Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Pope's Brother - German school clergy abuse, Irish pedophile priest evaded justice

Pope's Brother Denies Sex Scandal While He Ran Boys Choir - Rev. Georg Ratzinger Defends Tenure as Choir Master, Willing to Testify By ANN WISE ROME March 8, 2010 In an interview with an Italian newspaper on Sunday, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, 86, the Pope's older brother, said he knew nothing of abuse, and noted that he was not the head of the choir when the alleged abuse took place....Last month Archbishop Zollitsch apologized for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests after over 100 cases were reported in schools across the country, according to press reports. http://abcnews.go.com/International/popes-brother-speaks-church-abuse/story?id=10042319&nwltr=WN_mostviewedstories_hed4

Pope's brother says slapped pupils at choir school Christopher Lawton Mar 9, 2010 BERLIN (Reuters) The brother of Pope Benedict said in an interview on Tuesday he slapped pupils in the face at a German school where he led the choir, but had been unaware of the brutality of discipline there....The Regensburg diocese is home to one of three Catholic schools in the southern state of Bavaria where the charges of sexual and physical abuse have surfaced recently. The diocese has said one priest abused two boys sexually in 1958 and was sentenced to two years in jail. Another clergyman served 11 months in jail in 1971 for abuse. Other former pupils have said they suffered sexual abuse and excessive beatings and humiliation in the early 1960s by unnamed teachers. German Pope Benedict, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, taught theology at Regensburg University from 1969 to 1977....More than 200 Catholics in the Netherlands have come forward to report alleged sexual abuses by priests, often decades ago. The Dutch Roman Catholic Church said on Tuesday it was asking an independent commission to look into the reports. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6282UR20100309

Pope's brother linked to new claims of child abuse by clergy - Fresh allegations emerge over Bavarian school where Georg Ratzinger led choir for 30 years By Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent 3/9/10 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/popes-brother-linked-to-new-claims-of-child-abuse-by-clergy-1918357.html


How paedophile priest was allowed to evade justice - Former priest Bill Carney was named as one of the worst cases in Dublin's Catholic diocese in the Murphy report into clerical abuse there. However, for the last 10 years he has been free to live quietly in Britain. 3/9/10

Newsnight's Olenka Frenkiel has investigated his case and tracked him down in the Canary Islands....The Murphy report into the cover up by the Catholic Church and Irish state of clerical sex abuse was published in November 2009. It described Carney as "a serial sexual abuser of children, male and female", saying that there had been complaints and suspicions "in respect of 32 named individuals" about him, adding that "there is evidence he abused many more children"....

We now know that complaints about Carney were diverted away from the Irish criminal justice system to Bishop James Kavanagh, a man described by the Murphy Report as someone with "a soft spot for Carney". Kavanagh did what he could to protect Carney from the law to avoid scandal for the Church.

One conscientious policeman, praised in the Murphy Report, did investigate complaints and they came to court. But the press were kept away as Carney pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault and got probation. Six families were paid compensation and Carney was soon back working, with access to children....

In its 40 pages on Carney, the Murphy report said that his was one of the worst cases the commission investigated and that the Church's handling of his case was "nothing short of catastrophic".

"It was inept, self-serving and for the best part of 10 years displayed no obvious concern for the welfare of children," the report said.

In 1992, the Church convicted Carney internally, under Canon law, of child sexual abuse. But this compulsive paedophile refused to leave the parish house. So the Church paid him £30,000 to go away....

Newsnight has established that the Irish authorities knew his address but no-one, either from the Church or the Irish state, thought to warn his new wife about his past, or protect any children who might be at risk.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8556659.stm

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