Official Vatican letter pushing priests to not report child abuse

The Guardian reports that there is now evidence that the Vatican took affirmative steps to conceal child abuse and prevent police involvement…

A letter to Ireland’s Roman Catholic bishops has been revealed by the broadcaster RTE that contradicts the Vatican’s frequent claim it has never instructed clergy to withhold evidence or suspicion of child abuse from police.

The letter was signed by Luciano Storero, an archbishop and the Pope’s intermediary to Ireland. The article goes on to say:

Storero wrote that canon law, whereby allegations and punishments are handled within the church, “must be meticulously followed”; any bishop who tried to go outside canon law would face the “highly embarrassing” position of being overturned on appeal in Rome.

From The Guardian

Arizona hospital loses catholic status over surgery

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix stripped a major hospital of its affiliation with the church Tuesday because of a surgery that ended a woman’s pregnancy to save her life. Bishop Thomas Olmsted called the 2009 procedure an abortion and said St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center — recognized internationally for its neurology and neurosurgery practices — violated ethical and religious directives of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops. “In the decision to abort, the equal dignity of mother and her baby were not both upheld,” Olmsted said at a news conference announcing the decision. “The mother had a disease that needed to be treated. But instead of treating the disease, St. Joseph’s medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy, 11-week-old baby should be directly killed.

In a statement, St. Joseph’s President Linda Hunt said the hospital will comply with Olmsted’s decision, but she defended its actions. “If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case,” Hunt said. “Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save.” The woman is in her 20s had a history of abnormally high blood pressure when she learned of her pregnancy. After she was admitted to the hospital with worsening symptoms, doctors determined her risk of death was nearly 100%. The hospital’s ethics team concluded the pregnancy could be ended under the church’s ethical directives because “the goal was not to end the pregnancy but save the mother’s life,” the hospital said.

Source: USA Today

Attempted ordination of women into Catholic Church a crime, says Vatican

The Vatican has recently declared that attempting to ordain women into the church is punishable by excommunication. This makes the deed equivalent to child molestation and other serious crimes. Both the bishop conducting the ceremony of ordination and the woman involved would be excommunicated.

Oddly enough, this declaration comes as part of a series of rules that came about in 2001 to acknowledge the child abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. These rules allow the church and its members to more easily try those suspected of abuse and other crime in church courts. This new rule simply adds ordination of women to the list of grave crimes one can commit in the Catholic Church.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/15/vatican-attempted-ordination-women-grave-crime

Catholic Church offices raided by Belgian police

Police raided several offices belonging to the Catholic Church in Belgium on a case regarding a retired archbishop and child abuse conducted by church officials. The bishops were held in custody for nine hours, and were kept from communication with one another. Almost 500 files deemed important to the investigation were seized during the raids.

Pope Benedict denounces the act, and Vatican officials accuse the Belgian police of leaving the bishops with no food or water while they were in custody. The Vatican has summoned the Belgian ambassador to explain its opposition to the raids.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/10427935.stm

Vatican’s new PR move includes debates

The Vatican, in light of the really poor PR they have been getting, has started a campaign to convince atheists and agnostics about the one true God. The Vatican is very confident of its position because one aspect of the campaign is a debate format, which will start in Paris next year. However, “atheists with high public profiles such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens will not be invited.” The Church went on to explain:

[The Church] would only be interested in “noble atheism or agnosticism, not the polemical kind – so not those atheists such as [Piergiorgio] Odifreddi in Italy, [Michel] Onfray in France, [Christopher] Hitchens and [Richard] Dawkins”

I wonder who the Church will choose on their side for the debates? One would assume the most skilled apologists. I think, however, the Church might be underestimating no-name atheists, unless they just want a Hannity and Colmes representation of atheism at the debate. Also, they state that they want atheists who are not ‘dogmatic,’ and are willing to be convinced — but can we expect the same from the Church? Will bishops or leading apologists be willing to do the same? I would argue in any debate the point is not to convince the person you are debating with (a rare occasion, indeed) but instead to convince those watching the debate. I doubt the Catholic Church is ignorant of this and perhaps they are just interested in good theater, with an onstage conversion to Catholicism.

Episode 16 Now Available

Episode 16 of the American Atheist show is now available, featuring new contributor Daniel and a smattering of topics:

* Discussions of naturalism and denialism

* Lars Vilks Attacked During Lecture

* California Moves to Block Textbook Changes

* Nun Demoted for Perfoming Abortion

* Child denied Admission to Religious School for having Gay Parents

And much more. Please let us know what you think of this episode using the comments section, and thanks for listening!

 Episode 16 [54:53] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5)

Nun demoted for participating in a life saving abortion

A nun at St. Joseph’s hospital in Arizona was demoted for helping save the life of a mother who received an abortion. The mother, 11 weeks pregnant, had a rare problem that causes severe complications with birth and is often fatal to the mother. One health care group is cited as saying that “the pregnancy … carried a nearly certain risk of death for the mother.” Supervising members of the Church and the Archdiocese have a zero tolerance, no exceptions, policy on performing abortions. Perhaps in their minds if the mother died during pregnancy it was God’s will. The full article can be found here.