I've found several sites on facebook covering the developing struggle against the Vatican. "Arrest the Pope", " Jail the Pope" , "Time to Arrest the Pope Now" carries many articles from the BBC, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and other major magazines, and a lament published in the Irish Times from a theologian who with Ratzinger attended Vatican 11 between 1962-165. Some articles go back decades such as Rat's 1985 letter defending Rev Stephen Miller Kiesle a San Franciso priest who in 1978 was found guilty by civil authorities on a charge of tying up and molesting two young boys. Below is the text of a article published by the (no shit) Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute making a legal case for possible prosecution under ICC guidelines. Now these people did not get to the top of the pile by acting against their own interests. Some liberal insiders are hoping that Benedict will step down and allow the College of Cardinals to elect a "conciliator".UN Judge Says Pope Should be Prosecuted at International Criminal Court
(NEW YORK – C-FAM) In London last Friday, a high ranking United Nations (UN) jurist called on the British government to detain Pope Benedict XVI during his upcoming visit to Britain, and send him to trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “crimes against humanity.”
Geoffrey Robertson touted his status as a UN judge in an article he published last week claiming that jurists should invoke the same procedures that have been used to indict war criminals such as Slobodan Milosevic. To try the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church who is ultimately responsible for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.
Robertson is one of five select jurists in the UN’s internal justice system responsible for holding UN officials accountable for corruption and mismanagement. His article was published in both the United States and Britain and reported on by the Associated Press.
Professor Hurst Hannum of the Fletcher School at Tufts University told the Friday Fax that it would be a “real stretch” to use the ICC since that court’s jurisdiction is mainly reserved for crimes during war. More likely, Hannum said, is that Robertson and likeminded experts would invoke the principle of “universal jurisdiction” so that national courts all over the world could detain the pope whenever he stepped foot on their soil. Critics say the principle, already used in practice, is a violation of sovereignty as it is enshrined in the UN Charter.
Yet Robertson insisted that the ICC could be used as long as the Pope’s sovereign immunity was waived and as long as jurists can show that the sex abuse scandal was carried out on a “widespread or systematic scale,” the way that child soldiers were used in the wars in Sierra Leone and the way that sex slaves are traded internationally.
Robertson, a tort lawyer, argued that prosecution at a higher level of the Church is necessary to get more money for victims of clergy sexual abuse in cases where dioceses have gone into bankruptcy. He specifically pointed out the fact that the diocese of Los Angeles has already paid $660M in damages and Boston has paid $100M.
One prominent law professor told the Friday Fax, “Without in any way minimizing the seriousness of the alleged offenses of Catholic priests, it would be a grave mistake to the laws of human rights to permit a trivializing of the responsibility to protect, and to play into the hands of American contingency-fee lawyers.”
Another human rights lawyer told the Friday Fax that the article could be part of a broader campaign. Robertson has long campaigned to strip the Holy See of its permanent observer status at the UN, and has publicly referred to the Holy See “the world’s largest NGO.”
When a campaign was launched to oust the Holy See from its status in 1999, UN Member States rallied around the Vatican, and in 2004 the General Assembly voted unanimously to expand that status. It is unclear whether UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon knew about Robertson’s leanings before appointing him to his current position.
Another good site deals with that ultimate Vatican scam ... the "Missionaries of Charity". Check this out.
10 comments:
I guess a hopeful reading of our straight news report would conclude we were making the case for an ICC prosecution of the Pope. But, actually it really is just straight news reporting. We find the the silly proposals to prosecute the Pope repugnant.
Sincerely,
Austin Ruse
President
C-FAM
Editor
Friday Fax
Too bad. It's not very likely to happen but I don't see what's repugnant about it. Some people are just being hopeful. My point was to add to the feeling of worry for the Vatican. Let them sweat.
It is repugnant on many levels not the least of which is that it devalues such trials which are supposed to be for war criminals, for Hitlers.
The fellow is most likely guilty. Moral relativism doesn't cut it. If I were you I'd be worried.
Not in the least. Overreach only harms the attacker.
The correct way to look at this is to imagine an iceberg. There are numerous reports ranging from the most respectable sources to the most obscure. This thing is not going to simply vanish.
To the immediate question which you raised, an ICC prosecution of the Pope. No chance on that. No worries. We reported on it in order to show the craziness of the other side.
As to the larger question of where this crisis is headed. Just as in the US, it will peak and then recede. lawsuits will be brought adn settled. Some diocese will go bankrupt. Diocese will establish the strongest sex abuse policies in society. And the Church will emerge, scarred, but growing stronger. If anyone thinks this type of thing will shut up the bishops, they only need to see the 75 Bishops who spoke out against Obama speaking at Notre Dame. They emerged energized.
So, some may hope for the destruction of the Church. Tain't gonna happen.
Nothing lasts forever. It is superstition which is crazy and eventually reason will win out. There are people who used to think slavery was the normal thing and some who thought the Soviet Union would go on forever. Then,poof, one day it was gone.
Faith and reason are fully compatible. Moreover, what you consider reason, which is secularism, is losing all over the world. Secularism is dying. It may be a part of the conversation in North American and Europe but hardly anyplace else. Secularism is not even a part of the global conversation. The global conversation is drenched in faith.
You have got to be kidding. We see plenty of what happens when religion is mixed with civil power. As for "drenched" in faith ... maybe that's the reason that Europe and North America are places everyone else wants to live. "Faith" as you use the word is equivalent to superstition. The fact that you are constantly monitoring this site demonstrates you own fear. You are like the Muslim fanatics who made a big issue about "Satanic Verses" instead of doing the smart thing and ignoring it. You are a small child whistling in the dark.
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