Cardinal up / Rabbi Down–catholics / Jews on Abuse

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
February 12, 2015

http://christiancatholicism.com/cardinal-promoted-rabbi-resigns-catholics-vs-jews-on-child-abuse/

Jesus was Jewish, not Catholic. He said child abuse was a serious evil that should be punished severely. After Roman Emperor Constantine and his Fourth Century successors began the transformation of the Catholic Church into a “top down absolute monarchy”, too many popes, up to and including Pope Francis, lost their way on following Jesus’ Jewish mandate to protect children. Pope Francis and his Cardinals are this week working on the pope’s top priority — fine tuning the top down and unaccountable management structure apparently to maximize papal power and wealth. This structure is clearly contradicted by Jesus’ mandate for a leadership that serves, not dominates, that was mainly followed by early Christians for over three centuries.

THE CATHOLIC ANSWER FIRST. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has found (2/11/15) that Cardinal George Pell and the Sydney Catholic Archdiocese repeatedly failed in their dealings with Sydney abuse victim John Ellis.

After Pell testified before the Royal Commission, Pell moved quickly to Rome to become the top money man in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis had rewarded his Australian service by making him head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy. He lives in luxury in his palatial Roman “guest house”, Domus Australia, renovated with $30 million of Australian donations.

Cardinal Pell is headlining meetings this week in Rome with Pope Francis and all the world’s Cardinals. If Pope Francis is serious about holding Bishops to account, Pell must be fired pronto, not promoted and honored. Otherwise, the pope is making a mockery of Jesus’ mandates about protecting children and serving, not dominating.. Please see “Pope Francis Must Fire Cardinal Pell Now?” here, [Christian Catholicism] and “NY Times Pulls Punches As SNAP Jabs Pope & US Pols On Abuse Ploys“, here, [Christian Catholicism] .

The criticism of Pell comes in a new Royal Commission Report, Report of Case Study 8: Mr John Ellis’s experience of the Towards Healing process and civil litigation. (2/11/15)

The Report found that Cardinal Pell “did not act fairly from a Christian point of view in the conduct of the litigation against Mr Ellis”. (my emphasis)

The Royal Commission examined the treatment of John Ellis, a Sydney lawyer and former altar boy who was abused repeatedly by Father Aidan Duggan between 1974 and 1979. The Report said Ellis, who suffered personally and severely as a result of the sexual abuse in his youth, spent more than a decade seeking compensation, but lost the case on a legal technicality in 2007 when the Court of Appeal ruled the Catholic Church was not an entity that could be sued.

The Report said Ellis had asked for $100,000 for compensation , but was offered $30,000, a sum Cardinal Pell later described as “grotesque” — in other words, much too low. However the Commission Report said the Catholic Church under Pell spent more than $1 million over 12 years fighting John Ellis’s claim, continuing to deny that the abuse had happened, even after Pell had good reason to know Ellis’ claims were true. The Royal Commission handed down 34 findings in the case, including that the Catholic Church repeatedly failed John Ellis in its internal handling of his complaint and during the litigation process.

Pell’s behavior towards Ellis was not only unchristian, it was cruel, inhumane and ruthless.

NOW THE JEWISH ANSWER. As the Royal Commission released its report on Pell, the Director of the ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshiva center in Sydney, Rabbi Yosef Feldman announced his resignation after last week telling a Royal Commission he did not know it was a crime for an adult to touch a child’s genitals.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Rabbi Feldman said he would step down from all responsibilities as the Director on the Board of Management at Yeshiva. No promotion or fine residence in Rome for the rabbi— no room in Pell’s Inn for the rabbi.

“I apologize to anyone in the Rabbinate, the Jewish community and the wider Australian community who may have been embarrassed or ashamed by my views, words, understandings, recordings or emails about child sexual abuse or any other matter,”the rabbi reportedly said.

The rabbi reportedly added: “I have dedicated my life to doing whatever I can to protect and assist all people in need including those who have suffered from any form of abuse, especially children, and it pains me greatly that words that I have expressed have upset victims and their families. In the future I will be more careful with my words, so that they are only a source of pride to the Jewish and General community.

Which religious leaders’ punishment came closer to Jesus’ mandate — the Cardinal’s or the rabbi’s?

Will the Vatican ever again “get” Jesus’ Jewish mandate about protecting children, or is Pope Francis content to reward Pell’s and Cardinals Law’s, Rigali’s, Danneels’, et al.’s misconduct in protecting priest child abusers, and instead just advise Catholics to “spank their children with dignity”.

If Pope Francis fails to act promptly on Pell, it will be about time for Pope Francis to join the ex-Pope and his “convent mate”, George Ganswein, in the Vatican retirement convent, no?

Will Cardinal Parolin, Francis’ likely hand picked successor, be any better however?

Incidentally, although some in the media seem to have begun to awake from their two year Francismania slumber, they are still being stonewalled in Vatican press conferences.Here’s a pertinent part of a relevant excerpt from longtime Vatican journalist, Robert Mickens’ recent Letter from Rome, Where Is the Vatican ‘Transparency’ on Abuse?, cited recently by a blogger. Mickens reportedly writes (in italics):

” … The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors held its first full plenary session in Rome last week under the direction of Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley. They told journalists at a briefing on Saturday they were formulating suggestions for how Pope Francis should make bishops accountable for implementing protection guidelines. As expected, certain survivors’ groups and other critics of the Vatican dismissed this as yet more empty words. That’s unfortunate.”

“But it’s also understandable, especially given the Vatican’s lack of transparency when it comes to dealing with such bishops. The head of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, offered a rare public display (at least for him) of how defensive church officials can be when pressed for more openness. Visibly irritated, he snapped back at an Italian TV journalist who attempted to ask why there was a delay in the trial of Jozef Wesolowski, the defrocked bishop and former papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic who has been charged with sexual abuse of young boys”

“ ‘It has nothing to do [with this briefing],”’the priest said curtly. When she pressed him an aide took the microphone from her and Fr. Lombardi said, ‘Enough! Let’s move on.‘ ” (my emphasis)

“This, too, was unfortunate. The Holy See has publicly dealt with at least four bishops for either committing abuse or trying to cover it up. But there has been no transparency regarding their whereabouts or their status. In addition to Wesolowski, there is also Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who “resigned” in 2010 after admitting to molesting his young nephews. Where is he now? Has he been laicized? The Vatican has not said. Then there is Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who also “resigned,” just before the conclave of 2013 after being accused of sexual harassment by a number of seminarians and priests. Where is he? The Vatican will not say.”

“And, of course, there’s the case of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, who was given a two-year suspended sentence after being criminally convicted for failing to report sexual abuse of minors. The Vatican supposedly carried out an investigation last September and two months later in a TV interview Cardinal O’Malley had this to say about the Finn case: “It’s a question the Holy See must address urgently.” Is it cynical to wonder what in the world transparency and urgency mean in the Vatican? “.

Fr. Lombardi seems to prefer being photographed supportively holding abuse survivor, Marie Collin’s hand, it appears, than doing a professional job, as a press spokesperson responding to reporters fair and relevant questions.

It seems like the priest whom Pope Francis is unwilling to appoint to his commission, Fr. Thomas Doyle, got it about right on the new sex abuse commission. Please see his “… Pope’s new abuse commission is another promise waiting to be broken” .