BBC doc exposes the Pope’s leading role in pedophile coverup
by: Pam Spaulding
Thu Mar 25, 2010 at www.pamshouseblend.com
UPDATE: The original article is from 2006, so you can take a look at the video now. That makes the situation even more grim. Benedict was elected when this scandal was already in full flower:
It’s time for Pope Benedict to spare the faithful the continual pain of representing a full-blown, RICO-worthy criminal enterprise, an unholy alliance of silence at the expense of the innocence of children. He must face criminal charges. Tonight a BBC documentary is airing that will Today’s well-documented expose by the New York Times, which corroborates evidence uncovered in a BBC documentary in 2006, give the Vatican zero wiggle room to make claims like “we didn’t know” or worse, laughably, it’s “a campaign to smear the pope.” There is more than enough evidence from the documents that have been revealed to put any lay person on trial.
The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.
In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church’s interests ahead of child safety. The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.
…Five years ago [Benedict] sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis – Latin for The Crime of Solicitation – which laid down the Vatican’s strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.
Five years ago — that was well into the rise in abuse scandals, and with that original document in place, when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, you can’t tell me those voting for him didn’t know of his past, the coverups, the policy that was in place.
Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.
…Father Tom Doyle, a Vatican lawyer until he was sacked for criticising the church’s handling of child abuse claims, says: “What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.
“When abusive priests are discovered, the response has been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them from one place to another. So there’s total disregard for the victims and for the fact that you are going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. This is happening all over the world.”
The documentary is by Colm O’Gorman, who was raped at 13 by a priest.
As we’ve learned over the years, in story after story of child-rape by men of the cloth, the church just shifted them around, as Ratzinger decreed in his sacred, secret document. There is no other moral option other than to step aside, but we all know he won’t do that.
For a clip from the documentary, click here:
