If they ever suspect a chink in the armor the enemy will smell blood and rush in with hatred in their eyes. Thus it is with the secular media and the Catholic Church, especially regarding the Pope.
THE LATEST
L’Osservatore rips Pope’s critics on sex-abuse claims
A strongly worded editorial in the Vatican newspaper has decried the “vile intent” of journalists seeking to link Pope Benedict XVI to the sex-abuse scandal. Following up on a statement from the Vatican press office, L’Osservatore Romano insisted that there was no cover-up by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in a case involving a Milwaukee priest. The CDF only became aware of the case in 1996, the Vatican newspaper noted– decades after the sex-abuse complaints against Father Lawrence Murphy first arose.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100327/D9EN1HPO0.html
New York Times highlights Vatican inaction on abusive Milwaukee priest
In a front-page headline story, the New York Times has called attention to a sex-abuse case in which the Vatican failed to act promptly on a request to defrock a Wisconsin priest who was accused of molesting up to 200 boys at a school for the deaf.
A documented rebuttal to Christopher Hitchens attack on Pope Benedict
This week the militant atheist Christopher Hitchens published a vitriolic attack on Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic faith, concentrating on the sex-abuse scandal and charging that the Pope’s “whole career has the stench of evil.” In a detailed, carefully documented rebuttal, Sean Murphy points to multiple errors of fact in Hitchens’ piece, and concludes: “Were it not for its appearance in the National Post, it would be difficult to believe that a reputable newspaper would publish such absurdity.”
Vatican Spokesman Refutes Murphy Case Accusations
By Genevieve Pollock, VATICAN CITY, MARCH 25, 2010 (Zenit.org).- There were no cover-ups, the Vatican is confirming in response to media accusations that tried to implicate Benedict XVI in the case of a priest accused of abusing deaf children. Today, several media sources followed the New York Times in reporting a story about Father Lawrence Murphy, a priest from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was accused of molesting up to 200 children. The Holy See published the statement that Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, gave to the Times, in which he deplored this “tragic case” that “involved particularly vulnerable victims who suffered terribly.” For Lombardi’s whole statement, click here
Sean Murphy tracked down all the references and researched all the accusations. Here’s the result, with 80 references.
And an abbreviated version here: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0325.htm
Murphy concludes: “It would be unfair to conclude that Mr. Hitchens deliberately distorted and withheld all of this information. One hesitates to attribute his failings to malicious anti-catholic bigotry. Perhaps he was just remarkably careless in his reading and incompetent in his research.”
Enemies who Call Themselves Catholics: Van Thuân Observatory Affirms Support for Benedict XVI, By Monsignor Giampaolo Crepaldi
ROME, MARCH 22, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The attempt of the press to implicate Benedict XVI in the question of pedophilia is only the most recent sign of the aversion that many have for the Pope.
It is necessary to ask oneself how this Pontiff, despite his evangelical meekness and honesty, the clarity of his words joined to the depth of his thought and of his teachings, arouses in some places sentiments of disgust and forms of anti-clericalism that it was believed had been surmounted. And this, it must be said, causes even greater astonishment and also distress when those who do not follow the Pope and criticize his alleged errors are men of the Church, whether theologians, priests or laymen.
The unheard of and clearly forced accusations of theologian Hans Kung against the person of Joseph Ratzinger, theologian, bishop, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now Pontiff for having caused, according to him, the pedophilia of some ecclesiastics through his theology and magisterium on celibacy profoundly distress us. It never happened before that the Church was attacked in this way. For the rest of the article, click here.
New York Times Tries to Tie Pope to abuse scandal
The New York Times has reported that Pope Benedict XVI was informed about the parish assignment given to a priest who had been accused of molesting children. But the Vatican has countered that the Times story contains no new information to contradict previous statements that the Pope was unaware of the assignment.
Share
Tweet
Email
Print