"Pizzagate" Explodes

[angelburst29]

An Argentine bishop working in a top Vatican financial department is under preliminary investigation for alleged sexual abuse, the Vatican said on Friday, in what could become another setback for Pope Francis over sex scandals pervading the Church.

January 4, 2019 - Argentine Bishop in Vatican investigated for alleged abuse
Argentine bishop in Vatican investigated for alleged abuse | Reuters

Gustavo Zanchetta, 54, the former bishop of Oran in northwest Argentina, had been working in the department known as APSA, a general accounting and human resources office that also manages the Vatican’s real estate holdings in Italy.

In a statement responding to recent reports in the Argentine media, Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said there were no allegations of sexual abuse at the time Zanchetta began working at APSA in December 2017, about five months after he left Oran.

“The accusations of sexual abuse surfaced this past autumn,” Gisotti said, adding that at the time of Zanchetta’s resignation as bishop of Oran he had tense relations with priests in the diocese, who had accused him of being authoritarian.

Zanchetta could not be reached for comment on the accusations or the Vatican statement, which said he would “abstain from work” in APSA - where the pope had created a new position for him - while a preliminary investigation went ahead.

El Tribuno, a newspaper in Argentina’s northern province of Salta, reported on Dec. 28 that three priests made accusations of sexual abuse by Zanchetta to the Vatican’s ambassador in the capital Buenos Aires. The allegations included abuse of power and mismanagement of finances, according to the newspaper.

The accusing clergy members said the abuses happened within St. John XXIII seminary, which Zanchetta founded in Oran in 2016, according to El Tribuno. The seminary is now slated to close.

The Vatican said the current bishop of Oran had gathered testimony which would be sent to the Holy See’s department that oversees bishops, and if the allegations were deemed credible, Zanchetta would go before a special tribunal.

News of the investigation could not have come at a worse time for Pope Francis, a fellow Argentine.

He has summoned heads of some 110 national Catholic bishops’ conferences and dozens of experts and leaders of religious orders to the Vatican on Feb. 21-24 for an extraordinary gathering dedicated to the global crisis of clergy sexual abuse.

On Thursday, as American bishops were gathered in a retreat to reflect on the crisis in their country, Francis sent them a tough-worded letter saying internal bickering had shredded the Church’s credibility in the United States.

The U.S. Church is still reeling from a grand jury report last year that found that 301 priests in the state of Pennsylvania had sexually abused minors over a 70-year period.

 

[Don Genaro]

This came up recently in my newsfeed the other day. It didn't surprise me. I never liked Bono and over the last few years, I liked him even less after seeing him clowning around in the Oval Office with several presidents. According to the presenter of the video, Bono "distrusts Trump". Not surprising since he's not a member of the Epstein gang.

 

[angelburst29]

A private school in Maryland confirmed Monday that 10 adults in positions of authority engaged in sexual misconduct or inappropriate relationships with students from the 1970s through the early 1990s, and that the school failed to protect students from them.

Jan. 29, 2019 - Maryland private school releases report on sexual abuse
Maryland private school releases report on sexual abuse

In this Jan. 14, 2019, photo, Carolyn Surrick poses for a photo on the back porch of her home in Annapolis, Md. Surrick has spoken publicly about being sexually abused by two teachers in the 1970s at Key School and wrote about her experience on social media using the hastag #KeyToo, a reference to the #MeToo movement. The Associated Press doesn’t normally name victims of sex crimes, but Surrick said she wants to be identified. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

The Key School said at least 16 former students were subjected to the abuse. Officials there released the report on the school's website after an investigation that began in April, initiated by the school.

School officials said in a statement the report's findings "left us in shock" and described them as "inexcusable."

The school's administration and board of trustees said they took steps after becoming aware of social media posts discussing inappropriate interactions between former faculty members and students in the 1970s.

"Reading this report is incredibly difficult," said a letter sent from Key to the school's community along with the 41-page report. "Actions, and inaction, described within are hard to process and have left us in shock and dismay. It is clear that adults at Key in the past abused, mistreated and failed to protect children entrusted to them."

The letter also said it is evident that reports of misconduct from the past, made years later, were neither acknowledged nor addressed as they should have been by previous leaders at the school.

"What happened is inexcusable," the letter said.

Investigators from a Baltimore law firm interviewed 57 people over eight months. The school said there are no allegations of misconduct against any current member of the school's faculty, staff or administration in the report.

"Key School today is a very different place than the environment described in the report," the school wrote in the letter. "Our commitment to our students and families is our top priority, and we work proactively to ensure the safety and well-being of all students."

Carolyn Surrick, who said she was abused by two teachers beginning when she was 13 in the 1970s, has been trying to make the misconduct public for more than 25 years. Surrick, 59, has spoken publicly about her experience and wrote about it on social media last January using the hashtag #KeyToo, a reference to the #MeToo movement in which women have spoken out about sexual harassment and assault.

"Because of #MeToo and because it's finally time, people started talking about this, and I held on to this history in my head for so many years and now I don't have to," Surrick said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "People have said their truth. They have told the truth, and it's a completely new world."

The Associated Press doesn't normally name victims of sex crimes but Surrick said she wants to be identified.

One other accuser had spoken publicly before the woman's efforts to raise awareness. Five additional women later came forward to say they were sexually abused by teachers in the 1970s.

The school was founded in 1958 by professors from nearby St. John's College, known for its course of study founded on discussions of the Great Books of western civilization. With more than 600 students, it engages children from 2.5 years of age through grade 12 in what its website describes as a progressive, coeducational college-preparatory program. Annual tuition is $28,350 for the upper school.

The report noted the school fostered an atmosphere of independent thinking even in young children, as well as an informal and progressive social atmosphere.

"As set forth below, however, our investigation confirmed allegations that in the 1970s a group of teachers took advantage of this atmosphere, abusing their roles as teachers to sexually exploit students and targeting in many cases students who were members of families suffering from various pressures resulting in less family supervision."

The report also found that the school failed to protect students from those teachers, and there were adults in the Key School community, including members of the faculty and staff, administrators, and board members "who were aware of the abuse and inappropriate conduct and chose not to intervene."

The report marks the latest investigation outlining abuse that occurred decades earlier at a private school. In 2017, an investigation at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, detailed abuse by at least a dozen former educators who sexually molested students over four decades. St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island, agreed in 2017 to a sexual abuse settlement that provided compensation for up to 30 former students who were assaulted. In 2015, an investigation at the elite Horace Mann School in New York City identified more than 60 former students who said they were sexually abused from the 1960s through the 1990s.

The Boston Globe found in 2016 that 67 private schools in New England faced accusations of sexual misconduct since 1991.

 

[angelburst29]

The Vatican's women's magazine is denouncing the sexual abuse of nuns by priests — and the resulting "scandal" of religious sisters having abortions or giving birth to children who are then not recognized by their fathers.

Feb. 1, 2019 - Vatican magazine denounces sexual abuse of nuns by priests
Vatican magazine denounces sexual abuse of nuns by priests

The February issue of "Women Church World," a monthly magazine distributed alongside the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, was published Friday. It cited Pope Francis' own analysis of abuse by saying clerical power was at the root of the problem.

It said nuns have been silenced for years by fear of retaliation against themselves or their orders if they report the priests who molested them.

The publication marks a significant public acknowledgment from inside the Vatican of the problem that the Holy See has long known about but has done next to nothing to address.

Last year, after The Associated Press and other media reported on the scandal, the international association of women's religious orders urged sisters to report abuse to police and their superiors, a significant shattering of the silence that has long kept the problem secret.

In the article, editor Lucetta Scaraffia notes that for centuries women in the church have been depicted as "dangerous and temptresses," which has complicated the acceptance within the Catholic hierarchy that they can be victims of unwanted sexual advances by priests.

"But here Pope Francis' analysis about abuse can be of some help: If you point to power, to clericalism, the abuse against religious sisters takes on another aspect and can finally be recognized for what it is: that is an act of power in which touch becomes a violation of one's personal intimacy," she wrote.

The article noted that reports written by religious sisters were presented to Vatican officials in the 1990s about the problem of priests sexually abusing nuns in Africa — they were considered "safe" partners at the height of the HIV crisis.

"Women Church World," which is published in Italian, French and Spanish, last year made headlines with an issue devoted to "work" and an article denouncing how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean for next to no pay. The current edition was dedicated to the sense of "touch" and how it can be perverted.

In an opening editorial, one of Italy's leading Jewish intellectuals, Anna Foa, said the abuse scandal had transformed that most fundamental aspect of love — the caress — "into an expression in and of itself suspect and practically obscene."

Foa also cites Francis' own words in "thanking journalists who were honest and objective in discovering predator priests and made the voices of victims heard."

DALLAS, Texas — Catholic leaders in Texas on Thursday identified 286 priests and others accused of sexually abusing children, a number that represents one of the largest collections of names to be released since an explosive grand jury report last year in Pennsylvania.

Jan. 31, 2019 - Catholic leaders in Texas name 286 accused of abusing minors
Catholic leaders in Texas name 286 accused of abusing minors

Fourteen dioceses in Texas named those credibly accused of abuse. The only diocese not to provide names, Fort Worth, did so more than a decade ago and then provided an updated accounting in October.

There are only a handful of states where every diocese has released names and most of them have only one or two Catholic districts. Arkansas, for instance, is covered by the Diocese of Little Rock, which in September provided a preliminary list of 12 former priests, deacons and others. Oklahoma has two districts: The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is scheduled to publicly identify accused priests on Feb. 28 and the Diocese of Tulsa previously named two former priests accused of predatory behavior.

The move by Texas church leaders follows a shocking Pennsylvania report in August detailing seven decades of child sexual abuse by more than 300 predator priests. Furthermore, the Illinois attorney general reported last month that at least 500 Catholic clergy in that state had sexually abused children.

In the months after that report, about 50 dioceses and religious provinces have released the names of nearly 1,250 priests and others accused of abuse. Approximately 60 percent of them have died. About 30 other dioceses are investigating or have promised to release names of credibly accused priests in the coming months.

 

[Josi]

Faith healer with millions of followers ran a "sex slave farm and sold babies to highest bidder"

More than 600 women around the world have already accused John of God of sexually abusing them during healing sessions with the medium He was Brazil's most famous faith healer whose "miracle surgeries" drew millions of pilgrims from across the...

www.sott.net

Faith healer with millions of followers ran a "sex slave farm and sold babies to highest bidder"

Brazilian activist Sabrina Bittencourt, whose investigations led to Teixeira's arrest in December, now claims the celebrity medium ran a baby trafficking operation where children were "farmed" in Brazil before being sold to childless couples around the world.

Shockingly, she claims young girls were held captive in remote farms where they were forced to produce babies - before being murdered after 10 years of giving birth.

In a video, Bittencourt, whose organisation, Coame, helps women report sexual assault by religious leaders, said she has spoken to women from at least three continents, including Europe, who claimed they bought Brazilian babies from John of God for as much as £40,000.

And she claimed she has collected testimony from former members of Teixeira's gang, which described how the scheme worked after they became "tired of being complicit" in his crimes.

Bittencourt, who now lives outside Brazil under the protection of international organisations after receiving death threats for her work, claimed Teixeira would offer money to poor girls aged 14 to 18 to go and live in mineral mines or farms he owns in the Brazilian states of Goias and Minas Gerais.

There they would become sex slaves at and be forced to get pregnant and give birth to their babies.

She claims: "In exchange for food, they were impregnated and their babies sold on the black market.

"Hundreds of girls were enslaved over years, lived on farms in Goias, served as wombs to get pregnant, for their babies to be sold.

"These girls were murdered after 10 years of giving birth. We have got a number of testimonies."

She added: "We have received reports from the adoptive mothers of their children that we sold for between £15,000 and £40,000 in Europe, USA and Australia, as well as testimony from ex-workers and local people who are tired of being complicit with John of God's gang."

 

[SummerLite]

OMG!!!! How could things be any worse, such a shocker with John of God. For many years he's been a revered being in the New Age world, at the very pinnacle. So now he moves into the category of psychopath. Thinking about OP/psychopaths, some are such masters of illusion (their camouflage) like we see in JOG's case. 10's of thousands have seen what he wanted them to see, in this case, a holy, healing man. People projecting soul qualities onto him he didn't have, obviously.. In reading about OP's, I thought it was especially interesting how this projection of soul qualities (by a souled being) onto an op was discussed. This works very well for op's, a key ingredient that keeps the energy exchange going. Leaving these categories aside, its something that easily happens with all people in many, different situations.

Being taken in by the predator.

Maybe Netflix will make a documentary on JOG in the next few years

 

[aragorn]

Remember Fiona Barnett? I just noticed that her Twitter account was deleted a few weeks ago, and some people are saying that her FB account has also been taken down. And looking at the tweets related to her name, she seems to be under a big and coordinated smear campaign. I read one of the supposed 'exposure' documents (it's a PDF, won't link it here), and the evidence was really weak, and had typical flavor of manipulation. But the 'exposure' is going/has gone viral. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm not buying her being a 'psyop' for one moment. And, not surprisingly, this happens after she exposed e.g. Craig Sawyer (the pedo-hunting Rambo-navy-seal guy) and some other prominent individuals. Looks like someone has had enough of her.

There really doesn't yet seem to be any way for any victim-whistleblower to build up enough momentum on social media to rock the boat of the pedo-satanists in any serious manner. All of the recent whistleblowers that are e.g. featured in this thread are gone with the wind, vanished, because they have been bullied, threatened, smeared, and discredited enough (with made up evidence and enough 'minions'). Some of them might of course bee controlled opposition, but I suspect many are not. And some have been 'tar-babied' with individuals, who at first are gung-ho 'pedo-hunters' and later exposed as maniacs themselves (they kind'a sacrifice themselves for the 'family', I guess). The discrediting processes and strategies these sickos have seem to be honed to perfection.

As Gurdjieff put it (paraphrasing), you can't expect a particular phenomenon to change until everything changes. In other words, I don't see any hope getting this evil to stop until a big change happens, something on a large scale has to happen.

 

[angelburst29]

The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News in an expansive investigation named 220 pastors, ministers, deacons, volunteers Sunday school teachers and others who were found guilty of sexually abusing churchgoers over 20 years.

12/02/2019 - 220 Baptist ministers, deacons, other found guilty of sex abuse, report says
https://www.euronews.com/2019/02/12...deacons-others-have-been-found-guilty-n970276

More than 250 in total have been charged. And, roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct involving more than 700 victims, the report found. That includes those who were convicted, credibly accused and successfully sued.

Some of the victims were molested repeatedly and some were as young as age 3, according to the news report.

~
Ex-beauty queen accuses Costa Rican Nobel winner Arias of abuse
A former Miss Costa Rica beauty queen has filed a formal complaint saying the country's ex-president, Oscar Arias, sexually assaulted her in 2015, adding to a growing number of women lodging accusations against the renowned statesman.

Five women accuse Costa Rican Nobel winner Arias of misconduct
More allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, with five women saying he harassed or assaulted them, in a high-profile example of the #MeToo movement in Latin America.

~
Vatican to rule next week on defrocking of disgraced U.S. cardinal: sources
Vatican officials will meet next week to decide the fate of disgraced former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick over allegations of sexual abuse, Vatican sources said on Friday.

Pope denounces 'scourge' of human trafficking and slavery
Pope Francis urged governments on Sunday to take decisive action against the $150 billion-a-year human trafficking business and the plight of millions of modern-day slaves.

Sacked cardinal issues manifesto in thinly veiled attack on pope
A cardinal who was sacked from a senior Vatican post by Pope Francis has written his own "Manifesto of Faith," in the latest attack on the pontiff's authority by a leading member of the Church's conservative wing.

~
Sierra Leone's president declares 'rape scourge' a national emergency
The brutal rape of a young girl by her uncle in Sierra Leone became the rallying point for a campaign that on Thursday pushed President Julius Maada Bio to declare the prevalence of sexual violence a national emergency.

 

[angelburst29]

A Paris court on Monday threw out an attempt to block the French release of a film inspired by the real-life battle fought by victims of a paedophile Catholic priest, lawyers said.

February 18, 2019 - French Court allows paedophile priest film ahead of trial
French court allows paedophile priest film ahead of trial

Father Bernard Preynat was accused of abusing dozens of boy scouts during the 1980s and early 1990s and was removed from his post in the Lyon diocese in 2015. He has admitted sexual abuse, according to his lawyer, and is due to go on trial this year.

Francois Ozon’s film Grace a Dieu (By the Grace of God), which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize on Saturday at Berlin’s International Film Festival, tackles the story behind France’s most important church child abuse scandal to date.

Preynat’s lawyer said he regretted the court’s decision.

“To portray a man as guilty for two hours when he hasn’t yet been tried is an affront to the presumption of innocence,” lawyer Emmanuel Mercinier told Reuters.

The judge confirmed that events were presented as fact in the film, Mercinier said, but ruled that a written message at the film’s end indicating that Preynat was innocent until proven guilty was sufficient under French law.

The movie is due to be released on Wednesday, on the eve of a meeting in Rome between Pope Francis and senior bishops from around the world to discuss the protection of minors.

Pope Francis has come under fire for his handling on a spreading sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

Much of the focus has been on the United States, Chile and Australia. The trial last month, however, of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who is accused of failing to act on historic abuse allegations against Preynat, turned the focus back onto European clergy.

The film recounts the true story of a group of sex abuse victims who in 2015 formed an association, La Parole Liberee, (The Freed Word) to shatter the silence around the abuse allegedly committed by Preynat.

Ozon said the film could not prejudice Preynat’s trial as the events had all been reported by the media. “Everything I talk about in the film has already appeared in the French press,” Ozon told reporters at an advanced screening.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday he would not confront the country’s Catholic Church over sexual abuse allegations and that it would fall to the prosecutor’s office to investigate such claims.

February 18, 2019 - Mexican President will not 'confront' church over sexual abuse claims
Mexican president will not 'confront' church over sexual abuse claims

At least 152 Catholic priests in Mexico have been suspended over the past nine years for sexual abuse against minors, and some of those priests have been jailed over those offences, Mexico’s Archbishop for Monterrey said earlier this month.

The Catholic Church has reeled from sexual abuse scandals in the United States, Chile, Australia, Germany and a number of other countries in recent years. Mexico is home to the world’s second-largest Catholic community after Brazil.

“We don’t want to confront the church,” Lopez Obrador said at a regular news conference when asked about the role his administration would take in investigating sexual abuse allegations.

“If there’s a legal process, we can’t hide it, we’re not going to be accomplices,” he said. “But we’re not going to stoke the fire.”

Representatives of a Polish NGO helping victims of child abuse committed by Catholic priests left Warsaw early on Monday hoping to deliver a report to Pope Francis in the Vatican about Polish bishops neglecting pedophilia cases.

February 18, 2019 - Polish NGO leaves to deliver sex abuse report to Pope
Polish NGO leaves to deliver sex abuse report to Pope

The Church of Saint Jacob is pictured behind the cemetery in Ostrowite village, Poland February 17, 2019. Picture taken February 17, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Their trip comes just days before an unprecedented Vatican conference on sex abuse gathering senior bishops from around the world to discuss how best the 1.3 billion-member Church can tackle a problem that has decimated the Church’s credibility.

The four-day meeting, starting on Thursday with the theme of “prevention of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults”, is intended to help faltering attempts to coordinate a global response to a crisis that is now more than two decades old.

The “Have No Fear” organization, led by a former victim Marek Lisinski, hopes that the report, which accuses some bishops in devoutly Catholic Poland of failing to report crimes, will trigger resignations from top positions in the Church.

Such a development happened in Chile in 2018, where the Pope accepted resignations of several bishops after abuse scandals.

In Poland victims of abuse by priests are often accused by society of making false accusations, even long after the offender is jailed, since priests have high social prestige.

The Vatican will gather senior bishops from around the world later this week for a conference on sex abuse designed to guide them on how best to tackle a problem that has decimated the Church's credibility, but critics say it is too little, too late.

February 17, 2019 - Catholic Church credibility on the line at abuse meeting
Catholic Church credibility on the line at abuse meeting

FILE PHOTO - Pope Francis holds a mass at Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 5, 2019. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

“The fact that this still exists in 2019, that there is still awareness-raising that has to be done (among bishops) is a measure of what a low priority this has truly been for the Vatican,” said Anne Barrett-Doyle of the U.S.-based abuse tracking group bishopaccountability.org.

Former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Vatican said on Saturday.

February 16, 2019 - Former US Cardinal McCarrick defrocked for sex crimes
Former U.S. Cardinal McCarrick defrocked for sex crimes

FILE PHOTO: Retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick stands before the Mass of Installation for Archbishop Donald Wuerl at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington June 22, 2006. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

The allegations against McCarrick, whose fall from grace stunned the U.S. Church, date back decades to when he was still rising to the top of the hierarchy there.

McCarrick was also found guilty of the separate crime of solicitation, which refers to when a priest uses the pretext of the sacrament of confession to commit an immoral act with a penitent.

One of the men who has claimed that McCarrick abused him when he was a boy said the then-priest touched his genitals during confession.

Separately, several priests and ex-priests have come forward alleging McCarrick used his authority to coerce them to sleep with him when they were adult seminarians studying for the priesthood.

McCarrick has not commented publicly on the allegations of misconduct with adults, which was an open secret in the U.S. Church.

Slideshow (7 Images)
Former U.S. Cardinal McCarrick defrocked for sex crimes

 

[Pierre]

Francois Ozon’s film Grace a Dieu (By the Grace of God), which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize on Saturday at Berlin’s International Film Festival, tackles the story behind France’s most important church child abuse scandal to date.

From the French Wikipedia one can read the following about François Ozon:

François Ozon est ouvertement homosexuel. La sexualité, l'ambiguïté, l'ambivalence et la subversion des normes sociales ou familiales sont certains de ses thèmes privilégiés.

This part is not included in the English Wikipedia entry. It means:

François Ozon is openly homosexual. Sexuality, ambiguity, ambivalence and subversion of social or family norms are some of his favorite themes.

From this perspective it makes sense that a homosexual director used to subverting family norms makes a movie about pedophilia in the Church while conveniently avoiding to address the elephant in the room: pedophile rings involving prominent personalities.

 

[angelburst29]

From this perspective it makes sense that a homosexual director used to subverting family norms makes a movie about pedophilia in the Church while conveniently avoiding address the elephant in the room: pedophile rings involving prominent personalities.

Always seeking an award - to place themselves - above everyone else. Glorified pestilence.



The seven deadly sins:

Lust – to have an intense desire or need: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).

• Gluttony – excess in eating and drinking: “for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags” (Proverbs 23:21). (Excess in self-pleasure.)
  
  
• Greed - excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness: “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19).
• 
  
• Laziness – disinclined to activity or exertion: not energetic or vigorous: “The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway” (Proverbs 15:19). (Reaps rewards on other's pain and suffering.)
  
  
• Wrath – strong vengeful anger or indignation: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1)
• 
  
• Envy – painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage: “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:1-2).
• 
  
• Pride - quality or state of being proud – inordinate self esteem: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

Placards outside Montserrat Monastery expose abuse in Spanish Church
Tourists and worshippers visiting Catalonia's imposing mountain-side Montserrat Monastery on a sunny Sunday this month appeared to pay little heed to two men with placards demanding that the local abbot be defrocked for covering up sexual abuse.

 

[Rhythmik]

'Australian cardinal George Pell - third most powerful man in Vatican - convicted of molesting two choirboys'

Australian cardinal - third most powerful man in Vatican - convicted of child abuse

The most senior Catholic charged with child sex abuse has been convicted.

www.nzherald.co.nz

The most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse has been convicted of molesting two choirboys moments after celebrating Mass, dealing a new blow to the Catholic hierarchy's credibility after a year of global revelations of abuse and cover-up.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' top financial adviser and the Vatican's economy minister, bowed his head but then regained his composure as the 12-member jury delivered unanimous verdicts in the Victoria state County Court on December 11 after more than two days of deliberation.

The court had until today forbidden publication of any details about the trial.

The convictions were confirmed the same week that Francis concluded his extraordinary summit of Catholic leaders summoned to Rome for a tutorial on preventing clergy sexual abuse and protecting children from predator priests.

The jury convicted Pell of abusing two 13-year-old boys whom he had caught swigging sacramental wine in a rear room of Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral in late 1996, as hundreds of worshippers were streaming out of Sunday services.

Pell, now 77 but 55 at the time, had just been named the most senior Catholic in Melbourne.

The jury also found Pell guilty of indecently assaulting one of the boys in a corridor more than a month later.

He faces a potential maximum 50-year prison term after a sentencing hearing that begins tomorrow. He has foreshadowed an appeal.

Pell had maintained his innocence throughout, describing the accusations as "vile and disgusting conduct" that went against everything he believed in.

 

[Rhythmik]

This was a bit strange from the Academy Awards





Culkin's band is called The Pizza Underground

 

[angelburst29]

'Australian cardinal George Pell - third most powerful man in Vatican - convicted of molesting two choirboys'

An Australian court has found Cardinal George Pell, one of the highest ranking Vatican officials and a former top adviser to Pope Francis, guilty on five charges of child sexual offences committed more than two decades ago against 13-year-old boys.

February 25, 2019 - Australian Cardinal Pell, top Vatican official, found guilty of sexual abuse
Australian Cardinal Pell, top Vatican official, found guilty of...

Cardinal George Pell is seen at County Court in Melbourne, Australia, February 26, 2019, AAP Image/David Crosling/via REUTER

The verdict was made public on Tuesday following the lifting of a court suppression order on the trial, after a second abuse case against Pell — the most senior Catholic clergyman worldwide to be convicted for child sex offences — was dropped by the prosecution.

Pell’s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict, which embarrassed the Vatican because it became public just two days after a major conference on preventing sex abuse. He had pleaded not guilty to all five charges.


Cardinal Pell: Dramatic fall from grace for Vatican treasurer
For two decades, George Pell was the dominant figure in the Catholic Church in Australia - a boy from a gold mining town whose ambition, intellect and knack for befriending influential people propelled him to become the third-most senior official in the Vatican.

After Cardinal Pell verdict, Australian journalists may face jail
Dozens of Australian reporters and editors may face jail sentences for their coverage of Vatican Treasurer George Pell's child sex abuse trial after being issued with legal notices asking why they should not be charged with contempt of court.

The suppression order had applied throughout Australia “and on any website or other electronic or broadcast format accessible within Australia”.

However, when Pell was found guilty on Dec. 11, some Australian media ran headlines, including one that said “CENSORED”, and articles referring to a trial where an unnamed high-profile person was convicted of a serious crime that could not be reported.

County Court of Victoria Chief Judge Peter Kidd, who oversaw the Pell trial, made his displeasure with media coverage clear two days after the verdict, calling a hearing with state prosecutors and Pell’s defense team.

“My thinking at the minute... that given how potentially egregious and flagrant these breaches are, a number of very important people in the media are facing, if found guilty, the prospect of imprisonment and indeed substantial imprisonment,” Kidd said. The lifting of the suppression order means his comments can now be made public.

The maximum penalties for contempt of court in Victoria state are five years jail and a fine of more than A$96,000 ($69,000), while a company can face a fine of nearly A$500,000.

Victoria’s The Age newspaper on Tuesday said that the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had issued 32 show cause notices to its journalists and other mastheads owned by parent Nine Entertainment Co asking them to explain why they should not be charged.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also received a notice, a spokeswoman said.

News Corp, which has newspapers and TV stations in Australia, declined to comment.

The court’s suppression order was issued to prevent potential jurors in a second Pell abuse trial from being prejudiced by media reports of the first trial.

However, some overseas media not covered by Australian law, published Pell’s guilty verdict and it was widely discussed on social media.

The Daily Beast and the Washington Post published the verdict and trial details last December, while the New York Times published the verdict in U.S. print editions but not online.

The Catholic News Agency, which reported the verdict in December, did not respond to a request to comment.

 

[angelburst29]

Cardinal George Pell, one of the highest ranking Vatican officials and a former top adviser to Pope Francis ... - third most powerful man in Vatican - convicted of molesting ...

This Vatican independent investigation - no doubt - to find a way to exonerate their 3rd highest ranking homosexual pedophile - may back fire and expose the "true nature and World-Wide-Web structure" that comprises the inner workings of the Papal Catholic Church?
I wish they would stop using the phase, "even though most of the abuse happened decades ago" as a shield and way of minimizing the devastating effects "of rape" that are still being perpetuated by ordained Priests and Clergy in today's society!

The Vatican is opening its own investigation into accusations against Cardinal George Pell, who was found guilty of sexual abuse of minors in his native Australia, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

February 27, 2019 - Vatican to open own investigation into accusations against Pell
Vatican to open own investigation into accusations against Pell

Cardinal George Pell arrives at County Court in Melbourne, Australia, February 27, 2019. AAP Image/David Crosling/via REUTERS

The move means that Pell, who maintains his innocence and plans to appeal the verdict, could be dismissed from the priesthood if the Vatican’s doctrinal department also finds him guilty.

One source added that it was unusual because the Vatican had announced its own investigation into Pell before the appeals case in Australia.

The Pell conviction has been particularly embarrassing for the Vatican and Pope Francis, coming just two days after the end of a major meeting of Church leaders on how to better tackle the abuse of children by clergy.

The 77-year-old Pell, a former top Vatican official, will spend his first night behind bars on Wednesday after he was remanded in custody pending sentencing for sexually abusing two choir boys in Australia two decades ago.

“After the guilty verdict in the first instance concerning Cardinal Pell, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) will now handle the case following the procedure and within the time established by canonical norm,” Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said.

Last month, a CDF “administrative process” found Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal who served as archbishop of Washington, D.C,, guilty of sexual abuse of minors and adults.

McCarrick, who resigned as cardinal last year when the accusations first surfaced and were deemed credible by U.S. Church investigators, was dismissed from the priesthood.

McCarrick became the first cardinal to step down in a century and the highest-profile Catholic figure to be defrocked over sexual abuse.

Cardinal Pell behind bars in Australia after child sex conviction
Former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell will spend his first night behind bars on Wednesday after he was remanded into custody pending sentencing for sexually abusing two choir boys in Australia two decades ago.

Convicted Cardinal - Pell's name scraped from his Australian hometown
On the day Cardinal George Pell, one of the highest ranking Vatican officials, was publicly revealed as a convicted child sex offender, his old high school in an Australian goldfields town physically scraped his name from one of its buildings.