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	Newly Released Document Shows Vatican Knew of Sex Abuse 50 Years Ago Uprising Radio April 2, 2010 http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=12953 [with audio] http://www.archive.org/download/DailyDigest-040210/2010_04_02_abuse.mp3 The international scandal around Pope Benedict and his knowledge of sex abuse cases in Germany and the United States, is not going away. Last week news surfaced of the Vatican’s decision to not defrock a Wisconsin-based priest who was known to have abused hundreds of hearing-impaired boys in the 1950s and 60s. Before being made Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the office overseeing misconduct by priests. The global firestorm over what he knew and/or failed to do, has culminated in some calling for him to step down as Pope even as some in the Catholic press are charging that the Pope is being unfairly targeted. A federal lawsuit filed in a Louisville, Kentucky court is attempting to hold the Pope responsible and question him about clergy abuse. But as a head-of-state, Pope Benedict enjoys immunity. On Wednesday the Associated Press obtained a letter written in 1963 to then Pope Paul VI by the head of a Catholic order, urging him to remove pedophile priests from active ministry. The letter, which suggests that the Vatican has known about the sexual abuse for more than 50 years, was among hundreds of documents given to the press by attorneys for victims of abuse here in California. Thousands of similar documents were to be made public in 2007 as part of a $660 million settlement with the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, gathered this week outside Our Lady of the Angels church in downtown LA, protesting the Pope’s handling of pedophile priests and the on-going delay in releasing documents about the cover-ups. GUESTS: Anthony DeMarco, attorney representing hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse, Joelle Casteix, member of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
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