Speaking the truth is highly dangerous. Truth means nothing to a mainstream consensus that even asserts that a man is a woman merely by claiming to be. What is accepted as 'reality' is now simply a function of power.
This Pope tends to say one thing and do the opposite-how many times have we seen it? There are recent reports that the Vatican is attempting to cover up the McCarrick case, even at this late juncture. I have read reports that they are now trying to spin it that his victim who was 16 at the time of the crime was of the age of consent. Absurdly, there are those in the Vatican who see nothing wrong with sexual assault above a certain age. Presumably, rape is acceptable on this basis provided the victim is not a juvenile?
It has taken too long to begin to investigate and bring justice in the McCarrick case. I dare to say.
I don't care "if" it was consensual or not, as the Vatican is calling it. IT IS STILL SODOMY!!!! But I guarantee you that no 16 year old boy comes to sanctuary to be sexual manipulated and molested by a bishop or cardinal or priest.
Apparently one or more of Fr. Mark Goring's videos have been removed. The subject of the video(s) had to do with Cardinal Wuerl's youth rally. Now all that is left there is this:
Due to Father Mark Goring's censorship, quite a few of his youtube videos have been removed. It's very, very sad. Please keep praying for him. In case you did not see one of his latest videos prior to this censorship, Father Goring was requesting faithful Catholics to contact some people about not having Cardinal Wuerl appear at the Youth Rally in DC on January 18th due to all of the controversy surrounding Cardinal Wuerl. Here is a sample of a letter that one person posted on Father Goring's video. It was suggested that a letter like this should be sent to the following email addresses mforr@adw.org communications@adw.org nuntiususa@nuntiususa.org viewer@ewtn.com: Dear Ms. Mary Forr, I recently learned that Cardinal Wuerl will be part of the 2019 Youth Rally and Mass for Life in Washington DC on January 18th at the Capital One Arena. Cardinal Wuerl has a mountain of allegations against him especially in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury investigation where his name appears over 200 times. He faces explosive allegations that he mishandled and covered up instances of criminal sexual abuse by Priests, while he was Bishop in Pittsburgh. If Cardinal Wuerl shows up in the Youth Rally, it communicates three things: 1) It communicates a massive disrespect for victims of sexual abuse and cover-up. 2) It communicates that these sexual abuses are not a big deal. 3) It communicates that some of the leaders in the church think that they can get away with this stuff and we faithful Catholics are saying no way, it's a big deal these mistakes are not small, the harm done by them are untold and no, the church can't get away with this stuff anymore. For the above reasons, Cardinal Wuerl should not be invited or appear in the 2019 Youth Rally and Mass for Life. Respectfully yours, Eduardo Alvarez In addition, some other commentators on Father Goring's video about the above stated that they would like to see EWTN no longer air masses said by Cardinal Wuerl and/or demonstrate any support of him whatsoever. Personally, I don't think that this is a bad idea either.
I think (am certainly not sure) that there's something in Canon Law about 16 being the age of consent. The "age of consent" probably isn't a term used in Canon Law and I don't know the precise term. The significance is that allegations of sexual relations with someone over the age of 16 would fall under a different set of rules which would require different procedures for dealing with the case than if the (alleged) victim were under the age of 16. If the Vatican can say that they weren't aware that McCarrick had been accused of child abuse (under the age of 16), there's probably some loophole in Canon Law which lets the Pope off the hook for sending McCarrick to China after Vigano's conversation with the Pope. The NYT article wasn't printed until James Grein came forward. The case involving a financial settlement concerned a seminarian who would have been over age 16. There might not have been an obligation under Canon Law for the diocese to notify the Vatican of the financial settlement. That settlement was probably the closest anyone came to having McCarrick admit that he was a sexual predator, and the agreement could have been worded to say that the financial settlement wasn't an admission of guilt.
I wonder in Canon Law says anything about sexually assaulting altar boys in the Sacristy of the Cathedral before Christmas Mass? But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. -Matthew 18:6
Ah, but the Vatican's semantics imply that the victim was a man and not a boy and therefore they are trying to wriggle out of it, with the further disgusting innuendo accompanying it that the victim was therefore consensual. I think what might, hopefully, hang them is the financial settlement that Dolours points out was given to a victim whose age was over sixteen. Why would one have to pay compensation to a partner in consensual sodomy, or whatever disgusting acts that occurred? A poster I read sometime ago perceptively asserted that the issue should have been addressed as one of male-on-male sexual assault, which would have short-circuited the attempts to brand the scandal as merely one of 'paedophilia', which it primarily is not. The recent Hollywood scandals have brought to the fore many cases of abuse by means of maliciously exerting power and authority over those in positions of weakness and submission. On the same basis, abuse of vulnerable seminarians, for example, no matter their age or apparent 'consent', is no less a crime. It is also very clear that any misfortunate who is sodomitically assaulted by a perpetrator other than a cleric of the Catholic Church is doubly wounded-firstly the appalling indignity of the assault, but secondly the lack of opportunity to tap the goldmine.
I just heard on news that Pope Francis wants to try Cardinal McCarrick soon So as not to interfere with abuse summit beginning February 21 The Feast of St Peter Damian (my words)
I don't know. It does say something about it being a matter for the CDF if the abuse takes place during Confession. The USCCB has more information in Q & A format here: http://www.usccb.org/upload/FAQs-canonical-process-sexual-abuse.pdf . That document deals with the abuse of minors (presumably under age 16). As far as I know, there is also a statute of limitations under Canon Law. I think there are similarites between the McCarrick case and what happened in Maynooth seminary. In the Maynooth case, there had been a settlement with a minor schoolboy when the priest had been attached to a Catholic school before he got the job in Maynooth. The settlement included a confidentiality clause but excluded an admission of guilt by the priest. That priest ended up being in charge of Maynooth seminary where there were allegations about sexual predation on seminarians. I think the priest was qualified in Canon Law. As far as I can remember from what I read (mostly on Wikipedia), when the allegations were made about abuse of seminarians, the priest claimed that any sexual activity with seminarians was consensual. The seminarians wouldn't lodge a formal complaint. The Bishop tried to sack the priest and the case went to Rome. I think (and again my memory could be faulty) that by the time the case reached Rome the statute of limitations had run out, and the priest retained his job in the seminary for a further ten years. I'm not sure whether it was the child abuse case that was outside the statute of limitations but I can't see how it could have been the homosexual activity in the seminary because no seminarian made a formal complaint. This all came out in the public inquiry into the Ferns (Co. Wexford) diocese. They didn't deal with the case of the minor because the victim, who would have been an adult at the time of the inquiry, refused to give evidence. It's unclear whether the financial settlement was a private deal between the priest and the boy, but I think the diocese funded ongoing psychological treatment for him. At the time the allegations were made, homosexual acts were illegal under Irish civil law. The young seminarians may well have been very immature and unsure about whether they had given the impression of consent. For all we know, they may have felt they hadn't protested enough or, if they had no prior sexual experience, they may have had feelings which caused them to be confused or ashamed. It's also possible that they wouldn't have wanted their families and friends to know what had happened to them in the seminary, and perhaps they would have been afraid that everyone would know if they made an official complaint. (That's just guesswork on my part). The February Synod needs to close Canon Law loopholes and it also needs to include seminarians in the vulnerable adult category. If they don't do that, we can expect plenty of lawsuits in the future by seminarians claiming that the Bishop or other Church authority neglected their duty of care obligations.
Can. 97 §1. A person who has completed the eighteenth year of age has reached majority; below this age, a person is a minor. §2. A minor before the completion of the seventh year is called an infant and is considered not responsible for oneself (non sui compos). With the completion of the seventh year, however, a minor is presumed to have the use of reason. 1. A person who has reached majority has the full exercise of his or her rights. However, I wouldn't be surprised if civil law would override canon law in a civil court case.
'We are witches': Clerical abuse scandal divides parishes and politics in Poland KALINOWKA, Poland (Reuters) - The former Catholic priest of the Polish village of Kalinowka is serving three years in jail for molesting five schoolgirls. But Marta Zezula, a mother whose testimony helped convict him, says the priest’s victims are the ones made to feel guilty. “We are witches ... because we have pointed at the priest,” Zezula fumed as she shoveled straw into a chaff cutter in her barn in the tiny settlement in eastern Poland. Many parishioners believe she and other mothers of those molested “simply convicted an innocent man”, she said. Home to about 170 people, Kalinowka is a short drive from the main road, but feels more remote. The Holy Cross church, built in 1880, sits on a hill overlooking rolling farmland and forests full of deer. Krystyna Kluzniak, hurrying into the well-kept church on a chilly November evening, said people should give the jailed priest a break. “The priest was cool and we miss him,” she said. The priest, who cannot be named under Polish law, is now on trial again, charged with molesting another child. His lawyer, Marek Tokarczyk, said he denies the allegations. “We need a fair trial,” Tokarczyk said. Similar scandals have shaken the Catholic Church and split communities in the United States, Ireland, Australia and elsewhere. But Poland is one of Europe’s most devout nations, where most people identify as Catholics and the Church is widely revered. Priests were active in the fight against communism and in 1989, led by a Polish pope, John Paul II, the Church helped overthrow Communist rule. Divisions over allegations of abuse are particularly stark here, said Marek Lisinski, the director of “Have no fear”, a group that advocates for victims of clerical abuse. Parishioners often side with priests and ostracize victims and their families, Lisinski told Reuters. LANDMARK RULING In October, “Have no fear” published a map that revealed the scale of the issue. It used black crosses to mark places where 60 priests had been convicted of abuses dating back to 1956. Afterwards, Lisinski said, people called in to report another 300 cases of suspected abuse by priests which they had not raised with the Church or police for fear they would be doubted or shunned. The same month, a Polish court of appeal upheld a landmark ruling which granted a million zloty ($260,000) in compensation to a woman abused by a priest as a child. Jaroslaw Gluchowski, a lawyer in Poznan who represents victims of clerical abuse, said the ruling set an important precedent. “We’re now at a moment when all victims in Poland are realizing that they’re not alone,” he said. In a November statement, Poland’s bishops asked victims of clerical abuse for forgiveness and said the Church had begun collecting data to “identify the causes of these deeds and assess their scale”. Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the primate of Poland, told Reuters the Church will publish its findings within six months. Polak encouraged victims of clerical abuse to talk to their bishops, who are “obliged to report to the prosecutors’ service all credible cases they get knowledge of”. He said he was aware the issue had caused rifts in some communities. “It is the Church’s responsibility to act in a way that doesn’t create divisions but heals them,” he said. Senior bishops from around the world will meet Pope Francis at a conference in the Vatican in February to discuss protection of minors. Conference organizers have said everyone must be held accountable or the Church risked losing credibility worldwide. The issue could also have political ramifications in Poland, Lisinski and other observers say. The country is due to elect a new parliament by December 2019. The Catholic Church has long played a major political role in Poland, making its 25,000 priests not only revered but also influential with voters. In December, a report appeared in Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading Polish daily, containing molestation allegations from a woman, Barbara Borowiecka, against the late priest Henryk Jankowski, an iconic figure in the anti-communist Solidarity movement. The mayor of Gdansk, the birthplace of Solidarity, asked the Church to investigate the allegations. Archbishop Polak told Reuters the Jankowski allegations “should be investigated for the good of the Church” and said it was up to bishop of Gdansk to address them. “POLAND’S COLLAPSE” The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party won power in 2015 with a blend of patriotism and piety that echoed the religious nationalism of the Church. In October, a former PiS minister, Antoni Macierewicz, credited the Polish clergy with helping the party win local elections that month. Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, an MP for a small opposition party called Now, is seeking an independent inquiry into child abuse by priests because she says the Church cannot be relied upon to investigate itself. She says the idea has received no support from PiS or other big parties. A PiS spokesperson did not respond to several requests asking whether it supported the idea of an inquiry. Ryszard Czarnecki, a PiS MP for the European Parliament, responded to Reuters by asking why the Church should be singled out. “I don’t know why we are focusing on one group, as this also concerns different groups - for example, artistic or journalistic ones,” he said. About 12 million people, or almost a third of Poland’s population, regularly attend Mass, according to a survey by the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics, a Warsaw-based research center. The numbers slightly declined from 2015 to 2016, the survey showed. Most children attend religious classes, but their numbers are dropping, too. In Lodz, Poland’s third-largest city, they fell from 80 percent in 2015 to fewer than 50 percent now, according to local government data quoted by the daily Dziennik Lodzki. In November, the Church said such trends could have dire consequences. “Abandoning the Catholic faith and the Christian principles governing our national life and state’s functioning” could lead to Poland’s collapse, it warned in a pastoral letter. In Kalinowka, Reuters spoke to seven parishioners. Most of them were sticking by the convicted priest. “I have a cousin whose son went to one of his classes and they didn’t see it,” Wieslaw Solowiej, a pensioner, said outside the Kalinowka church. Jolanta Zych, whose nine-year-old daughter was among those molested, said neighbors spurned the family. “I always greet people but some turn their faces from me,” said Zych. The other mother Reuters spoke to, Zezula, said her daughter began refusing food after the court case. “She didn’t want to eat because one woman told her the priest was in jail because of her.” During Mass, Zezula said, people shrank away or refused to shake hands during a ritual greeting known as the sign of peace. She no longer goes to church. Piotr Lenart, the current priest, referred questions to the Zamosc-Lubaczow Diocese in which the Kalinowka parish lies. Michal Maciolek, a priest and spokesman for the diocese, said it had offered the victims and their families pastoral and psychological help, but this had been rejected. No financial compensation was offered, because “the diocese can’t take responsibility for the priest’s actions”. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...parishes-and-politics-in-poland-idUSKCN1P1024
It happened in the case of Our Lady of America where once the person given the authority over the devotion by the seer herself refused to cooperate any longer after having the original and authentic website stolen, the powerful w/ $$$$ involved in that were able to hire a large law firm against a volunteer atty for that last remaining nun of the seer's cloistered portion of the order. Used the court to rule civilly taking advantage of something that had yet to be fully looked into by the Church and stole the devotion for personal goals.
The Church would have no authority over a civil court case, and I think the Church does recommend observance of civil law generally like, for example, the legal age for marriage. The Church, being universal, has guidelines but permits leeway for Bishops because there is no universal civil law governing the age at which a person is considered to have reached the age of majority . (That "age of majority" under Canon Law was lowered from age 21 to age 18 in 1983). The Church permits valid marriages of people under 18 years of age and forbids forced marriages so clearly there is some variation on the age of consent between 7 and 18. It probably can't happen without the parents' permission, but I think it is possible for a girl to be married at age 14 and a boy at age 16 although it wouldn't happen often and probably almost never in Western cultures. "A minor below the age of sixteen years" is specifically stated in Canon 1395 (see the second paragraph below): "Can. 1395 §1. A cleric who lives in concubinage, other than the case mentioned in ⇒ can. 1394, and a cleric who persists with scandal in another external sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue is to be punished by a suspension. If he persists in the delict after a warning, other penalties can gradually be added, including dismissal from the clerical state. §2. A cleric who in another way has committed an offense against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if the delict was committed by force or threats or publicly or with a minor below the age of sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants." http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P56.HTM Editing this to add that Cardinal Muller said that the CDF only deals with abuse of minors. Cardinal Vigano's statement said something about the CDF having a file on McCarrick but if age 16 is the cut-off age for the victim to be considered a minor, why would the CDF have a file on McCarrick's preying on seminarians?
I have just picked up a very good quote: 'The antidote for being scandalised is the lives of saints such as Padre Pio and Solanus Casey....' Always good sense from the source blog by a great lady called Mary O'Regan - http://thepathlesstaken7.blogspot.com/2018/11/finding-solace-in-solanus.html#more Please don't miss this entry about an apparition that I knew nothing about: http://thepathlesstaken7.blogspot.com/2018/05/our-lady-of-siluva.html
Archbishop McCarrick's legal process is being expedited to have it done before the February Bishop's meeting on clergy sex abuse. He is not getting a trial presumably because of the mountain of evidence they have. If found guilty it is highly likely he will be laicized. https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/01/07/analysis-the-non-trial-of-theodore-mccarrick/
There is a side altar/chapel of Our Lady of Siluva in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Thanks for the post. Really great!
