Halifax Sexual Abuse Claims Blog

May 5th, 2007

Lawsuit against Vatican can proceed

by stemwebadmin

A Kentucky lawsuit filed in federal court in 2004 against the Vatican that alleges that the Vatican covered up known or suspected sexual abuse by American priests recently survived a legal challenge.
Legal counsel for the Vatican made an application to strike out the lawsuit on the grounds of sovereign immunity, which generally protects nations from being sued in the U.S.
In a decision released January 11, 2007 U.S. District Judge John Heyburn II dismissed the Plaintiff’s allegations that the Vatican was negligent in failing to protect children entrusted to the care of Catholic priests.
However, the judge refused to dismiss allegations that the Vatican failed to report incidents of child abuse and failed to warn parishioners that their children would be under the care of known or suspected sexual abusers.
The Kentucky lawsuit is based in part on instructions the Vatican sent in 1962 to every Catholic Bishop in the world commanding them to maintain a policy of “strictest secrecy” when dealing with allegations of sexual abuse against a priest. The document, which was signed under the seal of Pope John XXIII, threatened to excommunicate anyone that violated the Church’s code of secrecy.
Read it here:
In May 2001 then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) sent a letter to Bishops confirming that the 1962 code of secrecy remained in effect.
If the Kentucky lawsuit proceeds, it could conceivably lead to the discovery deposition of Pope Benedict XVI , which could prove to be enlightening to say the least.
What has the Vatican been hiding for the last 45 years?

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May 4th, 2007

Indian Residential Schools: A Brief History of the Largest Abuse Claim Settlement Ever

by stemwebadmin

Between 1920 and 1996 the Canadian government engaged in a concerted effort to eliminate Native Canadian Aboriginal people through a process of forced assimilation. Aboriginal children were taken from their families and placed in Church run “Residential Schools” where they were prevented from speaking their own language and practising their spiritual beliefs, and horribly mistreated.

By 1995 former Residential School students across the country had filed dozens of individual civil claims for compensation for physical and sexual abuse they suffered in the schools.

In 1996 the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples described the Residential School Assimilation process:
“The removal of children from their homes and the denial of their identity through attacks on their language and spiritual beliefs were cruel. But these practices were compounded by the too frequent lack of basic care — the failure to provide adequate food, clothing, medical services and a healthful environment, and the failure to ensure that the children were safe from teachers and staff who abused them physically, sexually and emotionally. In educational terms, too, the schools — day and residential — failed dramatically, with participation rates and grade achievement levels lagging far behind those for non-Aboriginal students.”
Here’s the link to the full Royal Commission Report www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/index_e.html

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