So once again we have the carousel of the Roman Catholic Church, exposed to more allegations of the rape of defenceless children in America. The world’s headlines scream “ More than 300 pedophile priests sexually abused more than 1,000 children,” with more lies and cover-ups by the Roman Catholic Church in the State of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.. A Grand Jury investigation into six catholic dioceses in the State of Pennsylvania found and reported that the child sexual rape and abuse was covered up by clergy, including Bishops and Cardinals. These 'Men of God' kept it secret as Roman Catholic priests systematically raped children for decades. The F.B.I., after review and analysis of the evidence it received from the Grand Jury, concluded that the material revealed something akin to “a playbook for concealing the truth.” State officials have said that the number of children raped by priests is likely several times higher than reported so far, as is the number of Roman Catholic priests involved.
The publication last week of a long, horrifying report on the behaviour of the church in the state of Pennsylvania followed the exposure of former Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick (whose nickname was “Uncle Ted”) as a serial predator of young boys, including even his own teenaged cousin. The Roman Catholic Church has employed euphemisms for sexual assault, referring to the crime not as rape, but as “inappropriate contact” or “boundary issues.” The Grand Jury reported that a priest’s repeated and violent sexual rapes of children was referred to as “his difficulties” by the Church. The Catholic Church did not conduct genuine investigations, often limiting actions to asking suspected pedophile priests a few questions and then accepting what the priest said as absolute gospel. If a Catholic Priest had to be removed from his parish, Church officials were directed to announce it as either“sick leave” or to say nothing at all. For appearance’s sake, they were to send the Catholic priest for “evaluation” at a church-run psychiatric facility that, more often than not, concluded that the offender was not a pedophile and could return to ministering to the faithful and where they continued to rape children. That is exactly the same playbook that happened in Ireland and every other country the Roman Catholic Church operates in. If it became known in the community that a Catholic clergyman was a “problem,” the church were to transfer the priest or brother to another location where nobody knew he was a child rapist. That was the norm. As I have hypothesised before, if a secular institution was discovered to have protected more than 300 pedophiles as they sexually raped more than 1,000 children, they would be strung up immediately and the said institution would be burned to the ground. If the Roman Catholic Church wasn’t a religious institution, would we be handling the situation differently? The answer is a resounding “Yes”. A secular institution’s employees and bosses would have been arrested under our (or any other country’s) laws, thrown into prison immediately and the Government would seize all the institutions’ assets and bank accounts and use them to pay restitution to the abused children. The Roman Catholic Church is an organisation uniquely hospitable to sexual predators, even to paedophiles. The facts are simple: the Roman Catholic Church, in every country in the world it operates in, has thwarted laws that would protect children from being raped by their priests, thus allowing Catholic priests to evade arrest by simply claiming they are doing the work of God. The deliberate concealment of rape, coupled with allowing the pedophiles access to even more children, is inexcusable. The culture of the Roman Catholic Church is a culture of secrecy and deception that is embedded in its 2,000 year old history. The rape of children is as universal as the Roman Catholic Church. We mustn’t forget that here in Ireland, the Irish Catholic Church raped, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands of women and children in their religious run institutions and got away with it. Instead of actually offering any solutions, though, Pope Francis has called for fasting and prayer in his letter addressed to The People of God issued on August 20 2018, writing “Likewise penance and prayer will help us to open our eyes and our hearts to other people’s sufferings and to overcome the thirst for power and possessions that are so often the root of those evils. May fasting and prayer open our ears to the hushed pain felt by children, young people and the disabled. A fasting that can make us hunger and thirst for justice and impel us to walk in the truth, supporting all the judicial measures that may be necessary. A fasting that shakes us up and leads us to be committed in truth and charity with all men and women of good will, and with society in general, to combatting all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience.” Pope Francis also said there were efforts underway to do something but they haven’t been implemented as yet. The Catholic Church’s World Meeting of Families, which will be held this weekend in Dublin, Ireland, is a huge circus: three American Cardinals have decided not to come, as have hundreds of Catholic clergy, because of their active involvement with raping of thousands of children and covering up their own crimes. As I know, (but few do), a case has been active in the High Court in Dublin for the last few years against the sitting Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, for his own crimes and misdemeanours - a charge of the covering up of known sexual rape of teenage boys in a Catholic Hostel in Dublin where he was a visiting seminarian in the 1960s. The boys Hostel, known as the “Boys Club” was a known magnet for all pedophile clerics who descended on the hostel in droves, encouraged by the then Archbishop of Dublin, Charles McQuaid who encouraged them all to befriend the orphan boys, with food, money, drink, drugs, cigarettes, leading directly to their rapes at the hands of these holy clerics. After eight years of visiting the hostel all Diarmuid Martin says is, “I can’t recall” and “I’m sorry for your pain”, and “I’m sad your experiences and time with us wasn’t a happy one.” This has been the response of the ‘esteemed’ Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, President and host of the World Meeting of Families, respected and admired by his peodphilic priests and laity alike as a true friend and solicitous father. The very idea that a group of celibate misogynistic men and women are advising families is insulting. Imagine opening the state prisons and releasing all the convicted rapists and pedophiles and inviting them to a world meeting for families and their children. The convicted rapists and pedophiles could be encouraged to make laws and advance ideas on how to rape and abuse children, all sanctioned by the Government and the Religious Church. Then the head of the biggest Church in the world, on learning of the outrages - the raping, torture and murder of children committed by his priests and other clerics - blesses the children and his clerics and asks for fasting and prayers from the children, while condemning their mothers and families for talking to outsiders about their rapes. This is precisely what has happened in every country in the world with the Roman Catholic Church. For the Roman Catholic cult that has repeatedly been accused of raping, torturing and even killing children to be having a meeting of Families is like having a fox in the henhouse - you’ve got problems brewing. In other words, having a fox in the henhouse is no different from having a lunatic in charge of the asylum or asking a thief to guard the bank vault, or expecting the wolf to guard the sheep, or asking a monkey to watch your bananas. They all mean the same thing and, in every instance, the watcher can’t be trusted to do the right job. Neither can the Roman Catholic Church, which has been proven time and time again not to be trusted alone with children. An apology doesn’t cut it and neither do empty prayers and fasting. The day after Pope Francis issued the letter referred to above, Jakiw Palij, 95, suspected of war crimes in Poland, was deported from USA to Germany. Germany’s foreign minister was quoted as saying, “There is no cut-off point for historical responsibility. To do justice to the memory of Nazi-era atrocities means to fight against antisemitism, discrimination and racism. And it means standing up to our moral obligations on behalf of the victims and successive generations. The guilt of those who carried out these crimes in Germany’s name will never elapse. The pain continues to be deep.” Imagine the global outcry if it had been suggested post World War II that the crimes of Nazi war-criminals should be addressed by “fasting and prayer” instead of prosecution. To The People of God, Pope Francis wrote, “It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others. An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused in the past and allows us, in the present, to be more open and committed along a journey of renewed conversion.” If Pope Francis was really serious about condemning “the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable” as he wrote on August 20 2018, he should be calling for rigorous prosecution of those who perpetrated the crimes as well as those who covered them up. Instead he asks the People of God (which includes victims) to pray and fast. Shame on you, Pope Francis. Owen Felix O'Neill
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