Germany. The priest who stumbled into a homosexual scandal, the Ex-subregent of St. Polten in Austria, Father Wolfgang Rothe, is going to be a Parish Vicar in Munich. The Old Liberal Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising has signed the decree of appointment on July 9th. Father Rothe will assume the position in September. He is the Parish Vicar in a Munich Parish organization "Transfituration of Christ -- St. Micheal". He was last active as a chaplain in a convalescent home.
It's been an interesting summer for reassignments and such. Bishop Finn of Kansas City was recently tried and found guilty for the misdemeanor offense of "failing to report child abuse". This was widely hailed by many as a symbol of the clergy's protected status and the continuing corruption in the Church. There were a few bloggers even on the traditional side who uncritically accepted the New York Times, professional victim side of all this.
It will be interesting indeed to see if it makes any difference to them that this wasn't just a case of homosexual seminarians and their professors (sad that many don't find that shocking enough to end a priest's career) having a frolic, but as Micheal Rose reported when it happened, these seminarians and priests had more than 40,000 pornographic images including ones that featured the sexual abuse of children. It is an indisputable fact that not only did the seminary rector Father Kueschel and the ex-subregent, Father Rothe know about the photos of children being abused sexually, but they even used them for their own gratification while abusing their own seminarians. Here's an excerpt from Micheal Rose:
The photos showed seminarians and priests from Austria’s Sankt Poelten seminary fondling and kissing one another and engaging in sex games. Profil also reported that some 40,000 pornographic images and films were downloaded to the seminary’s computers, including photographs depicting acts of pedophilia and bestiality.
Consequently, German-language media outlets have been saturated this week with reports of the Austrian seminary scandal chock o’block full of lurid details in what has become the Catholic Church’s Abu Ghraib. Headlines such as "Seminary orgy rocks Church in Austria" (Irish Examiner), "Church probes perverse pictures" (Toronto Star), and "Porn case could torpedo bishop" (The Guardian), made news from Britain to Australia to America.
The scandal immediately prompted the resignation of two seminary officials, an internal investigation by the Austrian bishops conference, and calls for a criminal investigation since the scandal involves a large cache of child pornography—illegal in Austria as in most other countries.
