Imagine if the gay priests impregnated the boys they rape around the world.
“If men could become pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”
~ Florynce Kennedy
German archbishop offers to resign after abuse criticism by Kirsten Grieshaber And Daniel Niemann, The Associated Press, with contributions from Geir Moulson and Nicole Winfield, March 18, 2021, Kitchener Today
A report commissioned by Germany’s Cologne archdiocese on church officials’ handling of past cases of sexual abuse found 75 cases in which high-ranking officials neglected their duties. The findings on Thursday prompted the archbishop of Hamburg to offer his resignation to Pope Francis.
The report, commissioned by Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki, absolved Woelki himself of any neglect of duty with respect to abuse victims.
However, Woelki’s late predecessor, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, was accused of two dozen instances of wrongdoing such as failing to follow up on or report cases of abuse, not sanctioning perpetrators or not caring for victims. Meisner retired in 2014 and died in 2017.
Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse, previously a senior church official in Cologne, was faulted for 11 cases of neglecting his duty.
Later Thursday, Hesse posted a video statement in which he conceded that he had made “mistakes” in the past, and said he very much regretted if he caused new suffering to victims or their relatives “through my action or omission.”
“I never participated in coverups,” he said. “I am nevertheless prepared to carry my part of the responsibility for the failure of the system.”
“To prevent damage to the office of the archbishop and to the Hamburg archdiocese, I am offering my resignation to Pope Francis, and I am asking him to relieve me of my duties immediately,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the Vatican, and it was unlikely Francis would act quickly on Hesse’s offer. At 54 years old, Hesse is more than 20 years away from the normal retirement age for bishops. Francis has previously declined, at least initially, to accept resignations when they were offered to repent for mishandling sex abuse cases, though he has relented after time.
The lawyer in charge of the report, Bjoern Gercke, told reporters in Cologne that his investigation touched on the cases of 314 abuse victims — a majority of them boys under the age of 14 at the time of the abuse — and 202 people accused of abuse in the Cologne diocese since 1975.
The focus wasn’t so much on what the suspects did to the victims, but more on whether the church — former and current archbishops, vicars-general and other high-ranking church officials — responded correctly to accusations of abuse.
Altogether, the report found 75 cases in which eight high-ranking officials neglected their duties to either follow up on, report or sanction cases of alleged abuse by clergy and lay church employees, and failed to take care of the victims.
Woelki infuriated many local Catholics over recent months by citing legal concerns to keep under wraps a first report on how local church officials reacted when priests were accused of sexual abuse. He commissioned the new report — an 800-page investigation based on church files and put together by a German law firm.
Gercke said the first report, by a Munich law firm, also had concluded that the current archbishop wasn’t guilty of any wrongdoing. The Cologne archdiocese has the most Catholics of any in Germany, some 1.9 million.
In a first response to the new report, Woelki said the investigation confirmed his fears that high-ranking officials were guilty of not having reported perpetrators and thereby preventing their prosecution.
“My predecessors, too, are guilty — as of today it is no longer possible to say ‘We didn’t know,’” Woelki said, adding that he would send the report to the Holy See in Rome.
Woelki said he also would temporarily suspend two Cologne church officials based on the findings of the investigation. One of them, Auxiliary Bishop Dominikus Schwaderlapp, also said he had offered his resignation to the pope. The report found Schwaderlapp neglected his duty to inform and report abuse allegations in eight cases.
German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said the report demonstrated anew “what horrific sexual violence children and teenagers had to suffer in Catholic institutions.”
“Child abuse is not an internal church matter, but a crime that must be examined and decided by criminal courts,” the minister said.
Jens Windel, 46, the founder of a support group for clergy abuse survivors, watched a livestream of the news conference about the report on his laptop with other victims outside Cologne’s landmark cathedral.
The report, he said, “trivializes the severity of the coverups that took place.”
There has been fierce criticism of Woelki’s handing of the previous report. The head of the German Bishops’ Conference, Limburg Bishop Georg Baetzing, last month described the crisis management in Cologne as a “disaster.”
A Cologne court last month announced that it was raising the number of appointments available for people seeking to formally leave the church to 1,500 per month from 1,000 starting in March, amid strong demand.
Revelations about past sexual abuse have dogged the church in Germany and elsewhere for years.
In 2018, a church-commissioned report concluded that at least 3,677 people were abused by clergy in Germany between 1946 and 2014. More than half of the victims were 13 or younger when the abuse took place, and nearly a third of them were altar boys.
In January, a new system drawn up by the church to compensate abuse survivors took effect. It provides for payments of up to about 50,000 euros (nearly $60,000) to each victim. Under a previous system in place since 2011, payments averaged about 5,000 euros. Sex trafficking by the the catholic church? Complete with gag orders?
Japanese court rules gay marriage ban is unconstitutional, LGBT activists celebrate as landmark decision boosts campaign to legalise same-sex unions by Justin McCurry, 17 Mar 2021, The Guardian
A court has given hope to the campaign to legalise gay marriage in Japan after it ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to wed is unconstitutional.
Japan is the only G7 nation not to fully recognise same-sex partnerships, while its constitution defines marriage as being based on “the mutual consent of both sexes”.
The Sapporo district court rejected demands for damages filed by three same-sex couples, but its decision – the first of its kind – on the constitutionality of gay marriage is being seen as a significant symbolic victory that could lead to a change in the law.
“I’m really happy. Until the ruling was announced, we didn’t know this was what we’d get and I’m just overjoyed,” said Gon Matsunaka, the director of activist group Marriage for All Japan and a representative at Pride House Tokyo, adding that the ruling’s value was “absolutely immeasurable”.
The court sided with the plaintiffs’ contention that in not permitting same-sex couples to “enjoy even a part of the legal effects that arise from marriage”, the current arrangements violate article 14 of the 1947 constitution, which stipulates equality of all people under the law.
The court said sexuality, like race and gender, is not a matter of individual preference, and so prohibiting same-sex couples from receiving benefits given to heterosexual couples cannot be justified.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the constitution’s reference to “both sexes” was intended to ensure equality between prospective spouses and to prevent forced marriages.
While new legislation will be needed before same-sex marriages are legally recognised, LGBT activists said the ruling would boost their campaign.
The opposition MP Kanako Otsuji, one of the few openly gay politicians in Japan, said in a tweet she was “truly, truly happy” about the verdict.
“With this ruling, I urge the Diet, as the legislative branch of the government, to deliberate a proposed amendment to the civil code to make same-sex marriage possible,” she said.
Same-sex couples in Japan are unable to inherit their partner’s assets – such as the house they may have shared – and have no parental rights to any children their partners may have.
Though partnership certificates issued by individual municipalities help with renting accommodation and hospital visitation rights, they do not provide the same full legal rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.
The court threw out the demand for damages by the six plaintiffs – two couples of men and one of women – who had demanded that the government pay ¥1m (£6,580) each for the psychological damage they have suffered by not being able to legally marry.
The ruling could influence the outcome of similar cases now being heard in four other courts around Japan.
Gay sex has been legal in Japan since 1880, but social attitudes keep members of the LGBT community largely invisible. Many have yet to come out, even to their families.
A poll by the Yomiuri newspaper last November found 61% of people were broadly in favour of same-sex marriage, with 37% against.
Some in the business world say the failure to legalise same-sex marriage makes it difficult for companies, especially foreign firms, to attract and keep highly skilled labour in an increasingly international economy.
Japan’s refusal to issue spouse visas to partners of same-sex couples legally married overseas is a growing problem, forcing them to temporarily live separately.
The American Chamber of Commerce last year issued a statement saying that Japan’s stance makes it less competitive internationally as a result.
A number of foreign and Japanese firms have taken steps to work around the restrictions, but say there are limits to what they can do.
“For things that are part of the national system, such as pensions, there’s nothing they can do,” said Masa Yanagisawa, the head of prime services at Goldman Sachs Japan and a board member of Marriage for All Japan.
“All the other advanced countries have this, so Japan will lose out competitively. Then there’s the fact that people can’t be who they are. It becomes quite business-critical.”
A few of the tweets to Michael de Adder’s March 16, 2021 cartoon (below) in Chronicle Herald:
Every single Catholic in a position of power was in on protecting pedophiles for decades. That includes the current Pope. The whole thing is rotten to the core.
mike@mgf09 Replying to @deAdder and @chronicleherald
Sadly, that is who they are. Hard to believe they still have followers.
It’s only ~ 1.3 billions
It displays a sad state of humanity.
Rebel priests vow to continue blessing same-sex couples in defiance of Vatican orders by Reuteres, March 16, 2021, The Globe and Mail
A dissident band of Roman Catholic priests leading a disobedience campaign against the Vatican said on Tuesday they would carry on blessing same-sex couples in defiance of Church orders. Bravo! Patrons of the anti-gay-marriage-pro-gay-priests-raping-boys church need to quit attending, leaving donation plates empty. That’s the only way to make the church quit raping so many kids and start behaving humanely in our communities. Stop enabling the rapists!
The Vatican said on Monday that priests cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings are not valid, in a ruling that disappointed gay Catholics who had hoped their Church was becoming more welcoming under Pope Francis.
In some countries, parishes and ministers have begun blessing same-sex unions in lieu of marriage, and there have been calls for bishops to institutionalize de facto such blessings. Conservatives in the 1.3 billion-member Roman Catholic Church have expressed alarm over such practices. How many of these conservatives are pedophiles?
“We members of the Parish Priests Initiative are deeply appalled by the new Roman decree that seeks to prohibit the blessing of same-sex loving couples. This is a relapse into times that we had hoped to have overcome with Pope Francis,” the Austrian-based group said in a statement.
“We will – in solidarity with so many – not reject any loving couple in the future who ask to celebrate God’s blessing, which they experience every day, also in a worship service.”
The Parish Priests Initiative led by Father Helmut Schueller has long been a thorn in the side of the Vatican. The group wants Church rules changed so that priests can marry and women can become priests. Indeed a positive change that must happen but, I expect the legal industry (think of how much money it makes off of the raping church), and the demented cavemen leadership, will never allow it because that would dramatically reduce the number of raping priests in the church. Women are known to be more courageous than men. If women were allowed to be priests, I expect there would be a quick end to the silent shuffle and a purging and serious punishment of the endless pedophile priests. The rich and powerful will never allow the church to go clean either – as long as priests get to rape away to their penis’ desires, it helps enable non religious pedophiles.
It has said it will break Church rules by giving communion to Protestants and divorced Catholics who remarry. Judges, lawyers (including my ex lead lawyer Murray Klippenstein), politicians, police, corporations, regulators, etc. break the rules, so may as well join the club! My dad studied to become a priest because his mum wanted the family to have the “honour” of a Catholic priest in the family (imagine the insanity of that). He quit in disgust at the filthy hypocrisy of the church after two years. I wonder if he was raped there.
Founded in 2006 by nine priests, the initiative says it now has around 350 members from the ranks of the official Church and more than 3,000 lay supporters.
The Vatican in 2012 cracked down on Schueller, stripping him of the right to use the title monsignor and saying he was also no longer a “Chaplain of His Holiness.” Congratulations! It’s a mighty honour to be so stripped. Thank you, with all my heart and soul, for taking this courageous vital stand. Love is love, and in my view, no religion, no church, no man or woman, no politician and no pope or cardinal has the right to torment people in love.
Schueller, a former deputy to Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, had been given the honorary title in his capacity as head of the Austrian branch of the Catholic charity group Caritas.
A few of the comments to Globe article below:
BobMck: The Middle Ages is still with us.
WatchWood: For heaven’s sakes. How ridiculous.
railer2: I was raised catholic, my mother was a committed catholic and we both left the church. by the time i was 35 I became an atheist. The catholic church is the worst – they won’t ordain women, they protect the pedophiles masquerading as priests. The priests believe women should stay home and make babies when they know that most of the women are using some form of birth control and so they won’t talk about it. that’s called hypocrisy , they only represent god as a male figure – more misogyny. Why people stay in that church is beyond my understanding,
John358: Wow, maybe he should take a look at the percentage of gay priests in assorted Ontario diocese…I am not against a person’s sexual preferences..honestly…but not fair to pass judgment, until you’ve addressed those that you’re in charge of.
HabFan410: Francis has been a dud of a pope. All talk, no action. And to think he was condidered a “reformer”.
JohnD1: More than any other before him, this Pope opened, however slightly, the tightly-shut door of tolerance of gays. “Who am I too judge?” he asked, in what would have been an inconceivable question by a Pontiff even a few decades ago.
Laden with millennia of dogma and groaning under the weight of centuries of doctrinal baggage, the Roman Catholic church is a cumbersome vessel that can only change direction slowly and incrementally.
An abrupt and radical shift would literally topple the institution, likely causing a schism from conservative elements in Africa and Asia. (Deep-pocketed US proselytizing evangelicals helped entrench existing cultural homophobia). …
Vatican decrees that Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions by Philip Pullella, March 15, 2021, The Globe and Mail
The Vatican said on Monday that priests cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings are not valid, in a ruling that greatly disappointed gay Catholics who had hoped their Church was becoming more welcoming under Pope Francis.
In some countries, such as the United States and Germany, parishes and ministers have begun blessing same-sex unions in lieu of marriage, and there have been calls for bishops to de facto institutionalize these.
But conservatives in the 1.3 billion-member Church have expressed alarm over these practices, particularly those in Germany where at least two bishops, including Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, one of the pope’s top advisers, have shown support for some kind of “pastoral” blessing.
In response to formal questions from a number of dioceses on whether the practice was allowed, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), issued the ruling: “Negative.” The Vatican said on Monday that priests and other Roman Catholic Church ministers cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings are ‘not licit’ if carried out. Reuters
Pope Francis approved the response, the CDF said, adding that it was “not intended to be a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite” of the sacrament of marriage and the blessing associated with it.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the gay Catholics group New Ways Ministry, said “It is not surprising, but still disappointing, that the Vatican has responded ‘no’.”
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, which also supports gays in the Church, said the denial “will exacerbate the pain and anger of LGBTQI Catholics and our families” and hurt “couples who live deeply loving and committed relationships.”
From the time he was archbishop in his native Argentina, Pope Francis has supported the right of gay couples to have civil legal protections but has always opposed gay marriage.
He also has had meetings with gay couples and in 2013 made the now famous remark “Who am I to judge” about gays trying to live by the Church’s rules.
The Church teaches that being gay is not inherently sinful but forbids same-sex sexual activity.
The head of the German bishops’ conference, Georg Baetzing, said the Church there had reflected “on the living situation of people today” in what he called “successful relationships” and that the Vatican ruling would be part of future discussions.
“There are no easy answers to such questions,” he said in a statement.
INDIVIDUAL BLESSINGS
A separate explanatory note from the CDF said that while the blessing of same-sex couples was not licit, the decision “in no way detracts from the human and Christian consideration in which the Church holds each person.”
It also said that Church could bestow blessings “to individual persons with homosexual inclinations who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching.” It’s not working for the raping homosexual catholic priests is it? Vile, unforgivable, arrogant evil.
A Pew Research survey last year showed that a majority of Catholics in the United States and Western Europe approved of gay marriage while a majority in Eastern Europe and former Soviet-bloc countries opposed it.
Churches in Africa and Asia also strongly oppose gay marriage. Conservatives have warned that debates on homosexuality have spawned debilitating divisions in other Christian Churches, such as the Anglican communion.
Last year, the Vatican had to move to clarify comments attributed to Pope Francis on civil union laws in a documentary, saying they were taken out of context and did not signal a change in Church doctrine on gay people or support for same-sex marriage. I expect the comments caused massive backlash from the many pedophiles within and supporting the church. Heavens to Betsy, if gay marriage is allowed and blessed, that might lead to gay priests and higher authorities in the church being allowed to have (adult) gay partners, which might lead to less raping of children.
The comments attributed to the pope in the film alarmed conservatives and they applauded the Vatican’s clarification.
Reporters later discovered that two separate quotes in response to separate questions were spliced to appear as one, deleting the intervening context and questions.
Happy Easter children – if you can find somewhere in the world, free of raping priests.