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AUSTRIA-SPEED Jul-21-2004 (420 words) With photos posted July 19 and 20. xxxi
Vatican: Speedy response to Austrian sex scandal reflects seriousness
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II's speed in ordering a special investigation into an Austrian diocese and its seminary reflects the seriousness of the allegations of sexual misconduct there as well as the formal request of the Austrian bishops' conference, Vatican officials said.
"There was an internal investigation, and both the investigator appointed by the local bishop and the Austrian bishops' conference requested the nomination of an apostolic visitor," said Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, Vatican spokesman.
The Vatican announced July 20 that Pope John Paul had named Austrian Bishop Klaus Kung of Feldkirch to conduct an apostolic visitation of the diocese and, particularly, the seminary. Earlier, a spokesman said Bishop Kurt Krenn of Sankt Polten had begun his own investigation of the situation.
In mid-July an Austrian magazine published pictures of priests and students kissing and fondling each other. Austrian authorities said the images had been found along with more than 40,000 photos and videos -- including child pornography -- on seminary computers.
The appointment of the apostolic visitor came less than a week after Bishop Krenn announced he had established a commission to investigate what had occurred at the seminary and only one day after Austrian prosecutors charged a 27-year-old Polish seminarian with possession and distribution of child pornography.
A Vatican official, who asked not to be named, said the publication of photographs showing members of the seminary staff and students engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior "is scandalous in the most literal sense."
The photographs, he said, "show widespread corruption within the seminary. The Holy Father must have been horrified."
"You don't need a degree in canon law to know that something needed to be done immediately," he said.
The official also said "there is no parallel" between the urgent need to investigate the incidents that allegedly occurred in the Sankt Polten seminary and the controversy in 2002 over how Cardinal Bernard F. Law, then-archbishop of Boston, was handling allegations of sexual abuse by Boston priests.
Another official pointed out that the sexual abuse crisis in the United States did elicit a call from the U.S. bishops and from the Vatican for an apostolic visitation of all the U.S. seminaries, "a process more complicated than investigating just one diocese."
The Congregation for Catholic Education, in consultation with the bishops, is working on a detailed plan for the visits, he said.
A secretary at the congregation told Catholic News Service July 21 that no one in the office would speak to reporters.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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