Italian Catholics fume at bloggers
Spreading 'rumours' of priestly child sex abuse
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39750By Nick Farrell: Monday 21 May 2007, 14:29ITALY'S LEADING Roman Catholic newspaper has slammed bloggers for spreading 'slander' about priests sexually interfering with children.
The Beeb ran a documentary in October about a church cover-up of sexual abuse but it was banned in Italy, where the church still has a fair bit of power. However, bloggers copied it and stuck it onto Google video and circulated it on the Internet. The video is numero uno in the Google video charts.
Newspaper Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic bishops, hit out at the web publication in a front-page editorial headlined "Infamous Slander Via Internet". Of course they got it completely wrong, since the documentary was published it would be 'defamation', not 'slander'.
What has got them all upset was that the Beeb found a secret document written in 1962 that set out a procedure for dealing with child sexual abuse within the Church. It made the child victim, the priest and any witness swear an oath of secrecy, which smacks a little bit of attempting a cover-up.
British Catholic bishops slammed the Beeb when the documentary was aired saying that it should be "ashamed of the standard of the journalism used to create this unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict". It seems that Mr Benedict was involved in policing the policy when he was in charge of the Inquisition and it was not changed until fairly recently.
It is not clear what it was changed to, as the policy is still secret.
In the US the church is having to flog buildings to pay for out of court settlements with sexual abuse victims. µ
L'INQ
Reuters
Italian TV urged to scrap BBC film accusing Pope of abuse cover-up http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2084212,00.html·Bishops say sex crimes programme 'fit for dustbin'
Complaints in Britain after Panorama broadcast
John Hooper in Rome
Monday May 21, 2007
The Guardian
The head of the parliamentary committee that oversees RAI, Mario Landolfi of the formerly neo-fascist National Alliance, said yesterday that he had written to the director-general urging him not to allow screening of the documentary. To do so would be to turn the public network into an "execution squad ready to open fire on the church and the pope", he said.The row has blown up at a time when the Catholic church in Italy is bringing its weight to bear in public life more than at any time since the demise of the country's Christian Democrat party. Last weekend, lay groups brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on to the streets of Rome to protest at a move by the centre-left government to give legal rights to unmarried couples, including same-sex couples.
Reports in several Italian newspapers said yesterday that the producers of a programme on RAI TV's second channel had agreed a price with the BBC for the purchase of "Sex Crimes and the Vatican", which was screened by Panorama in Britain last October. It caused a storm of controversy and prompted the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, to complain to the BBC's director-general.
The documentary said that in 2001, Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had issued an updated version of an order that was used to silence the victims of sexual abuse. The film was made by Colm O'Gorman, founder of a charity for abuse victims.
Italy's public broadcasting corporation, RAI, was accused yesterday of withholding approval for the screening of a controversial BBC documentary that accuses Pope Benedict of covering up sex crimes by Roman Catholic priests.In a pre-emptive strike last Saturday, the newspaper of the Italian bishops launched a furious attack on the film, describing it as "fit only for the dustbin". A front page article in the daily Avvenire said the producers "should bow their heads and ask forgiveness".
The Roman Catholic church accused Mr O'Gorman of misrepresenting the documentary evidence. It said that the Vatican's directive, first issued in 1962, was intended to avoid the misuse of information gathered in confessional. It imposed an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest and any witness.
The BBC documentary said this was meant to protect the priest's reputation during the investigation, but could "offer a blueprint for cover-up".
The document was revised to deal more specifically with sex abuse cases. Both the original and revised versions were kept secret. They came to light in the US in 2003 when their existence was widely reported in the US media.
Panorama's documentary had gone virtually unnoticed in Italy until this month when a subtitled version was put up on a website. It has since found its way to the Italian version of Google video, where it has become far and away the most frequently viewed item.
RAI wanted to give the film a wider audience by screening it on a popular current affairs and discussion programme. The daily La Repubblica said yesterday that the agreed price was within the programme's budget, but "at RAI, no one wants to take the responsibility of signing [the contract]".
Mon May 21, 2007 1:57 PM BST
http://investing.reuters.co.uk
By Philip Pullella
ROME (Reuters) - A political row has erupted in Italy over whether state television should air a BBC documentary about the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.
The dispute broke out after a conservative politician said RAI should block the documentary because it was part of what he called "a media execution squad ready to open fire on the Church and the Pope".
Mario Landolfi, head of the parliament's oversight committee for the broadcaster, asked RAI director general Claudio Cappon to deny permission to air "Sex Crimes and the Vatican".
Michele Santoro, a progressive and left-leaning journalist, wants to air it as the centrepiece of his talk show "Year Zero".
The documentary was aired on the BBC in October but never in Italy, although bloggers have translated it and it now ranks as Google Video Italia's (www.video.google.it) most popular item.
Several leftist politicians immediately attacked Landolfi's request for censorship.
"Neither the oversight committee or individual politicians have the right to ask for a preventive censorship of any journalists or topic," said Giuseppe Giulietti, a parliamentarian who was once a journalists' union leader at RAI. Continued...
05/21/2007
http://www.eitb24.com/new/enThe documentary was aired on the BBC in October but never in Italy, although bloggers have translated it and it now ranks as Google Video Italia's most popular item.
A political row has erupted in Italy over whether state television should air a BBC documentary about the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests.
The dispute broke out after a conservative politician said RAI should block the documentary because it was part of what he called "a media execution squad ready to open fire on the Church and the Pope".
Mario Landolfi, head of the parliament's oversight committee for the broadcaster, asked RAI director general Claudio Cappon to deny permission to air "Sex Crimes and the Vatican". Michele Santoro, a progressive and left-leaning journalist, wants to air it as the centrepiece of his talk show "Year Zero".
The documentary was aired on the BBC in October but never in Italy, although bloggers have translated it and it now ranks as Google Video Italia's most popular item. Several leftist politicians immediately attacked Landolfi's request for censorship.
"Neither the oversight committee or individual politicians have the right to ask for a preventive censorship of any journalists or topic," said Giuseppe Giulietti, a parliamentarian who was once a journalists' union leader at RAI. Italy's powerful Roman Catholic Church already has condemned the documentary.
At the weekend, Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, accused bloggers who put the documentary on the web of spreading "infamous slander".
Two leftists parliamentarians, Giovanni Russo Spena and Gennaro Migliore, said in a joint statement that the documentary should be aired because "paedophilia in the Catholic Church is well known, there is no mystery about it".
However, centrist politician Antonia Satta attacked it as "trash journalism" which he said "starts with a premise and does everything to prove it despite the way things really really were".
