Goodwill to All Men – Almost

The Vatican on Gaza: “Israel is a Baby-Killer”

Not a word was heard from the Vatican all the years Sderot babies were in mortal danger. They began noticing the violence last week.

Giulio Meotti, Italy , 21Novewmber2012 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162368#.UK5DFWdSSfY

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Vatican Council for Culture, commenting on the war between Israel and Hamas, delivered a severe attack on the Jewish people: “I think of the ‘massacre of the innocents’. Children are dying in Gaza, their mothers’ shouts is a perennial cry, a universal cry”.

The Catholic Church high official equated Israel’s operation in Gaza against terror groups with the New Testament story of Herod’s slaughter of Jewish babies in his effort to kill Jesus.

Ravasi, who is one of the most popular Catholic cardinals and the director of the Church’s policy on culture, called Israelis baby-killers in a shameless form of anti-Semitism which subtly accuses the Jewish State of trying to murder the new Jesus, symbolized by the Palestinian people.

The Vatican official’s modern blood libel against Israel was delivered during the presentation of Pope Benedict’s new book about the life of Jesus. However, Ravasi’s theme – the Jews as Herod, who killed all the innocent babies because his heart was set on killing Jesus – was much beloved by Medieval organizers of pogroms.

The vicar-general of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, William Shomali, said on Vatican Radio that “what is happening in Gaza now is a vicious circle of violence”. The auxiliary bishop then declared that “it’s difficult to know who started it”. How difficult?

A few weeks ago, in an interview with the Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana, Shomali claimed that “hatred of Christians” is the Talmud itself. “The Talmud, the holy book studied by the ultra-orthodox, more highly venerated than the Bible itself, invites religious hatred, speaks badly of Jesus, and even worse of Mary and, in general, of Christians,” the bishop said, adding that “in Israeli schools, love for the other is not taught, but rather the destruction of the other”.

Talking to the Vatican News Agency, Michel Sabbah, Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem, said that the Gaza Strip for many years “has been living under the weight of an absurd embargo, which makes the daily lives of a million and a half of people inumane”.

Sabbah signed the recent appeal by more than one hundred Christian leaders who have asked the international community to support the recognition of the Palestinian State as a full member of the United Nations. Among the signers is the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna, a self professed anti-Semite who blessed the suicide attacks against Israeli civilians.

As yet, no condemnation has come from the Pope of the barrages of rockets fired by terror groups on southern Israeli cities before Operation Pillar of Defense. The Church authorities, and Benedict XVI himself, raised their voices in condemnation of the violence that has broken out in the Gaza Strip only after Israel began bombing the installations of the terrorist movements in that territory. Not a word was heard before that.

During the Cast Lead operation in 2009, the Vatican officials called Gaza “a concentration camp”. After the Nazi comparison did its work, the Jesus-killer motif has now returned to the Catholic Church.

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.

http://www.denverpost.com/celebritybuzz/ci_22033336/elmo-actor-kevin-clash-resigns-amid-sex-allegation

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases are cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests, nuns and members of religious orders. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the cases have involved many allegations, investigations, trials, convictions, and revelations about decades of attempts by Church officials to cover up reported incidents.^[3] The abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as three years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14.^[4][5][6][7] Criminal cases for the most part do not cover sexual harassment of adults. The accusations of abuse and cover-ups began to receive public attention^[8] during the late 1980s. Many of these cases allege decades of abuse, frequently made by adults or older youths years after the abuse occurred. Cases have also been brought against members of the Catholic hierarchy who covered up sex abuse allegations and moved abusive priests to other parishes, where abuse continued.^[9][10]

By the 1990s, the cases began to receive significant media and public attention in countries including in Canada, United States, Chile, Australia and Ireland, and much of Europe.^[11][12][13] In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe led to widespread media coverage of the issue in the United States. Widespread abuse has been exposed in Europe, Australia, Chile, and the United States, reflecting worldwide patterns of long-term abuse as well as the Church hierarchy’s pattern of regularly covering up reports of abuse.^{[note 1]}

From 2001 to 2010, the Holy See examined sex abuse cases involving about 3,000 priests, some of which dated back fifty years.^[14] Diocesan officials and academics knowledgeable about the Roman Catholic Church say that sexual abuse by clergy is generally not discussed, and thus is difficult to measure.^[15] Members of the Church’s hierarchy have argued that media coverage was excessive and disproportionate, and that such abuse also takes place in other religions and institutions, a stance that dismayed critics who saw it as a device to avoid resolving the abuse problem within the Church.^[16]

In a 2001 apology, John Paul II called sexual abuse within the Church “a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ”.^[17] Benedict XVI apologised, met with victims, and spoke of his “shame” at the evil of abuse, calling for perpetrators to be brought to justice, and denouncing mishandling by church authorities.^[18][19] In 2018, referring to a particular case in Chile, Pope Francis accused victims of fabricating allegations,^[20] but by April, was apologizing for his “tragic error”^[21] and by August, was expressing “shame and sorrow” for the tragic history.^[22] He convened a four-day summit meeting with the participation of the presidents of all the episcopal conferences of the world, which was held in Vatican City from 21 to 24 February 2019, to discuss preventing sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy.^[23] In December 2019, Pope Francis made sweeping changes that allow for greater transparency.^[24][25]

Sesame Workshop: Elmo Actor Kevin Clash Resigns Amid Sex Allegation

November 20, 2012 at 6:21 pm https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/11/20/sesame-workshop-elmo-actor-kevin-clash-resigns/

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — The Sesame Workshop says Elmo actor Kevin Clash has resigned from “Sesame Street” in the wake of an allegation that he had sex with an under-aged youth.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Sesame Workshop called the controversy surrounding Clash’s personal life “a distraction that none of us want” and that Clash “has concluded that he can no longer be effective in his job.”

The company called Clash’s resignation “a sad day for Sesame Street.”

“Sesame Workshop’s mission is to harness the educational power of media to help all children the world over reach their highest potential,” the company said in a statement. “Kevin Clash has helped us achieve that mission for 28 years and none of us, especially Kevin, want anything to divert our attention from our focus on serving as a leading educational organization.”

As the announcement was made, a lawsuit was being filed in federal court in New York charging Clash with sexual abuse of a second youth. The lawsuit alleges that Cecil Singleton, then 15 and now an adult, was persuaded by Clash to meet for sexual encounters.
The first reports on the incident with Singleton said it happened in 1993, but a corrected complaint said was actually 2003, according to a published report.

“Since I found out that there were other people or victims in a similar circumstance, I felt very guilty,” Singleton said at a news conference. “I felt really guilty because regardless of my maturity or my experience at 15, they were likely not the experiences of any normal 15-year-old.”

Last week, Sesame Workshop announced that Clash was taking a leave of absence from the popular kids’ show following allegations that he had a relationship with a 16-year-old boy.

Clash denied that charge, calling it “false and defamatory.”

That accuser, Sheldon Stephens, now 23, recanted his claims a day later and said through an attorney that his sexual relationship with Clash was adult and consensual.

Clash, 52, has been with “Sesame Street” since 1983.

Clash is not the first member of the “Sesame Street” troupe to puppeteer Elmo – Brian Muehl and the late Richard Hunt also had brief stints with the little red monster – but Clash is responsible for creating the character’s distinctive voice and personality.

On its own Web site, “Sesame Street” says “it wasn’t until Clash started performing him in 1984 that the effervescent monster became the huge international sensation that he is today.”

Clash also performs Hoots the Owl, and has portrayed the characters Dr. Nobel Price and Baby Natasha.