BishopAccountability.org

Pope's Silence on Scandal, Lack of Transparency: Analyst

Press TV
May 28, 2012

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/05/28/243457/pope-must-break-silence-on-scandal/

[with video]

The Catholic Church has always had a long history of involvement in illegal activities such as child sex abuse, always covered up by the heads of the Church.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Randy Short, with the Dignity, Human Rights and Peace organization from Washington to further discuss the issue.

The video also offers opinions of two additional guests, the Vatican affairs analyst, Gerard O'Connell from Rome and also, Reverend Dr. Stephen Sizer from the capital city of Tehran. The following is a rough transcript of the interview.

Press TV: The Vatican's own newspaper for one has ignored the story we have been seeing the Pope himself he has not commented on this in the public appearances that he has made up until now. Do you think that this is an appropriate way to handle the scandal?

Short: Well, for the personas that are in the employ of the Holy See, it would not make a lot of sense for you to do exposes on the persons that sign the cheques that you receive pay from.

Now, ethically I guess journalists would be expected to tell the truth but very few newspapers do exposés on their own editorial staff or on their stockholders or their major advertisers. So in this instance the Vatican paper is acting like any other businesses.

I would think that the Pope has to do damage control; I mean he came in, in 2005 on the heels of a tidal wave, a tsunami, of litigation against the Catholic Church.

So he needs to, I guess, gather his forces to correct his house. So perhaps silence in this instance may be golden from his vantage point. It may not seem that way to believers, it may show what many would perceive as a lack of transparency to the laity or to the people who are curious about the goings-on of the Catholic Church.

Press TV: Dr. Short in Washington, the controversial question here, let us face that clearly now and that is the role of Pope Benedict himself. I mean in the case of the child sex abuse scandal earlier on, he was accused of not just remaining silent about this but also attempting inaction to cover up these, rather, allegations; to cover up these crimes that have been made. So what do you think about the role of the Pope himself in all this?

Short: Well, If I can bring your attention to a case in August of 2005. A gentleman by the name of Juan Carlos Patino-Arango, of the Galveston-Houston's Archdioceses brought charges against the current Pope Benedict for covering up the molestation of three boys in Texas.

And the Pope appealed for immunity as a head of state being the head of the Holy See and this was accorded to him by former President George W. Bush.

So in a case where he may have been called on the carpet, at least within the United States, he appealed for an immunity not transparency and even his actions, I would go further to say he was the head, he was in charge of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, he was sort of the clean up man, the fix up person for many, many years. So he comes into the office as a holy father deeply stained.

Whether he directly did it he certainly presided over, so in someway he has something to do with these problems and the Church is hemorrhaging money at least in the United States, it is at least three billion dollars.

We have about six dioceses that have had to file for bankruptcy because they can not survive the weight of litigation for the abuse now that this has become recognized in the legal public as well as in the regular public, people can sue the Church for crimes committed against their children and many such people….

Press TV: Quickly if you can Dr. Short, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former archbishop of Milan said that this scandal should prompt the Church, in his words, to urgently win back the trust of the faithful.

How hard is that going to be? Quickly if you can.

Short: It is going to be very hard if you have persons who are guilty of the very things that they are supposed to police.

Who have moved up in the hierarchy and are in positions of power, there is honor among thieves, there may be honor among abusers as well.

So just stopping the incoming priest or doing personality checks and all these sorts of things for the lower level people does not deal with the rottenness in the head of the organization.

Some of these corruptions are in the head, if those persons are not moved, then what really changes?




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