It then emerged that bishops and other senior catholic clergy knew about it and either turned a blind eye or helped cover up tracks for 10 or 20 years.
A damning (and rather disturbing) report by the Irish gubb'mint catalogued the true, appalling extent of the abuse, and even then, many of the priests involved were reluctant to resign. Eventually, the pope issued an apology that, to me, was the equivalent of a child gazing at his shoes and mumbling a barely-inaudible 'sry'.
Now some people felt this might have been a smidgen under-played, and the media have expressed serious concerns that the Vatican has under-reacted. Criticism of the pontiff's weak response has been growing, until yesterday, the Pope's preacher, Raniero Cantalamessa, claimed that media behavioUr was comparable to "the collective violence suffered by the Jews".
He even went on to say "The use of stereotypes and the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism"
So the church's response to widespread allegations of complacency and failure to take collegiate ownership of systematic child-rape is to whinge that they're being picked on by teh nasty journalists?
Reaction is now growing from abuse victims:
Quote:
A spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) said the sermon had been "reckless and irresponsible".
"They're sitting in the papal palace, they're experiencing a little discomfort, and they're going to compare themselves to being rounded up or lined up and sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz?" said Peter Isely. "You cannot be serious."
"They're sitting in the papal palace, they're experiencing a little discomfort, and they're going to compare themselves to being rounded up or lined up and sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz?" said Peter Isely. "You cannot be serious."
. . . and from teh Jews:
Quote:
The secretary general of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Stephan Kramer, told the Associated Press news agency the remarks were "repulsive, obscene and most of all offensive towards all abuse victims as well as to all the victims of the Holocaust".
The facts are now undisputed, right up to the Vatican. Many priests systematically raped little boys for years, and their bishops simply moved them to fresh parishes to cover their tracks so they could spend another decade abusing their wards.
Talk about "Suffer the little children"
What a fUcking disgrace.