Calling all Christians of the RC Faith - When well this Madness Stop?

[zorgon]

Calling all Christians of the RC Faith - When well this Madness Stop?

We have all seen the recent Decline and Fall of Rome V2.0 over money issues and sex scandals...

So what is the answer from the Church?

Why simple... just make it ILLEGAL to report sex crimes... problem solved. Snitch on a Priest, go directly to jail for two years...

Pope Criminalizes the Reporting of Sex Crimes
Written by Justin Dodd July 17th 2013


(Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

VATICAN CITY — Few eyebrows were raised last week when Pope Francis brought the Vatican's legal system up to date by criminalizing leaks of official information and formalizing laws against sex crimes. But now that the laws have been made public, a closer look revealed that the pope has made it illegal to report sex crimes against children.

According to the new laws, revealing or receiving confidential Vatican information is now punishable by up to two years in prison, while newly defined sex crimes against children carry a sentence of up to twelve years. Because all sex crimes are kept confidential, there is no longer a legal way for Vatican officials to report sex crimes.

"We didn't mean for this to happen, obviously," lamented Vatican foreign minister Monsignor Dominique Mamberti. "It's quite the papal pickle that His Holiness has placed upon our heads. Sex crimes are more illegal than ever, but technically it's illegal to report them." Mamberti said that the simultaneous passing of each law is merely a coincidence and insisted that the Church is not trying to protect itself against further embarrassment, but critics outside the Vatican are skeptical.

"They know exactly what they're doing," claims Fabrizio Perona of Italy's La Repubblica newspaper. "They just thought nobody would notice. The Church wants to impress the world by getting tough on sex crimes, but they criminalized leaks, which is the only way anybody would ever discover their crimes. It's genius, if you stop and think about it."

Mamberti says plans are already being made to eliminate the loophole, but change often comes slowly to antiquated Vatican law, which is based on the 1889 Italian code. "We're not going to let a dangerous law like this stand, but people need to understand that this is the Vatican, and there is a process here. Voting, incense, prayer. We ask the minors at risk to please be patient with us."
Fortunately, only clergy and lay people who live and work in Vatican City are subject to the new legislation, which differs from the canon law governing the universal Catholic Church.

As the Holy See moves to clarify the law, Mamberti has warned would-be offenders within Vatican walls that they "are still subject to the most watchful eye of all: the eye of God. His judgment is greater than—oh, who am I kidding? For now, there is nothing we can do."

http://www.newslo.com/pope-criminalizes-the-reporting-of-sex-crimes/

[zorgon]

Backed up by Time Magazine

Pope Criminalizes Leaks, Sex Abuse in First Laws
By AP / Nicole Winfield July 11, 2013

(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Francis overhauled the laws that govern the Vatican City State on Thursday, criminalizing leaks of Vatican information and specifically listing sexual violence, prostitution and possession of child pornography as crimes against children that can be punished by up to 12 years in prison.

The legislation covers clergy and lay people who live and work in Vatican City and is different from the canon law which covers the universal Catholic Church.

It was issued at a critical time, as the Vatican gears up for a grilling by a U.N. committee on its efforts to protect children under a key U.N. convention and prevent priests from sexually abusing them. The Vatican signed and ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 yet only now — 23 years later — has it updated its legislation to reflect some of the treaty's core provisions.

The bulk of the Vatican's penal code is based on the 1889 Italian code, and in many ways is outdated. Much of the hodge-podge of laws passed Thursday — which range from listing crimes against humanity to the illicit appropriation of nuclear material — bring the Vatican up to date with the many U.N. conventions it has signed over the years.

http://world.time.com/2013/07/11/pope-criminalizes-leaks-sex-abuse-in-first-laws/

[zorgon]

POPE CRACKS DOWN ON SEX ABUSE
JULY 11, 2013 BY BILL   

Bill Donohue comments on Pope Francis' crackdown on sex abuse:
As Pope Francis proved today, he has no stomach for child exploitation, or for any type of sexual abuse. His decision to revise the norms affecting these crimes, complete with more stringent penalties, is a welcome tonic. However, he does not need to be congratulated for this initiative—he needs to be supported by those in a position to do so.

Child sexual abuse is a serious worldwide problem. It affects every secular and religious organization where there is sustained interaction between adults and children. In the West, it is aided and abetted by a sick culture bent on eroticizing youth. From advertisements in magazines and on billboards, to TV shows during the day and in the evening—to say nothing of music videos and the movie industry—we are inundated with hyper-sexualized portrayals and images, the result of which is a morally debased milieu.

When it comes to racial tensions, many are quick to point to the "root causes" of poverty and injustice. But these same persons show little or no interest in addressing the "root causes" of child sexual exploitation. As we recently saw in the debate over gun control, those who were screaming the loudest for stricter gun laws were typically silent on the role Hollywood plays in fostering violence in our culture. The same is true about sexual exploitation—there is a reluctance to get Hollywood to do something about its role in furthering this problem.

The Catholic Church had a problem with priestly sexual abuse in the 1960s and 1970s, but today it has the cleanest record of any institution. Currently, child sexual abuse is a problem in places like Hollywood, Indian reservations, the Orthodox Jewish communities, the public schools, and, of course, in the home (boyfriends and stepfathers are the worst offenders). Wherever it exists, it must be stomped out. Thank God Pope Francis is leading the way.

http://www.catholicleague.org/pope-cracks-down-on-sex-abuse/

[zorgon]

Okay so..

Pope says: 12 years for sex crimes against kids...

Pope says: It's illegal to report a sex crime

My question then

If its illegal to report it, if its illegal to leak the information, then how in HELL can you convict anyone to put them away for 12 years?

Am I missing something?

[zorgon]

Pope Francis lays down the law on child sex abuse on Vatican grounds
From Hada Messia, CNN
July 11, 2013


Pope Francis on a recent trip to Lampedusa island in Italy on July 8, 2013

Rome (CNN) -- Pope Francis has laid down a law making it a crime to abuse children sexually or physically on Vatican grounds, the Holy See announced Thursday.
The acts were already crimes under church law, but are now specifically outlawed within the Vatican city-state, which is home to hundreds of people.

The legislation also covers child prostitution and the creation or possession of child pornography.
But it has a "broader scope," according to Radio Vatican.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/11/world/europe/vatican-child-abuse


Pope Francis has laid down a law making it a crime to abuse children sexually or physically on Vatican grounds

Says NOTHING about the rest of the world... only on Vatican Grounds... WTF is the mater with these guys?

[Somamech]

Hmmm so hey are they admitting something ?

[zorgon]

Catholic Church Owns Billion-Dollar German Media Firm Selling Porn
By Christine Gaylican | August 17

The Catholic Church is again in another controversy. This time the ownership of a billion-dollar German media company that has been reported selling some pornographic materials, which is against its philosophy and teachings.

A report from online news provider Worldcrunch.com has revealed that the German company Weltbild, the largest media firm selling books, DVDs, music and more also happens to sell pornographic materials and other erotica.

The report said that although it has been 10 years that a local group had written the Catholic Church authorities about this, no action has been taken to address the situation.

"In 2008, the group sent a 70-page document to all the bishops whose dioceses have shared ownership of Weltbild for 30 years, detailing evidence of the sale of questionable material," Worldcrunch.com said.

It further explained that Wetbild, based in Augsburg, Germany, these days has a workforce of 6,400 and turns over some 1.7 billion euros in revenues. It ranks second to Amazon.com when it comes to its online sales of books and other media-related materials.

Although it has been against the Catholic Church teachings, some 2,500 erotic books are listed on the online catalogue of Weltbild, these include the Blue Panther Books with titles: "Schlampen-Internat" (Sluts' Boarding School). "Vögelbar" (F-kable), and "Anwaltshure" (Lawyer's Whore).

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/374624/20120817/catholic-church-porn-pornography-books-weltbild.htm#.UehWt9LUnjI

Revealed: publisher owned by the Catholic Church sells pornography

Germany's bishops promise to stop the company's distribution of erotic novels

Germany's biggest Catholic-owned publishing house has been rocked by disclosures that it has been selling thousands of pornographic novels with titles such as Sluts Boarding School and Lawyer's Whore with the full assent of the country's leading bishops.

The revelations made in the publishing-industry newsletter Buchreport concern Weltbild, a company with an annual €1.7bn (£1.5bn) turnover and 6,400 employees. It is Germany's largest bookseller after Amazon and wholly owned by the Catholic Church.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/revealed-publisher-owned-by-the-catholic-church-sells-pornography-6257572.html

[Somamech]

I was chatting to an Alien Couple the other day who resided from a free planet and they were shocked that Earth had this establishment to begin with,  Let alone it took a couple of thousand year's to come up with this law. 

What could I say to them other than "Yeah it look's nice in the brochure, but in reality it's a shit planet" 

[zorgon]

Charity begins at Home...

"God helps those who help themselves..."

The worship of Gold... didn't a guy by the name of Moses have something to say about that once upon a time?


Mwhahahaha MINE  all MINE!!!!!

Pope's Personal Income: $200 Million Annually
Posted on May 8, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI receives roughly $200 million annually for his personal use, money which is not counted as income to the government of the worldwide Catholic Church (the Holy See) nor the government of the Vatican City State, an independent country in which St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican offices, residences, library and museums are located. It is his alone.

The pope's income comes from three sources.

American Catholics are asked to contribute to the pope's "works of charity"  by a special collection taken during Mass once a year. This money is sent directly to Benedict as part of the worldwide donation called Peter's Pence. The practice began in 1871 when the then-pontiff lost his last sovereign territory (before the creation of the Vatican City State in 1929), the Papal States, along with the income from this wide swath of land across the center of the Italian peninsula.
In 2006, the Peter's Pence total was $101.9 million, 2007 $79.8 million, 2008 $75.8 million and 2009 $82.5 million. The last year (2006) in which the sum was broken down by country and made public, people in the U.S. were the largest donors providing 28 percent of the total.  (The Vatican has not yet released financial information for 2010.)

All the profits from the IOR, the Institute of the Works of Religion or Vatican Bank, are also given to the pope as his private income. According to Vatican expert, Sandro Magister, these profits amount to 70 to 80 million euro annually ($103.8 – $118.6 million) for the pope's "works of charity."
Additional gifts are rarely disclosed but here a few I could find:

Money was raised at the first National Catholic Prayer Breakfast held in Washington D.C. in 2004. An expected $100,000 was donated to Pope John Paul II and the Religious Sisters of Life.
An organization of wealthy American Catholics called The Papal Foundation (see below), presents an unspecified annual gift from their group of million-dollar donors to the pope "to support and help him with his requested programs and missions throughout the world."

When Pope Benedict XVI visited the U.S. in April 2010, the American bishops gave him a check for $870,000 "to support his charitable works" without explanation of where the money came from.
"The expression in Rome is opera de carita: 'We're making an offering for your works of charity.' In fact, you don't know where the money is going," stated a priest who "steered" cash payoffs from the Legionaries of Christ to Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II's secretary and the man closest to the pontiff. In his interview with author, Jason Berry, the priest continued, "It's an elegant way of giving a bribe."

Not all "offerings for your works of charity" given to Catholic Church officials are bribes, but it is true that you won't know for sure where the money is going since all Church financial disclosure is voluntary and unverifiable.

There isn't much information about what Benedict does with his fortune. For an organization with an official and semi-official global media empire second to none and which never hesitates to toot its own horn, reports from Catholic news sources of papal charity are few and far between.
Sometime in 2010, the pope gave $50,000 of his own money to Caritas Haiti, a member organization of Caritas Internationalis (see below) and $250,000 for rebuilding the school of Saint François de Sales in Port-au-Prince.

The Almoner's Office, "tucked into a courtyard on the north end of Vatican City," distributes more than $2 million each year as charity to pay such things as medical or utility bills and rent to applicants screened and approved by their local pastor. The archbishop in charge advised an American reporter that "Pope Benedict told him to 'never let our charity be lacking' and to come to him personally if he needed additional funds."

It was reported that this past Christmas, Benedict hosted a Christmas dinner in Rome for 250 homeless persons. We'll assume that "hosted" meant he picked up the tab in addition to showing up.

None of the official Vatican charities, all managed by the dicastery (department) known as The Pontifical Council COR UNUM for Human and Christian Development, state they receive money from the pope, although the dicastery's function is "To assist the pope and be his instrument for carrying out special initiatives in the field of humanitarian actions."

The Vatican website lists four separate funds under the auspices of COR UNUM which donated $9.35 million in 2009  for such things as disaster relief, schools in Africa and building Catholic facilities. All are financed by donations from the "faithful" and the Italian Bishops Conference.
Probably the best-known Catholic charity is Caritas Internationalis, a highly-regarded
"confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations working to build a better world, especially for the poor and oppressed, in over 200 countries and territories."
Like its US member, Catholic Charities USA, Caritas Internationalis-affilitated agencies are funded by governments,  non-governmental secular organizations  and private foundations, as well as individual donations.

Caritas was a mostly autonomous organization nominally under the authority of COR UNUM but the Vatican is planning to take greater control beginning  with its finance and personnel. In order to further the agency's now-restated first goal of "promoting the Church's social teaching" (i.e. abortion, population control, the family and "gender politics") and secondly "helping those in need," supervision of the charity is being shifted to the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Although Catholic hierarchs contribute little if any of their own funds, a Vatican official stated, "Local Caritas organizations depend on local dioceses and the true stakeholders of Caritas are the bishops and the pope."  As I previously wrote, US bishops spending the money donated by American Catholics to help the needy for reconstructing churches and seminaries in Haiti and Cuba  may be what this official has in mind.

I guess because it has 162 separate member-agencies, I couldn't find a total for the combined distribution of the entire Caritas network. The umbrella organization had income of close to 7 million euro in 2009, although in the two prior years the amount was less than 3 million.  CharityNavigator shows Catholic Charities USA income as a little more than $23 million in 2009 (the last year available).  However, Catholic Charities USA is also an umbrella organization for close to 200 local diocesan Catholic Charity agencies.

In the name of the pope, the U.S.-based Papal Foundation "has given close to $70 million in grants for the building of churches, seminaries, schools, hospitals and other projects for the care of the poor around the world." The Foundation's website shows that of 65 grants, only 5 were for the "care of the poor."  On May 5, 2011, Benedict praised members of the Foundation "for your involvement in projects aimed at integral human development, your encouragement of the apostolic activities of dioceses and religious congregations throughout the world, your concern for the education of the Church's future leaders and your support for the activities of the Holy See." (emphasis added)

Forbes Magazine – which bills itself as the leading publication for the world's business leaders – listed Pope Benedict XVI as its fifth most powerful person in the world (ahead of the British and German prime ministers) in 2010.   With all the official relief agencies of his bishops in the worldwide Catholic Church now more firmly under his control, can the pope improve his standing?

http://opentabernacle.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/popes-personal-income-200-million-annually/

[zorgon]

I recall an Evangelist joke...

God talking to Preacher...

"Now Ernest  I want you to go out and buy yourself that big Cadilac... so you can show everyone how good it is working for the Lord..." ~ [paraphrased ]

Maybe it wasn't a joke after all and the real joke is on those that give from their hearts

WHY does the Church need GOLD to worship God?

They already have no taxes and free everything... why does the Pope need $200 million dollars and then beg his followers to feed the starving children in the world?

WHY?

Simple question isn't it?

[Somamech]

Peter's Pence say's go earn that that gold like a real man Popey's. 

This practice would consist of:

Modern - Metal Detector in one hand and an eastwing pick in the other whilst scratching around for hour's on end

Kinda Modern - Grab half a crashed UFO and dig some dirt in a river and wash some water along with inside the crashed UFO

We need a Peter Pence story!

[zorgon]

Ex-Vatican bank officials allowed money laundering, say prosecutors

Prosecutors suspect two former Vatican bank executives of laundering money, based on incomplete data on bank transfers that prosecutors say violated money laundering laws.
By Lisa Jucca and Mario Sarzanini, Reuters / July 16, 2013


The Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) is located in Vatican City. The director and deputy director of the IOR both resigned abruptly at the beginning of July. Prosecutors have not charged them with money laundering, but they say the two men created the conditions where it could take place. Stringer/Reuters/File

Prosecutors allege two former top executives at the Vatican bank repeatedly broke Italian laws on money laundering by failing to give sufficient information when ordering multi-million-euro bank transfers, according to judicial documents seen by Reuters.

While the prosecutors stopped short of accusing two men who were until recently the top officials at the Vatican bank of money laundering, they said confusion over the handling of IOR accounts had created the conditions where it could take place.

Key details missing on requested transfers included the identity of the owners of the funds and the reason for transfer.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0716/Ex-Vatican-bank-officials-allowed-money-laundering-say-prosecutors

[zorgon]

Vatican money freeze tied to second Msgr. Scarano case
By Andrea Gagliarducci

Vatican City, Jul 15, 2013 / 05:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Although the Vatican froze funds belonging to Monsignor Nunzio Scarano after the Italian police arrested him, the hold on his account at the Vatican's Institute for Religious Works and his suspension from work are related to a separate case of alleged money laundering.

Msgr. Scarano, a suspended accountant for the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, known by its Italian acronym APSA, is currently under arrest and charged with planning to illegally bring 20 million euro in cash into Italy aboard a government airplane.

But Msgr. Scarano is also under investigation for a separate alleged instance of money laundering, which is what triggered his funds being frozen by the Vatican on July 9, according to a source who works in one of the Vatican offices related to APSA.

According to a July 11 statement from Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press office, the Vatican investigation "was triggered by several suspicious transactions reports filed with the Vatican Authority for Financial Information."     

Fr. Lombardi also stressed that the investigation "can be extended to additional individuals."

Msgr. Scarano is charged with money laundering using his account at the so-called Vatican bank.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-money-freeze-tied-to-different-msgr-scarano-case/

Same page is running this ad

[ArMaP]

Pope says: It's illegal to report a sex crime

First of all, sorry for posting on a thread that has "Calling all Christians" in its title, as being an atheist I am not included in that category.

Now, could you point to what part of the Vatican law says that it's illegal to report a sex crime? I couldn't find it anywhere.

Thanks in advance.

[Sgt.Rocknroll]

As a non-practicing Irish ancestry Roman Catholic I have nothing to say, except I'll pray for you all.

Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.