DUTCH Catholic bishops have ordered an independent inquiry into alleged sexual abuse of children by priests. The investigation, according to the BBC, would be launched “as soon as possible” into more than 200 reported cases of abuse.
Earlier, the Vatican defended its response to child sex abuse allegations in a number of European states, saying it had reacted rapidly and decisively.
In the latest revelations, the head of an Austrian monastery confessed to abusing a boy more than 40 years ago.
The Dutch Catholic Church offered its apologies to the victims:
To the victims of abuse in Catholic boarding schools, the religious leaders and bishops offer their deep-felt condolences and apologies.
Allegations first centred on a school in the eastern Netherlands, with people saying they were abused by Catholic priests. This prompted dozens more alleged victims from other institutions to come forward in recent days.
It also emerged on Tuesday that the head of a Salzburg monastery, Bruno Becker, had offered his resignation on Monday after confessing to having abused a boy 40 years ago, when he was a monk. Church authorities accepted his resignation immediately.
The German, Austrian, Irish and US churches have all been damaged by sexual abuse scandals.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Vatican spokesman said in a statement the sexual abuse scandals were especially deplorable given the educational and moral responsibilities of the Catholic Church, but that the institutions in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands had shown that it wanted to be transparent.
Said Father Federico Lombardi:
They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago.
He denied the Vatican had tried to erect a “wall of silence” around the scandals surfacing in many countries.
On Monday, the German justice minister said Vatican secrecy rules were complicating investigations of the cases.
Allegations of sexual abuse are being investigated in 18 of Germany’s 27 Roman Catholic dioceses, where former students from a number of Catholic schools have alleged sexual abuse by teachers.
The Church says it is doing its best to limit the moral damage caused to it by stressing that paedophilia is a problem not limited to Catholic institutions and teachers, but one which must be tackled in a broader context within civil society.
In Germany, there have also been allegations of abuse at a church choir in the Regensburg Diocese.
These are especially sensitive because the choir was run by the Pope’s own elder brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, from 1964-1993 – though the abuse is alleged to have happened before he took charge.
The Pope's brother Georg admits hitting children - but now feels about it
He has denied any knowledge of the sex abuse cases.
But he admitted in an interview that discipline was strict, and that he himself had sometimes slapped pupils in the face.
Last night, BBC2′s Newsnight reported on the case of former priest Bill Carney, who was named in the Murphy report into clerical abuse in Ireland as a “serial abuser”. One of his rape victims was a boy of 13. But for the last 10 years he has been free to live quietly in Britain.
In its 40 pages on Carney, the Murphy report said that his was one of the worst cases the commission investigated and that the Church’s handling of his case was “nothing short of catastrophic”.
It was inept, self-serving and for the best part of 10 years displayed no obvious concern for the welfare of children.
In 1992, the Church convicted Carney internally, under Canon law, of child sexual abuse.
But this compulsive paedophile refused to leave the parish house. So the Church paid him £30,000 to go away.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
March 10th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
What’s that noise I can hear? Oh, it’s my blood boiling yet again.
March 10th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Is it actually possible to be a priest and not be a paedo? Scum.
March 10th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Here we go again.
Paedophilia within the catholic priesthood exposed once more. The unique access to children these jobs provide must be a huge draw for kiddie fiddlers. I’ll bet their bosses made no background checks in the past either. Desperate for new recruits I imagine most applicants were just “waved through”.
No doubt many of the guilty will be de-frocked for “financial irregularities”, the paedhood only ever admit to a sex abuse claim when it’s glaringly obvious.
Someone should get a huge world atlas and stick in different coloured pins representing cases of sexual, physical or emotional abuse by these monsters. To view such a map would surely make any well adjusted persons blood boil and show what happens in evil institutions like Ratzi’s Dirty Old Man’s Club.
March 10th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
The heartfelt apologies and statements of regret are the things that make me fume. It always makes me think of that Rhiana song “Take a bow” which contains the lines:
“Don’t tell me you’re sorry ’cause you’re not, baby when I know you’re only sorry you got caught.”
If these bastards had not been found out they would be carrying on exactly as before. They have also got the begging bowl out in the hope that the ever gullible sheep will help them pay for all the lawsuits.
March 10th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
There could be a deflective ploy going on here. Georg, Ratzinger’s brother – more and more like the Mafia or nepotism they way they are all linked – says, “Nope, I didn’t have anything to do with child sexual abuse. All, I did was slap them around.”
Big sighs all round. “Thank god, all he did was thump the kids.” In any civilised community that is child abuse.
Remember Ratzinger whining about the need for equality so that his followers didn’t have to appoint gays? Not much equality being handed out under his aegis.
We are not going to be forced to pay £20 million to set up a state visit for this man, are we? Although I see Elizabeth Windsor is going up to Scotland – complete with her attendant and underpaid serfs and one who takes her 60 bottles of water (homeopathy) – to welcome Ratzinger. Can’t say that surprises me. About her level of perception.
March 10th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
How odd that the late Roald Dahl should have written a short story about an eponymous vicar named Georgy Porgy and his strange relationships with women! (Poor Georgy ends up in an asylum, BTW!!)
George is a vicar in a small country parish and has quite a problem with women. On one hand he is mad about them – the mere sight of a lady in high heels is enough to excite him enormously. On the other hand, he can’t bear to touch them or be in close proximity to them. George doesn’t understand the reason for this paradox, but Dahl gives the reader an additional insight – George’s memories of his mother…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Porgy
March 10th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
barriejohn
Is this the same Georgy Porgy from the nursery rhyme? Not a very nice story in the end is it?
It’s a bit like Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses. Enjoyed as a child and only to have its dark origins revealed to you in later life.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
It’s a different Georgy, Broadsword, but that was obviously the inspiration for the name!
Georg Ratzinger led the choir;
Georg Ratzinger was a liar!
Said there had been no abuse -
There’s a Canon on the loose!!
March 10th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
There was an old pontiff called Ratzi,
Who maintained he was never a nazi.
He hated the gays,
Helped spread HIV/AIDS,
And kept paedo priests under his hatzi!
March 10th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I can see why that catholic priest didn’t want to give the sacraments to the Gay man in the Netherlands. Too old.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Broga
There could be a deflective ploy going on here. Georg, Ratzinger’s brother – more and more like the Mafia or nepotism they way they are all linked – says, “Nope, I didn’t have anything to do with child sexual abuse. All, I did was slap them around.â€
Big sighs all round. “Thank god, all he did was thump the kids.†In any civilised community that is child abuse.
Nah, I believe you have to look a bit down the time line here.
I was often beaten by my Dad(I am 65 now). He was the baddest motherfucker I knew. My mother usually only threatened to slap me and my 2 brothers and my sister. The teachers at school had very loose hands(and feet)though.
And I got slapped twice in the face by a priest.
I even remember the names of those two. I was surprised probably by their attitude. I remember only that those punishments were more or less giving me a humiliating feeling. It did not hurt.
The teachers(some of them) were the sadists. Knocking boys heads together was the hobby of one of them. This dossier has been closed and will it ever be opened. I hope not. Much ado about nothing.
But when the SHARIA is implemented, and in the UK it is already moling away, there will be lots and lots more child abuse in islamic schools. Peace, Pat Condell would say.
March 11th, 2010 at 1:07 am
The catholics thought that by insisting upon the the celibacy of the priesthood, they would eliminate those who were not totally devoted to jesus. It’s the law of unintended consequences. Instead of holy men, they’ve raised crop after crop of corn-holing men. So they’re not interested in girls, it must be a calling from the lord to the priesthood.
I have absolutely no doubt that the catholic child rape cases that have come to light are just a scum on a very deep pond. And stories across the internet indicate that the real rump ranging, for most, begin in seminary school. http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02202.html
But, if I was an altar boy, I would rather have the Very Reverend Father force me to let him suck my carrot, than have him assassinate my whole village, which is the real heritage, the history of the bloody catholic church.
NeoWolfe
March 11th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Regarding Catholic abuse, Someone posted at Secular Cafe a link to an article I think really fine, and which could do with being disseminated more widely.
So I post as link to it here, in the hope that people will read it, and, if they agree, post it on blogs, message boards…..in turn.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/h.....00218.html
March 11th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Justification and excuses …
“by stressing that paedophilia is a problem not limited to Catholic institutions and teachers,”
Maybe not, but bosses covering for the priests, bosses calling the children liars, bosses arranging for the guilty to be ‘got out of the county’ and refusal at all levels to admit out loud that raping children is wrong …
well, you only get that with religion!
March 12th, 2010 at 12:00 am
I’m all for pointing out problems with the way the Catholic Church handles reports and incidents of abuse. But to listen to some of the smug replies posted here reminds me why I have problems reading comments on articles posted on atheist websites. You’re not part of some special club for super intellectuals that are privy to some special truth; the arrogance is so thick. Making a comment about Ratzinger’s brother hitting a kid? Really? That guy is over 80? How many teachers 50 years ago ever hit a kid? Probably most of them. That doesn’t make it right; but is certainly not anything all that shocking.
I’d be interested to see the actual numbers of proven crimes. A priest gets more media attention and we are all appalled. But there are 1.5 million sex offenders in the US alone. Meanwhile we are taking a global tally of these horrible acts.
Thinking of the Church as some sort of paedo factory is ridiculous. As atheists we should at least have some statistics and science. Otherwise you sound like Atheism is just a better religion that Catholicism.