Tag: vatican

Former Arlington priest who led child protection office charged with sexually abusing minor

A retired priest who served for years as the director of the Catholic Church’s child protection office in Arlington, Virginia, was indicted last week on two felony counts of sexual battery and abuse of a child.

According to an indictment returned by a Fairfax County grand Dec. 20, prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to charge Terry Specht, 69, with sexually abusing a child under the age of 12 while working at the Arlington Diocese in 2000. Specht is facing a second felony charge because he had a “custodial or supervisory relationship” with the child at the time.

In 2019, amid a national reckoning about long-simmering allegations of abuse by Catholic clergy, the Diocese of Arlington released the names of 50 priests who had been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors. At the time, the diocese noted that Specht, who served as the director of the Arlington Diocese’s Office of Child Protection and Safety from 2004 to 2011, had been accused of sexual assault in 2011, but that the Arlington Diocesan Review Board was “not able to come to a decision as to the credibility” of those accusations. Specht was placed on administrative leave and entered medical retirement shortly thereafter.

At the time of the alleged 2000 assault, Specht was serving as an assistant principal at Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Virginia.

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Photo Reveals Epstein and Ghislaine Being Blessed at Private Meeting With the Pope In The Vatican After Flying Into Rome on His ‘Lolita Express’ Private Jet

A newly-unearthed photo shows billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged ‘madam’ Ghislaine Maxwell being blessed by the Pope.

The image shows the former financier and his ex-partner holding a private audience with John Paul II at the Vatican almost 20 years ago.

According to the Sun on Sunday, which obtained the snap, the pair are believed to have flown to Rome on Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ jet for the meeting, said to have taken place in 2003.

It is the same aircraft federal prosecutors in the US believe was used by Epstein to shuttle young sex trafficking victims between his sprawling homes in New York, New Mexico, Paris, the US Virgin Islands and Palm Beach, where the dead pedophile owned a waterfront mansion.

A source told the paper: ‘Pictures like this show just how powerful Epstein’s connections were and his ability to open almost any door.

‘He managed to manipulate his way into royal palaces, the White House and the Vatican, all with Maxwell by his side.’

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Nuns used crucifixes to rape girls during decades of abuse carried out by clergy in France’s Catholic Church that saw attacks on 330,000 children covered up ‘by a veil of silence’, damning report finds

Nuns used crucifixes to rape girls during decades of abuse carried out by clergy in France’s Catholic Church that saw attacks on 330,000 children covered up ‘by a veil of silence’, a damning report has found. 

The 2,500-page landmark report was released Tuesday after more than two years of investigations by an independent commission, in France’s first major reckoning with the devastating phenomenon.

A victim named ‘Marie’ testified that she was abused as an 11-year-old and that when she complained about the abuse to her parents they refused to believe a nun could do such a thing. The abuse continued for another year.

‘I was truly [a gift] for this nun… because she knew full well that she did not risk anything,’ Marie said. 

Eighty per cent of victims were young boys between the ages of 10 and 13, however many girls also suffered abuse, not only by priests but also by nuns.

Nuns used crucifixes to rape little girls or forced boys to have sex with them, according to the report.

Pope Francis today expressed to the victims his ‘great sorrow, for their wounds’, adding that he was grateful for the courage they had shown in denouncing what they had been through.  

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Vatican Indicts Cardinal And 9 Other Suspects On Embezzlement, Fraud

A Vatican judge indicted a cardinal and 9 other suspects on charges of money laundering, fraud, and abuse of office Saturday, according to the Independent.

The suspects are accused of withholding millions of euros from the Holy See and investing money that was donated to the pope for charity work, the Independent reported.

Italian broker Gianluigi Torzi is accused of using 15 million euros that he withheld from the Vatican to invest in a London building in 2018. Former Holy See official Cardinal Angelo Becciu was indicted for helping organize the investment when he was the Secretariat of State’s chief of staff, according to Independent. 

Another suspect, an Italian intelligence expert, was accused of using Holy See money to buy luxury goods, the Independent reported.

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Vatican Invites Abortion Advocate Chelsea Clinton To Talk About ‘Health’ And The ‘Soul’

The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture is set to host Chelsea Clinton, Anthony Fauci, Deepak Chopra, and others for a May conference to explore the “mind, body, and soul” and its role in health care.

The Vatican Council for Culture and the Cura Foundation and the Science and Faith (STOQ) Foundation are partnering together to host “the world’s leading physicians, scientists, leaders of faith, ethicists, patient advocates, policymakers, philanthropists and influencers to engage in powerful conversations on the latest breakthroughs in medicine, health care delivery and prevention.”

Speakers for the virtual conference are the world’s elites. Those picked to lecture on health and the soul include CEOs of large pharmaceutical companies, including Moderna and Pfizer, and former supermodel Cindy Crawford, English primatologist Jane Goodall, Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry, and CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Speaker Chelsea Clinton is a high-profile abortion advocate, like her mother and father, Hillary and Bill Clinton. Chelsea labels the pro-life movement as an “anti-choice movement,” and is an outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S.

In 2018, Chelsea spoke at a “Rise up for Roe” event in New York City, a meeting organized by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood to oppose Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. During her address, she glowingly credited legal abortion for adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy.

“American women entering the labor force from 1973 to 2009 added three and a half trillion dollars to our economy,” Clinton stated. “The net, new entrance of women — that is not disconnected from the fact that Roe became the law of the land in January of 1973.”

Chelsea is also Vice President of the Clinton Foundation, an organization riddled with controversy and corruption, and a supporter of global pro-abortion initiatives.

The Catholic Church publicly professes that life begins at conception and “abortion is a case of direct killing of an innocent human being — a violation of the rights of the youngest members of our society and the human family.”

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What Was The Vatican Searching For When They Built Secret Tunnel Under Jerusalem Church?

The Vatican has constructed a secret underground tunnel in Jerusalem that has infuriated a local preservation group who claim the tunnel resides in a sensitive area that may contain antiquities and other artifacts.  

The Regavim Movement, a research-based think tank and lobbying group dedicated to preserving Israel’s national lands and resources, recently filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court, demanding the city take action against the illegal underground tunnel. 

According to the petition submitted to the Jerusalem District Court, the Regavim Movement alleges the church concealed the existence of the 100-meter long tunnel that infringes on public property in an area allegedly known for archaeological remains.

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