Jehovah Witnessess Making sure all records relating to child molestation are in harmony

Kraków, Poland; Anti-paedophilia logo from the National Revival of Poland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Religious organisations, as well as schools, colleges and other institutions, have been told by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse – led by Judge Lowell Goddard – to keep hold of any documents which could be useful to the investigation.

How much should agendas and minutes of elders’ meetings being available to outsiders? at many congregations personal notes may be taken at elders’ meetings.

Referring to the congregation file an edict distributed to Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations around the UK ordered the destruction of “all agendas and minutes of elders’ meetings (other than business meeting minutes)”, “all personal notes taken at elders’ meetings (except those based on discussions of outlines from ‘the faithful and discreet slave’ and that do not mention any particular individual)” and “any other personal records, notes, or correspondence that refer to particular individuals”.

Hearing about this ti is also very strange that is written

 “make sure all records relating to child molestation are in harmony”

Read more about a former church elder in South Wales who has claimed the church has gone against the request made by Judge Lowell Goddard:

Jehovah's Witnesses 'ordered destruction' of notes which could have been used during child sexual abuse inquiry

“Why, when an organisation says it abhors child abuse, would it go and destroy documents that can assist in bringing a child abuser to justice?

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Inculturation today calling for a different attitude

This January the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church told the press he is aware of the fact that the problem of formation today is not easy to deal with:

“Daily culture is much richer and conflictual than that which we experienced in our day, years ago. Ourculture was simpler and more ordered.

Inculturation today calls for a different attitude. For example: problems are not solved simply by forbidding doing this or that.

Dialog as well as confrontation are needed.

To avoid problems, in some houses of formation, young people grit their teeth, try not to make mistakes, follow the rules smiling a lot, just waiting for the day when they are told: ‘Good. You have finished formation.’

In Rio the Pope identified already clericalism as one of the causes of the

 “lack of maturity and Christian freedom” in the People of God.

It follows that:

 “If the seminary is too large, it ought to be divided into smaller communities with formators who are equipped really to accompany those in their charge.

Dialogue must be serious, without fear, sincere. It is important to recall that the language of young people information today is different from that in the past: we are living through an epochal change. Formation is a work of art, not a police action. We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mold the People of God.”

The Pope then insisted on the fact that formation should not be oriented only toward personal growth but also in view of its final goal: the People of God.

It is important to think about the people to whom these persons will be sent while forming hem:

“We must always think of the faithful, of the faithful People of God. Persons must be formed who are witness of the resurrection of Jesus. The formator should keep in mind that the person in formation will be called to care for the People of God.

We always must think of the People of God in all of this. Just think of religious who have hearts that are as sour as vinegar: they are not made for the people. In the end we must not form administrators, managers, but fathers, brothers, travelling companions. ”

Finally, Pope Francis wanted to highlight a further risk:

 “accepting a young man in a seminary who has been asked to leave a religious institute because of problems with formation and for serious reasons is a huge problem.

The pope was not just speaking about people who recognize that they are sinners:

 we are all sinners, but we are not all corrupt.

Sinners are accepted, but not people who are corrupt.”

Nobody can escape temptation except God Who can not be temted. Jesus was tempted more than once but did not go into the temptation and managed to stay clear of sin.

The present pope is not afraid to go away from difficult questions concerning the may priest who had young children in their care, but misused their power. Pope Francis I recalled Benedict XVI’s important decision in dealing with cases of abuse:

“this should be a lesson to us to have the courage to approach personal formation as a serious challenge, always keeping in mind the People of God.”

Religious should be witnesses of the humanizing power of the Gospel through a life of brotherhood.

The present pope does know the problems, but he also knows that the bishops are not always acquainted with the charisms and works of religious. Qe also should ask the question if the local headquarters are willing to inform the higher hierarchy of what is going wrong in their coutnry.

The Belgian Jesuit Jan Berchmans (1599 -1621) knew already very well this problem. True to his favorite mottos: Age quod agis (Do what you are doing well) and Maximi facere minima (Do the most with the least), he succeeded in accomplishing ordinary things in an extraordinary way and became the patron saint of community life.

To come to a healthy community everybody should be honest and open to each other. No secrets should go around. Once matter do have to be covered up, like we have seen the last few years, there is not only something going really wrong, but it also

"creates a pressure cooker that will eventually explode. A life without conflicts is not life.”

It becomes high time that 'bishops' and all those who are to take care of the flock need to understand that consecrated persons are not functionaries but gifts that enrich dioceses.

"The involvement of religious communities in dioceses is important. Dialogue between the bishop and religious must be rescued so that, due to a lack of understanding of their charisms, bishops do not view religious simply as useful instruments.” 

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Continuation of Church has to grow through witness, not by proselytism

From the "Wake up the world" press conference January 2014

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Catholic church asking for forgiveness and promising to take action against child-abusers

The Roman Catholic Church has received a very bad name in the last few years concerning its treatment of children abusers.

Pope Benedict XVI who heard a lot about the abuse but did not do much (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In February the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child accused the Vatican of systematically turning a blind eye to decades of abuse and attempting to cover up sex crimes.
The scathing report urged the church to immediately hand over its records on the abuse of tens of thousands of children, immediately remove anyone suspected of abuse from their post and refer the matter to civil legal authorities. The Vatican called the report unfair and ideologically slanted.
Francis' words strike a different tone to comments he made in March to an Italian newspaper in which he defended the church's record.

It took many years before a pope was willing to admit there was something strongly wrong in his community of church leaders. But on Friday Pope Francis dared to speak a second time about the "evil" committed by priests who molested children. Now he made the first public plea of the Catholic Church for forgiveness for all that horror which was brought onto so many children.

The Argentine-born pontiff said the Church, which last month named a high-level group on the scandal including an abuse victim, had to take a stronger stand on a scandal that has haunted it for more than two decades, and indicated there would be repercussions for perpetrators.

"I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil that some priests - quite a few in number, (although) obviously not compared to the number of all priests - to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,"

he told members of the International Catholic Child Bureau.

"The church is aware of this ... personal, moral damage carried out by men of the church, and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and to the sanctions that must be imposed.

"On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children,"

 Francis said in unscripted comments as he addressed the children's rights body.

The many adults who got some nasty experiences in their life can look forward (perhaps) to a point where the church will not deny such allegations any more, and would sanction those who are still alive. Probably most men and woman damaged by actions done by priests or nuns shall have to come to terms that the person shall have died already. But they will be able to come more at ease knowing that the problem at lsat shall be recognised and handled by the church and that in the future such case will be treated sooner.

It would be wrong to think such things could only happen in the Catholic church or in very closed communities like the Jehovah's Witnesses were elders were overly protected by the organization of their church. The JW and Catholic church the last few years managed to silence all those who wanted to get out what happened in their community. It looked like no "sanctions" were church-enforced and no civil justice authorities were ever involved. Though they all should know that they should follow the legal requirements and bring to court any person who abuses an other person or animal.

Strange to hear the pope saying:

"The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one has done more, and yet the church is the only one that is being attacked,"

In Belgium we have seen none such thing and we only can see that everything is done to make it so impossible to pursue those who went against the rights of children or the weaker ones (invalids).
Criticism that Francis has not taken a bold enough stand on the issue, and did not meet sexual abuse victims in Italy and in a July trip to Brazil, has been a rare black spot in the overwhelmingly positive response to the pontiff in the 13 months he has been in office.
In particular, abuse groups have called on the church to discipline bishops accused of moving known child molesters from parish to parish, allowing abuse to continue.

"It's nice to have expressions of concern. But actions need to happen, and people have been waiting an awfully long time for that to occur,"

 said Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, which documents abuse cases.

"The best thing he could have done today would have been to step up to the microphone and announce that he is beginning to remove bishops who have behaved criminally in keeping priests in ministries where they don't belong, moving them around so that they continue to be a danger to children."

Lots of Bishops, the one who you would consider to be high in rank and who should give the example,  are left untouched, while certain lower people were set out of the parish.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which advocates for child protection and urges greater transparency in the church, said Francis' words should be received with caution.

"We beg the world's Catholics: be impressed by deeds, not words. Until the pope takes decisive action that protects kids, be skeptical and vigilant,"

 SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said.

"This may be the first time a pope has talked of sanctions against complicit bishops. But that is all it is: talk."

Under Francis' direction, the Vatican announced in December the creation of a new dedicated group to help the church deal with the abuse crisis. Its members were named in late March.
The body of clerics and lay people includes Marie Collins, a survivor of abuse in Ireland in the 1960s who has campaigned for the protection of children and for justice for victims.
Collins, a founding trustee of the Irish abuse victims' organization One in Four, has in the past pushed for punishment for bishops who failed to implement church rules on the protection of children.
Child abuse litigation has cost the Catholic Church some $3 billion in settlements in the United States alone, and shaken the moral authority of leaders of the world's largest religious denomination.

It is a pity the church had first come so much under fire before she took appropriate action. The pope had come under fire for taking no action since the commission itself was announced in December. In March Pope Francis named the commission members but still told newspapers that the church had been unfairly attacked for its abuse record. His defensive tone, coupled with the perceived languishing of the commission, led survivors and church commentators to question whether he “got it” on sex abuse.

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Television view (Washington Post): Pope asks for forgiveness for ‘evil’ of priest child abuse
Reuters video: Pope asks for forgiveness for evil of priests

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Related articles

• Pope Assumes Responsibility For Priest Sex Abuse (mintpressnews.com)
  No pope has ever taken personal responsibility for the tens of thousands of children who were molested by priests over decades, as bishops moved them from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police.
• Pope asks forgiveness for 'evil' of child abuse by priests - Reuters UK (uk.reuters.com)
  Pope Francis made his first public plea for forgiveness on Friday for the "evil" committed by priests who molested children, using some of his strongest words yet on the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis.
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  The scathing report urged the church to immediately hand over its records on the abuse of tens of thousands of children, immediately remove anyone suspected of abuse from their post and refer the matter to civil legal authorities. The Vatican called the report unfair and ideologically slanted.
• Pope asks forgiveness for 'evil' of church's child sex abuse (haaretz.com)
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• Catholicism made unpopular (spyghana.com)
• Pope Francis pledges to tighten action to stop all forms of child exploitation (womennewsnetwork.net)
  Hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and organized by organized by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales the Vatican event brought sex-trafficking global police watch-dogs INTERPOL together with other police forces around the world. It also brought discussion between active members of the Catholic church, with members of foreign governments who are working today to slow the rising tide of crime in the worldwide human sex-trafficking industry.
• You: Pope Francis asks victims of clerical sex abuse for forgiveness (latimes.com)
  The apology marked a change of tone by the pope, who has been criticized for paying scant attention to the clerical sex-abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church. Only last month Francis angered many victims groups by lashing back at a United Nations panel that accused senior prelates of covering up for abusive priests.
• Pope Francis Asks For Forgiveness For Sex Abuse By Priests (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Deceptive evil Jesuit anti-Pope Francis I asks for Forgiveness for paedophilia by clergy (theunhivedmind.com)
  The Pope said he had felt compelled to “personally ask for forgiveness for the damage [some priests] have done for having sexually abused children”, the Vatican Radio website reports. He said that the number of priests who had committed abuses were “quite a few in number”, although “obviously not compared to the number of all the priests”.
  “We will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and the sanctions that must be imposed,” he said, adding: “We have to be even stronger”.
  

Last day of Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI

For over two decades Joseph Ratzinger has dealt with the question if a pope resign. John Paul  considered retiring at 75, an ordinary bishop's retirement age, according to the best-selling book Why He Is a Saint, and discussed it with Ratzinger, but he eventually abandoned the idea of a papal retirement age,



Could it be that Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI has lost control?

Child abuse and the financial secret happenings should worry all believers as well as the protectionshield the Church of Rome is creating for Joseph Ratzinger. Namely, he will remain a permanent resident of Vatican City after his resignation. Doing so will offer him legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources said on Friday the 15th of February.

"His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless". announced Vatican officials.

Vatican City (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

This startling admission of guilt by the church is also a direct obstruction of justice, and lends more weight to the charge by the ITCCS and others that the Vatican has arranged with the Italian government to shield Ratzinger from criminal prosecution, in violation of international laws ratified by Italy.

The Vatican decided two weeks ago to give permanent sanctuary to a proven war criminal by allowing Joseph Ratzinger to obstruct justice and evade prosecution for crimes against humanity. And the government of Italy is colluding in this abrogation of international law.
This decision validates the claims of International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) – Brussels, about the criminal conspiracy surrounding Ratzinger and his Vatican co-conspirators. It also makes it clear that the Vatican is a rogue power that is flaunting every law to conceal its own criminality.

Fifteen countries have now become  part of the movement against abuse, trafficking, torture and murder of children and historic genocide of indigenous peoples at the hands of European Christendom.

Kevin Annett of ITCCS says:

Protecting Ratzinger within the walls of the Vatican may halt justice for a moment, but it violates a basic rule of warfare, which is to never give your enemy a permanent focus for their attack. Ratzinger, the evil Emperor, now a permanent fixture in the Vatican? The absurdity of offering such an ongoing focus to the civilized world's hatred of catholic criminality is also a sign that the church is adrift and improvising. But it also shows how genuinely worried is the Vtaican about the legal offensive mounted by our affiliates, lawyers for torture survivors, and the International Criminal Court.

Ratzinger non aprirà l'anno accademico. The students told "No Pope in the University!". The Pope won't go to the Rome's university. (Photo credit: Zingaro. I am a gipsy too.)

The Vatican is pulling out all stops to keep Ratzinger out of court. Their loyal, one-man owned Italian media is assaulting the crap out of yours truly and our ITCCS these days, playing the "Deny, Distract and Discredit" strategy of any damage-controlling corporation.

This Friday, California Public Television will broadcast the complete Proceedings, Evidence and Verdict of our Common Law Court of Justice, to a viewership of millions of people.
This Saturday, the ITCCS global online radio program will feature some of the Citizen Jurors who found the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and Canada guilty of Genocide – On March 2 at 4 pm EST, 9 pm GMT on www.blogtalkradio.com/wethejury

The top Catholic official in England, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, suddenly resigned this week and announced he would not vote at the Vatican Conclave on March 15 to elect a new Pope. This unprecedented defiance may indicate a collapse in the disciplinary chain of command within the church, since Cardinals' attendance at the Papal Conclave is normally mandatory.
Meanwhile, Common Law Court officers have begun to serve the Order of Compliance to the thirty officials found guilty of Crimes against Humanity last Monday, including Joseph Ratzinger, Elizabeth Windsor, top Roman Cardinals and Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada. All of the accused parties seem to be in hiding.

The Vatican has forever been an organization that is mainly, not to say only, interested in its own power and preserving its own reputation and its own finances. Already in early times it was clear that lots of people in charge prefered to be on good terms by those in power. For that reason they agreed even to Constantine and his successors to come to terms with certain Greek and philosophical teachings. Soon the so called 'Apologists' arose with the goal to blend Christianity and Greek philosophy. They said that although God was one, which Moses, Jesus and Paul unite in their testimony and can be found in many books of the Bible (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29; Galatians 3:20; 2 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6 just to give some examples). Also on the mortality of man the church gave a twist to confirm with the powerful Roman Emprie. Genesis 2:7 and 3:19 clearly tell us that man is a material and mortal thing. Our body is corruptible and mortal (1 Corinthians 15:47,53-54) but the men in power wanted to give in into tradition and other favoured beliefs that the 'soul' and 'body' were separate things, the 'soul' being immortal. Thus Christendom, became virtually a Christianized Greek philosophy.

Throughout history the Roman Catholic Church used its power to get more power and to get more money in their banks, doing everything to secure  their power of having something to say and to dictate in the world. today nothing has changed, but some may think there is moving a lot, and even in the own ranks there is a contra movement.

Keith Porteous Wood:

The Vatican has forever been an organization that is only interested in its own power and preserving its own reputation and its own finances - it has always been thus. But with the kind off communications we have today, they can’t get away with that any longer.

I’m certainly aware of two major issues over child abuses that are going to come up and are going to be very, very hard for the Vatican to swallow. Because it is not like it is the child abuse, bad though that is, is the issue - it is actually that the finger of blame is going to be pointed at the Vatican for having obstructed justice and all the secret files that it won’t release.
So, that is going to look very, very bad, and I think people will get less and less tolerant about that. And the Vatican has shown no real sign of actually coming to terms with this, of putting its hands up and really atoning for its past sins, and being much more open and dealing more properly with victims and actually getting the people who perpetrated these crimes turned over to the police.

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives on St Peter's square for his last weekly audience on February 27, 2013 at the Vatican. (AFP Photo / Tiziana Fabi)

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Read also:

1. John Paul to Ratzinger: Should I resign?
2. Roman Church admits the Pope’s Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and “protection”
3. Celebrating a Pope-Free World
4. Vatican policies ‘catastrophic in their implications’

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• Two Popes, One Secretary
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• Roman Church admits the Pope's Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and "protection"

Pope Benedict will hide

About the one who is going to be hidden to the world, according to his own words.

After having repeatedly examined his conscience before God, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger at the age of 85 has come to the certainty that his strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to what he calls an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.

Pope Benedictus XVI at a private audience (january,20 - 2006) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiriual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering. "

Because the Pope has not died there is no need for the traditional nine days of mourning, but there will be a Conclave (a meeting of Cardinals to select the new Pope).

A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said the German-born Pope deserved "respect" and "gratitude" for his nearly eight years as pontiff after he announced he was to step down.

"The federal government has the greatest possible respect for the Holy Father, for his accomplishments, for his life-long work for the Catholic Church," said Steffen Seibert, adding he deserved also "gratitude." 

The soft-spoken German, who always maintained that he never wanted to be pope, was an uncompromising conservative on social and theological issues, fighting what he regarded as the increasing secularization of society.
It remains to be seen whether his successor will continue such battles or do more to bend with the times.
Despite his firm opposition to tolerance of homosexual acts, his eight year reign saw gay marriage accepted in many countries. He has staunchly resisted allowing women to be ordained as priests, and opposed embryonic stem cell research, although he retreated slightly from the position that condoms could never be used to fight AIDS.
He repeatedly apologized for the Church's failure to root out child abuse by priests, but critics said he did too little and the efforts failed to stop a rapid decline in Church attendance in the West, especially in his native Europe.

Victims of the child sex abuse crisis that has engulfed the Catholic church during Pope Benedict's tenure welcomed his unexpected resignation on Monday, amid speculation over what prompted his departure.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), an organisation of 12,000 members worldwide, claim Benedict is personally responsible for widespread abuse within the church because he chose to protect its reputation over the safety of children. US lawyers who are currently suing the pontiff and other high-ranking Holy See officials for systematically concealing sexual crimes around the world, said his resignation may lead to more international prosecutions.
David Clohessy, executive director of Snap, condemned the pope's "terrible record" on child sex abuse and said he hoped he would "finally show some courageous leadership on the abuse crisis" in his remaining days.
Clohessy told the Guardian: "Before he became pope his predecessor put him in charge of the abuse crisis. He has read thousands of pages of reports of the abuse cases from across the world. He knows more about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups than anyone else in the church yet he has done precious little to protect children."
He said a big question for the pope's successor is "what he will do in a very tangible way to safeguard children, deter cover-ups, punish enablers and chart a new course. What matters is not whether a statement is unprecedented but whether an action is affected."

 In addition to child sexual abuse crises, Ratzinger his papacy saw the Church rocked by Muslim anger after he compared Islam to violence. Jews were upset over rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier. During a scandal over the Church's business dealings, his butler was accused of leaking his private papers.
In an announcement read to cardinals in Latin, the universal language of the Church, the 85-year-old said: "Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of St Peter ...
"As from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours (1900 GMT) the See of Rome, the See of St. Peter will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Benedict did not intend to influence the decision of the cardinals in a secret conclave to elect a successor.


A new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics could be elected as soon as Palm Sunday, on March 24, and be ready to take over by Easter a week later, Lombardi said.
Several popes in the past, including Benedict's predecessor John Paul, have refrained from stepping down over their health, because of the division that could be caused by having an "ex-pope" and a reigning pope alive at the same time.
Lombardi said the pope did not fear a possible "schism", with Catholics owing allegiances to a past and present pope in case of differences on Church teachings.
He indicated the complex machinery of the process to elect a new pope would move quickly because the Vatican would not have to wait until after the elaborate funeral services for a pope.

It is not clear if Benedict will have a public life after he resigns. Lombardi said Benedict would first go to the papal summer residence south of Rome and then move into a cloistered convent inside the Vatican walls.
The resignation means that cardinals from around the world will begin arriving in Rome in March and after preliminary meetings, lock themselves in a secret conclave and elect the new pope from among themselves in votes in the Sistine Chapel.

There has been growing pressure on the Church for it to choose a pope from the developing world to better reflect where most Catholics live and where the Church is growing.

Mar Mathew Arackal, Bishop of Kanjirapally,with the Pope (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"It could be time for a black pope, or a yellow one, or a red one, or a Latin American," said Guatemala's Archbishop Oscar Julio Vian Morales.
The cardinals may also want a younger man. John Paul was 58 when he was elected in 1978. Benedict was 20 years older.
"We have had two intellectuals in a row, two academics, perhaps it is time for a diplomat," said Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "Rather than electing the smartest man in the room, they should elect the man who will listen to all the other smart people in the Church."
Liberals have already begun calling for a pope that would be more open to reform.
"The current system remains an 'old boy's club' and does not allow for women's voices to participate in the decision of the next leader of our Church," said the Women's Ordination Conference, a group that wants women to be able to be priests.

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Pope's sudden resignation sends shockwaves through Church

Pope Benedict resigns: sex abuse survivors hope move eases prosecution

McMurry said he personally holds Benedict responsible for "decades" of cover-up of the sex abuse scandal, during which time bishops were instructed to send paedophile priests from one district to another.
"It is a good day when a bad pope or a bad leader of your religion steps aside," he said.
McMurry said he believed Benedict was appointed to the papacy in part because he had kept the sex abuse scandal at bay to protect the reputation of the church.
"We have seen documentations. We know that this is the role that Benedict played, and he did a terrific job of containing a scandal until it could be contained no more and it exploded."
"It is hard for me to accept that Benedict would step down. Unless there was a potential scandal that we will never know about that was bargained away. There's a lot of skull-duggery here. It just doesn't add up" he said.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a case against the pope last year at the International Criminal Court on behalf of Snap, said his departure would make international prosecution easier, both in its case at the ICC and other, potential prosecutions, because it will remove the immunity given to him as a head of state.

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