Panorama report into further (alleged) child abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church.

[bubble99]

I missed this. Did anyone see it? What was the current Pope's, (alleged) involvement?

Bump. I've only read the newspaper reports today. I would really like to know if this was a balanced programme.

It seems that for 20 years the current Pope headed/administered the Vatican policy of moving errant priests on and replacing them, as well as persuading those who reported abuse to stay silent. He didn't draft it. As he is now Pope, the programme concluded things were unlikely to change dramatically. I didn't find the programme told me anything I hadn't already picked up from other reports on the child-abuse scandals in the USA and Ireland.

I didn't see it but having read the reviews and other comments, it sounds to me like there is nothing new there. Things surrounding this issue have totally changed beyond compare in the last 5 years.

Ooh, can't wait for DominiConnor to see this thread.

[rolling eyes emoticon]

yes - I'm sure he'll have plenty of unbiased comments to make Caligula!

I saw the programme and it seems that the Vatican now and in the past just moves the priests that have been abusing children from place to place as soon as he is found out

And then if it gets too difficult then they let them hide out in Vatican

And they totally don't co operate with the police and DA dept

All the paperwork is hidden and the new pope has said all the details of the meetings is sent to him rather than be allowed to be seen by the police etc.

REPEATED***

FRIDAY 06 OCTOBER

Documentary

Sign Zone:Panorama

12:25am - 1:05am

BBC1 London & South East

VIDEO Plus+: 3159167
Repeat, subtitles, in-vision signing, widescreen

Sex Crimes and the Vatican

Investigation into allegations that a secret church directive, issued by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI, is being used to silence the victims of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. Colm O'Gorman, who was raped as a 14-year-old boy by his local parish priest in Ireland, travels to America, Brazil and the Vatican City to uncover more.

.

That is simply not the case any more RTKanga - at least not in this country.

Sorry didn't mean in this country

in USA and around other places in the world

The prog didn't talk about England

It doesn't look good for the pope either way.
As head of the Inquisition he was in effect in charge of internal discipline.
Given that the abuse of children by Catholic priests was on such a vast scale how did he miss it ?
Even if he'd chosen to give the benefit of the doubt to his people, the huge upsurge in AIDS deaths of priests was a bit of a hint, as was eventually the way that FBI realised they couldn't cover it up any more and started arresting priests.

That sounds like a paranoid conspiracy. Except the woman who was #2 in the FBI at the time now works for the Vatican, with a staff of 2, yes 2 to monitor an organisation of millions.
Even then, bishops aren't going to take that from a straight woman, and routinely tell her to piss off.
Google on Kathleen L. McChesney to see the full mess they've made of it.

Also they are not "alleged".
It's proven.
Many Catholic priests are doing time for raping children.
Senior Catholic officials have openly admitted they helped, but politicians are too afraid of the fools that follow thme to arrest them.

Imagine that it was found that McDonalds staff had raped anywere from 10-20,000 children.
Imagine that a quick headcount by McD found 8,000 without even trying hard.
Then imagine if you can, that senior McD managers admit quite happily that they'd helped the rapists avoid the police, had paid hush money to parents and lobbied politicians to lay off.

Then imagine that after all this, it still kept happening and regional managers of McDonalds refused to implement even basic measures.

Then imagine (if you can), that the man responsible for keeping McD's staff in line got promoted to Chief Executive.

Would McD even exist today ?

Off-topic, perhaps, but the sooner celibacy is abolished within the Catholic Church, the better, IMO.

I cannot see how it is healthy for any man or woman to have to suppress such a natural urge. I believe that the celibacy rule was only introduced to ensure that the sons of wealthy landowners did not marry and produce heirs who would inherit land/money that the church wanted.

I am not suggesting that paedophilia is caused by celibacy within the church, BTW. But I think that paedophiles may be attracted to the church, safe in the knowledge that 'The Church' will always put itself above the needs of vulnerable children.

It may help, but the Anglican churches have a pretty awful record as well. Not as bad as the Catholic church, but their senior staff also colluded in raping kids as well.
You simply don't see this in non-Christian religions.
Imagine what would happen to Mosques if (say) 10 kids were raped by oprganised gangs of Moslems ?

Wouldn't be pretty.
Yet the Catholic church seems to average raping about one child per day. That's a scary rate, yet we don't see any concerted action by the police.