Vatican Cover Up

November 2020: After two years, publication of the  Vatican internal investigation into former Cardinal McCarricks sexual abuse, has revealed a cover up by bishops, arch bishops and 3 popes.

By the 1990s, there was growing evidence pointing to Mc­Carrick’s misconduct: A handful of seminarians confided in a New Jersey bishop, describing how McCarrick would devise ways to share a bed with them involving explicit sexual activity. Anonymous letters were also sent to various prelates, including Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, warning of McCarricks  “proclivity for young boys.” O’Connor, in several sympathetic notes, alerted McCarrick, apologizing for sending the information saying: “This stuff drives me crazy but I would want you to do the same for me.” The Vatican’s then-ambassador to the United States then “destroyed” his copies of the letter.

Pope John Paul ll  not only knew about and overlooked sexual misconduct claims against McCarrick but promoted him. Although informed in writing that McCarrick shared a bed with young seminarians over whom he had authority, the pope chose to believe Mc Carricks written denials in a letter in which he stated that he  had never had “sexual relations with any person”.  McCarrick was then appointed arch bishop of Washington in 2001.

A  formidable church fundraiser,  McCarrick gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in church money to powerful Catholic clerics over nearly two decades, including those in the Vatican charged with assessing the misconduct claims against him. From 2001, McCarrick sent checks totalling more than $600,000 to clerics in Rome and elsewhere, including Vatican bureaucrats, papal advisers and two popes, according to church ledgers and former church officials. Several of the more than 100 recipients were directly involved in assessing misconduct claims against McCarrick. Meanwhile speculation continues, regarding McCarricks involvement in the $200 million Papal Foundation, which apparently served as a secret slush fund for corrupt Vatican enterprises, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Predictably, the report states there was no evidence “that Mc­Carrick’s customary gift-giving and donations impacted significant decisions made by the Holy See regarding McCarrick during any period.”

Archbishop Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, warned Pope Benedict in 2006, concerning McCarricks activities. The Vatican vacillated and no penalties were levied, instead “the decision was made to appeal to ­McCarrick’s conscience and ecclesial spirit,” requesting that he keep a low profile and reduce travel in the church’s name.  Benedict requested that McCarrick “spontaneously” withdraw as archbishop of Washington after he reached the standard retirement age of 75. McCarrick ignored the request  amassing power and prestige and travelling the world. In 2008 Vigano again wrote to Benedict and included a letter from Richard Sipe, a former monk and practising psychotherapist, specialising in clerical sexual abuse. Sipe confirmed that McCarrick’s activities “had been widely known for several decades.” In 2009 or 2010 according to Viganò, Pope Benedict XVI then placed severe restrictions on McCarrick’s movements and public ministry, not allowing him to travel beyond the grounds of the seminary where he was living and not permitting him to say Mass in public. Referred to as “one of a number of senior churchmen who were more or less put out to pasture during the eight-year pontificate of Benedict XVI,” he found himself put “back in the mix” with the election of Pope Francis in 2013.

In 2018 Archbishop Vigano stated publicly that Francis subsequently removed Benedict’s sanctions and made McCarrick “his trusted counsellor,” even though Francis “knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator. He knew that he was a corrupt man, he covered for him to the bitter end.” In May 2014, McCarrick travelled with Pope Francis to the Holy Land, to Armenia to discuss Syria with Eastern Orthodox clerics, the Philippines to visit typhoon victims, China for discussions on religious freedom, Iran for talks on nuclear proliferation and also served as a Vatican intermediary for the U.S.-Cuba talks. The  state-approved Chinese newspaper reported that McCarrick travelled to China in Feb. 2016 quoting McCarrick as saying that the similarities between Pope Francis and Xi Jinping could be “a special gift for the world.”

McCarrick was only officially removed from public ministry by Pope Francis in 2018, when the position of both became untenable due to credible allegations of abuse, dating back to the 1970s and acknowledgement by several diocese, of previous out of court settlements. These required claimants to agree to gag orders. McCarrick, was defrocked by Francis after Vatican officials found him guilty of two charges: “Soliciting sex during confession and committing “sins” with minors and adults… “with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” Pope Francis  ordered him to adopt a life of prayer and penance, he was provided with accommodation at a Capuchin Friary in Kansas with fees paid by the Catholic church. Following the failure of his Appeal, he relocated in 2020  to an undisclosed “secluded address away from public attention…to be closer to his family”.

THE LATEST INVESTIGATION INTO CLERICAL SEXUAL ABUSE  HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DAMAGE THE PUBLIC IMAGE OF THREE POPES, JOHN PAUL ll, NAMED A SAINT IN 2014, BENEDICT WHOSE DECISION MAKING IS CALLED INTO QUESTION AND THE MOTIVATION OF FRANCIS  IN THE REINSTATEMENT AND ELEVATION OF McCARRICK.

Predictably the report limits the culpability of Pope Francis, who instigated the investigation in 2018. The report states that Francis knew of rumours surrounding sexual conduct between McCarrick and adults but received no documentation of sexual impropriety until 2017 and was not aware of accusations of sexual abuse against minors until 2018. This is at odds with archbishop Viagno’s testament that Pope Francis removed sanctions and made McCarrick “his trusted counsellor,” even though Francis “knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator.”

Whichever may be true, responsibility for rectifying past errors surely rests with the appointed head of any organisation, government or in particular a church which claims its popes to be divinely appointed.

POST SCRIPT: A new lawsuit has been filed this year, alleging that McCerrick sexually molested an underage boy at a beach house on the New Jersey shore, that other priests groomed the young man and then introduced him to the bishop for sexual encounters at the property owned by the diocese of Metuchen. Jeff Anderson, the attorney for the plaintiff identified in court papers only as John Doe 14, said there were other boys who were abused, referring to “McCarrick’s sordid beach house child sex ring.”

For further details see:

Covering up the Cover Up – Cardinal Depravity

Bishps Aid Priests Instead of Victims

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEXUAL ABUSE COVER UP – Anglican Clergy

THE QUEEN IS THE SUPREME GOVERNOR OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, THE LARGEST CHRISTIAN DENOMINATION IN THE COUNTRY WITH OVER A MILLION REGULAR WORSHIPERS.

November 2020: The newly published Report on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse within the Church of England, gives a damning account of failure to respond to child victims and survivors of sexual abuse by people associated with the church. The report states that alleged perpetrators received more support than their victims, adding to the trauma already suffered. Attempts to report abuse were covered up by a church hierarchy who were often the very perpetrators. Safeguarding concerns were under reported with cases hidden, giving an inaccurate impression of the scale of the problem. In 2018, there were 2,504 safeguarding concerns reported to dioceses about either children or vulnerable adults yet there have been only 390 perpetrators convicted since the 1940s.

Offending clergy were supported and shielded by the most powerful people in the land including Prince Charles and Lord George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury who refused to  believe the allegations against Bishop Peter Ball, supporting him in the face of numerous allegations. In 2018 Carey was subsequently forced to resign after the UK Child Sex Abuse Report found that he had covered up allegations of sexual abuse within the church. 

  • Clerics benefited from deferential treatment, defended by their peers in an environment where power was invested without accountability to external or independent agencies or individuals.
  • The moral authority of clergy was widely perceived as beyond reproach by a naive public who failed to question their conduct. A tribal culture flourished where loyalty to peers exceeded consideration of the welfare or protection of children.
  • Members of a church hierarchy ignored reports of abuse, reintegrating abusers into church life, perpetuating further abuse.
  • Bishops ignored  safeguarding guidelines issued byThe House of Bishops, there is no requirement in canon law to require clergy to follow safeguarding guidelines  despite Ministerial guidelines to do so.
  • The Enquiry found that offending was repeatedly minimised and justified.

Reverend Ian Hughes was convicted in 2014 of downloading 8,000 indecent images of children, more than 800 were graded Category A level, the most serious, involving “penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with an animal or sadism”. . It emerged during the hearing that The Bishop of Chester, Rt Reverend Peter Foster, declined to accept the seriousness of the offending of Hughes. He maintained his view, expressed in a letter to the President of Tribunals, that “many people who download child pornography believe it to be different from direct abuse of a child.” Forster had blocked a life-time ban from ministry being imposed on any minister jailed for pornography, recommending instead that Rev.Ian Hughes receive a 20 year ban.

  • Bishop Victor Whitsey was ordained in 1949 and was Bishop of Hertford, in the Diocese of St Albans, in 1971 and then Bishop of Chester, in 1974, a position which he held until his retirement in early 1982, despite 13 complaints made to Cheshire Constabulary about his serial abuse. In January 2018 an adult male disclosed to a vicar that he had been indecently assaulted by Whitsey as a child in the early 1980s. The safeguarding advisor was informed and also the Bishop of Chester Peter Forster who failed to undertake any enquiries. The complainant told the Enquiry that he had again informed Bishop Forster in 2002 when he was offered counselling but no further action was taken.
  • Further accusations were made against Whitsey by two males, stating he had sexually abused them as children between 1974 and 1981, during his time as the Bishop of Chester. A further 10 potential victims, including teenagers and young adults of both sexes were later identified.
  • In 1979, a 13 year old girl and her brother, both members of the church were invited to meet Whitsey during a time when her father (a vicar), had left the family home. The girl was left alone in a room with him for around half an hour, she described how he gave her a ‘body hug’ and told her that ‘men have urges’ telling her to sit on his knee, she was aware of his erection and recalled him quoting from the Bible ‘Suffer little children to come unto me” before stroking her through her clothes and ‘rubbing against me’. She was then ordered to leave the room and her brother was sent in. She did not disclose the abuse at the time as she ‘wouldn’t have known who to tell’ as the family were already being ostracized by the church because the family was splitting up. In April 2015, while attending the internment of her mother’s ashes with her brother at the church in Cheshire, they noticed Whitsey’s signature in the Book of Remembrance, her brother stated ‘That bastard abused me and she answered ‘Me too”.
  • Police enquiries showed that of 19 complainants, it was “clear that those who reported abuse had previously disclosed details of their allegations to the Church”.

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