“Removed from service”?

adminonDecember 29, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Symbol image abuse in the church © Andreas Gebert

A new suspicion in the sexual abuse scandal: a senior staff member at the highest Vatican court is on a list of a good 200 abusers from the US state of New Jersey.

Joseph Punderson, 70, a senior staff member at the Vatican's highest court, is on a list from his former diocese of Trenton of some 200 "credibly accused" abusers from the U.S. state of New Jersey. This is reported by the Rome correspondent of the French newspaper "La Croix" (online edition Friday). He suspects that this could soon bring to an end Punderson's Vatican career of some 25 years.

Majority of priests on list deceased

On the list released Wednesday by the Trenton diocese, Punderson is listed as "removed from ministry". About possible sanctions or further use is nothing executed. Some of the offenses charged date back decades, the release said Wednesday; most of the priests on the list have since died.

At the end of January, Austrian religious Hermann Geibler (53) had resigned from his post in the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The resignation was related to allegations of sexual harassment, but Geissler denies them.

Supreme Court of the Roman Curia

The Apostolic Signature, officially the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, is the highest court and highest administrative tribunal of the Roman Curia. The prefect of that court is currently Cardinal Dominique Mamberti (66).

An international summit on abuse will be held at the Vatican starting Thursday. Pope Francis has invited the presidents of all bishops' conferences, the leaders of the united Eastern churches and numerous male and female religious superiors to the four-day meeting in Rome. Also participating will be the heads of all Vatican agencies, as well as victims of abuse from around the world.

The nerdy appearance with V-neck sweater and the once thick horn-rimmed glasses may have been deceiving. Behind the facade of the seemingly mired in algorithms and charitable plans Microsoft founder Bill Gates According to the latest US media reports, a man who was in the mood for extramarital updates early on in his relationship with his wife Melinda French Gates, which broke up spectacularly two weeks ago after 27 years, was in the midst of a strange situation.

From one Affair that had cost him his seat and vote on the computer giant's board of directors. Of several cases in which the now 65-year-old allegedly stalked female employees. And of seeking marriage counseling from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide and with whom he kept in touch for years. In order:

Microsoft engineer wrote letter about affair with Bill Gates

According to the "Wall Street Journal," a female Microsoft engineer reportedly wrote to company executives in the second half of 2019 to initiate a job change. She cited as the reason an affair with Bill Gates that the latter had in the Year 2000, started about six years after his marriage to Melinda French Gates, and had maintained over several years. The identity of the woman is not yet known. Just this: she demanded that the multi-billionaire's cuckolded wife get to read the letter.

Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw confirmed to the newspaper and other U.S. media the existence of the Complaint letter. Bridgitt Arnold, a spokeswoman for Bill Gates, didn't beat around the bush either. "There was an affair about 20 years ago that ended amicably."

Microsoft drew consequences from #MeToo movement

What she denies, however, is the connection to Gates` resignation from Microsoft`s board of directors in March 2020. There one had shortly before the complaint of the Gates love in the light of the #MeToo movement the handling of such cases in new company principles formulated. That is why the company's top management Law firm In progress to investigate things. What came out? So far not publicly known.

But apparently it must have been enough to decide that Bill Gates had acted "inappropriately" and was therefore no longer "fit" to be a board member. Which led to the strange situation that Gates sought the distance only three months after he had been re-elected. Official reason at the time: he wanted to concentrate entirely on his philanthropic activities around the world.

Bill and Melinda Gates are in hiding for the public

Whether the process played a role in Melinda French Gates (56) has already played in 2019 by initial lawyer talks initiated separation, is not known. Gates and his ex-wife-to-be are geographically separated (he in California, she in the Caribbean) and in hiding from the public.

The same question marks remain with facets reported by the "New York Times" citing and anonymous sources. After that, Bill Gates is said to have been so taken with a Microsoft employee's company presentation in 2006 that he invited her to dinner via email immediately afterwards. In his message, the von wrote female employee sometimes described as awkward in the interpersonal realm, "If you're uncomfortable, pretend it didn't happen." The woman approached behaved accordingly and turned down meeting her boss.

New York Times reports Gates' pickup attempts

In 2008, Gates is said to have changed his mind on a business trip to New York as part of the "Bill Melinda Gates Foundation" run by him and his wife. Accordingly, at a cocktail party he says to a Employee: "I want to see you. Do you want to have dinner with me?". The "New York Times" wants to know about a total of six pick-up attempts, which would have clouded the working atmosphere in the house of Microsoft/Foundation.

That Bill Gates, as reported by The Daily Beast magazine, is said to have called his marriage "toxic" to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whereupon the multi-millionaire told him to Divorce guessed, was sharply rejected by Gates` spokeswoman Arnold. He had not made "derogatory" comments about his marriage to Melinda Gates, and the rumors and speculation surrounding the couple's divorce, expected in court by April 2022, were "increasingly absurd". That people with "little to no knowledge of the situation" were characterized as sources was "unfortunate," the spokeswoman for Bill Gates explained.

Abuse, violence, prostitution: accusations against the former Catholic Piusheim make waves. Now the federal government's abuse commissioner is getting involved. He misses a "strong signal" from Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

In the scandal of alleged sexual abuse in the former Catholic Piusheim for children and adolescents in Upper Bavaria, the federal government now also intervenes.

The abuse commissioner Johannes-Wilhelm Rorig has asked the archbishop of the responsible diocese of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, in a personal letter, beyond the criminal prosecution also to work through the cases already barred by the statute of limitations. "I wanted to tell him clearly that I think it would be important if he would now send a strong signal pro independent reappraisal," Rorig told the German Press Agency.

Marx had also replied to his letter. "But unfortunately he has not yet sent this strong signal. I don't know why he didn't broadcast it, but that would have been an immensely important signal at Easter for those concerned."

"Cardinal Marx wants an independent investigation"

Marx's spokesman Bernhard Kellner confirmed that the archbishop had responded to Rorig's letter. "Cardinal Marx wants an independent clarification," he stressed. The archdiocese of Munich and Freising had been the first to commission an independent report in 2010. It also said another report was announced in February that would also look into new allegations that have come to light – like the one now about Piusheim. In contrast to the first report, the new one is to be published this time.

At present a consultation process is running within the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), how independent clearing-up can look uniformly in all dioceses, said Kellner. The Permanent Council of the DBK will decide in its meeting at the end of April. Marx does not want to anticipate this.

The Piusheim is now – 14 years after its closure – in the sights of the judiciary. The Munich II public prosecutor's office has begun preliminary investigations against a former educator and a then aspiring priest after a now 56-year-old man made serious accusations against them in court.

Since the preliminary investigations became known, more and more former residents have come forward to the victims' initiative "Eckiger Tisch". Over the years, 28 former residents of Piusheim have reported to the counseling center for former children in care at the Bavarian Youth Welfare Office; the Archdiocese of Munich knew of nine suspected cases. Meanwhile, another alleged victim has also come forward to the public prosecutor's office.

He was not surprised by the accusations, said Rorig: "If you work for years in the field, you can unfortunately imagine anything by now." That there was violence and also abuse again and again in children's homes in the past was known. "I never exclude the possibility that comparable major cases will come to light."

Hope for permanent council of the DBK

He called for independent processing commissions in all dioceses, in which those affected are also involved. "It is important that these commissions work independently and can see files themselves, and that the publications of their results do not require the approval of the respective diocese."

He now places his hope in the Permanent Council of the DBK, which will vote at the end of the month on the joint declaration that Rorig has prepared together with the DBK abuse commissioner, Bishop Stephan Ackermann. All 27 Catholic dioceses in Germany should then commit to having abuse cases systematically investigated by independent commissions according to uniform standards.

"This is about the concrete clarification of individual cases and also about the question of who covered up for whom," Rorig stressed. The so-called MHG study on the abuse scandal, which the DBK presented in 2018, could only be a start, he said. "The injustice done to children must be named and acknowledged."

He said he had hoped Marx could use the allegations against Piusheim as an opportunity to raise his "strong voice" and send a clear signal before the meeting of the Permanent Council for the creation of independent diocesan processing commissions. Should the joint statement not be adopted in the Council, "that would set back the processing extremely," said Rorig. "But I remain hopeful."

Leave a Reply Cancel reply