Irish Times – PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
TWO GERMAN lawyers have initiated charges against Pope Benedict XVI at the International Criminal Court, alleging crimes against humanity.
Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel, based at Marktheidenfeld in the Pope’s home state of Bavaria, last week submitted a 16,500-word document to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Dr Luis Moreno Ocampo.
Their charges concern “three worldwide crimes which until now have not been denounced . . . (as) the traditional reverence toward ‘ecclesiastical authority’ has clouded the sense of right and wrong”.
They claim the Pope “is responsible for the preservation and leadership of a worldwide totalitarian regime of coercion which subjugates its members with terrifying and health-endangering threats”.
They allege he is also responsible for “the adherence to a fatal forbiddance of the use of condoms, even when the danger of HIV-Aids infection exists” and for “the establishment and maintenance of a worldwide system of cover-up of the sexual crimes committed by Catholic priests and their preferential treatment, which aids and abets ever new crimes”.
They claim the Catholic Church “acquires its members through a compulsory act, namely, through the baptism of infants that do not yet have a will of their own”. This act was “irrevocable” and is buttressed by threats of excommunication and the fires of hell.
It was “a grave impairment of the personal freedom of development and of a person’s emotional and mental integrity”. The Pope was “responsible for its preservation and enforcement and, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of his Church, he was jointly responsible” with Pope John Paul II.
Catholics “threatened by HIV-AIDS . . . are faced with a terrible alternative: If they protect themselves with condoms during sexual intercourse, they become grave sinners; if they do not protect themselves out of fear of the punishment of sin threatened by the church, they become candidates for death.”
There was also “strong suspicion that Dr Joseph Ratzinger, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of his church and as Pope, has up to the present day systematically covered up the sexual abuse of children and youths and protected the perpetrators, thereby aiding and abetting further sexual violence toward young people”.
Formal criminal complaint lodged by German lawyers against the German national Joseph Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI in the International Criminal Court in the Hague on 14.02.2011.
A copy of the complaint in the English language: »Criminal Charges against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church — on grounds of Crimes against Humanity — According to Art. 7 ICC Statute« can be found here @ http://www.kanzlei-sailer.de/pope-lawsuit-2011.pdf ( a total of 51 pages ).
This formal complaint against the Pope was also lodged in the ICC in German: »Strafanzeige gegen Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Papst der röm.-kath. Kirche wegen Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit gem. Art.7 IStGH-Statut« @ http://www.kanzlei-sailer.de/papst-strafanzeige-2011.pdf ( a total of 59 pages ).
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Hallo good folks.
This is being posted by an Australian, resident in the land Down Under, in Adelaide, South Australia, an old codger, who himself was a “ward of the state” in ‘institutional care’ in a church-run ( fundamentalist evangelical-Lutheran ! ) “CHILD WELFARE HELL-HOLE” in West Germany, where he was also being subjected to unpaid forced labour in a vast peat-bog in Lower Saxony — just like the girls were being subjected to forced labour by the merciful sisters in “Magdalene Sisters’ Laundries” all over the world, including in West-Germany, at the time — , in the early 1960s, before migrating to Australia [ as a stateless refugee ] at age 17½ in March 1964.
I am ( for the last 8 years ) in close contact in Germany with “victims of child abuse in institutional care”, particularly as it relates to church institutions both catholic and protestant in the former West-Germany ( Federal Republic of Germany, 1945-1992 ) and I write extensively on this topic on the Internet in German, in order to take church and state and users of post-war forced labour to task with the endeavor to work towards acknowledgment of the injustices done to us and the human rights abuses perpetrated on us and to obtain a just compensation package for all victims concerned.
Incidentally, the German domain-name of my website mentioned in the field provided ( above ) is http://www.heimkinder-ueberlebende.org
With kind regards from the land Down Under.
Martin Mitchell ( age 65 )
At long last things are really beginning to move on this side of the water! We’ve had shilly shallying comments and insipid apologies from the church for so long that their rhetoric is meaningless to us all. I do hope that this site will bring much needed unity to the survivors out there as I know here in Ireland a lot of ‘muddying the waters’ has been generated by some survivors in the pay of the Church. They’ve had secret meetings with the bishops and ‘puroport’ to speak for us when we wouldn’t give them the time of day. Good luck with the site and here’s hoping it’s a constructive one!
It is well worth looking at the Judges in the ICC. It is reputed that one of them is a devout catholic and was instrumental in releasing a paedophile!
i am a suvivor from germany/bavaria
we need all the sopport for the claim of my attorney dr. christian sailer. we need your signature and help.
sorry my english is not the best. as long as you can understand what i want to tell you and the whole world.
we need a lots of signature.
thank you soooooooooooooo much
alexa
1960-1978
Went to the meeting last Saturday The Launch Of Survivors Voice Europe at Conway Hall London.It was brilliant Sue and all the speaker’s spoke with great enthusiasm and honesty.I feel this group of people are determined to achieve what they set out to do.Wishing them every success for the future.
I have read that The Hague Prosecutor, Dr Luis Moreno Ocampo, has defended a priest accused of sexual abuse in the past.
The fact that this Hague Prosecutor has defended a priest accused of sexual abuse and the possibility that he is a Catholic biased toward protecting the Roman Catholic Church, I do not think that he should be the person to make a decision on any charges brought against Pope Benedict XVI.
Are there any other Prosecutors in the Hague that are not Roman Catholics and that could take this case?