More fun with the Pedo apologists in the Vatican

[PSUFAN]

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2434945.ece

[font=Arial]Pope 'did not help girls abused by Florence priest'
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 09 April 2007

"How much suffering there is in the world!" Pope Benedict XVI lamented in his Easter sermon yesterday, naming Darfur, Iraq, Somalia, the Congo, Lebanon and other trouble spots around the globe.

But there was no space in his list for the abused women of the parish of Regina della Pace ("Queen of Peace") on the outskirts of Florence. For more than three years, these women have been trying to persuade the Church to take vigorous action against a parish priest whom they say persuaded them to have sex with him when they were minors, and continued to do so regularly for years.

Confronted by their testimony, the church authorities first transferred the priest to another parish, and then out of the diocese. But he remains a priest, and has received only token punishment. In the United States, failure to take firm action against abusive priests left the Church in Boston with a legacy of bitter mistrust and legal bills totalling more than $150m (£76m). In Italy, however, it would appear that the lessons have not been learnt.

Fr Lelio Cantini, now in his eighties, became the parish priest of Regina della Pace in the mid-Seventies. A self-styled "charismatic", he was accompanied by a clairvoyant woman who had visions of Jesus and drew up lists of those parishioners whom she said were the "elect of God".

Don Lelio ruled the parish with an iron hand, banishing dissidents from Mass and forbidding them absolution. But, in private, he showed a different side: in the church's presbytery he induced girls as young as 10 to have sex with him, explaining that this was a way of attaining "total unity with God".

A woman of 45, married with two children, said she had suppressed all memory of the abuse the priest inflicted on her until a couple of years ago. It started, she explained, when she was aged 10. "The Prior [as Cantini insisted on being called] would call me into his office or his bedroom, get me to undress and explain that, by doing what he asked, I would realise the most complete eucharistic communion," she said.

"He told me to think of the Madonna, who bore Jesus when she was only 12. He said I was the Beloved of the Song of Songs and that what happened between us was the same as what happened in the Garden of Eden." She said the relationship continued for 15 years, and that remembering it even now caused her vomiting attacks. "I was absolutely incapable," she said, "of making a free and aware choice."

Another woman, identified by the initials D A, now in her forties, said her sexual liaison with Fr Cantini "began when I was 17 and continued until I got married. He said I was in need of affection and that he would give it to me. Then he embraced me in the name of Jesus."

The victims kept their memories to themselves until chance reunions prompted them to share their stories and take them to the curia of Florence, the governing body of the church in the city, in January 2004.

They made written and oral submissions to the Archbishop of Florence and others - with the sole result that, in September 2005, Fr Cantini was transferred to another parish "for reasons of health".

Disgusted by the failure to take their complaints seriously, the victims wrote to Pope Benedict in March 2006 demanding more serious action. In response, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, then head of the Italian Bishops' Conference, informed them that Fr Cantini had left the diocese.

Further pressure led to disciplinary measures: Fr Cantini was banned from hearing confession or celebrating Mass for five years, "and every day for one year he must recite Psalm 51" - the one that begins, "Have mercy upon me, O God ... Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity." The victims say they regard the disciplinary measures "with astonishment and pain".

La Repubblica newspaper reports that Fr Cantini is living in a town on the Tuscan coast, still accompanied by his mysterious "clairvoyant" and with a troop of followers. Those who say he made their lives a misery say they will bring him to justice.[/font]

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Any questions? God's Moral Authority on Earth cannot be roused to action against a habitual pedo?

I've got a question...why does anyone look to the Vatican as a Moral Authority?

I've got no problem with folks who live as Christians. I DO have a problem with folks who overlook those who flout Christian Morality...all while wrapping themselves in the robes of holiness.

Sure, the Catholic Church does so many good works...but they save their "miraculous" work for their pedo priests who get away with decades of depraved criminality. It's a miracle that these scumbags aren't clapped in irons. Viola!

[Sirfindafold]

who gives a fuck?

[OCmike]

I've got a question...why does anyone look to the Vatican as a Moral Authority?

I don't know. The simple fact that they forbid the use of condoms (or any other forms of birth control) in the age where herpes affects 1 in 5 and AIDS is in epidemic proportions throughout the world, purely for the sake of getting women pregnant so that the world will have more tithing Catholics, is nothing short of disgusting.

[PSUFAN]

A woman of 45, married with two children, said she had suppressed all memory of the abuse the priest inflicted on her until a couple of years ago.

Riiiiiiight.

I don't think there any lack of documentation in this case. It's not still to be determined whether or not this guy abused underage girls.

Hell, they're not even denying it. They're just ignoring it.

[Y2K]

It's amazing how someone's "suppresed" memory can be so quickly recovered while reading about some big cash settlement in the paper.

[PSUFAN]

Stranger still how the Church doesn't say, "He didn't do it".

[Terry in Crapchester]

I've got a question...why does anyone look to the Vatican as a Moral Authority?

I don't know. The simple fact that they forbid the use of condoms (or any other forms of birth control) in the age where herpes affects 1 in 5 and AIDS is in epidemic proportions throughout the world, purely for the sake of getting women pregnant so that the world will have more tithing Catholics, is nothing short of disgusting.

This is where I have a little problem with the concept of papal infallibility.

The last time this topic was visited by the Church, Paul VI was Pope (fwiw, I was barely a teenager when he died, which will give you a sense of how long it's been). The majority of Church officials who weighed in on this topic actually supported the concept of artificial birth control, and this was before herpes and AIDS became epidemic. Unfortunately, Paul VI went the other way.

Birth control was not supposed to be one of those topics subject to Papal infallibility (the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, first enunciated in the 19th century under Pius IX, was the most recent topic subject to that doctrine), but too many Catholics who don't completely understand that concept have given it that weight.

And I'll preemptively ward off any claim that I'm a "cafeteria Catholic" by pleading guilty to that charge.

[PSUFAN]

Why would you expect them to openly discuss a personnel matter in public?

It might be they have something to hide, eh?

[PSUFAN]

I think I read you. If it were little boys he diddled, that'd be a different matter.

[Cuda]

Or it might be standard practice for any group, business or religious organization to not discuss personnel matters in public.

Nobody forgets abuse for twenty years and then suddenly remembers it at some sort of reunion. I'm calling bullshit on this priest abuse "scandal."

Rackworthy.

This is where I have a little problem with the concept of papal infallibility

How much of your "problem" is that you don't have the first fucking clue what it actually means?

[PSUFAN]

Since the Vatican has been behind some exceptionally fallible acts in recent years, the latest cry of the backward-spinning unicyclists is "We never said the Pope was infallible. He's only infallible in certain situations..."

[Cuda]

So, what you're saying is you're a clueless braindead fuck on that subjet too, right, PUSFAN

[PSUFAN]

Actually, I'm saying that the arc of your spin is clearly discernible before it is described

[PSUFAN]

I knew you'd fail to get a sense of this issue until someone mentioned "altar boy".

[Raydah James]

"He's only infallible in certain situations..."

Right. Like squatting on a rubber dick whilst tonguing an altar boy's dimehole. He's pretty much money in those situations.

[rozy]

Well...yeah. I mean, honestly, who would believe a story about a Catholic priest having sex with sexually mature females?

They should at least try to make their stories believable.

[Smackie Chan]

"He's only infallible in certain situations..."

Right. Like squatting on a rubber dick whilst tonguing an altar boy's dimehole. He's pretty much money in those situations.

Yeah, gotta RACK that.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

papal infallibility

Pray for them.

[RadioFan]

Or it might be standard practice for any group, business or religious organization to not discuss personnel matters in public.

Yeah, especially when said person deals with the public every day.

One would think at least little boys would know about PR 101.

[Terry in Crapchester]

This is where I have a little problem with the concept of papal infallibility

How much of your "problem" is that you don't have the first fucking clue what it actually means?

I suspect that after ten years of Catholic school followed by four years at a Catholic college, I know just a little more about it than you. PSUFAN and mvscal have mistaken infallibility for impeccability, which is not the same thing. http://www.catholic.com/library/Papal_Infallibility.asp

My point in bringing up Papal infallibility was to point out that it did not apply to the position ultimately adopted by the Church relative to birth control, nothing more. Unfortunately, many, even Catholics, believe that it did. And getting back to my original sentence, the problem I have with papal infallibility is that it is so frequently, and easily, misunderstood, even by well-intentioned people.