While I would dearly love to see His Holier-than-everyone-ness hauled into open court to testify, among the things I would like to see that will never be allowed to happen, this has to rank pretty high.  Right up there with George W. Bush being hauled in in chains to answer for crimes against humanity.  Na ga hoppen.

But to the extent that this opens up the door for others to be hauled in to testify, it’s good news.

He’ll never be called to testify. He’ll just go on giving empty apologies and refusing to lift a finger against anyone involved in covering up this stuff.

Hot damn!  Time to RICO the corrupt, power mad bastards.

Several good rulings today, but this one is my favorite.  These evildoers deserve to rot in jail.  Though I agree, it will never happen, certainly not to the hierarchy.  However, their being effectively confined to Vatican City due to fear of prosecution is a thought I quite relish.

There was also a search warrant executed recently by Belgian police on the conference quarters of the Belgian bishops - and Ratzi has his Prada panties in a twist about it.

Hot damn!  Time to RICO the corrupt, power mad bastards.

RICO laws only apply to the Excited Snakes; Il Papa is quite safe from them.  Likewise, Belgian law applies only to Belgium.  I suspect that as head of state, he’s also well immune to even a theoretical extradition request.  It would be interesting to see what happened if someone filed a charge on him for conspiracy in the US or Belgium prior to him touring those places.

Basically the Pope could have a problem with every country which considers kiddie-fiddling illegal - but he’s safe in the Vatican, which seems to consider it compulsory.

I agree, probably won’t end up with Ratzi on the stand, but anything that makes him shake in his silly red shoes is a step in the right direction.

If heads of state are immune to extradition, how come we’ve arrested several in my admittedly short lifetime?

Catholic church has a lot of money.  And priceless art masterpieces.  Time to “share the wealth”.

If heads of state are immune to extradition, how come we’ve arrested several in my admittedly short lifetime?

Fiddling kiddies and covering up same doesn’t count as a “war crime” subject to ICC warrants.

You can’t be both an immune sovereign state and a series of interlocking local corporations at the same time.

I have to admit to a pained laugh when I saw that the appeals court ruled that Ronan had committed his abuse while acting within the scope of his employment. I know it doesn’t mean what it appears to on first glance, but still.

All that “scope of his employment stuff” means, of course, is he met his victims in his capacity as a priest. Which probably has a lot to do with why he became a priest in the first place.

What I can’t get over are the Catholic knuckleheads who use this situation as an excuse for gay-bashing. “If only they would stop ordaining gays.” Excuse me, they’re ordaining PEDOPHILES. A gay man who becomes a priest and truly lives a celibate life is doing exactly what all the gay-bashers short of Fred Phelps want him to do: Never have sex.

Homophobes are never satisfied.

Homophobes are never satisfied.

I wouldn’t say never.

They’re not just ordaining pedophiles, they’re nurturing them. That’s ultimately what it’s about. If every time a priest had inappropriately touched a kid (they do it to girls as well, and don’t imagine in such a small household that no one knows) the church had taken them off to a permanent retreat, things would never have come to this pass. If they’d turned the pedophiles over to the police, thing never would have come to this pass and people with weird broken authoritarian sexualities would have stopped seeing the priesthood as a good place to go.

Instead.

Il Papa is quite safe from them.

I am less concerned with the Pope himself doing time, though it does kind of warm the cockles of my heart, than with holding the church hierarchy, at least in America, accountable and perhaps seizing their assets to pay the victims of their abuse (and it is indeed the church itself which has abused them).

Wow.  The creeps are finally held accountable.  Thanks for the news, Pam.  Lifted me out of the dumps.

Fiddling kiddies and covering up same doesn’t count as a “war crime” subject to ICC warrants.

Neither does trading drugs (Panama) or did we turn them over to the ICC (Iraq).

Neither does trading drugs (Panama) or did we turn them over to the ICC (Iraq).

i, Iraq has oil.  Panama has the Canal.
ii, We’re talking about international law - what does that have to do with US invasions?

The dam will burst when broke municipalities and states realize how much cash and property is awaiting seizure under civil forfeiture.

Totally off-topic, but does Lady Gaga’s song “Paparazzi” start playing in anyone else’s head every time this douchebag is mentioned? :p

The Catholic Church is the largest single landlord (corporate entity) in the world. From a radical left perspective (anti-usury, anti-landlordism, anti-profits) that in itself is worthy of redistribution measures. More interestingly (and something that liberation theologists will harp on about constantly), charging rent or interest banking (again, the Vatican Bank is one of the largest in the world) is technically a sin under Christian doctrine.

We’re talking about international law - what does that have to do with US invasions?

We invaded Panama to “arrest” Noriega for drug trafficking.

I think we should all remember that we are not subject to the ICC or its warrants.  We never ratified the treaty establishing it, and still haven’t.

I am less concerned with the Pope himself doing time, though it does kind of warm the cockles of my heart, than with holding the church hierarchy, at least in America, accountable and perhaps seizing their assets to pay the victims of their abuse (and it is indeed the church itself which has abused them).
Comment #15: DrDick on 06/28 at 10:28 PM

I believe many RC schools across the country are getting shut down to reshuffle and hide the assets.  Baltimore for example just went through a big shutdown.  They disband the entities that were involved in child abuse, so there’s “no there there” from which to extract assets. 

Or more accurately, they can, but it will take a lot of time to draw the lines, and they have a lot of Jesuit lawyers on their side.

I think we should all remember that we are not subject to the ICC or its warrants.  We never ratified the treaty establishing it, and still haven’t.

You’re not following, Rob.

1, the Pope isn’t a war criminal.  The ICC doesn’t apply.

2, US military interventions such as Panama and Iraq have nothing to do with international law either, despite the facile justifications.  They’re done for US (elite) interests.

Sure, Mezosub, I’m not saying it couldn’t happen in court, just that it would make the case more complex and last longer.  Delay is the friend of the guilty. 

And because they are truly international, and have friends all over the place, the funds can go to the Vatican and never be heard from again.  So what will the courts have left to take?  The bread from the mouths of the poor in the Catholic relief organizations and the the majority of nuns and priests and brothers who did nothing wrong.  The remaining churches. 

You get a mouth full of wormhole and the worm goes free.

US military interventions such as Panama and Iraq have nothing to do with international law either, despite the facile justifications.  They’re done for US (elite) interests.

I agree, and would add the invasion of Grenada to that list.  I admit I’m not following your “no ICC warrants are involved” statement in #10.  The existence of ICC warrants would not result in action by us against the Pope either, so why bring that up?  ICC warrants are irrelevant one way or the other.  Just leave it at, “we won’t abduct the Pope because our elites don’t want to.”  That is the bottom line.  We went after Noriega and Saddam because our elites thought they were Bad Guys and wanted them got.  Our elites don’t want to go get the Pope.  That’s Crissa’s answer.

Catholic church has a lot of money.  And priceless art masterpieces.  Time to “share the wealth”.

Because bankrupting a religious institution is totally appropriate?  Admitting I am Catholic, so I am biased I have no reason to support the pope and the wrong doing they’ve done but the won ton hatred heaped upon the institution as a whole is unfair.  It would be better served to extract the money from the local diocese or remove their tax exemption.

Also, I wonder just what kind of settlements do you think a child molestation and cover-up is going to bring?  You would need to bring in the case and try to fight it under Tort law.  But since the RCC is a religious institution and could face Tort the bankruptcy of the church is verging on impossible.  The local dioceses could be bankrupted but once they’re put into receivership and shut down a new diocese would be named to take over the territory. 

But again, what is gained by destroying a religion in a zone?  Do you think the catholics are going to become human secularists or join atheism?  They’re going to reconstitute the church where they are.  I’m firmly against the frustrating acts they committed but destroying the institution doesn’t solve the problem.

@Xeranar: I personally only care about eradicating all institutions that practice usury (rent, profits, interests). The fact the RCC is one of the biggest, well, capitalist institutions in the world is the very reason why it has always opposed any left-wing reform or revolution in the world. Ideology is always nothing more than the product of economic conditions. The church never sides with the poor for the very simple reason that it is itself part of the rich.

The outcome of such policies being the political and economic eradication of an institution devoted to the spreading of irrational religious creeds is just a beenie… for this atheist at least. You clean one mess and it happily ends up cleaning another one as a side-effect.

In this case it does, Xeranar.  What you would have is individuals who are already thinking for themselves, who would do so in religion, too.  No other religion that I know of has this immunity to feedback from its constituents as the Catholic Church.  It’s all a topdown hierarchy.  Hell, just the inclusion of women with a real voice would irrevocably change the RCC.