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	Dear Pope, Read This: Victims of Rape by Catholic Priests Publish Comments Here for the Pope to Read City of Angels April 14, 2008 http://cityofangels4.blogspot.com/2008/04/dear-pope-read-this-catholic-priest.html One signs his name: Sodomized by the great parish priest starting when I was ten years old from 1953 to 1956. A Midwestern woman writes: What I was not prepared to find out was that I was not alone. The most terrible truth of all was they knew what was happening. The pope knew and was complicit with the bishops. A third writes: Down in Georgia they're still taking priests into the home to spend the night with their four sons. Several victims of Sex Crimes in the Catholic Church sent poignant emails to City of Angels Blog which are published below. Meanwhile, Jury Trial in the Salesian cases begins tomorrow at 9AM in LA Superior Court and we'll be there reporting with video--ke This is about the only satisfaction I get, letting Ratzinger know what a lowlife I think he and all his cronies are, an LA Plaintiff wrote. And what hypocrites they are when they preach morality to us and yet can't seem to understand thousands of people have been seriously hurt by their inaction and cover-up on the priestly sexual deviancy problem. They preach about the sanctity of life and yet don't seem to care one iota about those so injured by the clergy. -- (NAME) - sodomized by the good parish priest from 1953 to 1956 starting when I was ten years old." "Ding Dong The Church Is Dead," by a predator Priest crime victim writing under the name Nellie: My upbringing as a Catholic girl in the 50's and 60's gave me a background in social justice and its role in a faith community. This together with a belief that being a Catholic was not only who I was but what I believed, made me vulnerable to the advances of our family friend and former parish priest. When he sexually abused me, I knew it was wrong. I worried about how I might have tempted "Father." I felt silenced by the fact that my mother had, to my great relief, been converted to Catholicism by this priest and my fear was if I told her about what "Father" had done to me, her distress might be so great that she would lose her faith. She would then be condemned to spend all eternity in hell because she was not a member of "the one true, holy Catholic apostolic church". I stayed silent and conflicted well into my adulthood. I know that no matter what we do, there will always be people who abuse children and take advantage of vulnerable adults. What I was not prepared to find out was that I was not alone. That many vulnerable souls like me were raped, molested and abused. The most terrible truth of all was they knew what was happening. The pope knew and was complicit in the bishops covering up. The priests fell into line and stayed silent. The average Catholic went on praying, paying and obeying. The victims became the enemy in the parishes. The focus of pastoral intervention was damage control instead of accountability and compassion. I know that no matter what we do, there will always be people who abuse children and take advantage of vulnerable adults. The shame of the matter is, the pope, bishops and laity are prepared to protect the church and abandon the victims. I know that no matter what we do, there will always be people who abuse children and take advantage of vulnerable adults. What I will never understand and can't accept is that you, the complicit bishop, the silent priest, the Catholic parishioner have failed me and every other victim. You have failed to practice the teachings of Christ that I was so carefully taught. For so long I held the faith that you would wake up. Now I know the awful truth. There is no longer a "Christ" in Catholic, or faith in or a representative of god on earth that is worth believing in. Catholicism, what was supposed to be "the one true faith" is dead. Killed by a Catholic cover up and laity inaction. ***** Another reader, frater g, who has also started a website at magickcatholic.blogspot.com/ wrote this: I do think the Vatican itself is really pretty evil, I love their reaction to the crisis: This is from Saturday Yahoo News: The Vatican insists that any meeting with the victims would reopen old wounds, and several senior aides have indicated that they felt the matter was "now closed". Monsignor Pietro Sambi, the papal ambassador to the US who was in charge of planning the trip, said the Pope would turn 81 in America, and did not have the strength to visit Boston. "He just can't go everywhere," he said. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's second-in-command, said the church had already "responded with great dignity" to the situation, and added that the "clamour created in the US around this scandal is really unbearable". At least the UK media points out that the Pope is refusing to deal with this situation at all. That's why I want to keep protesting. They claim he's too old to face the situation, to me he's just a coward. At least Mahony owned up to his own villainy and now that I'm going around to local churches I can see that he's keeping child safety out there as an issue, they're not taking the attitude of "just get over it." Its not perfect, but compared to most other Archdioceses they're at least not in denial anymore. Down in Georgia Catholics are acting like this never happened and brag on their podcasts about taking priests into the home to spend the night at their house with their four sons. The fact is we have no idea how many closeted pedophiles are still in the clergy, this is why LA is being really pro-active. LA can't afford to keep getting sued, so they have to try to enforce zero tolerance. The Pope wants to have his cake and eat it, too. He wants to ignore us, but then pontificate about abortion, which makes him sound like he's against abortion as it may rob him of a potential sexual partner. The emperor wears no clothes, that's what is happening here, he's completely out of touch and insulated by the Vatican and his diplomatic immunity. **** And heres two cents from Kay Ebeling, Producer of City of Angels Network: The church keeps releasing comments about the $2 billion dollars they've spent on settlements, not counting attorney and PR consulting fees. This is the Catholic Church -- a church -- summarizing 50 years of child rape in ways people cant even imagine. Kids passed from pedophile priest to pedophile priest -- THINK for a moment the damage that was done. The Catholic Church sums all that up as two billion dollar problem when they could sell a couple statues at the Vatican and make up the difference. Never is there mention of 14,000 plaintiffs and the other 140,000 victims who were damaged as individual human beings, or the residual damage that was caused to families and communities. Maybe the Pope will actually read these.
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