Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
POPE FRANCIS ACCEPTED the resignation of two more Chilean bishops following a child sex abuse scandal that has gripped the Latin American nation.
The Vatican announced the resignation of the bishop of Rancagua, 78-year-old Alejandro Goic Karmelic and the bishop of Talca, Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca, 64.
Several senior members of Chile’s Catholic Church are accused by victims of ignoring and covering up child abuse by paedophile priest Fernando Karadima during the 1980s and 1990s.
Goic offered his resignation three years ago due to his age, but the Pope did not accept it. His departure comes amid a sexual abuse scandal in his own diocese, where 14 priests have been suspended.
Those crimes were allegedly committed by a network called “The Family” over the course of at least a decade, before a member of the parish denounced them last week in a television report. A criminal investigation is underway.
Carmen Valenzuela, meanwhile, was a follower of Karadima, who was suspended for life by the Vatican. He was named by Karadima’s victims as a figure who ignored or covered up the abuse.
Several victims welcomed the news of their resignations.
“Slowly but surely… two less wicked and corrupt bishops”, Juan Carlos Cruz, now a communications executive, wrote on Twitter.
The entire Chilean delegation of bishops tendered its resignation to the pope in May after a series of meetings at the Vatican.
Earlier this month, Francis accepted the resignation of three Chilean bishops, including the controversial Juan Barros who Karadima’s victims accuse of covering up wrongdoing.
The pontiff himself became mired in the scandal when, during a trip to Chile in January, he defended Barros. However the pope later apologised to Karadima’s victims and said he had made “grave mistakes”.
And still they flock to the churches.
@John Shea Hen: It’s unbelievable alright and they hand over their hard earned cash.
@John Shea Hen:
These Pedos are obviously not true Christians but sadistic opportunistic skum pretending to be Christian, and in doing so are dragging the church through the dirt. I agree that the church has no one to blame but itself over these issue as lives have been destroyed.
@Native: True but the church has covered up for them for decades. Probably still are. Not to mention all the other horrific stories we hear about the church and what they did.
Point being, I can’t believe people still swallow this stuff, and hand their hard earned cash to them while they live in palaces.
@John Shea Hen: It’s mad. If the local sports club was rife with child abusers it would be burnt to the ground but for some reason this organisation is still thriving and all based on a book that was written by humans then rewritten by humans.
@Native: the damage to the Church is fine; it is the damage to the children which matters.
Most victims suffer depression, addiction, difficult lives, high rates of suicide and fractured relationships.
Worry about the victims; don’t worry about the Church. The Church is rich and powerful with influential friends in high places.
@IncelsForTrump: the institutional Roman Catholic Church rides its flock to hell on earth with the false promise of heaven in the hereafter.
@Seaghán Corcoran: a lot of local sports clubs are
@Paul Laing: I know how the victims suffer Tony, I have friends who have suffered because of this, I’ll agree with you on that aspect, the depression that they suffer, their self harm, their distance and “thousand yard stare”. Saying that, my point is that you don’t get is that the hierarchy that protected said Pedos and forgave and sent them to various other parishes to further commit crimes, well they ain’t true Christians either are they? Have you ever met a true Christian Tony?
@IncelsForTrump: stop talking rubbish.
@Native: Breda O’Brien , they were Roman Catholics and so that makes them a type of Christian, subscribing to Christian doctrine. They may be evil Christians but they are true Christians if they believe in and support Christian dogma.
@Paul Laing:
The catholic church is Probably the most unchristian organisation on the planet. They neither believe in or support christian dogma. Claiming that the believe and support it is not the same as actually believing and supporting it.
@Paul Laing:
No TRUE Christian would lay a violent or hurtful hand on another human being other than in self defence, which is permitted in the bible. Do you agree?
I’ll take your non reply as agreement.
@James Joseph Superior Power:
There is only one true Christian organisation on the planet that can be traced back to the Apostles and St Peter, everything else is heretic.
If you feel so bad about it go leave for Islamic lands and leave your moral codes and ethics behind, all 2000 years in the makings worth. Whatever you do, don’t forget what gave you the choice to dismiss your values.
@James Joseph Superior Power: you should distinguish between dogma and values.
@John Shea Hen: Lots of secular institutions have covered up child abuse cases, I’m not saying that the catholic church is right to do so only that it is not exclusive to their organisation that has many hundreds of million visible followers.
@Native: The only true christian was Christ, we crucified him, and all we can do now is our best to imitate him in fear and trembling.
@James Joseph Superior Power: Many gay men and women found solace and service in this particular organisation during a time when life was extremely difficult for the masses. The church brought hope and the idea of a higher power to many people during difficult times on this unforgiving earth. It was not silver unfortunately, or gold in many cases, but still a metal that has suffered from rust and corrosion ,but it has and is still being polished daily even now by those with firm faith.
@Native: based on what, exactly? Please define a “true Christian”?
@John Shea Hen: and still they do and thus make it harder especially for those of us in rural Ireland who wish to stand up against this vile hypocrisy. My son just finished primary school this week to which they had a mass, my son, the only kid out off 19 who did not get a blessing. The odd one out! The priest then went on about how awful it was that he couldn’t visit the schools more often but it was because the government make it so hard nowadays with Garda checks so they have to get vetted each time they visit. The sooner the better this one sides indoctrination is removed from our schools.
@Elaine Tok Tok: At a achool mass a priest gives a blessing to the whole achool and not singularly and garda vetting applies to every single person visiting a school.. Oh and it’s not needed every single time either because once vetted it is valid for two years
@David Stapleton:
As St Peter said, Living as Jesus did. examples would be Padre Pio, Mother Theresa etc
@Native: Mother Teresa was a horrible woman who caused pain and suffering for many people. Padre Pio was a liar/ lunatic who burnt holes in his hands to fake stigmata. the pharmacist that supplied the acid outed him. Any actual decent christians on your list?
Morality is for the flock but not for the shepherds.
@Paul Laing:
Is that you Michael?
@Charlie Hunter: no, Francis.
@Paul Laing: The black sheep has run away, Nature wants you for your wool, and eventually your flesh, at this particular time on Earth you have the ability to choose who shall herd you. Choose wisely.
@Dermot keogh: ooouuhh, cough, cough – bullshit..
@David Stapleton: Spectacularly cogent response, maybe a mushroom might grow from the bullshit I spout.
This is happening in the Catholic Church?!!? No way??
@Ciaran Whyte: don’t worry, there will be someone along shortly to point out the wrongdoings of other religions, apparently that makes it all OK.
The Pope will look after them.
@Paul Laing: I know this might sound tinfoil hattish, but have you noticed that the word Pope, if you mix the letters around a bit, could be code for “Pedo” ,if you flip the small D upwards and reverse it, it becomes a P and then if you swap the O for the E , it becomes obvious what the true agenda of the catholic church is aiming at.
Wolves in bishops and clerical clothes.
@Paul Laing: Kinda unfair to wolves there……..
@Larry Doyle: actually you are right. Serpents might be closer but even then there is no life form as evil as those who collide to cover for and facilitate child sexual abusers except the abusers.
@Paul Laing: Do you have a problem with wolves?
@Dermot keogh: they are less predatory and much less dangerous than the Roman Catholic Church.
And still Irish Roman Catholics will give the Pope an adoring and worshipful welcome.
@Paul Laing: crazy isn’t it? Sheep..
@Paul Laing: When in Rome…..
@Dermot keogh: When in the Vatican….
@Dermot keogh: It doesn’t work now that “saying”…Rome is in Italy not Vatican City.
All part of god’s plan I assume…..
My god, they allegedly allowed child abuse to continue for over a decade. Jesus, even the idea that you would call a paedophile network ‘the family’ is horrendous. where was the churches ‘cannon law ‘ to protect these children and will the good people of Chile now have to compensate these victims while the church offer empty apologies.
Christ, the pope is coming to Ireland to celebrate ‘the family’ in august, should I instead of making a donation towards his visit have bought butt plugs for the alter boys, I am so confused.
I feel god has forsaken the catholic church and evil has taken his majestic place. Just like he has forsaken the Jews, when he realised what land grapping child murders these Zionists turned out to be.
@leartius: Families , most likely, figure it out and remove that splinter in your eye
@leartius: That escalated quickly
Are we even shocked? All religions are a blight on the people of the world. Why anyone chooses religion I don’t know.
@Deborah Behan: people infected with religiosity are easily and conveniently manipulated. They are the servile and supine troops to the exploitation by the unscrupulous and power hungry.
Judge religions by their results and effects.
@Deborah Behan: I know you’re right,Opium should be the Religion of the Masses.
So many victims and so little contrition. Institutionalised and embedded predation on innocent children.
There is sex abuse in every walk of life , from doctors, priests, foster families, care workers, incest etc but you don’t throw out the baby with the bath water and eventually when you grow to mans estate you will realize that. This abuse should be purged but tarring all seems somewhat juvenile
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: the Instititional Roman Catholic Church and its supporters were worst of all and used the Church to gain the trust of parents and access to innocent children.
Many of the categories of abusers you lost were and are pics Roman Catholics.
Roman Catholicism confers the opportunity to do immense evil and then the opportunity to be confessed and forgiven.
Then, we have the institutions of State, the Catholic Guards and others, who suppressed and hid the scale of the evil.
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: If only the ‘bath water’ wasn’t so incredibly dirty.
@Mark Waldron: And in this case – there isn’t a baby.
It’s all bathwater. What exactly is worth keeping from Christianity?
@ihcalaM: I don’t really have a problem with people’s firmly held beliefs. They can drop acid and commune with Timothy Leary’s ‘machine elves’ for all I care. What I do have a problem with is very much man made – the catholic church. It is, by any metric, a global, active and growing paedophile ring.
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: not a very accurate statement in my opinion. There are sexual abusers in many walks of life bit this organisation systematically enabled and indeed one could aye as a result encouraged them by colleagues ring up the abuse, allowing the abusers to continue their predation on children in other parishes, scaring children into keeping it secret and worst of all, in many cases making the victims feel responsible. No action of retribution or punishment on this vile and evil organisation could be considered “throwing the baby out with the bath water”. Cover upset like this cannot happen without the complicitness of the high ranking and the silence of the low ranking. They are all to blame as far as I’m concerned. Tear it down brick by brick. We don’t need outdated sexist organisations to “teach us morality”. As if any of them would know what it was anyway.
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: Don’t forget self abuse.
@ihcalaM: Forgiveness, Salvation, Repentance (Metanoia), Eternal life, Divine understanding, humility, grace, revelation, inspired science, justice,teaching, sacredness,fine art, devotion, good work, good works, the letter and spirit of the law……..I can go on.
And in this case, it is just a foetus,
It’s all amniotic fluid, where is the foetus?
Even if it was just all water, I would be happy with that. Water is Life.
Uisce Beatha.
@Mark Waldron: The Solar one separates the wheat from the chaff in time.Most kids have looked up at the Sky when its raining and have tasted the freshness of the water with delight.
@Dermot keogh: keep popping the pills…
@Mark Waldron: The machine elves were a figment of Terrence Mckenna’s mind, not Leary’s, and it was DMT that gave him access to them, not LSD, but all else considered, you are right, perfectly right!!
@David Stapleton: To let me entertain you?, or enlighten you? The greatest rock stars, politicians, artists, whatever popped pills like no ones business and enriched the masses as a result. Would you like some enrichment?
@Dermot keogh: trivializing and distracting from the issue of clerical sexual abuse.
@Paul Laing: Is your mind totally fixated on this issue?, there is alot worse going on right now that you don’t seem to care about because it is not written about in your daily reading quota.
Pope Francis will give them a special Papal absolution.
@Paul Laing: Acetone turns styrofoam into glup
Bishop prics in Bishopprics.
@Paul Laing: Yee piss in the pale again?
It happens in all churches and for those who think history is soooo a waste of taaame it ain’t going to change the fact that power corrupts , so educate yourselfs as this debasement of human nature is not limited to those in white collars
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: but it does affect those in white collars who preach goodness and virtue but Practice evil and exploitation.
@Paul Laing: naive
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: only accurate.
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: that’s fine. We’ll start with them and move onto the next lot when we’ve cleaned out this vipers nest.
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: If only kids weren’t so sexy.
Christs!! Savour the flavour of your Saviour…mmmmmm..Sacrilious..
@Dermot keogh: Sacrlicious
@Dermot keogh: Sacrilcious
The institutional Roman Catholic Church led from the Vatican rides its flock to hell on earth with the false promise of heaven in the hereafter.
have your say