Ongoing religious scandals

Hotblack Desiato

Why were the Jesuits silent about abuse in Belvedere, Crescent and Clongowes?

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/10/29/why-did-the-jesuits-stay-silent-for-so-long-about-child-abuse-in-their-ranks/

(a) Because they're a bunch of ****s

(b) The Reputation Of The Church Must Be Protected

(c) Follow the money

(d) All of the above

42 of the 43 Irish Jesuits credibly accused of abuse remain anonymous.

Oh and...

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2023/10/27/hundreds-of-thousands-suffered-church-abuse-spanish-inquiry-says/

The first major public inquiry into paedophilia in Spain’s Catholic Church estimates that the number of victims of sexual abuse linked to the institution runs to hundreds of thousands.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/11/21/more-than-780000-paid-to-child-sex-abuse-survivors-by-dublin-archdiocese-in-2022/

Some €784,000 in compensation was paid to survivors of child sex abuse (CSA), the Dublin Archdiocese’s annual report for 2022 shows.

The report also shows that income at Dublin’s Catholic parishes continued to drop last year, totalling €29.6 million on December 31st last, down from €31.3 million in 2021.

I would have thought the figures would have gone up with the full reopening of churches? The collection figures I mean...

Some fine accountant-speak:

“A provision is included in the financial statements for the estimated total costs of outstanding claims and for the eventuality of future claims arising for compensation in connection with the alleged clerical abuse of children. The provision at December 31st, 2022 reported a net decrease of €784k to €10,052k in the current year (2021: €10,836k),” it said.

Odd way of stating the figure, wouldn't it be clearer to state €10million instead? Financial reservation perhaps?

“The Trustees and its external advisers carry out an annual review in order to determine a provision in respect of claims notified and the eventuality of future claims arising. Also included in the provision is a specific provision held relating to St Patricks College, Drumcondra following the transfer of a provision of €1.3m into the Charity (the Archdiocese). This provision is for any potential future CSA cases that they may not be aware of relating to St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.”

It must be remembered these were the guys who thought it was moral and proper to take out insurance against child abuse compensation claims (back in the days when that appeared to be an insurable risk, not a certainty...)

On the overall drop in income last year, the annual report said that: “Mass collections have not returned to pre-pandemic levels” as “even though the restrictions are now lifted, parishes are not seeing the attendances that was there before the pandemic”.

At the current loss rate they have sufficient cash reserves for about 30 years - although expenditure on priests' incomes can be expected to decline, and then there's lots of juicy assets which can be sold off...

robindch

Odd way of stating the figure, wouldn't it be clearer to state €10million instead? Financial reservation perhaps?

Same reason that soccer players' salaries are always quoted in currency units per week - because it sounds a lot better to the ticket-buying public than fifty times that amount per year.

 there's lots of juicy assets which can be sold off...

Not if these are first transferred into trusts - as did the religious orders when they protected assets from being sold to pay for abuse settlements via the Residential Institutions Redress Board and Michael Wood's disgraceful indemnity deal with the religious.

Hotblack Desiato

The absolute cheek of this guy...

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/11/29/former-head-of-christian-brothers-to-drop-legal-action-over-freedom-of-city-vote/

The former head of the Christian Brothers has said he intends to drop a judicial review filed in recent days against Louth County Council, which planned to challenge a vote taken to effectively rescind the Freedom of Drogheda from him.

Councillors on the Drogheda borough district voted in September to no longer acknowledge a previous award granting Br Edmund Garvey the Freedom of Drogheda.

The vote followed a campaign by survivors who were sexually abused as children by members of the Christian Brothers, opposing a legal strategy adopted when Br Garvey was head of the congregation, which makes it more difficult for claimants to advance civil cases.

Court records show Br Garvey had launched a judicial review against Louth County Council and Drogheda borough district. Br Garvey is represented by Frank Buttimer & Company solicitors in the case, which was lodged on Monday.

robindch

Angelo Becciu, who oversaw the management of Vatican funds from 2011 to 2018, has been convicted by a Vatican court of multiple counts of embezzlement and fraud of in a landmark corruption case which landed him in jail for five years and six months.

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2023/12/16/vatican-court-convicts-cardinal-of-embezzlement-in-corruption-trial/

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121507051#Comment_121507051

Robbing from the church. The one crime the Vatican takes seriously.

Hotblack Desiato

Is there a jail in the Vatican?

There should be - with thousands of cells.

I wonder how they're getting on with the case against the German bishop who was into penthouse flats and jacuzzis.

robindch

Oops. Seems a lad named Christian Ziegler (Florida’s GOP chairman) and his wife, Bridget Ziegler (noisy school board member and co-founder of an outfit named Moms for Liberty), are under criminal investigation following allegations of rape and 'video voyeurism' brought by a lady with whom Mr and Mrs Ziegler wished to meet 'for a threesome'.

Mrs Ziegler is most famous for campaigning in Florida for something called the Parental Rights In Education Act, also known as the 'Don’t Say Gay' law, which prohibits, amongst other things, public schools from having classroom discussions regarding sexual orientation.

https://flcga.org/florida-gop-chair-christian-ziegler-husband-of-a-moms-for-liberty-cofounder-accused-of-battery-by-alleged-menage-a-trois-lover/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/florida-republican-party-ousts-christian-ziegler-chairman-rape-allegat-rcna131936

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67749215

Evidence of widespread abuse and torture by the founder of one of the world's biggest Christian evangelical churches has been uncovered by the BBC.

Dozens of ex-Synagogue Church of all Nations members - five British - allege atrocities, including rape and forced abortions, by Nigeria's late TB Joshua.

The allegations of abuse in a secretive Lagos compound span almost 20 years.

The Synagogue Church of All Nations did not respond to the allegations but said previous claims have been unfounded.

TB Joshua, who died in 2021, was a charismatic and hugely successful preacher and televangelist who had an immense global following.

The BBC's findings over a two-year investigation include:

Dozens of eyewitness accounts of physical violence or torture carried out by Joshua, including instances of child abuse and people being whipped and chained

Numerous women who say they were sexually assaulted by Joshua, with a number claiming they were repeatedly raped for years inside the compound

Multiple allegations of forced abortions inside the church following the alleged rapes by Joshua, including one woman who says she had five terminations

Multiple first-hand accounts detailing how Joshua faked his "miracle healings", which were broadcast to millions of people around the world

A number of our witnesses in Nigeria claim they were physically attacked, and in one case shot at, after previously speaking out against the abuse and posting videos containing allegations on YouTube.

A BBC crew that attempted to record footage of the church's Lagos compound from a public street in March 2022 was also fired at by the church's security, and was detained for a number of hours.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67891394

The BBC has unearthed new evidence the late Nigerian megachurch leader TB Joshua hid dead bodies and intimidated families, to cover up his role in the collapse of a building which killed at least 116 people at his church in 2014.

The collapse is one of the worst disasters to ever strike a place of worship in Africa.

The BBC's investigation is the first time insiders from TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan) in Lagos have presented evidence of what caused the incident nearly 10 years ago, and of how the pastor allegedly orchestrated a cover-up.

Without the use of mechanical equipment or medical training, they used tools from the church's maintenance department.

In one instance, a church worker allegedly used a chainsaw to amputate the leg of a man who was trapped under a fallen beam.

Yet more

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67861976

robindch

For a change, here's a church-related scandal which doesn't involve priests fiddling with kids. In this one, we learn that one or more religious people figuring out that the best way to spread their religion is by dumping hundreds of plastic bottles into the River Bann.

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/bible-verses-plastic-bottles-dumped-28502797.amp

Hotblack Desiato

Back to the usual unfortunately and the German EKD federation of Protestant churches turns out to be as bad as the RCC if not even worse:

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2024/01/26/german-protestant-churches-riddled-with-sexual-abuse-and-cover-ups-report-finds/

The €3 million research report found evidence of sexual abuse of minors – average age 11 and 65 per cent male – in all areas of church activity, from Sunday services to childcare and confirmation groups. The largest perpetrator group – 40 per cent – were pastors, of which almost all were male aged between 40 and 43. Of the perpetrators identified, more than two-thirds were married.

Researchers said the confirmed 2,225 abuse survivors and 1,259 alleged perpetrators in files they were allowed examine represented “the tip of the tip of the iceberg”. Extrapolating confirmed figures for the entire country, the researchers estimate about 9,300 survivors and 3,500 perpetrators in the postwar period. These estimates arose after researchers said all but one of the 20 EKD churches failed to co-operate with the researchers.

“A systemic analysis of personnel files was part of our research plan but we couldn’t implement this,” said Prof Harald Dressing, a forensic psychiatrist and research team member. While he cited “sluggish work of individual churches… and data of substandard quality”, the EKD, which earns €6.24 billion annually from Germany’s church tax system, cited personnel, time and other resource constraints for not presenting the files on time.

EKD members’ “homespun narrative of being the better church” meant many struggled – or refused to believe – that such abuse was even possible in their ranks. Decentralised structures compounded a “diffusion of responsibility” culture.

At the same time, an institutional “coercive harmony” saw many pastors and parishioners urge survivors to forgive their abusers – shunning them if they refused.

“They were construed as enemies of the church,” said Prof Martin Wazlawik, co-ordinator of the research.

€6.24billion a year... lucrative business religion.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68313792

A South Korean pastor once hailed as a hero for smuggling out hundreds of North Koreans has been jailed for sexually abusing teenage defectors.

Chun Ki-won, 67, has been sentenced to five years for molesting minors at his boarding school in Seoul.

The pastor had been viewed as a saviour figure for decades with people calling him an "Asian Schindler" and his operations an "Underground Railroad" for those fleeing the North's regime.

He was arrested in Seoul in September.

Police accused him of molesting six North Korean teenagers, including defectors sleeping in the dormitories of the alternative school he had founded at his Durihana mission.

ohnonotgmail

Arrested in September and already sentenced. You have to admire the efficiency of their legal system.

Hotblack Desiato

Yet another "wholesome, Christian family" turns out to be a vile pit of abuse:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68353302

The big problem with homeschooling is that the crazier the parents, the more likely they are to want to do it. Keep kids trapped in a tight circle of home, church and school home again, and they end up with no-one they can turn to about abuse.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/jet-setting-preacher-had-brothers-collect-29000-in-social-welfare-while-he-was-abroad/a2067496813.html

A jet-setting church pastor who fraudulently claimed €29,000 in social welfare payments while based abroad says he shouldn’t be named after his court conviction as it is not good for his reputation.

Cristian Bona (53), who is a pastor at the Bisceria Shalom, an evangelical church in Drogheda, Co Louth, claimed €29,000 in social welfare payments which he was not entitled to while being absent from the State.

eire4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121853459#Comment_121853459

and just like the church when caught red handed he is some how the victim.

Hotblack Desiato

Well it's religious persection, don't you know.

It's so hard to be a christian these days (because instead of the mythical being fed to lions, people might disagree with you on the internet and that's just not acceptable)

Hotblack Desiato

Here's a heartfelt NSFW message to all the abuse deniers, minimisers, and whatabouters who still live among us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymN1TRQtmas

ohnonotgmail

The irony of John Lennon describing someone else as a c* nt.

Hotblack Desiato

Takes one to know one I suppose

In other news, the Vatican has acted swiftly by its standards to defrock a 'notorious' Belgian bishop who admitted sexual abuse.

It took just 14 years after he 'quietly retired'.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/belgium-bishop-defrocked-14-years-after-admitting-abusing-108350011

Odhinn

And then there was this shower……………….

"Ann Marie Allen was 15 when she joined training course at an Opus
Dei-run catering school. By 16 she had become an 'assistant numerary'
within the organisation. During her years with Opus Dei, she worked from
early morning until late evening in places like the organisation's
students' residence in Galway, cooking and serving meals, doing laundry
and cleaning rooms.

While not working she lived in an Opus Dei centre. There, she says,
she was pressured to attend mass, deprive herself at meals, sleep on the
floor one night a week, and tie a ‘cilice’ - "a barbed wire with the
sharp bits on the inside" - around her leg for two hours daily.

She says she was isolated from her family, that her post was monitored, and her phone calls listened in to."

https://www.rte.ie/news/upfront/2024/0329/1440677-unveiling-opus-dei-irishwoman-from-ft-investigation-speaks-out/

Hotblack Desiato

I heard about those cults Ted… weirdos taking advantage of vulnerable people, cutting them off from whatever friend and family links they had left, and then exploiting them.

Now, will prosecutions follow? Child labour? Minimum wage? at the very least. And if not, why not?

Yet again it's left up to a foreign publication to uncover abuses here.

Odhinn

Dodgy pastor on the fiddle -

"A former pastor who engaged in theft and fraud to steal more than
€125,000 from his own Kildare-based church has been sentenced to
six-and-a-half years in prison.

Ebenezer Oduntan, a former pastor of the City of David Church in
Naas, Co Kildare, was convicted of 87 charges of a range of theft and
fraud offences following a three-week trial at Naas Circuit Criminal
Court last month."

"The judge said it was clear that Oduntan has sole responsibility for the
church's funds and bank accounts because he was held in such high
regard by its members."

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2024/0426/1445927-kildare-pastor-jailed/

Hotblack Desiato

E'zer not Goode.

He promised them eternal life.. in return for cold hard CASH CASH CASH CASH!!!!!

So no different from any of the rest of 'em, why's he behind bars again?

Sentencing Oduntan, Judge Martina Baxter said the accused had engaged in a "very prolonged, premeditated and well-planned scheme."

Some of 'em have been at it for close on 2000 years now

Odhinn

Anything attached to a statement like "Supporters of the changes say they will help to uphold religious values" is never going to end well

"Iraq's parliament has passed a bill criminalising same-sex relationships with jail terms of between 10 and 15 years.

Transgender people could also be sent to prison for between one and three years under the new law.

Supporters of the changes say they will help to uphold religious values in the country.

Rights groups say they are a further black mark on Iraq's record of violations against LGBT people. "

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68914551