Catholic Clerics Become Victims Of Smear Campaign

(Telegraph) - I write this with some urgency. For the last week, Catholic sources have been insisting that Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, will not take up his appointment as Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Two reasons are given - one connected to his health, the other to utterly false sex abuse allegations he faced years ago.

I now have good reason to believe that Cardinal Pell - a man of towering presence and intellect, utterly faithful to Pope Benedict's vision for renewing the Church - is the victim of a smear campaign endorsed by certain bishops, especially Italian ones, who are desperate to stop Pell cleaning up what are in effect the "rotten boroughs" of their dioceses. We must pray that the Holy Father ignores the campaign....

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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The first main salvo was fired earlier this year with the direct smear campaign against Pope Benedict XVI. All of it garbage - the skin of the truth stuffed with a great big lie. True, the future pope's fingerprints were all over sex-abuse cases during the 1980s and 1990s while he was Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Vatican CDF. What the media consistently and systematically (perhaps even intentionally) FAILED TO REPORT was that the reason why Ratzinger's fingerprints were all over them was because he was the one and only cardinal in the Vatican attempting to prosecute these perverts! He did have some pretty good success in most cases, but in a few cases, his efforts were blocked by higher ranking Vatican officials. This part of the story never made it to the mainstream press. It was publicized by the Vatican press office, but suspiciously censored by the national media corporations of various nations throughout the western world - particularly in Germany, Britain and the United States.

Was this intentional? Was this part of an elaborate media plot to destroy the credibility of this pope and the Catholic Church in general? We have every reason to believe so. When was the last time you saw a positive mainstream media report on Christianity in general, or Catholicism in particular? Can you remember a single one within a decade? If you can, than you'll have to admit it is the exception to the norm. The mainstream media is practically run by atheists, liberal non-Catholics and heretical cafeteria Catholics with an ax to grind against Rome. We have a motive for such a plot, and we also have the evidence in their overwhelming disproportionate negative reporting. There is no evidence, whatsoever, that sexual-abuse and cover-up is proportionally any higher in the Catholic Church than in any other religion or religious organization. Furthermore, we do have significant evidence that sexual-abuse and cover-up is significantly higher in non-religious institutions. Does this information EVER hit the mainstream press? I rest my case.

Now we're seeing critics of the Catholic Church from every corner using the sex-abuse scandal media overexposure as a tool to ruin any Catholic cleric they dislike or disagree with. These attacks come from even within the Church, as liberal Catholics use them against orthodox Catholics, and so on. Such is most likely the case with Cardinal Pell.

This is happening on a local level as well. I know of several priests in the United States who have been scandalized by false accusations and media smear. Their enemies originate from within the Church, and use the media as their weapon of personal destruction.

This has gone too far! It has to stop. It's time for the bishops of the Catholic Church to take up legal council and prepare for an aggressive response. I'm talking about deep-pocket libel lawsuits, against anyone who falsely accuses a cleric of abuse of any sort. Furthermore, media outlets need to be held to the same standard, and the Church should immediately begin organizing lawsuits against these as well. There is no reason for the Church to hemorrhage millions of dollars (pounds, euros, etc.) in justified settlements with abuse victims, without any kind of compensation for media libel and false accusations.

I'll take it one step further. SHAME on any bishop who would refuse to defend a priest falsely accused of wrongdoing. SHAME ON YOU! Not only is it your responsibility to defend your flock against those wolves (predatory priests) who would victimize your sheep, but it is equally your responsibility to defend innocent priests (also your sheep) against false accusations (a different kind of wolf). Why do you carry the shepherd's crosier when you won't use it? Would you not defend the Catholic faithful if they were being falsely accused of cannibalism? This is what the ancient Pagans accused Christians of while they sent the faithful to their deaths in the coliseum. Why then do you not defend your clerics who have been falsely accused of a different kind of cannibalism? WAKE UP FROM YOUR SLUMBER!!! Do you not see the identity of the author of these attacks? Do you not recognize him? He is your sworn enemy, the enemy of God and his Church. Why do you continue to let sleeping dogs lie, when they're not sleeping at all, and are about to bite you in the ass? Why?