Bishop admits ignoring abuse cases, The Pope’s Duty

Bishop admits ignoring abuse cases 09 Jul 2010 Germany's senior Roman Catholic bishop Robert Zollitsch has admitted his mistakes in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse against an alleged pedophile priest. The Archbishop of Freiburg and head of the German Bishops Conference said on Friday that he should have probed more intensely the sexual abuse accusations laid against a priest, who is believed to have molested boys when he worked in the town of Oberharmersbach from 1968 to 1991, AP reported. "I was shocked about the unfathomable extent of the abuse in Oberharmersbach, which has become apparent only in recent months," said Zollitsch, who was diocese staff manager at the time and responsible for priest placements. According to a statement issued by the diocese, Zollitsch also met with victims and their families, delivering apologies to those whose lives have been shattered by sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church over the past months. The statement has pointed to accusations against 44 other priests in the first six months of 2010. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134100&sectionid=351020604




Editorial: The Pope’s Duty 7/8/10
When rolling scandal forced the American Catholic bishops conference to take action against pedophile priests, the prelates issued a tough policy requiring accused child molesters be reported immediately to secular authorities. This mandate finally acknowledged that crimes against children should take priority over bureaucratic church policies that served to cloak rogue priests and bishops in a fog of ecclesiastical evasion.
Eight years after the American church’s overdue order, it is shocking that Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican have not yet applied it to the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The pedophilia scandal has erupted in other nations, leaving parents concerned about a repetition of the harrowing experience in America, where more than 700 priests had to be dismissed across a three-year period. Yet the Vatican is reportedly working on new “guidelines” — not mandates. They are likely to fall short of zero-tolerance and other requirements in the American church that parishes and communities be alerted to abusers. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/opinion/09fri3.html