Pope Accuses Abuse Victims of Slander

[Altair]

This guy is normally attuned to well-crafted optics, but this is a doozy of a slip-up. His "kinder, gentler" image just took a big hit.

Pope Accuses Sex Abuse Victims in Chile of Slandering Bishop

SANTIAGO, Chile — Pope Francis has accused abuse victims in Chile of slandering a bishop who they say protected a pedophile priest, upending his efforts to rehabilitate the Catholic Church’s reputation while visiting South America....

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/world/americas/pope-sex-abuse-chile.html

Next up: priestsplaining the sexual abuse scandal to those who have endured it

[EclecticWheel]

This guy is normally attuned to well-crafted optics, but this is a doozy of a slip-up. His "kinder, gentler" image just took a big hit.

Pope Accuses Sex Abuse Victims in Chile of Slandering Bishop

SANTIAGO, Chile — Pope Francis has accused abuse victims in Chile of slandering a bishop who they say protected a pedophile priest, upending his efforts to rehabilitate the Catholic Church’s reputation while visiting South America....

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/world/americas/pope-sex-abuse-chile.html

Next up: priestsplaining the sexual abuse scandal to those who have endured it

The hype surrounding this pope has long made me uncomfortable.  I don't think he is so great.  Wait and see, I guess.

[MadZealot]

His "kinder, gentler" image just took a big hit.

If I were a cynical bastard, I'd say his "image" is bullshit. Good thing I'm not a cynical bastard.

All though the Popeness Tour I shook my head at how easily my progressive friends got taken in by his pretty words, only to clutch their pearls when he affirmed yes, he was still Catholic, and Church doctrine hasn't changed.
(They were mum when he declared Junipero Serra a saint, a move which loudly clashed with his liberation theology and pretty words.)

Now, he's revealing he's-- still-- a company man...
So yeah. Fuck what he says.

[ehbowen]

Pope Francis has accused abuse victims in Chile of slandering a bishop who they say protected a pedophile priest, upending his efforts to rehabilitate the Catholic Church’s reputation while visiting South America....

"This man does not speak for me...I want my own attorney!" —Richard Pryor as Monty Brewster, Brewster's Millions.

Just trying to say in a roundabout fashion that I believe there are a lot of clergy...in all denominations...who are being measured for their millstones (Luke 17:2).

[Castus]

This guy is normally attuned to well-crafted optics, but this is a doozy of a slip-up. His "kinder, gentler" image just took a big hit.

Pope Accuses Sex Abuse Victims in Chile of Slandering Bishop

SANTIAGO, Chile — Pope Francis has accused abuse victims in Chile of slandering a bishop who they say protected a pedophile priest, upending his efforts to rehabilitate the Catholic Church’s reputation while visiting South America....

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/world/americas/pope-sex-abuse-chile.html

Next up: priestsplaining the sexual abuse scandal to those who have endured it

Pope Francis tends to let his image slip when it comes to South American churchpolitik. You can take the boy out of Argentina...

Otherwise, as I'm sure will shock all of you, I've no issues with Francis' statement and in fact commend him for it. I'm not hugely familiar with the facts of the case but Pope Francis himself appears to be -- a Catholic News Agency article quotes him as saying once that evidence against the bishop had been discredited in a civil court -- and he evidently feels confident enough to stand by his man.

The Church, seemingly in an effort to atone for past wrongs, has long adopted a policy of hurling priests/prelates/religious accused of sexual misconduct under the nearest bus without ever bothering to ascertain guilt or even investigate (frequently in defiance of due process as outlined in canon law) and I truly appreciate seeing Francis actually do his job for once. Or, at least, one of his inumerable jobs.

[MadZealot]

The Church, seemingly in an effort to atone for past wrongs, has long adopted a policy of hurling priests/prelates/religious accused of sexual misconduct under the nearest bus without ever bothering to ascertain guilt or even investigate

... really? I remember a little scandal in the early-aughts where they got busted hiding and enabling their ordained predators, shuttling them to new & unsuspecting parishes when their robes got too hot.
I remember when Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles fought having to release pedopriest info to the media and authorities. If memory serves, he claimed some bullshit about how ecclesiatical law was superior to, you know, real law.

[Castus]

... really? I remember a little scandal in the early-aughts where they got busted hiding and enabling their ordained predators, shuttling them to new & unsuspecting parishes when their robes got too hot.
I remember when Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles fought having to release pedopriest info to the media and authorities. If memory serves, he claimed some bullshit about how ecclesiatical law was superior to, you know, real law.

Yes, really. This isn't the early 2000s and RC policy on accusations of misconduct has veered straight in the other direction; often to very detrimental results for the Church's own clergy. Also I'm loathe to defend Cardinal Mahoney but if indeed he did say that I imagine he was probably referring to the difficulties posed by the very strict laws concerning the rights of clergy in the CCC in regards to having to release that information. But I don't know if he actually said that, or the context in which he theoretically said it, so... yeah.

[MadZealot]

Yes, really. This isn't the early 2000s and RC policy on accusations of misconduct has veered straight in the other direction; often to very detrimental results for the Church's own clergy. Also I'm loathe to defend Cardinal Mahoney but if indeed he did say that I imagine he was probably referring to the difficulties posed by the very strict laws concerning the rights of clergy in the CCC in regards to having to release that information. But I don't know if he actually said that, or the context in which he theoretically said it, so... yeah.

'Inside the Los Angeles Police Department's Sexually Exploited Child unit, detectives had come to think of clergy cases as a footrace against the chancery. When a tip about a priest came in, the starting gun went off.

"Even if it was at the end of the day and we were supposed to go home, we knew we were at the starting post," said Det. Dale Barraclough, who spent 20 years in the unit.

LAPD policy was to notify the archdiocese when an investigation was underway. But once the church was informed, Barraclough said, "we knew that the suspect, 99% sure, that he was going to be out of the country or out of state."

Detectives begged parents not to inform the church and held off telling their own supervisors, Barraclough said in an interview, buying time to talk to witnesses, track down other victims, and seize toys and photos from rectories.

Officers often lost the race. In early 1988, police learned that a visiting priest allegedly molested several boys over nine months before fleeing to his native Mexico. In an effort to identify all the potential victims, detectives asked for a list of altar boys at two L.A. parishes.

Mahony was adamant that the roster not be provided: "We cannot give such a list for no cause whatsoever," he wrote to aides in an internal memo.'
http://graphics.latimes.com/mahony/


Clearly he thought he and his Church was above the law, and that article goes to great lengths the arrogant bastard went to obstruct justice shield his priests from prosecution.

 I could dig a little more for an exact quote, but I heard it on the radio, so it'll take awhile.

[Castus]

Clearly he thought he and his Church was above the law, and that article goes to great lengths the arrogant bastard went to obstruct justice shield his priests from prosecution.

 I could dig a little more for an exact quote, but I heard it on the radio, so it'll take awhile.

I'm not defending Cardinal Mahoney -- though had I been in his shoes I would have refused to release lists of altar servers as well -- and I should be clear that the incontrovertible and admitted past wrongs of the Church in re sexual abuse are so terrible as to almost defy understanding.

But neither will I get on the 'everyone's guilty until proven innocent and the Victim™ is always right' train. Against such serious charges it is only just to demand that +Barros be defended until actual proof of wrongdoing is produced.