How pitiful is this; a priest molesting deaf boys at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, Wisconsin. The poor boys could not hear the pedophile coming and then could not scream loud enough when he was molesting them. The boys covered their heads with their blankets and cried.
The culprit was the Reverend Lawrence Murphy who was a powerful priest there from 1950 to 1974.
This is like one of those old Bing Crosby movies (Boy’s Town) but with a sick twist.
The reason I am even bringing this case up is the direct relationship of this case with the current Pope. Benedict was then Ratzinger the Cardinal and in charge of reviewing complaints about pedophilic priests, etc.
Evidence suggests that the Pope not only did nothing about the complaints against Murphy but may have blocked a secret canonical trial that may have at least dismissed Murphy from his position (and telling the cops about this never entered their minds at all).
So here we have what you might call “a situation”. Is the Vatican a sovereign country or entity and therefore its members protected from local prosecution? Can the Pope be tried by the Vatican and dismissed if found guilty? The Papacy has a long history and I actually took a course on Papal history so I know there have been some pretty bad actors in the Papal office but I don’t remember any being removed from office; I think a few were assassinated but not legally removed.
I feel this whole sex abuse cover-up by the Vatican is too big to be ignored by the Vatican itself or the Catholic world at large. Yes, the Vatican has been very successful at hiding skeletons in closets for many, many years (centuries) but could this be a skeleton they no longer can hide?
Here again the Vatican can just ignore the entire hubbub and say they only answer to God so bite my ass; so the only way to reach the Vatican and force it to take responsibility for its actions or lack of is for the Catholic faithful of the world to rise up and demand action and change. I do not feel optimistic that this could happen but I feel somewhat buoyed by Germany’s PM Merkel saying she is going after the priestly criminals and will make them pay.
This whole situation is historic and as you have noticed, I am fascinated by it because as a history nut and especially a Catholic history nut, this is my ultimate cup of tea and I will be staying close to the action…
The culprit was the Reverend Lawrence Murphy who was a powerful priest there from 1950 to 1974.
This is like one of those old Bing Crosby movies (Boy’s Town) but with a sick twist.
The reason I am even bringing this case up is the direct relationship of this case with the current Pope. Benedict was then Ratzinger the Cardinal and in charge of reviewing complaints about pedophilic priests, etc.
Evidence suggests that the Pope not only did nothing about the complaints against Murphy but may have blocked a secret canonical trial that may have at least dismissed Murphy from his position (and telling the cops about this never entered their minds at all).
So here we have what you might call “a situation”. Is the Vatican a sovereign country or entity and therefore its members protected from local prosecution? Can the Pope be tried by the Vatican and dismissed if found guilty? The Papacy has a long history and I actually took a course on Papal history so I know there have been some pretty bad actors in the Papal office but I don’t remember any being removed from office; I think a few were assassinated but not legally removed.
I feel this whole sex abuse cover-up by the Vatican is too big to be ignored by the Vatican itself or the Catholic world at large. Yes, the Vatican has been very successful at hiding skeletons in closets for many, many years (centuries) but could this be a skeleton they no longer can hide?
Here again the Vatican can just ignore the entire hubbub and say they only answer to God so bite my ass; so the only way to reach the Vatican and force it to take responsibility for its actions or lack of is for the Catholic faithful of the world to rise up and demand action and change. I do not feel optimistic that this could happen but I feel somewhat buoyed by Germany’s PM Merkel saying she is going after the priestly criminals and will make them pay.
This whole situation is historic and as you have noticed, I am fascinated by it because as a history nut and especially a Catholic history nut, this is my ultimate cup of tea and I will be staying close to the action…
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