CANADA
Vancouver Sun
By Tom Sandborn, Special to the Sun June 21, 2013
Will Joseph Ratzinger, (Pope Benedict XVI) who made history earlier this year by becoming the first Roman Catholic pope to resign in nearly six centuries, go on to become the central figure in yet another historic event, a trial of a former pope on charges of aiding and abetting child sexual abuse?
He will if the activists of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, have their way. Together with the Centre for Constitutional Rights, SNAP filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the then pope and other key Vatican figures on Sept. 13, 2011.
Some observers, including Gianluigi Nuzzi, in his book Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict and investigative journalists writing in Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper suggest that his unusual decision to resign may have been prompted in part by the ICC complaint and other scandals.
The ICC complaint alleges that the former pope and the other church leaders are responsible for the sexual abuse of as many as hundreds of thousands of children by Catholic priests, responsible both because the child rapes occurred on their watch as church leaders and, more damningly, because the pope emeritus and his clerical accomplices allegedly took active steps to conceal the ongoing crime wave within the priesthood, swearing victims to secrecy and discouraging co-operation with the police.
The ICC complaint is supported by an enormous file of more than 20,000 documents, all available at http://ccrjustice.org/ICCVaticanProsecution. …
The Trial of Pope Benedict will be featured at a launch party on June 25 at Pat’s Pub & Brewhouse, 403 East Hastings St. Doors at 6:30; reading at 7 p.m. Tom Sandborn lives and writes in Vancouver, where if pressed, he will identify his current religious identity as High Church Secular Druid/Humanist. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at tos@infinet.net
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