Germany- UN panel critical of Vatican’s handling of child sex abuse scandal, cites German priest
For immediate release: Friday, May 23, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314-503-0003, [email protected])
Today a United Nations committee severely criticized top Catholic officials for continually endangering children and specifically cited the case of a German priest who was, just a few years ago, allowed to stay on the job in ministry despite a criminal child sex abuse conviction.
http://ccrjustice.org/files/CAT_C_VAT_CO_1_17271_E.pdf
The Geneva-based Committee Against Torture expressed deep concern about cases where “clergy accused or convicted by civil authorities of such [sexual abuse] offenses were transferred to other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors . . . and in some cases committed abuse in subsequent placements.”
The panel cited the case of Fr. Peter Kramer, who even after being convicted of sexually abusing two boys, was allowed to stay in ministry. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller even went so far as to hide Kramer’s crimes from parishioners. Fr. Kramer went on to abuse more children and be successfully convicted again.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/UN/CRC/2014_01_11_BA_Submission_to_Committee.htm
When bishops and other top Catholic officials cover-up crimes and enable predators, they endanger children. They should be disciplined by the highest officials in the church and potentially by civil authorities.
This is just one case of many in which the Catholic hierarchy recently protected a predator instead of protecting children.
We call on Pope Francis to harshly punish any Catholic official who hides or enables child sexual violence, in the present or past, and we urge parishioners to remain vigilant and always report known or suspected abuse to secular authorities.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])
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And th, “heaven forbid”, should they, or anyone else for that matter, punish these grown men. One would almost think that they believe these heinous crimes “ok” and to punish these adults who have no right to harm ANYONE, these same men (and in some cases, women) who harm these innocents. I would think you’d have to wonder about the sanity of all of them, after awhile? I am wondering, particularly in light of the following in the Bible (the teachings of which they supposedly, ascribe): Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, and Luke 17:2. Considering Christ’s own advice in these verses, I’d think that the abetting, enabling bishops and clerical perpetrators everywhere, would rather submit themselves to secular penalties for these crimes, and rather than plead “diplomatic immunity” (which in fact lets all the world know that they are guilty) choose to cooperate with secular authorities in all the countries where there are catholic dioseses, because the punishment they may incur will likely not be the death penalty that Christ has advised would be best.