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Pope Francis Calls for ‘All out Battle’ Against Sex Abuse but Completely Disappoints Victims

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Pope Francis spoke Sunday at the conclusion of a four-day Vatican summit addressing the sexual abuse of minors in light of recent scandals in the Church. The Church has been grappling with the Pennsylvania grand jury report which uncovered the abuse of thousands of minors by 300 priests in addition to revelations of abuse perpetrated by prominent Church leaders, such as former D.C. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

“I make a heartfelt appeal for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors both sexually and in other areas, on the part of all authorities and individuals,” the pope said, “for we are dealing with abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth: this is demanded by all the many victims hidden in families and in the various settings of our societies.” . . .

Summit moderator and former Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi later said that the Vatican will soon release a child protection policy and guidelines for preventing sexual abuse of minors for Vatican City State and a handbook for bishops to better comprehend their duties in these matters.

The address by Pope Francis met with criticism from some survivors and the media, given his unwillingness to address allegations of his own cover-up in the case of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

The summit follows the laicization, or dismissal from the priesthood, of McCarrick after a Church investigation deemed sexual assault allegations against him were credible. The allegations included that he abused a minor during the sacrament of confession and sexually abused seminarians. (Read more from “Pope Francis Calls for ‘All out Battle’ Against Sex Abuse but Completely Disappoints Victims” HERE)

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Pope Francis Makes Shocking Revelation About Another Scandal Same Week Research Reveals 80% of Priests are Gay

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By Townhall. It’s not just the sexual abuse of children, mostly boys, by Catholic priests that have rocked the church—earlier this week Pope Francis confirmed that the mistreatment of women has been a problem in some congregations around the world as well.

In a shocking revelation, the pope said nuns have and continue to be sexually abused by Catholic bishops and priests, going so far as to say some have been sexual slaves.

The scope of the abuse of nuns by clergy members first came to light with the publication at the beginning of February of the monthly Vatican magazine “Women Church World.” The edition included Francis’ own take on the scandal — long known about by the Vatican but virtually never discussed — in which he blamed the unchecked power wielded by priests and higher clergy across the Catholic Church for such crimes.

An Associated Press journalist who first reported on the scandal last year asked Pope Francis on his flight home from the Arabian Peninsula on Tuesday whether enough was being done by the Church hierarchy to address the problem.

The pontiff conceded that it was a problem and said more action was needed. He insisted the will to confront the abuse is there, and stressed that the problem is not new, and that the Church has been working to address it for some time. (CBS News)

(Read more from “Pope Francis Makes Shocking Revelation About Another Scandal” HERE)
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Explosive: Expose by French Researcher Claims 4 out of 5 Priests are Homosexual

By Connor Boyd. Eighty per cent of Vatican priests are gay and living in the closet, according to an explosive new book to be published next week.

The 570-page expose, titled In the Closet of the Vatican, claims that four in five clerics in the Roman Catholic Church are homosexuals – but aren’t necessarily sexually active.

French sociologist and journalist Frederic Martel, who spent four years conducting 1,500 interviews for the book, found that some priests maintained discreet long term relationships, while others lived double lives having casual sex with gay partners and using male prostitutes.

Martel, a former adviser to the French government who is openly gay, claims he spoke with 41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignors, 45 papal ambassadors or diplomatic officials, 11 Swiss guards and more than 200 priests and seminarians as research for the book. . .

Although the book doesn’t conflate homosexuality with the child sex abuse in the church, Martel claims gay priests do not want to report abuse on children in case their on homosexuality is exposed – according to sources familiar with the book’s contents. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Pope Francis Says Islam and Christianity Will Promote Common Values

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Upon returning from his historic Apostolic Journey to the Arabian Penninsula, specifically the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis said that the Islamic world and the Christian world will work together to promote “common values.”

Speaking before his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, Pope Francis discussed his meeting with the Great Imam of Al-Azhar and their signing of the document on the Human Brotherhood, which condemned all forms of religious violence, and the spreading of authentic values throughout the world.

“The Great Imam of Al-Azhar and I signed the document on the Human Brotherhood, in which together we affirm the common vocation of all men and women to be brothers in. As God’s sons and daughters, we condemn all forms of violence, especially those with religious motivation, and we commit ourselves to spreading authentic values and peace throughout the world,” Pope Francis said. “It gives so much pressure to move forward in the dialogue on human brotherhood.”

The Holy Father said the document was meant to give a “clear and decisive sign” that different religions can respect each other in dialogue. He also denounced the temptation to see a “clash between Christian and Islamic civilizations.”

“In an era like ours, in which the temptation to see a clash between Christian and Islamic civilizations is strong, and also to consider religions as sources of conflict, we wanted to give a further, clear and decisive sign that instead it is possible to meet, it is possible to respect and dialogue, and that, despite the diversity of cultures and traditions, the Christian and Islamic world appreciate and protect common values: life, family, religious sense, honor for the elderly, the education of young people, and others,” the Pope said. (Read more from “Pope Francis Says Islam and Christianity Will Promote Common Values” HERE)

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Pope Francis Knew About Argentina Bishop’s Sexual Misconduct Prior to Vatican Promotion

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Pope Francis promoted one of his protegés within the Vatican, Argentine bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, despite the Vatican having received evidence prior to the bishop’s promotion of sexual misconduct, which included accusations of “sexual harassment” of adult seminarians, taking “nude selfies,” and exhibiting “obscene” behavior.

The Rev. Juan José Manzano, the former general vicar of Zanchetta in Argentina, told these facts to Associated Press, which released its report today. He stated that already in 2015, and then in 2017, Pope Francis spoke with Zanchetta twice about his misconduct.

The news comes on the heels of the Vatican announcing earlier this month that Zanchetta was under investigation for sexual abuse and had been removed from his post. Vatican press speaker Alessandro Gissoti said at the time that “there had been no accusation of sexual abuse” against the bishop after he resigned from his diocese of Oran in 2017.

“No charges of sexual abuse had arisen at the time of appointment as advisor [to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, which oversees the various real estate and other properties of the papacy]. The accusations of sexual abuse date back to this fall,” he stated.

As the Miami Herald reports today, the Rev. Manzano – who is now a parish priest – said that he started to “raise alarm” already in 2015 about his superior who had even taken “nude selfies.” Manzano is one of three diocesan officials who at the time contacted the Vatican, first sending in some nude “selfies” of Zanchetta. In 2017, these officials made a second complaint to the Vatican “when the situation was much more serious,” not only because of the sexual abuses, but also because the “diocese was increasingly heading into the abyss.” (Read more from “Pope Francis Knew About Argentina Bishop’s Sexual Misconduct Prior to Vatican Promotion” HERE)

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Pope Accepts the Resignation of U.S. Cardinal but Downplays Sex Abuse Cover up Allegations Against Him

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Pope Francis accepted the resignation of embattled D.C. Cardinal Donald Wuerl Friday months after allegations of sexual abuse cover-up against him surfaced in a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report. The allegations date back to when he was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006. Wuerl was named 170 times in the report and many of the faithful in the Archdiocese of Washington have been clamoring for his resignation.

The pope downplayed the allegations against Wuerl in his letter. He praised the cardinal’s “nobility” and asked him to remain as an Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese until his successor is named.

“You have sufficient elements to ‘justify’ your actions and distinguish between what it means to cover up crimes or not to deal with problems, and to commit some mistakes,” the pope claimed. “However, your nobility has led you not to choose this way of defense. Of this, I am proud and thank you.”

The pope’s claim is odd given that Wuerl did vigorously defend himself in this manner, initially denying wrongdoing in his handling of the cases in an August letter to priests arguing that “a just assessment of my actions, past and present, and my continuing commitment to the protection of children will dispel any notions otherwise made by this report.” . . .

The Archdiocese of Washington also attempted to defend Cardinal Wuerl in this way by publishing a website called the Wuerl Record which praised him for his overall record on dealing with abusive priests. The archdiocese also attempted to explain away specific examples of Wuerl reassigning abusive priests. However, the website was taken down after wide criticism and the archdiocese admitted that it had been a “mistake.” (Read more from “Pope Accepts the Resignation of U.S. Cardinal but Downplays Sex Abuse Cover up Allegations Against Him” HERE)

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As Catholic Scandal Unfolds, Pope Francis Looks Increasingly Blameworthy

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The recent publication of a devastating report on Pope Francis in the German news magazine Der Spiegel marks a new phase in the continuing crisis in the Catholic Church. The report (as yet unavailable in English) is entitled: “Thou shalt not lie: The silence of the shepherds.”

Contradicting the widespread image of Pope Francis as a “reformer” concerned to expose clerical sexual abuses within his church and punish the offenders, the report reveals a pope who for years has been indifferent to the complaints of abuse survivors, and has surrounded himself with an inner circle of close advisors, several of whom have been accused of cover-ups. . .

The report is the carefully documented result of hard journalistic work, some of it in Argentina, where Francis, then Jorge Bergoglio, had been cardinal archbishop before his elevation to the papacy in 2013. It also gives voice to ordinary lay Catholics whose complaints about clerical sex abuse Francis has studiously rejected or ignored. These charges do not come from Vatican insiders who want a grudge match with Francis over doctrinal differences.

For example: An Argentine woman, Julieta Añazco, says that a priest sexually abused her when she was six years old. She and 13 other survivors wrote to the pope shortly after his election. They have had no reply. A defender of Argentine abuse survivors, Juan Pablo Gallego, says that in Argentina, Francis is suspected of having protected rapists and child abusers “for years.” This witness points to a certain Fr. Grassi, now in prison for raping teenage boys. Francis ordered a legal report to defend Grassi. . .

Der Spiegel is a major European news outlet with a left-leaning bias. No one could seriously suspect it of wanting to do a hatchet job on Francis because of ideological differences. In fact, early in Francis’ Papacy, Der Spiegel published an adulatory article on him, describing him as a pope who would “clean up the Catholic Church and improve its image.” (Read more from “As Catholic Scandal Unfolds, Pope Francis Looks Increasingly Blameworthy” HERE)

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Pope Shocks With Homily, Attacks ‘Great Accuser’ Satan for Exposing Bishops’ Sins in Church Scandal

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In a strange and almost tone-deaf homily delivered Tuesday morning, Pope Francis implored the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to pray and resist the “Great Accuser,” Satan, who seeks to expose sin in order to divide the faithful.

“In these times, it seems like the ‘Great Accuser’ has been unchained and is attacking bishops. True, we are all sinners, we bishops. He tries to uncover the sins, so they are visible in order to scandalize the people. The ‘Great Accuser,’ as he himself says to God in the first chapter of the Book of Job, ‘roams the earth looking for someone to accuse,’” Pope Francis said, according to an official report in Vatican news. . .

The “Great Accuser” is a reference to Satan first seen in the book of Job, in the Old Testament. Satan is there attempting to sow division by making false accusations of sin. Many faithful Catholics took the Pope’s word, however, as an attack on lay people seeking transparency from the Vatican, which is accused of covering for Bishops, Cardinals, and other clerics accused of sexual abuse over the course of at least four decades.

Concluding, it appears the Pope suggested Bishops consider the real victims of the sexual abuse scandals currently roiling the Church: the Bishops. The Devil, he said, “roams the world seeking how to blame. The strength of the bishop against the great accuser is prayer — his own and Jesus’, the humility to feel chosen and staying close to the people of God without heading toward an aristocratic life.”

There are, no doubt, concerns that some accusations being leveled at the Vatican hierarchy — particularly some of those contained in a letter from Archibishop Maria Vigano, which often veers into the ad hominem — are unfair. But ultimately, so much evidence exists that the Vatican, and particularly Bishops and clerics in the United States, silenced victims of sexual abuse for decades and protected and even hid their abusers, that a full and fair investigation is warranted in the name of justice. (Read more from “Pope Shocks With Homily, Attacks ‘Great Accuser’ Satan for Exposing Bishops’ Sins in Church Scandal” HERE)

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The Vatican Is Using Bill Clinton’s Playbook to Defend Pope Francis

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. . .The most ham-fisted gambits to date have come from Cardinal Blase Cupich, a Francis appointee. The cardinal told NBC’s affiliate in Chicago:

The Pope has a bigger agenda. He’s got to get on with other things, of talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.

The cardinal apparently did not realize that this sort of response was much funnier in the hands of the satirical Babylon Bee than a high-ranking church prelate.

It once was effective in the roaming hands of candidate and President Clinton. When confronted with his various immoralities, the Clintonian approach typically mixed denial, attacks on the accuser (usually accusations of political motive), and the complimentary assertion that the attacks were a distraction from getting on with his work for the American people.

Cupich seemingly absorbed an additional Clintonesque lesson, insofar as he added of Francis’ critics: “Quite frankly, they also don’t like him because he’s Latino.” As it happens, the Pope’s parents were of Italian descent and lived in Argentina. But close counts. In the depths of Lewinskygate, Toni Morrison defended Clinton as “our first black president.” (Read more from “The Vatican Is Using Bill Clinton’s Playbook to Defend Pope Francis” HERE)

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The Story Behind Archbishop Vigano’s Polemic Against Pope Francis Just Got More Complicated

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By The Week. A letter from Archbishop Carlo Mari Vigano accusing Pope Francis of covering up disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s alleged sexual misconduct with men training to be priests was released Sunday morning, on the final day of the pope’s visit to Ireland. That was on purpose, Italian journalist and conservative blogger Marco Tosatti tells The Associated Press, saying he persuaded Vigano to go public with his allegations, helped write and edit his 11-page letter, and found conservative Catholic outlets that would publish it on Sunday morning.

Vigano claims that Pope Benedict XVI quietly ordered McCarrick to a life of secluded prayer and penance but that when Benedict stepped down, Francis rehabilitated the cardinal and lifted the sanctions until news of McCarrick’s alleged sexual misconduct became public. “Vigano called for Francis to resign over what he said was complicity in covering up McCarrick’s crimes,” AP says. “There is ample evidence, however, that the Vatican under Benedict and St. John Paul II also covered up that information, and that any sanctions Benedict imposed were never enforced.” (Read more from “The Story Behind Archbishop Vigano’s Polemic Against Pope Francis Just Got More Complicated” HERE)

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The Sneering Contempt of Pope Francis

By The Week. . .It is almost impossible to the overstate the significance of this letter. If Viganò is lying, he is guilty of one of the greatest slanders in the history of the Church. If he is telling the truth, the Eternal City is mired in filth unseen since the days of the Borgias, and Francis is among the worst wretches who has ever besmirched the Chair of Peter.

Asked on Sunday whether the accusations were true or false, Francis demurred. “I will not say a single word about this.” He then smugly invited the journalists who were present on the papal airplane to investigate the facts for themselves, as if he were a philosophy professor teaching a seminar to a roomful of eager graduate students instead of the Vicar of Christ. This is the same man who, despite endless PR about his commitment to victims, his hatred of clericalism, and his belief in treating gay and lesbian people with dignity, only a few months ago dismissed complaints made about his handling of sexual abuse allegations in Chile as the worthless gossip of “left-wingers,” a word that, according to Viganò, is synonymous in the pope’s vocabulary with gay people. It is not surprising that even churchmen named alongside Francis in the dossier have responded with what amount to non-denials that make no attempt to defend Francis. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., has said Viganò has provided no “objectively verifiable proof” of his claims.

Whatever the truth of Viganò’s numerous accusations — and the detailed chronology and references to documents in his letter mean that sooner or later it will be possible to prove or disprove them definitively — there are other truths that require facing now. This is true especially for those of us who have defended the Holy Father against slander and caricature in the past. Francis has revealed himself as an old-fashioned clericalist who views the faithful with contempt. It is not my place as a layman to tell the Holy Father his business, but I can make no secret of the fact that I long for an end to his gaslighting pontificate. (Read more from “The Sneering Contempt of Pope Francis” HERE)

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Head of U.S. Bishops Conference Issues Shocking Statement on Pope Francis; Pope Refuses to Directly Answer Allegation Question

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By Daily Wire. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), will not defend Pope Francis following Archbishop Viganò’s explosive claim that the Roman Pontiff participated in the covering up of disgraced D.C. Cardinal McCarrick’s crimes of sexual abuse against seminarians.

Responding to Viganò’s 11-page letter alleging that Pope Francis lifted sanctions that had been imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict, DiNardo did not take the Catholic left’s line of characterizing the Archbishop as a right-wing conspiracy theorist; instead, the prelate openly called for an investigation to uncover the truth.

“The questions raised deserve answers that are conclusive and based on evidence,” DiNardo said in a Monday statement, according to Crux Now. “Without those answers, innocent men may be tainted by false accusation and the guilty may be left to repeat sins of the past.” . . .

“I am eager for an audience with the Holy Father to earn his support for our plan of action,” said DiNardo earlier this month. “That plan includes more detailed proposals to: Seek out these answers, make reporting of abuse and misconduct by bishops easier, and improve procedures for resolving complaints against bishops.” (Read more from “Head of U.S. Bishops Conference Issues Shocking Statement on Pope Francis” HERE)

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This Abuse Scandal Leads All the Way to the Vatican

By NY Post. An ecclesial straight shooter. A reliable character. A serious man. That’s how sources familiar with Carlo Maria Viganò describe the Italian archbishop, who served as the Vatican ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2016. His reputation makes the publication Saturday of Viganò’s written “testimony” about the Theodore McCarrick affair all the more inconvenient for those in the Catholic hierarchy who tried to bury the truth about the disgraced American prelate.

The core claim in the 11-page document is that a high-powered circle of silence for years abetted McCarrick’s career, despite his well-known penchant for sexual abuse. The circle of silence, Viganò says, included the current successor of Saint Peter. In a cryptic statement to reporters on Sunday, Pope Francis refused to confirm or deny the allegations, instead urging them to “read the document carefully and judge it for yourselves.”

The Viganò testimony bears the mark of a man seething with anger and perhaps facing the mystery of death. “It is in moments of great trial that the Lord’s grace is revealed in abundance and makes His limitless mercy available to all,” the 77-year-old churchman writes near the end. “But it is granted only to those who are truly repentant.”

Either Pope Benedict XVI imposed private sanctions against McCarrick in 2009-10, barring him from celebrating public Masses and cavorting with seminarians, or he didn’t. Either McCarrick’s successor as cardinal-archbishop of Washington, Donald Wuerl, was aware of the sanctions, or he wasn’t. (Read more from “This Abuse Scandal Leads All the Way to the Vatican” HERE)

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