8, February 2022
Ex-pope Benedict asks for forgiveness for clerical child sex abuse 0
Ex-pope Benedict XVI asked for forgiveness Tuesday for clerical child sex abuse committed on his watch, but aides rejected allegations of a cover-up while he was archbishop of Munich.
“I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness,” the 94-year-old said in a letter published by the Vatican.
The letter from the former pontiff — who stepped down in 2013 — was released in response to a German inquiry last month that criticised his handling of cases involving paedophile priests in the 1980s.
“I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate,” he wrote, without addressing specific cases.
The German investigation accused Benedict of knowingly failing to stop four priests accused of child sex abuse when he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.
Benedict, who is in frail health, asked a team of aides to help him respond to the lengthy findings by law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), charged by the archdiocese of Munich and Freising to examine abuse cases between 1945 and 2019.
The aides insisted in a statement published alongside the letter Tuesday that “as an archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger was not involved in any cover-up of acts of abuse”, referring to the pope’s birth name, Joseph Ratzinger.
Not aware
In one case, a now notorious paedophile priest named Peter Hullermann was transferred to Munich from Essen in western Germany where he had been accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy.
Benedict’s team has already admitted to unintentionally giving incorrect information to the report authors when they denied his attendance at a meeting about Hullermann in 1980.
But they denied any decision had been taken at that meeting about reassigning the priest to pastoral duties, and on Tuesday said the abuse had not been discussed.
“In none of the cases analysed by the expert report was Joseph Ratzinger aware of sexual abuse committed or suspicion of sexual abuse committed by priests. The expert report provides no evidence to the contrary,” the statement said.
In his letter dated February 6, the former pope expressed hurt that the “oversight” over his attendance at the 1980 meeting “was used to cast doubt on my truthfulness, and even to label me a liar”.
Benedict, who lives in a former monastery within the Vatican walls, said he was “particularly grateful for the confidence, support and prayer that Pope Francis personally expressed to me”.
The Vatican defended Benedict last month, saying he had battled sexual abuse while pontiff, but Francis has said nothing in public.
Fear and trembling
In his letter, Benedict said that after thanking his supporters, there should follow “a confession” — the Catholic practice of admitting sins and seeking absolution.
He said that every day, he asked himself whether he was guilty of “a most grievous fault”, using the phrase said during confession at Mass.
“In all my meetings… with victims of sexual abuse by priests, I have seen at first hand the effects of a most grievous fault,” he wrote.
“And I have come to understand that we ourselves are drawn into this grievous fault whenever we neglect it or fail to confront it with the necessary decisiveness and responsibility, as too often happened and continues to happen.”
Before becoming pope, Benedict led the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation — once known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition — giving him ultimate responsibility to investigate abuse cases.
In the letter, he made a clear reference to his failing health, saying that “quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life”.
“As I look back on my long life, I can have great reason for fear and trembling,” he wrote.
But he added that he was nevertheless “of good cheer” as he prepared to “pass confidently through the dark door of death”.
Source: AFP
9, February 2022
Understanding why Rev Father George Ngalame left the priesthood for love 0
The Holy Roman Catholic Church was a thousand years old before it definitively took a stand in support of celibacy in the twelfth century. Frankly speaking, the decision was reached at the Second Lateran Council held in 1139, when a rule was approved forbidding priests to marry. In 1563, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the tradition of celibacy.
To be sure, priestly celibacy is rooted in tradition, not Catholic dogma, so the Holy Father Pope Francis could change it overnight. Clerics who are happy with the current rules say celibacy allows priests time and energy to focus completely on their flock and to emulate the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, who was unmarried, more faithfully.
George Ngalame served as Financial Secretary under retired Bishop Bushu in the Diocese of Buea. He was transferred to Kumba the chief city in Meme Division after it was widely claimed that an audit in the diocese of Buea targeted his person. Kumba eventually became a diocese and the Holy Father appointed His Lordship Agapitus as Bishop.
There is no official document linking George Ngalame to the Diocese of Kumba. Consequently, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group can opine that Bishop Agapitus did not renew George Ngalame’s faculties! The man of God had left Kumba secretly and travelled to the USA.
Arriving the US, the young George Ngalame with the Revered Father title still attached to his name had to start the maneuvers of regularizing his stay. The journey took him through the sea of Bagalum and monikim dancers that separated him most of the times from familiar Cameroon faces.
A friend introduced him to a Cameroon Concord News undercover reporter in the US for him to stage a sham marriage but it never worked out as our colleague later on hinted that she was scared of the repercussion on judgment day.
When George Ngalame was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, he made a promise to his bishop to be celibate for the rest of his life. It was easy to do at the time with his whole family behind him and very little temptation came his way because of the complete absence of financial resources. But things changed when he was appointed Financial Secretary in the diocese of Buea.
As Financial Secretary, you got the whole world in your hands!! Families will name hundreds of newly born babies after you! Young girls will make you their spiritual leader! You will even use Church money and provide bank statements for relatives and friends travelling abroad and from that office, millions of FCFA shall fall on your left and on your right hand and you will stand tall in the middle and all the good things of the world including beautiful women will come to you. The confident about being celibate will disappear. So, when you are removed from that very lucrative function in the Church hierarchy, the prospect of never having children becomes suspiciously daunting.
To be accurate, a revered father title attached to your name in Europe or America provides the same quality that attracts ladies to any Financial Secretary back home in Cameroon. However, with no support from anywhere in the world, George Ngalame began to fall in love, which needless to say isn’t allowed if you are a Catholic priest.
Yes, it is allowed – but a Roman Catholic cleric shouldn’t do anything about it, apart from suppress it and go to confession. George had to make the most important decision of his life. He really wanted to be a priest and many who know him including Revered Father Maurice Agbaw-Ebai still think it was his calling and that he was good at it. But George Ngalame has taken off his dog collar for the final time and walked away from the Catholic priesthood.
Unreliable sources in Kumba hinted this reporter that Bishop Agapitus ignored George Ngalame’s request for guidance. With no church superior on sight to speak to him, Revered Father George Ngalame has finally choosing love over the church. Some priests have come crawling back within a year but judging from the Nollywood performance on the video posted on face book, George is gone for good.
George Ngalame is not under any pressure from the church to abandon his beautiful wife. But here at last is a Roman Catholic Cleric who was destined for great things if he had stayed in Kumba. Many English speaking Cameroonians thought that he could not break the vow of celibacy – but it turns out that with George Ngalame, it was as easy as making it.
We of the Cameroon Concord News Group do not know whether George Ngalame will be banned from marrying his wife in a Roman Catholic Church because the church still see him as a priest. However, only God knows what his Bishop is thinking of him having sex.
In today’s world, we know men who have left the priesthood for love and have felt lost ever since – wanting to be priests again but being told that they can’t be. We know men who have pushed away the person they love because they are scared to leave the priesthood where they have a home, living expenses and prestige! We also know men caught between both worlds, unable to leave the priesthood and unable to leave their lover. This inevitably leads to secret affairs and even secret children.
So, what’s the outrage about George Ngalame?
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai