VATICAN CITY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Posted by David Clohessy on March 04, 2013
To understand why so many Catholics and victims are disillusioned with the church hierarchy, consider what happened in Rome yesterday.
— The first action by the College of Cardinals was to draft a thank you message to Pope Benedict. Not a letter to the Magdalene laundry victims in Ireland. Not a letter to the parents in Spain whose babies were sold by nuns. Not to the victims of Cardinal O’Brien in the UK. Not to the African nuns who, years ago, reported being assaulted by priests. Not to family members who lost abused loved ones to suicide. Not to any of the hundreds of thousands who have been victimized as innocent children or vulnerable adults by priests, nuns, bishops, seminarians or other church staff (and often later betrayed by prelates).
— Cardinals heard a talk by the long-time “papal preacher” Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa. According to the Associated Press, in a Roman church in 2010, Cantalamessa “likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to ‘collective violence’ suffered by the Jews.”
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