Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, shown in this Dec. 2, 2000
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, Florence 1342, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentation_of_Jesus_at_the_TempleUpdated February 2, 2012
Today is the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem or Temple of Solomon. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple is the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary. Pope John Paul II connected the feast day with the renewal of religious vows. All those renewal of religious vows made by his JP2 Army and all his squad of Rosary fanatics who pray the rosary everyday - could not defeat the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army named aptly after his longest reigning papacy where he said and did nothing to stop pedophile priests, read more here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/10/rosary-could-not-defeat-jp2-army-john_06.html . Not once did John Paul II care to meet with one of the victims of the 80 pedophile priests whom Cardinal Bernard Law aided and abetted. John Paul II was too concern with religious vows and appointing red robe wearing Cardinals and Bishops and conducting religious ceremonies like the Pharisees and the Presentation of wealthy investors at the Vatican Bank. And with his narcissism to die as John Paul II the Great his death was possibly orchestrated – as euthanasia – to coincide with Divine Mercy Sunday, his favorite devotion, in 2007 we wrote this article about John Paul II’s convenient euthanasia, http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/09/john-paul-ii-euthanasia-his-last-papal.html
Why mention this euthanasia now? Because of one Cardinal's questionable death, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who suddenly died a few days after Philadelphia Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ruled that the frail and ailing cleric was "competent" to appear and testify at the upcoming clergy abuse trials in March. Bevilacqua died in his sleep Tuesday night at his church residence near Philadelphia. That same day, his longtime secretary for clergy, Monsignor William Lynn, appeared in court for a pretrial hearing in his unprecedented criminal case.
Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua was like Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston who did exactly what the grand jury of Philadelphia overview of the cover-up concluded with this contemptuous assessment on his Cardinal pal - which all Cardinals have done really, Roger Mahony, et al:
"The abuses that Cardinal Bevilacqua and his aides allowed children to suffer - the molestations, the rapes, the lifelong shame and despair - did not result from failures or lapses, except of the moral variety. They were made possible by purposeful decisions, carefully implemented policies, and calculated indifference."
David Clohessy, the national president of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), suggested that the former archbishop of Philadelphia was faking his illnesses...and he had good reasons to do so... and now the Opus Dei media is attacking him. Thank goodness for a mother's defesne on him, read news updates below Bevilacqua: Not a predator, but worse and other related articles
Philadelphia priests raped boys in church sacristies, stripped them nude and whipped them as part of a Passion Play, got them drunk and showed them pornography -- and remained on the job, the 2005 grand jury report said (Boston Globe).
And Cardinal Bernard Law remained in the job as Cardinal, thanks to the papal farts of John Paul II at us Bostonians after we forced Law to resign as Archbishop of Boston.
And Cardinal Bevilacqua also remained on the job. The prvilege of the Vatican as a "country" should be revoked as soon as possible because when the Vatican ceases to be a country, then all its archives would belong to the state of Italy and all their secret crimes against humanity will be revealed to the public and to the world. And most of all all those secret names of thousands of pedophile priests worldwide of the JP2 Army also known as B16 Army will also be made public.
In a few days, this February 18 at a colourful ceremony in Rome, Benedict XVI will elevate formally 22 new Cardinals who will do the same, feed the narcissistic beast of the Vatican and continue to rule with "carefully implemented policies, and calculated indifference" to the suffering of children. The hundreds of thousands of victims of the JP2 Army and their sufferings are crying out to Heaven worse than the Blood of Abel.
The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, between 1886(1886) and 1894(1894)
When Jesus became an adult, Jesus cursed that same temple and predicted that not one among its pillars will be left standing. And it all came true. Jesus did not care about the wealth of Solomon and all the sapphires and diamonds that graced its walls. King Solomon was a polygamist who had 300 wives and that makes him worse than Warren Steed Jeffs, the polygamist leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that has 10,000 followers, has 79 wives and nearly 60 children. And yet Benedict XVI with his Immoral Bible revere King Solomon as as the supposedly “wisest king”, read more here http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/12/benedict-xvi-and-bible.html.
That is why the Vatican will never reveal the Third Secret of Fatima because Our Lady of Fatima prophecied the total demise of the Vatican and that not one among its pillars will be left standing like the Temple of Jerusalem, read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/escriva-stage-managed-impostor-sr-lucia.html
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Updated January 18, 2012
See the natural Evil Eyes of Benedict XVI http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/06/fr-murphy-in-evil-eyes-of-benedict-xvi.html
Updated January 18, 2012
22 new Catholic “Princes” wearing red robe and red hat to disguise ugly old men and the whole world should forget the fact that white robed ugly old Benedict XVI committed heinous crimes against humanity? Who are the Vatican Pied Pipers kidding this time? All those Catholic hype are illusions of the faded glory of Rome that glorifies criminals like Cardinal Bernard Law, read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2012/01/boston-10th-anniversary-and-bernie-law.html. Italy is in the brink of a financial collapse like Greece except for its smallest and wealthiest country, the Vatican, because of the Vatican Billions read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/08/opus-dei-control-vatican-bank-and.html and here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/03/vatican-billions-holy-mass-tourism-for.html We pray The Hague calls Benedict XVI soon to trial (before he falls ill or dies) so that the Vatican can show its dream team of international lawyers - more Pied Pipers and more deceptions - read the lawsuits here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-of-criminal-charges-against.html and Hague Is Asked to Investigate Vatican Over Child Abuse http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/09/hague-is-asked-to-investigate-vatican.html According to Amnesty International, the Vatican is guilty of violation of human rights read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/09/amnesty-international-report-vatican.html
So who cares about new 22 new Cardinals Benedict XVI recently appointed and Pellini the new head of the Vatican Press and the Holy See’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano? The wealthy God-flesh eating Catholics do care, and therefore, they blindly support the Vatican no matter what evils Cardinal Ratzinger and John Paul II have done together for over 26 years. Hence Catholics are complicit with Benedict XVI and all his crimes against humanity, read OC Diocese buys Crystal Cathedral as flesh-factory of Christ... for wealthy God-flesh-eating Catholics http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/oc-diocese-buys-crystal-cathedral-as.html .
So the Vatican will play Godlywood and produce Zeffirelli–directed Vatican own movies to fool people who blindly buy into movie celebrities and theatrical hypes and create Cardinals as monarchs - read our related articles Benedict XVI image GAY Zeffirelli http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/12/benedict-xvi-image-consultant.html John Allen promotes monarchy of Catholicism. As Vatican Pied Piper he announces ‘Meet the new Crown Prince of Catholicism’ http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/07/john-allen-promotes-monarchy-of.html
Catholics are like the Israelites in the desert who decided to put together all their gold and jewelleries to build a Golden Cow to which they would sing and worship for their salvation instead of believing in the God who led them out of Egypt. Today Catholics also give all their wealth and sing and worship their Opus Dei Golden Cows, the Mythology of ‘Saint’ John Paul II and Benedict XVI and Bishop Finn instead of giving their money to Doctors without Borders or Red Cross who are immediately in sites of human disasters regardless of those people’s creed or race. Benedict XVI and those red robed Cardinals instead are living in the lap of luxury in their gilded palaces that rivals the royals of Europe and never dirty their hands to help those in need. Read Did Christ wear red slippers? read Benedict XVI and Jon Sobrino http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/08/benedict-xvi-vicar-of-christ-and-jon.html
These are the reasons why John Paul II is the fastest saint in history. John L.Allen Jr.Pied Piper of John Paul II deceives Catholics with his essay Fast-Track Saint in Newsweek -- with Vatican lunacy & Satanic timeline http://jp2army.blogspot.com/. Catholics are complicit to the crimes of Benedict XVI as they keep on buying into the Vatican’s strategy of deceptions and Vatican cinema theatrics by the Vatican Media Empire of Pied Pipers who will entice Catholics to go to Rome and attend the investitures of these 22 new Cardinals who will perpetuate the crimes against humanity of Benedict XVI.
The Vatican is an ivory tower that is out-of-touch with reality and it is the Catholics who keep supporting this tower of Babylon. The 1.2 Catholics around the world are complicit to all Vatican evils. http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html
Again, no new voting Jesuit Cardinal
Read Fr. James Martin's article below about the old non-voting Jesuit appointed among the new 22 new Cardinals by Benedict XVI -- and his fake enthusiasm. The fact is there will never be any new voting Jesuit Cardinal again because the last one was a contender against Cardinal Ratzinger in 2005, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 68, Argentina. The last Cardinals appointed by John Paul II were also professor emeritus, Cardinal Dulles among them. The Opus Dei want to carry out the WORLD DOMINATION Agenda of their false saint Golden Cow Josemaria Escriva who want to obliterate the Jesuits because the Jesuits will never follow their Pharisee Opus Dei routine of praying the Rosary everyday, the Angelus 3 times a day and saying Mass in Latin. After all the Jesuits translated the Latin catechism into the vernacular.
Escriva always said: "I would prefer a million times, that a daughter of mine die without the Last Sacraments, than that they be administered to her by a Jesuit". Therefore Pope Benedict XVI never concelebrate the Eucharist with the Jesuits even during their General Congregation when the top Jesuits from around the world were in Rome for one month to elect their new General, and the Gesu, the Jesuit Church was only a stone throw away from the Vatican, read more here Benedict XVI sits on hot charcoals waiting for Jesuits in Rome http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2008/01/benedict-xvi-sits-on-hot-charcoals.html. Benedict XVI 'the Silenced Pope' taste his own medicine http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2008/01/benedict-xvi-silenced-pope-taste-his.html
And Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Pope's current press secretary is only a dog and puppet obeying and delivering - what the GAY Opus Dei personal secretary of Benedict XVI is giving him each morning, read more here Benedict XVI and Georg his GAY Private Secretary are GAYS.!. http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/06/benedict-xvis-handsome-private.html and Proof of Benedict XVI is GAY http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2008/08/proof-of-benedict-xvi-is-gay.html
Jesuits are bad examples as Pope Loyalists; Fr. Federico Lombardi is puppet Public Secretary http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/03/jesuits-are-bad-examples-as-pope.html
Read our latest article: Pope rides ‘high horse’ with Christmas ‘glitter’ as he preaches Urbi et Orbi Pied Piper messages http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/12/pope-rides-high-horse-with-christmas.html
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Updated January 13, 2012
Benedict appoints 22 new Cardinal thieves and oppressors and rapists of of women and children...GAY men dressed in red robes and red hats
So Benedict XVI in his almighty powers as Pope has appointed 22 new Cardinals who will have diplomatic immunity and will be the perfect conduit of despots' ill-gotten wealth therefore perpetuating the poverty of nations and the rape of women and children, read our related article: Mother Church and the rape of her children. Clerical culture is psycopathogenic. http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/mother-church-and-rape-of-her-children.html
Cardinals are created to ensure the theocracy of the Vatican and the all-male domination of the Catholic Church: "All ecclesial power and authority is grounded and mediated exclusively by men—pope, cardinals, bishops and priests. They are automatically granted status and respect, even if not assent, in secular society." Even the 3 Persons of the Divine Trinity are all-male, read more here The GAY Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three He’s, three homosexuals ! ! ! http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/12/gay-trinity-of-father-son-and-holy.html
The main task of Cardinals are to preserve the Vatican Billions and to entice as many more investors into the secret Vatican Swiss Banks. The purpose of red dressed GAY homosexual men is to hoard Mammon and serve Mammon by using God's name in vain. Cardinal Sodano helped the serial pedophile priest Fr. Marcial Maciel transfer 35 billion dollars into a Vatican Swiss Bank http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/fr-marcial-maciels-swiss-bank-accounts.html
Excerpt from Mother Church and the rape of her children. Clerical culture is psycopathogenic. The clergy sexual abuse crisis has underscored the American bishops’ maneuvers, fair or foul, to avoid scandal, maintain secrecy, and preserve financial assets.
Clerical Culture: Roman Catholic clergy live, breath and have their being in a culture that is distinct from secular social groups. Priests and bishops seem like ordinary men, but they operate in a unique reality. Roman Catholic clerical culture is male-dependent and male-dominated. It is a homosocial society in doctrine and operation. There is no other culture that equals it in this regard. Its theological structure is exclusively male: God the father, son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit are male realities.[13] All ecclesial power and authority is grounded and mediated exclusively by men—pope, cardinals, bishops and priests. They are automatically granted status and respect, even if not assent, in secular society. Despite the fact that nuns (and women) have formed the shock troops and standard bearers of the church their role as “authorities” is strictly limited. Priesthood is denied women.
Clerical culture is psycopathogenic. That means that the elements that constitute the operation of the celibate culture favor, select, produce, and promote men who tend to be what were formerly termed sociopaths. Nothing has exposed this core of the culture more clearly than the abuse of minors and the involvement of the most exalted members of the hierarchy who cover up for crimes.
Read the full article here http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/mother-church-and-rape-of-her-children.html
Ireland appoints new ambassador to the Holy See...to do what exactly...with a few hundred GAY homosexual residents of the smallest country, Vatican?
http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/12/ireland-appoints-new-ambassador-to-holy.html
Ireland leads nations to close Vatican Embassy…beginning the end of the Holy See! Vatican Bank cannot buy souls of SECULAR government officials http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/ireland-leads-nations-to-close-vatican.html
Benedict XVI Master Manipulator of the Media…the Pied Piper of Children deceiving them away from truth of his Crimes Against Humanity at The Hague http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/benedict-xvi-master-manipulator-of.html
Boston hosted former Swiss Guard’s seminar -based on the new “Vatican Trinity”.. Swiss Guards are the financial Navy Seals of the Vatican Bank http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/10/boston-to-host-former-swiss-guards.html
Nazi Gold and the Vatican. How Rome saved Fascists. Vatican Bank claims. Nazi Connection To Franciscan Order Uncovered Near Medjugorje http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/09/nazi-gold-and-vatican-how-rome-saved.html
Opus Dei + Walesa = 'Catholic Communism' in Poland. Behind The Media Hype of Walesa and Pope John Paul II http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/11/opus-dei-walesa-catholic-communism-in.html
Bishop Finn is the live Achilles Heel of Benedict XVI…while Cardinal Bernard Law is the live Achilles Heel of John Paul II http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/10/bishop-finn-is-live-achilles-heel-of.html
Benedict XVI's endless pathological lies: John Paul II sainthood and "Child abuse won't happen again"...but he could not buy Fr. Maciel's victims http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/01/benedict-xvis-endless-pathological-lies.html
Benedict XVI appoints 24 Cardinals who will perpetuate Injustice in the Sacrament of Penance October 25, 2010 http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/10/benedict-xvi-is-most-revered-criminal.html
“Sins and crimes are not synonymous. Sinners and criminals are not one and the same" http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/05/sins-and-crimes-are-not-synonymous.html
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Should People and Governments Shun the Totalitarian Catholic Church?
UNITED STATES
AlterNet
January 5, 2012
David Morris
When a totalitarian regime aids and abets the rape of tens of thousands of children one would expect it to be shunned by governments and citizens alike. And any statements it might issue on matters of morality accorded no respect.
Why should we make an exception when the regime is the Catholic Church?
That the Roman Catholic Church is totalitarian is undeniable. Church law itself makes this clear. Canon 331 declares the Pope “the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.”
Canon 333 emphasizes the remarkable power this institution endows in one man, “No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff.”
And whenever the Pope chooses he can issue decrees related to faith and morals that not only have the power of law but must be considered irrefutable, at least since 1870 when the Church declared the Pope “possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer wished His Church to be endowed.”
The entire hierarchy of the Catholic Church is at the mercy of the Pope. He appoints bishops and can impose his directives on the lowliest priests and nun.
I hasten to note that the Church was not always totalitarian. The first Christian communities were remarkably democratic. For at least the first 100 years after Jesus Christ was killed, during the time Matthew and Luke and John and Mark wrote the Gospels, women (yes, women) as well as men directly elected church leaders. But that was before a new religion metastasized into the world’s most powerful, centralized and enduring institution.
That the Catholic Church is guilty of widespread rape is also undeniable. A few years ago there was a spate of news items when sexual abuse cases first surfaced in Boston and a few other cities. Media coverage since then has withered but the issue has not. Just the opposite. In 2011 allegations of sexual abuse of minors have spread to 26 countries. In just one case in the United States the Churchagreed to pay $250 million in compensation to about 700 abused males and females. The Netherlands has documented almost 2000 cases.
Following the publication in July of the fourth report since 2005 documenting sexual abuses by Catholic clergy in Ireland, its Minister for Children and Youth Affairs observed that the abuses described “would be horrifying if it were done to prisoners of war, never mind little boys and girls.” The Irish Prime Minister and parliament publicly denounced the Vatican for its culpability.
The human toll of decades of exploitation and predation can get lost in the fog of statistics but comes through clearly in individual stories. Like that of Katherine Mendez who related her horrifying account to Kimberly A.C. Wilson of the Oregonian last March. Katherine was “11 years old when she was raped at St. Mary’s Mission School in Omak, Washington moments after she scuffled with another student and was brought into the office of Father John J. Morse. The sexual abuse continued from the sixth grade into eighth grade she said. And even after Mendez left the school and moved in with a foster family in Selah, 200 milers away, the priest tracked her down to continue the abused. “Every day, every single day, it was a nightmare”, says Mendez. “I was always looking over my shoulder.”
In November the overwhelmingly Catholic country of Ireland took the extreme step of shutting its embassy in the Vatican. (The Vatican has been a state since 1929, when it was granted that status by Benito Mussolini in return for its support for his dictatorship. Comprising 110 acres, an area smaller than Washington’s National Mall, and 800 people Vatican City is by far the smallest nation in the world.)
Some might say that an institution, even a totalitarian institution, cannot be blamed for the actions of a small fraction of its members. But when stories of sexual abuse were first raised the Catholic Church ignored them. Later it often reassigned the rapacious priest to another parish where he might prey on other minors. The 2011 Irish report concluded the Church had informed its Bishops that reporting sexual abuses to the police violated Church law.
On September 13 the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) took the next step by asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague to investigate and prosecute high level Vatican officials, including the Pope, for widespread and systematic rape and sexual violence against children and vulnerable adults by Catholic clergy.
The CCR accompanied its complaint with 22,000 pages of documentation. Pam Spees, staff attorney for CCR noted, “The magnitude, scope, and depth of harm are nearly unfathomable, especially when one considers that what we know at this point, shocking as it is, is likely the tip of the iceberg.”
Most of us view the ICC, established in 2002, as a prosecutor only of war crimes. But its mandate is broader–to prosecute crimes against humanity. And the ICC explicitly considers rape and sexual violence as crimes against humanity.
This election year the Roman Catholic Church will regularly pontificate on policy matters. And the media will report its views and actions as if they came endowed with a certain moral authority despite the fact that the Church itself has been found guilty of the most heinously immoral actions.
Instructively, virtually all of the Church’s most aggressive policy interventions relate to sex. (e.g. contraception, abortion, gay rights).
Indeed, the Catholic Church acts of if it believes that sex matters above anything else. It will not go to the mat to fight against poverty or injustice but it will pull out all the stops to prevent people of the same sex from marrying.
After Illinois legalized civil unions the Roman Catholic Bishops shuttered most of the state funded Catholic Charities rather than allow gay couples to avail themselves of its adoption services. This also occurred in Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts.
Better not to enable any adoptions, the Catholic Church insists, than allow the possibility of an adoption by a gay couple.
The most recent target of the Catholic Church is the provision of the health reform bill requiring employer health insurance plans cover contraception services without a co-pay. A few days before Christmas the United Conference of Catholic Bishops took out full page adsin The New York Times and The Washington Post urging Congress and the administration to change the mandate.
As Sarah Posner writes, “…this campaign will not essentially consist of clerics issuing recommendations. Staffed with ten of the Bishops’ brethren, the Ad Hoc Committee (on Religious Liberty) will be assisted by the USCCB’s (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) former top lawyer and now Associate General Secretary, Anthony Picarello, who served on Obama’s first Advisory Council to his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. A staff lawyer and a lobbyist have also been hired and assigned to the effort.”
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution last October, Bishop William E. Lori, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee, described LGBT equality and access to reproductive care as a disease that must be treated immediately, “lest the disease spread so quickly that the patient is overcome before the ultimate cure can be formulated and delivered.”
Which leads to the question, if the Catholic Church loses its battle to amend the health reform law will it close its hospitals as it shut down its Catholic Charity offices rather than pay for contraceptives? Stay tuned.
In late September HHS rejected an application by the Catholic Church for funding to continue to counsel sex trafficking victims because the Church refused to provide a full range of obstetric and gynecological care, including abortion and contraceptives.
Under prodding from the Church, the Republican House is investigating. Is it just me, or doesn’t it seem the height of effrontery for the Catholic Church, an institution found guilty of raping thousands of girls and boys to insist that it be allowed to withhold services to rape victims out of some sense of moral outrage?
David Morris is co-founder and vice president of the Institute for Local Self Reliance in Minneapolis, Minn., and director of its New Rules project.
http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/153674/should_people_and_governments_shun_the_totalitarian_catholic_church/?page=entire
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Twenty-two new cardinals named by Pope Benedict XVI
VATICAN CITY
Monsters and Critics
Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday named 22 new cardinals, with their official installation ceremony set for February 18.
They include prelates from New York, Berlin, Toronto, Prague and Kerala, India. Eighteen of the new cardinals are under the age of 80, which makes them eligible, for now, to take part in a conclave to elect a successor to the current pontiff. That right expires after their 80th birthday.
The Vatican website says Benedict XVI has appointed 84 cardinals since his election in 2005.
Nazi Gold and the Vatican. How Rome saved Fascists. Vatican Bank claims. Nazi Connection To Franciscan Order Uncovered Near Medjugorje http://popecrimes.blogspot.com/2011/09/nazi-gold-and-vatican-how-rome-saved.html
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German Jesuit priest named Cardinal
Friday, January 06, 2012 09:22:32 AM
Author: James Martin, S.J.
Included among the names of cardinal-designates this morning in the Vatican's press release are some expected names, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. But there is a surprise: Fr. Karl Joseph Becker, SJ. Fr. Becker is a German Jesuit priest and professor emeritus of dogmatic theology of the Jesuits' Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Normally the pope names (or, technically, "creates") cardinals from the ranks of bishops and archbishops (as with Archbishop Dolan) and these men are often heads of the larger archdioceses. But occasionally the pope names a priest, to honor the man for his life's work. (Normally they are over 80, not named a bishop so as to spare them from the sacramental duties of a bishop, and are ineligible to vote in a papal conclave.) Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, the American Jesuit theologian, was a recent example. (An interview with Cardinal Dulles a few months before the consistory, including his thoughts on becoming a cardinal, is here.)
A note about accepting ecclesiastical honors in the Society of Jesus. At the close of their formation, a Jesuit will make his "Final Vows." (This comes after their "First Vows" made at the end of their novitiate.) Many Jesuits will profess four vows: poverty, chastity and obedience and a special vow of obedience to the pope "with regard to missions." Some will profess the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. We also make five separate "promises": First, we promise never to change anything in the Jesuit Constitutions about poverty--unless to make it "more strict." Second, we promise never to "strive or ambition" for any dignity in the church, like becoming a bishop. Third, never to "strive or ambition" for any high office in the Jesuits. Fourth, if we find out that someone is striving for these things, we are to "communicate his name" to the Society. (All these were signs of Ignatius wanting to root out among his Jesuits the desire for ecclesial honors, which was rampant in Igantius's time.) Finally, we make a promise that, if we are somehow made bishop, we will still listen to the superior general.
But there have been, over the years, several instances of Jesuits being named cardinals, most often for their work in theology. Indeed one of the great Jesuit saints is Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, SJ. So while we are counseled to avoid "ecclesiastical honors" this particular honor is almost always accepted for two reasons: first, it comes directly from the Holy Father; and second, it is an honor not simply for the man but a mark of a pontiff's gratitude for the Society of Jesus.
Congratulations to Cardinal-designate Becker, and also to my Ordinary, Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, who will certainly be a joyful addition to the College of Cardinals!
James Martin, SJ
http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=4846
Comments
1. I appreciate your opnniion, but do not share your enthusiasm for this consistory. The complexion- in all senses of the word - is disappointing given the state of the Church.
Posted By Dave Pasinski | Friday, January 06, 2012 10:27:42 AM
2. You failed to mention that Fr. Becker was the one who investigated his fellow Jesuit Jacques Dupuis. Kind of puts the appointment in a different light.
7. I totally agree with Commentator #1. Your joyful announcement makes me feel somewhat uneasy, Fr. Martin. I look to the Jesuits as intellectuals who do not suffer fools gladly.
Posted by Eileen Quin Gould
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Pellini at the helm of the Vatican Press and L’Osservatore Romano newspaper
VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The Vatican Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, has appointed the Salesian Sergio Pellini as head of the Vatican Press and the Holy See’s newspaper L’Osservatore
The glorious Vatican Polyglot Press has a new head and L’Osservatore Romano has a new director general. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has appointed Salesian Father Sergio Pellini as new director general of the “Vatican Press Office and L’Osservatore Romano Newspaper”.
The two bodies which were merged into one some time ago, were directed by another Salesian cleric, Fr. Pietro Migliasso. According to the recent history of this Holy See institution, in 1909, the Vatican Printing Office and the Polyglot Press were merged to form the Vatican Polyglot Press, which changed names again in 1991, in conjunction with a general restructuring of the company started by John Paul II.
NEW DIRECTOR OF THE VATICAN PRESS VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service VATICAN CITY, 17 JAN 2012 (VIS) - Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. has appointed Fr. Sergio Pellini S.D.B. as director general of the Vatican Press
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Vatican used Wikipedia for new cardinals' biographies
BBC News
The Vatican has acknowledged that it used Wikipedia to produce biographies of 22 new cardinals that were sent out to journalists. The biographies were copied from the Italian version of the user-edited online encyclopedia, word for word in some cases, and without attribution. One clue was that many new cardinals were described as being "Catholic".
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Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge
For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.
Wikipedia is offline today Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) proposed by the U.S. Senate have the potential to severely cripple the free and open Internet. Democratic Underground is proud to join the many websites taking part in today's action to protest these bills by blacking out our site between the hours of 3am EST and 9pm EST.
To learn more about these devastating bills, and for information on how you can help to stop SOPA and PIPA, please visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Action Center.
STOP THE INTERNET BLACKLIST LEGISLATION
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
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The Opus Dei wants to suppress Wikipedia and has persuaded The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) proposed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) proposed by the U.S. Senate
The Opus Dei is the worst enemy of free speech and free knowledge.
Read our articles on Opus Dei in all our blogs .
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New update for February 2, 2012
Bevilacqua: Not a predator, but worse
Ronnie Polaneczky, Daily News Columnist
Philadelphia Daily News
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/ronnie_polaneczky/20120202_Ronnie_Polaneczky_.html
NINE YEARS AGO, my husband took a photo of our daughter, when she was in kindergarten, with Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.
She'd just returned from an excursion to the Philadelphia Zoo, where she'd gotten her face painted like a koala bear's. Afterward, she and my husband hit the St. Pat's Day Parade, where Bevilacqua was working the crowds on that unseasonably warm day.
The cardinal graciously posed with my daughter for a picture, and it's a winner (that's it, to the right). She's leaning into him, and his arm is curled around her waist. His other arm rests atop her hand. Their smiles are wonderful - his is warm and kind; hers impy.
We gave a framed copy of the photo to my parents, who loved Bevilacqua. We placed another on our piano, with other family photos.
The photo captured a sweet moment that symbolized how the church can make us feel safe in a world that seems irrational and full of danger.
A few years later, the first Philadelphia grand-jury report was released, detailing years of sexual abuse in the Philadelphia Archdiocese and Bevilacqua's central role in allowing it to persist.
I cried as I read the report. Then I removed the photo from the piano.
I was appalled that the grandfatherly prelate who'd been so kind to my daughter was also a bloodless lawyer willing to trade children's safety for the survival of his church.
But there it was, in a section titled "Overview of the Cover-Up by Archdiocesan Officials."
On page 35: Bevilacqua removed accused pedophile Pastor Nicholas Cudemo from St. Callistus parish only when victims threatened to sue both Bevilacqua and the Archdiocese. After the lawsuit was dismissed because the statute of limitations had lapsed, Bevilacqua allowed Cudemo to return to ministering.
On page 37: The cardinal had an aide tell accused predator Father Michael McCarthy that, despite the allegations against him, he could be appointed pastor at another parish after "an interval of time has passed." That new parish, according to the Cardinal's instructions, "would be distant from St. Kevin Parish so that the profile can be as low as possible and not attract the attention of the complainant."
Farther down the same page was a name I knew well: Father Edward DePaoli, a resident priest in my childhood parish, who was convicted on child-pornography charges.
Afterward, when the Archdiocese was trying to decide where to assign DePaoli, Bevilacqua wrote: "For the present time it might be more advisable for him to return to the active ministry in another diocese," which would "put a sufficient period between the publicity and reinstatement in the active ministry of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia."
The grand jury's overview of the cover-up concluded with this withering assessment:
"The abuses that Cardinal Bevilacqua and his aides allowed children to suffer - the molestations, the rapes, the lifelong shame and despair - did not result from failures or lapses, except of the moral variety. They were made possible by purposeful decisions, carefully implemented policies, and calculated indifference."
The late Bevilacqua was not a monster the way his sheltered predators were. He was something worse: a man who put his career, ambition and the perks of his job before all else, including his duty to protect the most vulnerable members of his flock.
In the case of sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, it has become pointless to ask, "How can an archdiocesan leader do such a thing?" Because the truth is, in a hierarchy where the sex-abuse cover-up has reached into the uppermost levels, no one is appointed a leader unless he can be counted on to do such a thing.
Terribly, Bevilacqua was one of those men. His wasn't a one-time failure of judgment with awful, but limited, consequences. It was cunning, ongoing and systemic, and it reverberated over years. The fallout is still with us.
Although death has spared Bevilacqua from the full earthly consequences of the cover-up he participated in, there is no escaping the higher authority he's now answering to.
One day, I hope to find enough charity in my heart to pray for his soul.
But I'll never find enough to put that photo back on the piano.
Email polaner@phillynews.com.
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Anti-SNAP and articles against victims of JP2 Army John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/
Just Awful: Hours Before Cardinal Bevilacqua Passed Away,
SNAP’s Clohessy Suggested the Cleric May Be Faking His Illnesses
A new low for SNAP.
- February 2012 -
Less than 36 hours before Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua passed away from lengthy battles with cancer and dementia (he was 88 years old), David Clohessy, the national president of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), suggested that the former archbishop of Philadelphia was faking his illnesses.
On Monday afternoon (1/30/12), Clohessy issued a media statement saluting Philadelphia Judge M. Teresa Sarmina for ruling that the frail and ailing cleric was "competent" to appear and testify at the upcoming clergy abuse trials in March. (More on that here.)
Clohessy wrote:
"We are grateful this judge is standing by her conviction that Bevilacqua will have to testify. For far too long, too many Catholic officials have feigned illnesses and memory lapses' (sic) to avoid facing tough questions, in open court, under oath, about their role …"
Good grief. This is truly awful, even by SNAP standards.
Indeed, we must demand justice and compassion for victims of clergy abuse. This is not optional.
However, SNAP continues to repeatedly and relentlessly present itself as a mean-spirited and malicious organization.
If a public apology were ever in order, this would be the time. However, it is a safe bet that SNAP will do no such thing. SNAP is too often cruel and merciless.
Victims of atrocious clergy abuse need real advocacy, not vicious and bigoted attacks on the Catholic Church.
http://www.themediareport.com/feb2012/clohessy-snap-bevilacqua-passing.htm-- Dave Pierre is the author of the new book, Catholic Priests Falsely Accused: The Facts, The Fraud, The Stories. Dave is also the creator of TheMediaReport.com and is a contributing writer to NewsBusters.org, the popular media-bias blog of the Media Research Center.
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Cardinal Bevilacqua's CapabilitiesPHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Culture
By Dr. Jeff Mirus | February 01, 2012
You've probably already read in our news story that Cardinal Bevilacqua died yesterday at the age of 88, literally days after a Pennsylvania judge ruled once again that he was perfectly capable of giving testimony in the Philadelphia sexual abuse investigation. Considering the state of his health and the fact that he suffered from dementia, this in itself was remarkable.
But something even more remarkable was reported by David Pierre, author of two excellent books on priests falsely accused of sexual abuse. Pierre runs the Catholic Media Report, which seeks to expose anti-Catholic bias in the media.
Anyway, in this case he noticed that in a media statement for the victim advocacy group SNAP, president David Clohessy strongly implied that Cardinal Bevilacqua was faking his illness and memory loss to avoid giving testimony.
Overkill, perhaps? Later the next day, the Cardinal was dead.
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Bevilacqua’s videotaped testimony might now be heard at trial
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Nancy Phillips
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A savvy move by prosecutors could mean that the late Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua will speak from beyond the grave at the forthcoming criminal trial of three priests accused of endangering or abusing children, legal experts said Wednesday.
Bevilacqua, who died Tuesday at age 88, testified on videotape late last year about the church's handling of sex abuse allegations against priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese during his 15-year-tenure as its leader.
The tape of the cardinal answering questions from prosecutors and defense lawyers may now be admitted at trial, experts say.
"It comes in," said James A. Cohen, a professor at Fordham law school and a former defense lawyer. Preserving Bevilacqua's testimony on tape should enable jurors to hear from him in his absence, he said.
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Bevilacqua leaves sad, mixed legacy amid sex abusePHILADELPHIA (PA)
Boston Globe
[Bevilacqua Documents via BishopAccountability.org]
By Maryclaire Dale
Associated Press / February 1, 2012
PHILADELPHIA—Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's death may not greatly alter the March trial of an aide charged with child endangerment for allegedly keeping predator-priests around children.
Bevilacqua's testimony was preserved on videotape late last year, since he was 88 and ailing. And though a judge found him competent to testify, his dementia would have been evident on the witness stand, lawyers said.
Still, his 10 combative appearances before a Philadelphia grand jury in 2003 and 2004 exposed church secrets about 63 accused priests that ultimately rocked the Roman Catholic hierarchy -- and the cardinal himself, who grew reclusive in retirement.
Philadelphia priests raped boys in church sacristies, stripped them nude and whipped them as part of a Passion Play, got them drunk and showed them pornography -- and remained on the job, the 2005 grand jury report said.
"Cardinal Bevilacqua, a loyal son and leader of the church for so many years -- it was his misfortune to be in a place where all that was revealed in a very glaring way," said Tom Roberts, editor at large of the National Catholic Reporter, a liberal-leaning newspaper for lay Catholics that first exposed the priest-abuse problem in the 1980s.
"Sexual abuse occurs everywhere, but I think the particular circumstances of the church that makes it a story that will not go away is it had the capacity to hide and protect so many for so long," he said.
Bevilacqua died in his sleep Tuesday night at his church residence near Philadelphia. That same day, his longtime secretary for clergy, Monsignor William Lynn, appeared in court for a pretrial hearing in his unprecedented criminal case.
Lynn, 61, is the first U.S. church official ever charged with child endangerment for allegedly shuffling problem priests from job to job. Philadelphia prosecutors say the church thereby fed predators a steady stream of children.
"(The) abuse was known, tolerated, and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the Cardinal himself," a second grand jury report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia alleged last year.
Just hours before Bevilacqua died, the presiding judge in Lynn's trial called sexual abuse in the Catholic church "widespread." Defense lawyers call Lynn a scapegoat for the cardinal and other archdiocesan officials.
Bevilacqua fought bitterly with prosecutors in his often hostile grand jury appearances. He bristled when prosecutors, grilling him about the hundreds of complaints buried in "secret archives" at the archdiocese, called him "Mr. Bevilacqua."
"The very idea that a cardinal would get called before a grand jury was unheard of," said Duquesne University law professor Nicholas P. Cafardi, who served as counsel to the Pittsburgh archdiocese during Bevilacqua's tenure there in the late 1980s.
Bevilacqua's grand jury testimony became public last year as part of the discovery process in Lynn's case. It cannot be used at trial because he was not cross-examined, but his videotaped deposition, taken over two half-days in November, might be. Still, victim advocates hoped to hear him testify in person.
"With the passing of Cardinal Bevilacqua, we will never learn the full truth about clergy sex crimes and cover ups," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Defense lawyers say Lynn took direction on priest transfers from Bevilacqua. Prosecutors call the archdiocese under his tenure "an unindicted co-conspirator."
No one was charged after the first grand jury because the complaints were years or decades old, and the statute of limitations had expired.
"Philadelphia had a very aggressive prosecutor who decided that regardless of the lack of statutes that would apply immediately, she wanted to know what went on. And what she discovered was a very, very ugly record," Roberts said, speaking of former District Attorney Lynne Abraham. "But I don't think Philadelphia necessarily was an outlier. We got to look at the unvarnished truth in a way that has not happened in many places."
Bevilacqua liked to point out that he was trained in both civil and church, or canon, law. The ninth of 11 children born to Italian immigrants in Brooklyn, he got his law degree at night while working with immigrants in the Brooklyn archdiocese, Cafardi said.
"I find that very inspiring. He literally became a civil lawyer ... in order to help the poor people whose rights he thought were being stepped on," Cafardi said. "This all speaks of a very, very admirable guy. He did many heroic things. But the way he handled the sex abuse allegations in Philadelphia -- as opposed to how he handled them in Pittsburgh -- is just a tragic flaw."
According to Cafardi, Bevilacqua moved accused priests in Pittsburgh to what he deemed "safe assignments," such as chaplancies in retirement homes for religious men and women.
In Philadelphia, he led diocesan priests who had mostly attended the same seminary, St. Charles Borromeo, where the cardinal lived and this week died.
"I've often speculated he became a captive of the Philadelphia clerical culture, a culture where it's inbred, and everybody watches everybody else's back," Cafardi said. "These are men who you've known for years, and you find it hard to believe that they're capable of doing what they're accused of doing."
Three priests and a former Catholic school teacher were indicted along with Lynn. They are all charged with rape. Three are charged with raping the same child, starting when he was a 10-year-old altar boy.
"It's a sad, sad, very mixed story because he was such an advocate for immigrants and, in many ways, the downtrodden. He apparently had a real pastor's touch in meeting with people individually and at parishes," Roberts said of the cardinal's legacy.
"I don't think any reading of his life can ignore what the documentation of the grand jury reports say about it. It would be really good for the church and the hierarchy to reflect on (that)."
© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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