News & Politics - Cache of child porn found at seminary

migamoo · 07-12-2004, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Monday, July 12, 2004 Posted: 4:06 PM EDT (2006 GMT)

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- A vast cache of child pornography and photos of young priests having sex has been discovered at a Roman Catholic seminary, 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.

I'm sorry, a 'childish prank'? Something really needs to be done about this.

mh67511 · 07-12-2004, 08:56 PM

That is sick. Unfortunantely it doesn't surprise me. The Catholic Church has dealt so poorly with this scandal and it seems like the problems just keep coming.

My dad went to a seminary, but nothing like this ever happened! Then again we're Protestant so.....jk.

Katis · 07-13-2004, 04:17 AM

Not only is this perverse and wrong in that it is harming children, but these men are also harming other Catholics. Now people get this idea that all priests are child molestors and we're all just ambivalent towards it.

Sindaanca · 07-13-2004, 04:41 AM

jesus! that's sick but unhappily more and more common

Timeo · 07-13-2004, 06:59 AM

Yeah, the childish prank that resulted in 40,000 images of child pornography.

**Mio** · 07-13-2004, 11:36 AM

Yet another reason why I am no longer Catholic.

imajica · 07-13-2004, 06:16 PM

I used to work for the catholic church as a youth worker, one of the main reasons that I left the job and the church was that I was unable to reconcile the fact that the church continually harboured and protected peadophiles (sp?).

That was over 6 years ago but recently i found out that one of the priests that I worked with for many years is now being charged after 21 men have come forward to say that they were abused by him when they were children.
The charges don't relate to the period when I worked with him. By that point we had really strict rules about being alone with kids, which were very stricly enforced by him. The guys that have come forward are all about my age which means it would have been going on when I was about 12 and would have happend to boys that I knew. I have known this preist for a long time, he took are particular interest in me cause my father wasn't around, so hearing these allegations now is really scary. I know that my brother and some of my male friends always felt uncomfortable around him but I though it was just normal teenage boy stuff but i guessed that they sensed something.

Something that really stuck me about this article was the way that they seemed more worried about denying any homosexuality in the order than the actual child pornography:

Quote:

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."

In my opinions one of the biggest problems in is that they refuse to acknowledge homosexuality in the church, many of the priests I knew, including the one I have talked about, were gay, and joined the church because in those days they had nowhere else to go. I think that because these feelings get so repressed and they are living in unatural environment where they are cut off from other people and put on a pedestal they develop abnormal responses and in some of them this comes out sexually.

I think that anyone in the church found to be harming kids should be turned over to the police but maybe if the church took a more active approach and provided more councilling for priests they could actually prevent some of this happening.

I will never understand how the church could habour and protect peadophiles but refuse communion to gay people.

mh67511 · 07-13-2004, 10:12 PM

I don't really like the fact that Priests can't get married. I just think it causes problems. I don't understand the reasoning either as I find nothing Biblical for this rule. But then again I find a LOT of Catholic beliefs have nothing Bibilical about them, one of the main reasons I am not a big fan of the Church (not Catholics themsevles, but the Church structure and doctrine).

migamoo · 07-13-2004, 10:25 PM

Priests used to be able to marry. They stopped this so the church could keep the land where the priest lived, instead of it going to his family when he died.

Ashley

imajica · 07-13-2004, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mh67511
I don't really like the fact that Priests can't get married. I just think it causes problems. I don't understand the reasoning either as I find nothing Biblical for this rule. But then again I find a LOT of Catholic beliefs have nothing Bibilical about them, one of the main reasons I am not a big fan of the Church (not Catholics themsevles, but the Church structure and doctrine).

I totally agree, they would end up with much more balanced people running their churches and it would also solve the problem of the shortage of priests.

**TheAngel** · 07-15-2004, 07:02 AM

Never in the bible is Celibacy preached, or really even spoken about. Jesus promotes marriage and preists could marry up until a certain point when all these restrictions took over. I don't remember the year but I did some research on this subject last year. But then hell, up to a certain point women could hold all positions in the catholic church and look where that went.

imajica · 07-20-2004, 05:52 PM

Saw this on Yahoo today

Quote:

Wednesday July 21, 08:51 AM

Pope orders inquiry into sexual misconduct allegations

The Pope has ordered an inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct at a Roman Catholic seminary in Austria.

A student priest at the seminary was yesterday charged with possessing some 10,000 pornographic photographs.

The Pope has named Bishop Klaus Kueng as papal investigator into the diocese which is also the subject of an ongoing police investigation into allegations of child abuse.

Last week it was revealed that investigation had uncovered close to 40,000 pornographic images, some allegedly including children, others showing intimate relationships between teachers and students.

The Catholic Church is facing a growing number of calls to replace the head of the diocese, Bishop Kurt Krenn, who has dismissed the photographs as pranks.

I hope that they do get rid of him but I don't hold out much hope for this changing much, in my experience these church held enquiries are usually just a way to enable them to cover things up. As I said earlier I don't think much will change til they start to look at other issues like priests marrying.

Semmer · 07-20-2004, 07:26 PM

Is it just me or do I not see the 'prank' here? That is just plain sick.

Jay · 07-24-2004, 06:57 PM

yea chuches aren't as same as they used to be anymore. it seems there's always a case of priests doing soemthing either sexually or harrassment or whatever.

pacifierrocks · 07-26-2004, 12:21 PM

Yeah, i don't understand how they could even try to pass it off as a prank. its sad that this is happening, its bad for all the priests that aren't pedophiles because since a lot of these stories are coming out now, people are going to start to generalize.


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