Pope quietly trims sanctions for sex abusers seeking mercy

[Heddi]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/25/pope-quietly-trims-sanctions-sex-abusers-seeking-mercy/98399022/

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has quietly reduced sanctions against a handful of pedophile priests, applying his vision of a merciful church even to its worst offenders in ways that survivors of abuse and the pope’s own advisers question.

One case has come back to haunt him: An Italian priest who received the pope’s clemency was later convicted by an Italian criminal court for his sex crimes against children as young as 12. The Rev. Mauro Inzoli is now facing a second church trial after new evidence emerged against him, The Associated Press has learned.

n some cases, the priests or their high-ranking friends appealed to Francis for clemency by citing the pope’s own words about mercy in their petitions, the church official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the proceedings are confidential.

Burke said Francis’ emphasis on mercy applied to “even those who are guilty of heinous crimes.” He said priests who abuse are permanently removed from ministry, but are not necessarily dismissed from the clerical state, the church term for laicization or defrocking.

But he also recently said he believed sex abusers suffer from a “disease” — a medical term used by defense lawyers to seek mitigating factors in canonical sentences.

Marie Collins, an Irish abuse survivor and founding member of Francis’ sex-abuse advisory commission, expressed dismay that the congregation’s recommended penalties were being weakened and said abusers are never so sick that they don’t know what they’re doing.

Victim advocates have long questioned Francis’ commitment to continuing Benedict’s tough line, given he had no experience dealing with abusive priests or their victims in his native Argentina. While Francis counts Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley as his top adviser on abuse, he has also surrounded himself with cardinal advisers who botched handling abuse cases in their archdioceses.
..

he church official stressed that to his knowledge, none of Francis’ reduced sentences had put children at risk.

Many canon lawyers and church authorities argue that defrocking pedophiles can put society at greater risk because the church no longer exerts any control over them. They argue that keeping the men in restricted ministry, away from children, at least enables superiors to exert some degree of supervision.


nzoli appealed and in 2014 Francis reduced the penalty to a lifetime of prayer, prohibiting him from celebrating Mass in public or being near children, barring him from his diocese and ordering five years of psychotherapy.

----

SUch compassion for the perpetrators. Not much compassion for the victims

[The Sand Reckoner]

1. Guess zero tolerance

ain't what is used to be.

Of course, if a priest is publicly identified as gay, no problem...broom 'em! Pedophile...not nearly as bad, as far as the catholic church is concerned.

[guillaumeb]

2. An accusation not proven by the evidence presented.

Referring of course to your ending.

Do you believe in forgiveness?

[The Sand Reckoner]

3. Pretty much every accusation in the article

is spot-on. Wouldn't you agree?

Forgiveness for what, in this case? Does forgiving someone mean not giving them a just punishment?

[guillaumeb]

4. I was referring to this bit of editorializing:

SUch compassion for the perpetrators. Not much compassion for the victims

Editorializing by assuming a motivation not proven by the actual article.

[The Sand Reckoner]

5. You're right

It probably isn't compassion for the perpetrators. The church may just want to continue to cover up this behavior or to make it seem as innocuous and excusable as they can in the public eye.

Don't you believe in the free expression of opinions?

[guillaumeb]

6. I do believe in free expression of opinion.

But if any poster habitually seems to assume the worst of some people, and if that opinion is not supported by the evidence presented, I might wonder if the poster is consciously (or unconsciously) exhibiting bias. And judgement can be warped by underlying bias.

[The Sand Reckoner]

7. Explain how

"Such compassion for the perpetrators. Not compassion for the victims" is the WORST possible assumption someone could make.

Because that was your accusation, one not supported by the evidence presented. How ironic.

[guillaumeb]

8. I did not make an accusation.

I qualified what I wrote numerous times so that there would be no specific accusation against anyone.

At best, the assertion is negative, and so far unproven by any evidence.

[The Sand Reckoner]

15. Don't be insulting. Of course you did.

The fact that you avoided naming a name doesn't change that. Apparently your own biases keep you from even realizing that you're doing it. Another irony.

[guillaumeb]

16. Are you a mind reader, in addition to your other abilities?

I am amazed and humbled.

[The Sand Reckoner]

17. No, I can read

And your dodges are fairly transparent. Don't flatter yourself that mind reading is needed to see through you.

[guillaumeb]

18. Again, you are free to read whatever you wish into other posts.

But that might reveal more about you than it does about others.

[trotsky]

9. Do you agree with the pope granting clemency to priests who rape children? n/t

[guillaumeb]

10. Do you believe in the concept of clemency in general?

If not, there is no need to continue.

The Pope made a decision. One hopes that he made the decision after weighing all of the facts in the case. I have none of the facts in the case.

[trotsky]

11. Not for people who rape children. Nope. Never.

I guess you and I disagree.

[guillaumeb]

12. I believe in forgiveness, but forgiveness does not automatically

lead to clemency.

Based on my very limited reading, it seems that pedophiles either cannot or will not stop. Given that, I would be very reluctant to grant freedom to any convicted pedophile.

At least when we are discussing adults who rape minors. I understand that some convicted sex offenders were minors who had sex with other minors.

So we might be closer on this issue than you feel.

[trotsky]

13. So you disagree with the pope.

Good. A glimmer of hope.

[Heddi]

14. How can the pope forgive if he has not been erred against?

How noble of the pope to offer forgiveness to people who did not violate him. To forgive people who did not rape him, who did not threaten him to gain his silence.

How utterly mag-fucking-nanimous of him.

"Oh hey, I know you broke into my neighbor's house when I was away on vacation, killed their cat, punched the dog, and assaulted the family but you know what, it's okay. I FORGIVE YOU"

[guillaumeb]

19. Willie Horton ad that Lee Atwater conceived for George H. W. Bush,

welcome to 2017.

This part:

One case has come back to haunt him: An Italian priest who received the pope’s clemency was later convicted by an Italian criminal court for his sex crimes against children as young as 12. The Rev. Mauro Inzoli is now facing a second church trial after new evidence emerged against him, The Associated Press has learned.

So Inzoli was given clemency, and later convicted after new evidence emerged.