Before It’s New – by Deborah Dupre
The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) in Brussels has called on its affiliates and all people of conscience to converge on the Vatican this Easter to extradite Ratzinger and place him on trial.
ITCCS is gathering support to use its upcoming Easter Reclamation Campaign to converge on Rome and the Vatican to force the extradition of Ratzinger from Vatican City, and place him and his accessories on trial for crimes against humanity.
“Commencing Sunday, March 24, 2013, our activists and others will begin an escalating series of Catholic church occupations and seizures of church property to bring about Ratzinger’s extradition and reclaim stolen wealth from the criminal corporation known as Vatican Inc. – in the name of the legion of their victims, both living and dead,” ITCCS said in a written statement released at midnight Friday night.
Vatican officials announced that Joseph Ratzinger will remain a permanent resident of Vatican City after his resignation to offer him legal protection from attempts to prosecute for sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources said Friday.
Rev. Kevin Annett asked in the written ITCCS statement, “Why would the oldest and wealthiest institution on our planet deliberately prove what its critics say about it, by first tossing their leader, a proven crook, out of his office after he’s threatened with arrest, and then giving him shelter to avoid prosecution? That’s the kind of panic and illogic displayed by a junior document-shredder, not a credible or wise body of men.
“And that gives all of us hope, Annett says. “Protecting Ratzinger within the walls of the Vatican may halt justice for a moment, but it violates a basic rule of warfare, which is to never give your enemy a permanent focus for their attack. Ratzinger, the evil Emperor, now a permanent fixture in the Vatican?
“The absurdity of offering such an ongoing focus to the civilized world’s hatred of catholic criminality is also a sign that the church is adrift and improvising. But it also shows how genuinely worried is the Vatican about the legal offensive mounted by our affiliates, lawyers for torture survivors, and the International Criminal Court.”
“No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,” the pope had said in a 2008 homily in Washington, D.C., before meeting with sexually abused victims for the first time. “It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention.” During the same trip to the U.S., he met with victims for the first time.
Ratzinger’s actions were “lip service and a public relations campaign,” said Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer representing some of the victims.
“For 25 years, Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the Vatican office responsible for investigating claims of sex abuse, but he did not act until he received an explicit order from Pope John Paul II,” ABC News reported.
“Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, either knew and/or some cases consciously disregarded information that showed subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes,” the complaint says.
Annett concludes the statement issued Friday at mignight, “Joe Ratzinger should know from the history of his own former SS buddies that criminal institutions can run, but they can’t hide – even behind all the wealth and pomp in the world.”
Sources: International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS), ABC News