WHAT POPE FRANCIS PLANS FOR CHILD SEX ABUSE; YOU CANT IMAGINE....

Pope Francis has approved measures to sack bishops who mishandle child sexual abuse cases, a papal decree says.

Bishops who are "negligent" in dealing with priests committing abuse will be removed under the new legal procedures.

The decree comes in response to long-running demands by abuse victims and their supporters to hold bishops accountable if they fail to protect their flocks from paedophiles.

Existing laws relating to abuse cases would be tightened, the Pope said.

He acknowledged that canon law already allows for a bishop to be removed for negligence but says he wants a more precise definition of the "grave reasons" that could lead to dismissal.

Image captionThe Pope wants bishops to be more diligent in confronting abuse cases

"I intend to specify that among these so-called 'serious reasons' is the negligence of bishops in the exercise of their functions, especially in cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults," Pope Francis wrote.

Tearful end to 11-year US church protestPope's reforms polarise the VaticanPell did not act on child abuse claim

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that the pontiff had also established a group of lawyers to help him make decisions that could result in the dismissal of a bishop.

His motu proprio (on his own impulse) decree emphasises that the Church "loves all its sons, but cares for and protects with special attention those who are weakest and defenceless".

This explains the requirement for priests, especially bishops, to display "particular diligence" in this area, the Pope said.

Some bishops have covered up abuse by transferring perpetrators from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police.

Pope Francis set up a Vatican commission to establish best practice in relation to abuse cases and expose wrongdoing in parishes in 2014.

The pontiff tweeted on Saturday: "Let us hear the cry of the victims and those suffering, no family without a home, no child without a childhood."

The Roman Catholic Church has for much of the last 15 years been forced on the defensive by scandals involving priests who are alleged to have abused children and then been transferred rather than handed over to the authorities.

Comments

The Sphere

Photograph by Elena Saavedra Buckley. Once when I was about twelve I was walking down the dead-end road in Albuquerque where I grew up, around twilight with a friend. Far beyond the end of the road was a mountain range, and at that time of evening it flattened into a matte indigo wash, like a mural. While kicking down the asphalt we saw a small bright light appear at the top of the peaks, near where we knew radio towers to occasionally emit flashes of red. But this glare, blinding and colorless, grew at an alarming rate. It looked like a single floodlight and then a tight swarm beginning to leak over the edge of the summit. My friend and I became frightened, and as the light poured from the crest, our murmurs turned into screams. We stood there, clutching our heads, screaming. I knew this was the thing that was going to come and get me. It was finally going to show me the horrifying wiring that lay just behind the visible universe and that was inside of me too. And then, a couple se...

The Historical Future of Trans Literature

Whatever happens against custom we say is against Nature, yet there is nothing whatsoever which is not in harmony with her. May Nature’s universal reason chase away that deluded ecstatic amazement which novelty brings to us. —Michel de Montaigne If you were trying to get anywhere in the late thirteenth century, the Hereford Mappa Mundi would not have been particularly helpful; the map is rife with topographical omissions, compressions, and errors—the most egregious of which is perhaps the mislabeling of Africa as Europe and vice-versa. Of course, as any medievalist will tell you, mappa mundi were not intended for cartographic accuracy anyway. Rather, they were pictorial histories, encyclopedias of the world’s mythological and theological narratives, records of medical fact and fable. Notable places—Carthage, Rome, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Jericho—appeared, but their placement on the map emphasized their symbolic import, rather than their geographical specificity. Thus, ...

DEMOCRACY DAY SPEECH BY PMB; MAY 29 2016

www.naijaloaded.com My compatriots, It is one year today since our administration came into office. It has been a year of triumph, consolidation, pains and achievements. By age, instinct and experience, my preference is to look forward, to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead and rededicate the administration to the task of fixing Nigeria. But I believe we can also learn from the obstacles we have overcome and the progress we made thus far, to help strengthen the plans that we have in place to put Nigeria back on the path of progress. We affirm our belief in democracy as the form of government that best assures the active participation and actual benefit of the people. Despite the many years of hardship and disappointment the people of this nation have proved inherently good, industrious tolerant, patient and generous. The past years have witnessed huge flows of oil revenues. From 2010 average oil prices were $100 per barrel. But economic and security co...

TOBI'S DESK

Search This Blog