Pope creates tribunal to judge bishops who cover up sex abuse

Yahoo – AFP, Angus MacKinnon, 10 June 2015

Pope Francis greets worshippers at St Peter's Square in the Vatican, on 

June 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis has approved the creation of an internal Church tribunal empowered to punish bishops who cover up sex abuse by priests, the Vatican said Wednesday.

Under the reform, bishops suspected of protecting paedophile clerics or of failing to respond promptly to allegations of abuse will face being charged with "abuse of episcopal office" under canon law, the Church's internal set of rules.

The move follows a recommendation from the Vatican's child protection commission, a body which includes victims of paedophile priests among its lay members and was set up last year with a brief to root out sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

Cardinal George Pell has repeatedly

 denied covering up the sex abuse

claims (AFP Photo/Andreas Solaro)

The panel's recommendation was also recently endorsed by the C9 group of cardinals who advise Francis.

But it was attacked as not going far enough by members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

The campaign group's president, Barbara Blaine, said the Church's record of protecting abusers meant it could not be relied upon to hold bishops to account.

"As long as clerics are in charge of dealing with other clerics who commit and conceal child sex crimes, little will change," she said.

"Church officials should join us in reforming secular abuse laws so that clerics who hurt kids and hide predators will be criminally charged.

"If that happens, we'll be encouraged."

New legal unit

To implement the new system, the pope has ordered the creation of a new legal unit within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a section of the Vatican's bureaucracy which was founded to defend the Church from heresy.

The unit will be headed by a senior official appointed personally by the pope and will be responsible for judging the bishops.

But initial complaints about their conduct will continue to go through one of the three other Vatican departments which have always dealt with complaints about bishops.

The new unit will also be empowered to assist in criminal cases against priests charged with abuse of minors or vulnerable adults, the Vatican said, although exactly how this would happen was not made clear.

No bishop has ever been dismissed from office for covering up for paedophiles within the clergy.

But many observers believe behind-the-scenes pressure from the Vatican was behind the April resignation of US bishop Robert Finn.

US Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley heads the Vatican's anti-paedophilia

commission (AFP Photo/Tiziana Fabi)

Finn was convicted in 2012 by an American court of waiting six months before informing police that a priest in his diocese had been found to have child pornography on his computer.

Recent months have seen the credibility of the Church's efforts to address the scourge of paedophilia called into question by fresh cover-up allegations involving a cardinal and a bishop.

Australian cardinal George Pell, the Vatican's finance chief, has been accused by Peter Saunders, a British member of the child protection panel, of being an "almost sociopathic" man who covered up abuse and tried to buy the silence of at least one victim.

Pell has threatened legal action and has been supported by the Vatican but the Briton, a survivor of abuse by a priest, has refused to apologise.

Four members of the panel have also criticised Francis's decision to appoint Chilean bishop Juan de la Crux Barros, who is accused of covering up for a former mentor who was found guilty of sex abuse by a church court in 2011.

The new system announced on Wednesday will be applied for a five-year period with a decision on whether to extend it to be made following an evaluation of how it is working.

Related Articles:

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“ … Spirituality (Religions)

Number one: Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while keeping the basic doctrine the same.

The doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the Christ. It simply changes the interpretation. 

The teachings of the great prophets of the Middle East (all related to each other) are about unity and love. So once the holy words are redefined with new wisdom, the Human changes, not the words of the prophets. In fact, the prophets become even more divinely inspired and their wisdom becomes even more profound.

You're going to lose a pope soon. I have no clock. Soon to us can mean anything to you. The one who replaces him may surprise you, for his particular organization will be in survival mode at that point in time. That is to say that fewer and fewer are interested in starting the priesthood. Fewer and fewer young people are interested in the organization, and the new pope must make changes to keep his church alive. That means that his organization will remain, but with a more modern look at what truly is before all of you in a new energy. It is not the fall of the church. It is instead the recalibration of the divinity inside that would match the worship that goes on. It's a win-win situation. The new pope will have a difficult time, since the old guard will still be there. There could even be an assassination attempt, such is the way the old energy dies hard. That is number one. Watch for it. It's a change in the way spiritual systems work. It's a realignment of spiritual systems that resound to a stronger truth that is Human driven, rather than prophet driven.…”

"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“… The Last and Next Pope

[Note that this was channelled right after the death of John Paul II, and before the conclave of Catholic Cardinals had selected the next pope.]

"Kryon, we just lost what appears to be a great religious leader, Pope John Paul II. What are the ramifications of this?" My partner eluded earlier to the man called Karol who became the pope [spoken of earlier within the seminar]. He discussed what his goals were and what he did on this planet that really had nothing to do with his religion. Oh, perhaps the hat he wore did, and the places he walked did, and the ceremony around him did. But this was only given to facilitate what he could do.

But you see, like you, we knew Karol. He leaned into the wind of birth, too - just as you did. He was no different. And Spirit said to him, "You're going to have a chance to change the earth because the energy of this planet has the potential of being very different. There are potentials when you get to be a certain age where there'll be something called the Harmonic Convergence on the planet, and things will begin to change. You can fit into this as a world leader. Are you ready for that?" And he said yes.

No angel asked Karol if he wanted to be a Catholic, as he leaned into the wind of birth. That was simply the vehicle that got him into the position where he could change the planet the way he did. You couldn't have had the absence of the Armageddon that you've experienced without Karol. Did you know that [speaking of his direct involvement in the influence of the fall of communism]? So his belief system not only served him well, but it propelled him to a special place that was his alone to be in, and one that allowed him to touch billions all at once. And so it was that this great religious leader, who also knew intuitively what he was doing, had a love of humanity. His favorite thing was to be among common people - and he was, every time he could be. When he got to the position where he could make a difference, he did.

Now, there's something you don't know about Karol. The last decade of his life, he was very frustrated. Go look at the pictures. Go look at the pictures of the first 16 years. Then look at those from the last ten. The last ten, he was suffering - not just with his health - he was anguishing over a situation that none of you truly know about. For in his last ten years this man wanted to make some more changes while the time was ripe, but he knew he was too old.

Karol didn't have the energy to make the changes he really wanted to make, and those around him fought him to keep things the way they were. It was all very political, and someday this information may come out into the open, and you'll hear about those who influenced him in the last ten years and helped to keep things on an even keel. He was too old to make a difference and he knew it.

Karol was not of a consciousness to make some of the changes that many cried out for - about poverty and the role of women in his organization (that will come later). But Karol cried out in his heart for the children that were abused by the priests, and he wanted to do something about this and make a difference. He believed that his Savior wanted him to make a difference, but he couldn't do it. So what might look to you like inaction was instead the pope suffering, for he was not allowed to do what he wanted - due to his lack of energy and those around him who made certain he didn't.

"Kryon, here we sit with conclave of cardinals about to meet and select a new pope. What's the potential based upon the energy right now of the selection? What's going to happen?" I'll give you two potentials of what might take place in the next few days, because your future is always about free choice. There is no entity who can tell you about the future, since it's totally in the hands of the free-choice of humanity. However, based on the energy of the moment, here's what we see: (1) You're either going to have an interim, temporary pope for only a short amount of time (relative to the last one), who will lead to a radical pope; or (2) You're going to go right to the radical pope. Either way, you're going to eventually end up with a man who's going to do things to shake up the establishment.

Let me give you some of the potentials of what the radical pope may be involved in: This religion he leads on earth has doctrines that no longer "square up" with what humanity is seeing around itself. He absolutely has to address this issue, for the sophisticated Humans will leave the church otherwise. There will be those who may even call him "the evil pope" because he's going to go against tradition when he slowly starts a process that honors the Virgin Mary more than any pope ever has - therefore honoring women within the church, elevating them to higher positions... even to priests.

He will speak about family planning, and start processes that will slowly justify it in the eyes of God [this will take awhile], but it must come from the man who "sits in the chair" [ex cathedra] to change the doctrine of the whole organization. Because of this, he will also be in danger and will have to have constant protection.

Then he'll talk about what to do with priests who abuse children. Watch for this. Even if you receive the interim pope, he'll set the stage for the radical pope in this area. For this is in the energy aura of what we would call the potential future around this grand event. The earth is filled with free choice and it can go any direction, but I've just given you the potentials of what is here and now. ..."