NPR Morning Edition Saturday to run report on crime victims in Boston, Salesian jury trial begins next week in LA, and is the Pope even relevant?

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By Kay Ebeling

(At the bottom of this post is a copy and pasted version of the New York Times ad placed by VOTF, free of charge on City of Angels Blog.)

I still think it’s suspicious for the Pope to visit the East Coast next week, the same time the jury trial concerning Salesian priests who raped children in Southern California begins in Los Angeles. I even suspect that West Texas law enforcement decided to raid the FLDS compound this week to focus media attention on pedophilia in this one small cult instead of the Catholic Church during the Pope's visit, considering the men there have been raping young girls for decades. Remember, Ratzinger is the lead perpetrator in the worst pedophile ring EVER in the United States and he is meeting with the President and speaking at the UN next week. The level of PR the Catholic bishops can afford CAN manipulate the media, law enforcement, and district attorneys to produce that kind of diversion, especially with their bottomless briefcases full of cash.

On Saturday NPR’s Morning Edition will run a story about the Pope not visiting Boston. Robert Costello from A Matter of Truth said the reporter spent several days meeting with crime victims in their homes and at the Boston NPR station to produce the report.

It looks like questions about Sex Crimes are going to follow the Pope wherever he goes. Hopefully the media will hound him with questions about sex crimes committed by Catholic priests. Wonder if any reporters will wake up and realize that in any city in America with a little digging on bishop accountability and a little work in courthouse records, they’d have a Pulitzer story about Sex Crimes in the Catholic Church.

These pedophile rings constitute organized crime: 5000 pedophile priests and counting identified, 14,000 persons filed civil lawsuits and got settlements, which means there are at least 114,000 more crime victims out here in the world trying to function.

Is anyone even paying attention to the Pope?

In January, the Vatican put out a message for all parishes in the world to start non stop prayer vigils for clergy sex abuse victims. This call for prayer was all but ignored by archdioceses in the United States. New Republic ran this story the first week of January at their website.

1. In "L'Osservatore Romano" on January 5, cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect of the congregation for the clergy, announced that he had sent to bishops, pastors, religious superiors, and seminary rectors all over the world a letter to ask that in every diocese "cenacles" of perpetual Eucharistic adoration be established, with the aim of "sanctifying" priests through prayer.

Among the motivations for the initiative, Hummes explicitly referred to the sexual "sins" committed on the part of a "minimal" but still significant part of the clergy:

"We ask all to do Eucharistic adoration in order to make reparation before God for the grave injury that has been done, and to recover the dignity of the victims. Yes, we wanted to think of the victims, so that they might feel that we are near. They are uppermost in our thoughts; it is important to say this."

Cardinal Hummes's letter has met with a concrete response in many places. In Italy, the first dioceses to institute cenacles of Eucharistic adoration "for the sanctification of priests" have been, in addition to Rome, those of Macerata, Turin, Syracuse, Ragusa, Oristano.

But none in the United States.

So there are supposed to be nonstop prayer vigils going on right now in parishes across the United States.

I called several archdioceses over a period of weeks after that story came out, to see how they were responding to this January 5 edict from the Vatican.

None of the archdiocese even knew what I was talking about.

So who cares what the Pope does or says on his visit? He's irrelevant.

Oh, one more thing, I tried to get a copy of L’Osservatore Romano January 5 sent to me from their back issues office in Baltimore. The person who answered the phone said she’d put one in the mail to me that afternoon. It’s been weeks, it never arrived.

Love the way this church believes in openness and honesty.

THE VOTF NEW YORK TIMES AD:

VOTF ran an ad copied below in the New York Times last week for one day costing VOTF $52,000. (They could have provided City of Angels Blog with a Travel Budget for a year with that money.)

In the ad they say VOTF has these visions for the Catholic Church.

• We envision a Church that is open,
transparent, and accountable.

• We imagine a Church that embraces
the gifts and talents of the laity.

• We dream of a Church governed
by compassion, informed by justice,
empowered by equality, and animated
to act collegially.

I don't get it.

All VOTF members have to do is walk out the door of their churches and look up or down the street.

In every American city there are hundreds of Christian churches that do all of the above, without secrecy or woo-woo mysterious historically entrenched practices designed to make you live in a state of mind control.

Basically, VOTF wants the Catholic Church to turn Protestant. . .

I just don’t get it, why people are paying any attention to the Pope or anything this church does, except to get him and the bishops arrested.

What I don't get is why don't VOTF members just be Protest-ant, protest -- walk out?

HERE IS A COPY OF THE VOTF* FULL PAGE AD:

And I still say the language is way tooooooo bland, bland, bland

The crimes VOTF formed over include sodomy of children by priests, photographing of young girls in sexual situations, drugging children and passing them back and forth between pedophile priests, preying on Catechism classes and permanently damaging children sexually and spiritually, and. . .well here is the ad, see for yourself. Do you think the nature of Sex Crimes in the Catholic Church and our outrage is expressed in these words?

Calling All Catholics to
Transform Our Church

On behalf of all Catholics who share
our desire to help our Church, Voice
of the Faithful presents this message
on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s
visit to the U.S.

Mindful of the many serious challenges
facing our Church today, yet hopeful
of a better tomorrow, VOTF’s 35,000
members seek the transformation
of our beloved Church.

• We envision a Church that is open,
transparent, and accountable.
• We imagine a Church that embraces
the gifts and talents of the laity.
• We dream of a Church governed
by compassion, informed by justice,
empowered by equality, and animated
to act collegially.

But we cannot attain this
transformation until we heal the
wounds still open.

The Moral Crisis We Face Today

Many Catholics know too well the
human suffering and financial costs
associated with the global clergy
sexual abuse crisis. By 2004, in the U.S.
alone, more than 4,300 priests were
alleged to have abused almost 11,000
young people between the years
1950 and 2002.1 Legal settlements
by American dioceses amounted to
$615 million in 2007, and now exceed
$2.3 billion overall.2 Catholic dioceses
have filed for bankruptcy in Alaska,
Arizona, California, Iowa, Oregon, and
Washington. Equally troubling is the
fact that our leaders contributed to
this terrible toll.

How can our Church be a
moral beacon when so many
bishops who repeatedly
transferred known predators
remain in office?

Without justice for the abused and
accountability from the bishops, this
crisis will continue to plague our
Church.

Our Church Faces Many Other
Serious Challenges As Well
The declining number of clergy
jeopardizes the availability of Eucharist.
The laity continue to be excluded from
meaningful participation in decisionmaking.
Catholics — particularly the
youth — are leaving our Church to
join other religions, or no religion at all.
The hopeful vision of Vatican II remains
largely unfulfilled, and deep polarization
exists in our Church about how best
to fulfill our sacred mission.
We seek a lasting, transformed
Body of Christ that serves all
people with compassion, collegiality
and cooperation. We believe in
collaboration among all members
of our Church in order to achieve
this transformation.

The Answer Is Transformation
We seek a transformed Body of Christ,
a Church that both calls upon and
serves all members, lay and ordained
alike, with compassion and integrity.

About Voice of the Faithful

Voice of the Faithful (VOTF)
is a worldwide movement
of concerned mainstream
Catholics formed in 2002
in response to the clergy
sexual abuse crisis. Our
Mission is to provide a
prayerful voice, attentive
to the Spirit, through
which the Faithful can
actively participate in the
governance and guidance
of the Catholic Church.
Our goals are to support
survivors of clergy sexual
abuse, support priests
of integrity, and shape
structural change within the
Catholic Church.

1. The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, 2004.

2. 2007 Survey of Allegations and Costs, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University, 2008.

3. “Internal Financial Controls in the Catholic Church,” Robert West, Ph.D. and Charles Zech, Ph.D., Villanova University, 2007.

Our reformed church would:

Treat survivors with justice and compassion. Pope
Benedict and all our bishops would meet with survivors
of abuse, listen to their stories, and treat them with
respect and compassion. Show them and the world that
we recognize the grave harm our Church has done and
strive to become a source of healing.

Make bishops accountable to the people they serve. Pope Benedict should call for the resignations of those bishops who repeatedly reassigned predator priests. Bishops of integrity should stop blocking settlements, initiate truly independent annual audits, and support revising the laws that govern the statute of limitations.

Protecting our children would become a top priority, beginning with creation of a national database of credibly accused priests. Fair investigation and prompt resolution of allegations is another priority.

Embrace full lay participation. Catholic laity
would embrace our responsibility to assume our
proper place among the people of God. Laity would
be fully involved in the decisions that impact the life
of our parishes and our dioceses, including parish
closings. Our parishes would grow, and our children
and grandchildren would become proud, active
members of our Catholic Church.

Have full financial transparency and
accountability. Every parish would publish annual
financial statements. Every parish and diocese would
have fully engaged finance committees providing
independent perspectives to pastors and bishops.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops would
change financial reporting guidelines into mandatory
requirements. Theft of parish and diocesan funds
would stop, and we would no longer see surveys
reporting that 85% of dioceses responding suffered
embezzlements within the past five years.3
Release the gifts of the Spirit: Fresh spiritual
and theological insights would be embraced and
encouraged. We would facilitate meaningful, positive
change by creating forums and opportunities for
Catholics to express and develop their faith, and
put that faith into action.

To all Catholics, Voice of the Faithful sends this call:

By virtue of your baptism, you are a priestly people. The time has come to stand and to speak out. Out of love for our Church, act today — do your part in
taking responsibility for the growth and
well-being of our Church.

With your help, we can make it happen!

Please go to www.votf.org and sign up to receive
regular updates on what you can do as a Catholic
layperson to transform our Church.

*Voice of the Faithful, PO Box 423, Newton, MA 02464

*****
This copy of the VOTF ad lacks their groovy graphics (a little gray screen over a paragrah here and there), but that is the copy of the VOTF ad that they paid $52,000 to the New York Times to run for one day. . . .

Thank God for my PTSD which allows me to totally forget things I'm angry about a few days later. . .

From LA Superior Court Website: 04/14/2008 at 09:00 am in department 308 at 600 South Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005 Jury Trial (MIANI CASES)

Onward.