CAUTION: This is not for the faint of heart. A stunning video documentary of the atrocities committed at the Catholic Provolo Institute for the Deaf in Argentina has just been released. It contains interview with deaf students, who, because of the advances in hearing aid technology, are now able to speak of the terrible ordeals they endured from a number of priests at the school. It then shifts to a nursing home facility Verona, Italy, where one of the Institute's retired priests, Don Piccoli, resides and records a gripping sick-bed conversation between the former students and the elderly priest.
This is the stuff of nightmares. The gaunt priest with hands clasped and rosary around his neck, proceeds to confirm the claims presented by the accusers and, unbelievably laughs and leers and jokes about the details, dismissing them as trivialities.
A further breakdown with captured stills from the video is available at Hilary White's blog, What'sUpWithFrancisChurch, for those who don't have the stomach to watch. I could only watch about 3 minutes before I wanted to punch something.
Hilary also provides much-needed commentary on the longstanding phenomenon of "dirty old men" in the Catholic priesthood.
I’ve been covering these men a long time. Very little of any of this has been a surprise. After 20-odd years you get an ear for the kind of things they say and start to be able to anticipate the kinds of things they’ll do. You get a feel – like a psychological profiler – for the mindset, and this is it. This is the kind of dirty minded old men they all are. Some of them have more polished manners and can be trusted to be put in front of cameras. These ones usually become bishops.
And you can’t call it the fault of Vatican II. This is an old fashioned, unreconstructed Italian pervert-priest of the old school. The kind we used to just call “a dirty old man”. This is the kind of guy who went into the priesthood out of convenience in a Catholic culture – among the laity – that just shrugs and accepts it as par for the course. How old is he? He didn’t go to seminary in the ’70s. He wasn’t in a Pink Palace in a US diocese.
This isn’t VaticanTwoism. This has nothing to do with our polemical arguments.
This is just straight up moral decay of a corrupt Church, a system that provides opportunities and life-long cover to men who just like to “unload” into any nearby handy bit of flesh that happens to pass within arm’s reach
It has to come down. The whole thing – rotten to the core – has to come down. And I don’t just mean the Church.
Very sobering revelations here, and there may be worse to come.
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HennyPenny ago
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/catholic-bishops-not-obliged-report-clerical-child-abuse-vatican-says
The Vatican has denied any cover-up over the abuse of 200 deaf boys in the United States by Reverend Lawrence Murphy from 1950 to 1974. The New York Times reported the Vatican and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, were warned about Murphy but he was not defrocked. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-abuse-idUSTRE62U5RF20100401
Crimes occur under Pope Benedict's watch but he can't be held responsible because he's head of state with immunity. Then he "retires" but is sequestered in the Vatican where again he is protected by the Lateran Pact. Bishops aren't required by the Church to report child abuse in their parishes. Child abuse by Church clergy doesn't go up the ladder because according to the Church, clergy are not employees of the Vatican but of the local parish (who cover up the crimes). The Church is very insulated against prosecution. Trump needs to pull off the veil and designate the Church as a RICO racketeer influenced and corrupt organization) The 1929 Lateran Pacts between Italy and the Holy See, which established Vatican City as a sovereign state, said Vatican City would be “invariably and in every event considered as neutral and inviolable territory”.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/17/pope-immunity_n_2708518.html
Lawrence Murphy: Resigned as director of St John School for Deaf in 1974 after complaints by students. Reassigned to parishes in Milwaukee & Superior (abused at least 2 there) Dioceses. Suit filed 1975; settled before trial. Told Archdiocese he sexually abused 34 boys at the school. Vatican failed to laicize him in 1997-1998 just before 1998 death. Suit for fraud filed 7/08 re abuse by Murphy. Docs released 5/09 & 7/13 show he abused over 200 youths. New suits filed 8/09 & 11/09. Case against Vatican dismissed 2/12. http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-M.html
Gilderoy ago
This happened in America too! Thanks for this.