Pope will have security, immunity by remaining in the Vatican

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-pope-resignation-immunity-idUSBRE91E0ZI20130215

So is this the main reason that Pope Benedict will resign? I think so. Now is the time for real reform in the church. We need a renewed priestly ministry in a more open, accountable, transparent, church, where women are equals and partners. Roman Catholic Women Priests are leading the way in inclusive, grassroots communities where all are welcome. Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org

..."The final key consideration is the pope's potential exposure to legal claims over the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals.
In 2010, for example, Benedict was named as a defendant in a law suit alleging that he failed to take action as a cardinal in 1995 when he was allegedly told about a priest who had abused boys at a U.S. school for the deaf decades earlier. The lawyers withdrew the case last year and the Vatican said it was a major victory that proved the pope could not be held liable for the actions of abusive priests.
Benedict is currently not named specifically in any other case. The Vatican does not expect any more but is not ruling out the possibility.
"(If he lived anywhere else) then we might have those crazies who are filing lawsuits, or some magistrate might arrest him like other (former) heads of state have been for alleged acts while he was head of state," one source said.
Another official said: "While this was not the main consideration, it certainly is a corollary, a natural result."
After he resigns, Benedict will no longer be the sovereign monarch of the State of Vatican City, which is surrounded by Rome, but will retain Vatican citizenship and residency.
LATERAN PACTS
That would continue to provide him immunity under the provisions of the Lateran Pacts while he is in the Vatican and even if he makes jaunts into Italy as a Vatican citizen.
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".
There have been repeated calls for Benedict's arrest over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
When Benedict went to Britain in 2010, British author and atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins asked authorities to arrest the pope to face questions over the Church's child abuse scandal.
Dawkins and the late British-American journalist Christopher Hitchens commissioned lawyers to explore ways of taking legal action against the pope. Their efforts came to nothing because the pope was a head of state and so enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
In 2011, victims of sexual abuse by the clergy asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the pope and three Vatican officials over sexual abuse.
The New York-based rights group Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and another group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), filed a complaint with the ICC alleging that Vatican officials committed crimes against humanity because they tolerated and enabled sex crimes.
The ICC has not taken up the case but has never said why. It generally does not comment on why it does not take up cases..."

"The Best Choice for Pope? A Nun, "Why is the Idea of Female Priests So Threatening?"

..."One is the rigid all-male Vatican hierarchy that seems out of touch. . . . Yet there’s another Catholic Church as well, one I admire intensely. This is the grass-roots Catholic Church that does far more good in the world than it ever gets credit for. This is the church that supports extraordinary aid organizations like Catholic Relief Services and Caritas, saving lives every day, and that operates superb schools that provide needy children an escalator out of poverty.” Kristof went on to say that “there’s a stereotype of nuns as stodgy Victorian traditionalists. I learned otherwise while hanging on for my life in a passenger seat as an American nun with a lead foot drove her jeep over ruts and through a creek in Swaziland to visit AIDS orphans.”
There are certainly bishops and cardinals who have done this sort of godly work and many more who have supported it. But those who have devoted their lives to climbing the church’s career ladder tend not to be like that nun in the jeep in Swaziland. What a message the cardinals would send about the church’s priorities if they made such a woman pope."

Marcus: Why is idea of female priests so threatening?

"...One of the central questions facing the Catholic Church – one of the stances on which Benedict was most unrelenting and on which his successor is likely to be similarly rigid – is the ordination of women.
The rational move, for a church facing a dire worldwide shortage of priests, would be to expand the pool of potential candidates. This concession to modernity would not be resisted by the faithful; polls in the United States and abroad show strong majorities in support of women serving as priests.
Instead, the church has been moving in the opposite direction, hardening the teaching against ordaining women priests and declaring this doctrine “set forth infallibly,” incapable of being changed. In 2010, the church decreed that the “attempted ordination of women” was among the list of most grievous crimes under church law, on a par with priests sexually abusing minors..."
Links:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130213/COL21/302130060/Marcus-Why-is-idea-of-female-priests-so-threatening-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-best-choice-for-popenun/2013/02/15/83c8be2e-76c6-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.htmltid=pm_opinions_pop 

Pope Benedict Responsible for Sexual Abuse Cover-Up According to Hans Kung

"There is no denying the fact that the worldwide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics was engineered by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Ratzinger (1981-2005). During the reign of Pope John Paul II, that congregation had already taken charge of all such cases under oath of strictest silence. Ratzinger himself, on May 18th, 2001, sent a solemn document to all the bishops dealing with severe crimes ( “epistula de delictis gravioribus” ), in which cases of abuse were sealed under the “secretum pontificium” , the violation of which could entail grave ecclesiastical penalties. With good reason, therefore, many people have expected a personal mea culpa on the part of the former prefect and current pope. Instead, the pope passed up the opportunity afforded by Holy Week: On Easter Sunday, he had his innocence proclaimed “urbi et orbi” by the dean of the College of Cardinals." Hans Kung, Prominent Catholic Theologian

Pope Benedict and the Sex Abuse Scanadal: Responsibility

"In 2001, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger urged Pope John Paul II to create a central system to further the Vatican's investigations of sexual abuse under priests. He shifted control of the disposition of the cases from the Congregation for the Clergy, where little action had been taken, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Ratzinger then headed.

And every week he examined the grueling cases -- coming chiefly from the United States.
"He used to call that weekly meeting ... his penance," said Greg Erlandson, co-author of Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal. Erlandson and church historian Matthew Bunson say in their book that Pope Benedict XVI "arguably was probably the most knowledgeable man on the abuse crisis."
As cases of sexual abuse continued to make headlines, the man who became Pope Benedict XVI has at times publicly addressed the issue and even met with victims, beginning with five victims from the Boston archdiocese, where the abuse scandal first made global headlines.
But victims' advocates remain skeptical and critical over his handling of the matter, particularly the failure to punish bishops who protected abusers rather than children and teens.
"When forced to, he talks about the crimes but ignores the cover-ups, uses the past tense as if to suggest it's not still happening," said David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "He has vast powers and he's done very little to make a difference."
According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection and independent studies commissioned by the bishops, in the United States, there have been:

• More than 6,100 accused priests since 1950.
• More than 16,000 victims identified to date, though there is no national database.
• $2.5 billion in settlements and therapy bills for victims, attorney fees and costs to care for priests pulled out of ministry from 2004 to 2011.

His meetings with victims are viewed by some as "merely public relations."
"These gestures were cynical and, in a way cruel, because they gave survivors and Catholics the illusion that he was a reformer," said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org.
Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, said he believes Benedict and others involved in allegedly covering up the scandal did not allow the survivors to truly affect them. He said he believes the meetings were too highly controlled to really break down any emotional walls.
"Anyone who has worked with survivors feels that those relationships are a privilege and that they do change your life," McKiernan said. "The brief encounters the pope has had with survivors hasn't been life-changing because he's continued to function the way he has."
While Erlandson acknowledges that the visits weren't able to undo victims' emotional damage, he says the meetings were a step forward for the Vatican.
Visiting victims "is a powerful experience of humility, and in that sense, also, he was modeling for the rest of the church and for church leaders how they should behave, and so I think that was powerful," Erlandson said.
Greater transparency by publishing lists of predator priests would help the Vatican move past "just lip service," said Kevin Waldrip, a victim of predatory priest sexual abuse and volunteer for Road to Recovery, an organization that helps victims of clergy sexual abuse.
"I wanted to become a priest, and that changed in a day," Waldrip said, referencing his abuse the day before his 13th birthday. "I felt that not only had I been violated by this priest that I knew and loved, but I had been violated by God."
In the United States, 30 bishops have released the names of predator priests on their diocesan websites. Victims' advocates continue to call for the Vatican to follow suit by releasing files and documentation of clergy sexual abuse. Doing so could allow victims to heal and gain closure, said Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has represented sexual abuse victims of more than 40 different priests.
Doyle said she believes the church's inability for action has only further suppressed actions to stop sexual abuse. In September, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., was found guilty of failing to tell authorities about a priest suspected of sexually exploiting children. Finn was the first U.S. bishop convicted of protecting a priest in a sexual abuse case. Finn remains in office.
"Pope Benedict left a convicted felon in office," Doyle said.
For decades, it was standard procedure for church officials to keep abuse secret. Those years are explored in disturbing and dramatic detail in a new HBO documentary, "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," which went into broadcast rotation on the cable network a week ago.
It is directed by Oscar winner Alex Gibney and voiced by Hollywood stars including Bradley Cooper and Ethan Hawke. Also named in the credits is one of the narrators, prize-winning New York Times religion reporter Laurie Goodstein, whose coverage of rampant abuse of deaf children at a school in Wisconsin became an international sensation.
The unifying claim of the documentary is that the Catholic church, from the papacy to the smallest parish, has been focused on protecting the institution, not the youth.
In the documentary -- as in California this month where retired Cardinal Roger Mahony was rebuked by the current archbishop of Los Angeles -- only court-ordered releases of documents have enabled victims to trace what the church knew and when people with the power to call the police, defrock priests or reach out to victims, failed to act.
Almost every example in the film traces eventually to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Ratzinger. The Vatican did not respond to the filmmakers' requests for interviews."

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"New Pope Should Work with Sisters"

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/lcwr-president-new-pope-should-work-sisters
Bridget Mary's Response: This is a real no-brainer! One thing the hierarchy should have learned by their ill-fated investigations of the nuns is that the bishops do not have the support of U.S. Catholics!  The hierarchy should have learned their lesson - the nuns are saavy, dedicated, women of faith and way ahead of them on justice issues as in "nuns on the bus"! Amen! Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org

Women, Teachings and Lives- John Paul 11 and Benedict by Tom Fox/NCR

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/women-teachings-and-lives-john-paul-and-benedict

"Judge Rules Against Cincinnati Archdiocese in Firing of Catholic School Employee

"A senior US district court judge has ruled against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in a case involving the dismissal of an employee who became pregnant by artificial insemination. 

Christa Dias, a computer technology coordinator at two schools, alleged that the archdiocese violated laws barring discrimination against pregnant employees. 

The archdiocese, in turn, invoked the ministerial exception to anti-discrimination laws. 

Judge S. Arthur Spiegel ruled that the ministerial exception, which was unanimously upheld last year by the United States Supreme Court, does not apply to non-Catholic employees such as Dias who do not teach Catholic doctrine. 

In defending its firing of Dias, the archdiocese also invoked a morals clause in its contract. 

According to the plaintiff’s attorney, the archdiocese has invoked the clause only against female employees, raising questions of discrimination. 

“The parties dispute whether a former male employee of a parish within the Archdiocese, who testified he engaged in artificial insemination without being fired, serves as evidence of disparate treatment,” the judge stated. 

Judge Spiegel ruled that the case should be sent to a jury. “Should the jury conclude after hearing the testimony of the decision-makers that the policy has been enforced unequally as to men and women,” Judge Spiegel stated, the jury could find that the archdiocese’s invocation of its morals clause was a “pretext for pregnancy discrimination.” 
Judge Spiegel, 92, was appointed to the bench by President Jimmy Carter in 1980."

Pope Benedict Seeks Immunity from Prosecution from President of Italy

http://itccs.org/

International Tribunal calls on Napolitano to "not collude in criminality", and announces global campaign to occupy Vatican property and launch human rights inquiry in Italy

Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, has scheduled a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano for Saturday, February 23 to discuss securing protection and immunity from prosecution from the Italian government, according to Italian media sources.
Ratzinger's meeting follows upon the apparent receipt by the Vatican of a diplomatic note from an undisclosed European government on February 4, stating its intention to issue an arrest warrant for Ratzinger, who resigned from his pontificate less than a week later.
In response to the February 23 meeting, the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS), through its field Secretary, Rev. Kevin Annett, has written to President Napolitano, asking him to refrain from assisting Ratzinger in evading justice.
The ITCCS letter states, in part,
"I need not remind you, Mr. President, that under international law and treaties that have been ratified by Italy, you and your government are forbidden from granting such protection to those like Joseph Ratzinger who have aided and abetted criminal actions, such as ordering Bishops and Cardinals in America and elsewhere to protect known child rapists among their clergy.
"Your obligation to the Vatican through the Lateran Treaty does not negate or nullify the requirements of these higher moral and international laws; nor does it require that you give any protection or immunity to a single individual like Joseph Ratzinger, especially after he has left his papal office."
A copy of the complete text of the ITCCS letter follows.
In response to the documented crimes of child torture, trafficking and genocide linked to Pope Benedict and Vatican officials, the ITCCS will be sponsoring a series of ongoing protests and occupations of Roman Catholic churches and offices through its affiliates around the world beginning in Easter week, March 24-31, 2013, and continuing indefinitely.
These actions will accompany the legal efforts to bring Joseph Ratzinger and other Vatican officials to trial for their proven complicity in crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy.
The Easter Reclamation Campaign will seize church property and assets to prevent their use by child raping priests, who are protected under Catholic canon law. Citizens have this right to defend their communities and children when the authorities refuse to do so, under international law.
Rev. Kevin Annett and an official delegation from the ITCCS Central Office will also be convening a formal human rights inquiry in Rome commencing the week of May 13, 2013, to consider further charges against the Vatican and its new Pope  for crimes against humanity and obstruction of justice.
Rev. Annett and his delegation will be working with organizations across Italy in this investigation. In 2009 and 2010, he held rallies outside the Vatican and met with media and human rights groups across Italy to charge the Vatican with the death of more than 50,000 aboriginal children in Canada."

More Media Stories- RCWP in Wisconsin

Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Catholic Church, Wauwatosa WIhttp://www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/milwaukee/On-Assignment-Catholic-Church-in-Wauwatosa-with-female-priest-stirs-controversy/-/10148890/18470844/-/potpe4z/-/index.html

Ashes to Go on Ash Wednesday  Wauwatosa Ministerial Association, Wauwatosa WIhttp://www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/milwaukee/People-get-Ashes-to-Go-in-Wauwatosa/-/10148890/18539316/-/13t26wiz/-/index.html

TV Coverage of Beverly Bingle's and Ann P. Klonowski's Ordination

TV coverage of Beverly's and Ann's ordinations:http://www.13abc.com/video?clipId=8346551&autostart=true

And her first mass:
http://www.13abc.com/story/21096973/supportors-attend-woman-priests-first-mass

Newspaper coverage of our ordinations Saturday from the Toledo Blade:http://www.toledoblade.com/Religion/2013/02/10/Womenpriests-ordains-Toledo-Catholic-woman.html

Here are two more pieces, the first a video and the second an article,
on Saturday's ordination in Toledo:
http://toledofavs.com/faith/clergy-and-congregations/video-of-roman-catholic-womenpriest-ordination

http://toledofavs.com/faith/clergy-and-congregations/woman-priest-to-serve-mass-day-after-ordination

Ann P. Klonowski
Site Coordinator
STEP at Warrensville CCPL
216.544.4717

Resurrection Community Celebrates Inclusive Catholic Eucharist in Cincinnati Monthly: All are Welcome!

Janice Sevre-Duszynska and Paul Hoeffer

On Feb. 13th about 90 people gathered in Cincinnati for our monthly Eucharist. Some
came from the city, others
from northern Kentucky and Dayton. Each month we have first-timers who come up
to me and say, "I've been looking
for this for so long. I am grateful to be here."
Ours is an every-growing Eucharist Community and truly a discipleship of equals.
Our name is Resurrection Community and we have been  gathering together as the
people of God three years this May. In the emergence of our faith community we
have had the support of loving and prophetic people...
During the summer when it is hot, we gather in the church which has air
conditioning. During the other months, we celebrate as the people of God in the
fellowship hall at tables where there is also bread and wine for all to
consecrate along with the priest.  Our music and songs are coordinated with our
theme. People are invited to give homilies and become part of the liturgy
committee. For two years, we used ARCWP's worship aide and sometimes folks wrote
original Eucharist prayers. Now we are putting together our own liturgies and
they, too, are  grounded and meaningful.
At our Ash Wednesday liturgy last night, a first-timer told me she cried when
she gave Eucharist to the person sitting next to her, saying; "You are the Body
of Christ." In our faith community, we are living the Kindom experience of 
liberation and empowerment.
Janice Sevre-Duszynska, arcwp
www.arcwp.org

 

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" How to Survive the Coming Conclave by Mary Hunt

 

http://www.fsrinc.org/blog/smoke-gets-your-eyes

 

"Patriarchy will get unimaginable amounts of free publicity for the next month as the Roman Catholic Church reshuffles the papal deck. Media commentators will fawn over the proceedings triggered by the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. "

"...So how should feminists deal with the endless hype of the next month? I have a four-part strategy that I will be following. 
1. Call foul on the process.
First, this is not about a pope but a process. We do not get a lot of windows of opportunity when the press is attentive to things theological. The issue is not a new pope, whether from a developing country or not. In fact, foisting a sinking ship on a person whose community has been marginalized is an old trick, and it does not work.  Rather, what is needed is a wholesale deconstruction of a hierarchal church and the reconstruction of a community that is based on radical equality. 
This is a mouthful in a sound bite era. But the important thing is to call foul on the process. When a few men vote without accountability to anyone and when power is centered at the top, the whole framework and process are wrong. If a pope can resign and his colleagues make up the rest as they go along, then a structure can be redesigned. Tradition has no claim on injustice.
2. Change the subject.
The outcome of this election is pretty clear from the outset. Handicapping the race to the tiara is a parlor game, not a serious theo-political analysis. Cardinal electors have been handpicked to reflect a conservative ideology. Even if they decide on a candidate from a developing country, the chances are good that he (no women, remember) will be cut from the same cloth.
The best approach is to deflect such discussion and focus instead on the needs of the world—economic, ecological, and social. Imagine a billion people really empowered to do justice. We could make a real difference. Instead, if Catholics are left to think that their leaders will do justice work for them because they do everything else (like vote for top leadership) that energy will never gather. The world will be the worse for it.
3. Be creative.
Now is a time to think the edgiest thoughts and articulate them broadly. I will start.
I imagine that this is the end of the papacy as we know it. Gary Wills in his new book Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition (Viking, 2013) sketches the end of priesthood. The pope was a priest last time I checked, ergo the end of the papacy as currently conceived. Imagine that.
It is time for this global institution, this multinational business called Catholicism to be horizontally integrated with teams of ministers and managers, teachers, and preachers. Beginning in local communities, every adult member would have voice and vote with younger people brought along to participate as their abilities allow. Jobs would rotate so no one would have to be stuck with one task forever. Take a lesson from the retiring pope who is now hinting that he may start to frequent his favorite Roman restaurants again when he is freed from his tasks! Other churches and many religious communities operate this way and it works just fine.
4. Embrace humor.
Religion is a common human experience, which reflects both deeply held beliefs and absurd nonsense. As such, it is rich fodder for humor. The humor need not be nasty or cynical, but it can be hysterical as we enjoy the foibles of our shared humanity. I say laugh until you cry at some of this stuff that Saturday Night Live writers could not make up.
Read feminist comedian Kate Clinton on the papal resignation. Observe the deep theological answer to the question that one calls a former pope: “Ex Benedict” with apologies to the popular brunch food. See what cartoonists are saying. Hey, maybe the Pope resigned because he wants to get married, how do I know! He is resigning on the feast day of Pope Hilarius. Stop me!
The patriarchal religious media-show-on-steroids will play out in the month ahead. Left unquestioned, it will reinforce and reinscribe the worst forms of privilege and domination. But if feminists and friends raise tough questions along the way"