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Irish abuse reports at center of case to have Pope Benedict charged with crimes against humanity

Irish reports lead the way by demonstrating how Church enabled abusers

DARA KELLY,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 7:54 AM

Updated Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 7:54 AM

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21 Comments

Pope Benedict XVI

Photo by AP

Reports on the extent and nature of clerical sex abuse in Ireland have formed one of core parts of a new complaint lodged against Pope Benedict XVI by two US victims advocacy groups.

The complaint was then lodged at the International Criminal Court in the Hague last week.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights then visited Ireland at the weekend where a spokesperson confirmed their complaint contained Irish reports, including the Cloyne report and the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny's speech about Vatican's apparent indifference which he made in July.

'Ireland really led the way in helping us have an understanding of how this works and identifying all the practices that are used in different dioceses around the world that have continued and enabled the sexual violence,' Pamela Spees, human rights lawyer, told the Irish Times.

The groups 20,000-page dossier will attempt to hold both the Holy See and the pope legally responsible for decades of abuse by priests in multiple countries.

'When you look at it all together, it really does set out very clearly that everyone is conforming to policy. There is a lot for them to look at and we hope they look at it carefully,' Spees added.

The founding member of SNAP, US clerical abuse survivor Peter Isley, told the Times that the extensive details in the Irish reports are stunning. On reading them, he said, it would be hard to imagine the Vatican won't eventually be brought before an international criminal court.

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'It is really hard to overestimate how victims in the United States are watching and applauding survivors and the Government here and others in making truly historic change,' Isley added.

'Somewhere in the world an international authority aside from the Vatican has to start looking at these crimes,' he continued.

The survivors groups will now wait to see whether the International court will take on the case. Some commentators have speculated it was unlikely to since many of the crimes took place before 2002.

Nster.com

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21 Comments

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Bernadett | Sep 28, 2011, 08:45 AM EDT

I think this is a great idea.

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stanJames | Sep 22, 2011, 09:57 PM EDT

Looking at all the crimes mentioned, lets add more onto the church. the anything but HOly Inquisition of burning people at the stake by the hundreds of thousands as people began to question the church..........the christian - meaning catholic crusades against muslims that killed tens of millions. No wonder they developed their own nut cases.......the hatred of Jews that ultimately led to hitler gaining power and the HOlocaust by that still unexcommunciated monster........If hte ICC / Hague had any teeth, the church would be gone, period. Its heirarchy for the most part in Jail for many crimes against humanity. Including the hiding of molestation all voer the world

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Collette2 | Sep 22, 2011, 04:59 AM EDT

eiriamach, your 5:57, comment is spot on.

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eiriamach | Sep 21, 2011, 06:16 PM EDT

How has the Pope dealt with Maciel? Not by removing him from the priesthood, not by putting him on trial for his MANY acts of sexual abuse, not by holding him accountable even under canon law, but only by prohibiting his public speaking engagements! From NCR: "The [Maciel] case could also call into question the action of Benedict XVI, who as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith stopped the case against Maciel in 1999. However, he reactivated the case in 2004 and ultimately approved the disciplining of Maciel.... A senior Vatican official told NCR that the decisive break came only in late 2004, when a number of additional accusers came forward. Prior to that, he said, both John Paul and then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, were operating on the assumption that the charges were not justified." Despite the fact that complaints of Maciel's sexual abuse came from dozens of alleged victims (who were routinely denied a hearing by Cardinal Ratzinger), with several claiming to be his children, "On May 20, 2005, the Secretariat of State under Sodano released a statement indicating there was no canonical case against Maciel, nor was one foreseen. It is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, however, that has responsibility for sex abuse cases, and the congregation continued its inquest." In a bit of irony, John L. Allen, hardly a liberal reporter, writes for NCR, "[Cardinal Franc] Rodé called Maciel 'the instrument chosen by God to carry out one of the great spiritual designs in the church of the 20th century.'" Ouch!

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eiriamach | Sep 21, 2011, 05:57 PM EDT

From Amnesty International online: "by the year’s end the Holy See had again failed to submit its second periodic report on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ***due in 1997,*** and the initial report on the UN Convention against Torture, ***due in 2003.***" Amnesty International reiterates what we all now know: "Canon law does not include an obligation for Church authorities to report cases to civil authorities for criminal investigation. Secrecy is mandatory throughout the proceedings [against an accused priest]." In fact, in privileging the accused priest's "good name" beyond the requirements of justice, canon law makes it incumbent on bishops not to expose them to investigations that can become public; thus, canon law frustrates and impedes civil authorities' investigations. Yes, the current Pope has acknowledged abuses and apologized for them, but has not reformed the curia or canon law to make the problem unlikely to continue or ever to hand over abusers to civil law. He has protected himself by telling bishops not to disobey civil law. But he has also, through accomplices like Hoyos and Storero in letters to bishops, and in the Vatican's Response to the Cloyne Report, insisted that canon law is above civil law and that bishops are to implement canon law fully "to safeguard the dignity of every person." They have instructed bishops to protect the dignity of the accused and to act in everything "for the good of the Church." Under such conditions, victims can have little hope of a hearing, and outraged laypeople can have little hope of seeing justice done.

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Gearoid4 | Sep 21, 2011, 01:44 PM EDT

Irishphotograph, your grasp of the foundation and development of the Church is poor to say the least. Christ gave the keys of authority(Matthew 16:18) to Peter to lead the global Church which was mandated to spread the Good news. Peter's present successor, namely Pope Benedict XV1 is tasked with doing the same, which he does whether from the balcony at his residence in the Vatican or abroad with great articulacy and persistence.

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Gearoid4 | Sep 21, 2011, 01:40 PM EDT

The attempts to implicate Pope Benedict XV1 in a world-wide conspiracy, personally led by him form the Vatican, will not wash, because it goes against the pattern of reform that he has initiated to tackle the terrible plague of child abuse, since his days as Cardinal head of the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith in 2001. Last year he considerably tightened up canon law to prevent proven abusers escaping severe canonical penalties. In 2005 he battled against internal pressure within the Vatican, to successfully penalize Fr Macial, the founder of the Legion of Christ religious order, who was proven to have abused seminarians and minors. There is no doubt that a corrupt culture of clerical cover-ups and evasion did characterize the reactions of some global hierarchies to these scandals. Some heads of Vatican Congregations were not helpful in that respect. Certainly let the guilty be punished at the level of local juridical authorities within the relevant countries, but the present pope is not directly responsible for failures of local hierarchies but rather has tried valiantly to combat this scourge.

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eiriamach | Sep 21, 2011, 12:12 PM EDT

The quoted words below sum up the reason why we should support the case filed at the Hague. Because the culture of protection is still at work, efforts like the crimes-against-humanity case must continue. State governments must bring their own conscience to bear, and end, once and for all, the "outsourc[ing of] sexual morality to the Roman Catholic Church." During the Dáil Éireann Debate, July 20, after the Taoiseach gave his speech, Deputy Catherine Murphy said, "I was angry on reading the Cloyne report, mainly because it shows that the culture has not changed for many senior figures in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. It takes great courage to come forward to give testimony, and I applaud those who did so. For years they were not believed, fobbed off and treated as though they were in a confessional, which was wrong. The law of the State, it appears, was subverted in favour of the Vatican. For too long in this country we have outsourced sexual morality to the Roman Catholic Church. It was an institution that was placed in a privileged position. What is really horrific about the report is that even after all the revelations, there were people within the church who still did not get it. The culture of protection is still alive in the church, and many are still in denial." -- From BishopAccountability. org.

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eiriamach | Sep 21, 2011, 11:47 AM EDT

If much of the abuse took place before 2002, still the cover-up efforts, the refusals to turn over secret Vatican files, continue right to the present moment. This filing is aimed at an ongoing criminal operation! The Cloyne Report documented continuing obstruction of justice in Ireland. The tragedy of justice denied is a continuing crime, and there is no reason to think that it will end if the Vatican is not coerced by some law enforcement or criminal justice body with international jurisdiction. It's astonishing to me that anyone would oppose this effort launched at the Hague. As I read through comments below, I find NOT ONE reason to oppose it. It may fail through lack of jurisdiction, but that is no reason not to try. The fact that OTHER leaders of sovereign governments should also be tried for crimes against humanity is irrelevant to this case against the Vatican and is, if anything, just another reason to go forward with this case in order to establish a precedent. There should be a court with international jurisdiction for cases such as the sexual abuse crimes and cover-ups, as well as the Bush assaults on Iraqis. At the very least, the filing of this case keeps the spotlight on the Vatican's and bishops' efforts to protect abusive priests from prosecution and makes it more difficult for Church officials to continue as usual.

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McNamara31 | Sep 21, 2011, 10:05 AM EDT

Trealach.. Back in 2002 in Boston when no one was helping the first reported victims of abuse Snap and VOTF began. When the Vatican conveniently snatched up Cardinal Law and moved him to Rome and surrounded him with the protection of the Vatican; these groups along with the Boston Globe worked on behalf of the victims. Your comment does them and their good work an injustice.

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Trealach | Sep 20, 2011, 09:20 PM EDT

@AngelPrecious - I never denied that Kenny is an idiot, neither have I denied that his side-kick Eamon Gillmore is also an idiot. I have readily admitted that as of now we are governed by an incredible bunch of idiots, but none of that alters the FACT that George Bush IS THE Village Idiot. A person who indulges in the annihilation of a country chasing something which the WORLD KNEW and TOLD him did NOT exist, is nothing else but an Insane Village Idiot and should be brought before the International Criminal Court. As for Snapjudy - thank you for the phone number and email address, at least we now know where to find you after you have finished making a complete fool of yourself. I have a feeling that someone will bring a counter-suit for ABUSE and FRAUD by you and SNAP.

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Collette2 | Sep 20, 2011, 05:21 PM EDT

I wonder if Geoffrey Robertson QC and Fr Tom Doyle will put their weight behind this effort. With the former claiming the Holy See can no longer stand up to scrutiny under international law as a soverign state and he should know, makes the situation more interesting. One has to ponder that it took one little stone from David and that story wasn't recorded in Scripture for nought.

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JudyJones | Sep 20, 2011, 02:17 PM EDT

Hopefully anyone who has been harmed by clergy, teachers, employees, or volunteers will contact law enforcement no matter how long ago the abuse happened, do not report to the diocese, they are not the proper officials to be investigating crimes against children. We are supporting the prosecutor for the "International Criminal Court" in the Hague, to investigate the evidence against the pope and 3 high ranking Vatican officials to be held accountable for crimes against humanity. This is the only way to get this abuse and cover up stopped and to protect kids today. To all victims, employees, whistleblowers, who are still scared and silent, there is hope..! If you have evidence or documents, please contact SNAP or the CCR, "Center for Constitution Rights", so that it too can be turned over to the ICC prosecutor at the Hague in the Netherlands. Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 1-636-433-2511 snapjudy@gmail.com "Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests"

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AngelPrecious | Sep 20, 2011, 01:47 PM EDT

http://www.alive.ie/story3.html is the article that I was referring to in my last post which was written by an Irish columnist.

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AngelPrecious | Sep 20, 2011, 01:44 PM EDT

ROFL @Irishphotograph, what a warped sense of history. You may believe that but to your own demise. BTW, It seems like the IRISH Cloyne report are what inspired these American "idiots", Trealach. And before calling anyone a village idiot, look to your own leader and the present one in the White House. Now THOSE are "village idiots", not George Bush. There is an interesting article in "Alive" that pretty much looks at the Irish response to the Cloyne Report, the September Issue for the "IDIOTS" that are both trying to bring about this inane act of prosecution against the Pope AND the "idiots" from Ireland that are buying into it without knowing all the facts!

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