Post by andrew49 on Apr 17, 2010 13:36:26 GMT
Quote:
"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration. You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest."
So said Cardinal Dario Castrillon in a letter dated 2001.
When heading the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos congratulated a French bishop in a 2001 letter for not denouncing a sexually abusive priest to the police. In the letter dated 8 September 2001, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos backed French Bishop Pierre Pican's decision not to denounce a priest who was later sentenced to 18 years in jail for repeated rape of a boy and sexual assaults on 10 others.
Bishop Pican, who received a suspended three-month jail sentence for not denouncing sexual abuse of minors, admitted in court he had kept Rev. René Bissey in parish work despite the fact the priest had privately admitted committing pedophile acts.
"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," Castrillon Hoyos wrote. "You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest." The letter cited Vatican documents and an epistle of Saint Paul to bolster its argument about special bishop-priest links. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi did not dispute the letter's content but said it confirmed
Quote:
"how opportune it was to centralize treatment of catholic sex abuse cases by clerics under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."
The BBC
A staunch conservative from Colombia, the cardinal headed the Vatican department for priests from 1996 to 2006. From 2000 to 2009, he also ran a commission dealing with traditionalist rebels who broke from Rome in 1988 and were excommunicated. He conducted the talks that led to the January 2009 decision to readmit the four banned bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X to the Church, which caused an uproar when it emerged that one of them, Richard Williamson, had denied the Holocaust. The controversy was highly embarrassing to Pope Benedict, who said he did not know about Williamson's views, even though they could easily be found on the internet.
"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration. You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest."
So said Cardinal Dario Castrillon in a letter dated 2001.
When heading the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos congratulated a French bishop in a 2001 letter for not denouncing a sexually abusive priest to the police. In the letter dated 8 September 2001, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos backed French Bishop Pierre Pican's decision not to denounce a priest who was later sentenced to 18 years in jail for repeated rape of a boy and sexual assaults on 10 others.
Bishop Pican, who received a suspended three-month jail sentence for not denouncing sexual abuse of minors, admitted in court he had kept Rev. René Bissey in parish work despite the fact the priest had privately admitted committing pedophile acts.
"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," Castrillon Hoyos wrote. "You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest." The letter cited Vatican documents and an epistle of Saint Paul to bolster its argument about special bishop-priest links. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi did not dispute the letter's content but said it confirmed
Quote:
"how opportune it was to centralize treatment of catholic sex abuse cases by clerics under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."
The BBC
A staunch conservative from Colombia, the cardinal headed the Vatican department for priests from 1996 to 2006. From 2000 to 2009, he also ran a commission dealing with traditionalist rebels who broke from Rome in 1988 and were excommunicated. He conducted the talks that led to the January 2009 decision to readmit the four banned bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X to the Church, which caused an uproar when it emerged that one of them, Richard Williamson, had denied the Holocaust. The controversy was highly embarrassing to Pope Benedict, who said he did not know about Williamson's views, even though they could easily be found on the internet.
