By David Badash
New Civil Rights Movement
May 26, 2011
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/top-advisor-to-pope-on-pedophile-priests-arrested-in-pedophilia-sex-ring/news/2011/05/26/20865
 |
"Father Riccardo Seppia, a 51-year-old parish priest in the village of Sastri Ponente, near Genoa, was arrested last Friday, May 13, on pedophilia and drug charges. Investigators say that in tapped mobile-phone conversations, Seppia asked a Moroccan drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with young and vulnerable boys. "I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger. Fourteen-year-olds are O.K. Look for needy boys who have family issues," he allegedly said. Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, who is the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, had been working with Benedict to establish a tough new worldwide policy, released this week, on how bishops should handle accusations of priestly sex abuse."
"According to investigators, Seppia told a friend — a former seminarian and barman who is currently under investigation — that the town's malls were the best places to entice minors. In tapped phone conversations the two cursed and swore against God. The priest is charged with having attempted to kiss and touch an underage altar boy and of having exchanged cocaine for sexual intercourse with boys over 18."
"Questioned by the investigators, the altar boy reportedly confirmed the attempted kiss. Another male minor who, according to the investigators, was stalked with messages and pressing invitations, will be questioned soon. Psychologists are helping Carabinieri police officers obtain testimony from the alleged victims. "The boys are ashamed to talk and to admit what happened," says one of the investigators. The evidence amounts to at least 50 messages and phone calls. In the tapped phone conversations, the drug dealer contacted the boys and gave their phone numbers to the priest, who paid them with cocaine or 50 euros each time for sexual intercourse."
Piercarlo Casassa, a retired priest, in a report by The Daily Telegraph, said of Seppia, "I told the Church about him in 1994 but was ignored. I told them he was not the right person to have around youngsters."
In related news, the Vatican released a report last week that many are calling "the 'blame Woodstock' explanation."
The report, paid for in part by American Bishops, in part by Catholic organizations, and in part by the U.S. DOJ, is ludicrous.
As Susan Jacoby at the Washington Post says, she is "enraged by the church’s shameless, latest attempt to blame the whole pedophile priest horror on the expanded sexual freedom of the 1960s. Yes, blame it on the Sixties. What a convenient dodge for hypocritical old men who still refuse to look in the mirror and take responsibility for what happened to children on their watch under cover of what Catholics used to call The Faith with a capital “T” and a capital “F.”
Jacoby adds, "In one of the report’s most tragicomic findings, the researchers conclude that it is inaccurate to describe abusers as “pedophile priests” because only 22 percent of the priests’ victims were prepubescent. The catch: The report defines “prepubescent” as age 10 or under. According to the American Psychiatric Association, a prepubescent child is generally classified as age 13 or under. Thus, priests abusing 11- and 12-year-old altar boys—prime age for interaction between priests and boys when I was in school—are not considered pedophiles in this report. Somehow, I don’t think it matters much to an abuse survivor whether he was molested at age 10 or age 12."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.