HE WAS MARRIED AND HAD CHILDREN.
DEACONS, BISHOPS AND PRESBYTERS OF THE EARLY CHURCH WERE QUITE OPENLY MARRIED.
WHY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH INITIALLY OR CURRENTLY INSISTS ITS PRIESTS AND NUNS ALL BE CELIBATE IS A TRUE MYSTERY.
THERE IS NO FOUNDATION TO BUILD THAT IDEA UPON.
SEVERAL POPES HAD WIVES.
Pope Hormisdas, Pope Adrian II, Pope John XVII, Pope Clement IV, Pope Honorius IV.
SEVERAL MORE HAD ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN BY WOMEN THEY DID NOT MARRY (prior to their ordination).
Pope Pius II, Pope Innocent VIII, Pope Clement VII.
WHILE THOSE MEN ENGAGED IN SEXUAL ACTIVITY BEFORE THEY "RECEIVED HOLY ORDERS", THE FOLLOWING SIRED CHILDREN AFTER BEING ORDAINED.
Pope Julius II, Pope Paul III, Pope Gregory XIII, Pope Leo XII.
THE FOLLOWING, LONGER LIST IS OF THOSE WHO HAD SEXUAL AFFAIRS WITH EITHER WOMEN OR MEN (Actually, half had homosexual lovers, half had female lovers) AND/OR SIRED CHILDREN WHILE WEARING THE PAPAL CROWN: Pope Sergius III, Pope John X, Pope John XII, Pope Benedict IX, Pope Paul II, Pope Sixtus IV, Pope Alexander VI (perhaps the most infamous), Pope Leo X, Pope Julius III.
A VERY GOOD ARTICLE ABOUT MARRIED POPES AND THE FACT THAT PRIESTS WHO MARRY (ONE OUT OF THREE IN THE U.S. HAVE MARRIED) CAN STILL PERFORM AS PRIESTS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CAN BE FOUND <HERE>.
THAT ARTICLE IS BY A MARRIED AMERICAN CATHOLIC PRIEST.
"History fully supports a married priesthood.
For the first 1200 years of the Church’s existence, priests, bishops and 39 popes were married.
Celibacy existed in the first century among hermits and monks, but it was considered an optional, alternative lifestyle.
Medieval politics brought about the discipline of mandatory celibacy for priests."
THE POINT OF MY SAYING ALL OF THE ABOVE IS THAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS NOT BEGUN AS A CHURCH THAT REQUIRED CELIBACY, AND THE FACTS OF NON-CELIBACY ARE SO WIDELY KNOWN THAT TO HIDE THE FACT OF SEXUAL ACTIVITY OF ITS PRIESTS, OR EVEN ITS POPE, WHETHER HETEROSEXUAL OR HOMOSEXUAL IN NATURE, IS MORALLY WRONG, CRUEL, AND HYPOCRITICAL TO A WHOLE NEW DEGREE.
THAT SUCH HAS BEEN HIDDEN HAS CAUSED UNTOLD SUFFERING AND COUNTLESS RUINED LIVES.
THE FACTS WILL NOT GO AWAY BY HIDING OR DENYING THE FACTS.
BY CONTINUING TO DEMAND CELIBACY AND COVER UP THE PRESENCE WITHIN THE CHURCH OF NON-CELIBATES, FROM THE PRIESTHOOD TO THE PAPACY, IS DISTURBINGLY MALICIOUS AND DESTINED TO CONTINUE ABUSES AND SCANDALS WITHIN THE CHURCH, AND WILL ADVERSELY, EVEN CRIMINALLY, AFFECT THE LIVES OF YET OTHER THOUSANDS OR MILLIONS WHO HAVE BEEN SEXUALLY ABUSED BY "MEN IN HIDING" WITHIN THE CHURCH, THOSE HIDING THE FACT OF THEIR NON-CELIBATE, ACTIVE DESIRE FOR SEXUAL ENCOUNTERS.
NEW YORK TIMES
BERLIN — At least 231 children who sang in a boys’ choir led for 30 years by the brother of former Pope Benedict XVI were abused over a period of almost four decades, a lawyer investigating reports of wrongdoing said Friday.
The lawyer, Ulrich Weber, who was commissioned by the choir to look into accusations of beatings, torture or sexual abuse, said he thought that the actual abuse was even more widespread.
At a news conference in Regensburg, Bavaria, where the choir traces its roots to the year 975, Mr. Weber estimated that from 1953 to 1992, every third member of the choir and an attached school suffered some kind of physical abuse.
He attributed the beatings and other mistreatment mostly to Johann Meier, director of a lower school attached to the choir from 1953 until his retirement in 1992. Mr. Meier died suddenly later that year, Mr. Weber said. A 1987 investigation of reported abuse did not prompt the choir’s leaders to remove Mr. Meier or take other action, the lawyer said.
Asked whether Benedict’s brother, the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, who conducted the Regensburg choir from 1964 to 1994, had known of the abuse, Mr. Weber said, “After my research, I must assume so.”
Father Ratzinger, who turns 92 this month, is the older brother of Joseph Ratzinger, who served as pope from April 2005 until he stepped down on Feb. 28, 2013, saying he was too frail to fulfill the full range of his duties. Now known as the pope emeritus, he still lives in the Vatican; his brother resides in Regensburg.
Mr. Weber noted that, as conductor of the choir, Father Georg Ratzinger sat on a three-person supervisory body, along with the directors of the high school and the boarding school attached to the choir, that was supposed to oversee the lower school where Mr. Meier worked.
Mr. Weber started investigating the Regensburger Domspatzen, as the choir is known, in 2015 and said he had interviewed dozens of victims and figures in charge. He said at least 40 of the 231 abuse cases also involved sexual violence, “from fondling to rapes.” Most cases are too old for legal action now, he said.
The choir has been run since 1994 by Ronald Buchner, who is not associated with the Roman Catholic Church.
The first accusations of physical punishments and sexual abuse in the choir surfaced in 2010, in connection with other reported abuses in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, Belgium and Austria. The Diocese of Regensburg last year spoke of 72 victims and offered about $2,700 in compensation.
Mr. Weber said that after his report Friday, at least eight people who had not previously come forward with accusations of abuse had contacted him. "
THE VATICAN KNEW MORE THAN PREVIOUSLY ADMITTED.
THE VATICAN KNEW MORE THAN PREVIOUSLY ADMITTED.
"MUNICH — The future Pope Benedict XVI was kept more closely apprised of a sexual abuse case in Germany than previous church statements have suggested, raising fresh questions about his handling of a scandal unfolding under his direct supervision before he rose to the top of the church’s hierarchy.
An initial statement on the matter issued earlier this month by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising placed full responsibility for the decision to allow the priest to resume his duties on Cardinal Ratzinger’s deputy, the Rev. Gerhard Gruber.But the memo, whose existence was confirmed by two church officials, shows that the future pope not only led a meeting on Jan. 15, 1980, approving the transfer of the priest, but was also kept informed about the priest’s reassignment.
The case of the German priest, the Rev. Peter Hullermann, has acquired fresh relevance because it unfolded at a time when Cardinal Ratzinger, who was later put in charge of handling thousands of abuse cases on behalf of the Vatican, was in a position to refer the priest for prosecution, or at least to stop him from coming into contact with children.
The German Archdiocese has acknowledged that “bad mistakes” were made in the handling of Father Hullermann, though it attributed those mistakes to people reporting to Cardinal Ratzinger rather than to the cardinal himself.
Church officials defend Benedict by saying the memo was routine and was “unlikely to have landed on the archbishop’s desk,” according to the Rev. Lorenz Wolf, judicial vicar at the Munich Archdiocese. But Father Wolf said he could not rule out that Cardinal Ratzinger had read it.
According to Father Wolf, who spoke with Father Gruber this week at the request of The New York Times, Father Gruber, the former vicar general, said that he could not remember a detailed conversation with Cardinal Ratzinger about Father Hullermann, but that Father Gruber refused to rule out that “the name had come up.”
Benedict is well known for handling priestly abuse cases in the Vatican before he became pope. "
Church officials have their own special name for the language in meeting minutes, which are internal but circulate among secretaries and other diocese staff members, said Father Wolf, who has a digitized archive of meeting minutes, including those for the Jan. 15 meeting. “It’s protocol-speak,” he said. “Those who know what it’s about understand, and those who don’t, don’t.”
Five days later, on Jan. 20, Cardinal Ratzinger’s office received a copy of the memo from his vicar general, Father Gruber, returning Father Hullermann to full duties, a spokesman for the archdiocese confirmed.
Father Hullermann resumed parish work practically on arrival in Munich, on Feb. 1, 1980. He was convicted in 1986 of molesting boys at another Bavarian parish.
On Dec. 20, 1979, Munich’s personnel chief, Father Fahr, received a phone call from his counterpart in the Essen Diocese, Klaus Malangré.
There is no official record of their conversation, but in a letter to Father Fahr dated that Jan. 3, Father Malangré referred to it as part of a formal request for Father Hullermann’s transfer to Munich to see a psychiatrist there.
Sexual abuse of boys is not explicitly mentioned in the letter, but the subtext is clear. “Reports from the congregation in which he was last active made us aware that Chaplain Hullermann presented a danger that caused us to immediately withdraw him from pastoral duties,” the letter said. By pointing out that “no proceedings against Chaplain Hullermann are pending,” Father Malangré also communicated that the danger in question was serious enough that it could have merited legal consequences.
He dropped another clear hint by suggesting that Father Hullermann could teach religion “at a girls’ school.”
On Jan. 9, Father Fahr prepared a summary of the situation for top officials at the diocese, before their weekly meeting, saying that a young chaplain needed “medical-psychotherapeutic treatment in Munich” and a place to live with “an understanding colleague.”
Father Fahr’s role in the case has thus far received little attention, in contrast to Father Gruber’s mea culpa.
This week, new accusations of sexual abuse emerged, both from his first assignment in a parish near Essen, in northern Germany, and from 1998 in the southern German town of Garching an der Alz.
Father Fahr died two years ago. "
[MY NOTE: SOME WHO HAVE BEEN SEXUALLY MOLESTED CANNOT OBTAIN "CLOSURE" UNLESS THE SEXUAL PREDATOR IS PUNISHED. SOME ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN CLOSURE IF THOSE WHO ABUSED THEM DIE BEFORE BEING REVEALED AS PEDOPHILES. SOME NEVER OBTAIN CLOSURE.
A COLLEAGUE ONCE COMMENTED, RATHER GLOOMILY, THAT ANYONE WHO WAS MOLESTED AS A CHILD IS MOLESTED AFRESH EVERY DAY THEY LIVE BECAUSE MEMORIES NEVER FADE.
HE WAS CORRECT.]
[MY NOTE: SOME WHO HAVE BEEN SEXUALLY MOLESTED CANNOT OBTAIN "CLOSURE" UNLESS THE SEXUAL PREDATOR IS PUNISHED. SOME ARE UNABLE TO OBTAIN CLOSURE IF THOSE WHO ABUSED THEM DIE BEFORE BEING REVEALED AS PEDOPHILES. SOME NEVER OBTAIN CLOSURE.
A COLLEAGUE ONCE COMMENTED, RATHER GLOOMILY, THAT ANYONE WHO WAS MOLESTED AS A CHILD IS MOLESTED AFRESH EVERY DAY THEY LIVE BECAUSE MEMORIES NEVER FADE.
HE WAS CORRECT.]
POPE BENEDICT AND THE PEDOPHILIA SCANDAL: A TIMELINE
Already accused of assisting the cover-up of abuses in his native Germany, Benedict is facing new charges that — as long ago as the 1960s — he failed to defrock a culpable Milwaukee priest.
Here's a timeline of how accusations of negligence have shadowed Benedict's papacy since he was named Pope:
[NOTE: I WILL LIST JUST A FEW EXCERPTS FROM THIS ARTICLE.]
September 2005: As the Vatican's head of state, the new Pope enjoys immunity against charges of negligence. A Texas civil lawsuit accusing Ratzinger of covering up the abuse of three Houston area boys in the mid-1990s is dropped.
February 3, 2010: Evidence of "systematic" sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Germany begins to emerge. German magazine Der Spiegel reports that "close to 100 priests and members of the laity" are suspected.
March 8: Pope Benedict's brother, Georg Ratzinger, is linked with abuse cases in Germany. Der Spiegel reports sexual abuse at two boarding schools where Ratzinger worked, though the choirmaster is not accused of perpetrating abuses.
March 20: Facing calls for his resignation, Pope Benedict writes an open letter apologizing to victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic priesthood. "You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry," he writes in the "most comprehensive statement yet" on the crisis.
March 24, 2010: The Pope is accused of failing to defrock Lawrence Murphy, a priest who allegedly molested as many as 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin during the 1960s and 70s. A canonical trial to dismiss the priest in 1996 was halted after Murphy personally wrote to Ratzinger to protest the trial because he was in poor health and had "already repented."
The cases have led to a discussion over whether to alter Germany's statute of limitations to allow for the prosecution of priests.
The German scandal comes after the Pope led talks with Irish bishops over allegations of abuse at schools, orphanages and other institutions in Ireland over several decades.
HOMOSEXUALITY IN HIGH VATICAN PLACES.
The Vatican has attacked reports in the Italian media linking Pope Benedict XVI's resignation to the alleged discovery of a network of gay prelates as attempts to influence the cardinals in their choice of a new pontiff.
The Vatican secretariat of state said in a statement: "It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave … that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions."
The Italian daily newspaper La Republica said the pope decided to resign on 17 December – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair.
[There have been newspaper reports of a secret "gay conclave" within the Vatican that visited local gay prostitutes and was thereafter blackmailed.]
Last May Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with stealing leaked papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting.
The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were "united by sexual orientation". It added that some Vatican officials had been subjected to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of a "worldly nature". La Republica said this was a clear reference to blackmail."
THE QUESTIONS OF HIS RESIGNATION AND HIS SECRETARY.
"The damage Benedict XVI has done to the Catholic church and the papacy may be far from over. All I can say about yesterday’s developments is that they seem potentially disastrous and also indicative to me of something truly weird going on underneath all of this.
He said he would quietly disappear to serve the church through prayer and meditation. But we now realize he’s going nowhere. He’s staying in the Vatican’s walls, and retaining the honorific “His Holiness.” He will keep white robes. His full title will be Pope Emeritus. Far from wearing clerical black, returning to the title of Bishop of Rome, and disappearing into a monastery in Bavaria, he’s going to be a shadow Pope in the Vatican. And this, we are told, was his decision.
Benedict’s trusted secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, will be serving both pontiffs — living with Benedict at the monastery inside the Vatican and keeping his day job as prefect of the new pope’s household.
Asked about the potential conflicts, Lombardi was defensive, saying the decisions had been clearly reasoned and were likely chosen for the sake of simplicity. “I believe it was well thought out,” he said.
In a radio interview Gänswein described a day in his life and the life of Ratzinger, now that he is pope:
The pope’s day begins with the seven o’clock Mass, then he says prayers with his breviary, followed by a period of silent contemplation before our Lord. Then we have breakfast together, and so I begin the day’s work by going through the correspondence. Then I exchange ideas with the Holy Father, then I accompany him to the ‘Second Loggia’ for the private midday audiences. Then we have lunch together; after the meal we go for a little walk before taking a nap. In the afternoon I again take care of the correspondence. I take the most important stuff which needs his signature to the Holy Father.When asked if he felt nervous in the presence of the Holy Father, Gänswein replied that he sometimes did and added: ‘But it is also true that the fact of meeting each other and being together on a daily basis creates a sense of “familiarity”, which makes you feel less nervous. But obviously I know who the Holy Father is and so I know how to behave appropriately. There are always some situations, however, when the heart beats a little stronger than usual.’
[ADMITTEDLY, THE ABOVE WEBSITE IS BIASED AND CHEEKY.] ACTUALLY, IT FALLS INTO THE CATEGORY, PERHAPS, OF A "CONSPIRACY THEORY" ARTICLE.]
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST, A CARDINAL
Pope accepts resignation of UK's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, who has been accused of 'inappropriate acts' .
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the UK's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, has resigned as the head of the Scottish Catholic church after being accused of "inappropriate acts" towards fellow priests.
His resignation means the cardinal will not now take part in the election of a successor to Pope Benedict. This will leave Britain unrepresented in the process, as O'Brien was the only cardinal in the British Catholic churches with a vote in the conclave.
Colin Macfarlane, the director of Stonewall Scotland, called for a full inquiry into the claims against the former cardinal. "We trust that there will now be a full investigation into the serious allegations made against ex-cardinal O'Brien," Macfarlane said. "We hope that his successor will show a little more Christian charity towards openly gay people than the former cardinal did himself."
WHY WOULD THE SUCCESSOR DO SO WHEN GAYS HAVE LONG BEEN CONDEMNED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?
"The Catholic Church thus teaches: "Basing itself on sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2357).
THE REAL PROBLEM?
"Of course, the real problem is that the Roman Catholic church expects an entirely unrealistic standard of continence from its priesthood.
Some priests can manage celibacy.
The evidence from all around the world is that most can't. They certainly can't always.
In the developing world, the problem is largely one of priests having unofficial heterosexual families, as Cardinal Tagle of the Philippines – an outside candidate for the papacy – pointed out last week.
In countries where that isn't an available alternative, the priesthood becomes a refuge for gay men – especially in societies where homophobia is the public norm.
The demand that all Catholic clergy should live as if sex were something that only ever happened to other people is one of those. It has outlived its usefulness and is now an engine of cruelty and hypocrisy.
It's a very great shame that O'Brien's fall will be used by the Vatican's enemies of progress to discredit his brave and sensible suggestion last week that the celibacy of the priesthood be reconsidered."
SOLUTIONS?
WHY NOT NOW?
"What the ‘end of celibacy’ would mean to the Catholic church"
"Recently, The Vatican Insider, reported that a group of 26 Italian women had written to Pope Francis, pleading with him to end celibacy, as all of them claimed to be “deeply in love with a priest”. Shortly after, in an interview with La Repubblica, the Pope stated that his consideration of the end of celibacy and ban on marriage, “needs time”, suggesting that “there are solutions and I will find them”.
NEEDS TIME?
AFTER HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF BATTING THIS ABOUT?
WHY NOT A PAPAL EDICT OR SOMETHING SIMILAR?
AFTER ALL, SINCE THE POPE IS CONSIDERED "CHRIST ON EARTH", WOULD ANYTHING HE DECIDED BE ARGUED WITH?
ISN'T "PAPAL INFALLIBILITY" STILL ACCEPTED?
[ In 1895 an article from the Catholic National said this: "The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of flesh."
The Gloss of Extravagantes of Pope John XXII says this: "But to believe that our Lord God the Pope the establisher of said decretal, and of this, could not decree, as he did decree, should be accounted heretical."
In 1996 Pope John Paul II gave his ascent to calling the Pope "Lord" and "Christ on earth":
"...we readily understand the devotion of Saint Francis of Assisi for "the Lord Pope",the daughterly outspokenness of Saint Catherine of Siena towards the one whom she called "sweet Christ on earth".]
IF THAT'S STILL TRUE, FRANCIS COULD MAKE CELIBACY A THING OF THE PAST TODAY.
ONE SHOULD THEN QUESTION WHY HE DOESN'T DO SO?
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