But this pope, he just keeps giving. Or, his actions keep coming back to haunt him. In the last few weeks, two major stories have arisen from the Vatican. The first was your average prostitution ring, with the Vatican choir arranging same-sex hook-ups with members of the cardinals’ elite “papal gentlemen-in-waiting” (ceremonial ushers). This should be treated as good news, since it affirms that the Vatican is following good capitalism and what-the-market-will-bear economic strategy.
But the next item can’t be made funny. On March 14, the world learned that when Benedict was archbishop of Munich, Germany, he did as many other bishops have done: He hid a pedophile priest from the police. The language the Vatican uses is “the priest was reassigned after it was discovered that he had abused children.” At first, they even attempted to say that Benedict, the head of that church, was not aware of it, but that misinformation fell apart real quick. And the language “reassign” means hide them in another church and don’t report to the police. That priest, the one reassigned by Benedict, went on to abuse more children.
This is the house of Ratzinger (Benedict’s former name) coming down. It was Ratzinger who, under Pope John Paul II, wrote to the American bishops and ordered them to put all files on pedophile priests in the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C., where they would have diplomatic immunity. Imagine if you were an organization, like let’s say the Boy Scouts of America, that knew it had thousands of leaders molesting youth members and the president hides the files where police can’t get at them. That would be a massive crime of hiding evidence. And Benedict attempted to do it on a grand scale. And why? In the 10 years since the issue of child sex abuse by priests has surfaced here in the U.S., it is estimated by survivor organizations that over 500,000 individuals have come forward. Oh, and here’s another note for those who put their hard-earned dollars in the collection plate every Sunday: The cost of the U.S. litigation and settlements has totaled $2 billion thus far. And now the scandal is taking flight. The top cardinals in Ireland and Germany both issued apologies in the last week as scandals grow in their countries, while Spain, Italy and Brazil are just beginning to acknowledge they “may” have a problem. And the man on top of this sea of abuse, well, he issued an apology himself, but it was underwhelming in scope.
Which brings us back to the title of this column. If you are not going to be forthcoming with the 100,000s of victims, just shut up. Dragging your feet just creates more pain for those who have suffered all these years. In fact, why don’t you do what you urge your parishioners to do: come clean and confess?
Catholics should not lose faith in their religion, only in the man sitting in the CEO chair in the Vatican. Catholics should expect him to show leadership and not hide behind his robes. Catholics deserve a well-run church, but unfortunately, the current CEO, Pope Benedict, seems to have lost his way, and his moral leadership is questionable.
Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He can be reached at mark@epgn.com.
Do you get sexually stimulated by it?
Marc - you do appear very biased and slanted in your coverage. Why do you just address the catholic abuse?
Speak Out Mark.
Child sex abuse claims divide Orthodox community
Associated Press/November 24, 2008
By Jennifer Peltz
New York - It started as a radio program discussion about a taboo subject: child molestation among members of the insular world of Orthodox Jews.
Since he broached the subject on his radio show this summer, says a state assemblyman, dozens of people have come forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community, which strictly follows Jewish law.
Dov Hikind says as many as four people a day have come to him over the past three months with painful accounts of secrets often kept for decades, accusing more than 60 individuals.
Hikind says he would eventually consider unmasking accused sexual predators but wants to focus now on setting up a broader framework for addressing the issue.
His campaign has set off a firestorm in the Orthodox community, where people are reluctant to involve secular authorities. One rabbi said he got death threats for speaking out.
"In our community, people don't talk about the things that they've come to my office" and revealed, said Hikind, himself an Orthodox Jew.
Among other faiths, the subject has meant turmoil in recent years for the Roman Catholic church. For decades, church leaders often transferred predatory clergy among parishes without telling parents or police. Victims have won millions in settlements from dioceses.
Members of a polygamous offshoot of the Mormon church have been charged with assaulting children in Texas. Children have been removed from the Arkansas compound of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries amid allegations of beatings and sexual abuse.
Hikind said he won't breach victims' trust by disclosing his private exchanges to prosecutors - or to a lawyer who subpoenaed him in a civil case against a school accused of concealing abuse.
However, he has been working on devising mechanisms within the Orthodox world for reporting sex abuse and sharing information on school staffers' previous positions. He aims to present a plan to rabbis this winter.
Studies have found Orthodox Jews account for as much as 10 percent of Jews nationwide, and a far greater share in parts of the New York metro area. Some 37 percent of the more than 516,000 Jews in Brooklyn are Orthodox, according to the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish social-service group.
Critics have said sex abuse claims are sometimes handled quietly in Orthodox rabbinical courts, rather than being reported to authorities.
However, some sexual abuse cases involving Orthodox Jewish schools have spilled into the secular legal system in Brooklyn.
In one case, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was charged with sexually abusing boys at an Orthodox school. He admitted no sexual wrongdoing but pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge. Kolko was sentenced to three years of probation and has been dismissed from the school, said his lawyer, Jeffrey Schwartz. The school's lawyer didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
Six former students are suing the school, saying it covered up Kolko's misdeeds. Their lawyer subpoenaed Hikind this month, seeking to find out whether he learned anything relevant to the case during his impromptu fact-finding.
He said lawyers were assessing how to respond to the subpoena.
Plaintiffs' lawyer Michael Dowd said he was willing to safeguard victims' identities but is determined to pursue whatever information Hikind has.
"I don't question his motivation, but at the same time, I don't accept it as a reason" not to provide information that could expose child molesters, said Dowd, who won $11.4 million in damages last year for two people raped as teenagers by a Catholic youth minister on Long Island.
Hikind said he encourages people who confide in him to talk to the authorities. But none will, he said, for fear of ostracism.
One rabbi and psychologist told Jewish media outlets he was hounded into quitting a task force on child molestation, days after Hikind appointed him to lead it in September; the panel is going on with other members. Another New York rabbi told the Daily News this month that vicious fliers and death-threat calls scared him into shutting down a sex abuse victims' hot line he had set up.
Some victims' advocates see little point in collecting information without bringing in law enforcement.
"The only way things are going to be cleaned up" is with authorities' involvement, said Vicki Polin, the founder of The Awareness Center, a Baltimore-based nonprofit group that works with victims of sexual abuse in Jewish communities.
But others praise Hikind's campaign.
"We can't achieve solutions without the public spotlight," said Elliot Pasik, an Orthodox attorney who represents plaintiffs in rabbi sex-abuse lawsuits unrelated to Kolko.