http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orX1DeBIN04http://itccs.org/2012/05/04/catholic-church-faces-disruption-and-banishment-as-irish-cardinal-set-to-resign/My name is Kevin Annett and I am the Secretary of the five-nation body known as The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS). I am speaking on behalf of the ITCCS and our affiliate organization in Ireland.
Our coalition represents over fifty organizations in Canada, the United States, Ireland, England and Australia, including many survivors of church terror.
We have also been recognized by seven aboriginal nations in North America, and been authorized by them to recover the remains of their relatives who died in Catholic Indian residential schools and orphanages; and to bring to justice those responsible for the death of over 50,000 children in these church-run institutions.
Let us state clearly that the time for polite talk is over.
The Roman Catholic Church has imposed and is perpetrating a reign of terror and crimes against humanity on generations of children, is actively concealing those crimes and protecting child rapists and murderers in its ranks, and has shown no desire or capacity to change the policies or practices that allow these unspeakable crimes to continue.
Nevertheless, on behalf of the nations and survivors we represent, and the Executive Council of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State, I have been authorized to give the Church a final opportunity to change, by presenting the following demands to the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, as we have already done to Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, and Vatican officials.
The following concrete actions by the Church are required if justice is to be won for its victims and if the crimes it has committed and continue to cover up are to end.
If the Church fails to abide by these basic commandments of humanity and the law, we will take permanent action to end its criminal regime.
1. The Church must issue full reparations to all of its victims, including by paying for all of their medical and counseling bills, the cost of their rehabilitation and retraining, and for any of their disabilities and losses.
2. The Church must surrender for a proper burial, without conditions and at its own expense, the remains of all those who died in its institutions or while under its care.
3. The Church must return all land and property taken from its victims, and restore all of the wealth generated by its exploitation of them as children, including the wealth created from their unpaid or low paid labor.
4. The Church must surrender without conditions all of the evidence of its crimes against children, and all of those persons responsible for committing these crimes and concealing them, including its highest officials. The Church must fully disclose this evidence and participate without conditions in all public investigations into its crimes.
5. The Church and its guilty parties cannot hide behind so-called diplomatic immunity or other privileges to evade justice and avoid prosecution. The Vatican must end its official cover up and annul its policy known as Crimen Sollicitationis, which compels Catholic clergy to conceal crimes committed against children in their parishes.
6. The Church must immediately expel and defrock all known child raping priests, officials and employees in its ranks, and defrock any clergy who harms a child or conceals such harm.
7. All clergy and Church officials must agree to be licensed and monitored as public servants, and take a legally binding, public oath to protect without conditions the rights and sanctity of children and disclose any harm done to them.
8. The Church must forgo and withdraw from all of the tax exemptions, financial concordats and agreements, and other special privileges presently granted to it under the laws of nations.
9. The Vatican must agree to the annulment of its status as a so-called state, and free its congregations and dioceses from its authority so that they may act according to the wishes and needs of their respective communities and their faith, and not the political and financial requirements of the Vatican.
10. All of the wealth accumulated by the Church and the Vatican Bank through land theft and conquest, and from tax exemptions, concordats, and from its operations around the world that have harmed children through the exploitation of their labor, such as the Magdalene Laundries and Indian residential schools, must be returned to its victims and to the poor in general through a direct, public redistribution of that wealth, as Christ himself commands.
We have been instructed to inform the Bishops of Ireland, as we have notified the Vatican, that they have until September 15, 2012, to agree to these demands and implement these ten measures. If they fail to commence to do so by midnight of that date, we will enact the following measures:
1. The Roman Catholic Church will be formally and forever banished from our communities, and measures will be taken to legally and practically prevent it from operating;
2. Roman Catholic churches, agencies and offices around the world will be permanently disrupted and occupied as part of an ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience; and
3. Our International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State will reconvene its court, and will seek the immediate detaining for questioning of the highest officials of the Roman Catholic Church, including Pope Benedict, on charges of obstruction of justice, criminal conspiracy, and crimes against humanity.
It is time for all people of conscience within the Church to choose who they will serve: a self-governing, criminal church system that sets itself above the law and God – or its suffering victims, and justice.
We urge Catholics to choose life, by making these ten steps a reality. Otherwise, the Roman Catholic Church will have forfeited its right to operate in our communities and in our world.
By this declaration, we are lending our active support to the Irish survivors of rape and torture by the Roman Catholic Church who are meeting with Archbishop Martin today. These survivors include members of ACCAW, the ITCCS, and Magdalene laundry victims.
We stand as a united front with these brothers and sisters, and with all victims of Church terror anywhere in the world. We will never stop until justice is achieved, and the reign of terror against children everywhere is ended.
We will be sharing this letter with our affiliates around the world, as well as with the global media, judicial bodies, and governments.
We welcome a formal response from the office of Archbishop Martin, and we call upon the Church to accept the demands and wishes of the Irish survivors who are meeting today with Archbishop Martin.
Topic: An Open Letter to Archbishop Dermot Martin and the Bishops and Clergy of Ireland