RE: Watford church leader Mike Pilavachi 'massaged young male interns'
September 28, 2023 at 7:42 am
A Belgian bishop says the Vatican has for years snubbed pleas to defrock a pedophile ex-colleague
Disgraced bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who was brought down by a sexual abuse scandal 13 years ago, became a symbol in Belgium of the Roman Catholic church's hypocrisy in dealing with abuse in its own ranks.
“We, the (Belgian) bishops, have been asking for years for a reaction. The letters are there, the discussions. All noted down in lists. When will we have a reaction? And why don’t we get one?" Johan Bonny, the bishop of Antwerp, said on broadcaster VRT’s website.
“I want to honestly say that our conference of bishops has been asking Rome to do this for years — through the nuncio (papal envoy) and directly in Rome,” Bonny said. “Last year in November during the visit of the bishops to Rome, we put it up for discussion again, and after the umpteenth time , Rome's reaction is no different."
His acknowledgment underscores a popular belief that even if there is a willingness at grassroot level to take action, the higher echelons of the Roman Catholic hierarchy are too slow or loathe to take forceful action.
Rumors of child sexual abuse by clergy in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation of 11.5 million had been rampant for generations, affecting just about every Catholic school or parish. However, evidence was rare: instances were rarely punished and quickly suppressed until Vangheluwe’s case proved a watershed moment.
In the wake of the scandal, a special commission produced a report with harrowing accounts of Catholic clergy molesting hundreds of victims, some as young as two years old, and said the abuse led to at least 13 suicides. The head of the commission said in reality, the abuse was even worse but many victims could still not bring themselves to talk.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...-103522241
Disgraced bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who was brought down by a sexual abuse scandal 13 years ago, became a symbol in Belgium of the Roman Catholic church's hypocrisy in dealing with abuse in its own ranks.
“We, the (Belgian) bishops, have been asking for years for a reaction. The letters are there, the discussions. All noted down in lists. When will we have a reaction? And why don’t we get one?" Johan Bonny, the bishop of Antwerp, said on broadcaster VRT’s website.
“I want to honestly say that our conference of bishops has been asking Rome to do this for years — through the nuncio (papal envoy) and directly in Rome,” Bonny said. “Last year in November during the visit of the bishops to Rome, we put it up for discussion again, and after the umpteenth time , Rome's reaction is no different."
His acknowledgment underscores a popular belief that even if there is a willingness at grassroot level to take action, the higher echelons of the Roman Catholic hierarchy are too slow or loathe to take forceful action.
Rumors of child sexual abuse by clergy in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation of 11.5 million had been rampant for generations, affecting just about every Catholic school or parish. However, evidence was rare: instances were rarely punished and quickly suppressed until Vangheluwe’s case proved a watershed moment.
In the wake of the scandal, a special commission produced a report with harrowing accounts of Catholic clergy molesting hundreds of victims, some as young as two years old, and said the abuse led to at least 13 suicides. The head of the commission said in reality, the abuse was even worse but many victims could still not bring themselves to talk.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...-103522241
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
