Pope Francis protects priests, not child sex abuse victims?

By Judy Byington
Examiner
March 22, 2014

http://www.examiner.com/article/pope-francis-protects-priests-not-child-sex-abuse-victims

Actor Russell Crowe at the Vatican

With numerous charges of priest sex abuse against children mounting on the Catholic Church, Pope Francis' meeting last Wed with Actor Russell Crowe on his new movie "Noah" may have been the only positive point in his week.

A scathing Feb UN report criticizing Pope Francis for concealing sex abuse crimes on Catholic child sex abuse survivors now numbering in the millions, didn't seem to affect Vatican policies that appeared designed to protect Catholic authorities, not their child victims:

· On March 14 Pennsylvania Roman Catholic Priest Carlos Urrutigoity, who was transferred, again, to another parish after claims he forced children to have sex, was promoted to the number two position in his new Paraguay diocese. Former Bishop Joseph Martino of the Diocese of Scranton transferred Urrutigoity after he was named in several court cases as routinely sleeping with boys in his care, calling it spiritual guidance. Urrutigoity has faced several such transfers. The US Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) were incensed.

· On March 19 the Catholic Church headed for another State Supreme Court battle. Mary Caplan, co-director of the New York City chapter of SNAP, criticized New York Cardinal Dolan's challenge to a law which allowed victims to report crimes up to 30 years after a their 18th birthday. She said parishioners shouldn't pay the Catholic Church to re-victimize victims.

· Caplan also said, “When kids who were abused want a chance for justice, Catholic officials lobby hard to deny those kids their day in court. All across the US, Dolan and his brother bishops use all their political will and power and resources to block moves to reform archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations laws that endanger kids and protect those who commit and conceal heinous child sex crimes.”

· On March 19th The Star Tribune of St. Paul Minneapolis reported that Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North ordered the Twin Cities archdiocese to release all information about priests accused of sex abuse from 1970 to 1985 and give the documents to the court by March 31. The Vatican policy was not to release information under any circumstances.

· On March 21 the Washington Yakima Herald-Republic reported that final arguments concluded on a $3 million sex abuse lawsuit. A man filed suit saying that in 1999 he was given alcohol and raped by a candidate for the priesthood at Resurrection Catholic Church in Zillah.

· On March 18 Pope Francis removed Michael Fugee from the priesthood after the Catholic priest violated a court order against unsupervised contact with minors - Pope Francis' one positive move during the week that supported child abuse victims.

· On March 18 Merrimack Vally Production announced that on Easter Sunday April 20th the clergy abuse documentary BASTA - No pity - No shame- No silence would premiere at the Boston International Film Festival, "This is a global epidemic which needs and deserves global awareness. There are 60 million adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse living in the US alone. Survivors need to know that they are not alone and above all, there is always hope."

· On March 13 the Kansas City Star reported that the St. Joseph Diocese was spending more millions on a new crop of priest sexual abuse cases six years after a $10 million settlement supposedly brought closure to the problem. Were they contemplating bankruptcy? In the past 11 U.S. dioceses and two religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection claiming financial hardship because of sex abuse lawsuits. Critics claim bankruptcy was a Vatican strategy to protect assets while delaying jury trials and document disclosure. Minnesota lawyer Jeff Anderson said, "It keeps the public from knowing the truth."

· On March 11 Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and former Archbishop John Charles McQuaid were named in a lawsuit by alleged child sex abuse survivor Owen Felix O'Neil. O'Neil claimed the then-Dublin Ireland Archbishop McQuaid raped him in a "Boys Club" and in his own house. O'Neil also attested that when he tried to tell the now-Archbishop Martin who was a young priest at the time, he slapped him, called him a liar and walked away.

The Catholic Church's indifference to victims was revealed in the 1970s Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy case. Murphy admitted he sexually abused up to 200 deaf boys at his Milwaukee Wisconsin boarding school over a period of 22 years. Victims tried for more than three decades to bring him to justice, but an article in the March 25 2010 New York Times showed that the Vatican neither defrocked him nor referred him for prosecution.

A March survey from Angus Reid Global showed that only a quarter of respondents think that Pope Francis has done enough for victims of Catholic priest abuse.

Why wasn't more being done to uncover this scab of silence?

The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State intended to find out. Pope Francis has been charged with child trafficking and set for trial beginning March 31 in Brussels.

The ITCCS court a year ago found among 39 other global elites, Pope Ratzinger guilty of Crimes Against Humanity. Pope Ratzinger resigned from office that same day of his guilty verdict by six international judges and 36 jury members.