THE Catholic Church was hoping, no doubt, that its planned canonisation of an Australian nun would serve to divert attention from all the bad press it’s been attracting in recent years over clerical child abuse.
Mary MacKillop
No such luck. Oz’s National Broadcaster ABC, according to this report, intends screening a documentary on October 10 which reveals that Mary MacKillop, soon to become Australia’s first Catholic saint, was briefly excommunicated by the church in part because she exposed a paedophile priest.
MacKillop, who will be canonised by Ratzinger next month, was known as a tireless educator and founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart order of nuns which ventured into remote outback areas.
But the documentary paints her as a woman who also spoke up to church authorities about allegations of child molestation by priests.
Father Paul Gardiner, a campaigner for MacKillop’s sainthood, told the documentary makers:
The story of the excommunication amounts to this: that some priests had been uncovered for being involved in the sexual abuse of children.
MacKillop and her nuns told their superiors and severe action was taken, including sending one priest back to Ireland, and this so enraged other priests that they swore to take revenge against MacKillop’s order.
Part of this revenge included encouraging the then Bishop of Adelaide Laurence Shiel to excommunicate MacKillop, something he duly did in 1871.
Gardiner elaborated:
She [MacKillop] submitted to a farcical ceremony where the Bishop had… lost it. He was being manipulated by malicious priests.
The man sent back to Ireland continued as a priest.
Gardiner added:
Were they covering up sexual abuse? Well, I suppose you could put it that way …
From his deathbed some five months later, Shiel instructed that MacKillop be absolved, and the Melbourne-born woman went on to grow her order around the country, attracting hundreds of women to her cause.
Calls for MacKillop’s canonisation began shortly after her death in 1909.
The Sisters of St Joseph do not dispute the findings of the documentary.
Meanwhile, it is reported from Italy that victims of child abuse by Catholic priests in in that country gathered this week in Verona, and called for such abuse to be made a crime against humanity.
Dozens of victims and their families went to the public meeting, the first of its kind in Italy.
Organiser Salvatore Damolo, a former victim and an ex-priest, said the aim was to give victims a platform to talk about their experiences.
Salvatore Damolo
He appealed for help in seeking justice for those who have been abused.
Italian bishops say around 100 cases of abuse have been investigated by Church authorities in the past decade. But organisers of the conference say the true number of victims is much higher.
Sixty-seven deaf-mute children at Verona’s Catholic Antonio Provolo institute were allegedly abused by priests and lay staff between the 1950s and 1980s, according to testimony obtained by AP in 2009.
Next month they will hold a demonstration outside the Vatican, to which US abuse victims have also been invited, the Italian news agency Ansa reports.
Hat tip: Chris (MacKillop report) and BarrieJohn
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 26th, 2010 at 10:37 am
PaedoRatzi can make this woman a saint if he wants, note that at no point was secular law called upon. They’re all paedos or apologists. If Ratty beatifies this woman the stories will circulate and make a nonsense of it. MacKillop wasn’t a forward thinker, she was one of them. Disgusted by the actions of some of her fellows perhaps but unwilling to expose her church to scrutiny:
http://sistertwister.sensualwr.....traped.jpg
September 26th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Sexual abuse of children seems to have been long ingrained in Ratzo’s outfit. The stresses, perverted beliefs required and the gulf between natural behavour and what they have to pretend seems to self select paedophiliacs.
I hear Ratzo has been bought during his UK Carnival by RC millionaires dishing out loads of money in return for an audience. The man seems devoid of any kind of decent restraint on his behaviour. So much for his aura of “Holyness” Archbishop Nichols was parading before us on the BBC. I think we need a public apology from the BBC for the con job, and deluge of religious Roman Catholic propaganda, inflicted on the licence payers. This has been a scandal, should be exposed, and must never happen again.
September 26th, 2010 at 11:22 am
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....t-him.html
James 2
New American Standard Bible ©
The Sin of Partiality
1 My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. 2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,†and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,†4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
September 26th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Read this:
http://www.secularism.org.uk/n.....on-at.html
September 26th, 2010 at 11:37 am
And this!
http://www.secularism.org.uk/b.....e-pap.html
September 26th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
@barriejohn.
I complained to the BBC and I got that kind of reply. They also gave me the old soft soap “always glad to hear from our listeners and all views taken seriously………” What they didn’t say was that their coverage was biased and little more than propaganda for this tawdry Pope and his entourage. As for the obvious and blatant attempt to deflect attention from the paedo activities of his priests by the linking of atheists with nazis – nothing. The BBC didn’t so much as swallow these lies as enthusiastically help spread them despite their being the opposite of the facts.
There is much that is good in the BBC – particularly Radio 4 as far as I am concerned. However, there is a nasty stench of religious bias that continues to infect the corporation. How far does this corrosion reach? To what extent does it affect the news, for example? News is what someone decides is news.
September 26th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Broga: I posted another link prior to the others, which seems to have disappeared again.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....t-him.html
September 26th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Catholics in Ireland have been urged to boycott masses this weekend. Things MUST be getting serious!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-n.....d-11413860
September 26th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Off Topic – but did anyone see the hilarious performance artist Steven Green this morning on BBC1 – he was doing a short piece to camera about how our country is pandering to muslims, but persecuting christians.
That old strawman argument again!
But he was wearing a white vest and a leather jacket while talking to camera – yes – thats what I thought too; On the waterfront. He’ll be posing for Touko Laaksonen next ;o) (google his superb illustrations – possibly NSFW – though it depends on your work!)
Best thing was – he came out and said that Islam is satanic. Straight to a “moderate” Islamic on the abysmal TV shows panel of guests. Awesome. I’m going to see if its on iplayer so I can watch it again.
He gets funnier with each “outing” I swear.
September 26th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Broga,
What I find especially galling about the vile BBC is that, by law, I have to pay for the this crap service and the religious nonsence they transmit daily. Not one alterative viewpoint did I hear during the visit. It was so one sided.
September 26th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
@Stargraves
Was Green emulating James Dean or Marlon Brando?
Did he exit on a Harley?
September 26th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Broga/barriejohn/tony e
I once wrote (yes paper and pen!) a letter of complaint to the BBC about their coverage of a South African township riot during apartheid. Their cameraman had sighted his lens down the barrel of a policeman’s gun as he discharged a baton round and a split second later a man 50 metres away crumpled with the force of the impact. Not the sort of graphic detail you expect to see on the six o’clock news. About three weeks later I recieved a letter that more or less told me to fuck off.
September 26th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
@barriejohn.
Things are getting tough when even the Daily Mail prints an article like that. So much for “blessed are the poor”. More blessed are the wealthy tax dodgers who are able to shovel money at the old fraud. Ratzo had developed a frozen rictus to his mouth which seem to have been placed there by plastic surgery.
tony e.
Right. The Biased Broadcasting Corporation are prepared to have you locked up if you don’t pay. About time our hard hitting, stand no nonsense government said something about the deluge of sewage otherwise known as fair and balanced coverage of a state visit. Or is Cameron’s enthusiasm for faith communities getting in the way?
September 26th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I have only one thing to say re the likelihood of complaints to the BBC having any effect whatsoever: Points of View!
September 26th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
The detailed, meticulous, well argued case for non religious opinion on Thought for the Day by the NSS and the reply from the BBC tells you all you need to know. The reply, pronounced ex cathedra of course,with no explanation was “get lost” we only want people of faith here. So all religious bigots, and there are plenty, are welcome but no secular opinion.
Place that against what we saw about Ratzo. The deluge of pro RC propaganda, the endless air time to priests and bishops, the blotting out of all the paedo abuse and the re writing of history in a way that would have equalled Stalin at his worst and the effect is a scandal. This, of course, paid for out of license fees and most of that money not from RCs. Atheists, on pain of penalties up to imprisonment, forced to fund this sick and tawdry sycophancy.
September 27th, 2010 at 12:22 am
The persons who have been unable to persuade BBritain’s BBarborous CCatholics to stop misusing their tax money to discriminate against the 49 percent of the population who are nontheists and the further 35 percent who are non-Catholic, should direct their complaints to the deputy prime minister, himself one of the victims of the BBC discrimination. He (surely?) cannot be such a moral coward that he dare not demand equal treatment from his Ratzinger-fellating boss?
September 27th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Testing
September 27th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Abuse and cover-up: as old the RC itself?
September 27th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
My fourth time trying to get through!
America has a “Freethought Radio” which airs once a week. Has anyone considered setting up one in the UK ? This would be a good way to get an alternative message out.
September 27th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Mary MacKillop
A rammy pillock.
September 27th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
@Canadian
I think Cleggy’s wife is a Catlick.
September 27th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
@Broadsword.
I read that Mrs Cleggy insists that the Minicleggies go to RC Schools. So not a lot to be optimistic about there.
September 27th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
With nontheists like Clegg (UK) and Gillard (Australia) willing to let themselves be arsefucked by the godfucked, who needs theocrats?
September 28th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Perhaps the Cleggs should see this:
http://lolgod.blogspot.com/201.....r-own.html
LolGod often comes up with something funny and topical.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:06 am
He hardly need to, Broadsword!
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5757.....ined_.html