Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: duemila bambini

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7086738.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=2015164
When John Paul II died five years ago the crowd that packed St Peter’s
Square for his funeral clamoured “Santo subito (Saint now)!” in a
spontaneous tribute to the charisma of the Polish pontiff.
As the faithful marked the anniversary of John Paul’s death on Good
Friday, however, he was being drawn into the scandal over child abuse in
the Catholic church that has confronted his successor, Benedict XVI,
with the worst crisis of his reign.
Allegations that the late pontiff blocked an inquiry into a paedophile
cardinal, promoted senior church figures despite accusations that they
had molested boys and covered up innumerable cases of abuse during his
26-year papacy have cast a cloud over his path to sainthood.
The most serious claims related to Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, an
Austrian friend of John Paul’s who abused an estimated 2,000 boys over
decades but never faced any sanction from Rome.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Groer’s successor, criticised the handling
of that scandal and other abuse cases last week after holding a special
service in St Stephen’s cathedral, Vienna, entitled “Admitting our guilt”.
Schönborn condemned the “sinful structures” within the church and the
patterns of “silencing” victims and “looking away”.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — who became Pope Benedict — had tried to
investigate the abuses as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, according to Schönborn. But his efforts had been blocked by
“the Vatican”, an apparent reference to John Paul.
Asked by The Sunday Times whether John Paul’s role in the cover-up of
abuse should be investigated, Schönborn said: “I have known Pope
Benedict personally during 37 years of amiable acquaintance and I can
say with certainty that ... he made entirely clear efforts not to cover
things up but to tackle and investigate them. This was not always met
with approval in the Vatican.”
The Groer affair became public in 1995 when former pupils of an elite
Catholic school accused him of sexual abuse.
After an outcry, Groer was replaced and made the prior of a convent. He
was never punished and issued only a vague apology in 1998 before
retreating to a nunnery where he lived until his death in 2003. Some of
his victims were offered “hush money” from the church.
Michael Tfirst, 54, one of Groer’s victims, claims to have reported the
abuse to highranking church officials from the 1970s onwards. He says
the church paid him £3,300 in 2004 under a contract that obliged him to
keep quiet.
“There is no question that Ratzinger knew all the details of reports on
abuse within the church, as there is no doubt that John Paul, his
superior, took part in a massive and systematic cover-up,” Tfirst said.
John Paul also faced criticism last week from Poland for protecting
Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, who was accused of abusing trainee priests.
Letters detailing the charges were sent to John Paul’s office and to
Ratzinger in 2000 but were ignored. Paetz resigned in 2002 when the
allegations became public.
Stanislaw Obirek, a Polish theologian and a former Jesuit priest, said:
“I believe John Paul is the key person responsible for the cover-up of
abuse cases because most of it occurred during his papacy. How can
someone who is to blame for this be beatified?”
In America critics pointed out that although Benedict has borne the
brunt of criticism over ignoring the scandal of Father Lawrence Murphy,
accused of molesting 200 deaf boys at a special school in Wisconsin,
Ratzinger had acted on the authority of John Paul.
Another beneficiary of John Paul’s discreet approach was Marcial Maciel
Degollado, a Mexican priest known as Father Maciel, who founded a
conservative religious order. He was accused by former members of abuse
in 1998. John Paul blessed Maciel in the Vatican in late 2004, at a time
when Ratzinger was investigating him. A year after Ratzinger became
pope, the Vatican ordered Maciel to lead “a reserved life of prayer and
penance”, effectively removing him from power.
John Paul was also accused of ignoring controversy over John Magee, a
former private secretary to three popes including the Polish pontiff,
who named him Bishop of Cloyne in 1987. Late last month Magee was forced
to resign after an independent report found that his diocese in Ireland
had put children at risk.
In the Vatican the spiralling allegations have prompted a siege-like
mentality. Father Federico Lombardi, Benedict’s spokesman, declined to
comment on John Paul’s handling of abuse cases. “We’re busy with Easter
celebrations, let’s focus on the homilies,” he said.
The Polish cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul’s private secretary for
four decades, rejected as “unfair and misleading” any attempt to
distinguish between the approaches of the two popes to abuse cases.
“Benedict is strongly committed to clearing things up, like a father,”
Dziwisz told La Repubblica, the Italian newspaper.
In Europe there are signs of the faithful turning their backs on the
church in large numbers. In Austria alone more than 20,000 Catholics
left the church in March.
In America there was a furious response by Jewish groups to a Good
Friday sermon by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, Benedict’s personal
preacher, in which he compared the wave of attacks on the church to
anti-Semitism.
Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, of the American Jewish Committee, protested: “So
far I haven’t seen Saint Peter burn. The Vatican is trying to turn the
persecutors into victims.”
John Paul was expected to be beatified in October but the process may be
delayed. A French nun who appeared to have been miraculously cured of
Parkinson’s disease through his intercession has reportedly been found
to be suffering from a different illness.
Giancarlo Zizola, a leading expert on the Vatican, said the church
officials who had gathered documents and questioned witnesses about John
Paul’s suitability for sainthood had examined “negative” aspects of his
papacy, including his handling of abuse cases.
“There’s no chance of Benedict delaying the beatification because of the
abuse scandal,” Zizola said. “On the contrary, I expect he’ll accelerate
it.”

 decades but never faced any sanction from Rome.
2000 da solo ? E che cazz'è? Il nano sarà verde d'invidia....
Comunque dubito che il porco fascista JP II verrà toccato. Forse si
dimette Ratzinger, ma il maiale polacco ha meriti anticomunisti troppo
grandi per essere trascinato come merita nei postriboli della memoria
storica.

 Quotoh‭
quoti cosa? Che il papa merita comunque di essere fatto santo, perchè
anche un milione di bimbi stuprati vale meno della sconfitta del
comunismo e del sostegno di praticamente tutti i regimi fascisti
esistenti durante il suo pontificato?