With little explanation, diocese has reinstated 17 priests accused of sexual abuse
Seventeen of the 29 Buffalo Diocese priests put on administrative leave since 2018 due to a sex abuse allegation involving a minor were later allowed to resume their priestly activities.
The diocese publicized the priests’ returns to ministry by stating that a review board had examined the claims and found them to be “not substantiated.”
Diocese officials maintain that the review process is rigorous, independent and designed to protect children from potential abuse.
Accusers and their attorneys aren’t convinced, and they worry that some priests are being publicly exonerated and put back into contact with children without a thorough and impartial investigation into abuse claims.
They point out that in some cases a priest was returned to ministry, even though his accuser wasn't interviewed as part of an investigation.
The most recent reinstatement of a priest was in July, when Bishop Michael W. Fisher restored the faculties of the Rev. Raymond A. Donohue, who was accused in a Child Victims Act lawsuit and a confidential bankruptcy claim. Donohue denied the allegation.
The diocese said the plaintiff's attorney refused to allow an investigator to interview his client.
Steve Boyd, the plaintiff's attorney, described the board as a “public relations wing of the diocese” that was created to “try and find ways to put priests back into ministry.”
“Right now, it is a secret committee that does secret work, and we find out their findings later, without knowing anything about what their process is.”
If law enforcement won’t investigate because criminal statutes of limitation have expired, dioceses might consider turning to an external review by independent experts who have no connection to the church, Hamilton said.
https://buffalonews.com/news/local/with-...32261.html
Cdn Inuit delegation heading to France to pressure French gov’t to extradite ex-priest
Next week, Steve Mapsalak will travel with a delegation of Inuit led by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) to try to get the French public to put pressure on their government to extradite a former French Oblate priest, Johannes Rivoire, who once lived and worked in northern Canada.
Mapsalak was taken from his parents when he was six years old and forced to attend the Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School in Chesterfield Inlet. He’d go home to Naujaat for three months of the year until he was age 13.
That’s where he alleges Rivoire sexually abused him.
In the 1990s, Mapsalak said he was approached numerous times and asked whether he wanted to press charges against Rivoire, but the flashbacks were too difficult.
He eventually agreed, and the first warrant for Rivoire’s arrest was issued in 1998, but Rivoire had fled to France in 1993.
Since there is no extradition treaty between Canada and France, Rivoire doesn’t legally have to return to Canada to face those charges.
https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/...ex-priest/
Pope Francis is lying about having ‘zero tolerance’ for sexual abuse
In a lengthy interview with CNN Portugal, Pope Francis insisted, falsely, that he had a “zero tolerance” policy when it came to the sexual abuse of children.
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview in Rome last month, the Pontiff said the church had “zero tolerance” for abuse and said that “a priest cannot remain a priest if he is an abuser.”
The church’s response to sex abuse scandals has become one of the defining themes of Francis’ time as Pope, and he told CNN Portugal that every case of abuse within the church “hurts” him.
His statements stand in stark contrast to his actions when faced with evidence of sexual abuse. CNN lists just a few of the times Pope Francis has downplayed allegations of child sexual abuse or taken the side of priests
Multiple reports detailing decades of sexual abuse, systemic failures and cover-ups across multiple countries have been released since Francis became the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in 2013. While he was criticized for some of his actions — such as when he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up a sex scandal in 2018, a decision he later described as a “grave error” — he has since taken a firm stance on the issues and introduced some reforms.
It’s not like the pope just made one error, though. In 2019, Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in prison for child sex abuse, or, as his lawyer callously called it, nothing more than a “plain vanilla sexual penetration case where the child is not actively participating.” In 2020, the conviction was controversially overturned when the High Court of Australia said the jury lacked enough doubt about the testimony against Pell.
What was Pope Francis’ reaction? He spoke out against “unjust sentences” and compared Pell’s situation to how Jesus was persecuted despite being innocent. The pope didn’t acknowledge almost certain guilt that was overturned on a technicality; he acted like Pell had done absolutely nothing wrong.
https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/pope-...ual-abuse/
Seventeen of the 29 Buffalo Diocese priests put on administrative leave since 2018 due to a sex abuse allegation involving a minor were later allowed to resume their priestly activities.
The diocese publicized the priests’ returns to ministry by stating that a review board had examined the claims and found them to be “not substantiated.”
Diocese officials maintain that the review process is rigorous, independent and designed to protect children from potential abuse.
Accusers and their attorneys aren’t convinced, and they worry that some priests are being publicly exonerated and put back into contact with children without a thorough and impartial investigation into abuse claims.
They point out that in some cases a priest was returned to ministry, even though his accuser wasn't interviewed as part of an investigation.
The most recent reinstatement of a priest was in July, when Bishop Michael W. Fisher restored the faculties of the Rev. Raymond A. Donohue, who was accused in a Child Victims Act lawsuit and a confidential bankruptcy claim. Donohue denied the allegation.
The diocese said the plaintiff's attorney refused to allow an investigator to interview his client.
Steve Boyd, the plaintiff's attorney, described the board as a “public relations wing of the diocese” that was created to “try and find ways to put priests back into ministry.”
“Right now, it is a secret committee that does secret work, and we find out their findings later, without knowing anything about what their process is.”
If law enforcement won’t investigate because criminal statutes of limitation have expired, dioceses might consider turning to an external review by independent experts who have no connection to the church, Hamilton said.
https://buffalonews.com/news/local/with-...32261.html
Cdn Inuit delegation heading to France to pressure French gov’t to extradite ex-priest
Next week, Steve Mapsalak will travel with a delegation of Inuit led by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) to try to get the French public to put pressure on their government to extradite a former French Oblate priest, Johannes Rivoire, who once lived and worked in northern Canada.
Mapsalak was taken from his parents when he was six years old and forced to attend the Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School in Chesterfield Inlet. He’d go home to Naujaat for three months of the year until he was age 13.
That’s where he alleges Rivoire sexually abused him.
In the 1990s, Mapsalak said he was approached numerous times and asked whether he wanted to press charges against Rivoire, but the flashbacks were too difficult.
He eventually agreed, and the first warrant for Rivoire’s arrest was issued in 1998, but Rivoire had fled to France in 1993.
Since there is no extradition treaty between Canada and France, Rivoire doesn’t legally have to return to Canada to face those charges.
https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/...ex-priest/
Pope Francis is lying about having ‘zero tolerance’ for sexual abuse
In a lengthy interview with CNN Portugal, Pope Francis insisted, falsely, that he had a “zero tolerance” policy when it came to the sexual abuse of children.
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview in Rome last month, the Pontiff said the church had “zero tolerance” for abuse and said that “a priest cannot remain a priest if he is an abuser.”
The church’s response to sex abuse scandals has become one of the defining themes of Francis’ time as Pope, and he told CNN Portugal that every case of abuse within the church “hurts” him.
His statements stand in stark contrast to his actions when faced with evidence of sexual abuse. CNN lists just a few of the times Pope Francis has downplayed allegations of child sexual abuse or taken the side of priests
Multiple reports detailing decades of sexual abuse, systemic failures and cover-ups across multiple countries have been released since Francis became the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in 2013. While he was criticized for some of his actions — such as when he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up a sex scandal in 2018, a decision he later described as a “grave error” — he has since taken a firm stance on the issues and introduced some reforms.
It’s not like the pope just made one error, though. In 2019, Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in prison for child sex abuse, or, as his lawyer callously called it, nothing more than a “plain vanilla sexual penetration case where the child is not actively participating.” In 2020, the conviction was controversially overturned when the High Court of Australia said the jury lacked enough doubt about the testimony against Pell.
What was Pope Francis’ reaction? He spoke out against “unjust sentences” and compared Pell’s situation to how Jesus was persecuted despite being innocent. The pope didn’t acknowledge almost certain guilt that was overturned on a technicality; he acted like Pell had done absolutely nothing wrong.
https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/pope-...ual-abuse/
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"
