So far the abuse scandals have cost the Church about three billion pounds and counting. ibid.
To resist Grand Jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, that is the model of a criminal organisation, not my church. Frank Keating, former head of review board, resignation letter
No-one stood more respected in his community than Father Ivan Payne. A master of deception he terrorised children for three decades – the true scale of his crimes remains unknown. Evil Up Close s1e5: Ivan the Terrible, A&E 2012
In 1969 the newly ordained priest Ivan Payne begins working at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin. ibid.
The Church moves him to a parish of his own. However, the Church keeps secret those stories it has heard. ibid.
Finally, in 1996 the police are brought in. ibid.
His Church masters had effectively allowed him to serial offend. ibid.
Even for a church that moves glacially, this was classic. Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics by Sister Margaret Farley – a 77-year-old professor emeritus at Yale’s Divinity School, a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and an award-winning scholar – came out in 2006.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which seems as hostile to women as the Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, spent years pondering it, then censured it on March 30 but didn’t publicly release the statement until Monday. The New York Times opinion page 5th June 2012: Is Pleasure a Sin?
St John’s School for the Deaf: ‘He told me to pull down my pants and do it right there.’ Storyville: Silence in the House of God: Mea Maxima Culpa, deaf resident: re masturbation in the confessional, BBC 2013
‘They know that celibacy is not practised’ ibid. Richard Sipe, former Benedictine monk, Catholic sex therapist for priests
‘This kind of perversion of power that can be twisted in this way. The system of the Catholic clergy ... selects, cultivates, protects, defends and produces sexual abusers.’ ibid. Richard Sipe
fending priests were allowed to stay in the ministry. ibid.
Bob Bolger was another student who was abused at St John’s by Father Murphy. ibid.
They began collecting sworn affidavits from Murphy’s victims. ibid.
The Vatican had known about Murphy for almost twenty years. ibid.
Identified as a key figure who covered up sex abuse in Boston, Cardinal Law cost the Church tens of millions of dollars in settlements. ibid.
Inside the cloistered walls of the Vatican lay voluminous records of world-wide sexual abuse in the priesthood, centralized in the secret archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. ibid.
Tony Walsh was Ireland's most notorious paedophile ... The Archdiocese of Dublin had known about Walsh's activity for almost twenty years. ibid.
It was the role played by Bishops and the Vatican in allowing the abuse to continue. ibid.
Abuse cases continue to surface. ibid.
There was rampant homosexuality among the older boys. I fixed the problem. I thought if I’d play around with a child once per week, they would have their needs met. Father Lawrence Murphy
We are amazed to find how often a man, who would be behind bars if he were not a priest, is entrusted with the care of souls. Father Gerald Fitzgerald 1957, founder The Servants of the Paraclete
I said one Hail Mary and four Our Fathers, because I preferred the Our Fathers to the Hail Mary and it was longer and better. Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha 1993
The church is full of thieves, mercenaries, and wolves. Bishop Marcel Le Felebvre
I gave a speech about many things, and one of those things was the Vatican intruding in our politics ... I think the current pope is a very very right-wing pope: ‘In twenty years Ratzinger will be dead, and he will be where he belongs – in Hell.’ Sabina Guzzanti, Italian entertainer, filmmaker & political satirist
He seems intent on taking the church back as fast as he can to the early seventeenth century. Keith Wood, The National Secular Society of London, re Pope Benedict XVI
Several nations led by France and the other members of the European Union introduced a resolution that would decriminalise people for being gay in countries around the world. And the Vatican opposed that. Jeff Stone, Dignity USA
For a couple that love one another they should have a right to a Church wedding ... I am a Catholic. My wife is a Protestant ... She had a pair of legs to die for ... A mixed marriage in a Catholic Church – you had to sign a form to say that your children would be brought up in the Catholic faith ... I am very angry I didn’t have a Church wedding. Martin McCrossan tv.thought online
This is Allen Hall, one of England’s three remaining Roman Catholic seminaries, home to some 45 men intent on becoming Catholic priests. Catholics I: Priests, BBC 2013
The seminarians at Allen Hall have signed up to a minimum of six years. ibid.
The parish of Chipping at St Mary's Roman Catholic primary school: six of the school’s thirty-three pupils were preparing for their first Holy Communion. Catholics II: Children
This is Westminster Cathedral, Britain's biggest Roman Catholic church. Catholic HQ for England and Wales. It’s known as the Mother Church of the Catholic community. Catholics III: Women
I told my mum that I was going to become a Catholic and she said with a big sigh, ‘Well it’s better than a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon I suppose.’ ibid. Catholic woman
The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting. Mary Douglas
They raised him a good Catholic boy. And every once in a while he starts thinking he might go to hell and that he’d better change before he’s too late. Boardwalk Empire: Family Limitation s1e6, Nucky’s bird to Mrs Schroeder, HBO 2010
New law – Egon’s Law – they gotta notify when the Catholic church moves into the neighbourhood. Ray Donovan s1e1: The Bag or the Bat starring Liev Schreiber & Paul Malcomson & Jon Voight & Eddie Marson & Dash Mihok & Steven Bauer et al, Mickey, Showtime 2013
We bend more rules than the Catholic Church. The Sopranos s4e4: The Weight, Johnny Sack
Don’t forget – I’m a strict Catholic. The Sopranos s6e6: Live Free or Die, Tony to Dr Melfi
It seems to me the Church has plenty in its coffers for all those paedophilic lawsuits. The Sopranos s6e9: The Ride
Would somebody please hail Mary? The Godfather III 1990 starring Al Pacino & Andy Garcia & Diane Keaton & Talia Shire & Sofia Coppola & George Hamilton & Bridget Fonda et al, director Francis Ford Coppola, Michael’s sister
Once over the border Josef Mengele would be protected by Roman Catholic priests. It was Easter Sunday. Mengele: The Final Account, 1995
But in 1950 fearing capture Nazi sympathisers in the Catholic Church helped to organise Eichmann’s passage to South America from the port of Genoa under the name Ricardo Klement. Nazi Hunters: Eichmann, 2010
There was a long-standing rumour going around that Paul Touvier had been sheltered by far-right elements within the French Catholic Church. Nazi Hunters: Paul Touvier
That rich, hugely powerful and profoundly medieval institution the Roman Catholic Church ... Catholic magic was giving way to Protestant pragmatism. Bettany Hughes, Seven Ages of Britain: The Seventh Age: 1530 A.D. – 1700 A.D. Channel 4 2003
A world of monks, Masses, of colour and plainsong, a world of brilliant images: the world of Catholic England ... Then, in a generation, this stopped being a truism and started being treason. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: Burning Convictions, BBC 2000
What a strange world this Catholic England was. ibid.
William Tyndale, an ordained priest, was the first to take on the dangerous task of translating, publishing and printing an English version of the New Testament. ibid.
What followed was an English version of the Inquisition. ibid.
Cromwell stepped up his assault on the old religion ... crushing the cult of saints and shrines. ibid.
This would be the real Reformation: just look what happened in the six years of Edward’s reign. All the customs and ceremonies of the old church ... were banned. Away went the religious guilds and ceremonies. ibid.