Ireland

Report on clergy abuse devastates Catholics

            A report detailing failures of Church leaders’ handling of sex abuse cases in the archdiocese of Dublin has resulted in calls for bishops’ resignations and further investigations and prosecution.” Reportedly, the archdiocese had preoccupied itself, at least until the mid ‘90s in maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church and the preservation of its assets.

            “All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state.”

            The report said that Church officials and police colluded in covering up instances of child sexual abuse by clergy. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin warned, in a statement released the same day as the report, that the report would shock Catholics. He said that efforts made to “protect the Church” and to “avoid scandal” have had the ironic result of bringing this horrendous scandal on the Church today.

            The report found that Auxiliary bishops James Kavanagh, Dermot O’Mahony, Laurence Forristal, Donal Murray and Brendan Comiskey “were aware for many years of complaints and/or suspicions of clerical child sexual abuse in the archdiocese.” Bishop Murray is the only one of the five auxiliaries still serving. (The New Freeman, Dec. 4, 2009)

Poland

A study of Radio Maria shows that its negative image in Western media is undeserved.

            Radio Maria is not anti-Semitic, it does not propagate National Democratic (a pre-WWII nationalist party) ideology, and the type of piety it promotes is deep and authentic and not ritualistic, collectivistic, or superficial.

            These were the conclusions reached by a group of sociologists from Warsaw University who, under the direction of Professor Ireneusz Krzemiñski, investigated the station’s broadcasts to its listeners in August, 2007. The conclusions, published in book form under the title What Does Radio Maria Teach Us? (Czego nas uczy Radio Maryja? Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Akademickie i Profesjonaslne, 2009), caused a shakeup of many stereotypes which, for years, have created the negative PR regarding Father Tadeusz Rydzyk’s radio station.

            The stereotypes were broadcast and picked up regularly by liberals and Jewish controlled media throughout the Western world. Some scholars also accepted them as facts not to be challenged. It fitted another negative image, that of today’s Poland being anti-Semitic.

            The book’s authors analyzed all Radio Maria transmissions in August, 2007, a month abounding in religious and patriotic festivities, and in which the annual commemoration of the Warsaw Uprising and the “Miracle on the Vistula” (Poland’s defeat of Soviet Russia in 1920) is observed. Based on this analysis, they formed an opinion about Radio Maria’s vision of the world and the Church.

             “As the author of this analysis I must admit that I began with the hypothesis that Radio Maria’s religiosity was … superficial, ritualistic and traditional in its form,” stated Professor Krzemiñski.

             “Our examination of Father Rydzyk’s broadcasts provides proof that its listeners present, express, and describe a religiosity which in all certainty is testimony of an authentic religious experience.… Those who pray and talk about their prayers are people who have witnessed an authentic faith experience, and Radio Maria broadcasts provide insight into such experiences, while providing an opportunity to deepen one’s faith,” the sociologist adds.

            The authors singled out the liberal paper Gazeta Wyborcza is being a main source for the enmity against Radio Maria.

             “The articles in Gazeta Wyborcza were published with the intention of marginalizing Radio Maria by portraying it as a radical centre of lost, utopian right-wingers and nationalists, of discrediting it by associating its activities with the activities of the prewar extreme right, and also of ridiculing it by publishing selected quotes from listeners and radio editors,” states Wojciech Mazan.

            The full text may be found at www.state.gov/documents/organization/102301.pdf

Switzerland

Swiss ban minarets

            Swiss voters, in a referendum of Sunday November 29, 2009, voted 57% in favour of a ban to adding more minarets on mosques in the country. Switzerland has presently 150 mosques of which four have minarets. The country has a population of 7.5 million of whom 6% are Muslim. Canada’s atheist national newspaper, the Globe & Mail, immediately blamed religion, i.e., Christianity, as the reason for the “discrimination.” That is par for the course, as is the accusation of  “discrimination” (“A towering question”, editorial, December 1, 2009).

           The (liberal) Swiss Bishop’s Conference opposed the vote, claiming that it “represents an obstacle … on the path of integration in dialogue and mutual respect.” (Zenit, December 1) The view of most Swiss is the exact opposite, namely that the minarets are ostentatious declarations by Muslims that they do not respect the values of the country and have no intention whatever of integrating their way of life with that of Switzerland. Throughout Europe Muslims speak of being able to “take over” in another 25 or 30 years. Meanwhile, there is no religious “discrimination” whatever, as they are free to build mosques. Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, head of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers in the Vatican stated, “religious liberty, per sé, was not called into question “ (Zenit, December 3) in the referendum result.