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Catholic leaders meet at Vatican conference to discuss pedophilia

Critics dismiss summit as public relations stunt

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 7:58 AM
Updated Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 10:52 AM

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Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Photo by Google Images


Bishops from 100 countries and the leaders of 33 religious orders are in Rome this week for a four day Vatican conference to address and prevent pedophilia in the clergy.

According to a report from Newstalk, the conference will announce the launch of a child protection centre in Germany to combat sexual abuse by the clergy worldwide.

But victims' groups are unconvinced of the protection center's actual reach and have slammed the entire conference as nothing more than a public relations stunt.
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Even the title of the gathering 'Towards Healing and Renewal' has offended many victims organizations, who ask if it refers to those abused by priests or to the Church's damaged public standing. Organizers counter that the conference, which is hosted by Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University, will address the incidences of sexual abuse in the US, Ireland, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

The conference will take place ahead of a May deadline set by the Vatican for all Catholic bishops around the world to develop new procedures to assist abuse victims, and to educate church communities about the protection of minors.

Marie Collins, an Irish victim of clerical abuse and longtime critic of the Vatican's handling of the crisis, will speak at the conference, as will Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s top prosecutor on sex abuse cases.

The program will reportedly hear from bishops from Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines, representing the world’s three largest Catholic nations and also from South Africa, where clerical abuse in each nation will be discussed.

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See more: Vatican , Irish Catholic Church , Pope Benedict , sexual abuse
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15 Comments

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barneyjo | Feb 07, 2012, 05:41 PM EST
I am heartened to hear that Marie Collins will speak at this gathering. A more eloquent and courageous survivor of clerical abuse, you will not find.

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Gearoid4 | Feb 07, 2012, 04:53 PM EST
Yeah, it seems that whatever unprecedented move the Church moves to progress the global fight against the scourge of sex-abuse, will be greeted with the usual begrudging comments from the usual suspects. The Catholic Church is starting the learn the hard lesson earned from clerical cover-ups and denials concerning terrible cases of sex-abuse within their ranks around the world. It was a case of members of national hierarchies acting as as fallible, sinful protectors of an institution rather than as God-graced individuals recognizing the terrible wrongs inflicted by some of their fellow priests. But I think that the Church has reached a watershed with this symposium. None other than Marie Collins, a victim as a child of a predatory priest and a forthright critic of the Church response, has lauded this conference as a very positive development concerning the approach of the Vatican to such matters. She spoke today during one of the sessions in front of scores of bishops, detailing her own horrific experiences as well as giving them the wisdom that she has gleaned from her previous work campaigning on behalf of victims.

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eiriamach | Feb 07, 2012, 03:25 PM EST
SingleDonald, in 1903, Pope St Pius X forbade women to sing in church. Some EF Catholics, already grateful to the Vatican for removing female altar servers from their masses, are trying to restore the all-male choir. Yes, John XXIII, where is that window you tried to open in the Church? Triple-sealed and covered over with bricks well mortared by SSPX and other Medievophiles.

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SingleDonald | Feb 07, 2012, 02:44 PM EST
hybernia, Sadly, the Church used to do just that! I learned that some boys who sang in the Vatican choir were subject to this abominable practice, so that they could continue to sing soprano, indefinitely! You think the Church could have found girl/women singers, for that role?!! Mercifully, Pope John XXIII, bless his soul, ordered this practice be discontinued in 1959, his 1st full year as pope. Maybe HE should be considered for canonization to sainthood. Besides stopping an unspeakable practice, it was Pope John who brought about Vatican II, and started reaching out to people of different faiths. Too bad he was only Pope for 4 1/2 years.

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TayandCake | Feb 07, 2012, 02:35 PM EST
this church rots, let it devour itself. Nobody needs it

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Murph46 | Feb 07, 2012, 01:48 PM EST
Granma always said Never let the fox guard the henhouse!

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hybernia | Feb 07, 2012, 01:46 PM EST
The one and only way to stop paedophilia in the church is to castrate the all.

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CelticQueenUSA | Feb 07, 2012, 01:44 PM EST
I hope they have some openminded learned people there besides themselves!

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CaptainCon | Feb 07, 2012, 01:41 PM EST
Personally I'm all agog to hear what may emerge from this round of priests and nuns trying to look astonished just once more that there should be 'painful happenings' involving their clergy. Will there be a new 'cause' of degeneration among priests? We've been offered 'satan', the 1960's, secular culture, the victims themselves have been blamed, will the fickle finger of the Vatican fall next upon the devilish workings of Tom and Jerry cartoons or perhaps weird rays from the cathode tubes of television sets? If it wasn't such a serious subject these loons would have been laughed off the planet by now. Prepare for another mawkish press statement indicating that the church is wery, wery, sowwy and beside it wasn't their fault because it was the [insert favourite lunacy here].

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Collette2 | Feb 07, 2012, 01:16 PM EST
Forget the "girlie" reference, but you are correct about being smart enough about the mandatory action for survival. Philadelphia is givng them cause for concern with a precedent being set and a woman judge running with the cesspit of cases before her.

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snakehips | Feb 07, 2012, 01:02 PM EST
Not for nothing, but doesn't the Pope really look "girlie" in the picture in this article?

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snakehips | Feb 07, 2012, 11:01 AM EST
The Church is smart enough to know that such an action is mandatory towards their getting off the slippery slope of survival that this dilemna has presented. Victims of the abusive clergy and religious will never think anything is good enough to make up for the abuse thrust upon them, can't say I blame them. The Church, however, has been forced to confront this issue and help prevent it from ocurring again if it is to remain a viable social institution at the very least. This in itself is a positive development.

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eiriamach | Feb 07, 2012, 10:16 AM EST
Portia777, young children do have sexual awareness and sexual impulses. That's one reason why sexual abuse is so traumatic to children and why they so often repress abuse incidents for years. It takes growing-up years to learn what forms of sexual interaction a society approves. If children are sexually victimized at an early age, they invariably have difficulties which intensify as they grow up. So the USA will not legalize pedophilia; it isn't happening. The North American Man/Boy Love Association is a fringe group opposed by gay communities as well as parents and other sane people. And Kinsey's work provides no excuses for pedophilia although some Catholics have tried to blame the sexual transgressions of priests on him.

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merefalow | Feb 07, 2012, 09:53 AM EST
brilliant,after two thousand years they are just getting round to recognizing they have a PROBLEM.now they are going to DISCUSS IT.ANY CHANCE OF ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING TO STOP IT,APART FROM THAT,THEY ARE ACTUALLY EXPERTS ON THE SUBJECT.

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Portia777 | Feb 07, 2012, 09:20 AM EST
The Vatican says pedophilia is wrong, but child rape by a man of god is ok. We have to study canon law and the words used to understand how they use deceptive intelligence to make wrong right and right wrong. Remember molestation of children is a sacred ritual in the Catholic church. We also have to consider USA now attempting to legalise pedophilia too with their conference. Kinsey has helped the men of god too saying all babies are sexual from birth.

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