An article in today's Guardian details the church's plans to 'create a new digital income stream with half a million payments a year' from selling virtual electronic candles at the famous shrine at Santiago de Compostela. (For a brilliantly blashpemous take on this famous pilgrimage, watch Luis Buñuel's classic film 'La voie lactée'.)
Joseph Ratzinger, a.k.a. “The Pope” is charged with the following crimes:
Documents obtained by the New York Times show that Vatican officials, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - the future Pope Benedict XVI - acted to protect a priest who abused as many as 200 deaf boys in his care.
Reports of settlement overseen by bishop of Derry adds to abuse scandals surrounding Catholic churches in Europe
Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
Thursday 18 March 2010 11.14 GMT
The Catholic church in Ireland was today embroiled in another child abuse scandal after allegations that a victim was paid to keep quiet in a deal overseen by the bishop of Derry.
Bishop Seamus Hegarty was named as a party in a confidential civil settlement after a woman claimed she was abused by a priest for more than a decade, according to a report in today's Belfast Telegraph. According to the newspaper, the claim was settled without admission of liability but with a payment of £12,000 to the alleged victim. The settlement between the archdiocese of Derry and the woman, who was eight when the abuse began, reportedly contained a confidentiality clause preventing her from discussing the case.
Catholic adoption society wins exemption from using gay parents
Catholic Care wins high court appeal not to adhere to sexual orientation regulations to use homosexual parents
Wednesday 17 March 2010 11.33 GMT
Pope Benedict XVI. Adoption society Catholic Care has won exemption in the high court from choosing homosexual parents. Photograph: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images
A Catholic adoption society today won the right in the high court not to consider homosexual couples as parents.
Mr Justice Briggs, sitting in London, has allowed the society's appeal for an exemption from the sexual orientation regulations – opposed by the Charity Commission – which means the society can continue operating as it has always done.
OK, this is genuinely scary. Not the idea that The Devil lives in the Vatican. If I believed in the Devil I'd probably be inclined to agree with that particular proposition. No, what scares me about the Telegraph article below is that somebody in such a high position in the Roman Catholic church - which has a major influence over the attitudes and beliefs of gullible people believers worldwide - actually believes in the Devil and is prepared to use this supernatural being to excuse the horrific behaviour of paedophile priests and those who helped protect them.
How paedophile priest was allowed to evade justice
Former priest Bill Carney was named as one of the worst cases in Dublin's Catholic diocese in the Murphy report into clerical abuse there. However, for the last 10 years he has been free to live quietly in Britain.
Newsnight's Olenka Frenkiel has investigated his case and tracked him down in the Canary Islands.
Carney used to invite children to his house in Ayrfield to watch videosAll the children in Ayrfield, Dublin, knew fun-loving Father Bill Carney - not just the altar boys and those who met him through school, but members of the Scout troop he ran and the groups of local children he took swimming.
His door was always open, there was a ready supply of Coke in the fridge and in the 1980s he had the very latest thing to lure youngsters in - a video player.
Adults disapproved of his swearing and crazy driving, but the Catholic Church was still so trusted, no-one suspected the truth about him.
Bridie Dwyer still lives in Ayrfield. Above the fireplace, with other family photographs is a picture of her youngest child, Paul, on his first Communion day.
At the age of 13 Paul went with other boys to watch videos at Father Carney's house and to have a sleepover, Mrs Dwyer told me. But at 2am Paul unexpectedly returned home.
"Thought you were going for a sleepover?" she recalled asking him as he pushed past her. "Didn't want to stay," he replied and shut his door.
Carney is accused of raping Paul Dwyer when Paul was 13"That's when he'd been raped," Mrs Dwyer told me, "but I didn't know".
What no-one, except Carney's bishop and the local police, knew was that the priest was a paedophile.
The Murphy report into the cover up by the Catholic Church and Irish state of clerical sex abuse was published in November 2009.
It described Carney as "a serial sexual abuser of children, male and female", saying that there had been complaints and suspicions "in respect of 32 named individuals" about him, adding that "there is evidence he abused many more children".
'Child in his bed'
Michael Wheeler, who as a boy was one of Carney's altar servers, said that following the report a strange but vivid memory from when he was young suddenly made sense.
He told me that when he was nine years old Carney was late for Mass one day, so, fearful that he might not turn up, he ran into the priest's house and called his name.
He wanted Carney in court so he could ask him why, why had Carney raped him? That never happened and the way things are going, the way the police and the clergy are handling it now I can't see it ever happening
Bridie Dwyer, mother of Paul"I heard a groan," he said, "and I saw in the bedroom, a boy, a little older than me, naked between the sheets.
"This boy sat up, stared groggily at me, and fell back into the bed. I was terrified and ran out. As a child I couldn't understand why he was there. Now I know."
We now know that complaints about Carney were diverted away from the Irish criminal justice system to Bishop James Kavanagh, a man described by the Murphy Report as someone with "a soft spot for Carney".
Kavanagh did what he could to protect Carney from the law to avoid scandal for the Church.
One conscientious policeman, praised in the Murphy Report, did investigate complaints and they came to court. But the press were kept away as Carney pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault and got probation.
Six families were paid compensation and Carney was soon back working, with access to children.
Paid to leave parish
In its 40 pages on Carney, the Murphy report said that his was one of the worst cases the commission investigated and that the Church's handling of his case was "nothing short of catastrophic".
"It was inept, self-serving and for the best part of 10 years displayed no obvious concern for the welfare of children," the report said.
Bishop James Kavanagh protected Carney from the lawIn 1992, the Church convicted Carney internally, under Canon law, of child sexual abuse.
But this compulsive paedophile refused to leave the parish house. So the Church paid him £30,000 to go away.
He moved to Cheltenham and then to Scotland, where he has lived for the last 10 years running a family-friendly guest house in St Andrews.
Back in Dublin, it took Bridie's son Paul Dwyer 21 years to come forward, but in 2004 he told the police about his rape.
The police said they had received two other complaints like his and sent the file to the Irish director of public prosecutions (DPP), but the DPP said there was not enough evidence to prosecute.
"So the case stopped," his mother told me, "and, a couple of weeks later Paul committed suicide. He couldn't handle it any more.
"He wanted Carney in court so he could ask him why, why had Carney raped him? That never happened and the way things are going, the way the police and the clergy are handling it now I can't see it ever happening," she added.
No warnings given
That same year, in Scotland, Carney got married.
Newsnight has established that the Irish authorities knew his address but no-one, either from the Church or the Irish state, thought to warn his new wife about his past, or protect any children who might be at risk.
Psychiatric assessment of Carney in Murphy report
Nothing was done to prevent him leaving, as usual, for his winter holiday in the Canary Islands, a popular destination for families with children, and no-one warned the local police.
The Murphy report quotes a psychiatric assessment which says he suffers from a "psychopathic personality disorder".
"His refusal to acknowledge his paedophilia," it said, "means the prognosis for a cure is bleak".
Confronted over abuse
I tracked Carney down in the Canary Islands, first at a restaurant on the sea front and then to the flat where he was staying, to ask about the abuse.
He refused to comment on the Murphy report, saying he had not read it.
He claimed that when he pleaded guilty to child sex abuse in 1983 it was not because he was guilty, but because: "I was told if I plead guilty the press would be kept away."
When I asked "Why did you rape Paul Dwyer?" his response was: "Rape. I'd like to explain that. Put it into context."
Carney got married in Scotland in 2004What kind of context, I asked, could excuse the rape of a child? But he did not answer.
And when I asked "Are you still abusing children?" his answer begged more questions.
"I haven't done that in 26 years and I have had no inclination," he said. But he refused to be drawn on whether that was admission that he had abused before.
Assistant Garda Commissioner John O'Mahoney has been assigned the task of investigating whether anyone should be prosecuted as a result of the revelations in the Murphy report.
These investigations, his office has said, are ongoing.
In Britain, the Home Office said that because Carney's two convictions for indecent assault pre-date the 2003 Sex Offender's Act and took place in Ireland he would not be on the Sex Offenders Register and would pass unseen through the new stricter vetting procedures for child protection.
Carney meanwhile remains free to disappear beneath the radar.
Watch Olenka Frenkiel's full report on Newsnight at 10.30pm on Tuesday, 9 March 2010 on BBC Two, then afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website.
Vatican hit by gay sex scandal
Vatican chorister sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for papal gentleman-in-waiting
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 4 March 2010 19.59 GMT
- Article history
Pope Benedict XVI greets cardinals in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican. Photograph: Max Rossi/AFP/Getty Images
The Vatican was today rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict's household after a chorister was sacked for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting.
Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican chorister, over the specific physical details of men he wanted brought to him. Transcripts in the possession of the Guardian suggest that numerous men may have been procured for Balducci, at least one of whom was studying for the priesthood.
The explosive claims about Balducci's private life have caused grave embarrassment to the Vatican, which has yet to publicly comment on the affair.
While Catholicism does not condemn homosexuality outright, its teaching is that homosexual acts "are intrinsically disordered". The Catechism of the Catholic church states unequivocally: "Under no circumstances can they be approved."
Balducci was arrested on 10 February, suspected of involvement in widespread corruption. A senior Italian government official, he is alleged to have to steered public works contracts towards favoured bidders. He has not been charged.
It was during this investigation into corruption that wiretaps revealed his alleged sexual activity. In one conversation, Ehiem tells Balducci: "I saw your call when I was in the Vatican, because I was doing rehearsals … in the choir … in St Peter's." He then suggests Balducci meet a man who he describes is "two metres tall … 97 kilos … aged 33, completely active."
Balducci is also a senior adviser to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the department that oversees the Roman Catholic church's worldwide missionary activities.
Since 1995, he has been a member of one of the world's most exclusive fraternities – the Gentlemen of His Holiness, or Papal Gentlemen, the ceremonial ushers of the papal household. In the words of a 1968 ordinance, they are expected to "distinguish themselves for the good of souls and the glory of the name of the Lord".
According to a report by the Carabinieri for prosecutors in Florence investigating the corruption scandal, there was a hidden side to Balducci's life. "In order to organise casual encounters of a sexual nature, he availed himself of the intercession of two individuals who, it is maintained, may form part of an organised network, especially active in [Rome], of exploiters or at least facilitators of male prostitution."
It named one as Ehiem, a professional chorister born in Nigeria. According to Italian press reports, Ehiem, a member of the choir that sings in St Peters when the pope is not officiating, lost his job on Wednesday after details of the Florence investigation became known to the Vatican.
In an interview to be published tomorrow by the news magazine Panorama, Ehiem said he had been introduced to Balducci more than 10 years ago. He claims: "He asked me if I could procure other men for him. He told me he was married and that I had to do it in great secrecy."
There were conflicting accounts of how the Vatican might respond. According to one source, there was no provision for the dismissal of a Gentleman of His Holiness. Another said: "We shall wait for the judiciary's definitive verdict."
The transcripts imply that over a period of around five months in 2008, Ehiem procured for Balducci at least 10 contacts with, among others, "two black Cuban lads", a former male model from Naples, and a rugby player from Rome.
Balducci's lawyer, Franco Coppi, said tonight: "I have no comment. First, because we have more serious questions to tackle. Second, if these claims are correct, they regard his private life. It is disgraceful that these transcripts, which have nothing to do with the case, should have been spread about."
In January this year, the Carabinieri recorded an exchange in which Balducci and Ehiem discuss a seminarian, or student for the priesthood. Balducci is said to have asked: "Listen, have you spoken with the seminarian by any chance?" Ehiem says he is "probably at mass or something". On 11 January, Ehiem calls again to recommend "a colleague, a friend" of the seminarian because the latter is unavailable. He says the colleague is "better, taller, a bit taller than you". Later, Ehiem asks: "Can I send [him] around straight away?"
He asks where Balducci is. The adviser says: "Up at the seminary … where the cardinal lives." Ehiem replies: "He could get there within half an hour … the time it takes to catch a taxi and get there."
