Kiddie Porn Found in Catholic Seminary

[The Kernel]

Here we go again...

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- A vast cache of child pornography and photos of young priests having sex has been discovered at a Roman Catholic sem3inary, officials said Monday, leading politicians and church leaders to demand a criminal probe and the resignation of the bishop in charge.

Bishop Kurt Krenn, who oversees the diocese, refused to step down, however, dismissing the images as a "childish prank."

Leaders of the Catholic diocese of St. Poelten where the seminary is located, about 50 miles west of Vienna, spent much of the day in an emergency meeting.

The seminary's director, the Rev. Ulrich Kuechl, resigned along with his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe, the diocese said after the meeting. It did not elaborate.

As many as 40,000 photos and an undisclosed number of films, including child pornography, were found a year ago on computers at the seminary, the respected news magazine Profil reported.

It published several images purportedly showing young priests and their instructors kissing and fondling each other, and said others showed them engaging in orgies and sex games. The child porn came mostly from Web sites based in Poland, the magazine said.

Hannes Jarolim, a spokesman for the opposition Socialist Party, urged the Interior Ministry on Monday to launch a criminal investigation. Public prosecutor Walter Nemec said police were examining the material, which he said showed seminarians "in perverse situations together with their superiors."

The Austrian Bishops Conference issued a statement pledging a full and swift internal investigation.

"Anything that has to do with the practice of homosexuality or pornography has no place at a seminary for priests," it said.

Krenn, a conservative churchman, told Austrian television he had seen photos of seminary leaders in sexual situations with students, but he described the images as part of an elaborate prank that "had nothing to do with homosexuality."

His nonchalance drew swift and scathing reaction across the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.

"Collecting child pornography cannot be dismissed as a prank," said Thomas Huber, a Green Party politician.

In the mid-1990s, Austria was stung by allegations that Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, who died last year, had molested students at an all-male Catholic boarding school two decades earlier. The affair had prompted Groer to step down.

A group of St. Poelten Diocese officials planned to ask the Vatican to remove Krenn as bishop, Austrian radio reported Monday. Martin Walchhofer, who supervises the alpine country's seminaries, said Krenn ultimately was responsible and "must answer before the church and before God for all of this."

Asked whether he intended to resign, Krenn said bluntly: "No."

The Vatican said it had no comment.

Krenn, 68, issued a statement calling the accusations groundless while conceding that he "may have made some wrong personnel decisions" at the seminary. Rothe, the former deputy seminary chief, was a legal adviser to the bishop.

Can anyone else imagine what the public outcry would be if this was happening anywhere but a church? Fucking eh...

[fgalkin]

I have always been saying that the whole pedophelia deal stems from Catholicism's ridiculous requirement of celibacy for its priests. I don't see any pedophelia cases coming from the Eastern Orthodox churches, or the Protestants.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Joe]

You know what the really sad thing is? I'll bet only 10 percent - if that - of what these shitbag priests have been doing over the years will ever come out.

[Mr Flibble]

I have always been saying that the whole pedophelia deal stems from Catholicism's ridiculous requirement of celibacy for its priests. I don't see any pedophelia cases coming from the Eastern Orthodox churches, or the Protestants.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Actually here in Adelaide there have been a lot of cases from Anglican priest, who are not required to be celibate and may marry (fortunately as otherwise I would not exist).

[MKSheppard]

*reaches for nuke*

[White Haven]

Where's the Inquisition when you need them...

[DPDarkPrimus]

Where's the Inquisition when you need them...

NOBODY EXPECTS A LEGAL INQUISITION!

And it'll never happen, unless the government grows a huge fucking pair of caljones and threatens to bring the motherfucking Catholic Church to court if it doesn't let legal action be taken against violaters.

[Crown]

Actually here in Adelaide there have been a lot of cases from Anglican priest, who are not required to be celibate and may marry (fortunately as otherwise I would not exist).

True, although the majority of priest/child molestation scandals that surface come from the Catholic church.

To my knowledge there isn't strong corelation between celebacy and child molestation though, so I think it is more the case that you either are or aren't a molester.

[Joe]

To my knowledge there isn't strong corelation between celebacy and child molestation though, so I think it is more the case that you either are or aren't a molester.

I don't know, I don't ever recall hearing about pedophilia being as widespread of a problem in religions that do not require their holy men to be celibate as it is in Catholicism. How many Rabbi pedophiles have you ever heard of? Or Greek Orthodox priests? Or Protestant pastors/reverends?

Granted, I don't really know of any statistical evidence here, but it seems to me to be intuitive that the celibacy requirement leads to an increased likelihood of child molestation.

[Crown]

To my knowledge there isn't strong corelation between celebacy and child molestation though, so I think it is more the case that you either are or aren't a molester.

I don't know, I don't ever recall hearing about pedophilia being as widespread of a problem in religions that do not require their holy men to be celibate as it is in Catholicism. How many Rabbi pedophiles have you ever heard of? Or Greek Orthodox priests? Or Protestant pastors/reverends?

Granted, I don't really know of any statistical evidence here, but it seems to me to be intuitive that the celibacy requirement leads to an increased likelihood of child molestation.

Well like Flibble pointed out here in Australia we have had a few cases of Anglican priests (I think I can think of 3 or 4), but it is true that I seem to always here about Catholic priests. Perhaps we are looking at the symptom, perhaps the Catholic clergy just has an amazing ability to recruit child molestors? Who knows?

[Joe]

That is possible; part of the job description of being a Catholic priest is that you're going to have quite a bit of access to young boys, certainly something that could be quite attractive to pedophiles.

[White Haven]

Failing a legal inquisition, well...

No one expects the twelve-gauge inquisition!

On a more serious level, as wide-open as this has gone, it's too late to sweep it back under the rug. People want /blood/.

[Joe]

Where's the Inquisition when you need them...

NOBODY EXPECTS A LEGAL INQUISITION!

And it'll never happen, unless the government grows a huge fucking pair of caljones and threatens to bring the motherfucking Catholic Church to court if it doesn't let legal action be taken against violaters.

Don't blame the various gov'ts of the U.S., they're doing the best they can to deal with a problem that the Catholic Church isn't willing to deal with on its own or even really cooperate effectively.

[The Kernel]

Don't blame the various gov'ts of the U.S., they're doing the best they can to deal with a problem that the Catholic Church isn't willing to deal with on its own or even really cooperate effectively.

I said it before, can you imagine the outcry if this was anything BUT the church?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Where's the Inquisition when you need them...

NOBODY EXPECTS A LEGAL INQUISITION!

And it'll never happen, unless the government grows a huge fucking pair of caljones and threatens to bring the motherfucking Catholic Church to court if it doesn't let legal action be taken against violaters.

Don't blame the various gov'ts of the U.S., they're doing the best they can to deal with a problem that the Catholic Church isn't willing to deal with on its own or even really cooperate effectively.

If the US was doing the best they could, they would be taking up the Catholic Church on hundreds of charges of whatever legalese is for "allowing illegal acts to be perpetrated with full knowledge of it, and instead of dealing with it, allowing it to spread".

[Joe]

Don't blame the various gov'ts of the U.S., they're doing the best they can to deal with a problem that the Catholic Church isn't willing to deal with on its own or even really cooperate effectively.

I said it before, can you imagine the outcry if this was anything BUT the church?

Umm, I don't know if you paid attention to the news at all in 2002, but there WAS massive fucking outcry when the scandal first broke, it completely dominated the first half of that year. Of course the scandal died down; like all scandals it had a limited shelf life, but certainly there were lots of people who were pissed off about what happened - hell, I even remember O'Reilly going bonkers over this at the time.

[White Haven]

Anywhere from 'Aiding and Abetting' all the way up to 'Conspiracy to Commit,' depending on how deep the cover goes from the Man in the Hat. Diggin himself a deeper hole...

[moku]

Didn't our ex (Australia) governor general, Hollingworth (IIRC) have sex scandals all over him? Or was that somebody else...?

[Crown]

Didn't our ex (Australia) governor general, Hollingworth (IIRC) have sex scandals all over him? Or was that somebody else...?

He was covering one up IIRC (allegedly).

[The Kernel]

Umm, I don't know if you paid attention to the news at all in 2002, but there WAS massive fucking outcry when the scandal first broke, it completely dominated the first half of that year. Of course the scandal died down; like all scandals it had a limited shelf life, but certainly there were lots of people who were pissed off about what happened - hell, I even remember O'Reilly going bonkers over this at the time.

Oh, there was a scandal, but not the level of outcry you would expect. After all, the Catholic Diocese was actually defending known pedophiles and they weren't being universally condemned the way they should have been. Imagine what would happen if NAMBLA opened up childrens day care centers all over the country. Do you still think the Catholic Church got the flak it deserved?

[moku]

And our dear Howard helped him get away with it. Tha slime...

***

The Catholic Church is a strange entity to me. Many of their 'philosophies' I do not understand...

[Joe]

Oh, there was a scandal, but not the level of outcry you would expect. After all, the Catholic Diocese was actually defending known pedophiles and they weren't being universally condemned the way they should have been. Imagine what would happen if NAMBLA opened up childrens day care centers all over the country. Do you still think the Catholic Church got the flak it deserved?

They did, as far as I can recall. Condemnation of the Church was nearly universal among Americans, save only a few hardcore conservative Catholics who saw the whole thing as a media conspiracy.

[The Kernel]

[
They did, as far as I can recall. Condemnation of the Church was nearly universal among Americans, save only a few hardcore conservative Catholics who saw the whole thing as a media conspiracy.

I must have missed it because I swear that the Monica Lewinsky scandal was 10x the size of the Church abuse scandal.

[Marksist]

Condemnation of the Church was nearly universal among Americans, save only a few hardcore conservative Catholics who saw the whole thing as a media conspiracy.

I don't think condemnation of the Church was universal. Moreso the condemnation of the Priests who did this, and not the Catholic Church itself. Of course this is just amongst the people I've come into contact with.

[Crown]

And our dear Howard helped him get away with it. Tha slime...

Of course Johnny helped him, he was the one that picked him for the post of GG in the first place!