It doesn’t take a “conspiracy theorist” to wonder about the reasons behind the sudden resignation of the Pope; the first time this has happened in 600 years. As the days have passed, details have begun to emerge and it seems that the most likely catalyst was his connection to the child abuse scandals rampant within the Catholic Church. Now we find out that as a result of these concerns, he will be hiding out in the Vatican for the remainder of his days. From Reuters:
(Reuters) – Pope Benedict’s decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.
“His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn’t have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else,” said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The final key consideration is the pope’s potential exposure to legal claims over the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.
In 2010, for example, Benedict was named as a defendant in a law suit alleging that he failed to take action as a cardinal in 1995 when he was allegedly told about a priest who had abused boys at a U.S. school for the deaf decades earlier. The lawyers withdrew the case last year and the Vatican said it was a major victory that proved the pope could not be held liable for the actions of abusive priests.
In 2011, victims of sexual abuse by the clergy asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the pope and three Vatican officials over sexual abuse.
The New York-based rights group Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and another group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), filed a complaint with the ICC alleging that Vatican officials committed crimes against humanity because they tolerated and enabled sex crimes.
If it’s this easy to get rid of the Pope these days, why is it so hard to get rid of TBTF?
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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A different take from the eyes of a catholic http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/benedict-will-still-be-there-for-us
I’ve heard this new hbo documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God talks about POPE had all data about
Abuse worldwide. Have to check It out
Mike has linked back to an article at Reuters. I thought the following comment to the article spoke volumes:
“As a Catholic physician who has met many who have been sexually abused by priests, and as one who was sexually assaulted myself by a Carmelite priest when I was a young doctor in Dublin, I have learned that clergy sexual abuse has been part of the culture of the Roman Catholic Church for many centuries.
Pope Benedict XVI has played a central role in allowing the priest sexual abuse of innocent children to flourish worldwide from the 24 years that he was the head of the office that dealt with clergy sexual abuse cases, and since 2005 as Pope. The Pope, when known as Cardinal Ratzinger, in 2001, issued a Vatican edict to hierarchy all over the world, to put the institution of the church’s interests over any other interest and to have all cases of clergy sexual abuse centralized under his authority in the Vatican under Exclusive Competence and the Pontifical Secret.
Why didn’t Ratzinger report all cases of child sexual abuse by clergy to the legal authorities for investigation? Why did Ratzinger protect the predator priests and not remove the predator priests and complicit bishops from the priesthood? Why did Ratzinger not care about the children, the innocent victims? Probably because he has had very little life experience of women and children, as a celibate male.”
– by a commenter named ‘Physician’