這幾年來羅馬天主教醜聞纏身，位高權重的神職人員不斷被揭發出來有性騷擾，或是私生活淫亂的情事。在英國的大選前的十天左右，英國的媒體甚至批露英國官方針對九月教宗本篤十六世訪英舉行討論會，在備忘錄當中建議一連串公開活動－－為同性戀人婚禮送上祝福、發售“本篤牌”安全套、為墮胎診所剪彩等... etc. 或許是因為亨利八世在十六世紀成立了英國國教，脫離的教廷，英國的外交人員才有這般幸災樂禍的嘲諷演出。
天主教教宗本篤十六世上週首次對性侵兒童醜聞作公開評論指出，神職人員性侵犯兒童的醜聞顯示，天主教會面對的最大威脅是「教會内部的罪惡」。他還表示教會「有必要深切」認識到它並為罪懺悔。可是教宗在擔任慕尼黑總主教期間，及之後出任位高權重的梵蒂岡辦公室主管時，皆未對性侵指控做出積極反應。
教宗也認為教會的性侵醜聞，其根源是數十年來一手遮天或大事化小的施虐神父與高階神職人員。他好像忘記他自己就是其中一份子了！
美國肯德基州路易斯維爾(Louisvile, Kentucky)對教廷起訴，或許教廷可以宣稱主教並非教廷的員工（employee），因此不必負責。或許這些人只受上帝管轄，但無論如何教廷與教宗偽善的真面目已經深深烙印在凡夫俗子的心中了。
From Times Online
May 17, 2010
Vatican to claim bishops are not 'employees'
Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd gathered below in Saint Peter's square during his weekly Angelus blessing at the Vatican
(Osservatore Romano/Reuters)
Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd gathered below in Saint Peter's square during his weekly Angelus blessing at the Vatican
Times Online
The Vatican will today make its most detailed defence yet against claims that it is liable for US bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a document from 1962 did not require them to keep quiet.
The Vatican will make the arguments in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds filed in Louisville, Kentucky, but it could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See.
Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's lawyer in the US, said the Vatican would assert that bishops are not its employees because they are not paid by Rome, don't act on Rome's behalf and are not controlled day-to-day by the pope — factors courts use to determine whether employers are liable for the actions of their employees.
Mr Lena said he would suggest to the court that it should avoid using the religious nature of the relationship between bishops and the pope as a basis for civil liability because it entangles the court in an analysis of religious doctrine that dates back to the apostles.
"Courts tend to avoid constructing civil relationships out of religious materials," he said.
The lawyer behind the Kentucky case, William McMurry has alleged that the Vatican had clear and direct control over bishops, mandated a policy of secrecy, and is therefore liable for the bishops' failure to report abuse. He is seeking unspecified damages.
The Vatican defence will also include a response to claims that the 1962 document 'Crimen Sollicitationis' ('Crimes of solicitation') barred bishops from reporting abuse to police, said Mr Lena..
There is no evidence the document was even known to the archdiocese in question and it did not mandate that bishops not report abusive priests, said Mr Lena.
The confidentiality imposed by Crimen did not trump civil law and was applied only in formal canonical processes, which bishops had the discretion to suspend if there was a conflict with reporting laws, he said..
"It is important that people — particularly people who have suffered abuse — know that, contrary to what some plaintiffs' lawyers have consistently told the media, the canon law did not bar reporting of these crimes to the civil authorities," Mr Lena told the Associated Press.
The document describes how church authorities should deal procedurally with cases of abuse of children by priests, cases where sex is solicited in the confessional — a particularly heinous crime under canon law — and cases of homosexuality and bestiality.
Mr McMurry recently described the document as as "a smoking gun."
"It's evidence of a 'written' policy that demands no mention be made by a bishop of priest sex abuse," he said. "Since our case, and no other, is about holding the Vatican accountable for the bishops' failure to report to civil authorities, any policy that gags the bishop is relevant and material."
The Holy See is trying to fend off the first US case to reach the stage of determining whether victims actually have a claim against the Vatican itself for negligence for the failure of bishops to alert police or the public about Roman Catholic priests who molested children.
The case was filed in 2004 by three men who claim they were abused by priests decades ago and claim negligence by the Vatican. Mr McMurry is seeking class-action status for the case, saying there are thousands of victims across the country. Mr McMurry also represented 243 sex abuse victims who settled with the Archdiocese of Louisville in 2003 for $25.3 million.
The Vatican is seeking to dismiss the suit before the Pope can be questioned or documents subpoenaed.
Its motion is being closely watched as the clerical abuse scandal swirls around the Holy See, since the court's eventual decision could have implications for a lawsuit naming top Vatican officials that was recently filed in Wisconsin and another one in Oregon is pending before the Supreme Court.
Mr McMurry has alleged that the Vatican had clear and direct control over bishops, mandated a policy of secrecy, and is therefore liable for the bishops' failure to report abuse. He is seeking unspecified damages.
McMurry has said that based on district and appellate court rulings, he does not need to prove bishops were employees of the Vatican but merely 'officials.' He pointed out that they take an oath of office. The pope appoints, disciplines and removes bishops.
If a bishop wants to spend more than $5 million he must ask permission from Rome, and if he wants to take a three-month sabbatical, he needs the Holy See's OK, said Mr McMurry's main expert witness, the Reverend Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer who worked at the Vatican's US nunciature.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7128562.ece
May 1, 2010
Pope Reins In Catholic Order Tied to Abuse
By RACHEL DONADIO
Pope John Paul II with the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado in 2004. Father Maciel was later found to have committed sexual abuse.
ROME — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday took control of the Legionaries of Christ, a powerful and wealthy Roman Catholic religious order whose founder, a friend of Pope John Paul II, was found to have molested seminarians and fathered several children.
The move constituted the most direct action on sexual abuse since the most recent scandals have engulfed the church and prompted criticisms of the pope’s own handling of such cases as an archbishop in Munich and as a cardinal who led the office reviewing many sexual abuse charges.
In a statement on Saturday, the Vatican said that Benedict would appoint a special delegate to govern the Legionaries, an influential worldwide order that has been an important source of new priests in a church that has struggled with a shrinking priesthood in much of the developed world. It was founded in 1941 by a Mexican priest, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado.
Benedict also said he would appoint a special commission to examine the Legionaries’ constitution and open an investigation into its lay affiliate, Regnum Christi.
The measures mean that the order would be governed directly from the Vatican. But the pope decided against dissolving the order or forcing out much of its leadership — at least for now — steps urged by many critics and victims’ advocates, who say they believe that the leaders must have known, or should have known, of the abuses.
The fate of the Legionaries is the most closely watched case in the Catholic Church as it grapples with a sexual abuse crisis that has increased pressure on Benedict to demonstrate his commitment to confronting the issue.
Some praised the Vatican decision, but others, including former Legionaries, said that appointing a delegate did not address the fundamental problems in the current leadership, which was put in place by Father Maciel. The Vatican statement was ambiguous about the role of the current leaders in Father Maciel’s deception, and also about their fate.
“The question is whether everything is still on the table in terms of the future, or is the underlying assumption that the present Legion of Christ can be repaired?” said George Weigel, a biographer of John Paul who had defended the Legionaries before learning of Father Maciel’s crimes. “I don’t see how the good work that the Legion and Regnum Christi do can continue without a definitive and unambiguous break with the past.”
Jose Barba Martin, the leader of a group of former Legionaries who complained to the Vatican in 1998 that they had been sexually abused as boys, said the appointment of an outsider to administer the order would do little good unless the church also replaced many officials in the upper echelon and rewrote the teachings of the group that stress obedience to superiors and silence about internal problems.
“What’s needed is a psychological restructuring,” said Mr. Barba, a history professor in Mexico City. “If the same directors remain, it’s going to be very difficult.”
The Rev. Alberto Athié, a Mexican priest who in 1998 tried to bring allegations of sexual abuse by Father Maciel to the attention of Benedict, back when he was a cardinal, said the Holy See had been aware of the order’s strict code of silence and obedience and had done nothing about it.
“In this sense I think the Holy See cannot get to the bottom of this matter,” Father Athié said. “It would have to criticize itself as an authority.”
Others praised Benedict’s decision and said the Vatican statement left open the possibility of new leadership for the order.
“Many of us are deeply satisfied with the depth and scope of what is laid out in the Vatican response,” said the Rev. Thomas V. Berg, a prominent former Legion priest. “I think it bodes well for the well being of the Legionaries who remain.”
He added that “the wording of the statement certainly leaves open the possibility of removing the current leadership, and many of us await that and expect that to happen.”
Sandro Magister, a veteran Vatican reporter who has written extensively on the Legionaries, said he was struck by the “tough” tone of the statement. “It’s a sign that they want to act decisively,” he said. “This statement is also very hard on the current leaders of the legionaries.”
The Maciel case has become a touchstone for how Benedict has confronted sexual abuse. Benedict’s defenders cite it as an example that he took sexual abuse more seriously than others in the Vatican hierarchy did. But victims’ advocates say that he waited far too long to address it and that penalties were insufficient.
In 1998, eight Legionaries seminarians filed a complaint with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The pope, who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the head of the body, quashed an investigation in 1999, according to accounts from a Mexican bishop who tried to press the case with him. In 2004, a few months before John Paul died, the future pope reopened the investigation. It eventually found that Father Maciel had abused seminarians, fathered several children and misappropriated funds.
In 2006, Benedict removed him from priestly duties and restricted him to a life of prayer and penance — a punishment that his victims say was not commensurate to his crimes. He died two years later, still a priest.
The measures the pope announced Saturday came after an exhaustive investigation of the order and Father Maciel’s crimes by five bishops who formed what is called an Apostolic Visitation and who submitted their report on March 15. The Vatican has said it wants to be transparent in sexual abuse cases, but the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the report’s findings would not be made public.
Jim Fair, a spokesman for the Legionaries in North America, said: “We thank the Holy Father and embrace the provisions with faith and obedience. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of the apostolic visitators, and we’re grateful for the prayers of so many people who have supported us at this time.”
The Vatican statement said that Father Maciel had kept his double life hidden from most Legionaries by creating a system of power that allowed him to silence his critics. The Vatican also assailed “the most serious and objectively immoral behavior of Father Maciel, confirmed by incontrovertible witnesses, which amount to true crimes and show a life deprived of scruples and authentic religious feeling.”
The announcement came a day after Benedict made a brief appearance at a meeting at the Vatican with the five bishops who investigated the case; the secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone; and members of other Vatican departments.
Critics have said the order’s current leaders must have known about Father Maciel’s misdeeds. But the Rev. Luis Garza Medina, the order’s No. 2, or vicar general, said in an interview last week with the newspaper La Repubblica that he was not aware of the abuse until after Father Maciel was punished in 2006. “It was difficult to understand that there might be such immoral and aberrant actions on his part,” he said.
In the statement released Saturday, the Vatican said, “The Holy Father intends to reassure all the Legionaries and the members of the Regnum Christi movement that they will not be left alone: that the church has the firm commitment to accompany them and help them in the path toward purification that awaits them.”
That, Juan Vaca said, is little comfort for him and Father Maciel’s other victims.
“They don’t say anything about all the harm, about how they treated us like liars,” said Mr. Vaca, a professor of sociology and psychology at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. “I have my dreams completely shattered.”
James C. McKinley Jr. contributed reporting from Houston, and Laurie Goodstein and Daniel J. Wakin from New York.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 1, 2010
An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a group of experts. It is the Apostolic Visitation, not Delegation. It also misstated a word in the Vatican statement, which referred to the "charism," not charisma of the Legionaries.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/world/europe/02legion.html
The news stories were taken from Times and The New York Times, which were not involved with, nor endorsed the production of this blog. The copyright of these news stories remains with their original owners.
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