US Supreme Court deals pedophilia blow for Vatican, human trafficking

also :
Pope causes outrage for condemning church abuse raids in Belgium
Church panel resigns to protest raid
The Catholic Church faces another scandal (Popes)


US Supreme Court deals pedophilia blow for Vatican (AFP) 6/28/10
WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by the Vatican in a landmark case that opens the way for priests in the United States to stand trial for pedophilia. Allowing a federal appeals court ruling to stand, the decision means Vatican officials including theoretically Pope Benedict XVI could face questioning under oath related to a litany of child sex abuse cases. The Supreme Court effectively confirmed the decision of an appellate court to lift the Vatican's immunity in the case of an alleged pedophile priest in the northwestern state of Oregon. The Oregon case, which was filed in 2002, does not directly address questions raised in a separate lawsuit in Kentucky alleging that US bishops are employees of the Holy See.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j_isWYyYa91PA0oeM_aaVurBHDZQ


REDLIGHT, narrated by Lucy Liu, is a powerful and moving documentary about children emerging from lives in which they were trafficked into prostitution. http://www.lexisnexis.com/redlight/index.html


Human trafficking is modern-day slavery
27 - The number, in millions, of trafficked persons in the world.
32 - The estimated global annual profit, in billions US$, of human trafficking.
http://www.lexisnexis.com/redlight/human_trafficking.html


Pope causes outrage for condemning church abuse raids in Belgium - Victims groups say Vatican criticism of police shameful, as pontiff calls raid deplorable and demands church role in investigations 27 June 2010 Groups representing the victims of clerical abuse tonight expressed outrage after the pope criticised raids on the Catholic church by Belgian police. Last week, police raided the home of a retired bishop, opened the grave of at least one archbishop and detained Belgium's nine current serving bishops as they met, seizing their mobile phones and only releasing them after nine hours. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/27/pope-causes-outrage-over-condemnation


Belgium church abuse probe body quits en masse 6/28/10 (AFP) – 13 hours ago
BRUSSELS — A Belgian Catholic Church-backed commission probing hundreds of reported cases of child abuse by priests announced its resignation en masse on Monday, after police raids that angered the pope....Thursday's raids were prompted by new claims of child abuse by members of the Catholic Church in Belgium, one of the countries worst hit by recent revelations of paedophilia by priests in Europe and North America.
Police confiscated phones, computers and the archdiocese's accounting system in a search for documents including any correspondence between alleged victims and the Catholic authorities....The Belgian Church was rocked in April when its longest-serving bishop, 73-year-old Roger Vangheluwe, resigned after admitting sexually abusing a boy for years.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j-z7W98WVMD9DcgBiGsXZjcY9nrQ

Church panel resigns to protest raid
By the CNN Wire Staff June 28, 2010
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/28/belgium.church.raids/


Made in his own image: The Catholic Church faces another scandal - Joseph Ratzinger is having a terrible year. But as the Catholic Church faces yet another scandal, blame is falling on its most popular figure of modern times, Pope John Paul II, writes Peter Popham 28 June 2010
....Maciel was the founder of a highly conservative order called the Legion of Christ, but it has gradually emerged over the years – particularly since his death in 2008 – that he was much else besides: a morphine addict for decades who sexually abused his own seminarians, fathered several children by two mistresses, and then went on to abuse and rape those children. Yet Maciel was greatly favoured by John Paul II, remaining persona grata at the Vatican until nearly the end of his life, and Sodano, like other senior members of the Curia (though not Ratzinger) received large cash gifts from him. Sodano repaid Maciel generously by killing a Vatican investigation into his misdeeds in 1998.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/faith/made-in-his-own-image-the-catholic-church-faces-another-scandal-2012093.html