis is popular for the excellent reason that “humble” and “frugal” have not been common words to describe those who have occupied the throne of St. Peter, and this Pope has made very public efforts to emulate the life of a carpenter’s son rather than a life of royal privilege. Still, the Pope has personal representatives and many of them are accustomed to royal privileges.

Men of God???  and Satanic salute of envoking demonic curse?

The Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, came to the attention of prosecutors when Nuria Piera, General Director of Cadena de Noticias (CDN), a television station owned by the principal newspaper in Santo Domingo, El Caribe, sent a camera crew to chase down rumors that the nuncio had been luring boys to the beach house (a perk of his office) to engage in sex for money. According to The New York Times, Wesolowski caught the reporters following him and quit cruising for boys on the beach. Instead, he sent a Church deacon, Francisco Reyes, to pander for His Excellency.

(A Papal Nuncio does not represent the city-state of Vatican City. He [always “he”] represents the Holy See, and its personification, the Pope. Each nuncio is personally selected by the Pope and, in Catholic countries, the nuncio is senior in diplomatic protocol to secular ambassadors. Even in non-Catholic countries, the nuncio has all the privileges and immunities of other ambassadors because the Holy See is a signatory to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.)

Reverend Mr. Reyes got arrested for solicitation of a minor on June 24, 2013. When nobody from the Church appeared promptly to bail him out, he squealed and named names of alleged child molesters in a letter written on July 2 to, among others, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus López Rodriguez, who flew to the Vatican and presented the evidence directly to Pope Francis.

The Pope then quietly recalled his nuncio on August 21 without informing Dominican authorities of either the allegations or the recall, spiriting His Excellency Jozef Wesolowski out of the Dominican Republic just ahead of an investigation of numerous counts of child sexual abuse, which began in early September when CDN ran Ms. Piera’s reports. Only then, did the Church announce that Pope Francis had recalled his nuncio. The Vatican then invoked diplomatic immunity to keep the nuncio from being tried for his crimes in the Dominican Republic. After The New York Times reported the story in August of this year, the Vatican reversed course and stripped Wesolowski’s diplomatic immunity, but hedged the decision in a way that sends mixed messages.

The Associated Press reported that Rev. Federico Lombardi, speaking for the Vatican, said that in light of the loss of diplomatic immunity, the former nuncio “might also be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that could have specific jurisdiction over him.” Of course, the Dominican courts have no jurisdiction (because Wesolowski is not a citizen) unless the Vatican honors an extradition request, which can be obstructed by the Church at both ends, in the Dominican Republic and in Vatican City.

Many countries, moreover, will not extradite for conduct that is not criminal in the sanctuary state, either because the extradition treaty says so or because the courts say so. Child sexual abuse was apparently not a crime in Vatican City when Wesolowski was allegedly an active pedophile.

image is taken from - http://wisecatholic.blogspot.com/2013/09/protecting-children-is-everybodys-duty.html

Wesolowski has been defrocked (a sanction currently on appeal in the canonical courts) and the Church claims he will face criminal charges under Vatican City law. This claim seems unlikely because to prosecute for conduct before it was made illegal would violate the bedrock principle of every civilized legal system, nullum poena sine lege (no punishment without law).

Should lawyer-Latin not translate to Church-Latin, there’s been no announcement of how many alleged victims will be flown in to testify or whether the former nuncio will be incarcerated pending trial. The New York Times reported that Victor Masalles, a Dominican bishop, claimed that he saw Wesolowski free on the streets of Vatican City on a June visit.

The Dominican Republic did not initially make an issue of the Church’s claim of diplomatic immunity. Prosecutors in Poland, where Wesolowski holds dual citizenship with Vatican City, did. Poland is prosecuting another priest for child sexual abuse in the Dominican Republic, Rev. Wojciech Gil, and Dominican prosecutors claim that Father Gil molested young boys at the nuncio’s beach house with Wesolowski present and participating. Depending on Polish law, Poland may not need Wesoloski’s physical presence to assert jurisdiction, but they will to punish him.

Most of the priesthood’s sexual abuse of children and subsequent cover-up happened before Pope Francis began his reign. This case, where the allegation is that Francis made a decision that directly contradicts the “new” Church policy to report pedophile priests to secular criminal justice authorities, will be a public test of the Pope’s determination to clean up the mess he inherited.

SOURCE: Indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

DELIVER US FROM ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

Do you know there are two films out there entitled DELIVER US FROM EVIL? Yes people might get confused which one is real and which one is fiction. The real DELIVER US FROM EVIL is an expose` of the real evil people and pedophiles inside the Roman Catholic Church. I'm specifically talking "about Father Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest who was relocated to various parishes around the United States during the 1970s in an attempt by the Catholic Church to cover up his rape of dozens of children." And the other Deliver Us from Evil is nothing but a fictitious film which I believe another film made to cover up Pedophilia in Romanism. Obviously its a film made to confuse people and kids that the Roman Catholic Church is composed of priests that are sex maniacs and sex abusers. And of course the fictitious Deliver Us from Evil film the priest there is portrayed as a Man of God who smokes, drinks heavily and enjoys night life. An unorthodox Roman Catholic priest who is an exorcist. What a deception. Its obviously a film made to deceive and confuse the masses that the real evil is inside the Roman Church. Deliver us from Roman Catholicism!

Youtube Vid: Deliver Us From Evil Interview - Amy Berg interviewed by Chaim Lazaros - WKCR

Filmmaker Amy Berg recounts a harrowing story of child abuse and how a serial child molester went free for the better part of two decades in this documentary. Oliver O'Grady was a Catholic priest who served in a number of parishes in Southern California during the 1970s and '80s. O'Grady was also a habitual child molester who abused dozens of youngsters who were entrusted to his care, and while his superiors in the church were aware of O'Grady's crimes as early as 1973, they opted to simply move him from one congregation to another rather than turn him in to authorities or strip him of his ordination. In Deliver Us From Evil, a number of O'Grady's victims and their families discuss his crimes and the repercussions they feel to this day. O'Grady himself also appears in the film, speaking candidly about his career as a sexual predator and recounting his misdeeds in detail. (After finally being convicted of child sexual abuse, O'Grady served time in prison and now lives in Ireland, where he is still looked after by Catholic clergy.)

Berg also offers a look into the history of the Catholic Church and how its leadership has often protected those within the hierarchy at the expense of their worshipers. Deliver Us From Evil was named Best Documentary Feature at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival. (Source: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/deliver-us-from-evil/ )

DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

A JESUIT PRIEST IS GUILTY OF CHILD PORN IN DOWN UNDER.

Father Stan Hogan, 69, A Jesuit priest and teacher at Saint Ignatius' College in Adelaide has admitted to child pornography offences. (Image is taken from ABC.NET.AU)

Police seized 1,555 child porn images at Father Stanislaus John Hogan’s St Ignatius residence, court told COURT REPORTER KEN MCGREGOR THE ADVERTISER JUNE 30, 2014 2:41PM

A SENIOR priest at a prominent Catholic school was caught with more than a thousand perverse images of children and teenagers, some in the worst category known to authorities, a court has heard.

In March, Father Stanislaus John Hogan, 69, pleaded guilty to one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography and one aggravated count of possessing child pornography.

In sentencing submissions today, the District Court heard police had seized a collection of videos, images and magazines of children aged between three months and 16 years in his bedroom at Saint Ignatius College at Athelstone in 2012. However, The Advertiser has subsequently learned prosecutors mis-spoke, and that the youngest children depicted were three years of age.

The court heard about 70 per cent of the 1555 images and videos were of teenage boys but Hogan also had five images and two videos classified as category 5 — which is saved for the worst type of child exploitation material.

Sophie David, for Hogan, told the court that a psychologist report indicated her client’s offending had risen amid depression associated with reconciling his sexual orientation with his religious beliefs.

“As a result of his offending he has lost his vocation, his financial means and of course his reputation and distinguished career as an educator has been indelibly stained,” she said.

She said some of the offending material had been bought in the 1970s and 1980s when it was not illegal. She asked the court to consider suspending any jail sentence imposed against Hogan because he was undergoing steps to rehabilitate himself, was unlikely to reoffend and there was no suggestion any of the students had been exposed to the illicit material.

The court heard Hogan had been the school’s rector at the time of the raid and he had held prominent teaching positions throughout Australia, including at St Aloysius’ in Sydney and Xavier College in Melbourne, during the past three decades.

Prosecutor Scott Swain said he strongly opposed any suggestion of a suspended sentence and indicated there would be an appeal if Judge Peter Brebner were to do so.

“His main interest was boys of low to mid teenage years which I note was the very age range of the students attending the school where he was employed,” he said.

Judge Brebner remanded Hogan on continuing bail to be sentenced at later date.

SOURCE:  ADELAIDENOW.COM.AU