On Monday, author and New York Times columnist James B. Stewart <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-interview.html">published</a> his recollections of an interview he had with registered sex offender and multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein in August of 2018, about a year before Epstein&#8217;s apparent suicide at Manhattan&#8217;s Metropolitan Correction Center on Saturday morning.
According to Stewart, Epstein compared homosexuality and pedophilia, suggesting the taboo regarding the latter should be abolished as it has with the former (at least in the United States, generally).
&#8220;[Epstein] said that criminalizing sex with teenage girls was a cultural aberration and that at times in history it was perfectly acceptable. He pointed out that homosexuality had long been considered a crime and was still punishable by death in some parts of the world,&#8221; the Times columnist wrote.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a disgusting comparison made by a disgusting man,&#8221; LGBT outlet <a href="https://www.queerty.com/jeffrey-epsteins-chilling-remarks-homosexuality-shortly-death-will-make-cringe-20190814?utm_campaign=wp-to-twitter&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_source=twitter">Queerty</a> reacted to the apparent Epstein remarks. &#8220;Being gay and being a pedophile are nothing alike.&#8221;
Clearly unbothered by his connections to girls and young women, Stewart said a young female, whom he pegged to be in her late teens or perhaps 20 years old, opened the door for him at Epstein&#8217;s New York City residence at the time of the interview. &#8220;Given Mr. Epstein&#8217;s past, this struck me as far too close to the line,&#8221; Stewart noted. &#8220;Why would Mr. Epstein want a reporter&#8217;s first impression to be that of a young woman opening his door?&#8221;
The registered sex offender also emphasized his connections to the rich and powerful, from former President Bill Clinton, to director Woody Allen, to Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Mohammed bin Salman.
&#8220;Before we left the room he took me to a wall covered with framed photographs,&#8221; Stewart recalled of Epstein. &#8220;He pointed to a full-length shot of a man in traditional Arab dress. &#8216;That&#8217;s M.B.S.,&#8217; he said, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The crown prince had visited him many times, and they spoke often, Mr. Epstein said.&#8221;
The Times columnist added: &#8220;Behind him was a table covered with more photographs. I noticed one of Mr. Epstein with former President Bill Clinton, and another of him with the director Woody Allen. Displaying photos of celebrities who had been caught up in sex scandals of their own also struck me as odd.&#8221;
Stewart said Epstein asked him to join him for a dinner with Allen about a week after the interview had passed. &#8220;I said I&#8217;d be out of town,&#8221; Stewart said. Then, weeks after that, Epstein asked him to a dinner with anti-Trump author Michael Wolff and former adviser to President Donald Trump Steve Bannon. Stewart, again, declined. &#8220;I don’t know if these dinners actually happened,&#8221; he noted. &#8220;Mr. Bannon has said he didn&#8217;t attend. Mr. Wolff and a spokeswoman for Mr. Allen didn&#8217;t respond to requests for comment on Monday.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50640/there-sexual-picture-bill-clinton-jeffrey-epsteins-ryan-saavedra">There Is A ‘Sexual Picture’ Of Bill Clinton In Jeffrey Epstein’s Mansion, Report Says</a>

Jeffrey Epstein

Epstein Compared Homosexuality To Pedophilia In Interview Before His Death

Bill Clinton

Children

Crime

Pedophilia

Woody Allen

About two weeks ago, O.J. Simpson tweeted a video tribute to Michael Jackson. The athlete who escaped conviction for the brutal slaughter of his ex-wife and her boyfriend sang the praises of the singer who escaped conviction for weaving his wealth and charm into a spider web to snare little boys for his pleasure.
Simpson told how he had had to leave his home, presumably during his 1995 murder trial. He said Jackson offered him and his two children sanctuary in the insidiously child-friendly Santa Barbara compound called Neverland.
“[Jackson] called me and said, ‘O.J., you have got to take the kids to Neverland Ranch. They’ll love it.’ And I did. And it was wondrous. The kids would come up. They would bring some of their friends.” Jackson was never there, Simpson said, “but he always had gifts for the kids.”
I’ll bet he did. Wondrous.
Truly, watching this, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The video seemed to me the ultimate expression of a generation of vipers, an age that has mistaken talent for wisdom, celebrity for authority and politics for virtue.
An (alleged) murderer celebrating an (alleged) child molester. Abandon all hope ye who enter Twitter.
This video travesty of civilization returned to my memory after the arrest of millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein on charges of raping and pimping underage girls. I knew exactly what would happen to that story. Almost immediately, as in the aftermath of a mass shooting, the media would attempt to shape the narrative for left-wing purposes. Epstein knew Trump! Trump’s Labor Secretary cut a deal with Epstein!
The right would fight back with its voices in rebel media. Epstein was a Democrat donor! Bill Clinton took numerous trips on his private jet and made numerous visits to his private island! And while perhaps conservatives may be forgiven for acting in self-defense, they nonetheless degrade themselves to the level of the left in the effort.
Because by transforming what is a question of good and evil into a question of right and left, we are missing — maybe intentionally missing — the point.
The point is this. A vast network of rich and powerful people, men and women, straight and gay, is colluding in and normalizing the sexual abuse of children.
How do I know? The evidence is circumstantial but compelling.
In 2010, when Jeffrey Epstein finished serving his woefully short 13-month sentence for prostitution, he threw a party at his New York mansion for his pal Prince Andrew of the U.K. Who was there? According to The Daily Beast: George Stephanopolous, Katie Couric, Woody Allen, Charlie Rose, and Chelsea Handler, among others. Party for a sex abuser? Count me in!
In 2009, over 100 Hollywood bigwigs signed a petition urging the release of Roman Polanski, who was briefly threatened with justice for drugging and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl in the 1970’s. Top talent signed the petition: Woody Allen (again), Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar. The petition was circulated by Harvey Weinstein, who told the press: &#8220;Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion.&#8221;
In 1979, Hollywood used that Weinsteinian compass to nominate Woody Allen (again) for his screenplay for Manhattan, a movie about a 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a high school girl. In 2002, they gave convicted rapist Polanski an Oscar and a standing ovation for The Pianist. In 2008, they nominated The Reader, a film about a sympathetic Nazi woman who has sex with a 15-year-old boy. As my friend John Nolte at Breitbart has relentlessly reported, The Reader was only one of several films that year to normalize child abuse.
Director Bryan Singer has been plausibly accused of assaulting underaged boys — part of a celebrity-filled man-on-boy party scene in an Encino mansion. And yet Singer has been hired to direct some of the biggest pictures in town and was only fired from Bohemian Rhapsody when the publicity got too tough. Victor Salva became a famous director after his conviction for pedophilia. Former child actor Corey Feldman called pedophilia the “number one problem in Hollywood,” but the story, after making a little splash, went nowhere. Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood agreed with Feldman, then dialed back his remarks. “Every single high school king and queen that arrives in L.A. knows what to expect,” says one director.
The Catholic church has been rightly condemned for the institutional cover-up of widespread child abuse among the clergy. But it’s difficult not to get the impression that the church’s real sin is only that it sunk to the level of the rest of the world, that abusing children is just something powerful people do, something they consider normal, something no one — including our corrupt and highly politicized media — takes all that seriously.
If this is so — and I believe it is so — we are living in a culture so sick, so rotten, so lost that political questions need to be set aside and first questions, religious questions, need to be revisited. By all of us.
Because the truth is: there’s nothing to stop this but a culture-wide change of heart in which all good men and women of every political stripe participate. Otherwise, we could go on like this forever — or at least until the Last Judgement. After that, not so much.

KLAVAN: Just How Sick Is Our Culture Anyway?

Harvey Weinstein

Michael Jackson

O.J. Simpson

Rape

Last week, &#8220;The Simpsons&#8221; executive producer James L. Brooks announced that the show would be removing an episode featuring Michael Jackson following the release of &#8220;Leaving Neverland,&#8221; a documentary that credibly accuses the pop icon of serial pedophilia.
Speaking with <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-simpsons-boss-al-jean-michael-jackson-used-the-show-to-groom-boys">The Daily Beast</a>, showrunner Al Jean agreed that removing the Michael Jackson episode was the proper call, saying the singer used it as means to &#8220;groom&#8221; little boys.
&#8220;It&#8217;s something I agree with completely,&#8221; said Jean. &#8220;What saddens me is, if you watch that documentary&#8212;which I did, and several of us here did&#8212;and you watch that episode, honestly, it looks like the episode was used by Michael Jackson for something other than what we&#8217;d intended it. It wasn&#8217;t just a comedy to him, it was something that was used as a tool.&#8221;
The episode, &#8220;Stark Raving Dad,&#8221; ran on Season 3 of the show and featured Michael Jackson as a mentally ill character named Leon Kompowsky who believes himself to be Michael Jackson. At one point, Kompowsky and Bart write a song together, &#8220;Happy Birthday Lisa,&#8221; which was written by Jackson.
Al Jean said that the financial costs of cutting Jackson out of the show completely are worth it given the severity of the allegations brought against him.
&#8220;I lose a little bit of money financially, it&#8217;s not something that&#8217;s great personally to lose one of the most successful things I ever did, but I totally think it&#8217;s the right move,&#8221; said Jean. &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe in going through and making judgments on every guest star and saying &#8216;this one was bad, that one was bad,&#8217; but the episode itself has a false purpose, and that&#8217;s what I object to about it now.&#8221;
When The Daily Beast asked about Michael Jackson&#8217;s role in penning the song, &#8220;Happy Birthday Lisa,&#8221; Al Jean did not elaborate further, noting that the episode viewed from the perspective of the documentary feels strange.
&#8220;I&#8217;d really not talk about it anymore because I don&#8217;t want to belabor it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s from the heart, on our part, and I think Jim [Brooks] put it really well. It&#8217;s not for any other reason that for what I just said, where if you watch the documentary and then you watch that episode, something&#8217;s amiss.&#8221;
Al Jean said that an episode featuring the character Dr. Hibbert, a satire on Bill Cosby, will not be removed because Cosby did not voice the character, adding that not every guest star throughout the show&#8217;s three-decade run lived a perfect life:
<blockquote>
He was never voiced by Cosby. He wasn&#8217;t entirely a Cosby parody either, which is why I don&#8217;t think anybody looks at the character now and says &#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s Bill Cosby.&#8221; It&#8217;s a different thing. Nobody&#8217;s perfect, and other guest stars have been far from perfect, but this is the only episode where there was a point to the episode that was other than just having the guest star do a comic performance on the guest star&#8217;s part, which I didn&#8217;t realize at the time.
</blockquote>
James L. Brooks told <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/simpsons-episode-featuring-michael-jacksons-voice-to-be-pulled-11552007802?ns=prod/accounts-wsj">The Wall Street Journal</a> last week that &#8220;Stark Raving Dad&#8221; was a &#8220;treasured episode&#8221; that was difficult to dismiss.
&#8220;This was a treasured episode. There are a lot of great memories we have wrapped up in that one, and this certainly doesn&#8217;t allow them to remain,&#8221; Brooks said. &#8220;I&#8217;m against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we&#8217;re allowed to take out a chapter.&#8221;
Mashable <a href="https://mashable.com/article/the-simpsons-michael-jackson-episode-pulled/">reports</a> that purging Jackson from the legacy of &#8220;The Simpsons&#8221; will take some time &#8212; for example, there are DVDs and streaming services &#8212; and will not happen immediately, though the process has begun.

‘The Simpsons’ Showrunner: Michael Jackson Used Show To Groom Little Boys

Sexual Abuse

The Simpsons

Some Michael Jackson apologists are now playing the race card to deflect from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44190/walsh-jackson-matt-walsh">credible</a> allegations of serial pedophilia brought forward in the documentary, &#8220;Leaving Neverland.&#8221;
Last week, as the world struggled to reconcile with the very real possibility that the man who was heralded by some as the greatest musical artist of the past 50 years may have sexually abused children in his ascent to becoming the &#8220;King of Pop,&#8221; rapper T.I. suggested that Michael Jackson had fallen victim to a racist conspiracy designed to destroy a great black artist.
Writing on his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BusOyCIh2MM/">Instagram</a>, T.I. repeated the talking points put forward by Michael Jackson&#8217;s estate by accusing people of unfairly maligning a dead man who is no longer able to defend himself. He also suggested that the &#8220;whole point&#8221; of the Michael Jackson pedophile accusation was to destroy a &#8220;black historical legend.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Let this man speak for himself to defend his legacy. Don&#8217;t just listen to one side and expect to find truth. Oh that&#8217;s right&#8230;Dead men can&#8217;t speak. So what was the point again? Destroy another strong black historical LEGEND?!?! It&#8217;s several examples of pedophilia in American History&#8230; if y&#8217;all pulling up all our old shit&#8230; we gotta examine ELVIS PRESLEY, HUGH HEPHNER,and a whole slew of others guilty of the same if not more!!! BUT WHY US all the time? There&#8217;s an agenda to destroy OUR CULTURE.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BusOyCIh2MM/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pierce Morgan a real one for this. Let this man speak for himself to defend his legacy. Don&#8217;t just listen to one side and expect to find truth. Oh that&#8217;s right&#8230;Dead men can&#8217;t speak. So what was the point again? Destroy another strong black historical LEGEND?!?! It&#8217;s several examples of pedophilia in American History&#8230; if y&#8217;all pulling up all our old shit&#8230; we gotta examine ELVIS PRESLEY, HUGH HEPHNER,and a whole slew of others guilty of the same if not more!!! BUT WHY US all the time? There&#8217;s an agenda to destroy OUR CULTURE. #KingsThoughts</a>
A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/troubleman31/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> TIP</a> (@troubleman31) on Mar 6, 2019 at 7:03pm PST
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T.I. seems to argue that because neither Presley nor Hefner have a documentary out alleging serial pedophilia against them, that this is proof of a racist conspiracy of sorts against Jackson. He does not cite the fact that the sins of Elvis Presley (sexual or otherwise) have been <a href="http://culture.affinitymagazine.us/stop-romanticising-elvis-presley-and-start-acknowledging-him-for-what-he-was/">widely known</a> for some time, not to mention that he&#8217;s been dead for over 40 years. Hefner died a year and a half ago, and in the age of #MeToo, it is highly doubtful that his image as the robe-clad ladies man <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/books/news/a42332/holly-madison-book-worst-things-about-hugh-hefner/">will live to see another day</a>.
T.I. also seems to say that Michael Jackson is just one of many black legends whose legacies have been destroyed after their deaths. &#8220;Why us all the time,&#8221; he says, citing no one else to prove his point. Indeed, the legacies of Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Jackie Robinson, Prince, and Sidney Poitier remain readily intact.
Rapper T.I. is not the only Jackson truther to float the racist conspiracy charge to defend the pop icon&#8217;s legacy. Writing at <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/827935/why-ti-right-about-michael-jackson">The Week</a>, Matthew Walther implies that T.I.&#8217;s thoughts are praiseworthy.
<blockquote>
Why is the legacy of the most beloved black pop star of the last century, the only African-American entertainer who would ever loom as large in the popular imagination as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=789Co-Ad1AY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Old Pops</a>, something opinion writers can dispense with in an instant?
When white writers are pontificating about our supposed duty to erase the life and career of a black man, the only reasonable hermeneutic is one of suspicion. Behind the latest round of anti-Jackson outrage I hear the voice of Marcia Clark pursuing justice in good faith by insisting that the defendant should be convicted of a crime even where there is not enough evidence to convince a jury and that his exceptionally clever black lawyers are wicked men for doing their job. I also hear something uglier, the muttering of the world&#8217;s Mark Fuhrmans, the boozy insistence that this you-know-what had it coming, and good riddance. I suspect that if polls were to be conducted tomorrow we would find opinion about Jackson split on racial lines as stark as those drawn around the O.J. Simpson trial. It&#8217;s worth wondering why that might be the case.
</blockquote>
Walther admits, however, he has not seen the full documentary &#8220;Leaving Neverland.&#8221;

Rapper T.I. Suggests That Attacks On Michael Jackson Are A Racist Conspiracy

Race

After initially coming to Michael Jackson&#8217;s defense amid outrage over the accusations presented in the documentary &#8220;Leaving Neverland,&#8221; actor Corey Feldman says he can &#8220;no longer&#8221; defend the man he befriended when he was just 13 years old.
Feldman, who says he was molested as a child &#8212; something he describes as part of a larger trend of pedophilia targeting child stars in Hollywood &#8212; initially took to Twitter to defend the deceased pop star with whom Feldman had formed a friendship decades ago.
&#8220;OK I watched it all I know is what I experienced, and yes every experience was the same&#8230;.right up two the sex part! That is where it becomes LaLa Land, instead of Neverland for me, &#8221; Feldman tweeted Monday in a series of posts (tweets below, text revised for clarity). &#8220;We never spoke about sex other than a few warnings about how sex was scary, and dangerous. MJ.&#8221;
&#8220;Never once swore in my presence, never touched me inappropriately, and never ever suggested we should be lovers in any way! I feel like if people could hear our convos they would hear the innocence in them. No hint of perversion. I have a tape, I&#8217;m thinking about releasing, which could give people a real look at what a 30-year-old man/child and a 13-year-old boy would discuss, so everyone could hear the innocence of our relationship. Again I wasn&#8217;t there when those boys were. But I was there around the same time as Jimmy, and I saw many kids around (girls included) who I am still friends with to this day, and none of us were ever approached by him in a sexual way at all! So as much as those two men deserve to have their voices heard, so do the thousands of kids who hung around him, that don&#8217;t agree! Most pedophiles are serial offenders. They don&#8217;t have self-control.&#8221;
He continued: &#8220;So given the opportunity which he certainly had with me and others, being alone, with no parents around, how did he control those urges so well, while so blatantly sexual with those two boys? It doesn&#8217;t really fit the profile. But what motive besides money do they have? Abandonment is a strong one! However, I do take issue with the fact this this whole thing is one-sided with no chance of a defense from a dead man, and no evidence other than the word of two men who as adults defended him in court! But as we will never really know, I only have my memories. And thank God for me, my memories of MJ were monstly fond, aside from our one and only fight because he incorrectly feared I would turn on him, and make up lies. I never did. I never would! I pray those boys can sleep with that same clarity of consciousness! Let God be thy judge!&#8221;
On Wednesday, Feldman appeared on HLN to address the issue and walk back some of his comments, stating he could &#8220;no longer&#8221; defend Jackson after watching and processing &#8220;Leaving Neverland.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to be perceived as I&#8217;m here to defend Michael Jackson, because I can no longer do that. I cannot in good consciousness defend anyone who&#8217;s being accused of such horrendous crimes,&#8221; Feldman <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2019/03/07/corey-feldman-can-no-longer-defend-michael-jackson-after-neverland/3098442002/">told</a> the network. &#8220;I&#8217;m also not here to judge him, because again, he did not do those things to me and that was not my experience.&#8221;
Feldman tweeted out coverage of the interview Thursday, describing it as &#8220;the hardest interview I have ever done outside the day Corey Haim passed.&#8221;
Video and posts below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a4iDbssmTdY" width="480"></iframe></div>

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NEVER ONCE SWORE IN MY PRESENCE, NEVER TOUCHED ME INAPPROPRIATELY, &amp; NEVER EVER SUGGESTED WE SHOULD BE LOVERS IN ANY WAY! I FEEL LIKE IF PPL COULD HEAR OUR CONVOS THEY WOULD HEAR THE INNOCENCE IN THEM. NO HINT OF PERVERSION. I HAV A TAPE, IM THINKIN ABOUT RELEASING, WHICH COULD
&#8212; Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) <a href="https://twitter.com/Corey_Feldman/status/1102485661100044289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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STILL FRIENDS WITH 2 THIS DAY, &amp; NONE OF US WERE EVER APPROACHED BY HIM IN A SEXUAL WAY AT ALL! SO AS MUCH AS THOSE 2 MEN DESERVE 2 HAV THEIR VOICES HEARD, SO DO THE THOUSANDS OF KIDS WHO HUNG AROUND HIM, THAT DONT AGREE! MOST PEDOS R SERIAL OFFENDERS. THEY DONT HAV SELF CONTROL.
&#8212; Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) <a href="https://twitter.com/Corey_Feldman/status/1102485664514240512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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HOWEVER I DO TAKE ISSUE WITH THE FACT THAT THIS WHOLE THING IS 1 SIDED W NO CHANCE OF A DEFENSE FROM A DEAD MAN, &amp; NO EVIDENCE OTHER THAN THE WORD OF 2 MEN WHO AS ADULTS DEFENDED HIM IN COURT! BUT AS WE WILL NEVER REALLY KNOW, I ONLY HAV
&#8212; Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) <a href="https://twitter.com/Corey_Feldman/status/1102485680603619328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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MY MEMORIES. AND THANK GOD 4 ME, MY MEMORIES OF MJ WERE MOSTLY FOND, ASIDE FROM R 1 &amp; ONLY FIGHT BECAUSE HE INCORRECTLY FEARED I WOULD TURN ON HIM, &amp; MAKE UP LIES. I NEVER DID. I NEVER WOULD! I PRAY THOSE BOYS CAN SLEEP W THAT SAME CLARITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS! LET GOD B THY JUDGE!
&#8212; Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) <a href="https://twitter.com/Corey_Feldman/status/1102485681580855296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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4 ANY1 WHO MISSED MY INTERVIEW 2DAY, I WANTED 2 POST IT AGAIN HERE! THIS WAS THE HARDEST INTERVIEW I HAV EVER DONE OUTSIDE OF THE DAY CH PASSED. MY &#65039;IS WITH ALL VICTIMS, &amp; THE CHILDREN OF MJ WHO ALSO R VICTIMS N ALL OF THIS. PLEASE RESPECT THAT! <a href="https://t.co/dlfiYPBN8q">https://t.co/dlfiYPBN8q</a>
&#8212; Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) <a href="https://twitter.com/Corey_Feldman/status/1103486468662550528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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WATCH: Corey Feldman: I Can No Longer Defend Michael Jackson

Corey Feldman

Hollywood

Oprah Winfrey is leading the cultural shift in the wake of &#8220;Leaving Neverland,&#8221; an explosive documentary that alleges pop icon Michael Jackson sexually abused young boys throughout his long and fruitful career as an entertainer.
Speaking with Jackson&#8217;s two main accusers on her OWN network &#8212; Wade Robson and James Safechuck &#8212; Winfrey said that the fallout over the documentary &#8220;transcends Michael Jackson&#8221; and she hoped it will open a broader conversation about sexual abuse. The interview, &#8220;Oprah Winfrey Presents: After Neverland,&#8221; also featured other sexual abuse survivors, like actor Anthony Edwards of &#8220;ER.&#8221;
&#8220;I know people all over the world are going to be in an uproar and debating whether or not Michael Jackson did these things and whether these two men are lying or not lying. But for me, this moment transcends Michael Jackson,&#8221; Winfrey said. &#8220;It is much bigger than any one person. This is a moment in time that allows us to see this societal corruption. It&#8217;s like a scourge on humanity. . . . If it gets you, our audience, to see how it happens, then some good would have come of it.&#8221;
&#8220;Here&#8217;s the reason why I am here: In 25 years of &#8216;The Oprah [Winfrey] Show, I taped 217 episodes on sexual abuse,&#8221; Winfrey said, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/oprah-winfrey-on-explosive-documentary-leaving-neverland-this-moment-transcends-michael-jackson">Fox News</a>. &#8220;I tried and tried and tried to get the message across to people that sexual abuse was not just abuse, it was also sexual seduction.&#8221;
&#8220;And it&#8217;s happening right now and it&#8217;s happening with families. We know it&#8217;s happening in churches and in schools and sports teams everywhere. So, if it gets you, our audience, to see how it happens, then some good would have come of it,&#8221; she concluded. &#8220;I hope we can get past Michael Jackson, the icon. Stop staring into the sun and do what is necessary to heal our children and heal ourselves.&#8221;
At one point in the interview, Oprah asked Michael Jackson&#8217;s accuser, Wade Robson, if he thought what he experienced was abuse when Michael Jackson molested him.
&#8220;As young boys, these two men did not feel abuse until much later on in life,&#8221; Winfrey explained. &#8220;Were you thinking about it as abuse then? Did you know you were being abused, and you were just defending Michael?&#8221;
&#8220;From night one of the abuse, of the sexual stuff that Michael did to me, he told me it was love,&#8221; Robson said. &#8220;He told me that he loved me and God brought us together. &#8230; Anything Michael would say to me was gospel.&#8221;
Safechuck echoed that sentiment: &#8220;Michael drilled in you, &#8216;If you&#8217;re caught, we&#8217;re caught, your life is over, my life is over.&#8217; It&#8217;s repeated over and over again, it&#8217;s drilled into your nervous system. It takes a lot of work to sort through that.&#8221;
Oprah received significant criticism from some of Jackson&#8217;s die-hard fans on social media for agreeing to interview Safechuck and Robson.
&#8220;So many in media, inc <a data-mentioned-user-id="19397785" data-scribe="element:mention" href="https://twitter.com/Oprah">@Oprah</a>, blindly taking <a data-query-source="hashtag_click" data-scribe="element:hashtag" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LeavingNeverland?src=hash">#LeavingNeverland</a> at face value, shaping a narrative uninterested in facts, proof, credibility,&#8221; wrote Jermaine Jackson on Twitter. &#8220;We faced similar &#8216;graphic&#8217; claims + trial-by-media in &#8217;05. Jury saw through it all. Trial-by-law proved Michael&#8217;s innocence long ago. Fact.&#8221;
Another Twitter user said: &#8220;I&#8217;m done with Oprah but she&#8217;s going to get dragged internationally. I&#8217;ll worry about Queen Sugar and Greenleaf later. I can&#8217;t believe this is happening, I never thought I would <a data-query-source="hashtag_click" data-scribe="element:hashtag" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/muteoprah?src=hash">#muteoprah</a>.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6ag39V0qCSo" width="560"></iframe></div>

Oprah Winfrey On ‘Leaving Neverland’: ‘This Moment Transcends Michael Jackson’

Music

Oprah Winfrey

Despite hard pushback from his estate over the documentary &#8220;Leaving Neverland,&#8221; which accuses former pop icon Michael Jackson of sexually abusing underage boys, the &#8220;Queen of All Media&#8221; Oprah Winfrey will interview the now-deceased singer&#8217;s two accusers.
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/oprah-winfrey-air-leaving-neverland-hbo-own-special-1191070">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who both allege that Michael Jackson molested them on his Neverland Ranch, will sit down for an hourlong interview with Oprah as part of an OWN/HBO special that will air following the premiere of the documentary on HBO.
&#8220;The special, titled Oprah Winfrey Presents: After Neverland, will be taped before an audience that includes survivors of sexual abuse,&#8221; reports THR. &#8220;The one-hour special will air simultaneously on HBO and OWN on March 4 at 10 p.m. immediately following the second and final part of the two-night Leaving Neverland.&#8221;
&#8220;Leaving Neverland&#8221; has been bogged down in controversy ever since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Critics of the film have denounced it as being one-sided by presenting the allegations of pedophilia made by Wade Robson and James Safechuck without any accompanying defense of Jackson.
&#8220;Secrets will eat you up,&#8221; Safechuck said of his relationship with Jackson. &#8220;You feel so alone.&#8221;
Robson defended Jackson during the 2005 child molestation case. He now claims to have been lying. &#8220;I want to be able to speak the truth as loud as I had to speak the lie for so long,&#8221; the 36-year-old Australian native said. &#8203;
Kyle Smith of <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/michael-jackson-documentary-leaving-neverland/">National Review</a> says the documentary presents a &#8220;damning picture&#8221; of the singer as an abuser of little boys on his Neverland Ranch:
<blockquote>
Wade Robson, 36, and James Safechuck, 40, have previously stated under oath that they weren&#8217;t victimized by Jackson when they were children. They are now saying their previous testimony was untrue and that it resulted from direct pressure by Jackson himself, who told them that he and they would be jailed if he should be convicted of sexual abuse. &#8220;I want to speak the truth as loud as I spoke the lie,&#8221; Robson says in the four-hour documentary Leaving Neverland, which has just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of being broadcast on HBO later this year. In the film, he and Safechuck tell their stories in gruesome, indeed sickening, detail. (A statement from the Jackson estate dismissed the allegations as uncorroborated &#8220;tabloid character assassination.&#8221;)
Safechuck was a child actor who says he met Jackson at age ten while filming a Pepsi commercial. Starting when he was eleven, he says, they engaged in sex acts many times at Jackson&#8217;s Neverland compound &#8212; in a castle, in an attic, in a pool, in a train station. Safechuck says the pop singer used to hold drills in which he would train the boy in putting his clothes on quickly in case any witnesses should appear. Jackson also told him that &#8220;if anyone ever found out that we were doing these sexual things, we would go to jail for the rest of our lives.&#8221; &#8220;I was terrified.&#8221; When Safechuck was 14, he says, Jackson staged a mock wedding with him, complete with vows and a diamond-encrusted wedding ring.
</blockquote>
For a brief time, it appeared that HBO would not go forward with airing the documentary amid mounting backlash from Jackson&#8217;s estate and his die-hard fanbase. Last week, HBO issued a statement saying the documentary will air as scheduled.
&#8220;Despite the desperate lengths taken to undermine the film, our plans remain unchanged,&#8221; read the statement. &#8220;HBO will move forward with the airing of Leaving Neverland, the two-part documentary, on March 3rd and 4th. This will allow everyone the opportunity to assess the film and the claims in it for themselves.&#8221;

Oprah Winfrey Will Interview Michael Jackson’s Alleged Pedophile Victims

HBO may be getting cold feet about airing the documentary &#8220;Leaving Neverland,&#8221; which depicts the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, as a pedophile. HBO&#8217;s possibly backing down comes amid backlash from the deceased singer&#8217;s estate.
According to <a href="https://www.showbiz411.com/2019/02/08/hbo-said-to-be-reconsidering-showing-controversial-michael-jackson-documentary-after-estate-complains">Showbiz411</a>, Dan Reed&#8217;s documentary may not air on HBO as scheduled due to the intense war that Michael Jackson&#8217;s estate has waged against the network to keep it from going public.
&#8220;Apparently, Jackson&#8217;s estate lawyer Howard Weitzman, according to sources, has sent HBO very tough communications about the downside of libeling the King of Pop even in death,&#8221; reports Roger Friedman. &#8220;HBO&#8217;s documentary division is so well respected that I&#8217;m told Weitzman&#8217;s criticisms, as well those voiced in other places including this column, may wind up killing the [documentary&#8217;s] presentation.&#8221;
Critics of &#8220;Leaving Neverland,&#8221; which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, have denounced the film as being one-sided by presenting the allegations of pedophilia made by Wade Robson and James Safechuck without any accompanying defense of Jackson. Kyle Smith of <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/michael-jackson-documentary-leaving-neverland/">National Review</a>, however, says the documentary presents a &#8220;damning picture&#8221; of the singer as an abuser of little boys on his Neverland Ranch:
<blockquote>
Wade Robson, 36, and James Safechuck, 40, have previously stated under oath that they weren&#8217;t victimized by Jackson when they were children. They are now saying their previous testimony was untrue and that it resulted from direct pressure by Jackson himself, who told them that he and they would be jailed if he should be convicted of sexual abuse. &#8220;I want to speak the truth as loud as I spoke the lie,&#8221; Robson says in the four-hour documentary Leaving Neverland, which has just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of being broadcast on HBO later this year. In the film, he and Safechuck tell their stories in gruesome, indeed sickening, detail. (A statement from the Jackson estate dismissed the allegations as uncorroborated &#8220;tabloid character assassination.&#8221;)
Safechuck was a child actor who says he met Jackson at age ten while filming a Pepsi commercial. Starting when he was eleven, he says, they engaged in sex acts many times at Jackson&#8217;s Neverland compound &#8212; in a castle, in an attic, in a pool, in a train station. Safechuck says the pop singer used to hold drills in which he would train the boy in putting his clothes on quickly in case any witnesses should appear. Jackson also told him that &#8220;if anyone ever found out that we were doing these sexual things, we would go to jail for the rest of our lives.&#8221; &#8220;I was terrified.&#8221; When Safechuck was 14, he says, Jackson staged a mock wedding with him, complete with vows and a diamond-encrusted wedding ring.
</blockquote>
Jackson&#8217;s former maid, Adrian McManus, recently <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6673973/Michael-Jacksons-former-maid-says-pedophile-boys-underwear-Jacuzzi.html">told</a> The Daily Mail that she believes the claims made in &#8220;Finding Neverland,&#8221; saying she witnessed the pop star behave inappropriately with children on multiple occasions.
&#8220;Michael would have his underwear floating in the water and the little boys&#8217; underwear floating in the water together,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/michael-jacksons-former-maid-claims-he-was-pedophile-notes-sex-tapes-1322911">said</a>. &#8220;If they weren&#8217;t floating in the water, they were outside on the floor around the Jacuzzi. So I would find stuff like that.&#8221;
&#8220;With all the little boys he would hold their hands and kiss them,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;And they would fight for Michael&#8217;s love. It was a strange environment to watch.&#8221;
McManus says she kept quiet out of fear for her life, alleging Jackson&#8217;s bodyguards threatened to hire a hitman if she ever went public.

Amid Backlash, HBO May Back Down From Michael Jackson Pedophile Documentary

The Atlantic published a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/bryan-singers-accusers-speak-out/580462/">report</a> this week detailing its disturbing findings after a year-long investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against teen boys by &#8220;X-Men&#8221; and &#8220;Bohemian Rhapsody&#8221; director Bryan Singer.
&#8220;We spent 12 months investigating various lawsuits and allegations against Singer,&#8221; The Atlantic&#8217;s Alex French and Maximillian Potter report. &#8220;In total, we spoke with more than 50 sources, including four men who have never before told their stories to reporters. A man we&#8217;ll call Eric told us that he was 17 in 1997 when he and Singer had sex at a party at the director&#8217;s house; another we&#8217;ll call Andy says he was only 15 that same year, when he and Singer had sex in a Beverly Hills mansion. Both men say Singer, who was then in his early 30s, knew they were under 18, the age of consent in California. (They asked The Atlantic to conceal their identity for fear of retaliation, and because they didn&#8217;t want certain details about their past made public.)&#8221;
Another man featured in the article who did allow his identity to be revealed is Victor Valdovinos, who says Singer molested him when he was just 13 years old on the set of &#8220;Apt Pupil,&#8221; an allegation which Singer categorically denies like all of the others.
&#8220;The accusations against Singer cover a spectrum,&#8221; French and Potter report. &#8220;Some of the alleged victims say they were seduced by the director while underage; others say they were raped. The victims we interviewed told us these experiences left them psychologically damaged, with substance-abuse problems, depression, and PTSD.&#8221;
Describing the portrait that emerged of Singer as that of &#8220;a troubled man who surrounded himself with vulnerable teenage boys, many of them estranged from their families,&#8221; French and Potter stress that their investigation also revealed that &#8220;Singer didn&#8217;t act alone; he was aided by friends and associates who brought him young men. And he was abetted, in a less direct way, by an industry in which a record of producing hits confers immense power.&#8221;
The report begins by detailing the accusations of Valdovinos, who alleges that Singer molested him in the spring of 1997 when Valdovinos was in 7th grade. &#8220;He was 13 years old. He hadn&#8217;t yet had his first kiss,&#8221; French and Potter note.
&#8220;Every time he had a chance&#8212;three times&#8212;he would go back there [the locker room where Singer allegedly asked him to remain]&#8230; He was always touching my chest,&#8221; Valdovinos told The Atlantic. The director eventually &#8220;grabbed my genitals and started masturbating it&#8221; and &#8220;rubbed his front part on me,&#8221; Valdovinos said, adding, &#8220;He did it all with this smile.&#8221;
The report follows a lawsuit against Singer filed in December by Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, who says Singer raped him in 2003 when he was 17.
Singer has categorically denied accusations of sexual misconduct.
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/bryan-singers-accusers-speak-out/580462/">Read The Atlantic&#8217;s full report here</a>.
UPDATE: Singer responded to The Atlantic&#8217;s report in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42549/bryan-singer-denies-sex-abuse-allegations-paul-bois">statement</a> to Deadline Wednesday.
&#8220;The last time I posted about this subject, Esquire magazine was preparing to publish an article written by a homophobic journalist who has a bizarre obsession with me dating back to 1997,&#8221; he said. &#8220;After careful fact-checking and, in consideration of the lack of credible sources, Esquire chose not to publish this piece of vendetta journalism. That didn&#8217;t stop this writer from selling it to The Atlantic. It&#8217;s sad that The Atlantic would stoop to this low standard of journalistic integrity. Again, I am forced to reiterate that this story rehashes claims from bogus lawsuits filed by a disreputable cast of individuals willing to lie for money or attention. And it is no surprise that, with Bohemian Rhapsody being an award-winning hit, this homophobic smear piece has been conveniently timed to take advantage of its success.&#8221;

Atlantic Publishes Disturbing Results Of Year-Long Investigation Into Sexual Allegations Against X-Men Director

In an attempted crime a Texas sheriff condemned as &#8220;dastardly&#8221; and &#8220;trafficking at its worst,&#8221; a female 8th grade teacher allegedly attempted to broker a deal with men in Morocco to have sex with her underage female relative.
In her attempt to get a high price for sex with the young girl, the teacher sent the men photos of her underage relative dressed in lingerie, showing her bare breasts, and touted her virginity. The teacher even traveled to Morocco in December to try to finalize the horrific deal.
Authorities say they had been tracking the suspect, <a href="https://www.mexiaisd.net/235779_3">Amber Michelle Parker</a>, a 37-year-old 8th grade reading teacher, for weeks as she attempted to broker a deal with men in Morocco to have sex with her young relative. They arrested Parker on Wednesday. The same day, the school that employed her, Mexia Junior High School, announced her suspension.
Parker was arrested after a joint investigation by the Freestone County Sheriff&#8217;s Office and the McLennan County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, the <a href="https://www.wacotrib.com/news/police/mexia-teacher-arrested-accused-of-trying-to-traffic-girl-in/article_3d807548-07e5-5175-8112-2ace73cc1740.html">Waco Tribune</a> reports. The investigation was prompted by family members, who contacted authorities over their suspicions that Parker had ill intentions for her young relative, Freestone County Sheriff Jeremy Shipley said in a statement Wednesday. To help with the investigation, the sheriff&#8217;s office contacted McLennan County investigators, &#8220;who specialize in human trafficking investigations,&#8221; the Tribune notes.
&#8220;After a joint investigation between Freestone County Sheriff&#8217;s Office Sgt. Investigator Preston Cordova and McLennan County Sheriff&#8217;s Office Detective Joseph Scaramucci, a female suspect was placed under arrest for the offense of Trafficking of Persons after conspiring to traffic a minor child to multiple male subjects online in Morocco,&#8221; Shipley said in the statement.
&#8220;Family members got wind that Parker was going to try to lure this girl to Morocco,&#8221; said McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara Wednesday. &#8220;It is a dastardly story, and it is trafficking at its worst.&#8221;
McNamara said that Parker posted photos on social media of the girl dressed in lingerie and displaying her bare breasts in order to lure potential bidders. With the help of Scaramucci, authorities obtained search warrants for the teacher&#8217;s electronic devices and other key evidence.
Parker traveled to Morocco without the girl in mid-December, returning January 1.
Authorities have not disclosed details about Parker&#8217;s relationship to the girl in an attempt to protect her identity.
On Wednesday, the Mexia school district announced that Parker had been placed on administrative leave. &#8220;Student safety is Mexia ISD&#8217;s No. 1 priority,&#8221; said Superintendent Lyle DuBus in a statement. &#8220;We take these allegations seriously and we will be working closely with our partners in law enforcement. The district continues to monitor the situation and feels no students at Mexia Junior High were ever at risk.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article223863955.html">Star-Telegram</a> reports that Parker remained in custody at Freestone County Jail Thursday and her bond was set at $25,000.

Texas Teacher Tried To Sell Young Girl To Men In Morocco For Sex, Police Say

Education

Texas

A new report says that it is not only some Catholic priests who have targeted children in pedophilic activities, but various nuns have allegedly engaged in pedophilic actions with children as well.
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/women-describe-alleged-abuse-by-nuns-the-secret-not-yet-told/">CBS News</a> broadcast a segment with reporter Nikki Battiste in which Battiste detailed instances of nuns abusing children. The segment began by noting an organization titled The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
SNAP writes on its <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/nun_abuse">website</a>:
<blockquote>
For at least eight years, victims of child molesting nuns and members of SNAP have repeatedly urged America&#8217;s largest organization of nuns to expose the truth about child sex crimes and cover ups by women religious. But the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) continues to essentially rebuff us and them. Now more than ever, since they&#8217;re being attacked by bishops like we have been (and are being), nuns should be sympathetic to our plight. It grieves us to have to keep prodding them to take long-overdue, simple steps to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. But how can we do otherwise?
</blockquote>
A former nun who works with SNAP, Mary Dispenza , said by working with SNAP she periodically heard of instances where nuns abused children sexually, noting that since a grand jury named hundreds of priests who were pedophiles in Pennsylvania, at least 18 people informed her that they had been subject to sexual abuse by nuns.
Dispenza told CBS News, &#8220;The demands of chastity and celibacy are unrealistic demands for many of us.&#8221; She recalled her own experience when a superior told her to come to her room: &#8220;I knelt down right next to her and she kissed me all over softly, my face &#8230; and I want to say, &#8216;Oh but it wasn&#8217;t bad,&#8217; but it was. And I&#8217;ve carried it with me until today.&#8221; When Battiste asked her why there had not been news about abuse by nuns before, Dispenza answered, &#8220;A lot has to do with the culture of nuns which are, they are very, very private by nature.&#8221;
Battiste interviewed a woman named Trish Cahill, who spoke of her alleged abuse when she was 15. Cahill said she told a nun named Eileen Shaw at a convent in New Jersey her dark secret: that her uncle, a priest who had since died, had allegedly sexually abused her from the time she was five years old. Cahill said of Shaw, &#8220;I would have done anything for her. I would have died for her. She gave me everything that was lacking that I didn&#8217;t even know I was lacking. I was so broken. She filled in all those pieces.&#8221;
But Cahill alleged Shaw was &#8220;grooming&#8221; her, utilizing drugs and alcohol while she initiated a sexual relationship with her. Cahill remembered, &#8220;I&#8217;m with my friends during the day. And I&#8217;m with this pedophile nun on the evenings and on the weekends, and in the summer.&#8221; In 1994, Cahill reported Shaw&#8217;s actions to the sisters of charity of St. Elizabeth, which settled with her out of court for $70,000. She said, &#8220;They had canon lawyers on retainer just for people like me. Shut her up, pacify her, tell her you love her and you&#8217;ll pray for her, and send her on her way.&#8221;
The congregation told CBS News, &#8220;The case was investigated immediately when it was reported in 1994 and a settlement was reached that was mutually agreed on by all parties. We believe that the Sisters of Charity acted in a responsible manner.&#8221;
Commenting on the fact that no one had spoken about a problem with nuns being pedophiliacs before, Cahill answered, &#8220;That&#8217;s really a shame. Because there&#8217;s a lot of them out there &#8230; it&#8217;s the secret not yet told.&#8221;
Shaw no longer works as a grade school principal; CBS said she still remains a nun.
Cahill said she wants to bring the issue of possible abuse by nuns to the light of day, saying, &#8220;That this is the beginning of many, many times more that I get to speak and I get to educate, and I get to, possibly, prevent this from happening to anyone ever again.&#8221;

Report: Women Speak Of Nuns Allegedly Sexually Abusing Them When They Were Kids

Catholic Church

A man in Italy whose two teenage daughters were allegedly sexually molested by a priest, prompting one of the girls to commit suicide at the age of 15 in 2008, is under investigation for possibly <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6548871/Paedophile-shot-dead-Italy-hitman-hired-father-15-year-old-victim.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline">hiring two hitmen to murder the priest,</a> who was killed after he was released from prison. The 15-year-old girl committed suicide by hanging from a tree.
Father Guiseppe Matarazzo, 45, was killed on July 19 in Frasso Telesino , shot five times after he was released from prison after serving an 11-year sentence for abusing the two teenage girls. On Friday, Generoso Nastam, 30, and Giuseppe Massaro, 55, were arrested for the murder. Nastam is <a href="https://www.cmjornal.pt/mundo/detalhe/pai-suspeito-de-ordenar-a-morte-de-padre-que-abusou-da-suas-filhas">suspected</a> of driving the car and using a pistol in the crime; Massaro is suspected of helping to plan the crime.
Benevento Chief Prosecutor Aldo Policastro told <a href="http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2018/12/28/paedophile-victim-family-ordered-murder_018afbfc-7cd2-4ec9-a36d-dac2bbbba3da.html">ANSA</a>: &#8220;Those who commissioned the murder are to be found in the family milieu.&#8221; He confirmed the father of the daughters was under suspicion; he stated, &#8220;A rule of law can not tolerate revenge.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://www.today.it/cronaca/pedofilo-ucciso-benevento.html">Today.it,</a> &#8220;It is very likely that there was also a third person to take part in the murder, which materially shot five gunshots at Matarazzo, two of whom were mortally wounded.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://ilmattino.it/caserta/massaro_si_difende_non_ho_dato_l_auto_ai_killer_del_pastore_di_frasso_telesino-4199951.html">Il Mattino</a>, Massaro said that the Fiat Croma involved in the crime was registered to his wife. He stated, &#8220;My car was present in the territory of Frasso Telesino on July 17 and 18 because I had been commissioned by the organizers of the festival that takes place in Sant&#8217;Agata to check if posters had been posted to publicize it.&#8221; He claimed that his gun, a Magnum 357, which had been seized, had been kept by him in the safe and never given to anyone. He also offered an explanation to deal with documents mentioned in some phone calls. Il Mattino reported, &#8220;The documents, he said, were to be used to get some Italian friends of an Albanian friend to come to Italy. &#8216;I was also worried about a judicial case of extortion that involves me. And I also expressed this concern to Generoso Nista, whom I have known for some time because we have worked in the country in the past.&#8217;&#8221;
The funeral of Matarazzo featured posters displayed by his relatives; they claim that he had been convicted without evidence and that he was used as a scapegoat to hide others&#8217; crimes. His sister Teresa <a href="https://www.elmanana.com/familia-de-victima-de-abuso-sexual-ordena-muerte-de-pederasta-en-italia-guiseppe-matarazzo-abuso-sexual-pederasta/4714325">published an obituary</a> in which she claimed he was innocent and announced that she would fight &#8220;to make the truth come out.&#8221;
Under <a href="https://rm.coe.int/168047091e">Italian law</a>, anyone under 18 is a child. This is specified in the Civil Code at Article 2. This agrees with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Italy ratified on May 27, 1991. As the <a href="https://rm.coe.int/168047091e">Council of Europe</a> states, &#8220;The law of ratification of the Lanzarote Convention foresees the fact that not knowing the age of the person, minor of 18 years, cannot be considered an excuse in the crimes of reduction or maintenance in slavery or servitude, child prostitution, child pornography, possession of child pornography, tourism initiatives aimed at the exploitation of child prostitution, use of children begging, trafficking in persons, purchase and sale of slaves, sexual violence, sexual acts with a minor, gang rape, solicitation of a minor and corruption of minors.&#8221;

Father Of Girls Allegedly Sexually Molested By Priest Under Investigation For Hiring Two Hitmen To Kill Him

Italy

Murder

Pope Francis dedicated his Christmas message in the Vatican&#8217;s Clementine Hall on Friday to the issue that he lamented as having &#8220;undermined&#8221; the credibility of the church: the ongoing pedophilia scandal allegedly involving hundreds of Catholic Church officials.
In his strongest statement on the scandal yet, the Pope urged all priests who have molested or raped children to turn themselves in &#8212; and prepare themselves for &#8220;divine justice.&#8221;
&#8220;Convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice,&#8221; Pope Francis told predatory priests.
The church, Francis vowed, will &#8220;never again&#8221; cover up abuse by clergy. &#8220;Let it be clear that before these abominations the Church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes,&#8221; he said, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/12/21/pope-sex-abuse-priests/2385333002/">USA Today</a> reports.
&#8220;This is no easy task, since the guilty are capable of skillfully covering their tracks,&#8221; he said. To help bring the predators to justice, the Pope urged those who have been abused to come forward: &#8220;The Church asks that people not be silent, but bring it objectively to light, since the greater scandal in this matter is that of cloaking the truth.&#8221;
Comparing the predators who betrayed their vows to Judas betraying Christ, Francis warned that a Judas will &#8220;always be present&#8221; in the church, but promised that never again would the church fail to be vigilant about weeding such betrayers out. 
&#8220;The sins and crimes of consecrated persons are further tainted by infidelity and shame; they disfigure the countenance of the Church and undermine her credibility,&#8221; he said.
Though the church is currently in a period of darkness, he said, quoting Romans 13:12, it will emerge from these scandals stronger. &#8220;The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light,&#8221; he said.
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/12/21/679071242/pope-francis-tells-abusive-priests-and-bishops-to-turn-themselves-in">NPR</a> notes that the pope also offered &#8220;heartfelt thanks&#8221; to members of the media &#8220;who were honest and objective and sought to unmask these predators and to make their victims&#8217; voices heard.&#8221;
Francis&#8217; strong comments come after a series of much-maligned responses by the church&#8217;s leadership to revelations of appalling actions by clergy and evidence of widespread cover-ups going back decades &#8212; and potentially going all the way to the top.
A flood of accusations in both Chile and the U.S., in particular, have shaken the church to its core, triggering a series of investigations, strong criticism of the Pope&#8217;s handling of the crises, and prompting him to call for a meeting in February of church leaders to work through plans to prevent further abuses of power by predator priests. 
Among the cardinals and bishops of the Curia present for the Pope&#8217;s address was the dean of the cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, &#8220;who has long been blamed for the Vatican&#8217;s refusal to acknowledge the depth of the problem during the quarter-century pontificate of St. John Paul II,&#8221; USA Today reports.

NPR notes that the speech comes a few days after the pope accepted the resignation of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Salazar, who was accused of sexually abusing a child in the 1990s and was the subject of a 2002 police report, but spared any charges by the attorney general. Despite church authorities being aware of the accusations against him, Salazar was allowed to remain a bishop under undisclosed restrictions.

Pope To Pedophile Priests: Turn Yourselves In

Pope Francis

Disney Channel actor Stoney Westmoreland was arrested after arranging to meet up with whom he believed to be a 13-year-old boy for a sexual encounter. Westmoreland, who plays the grandfather character named Henry Mack on Disney&#8217;s &#8220;Andi Mack,&#8221; was en route to meet the supposed child when he was apprehended by Salt Lake City police and the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force on Friday.
Disney announced Friday that they had terminated Westmoreland&#8217;s role on the show due to the nature of the arrest. &#8220;Andi Mack&#8221; is filmed in Salt Lake City.
&#8220;&#8203;Stoney Westmoreland, an actor working on the series &#8216;Andi Mack,&#8217; was arrested in Salt Lake City today,&#8221; said a Disney Channel spokesperson, <a href="https://pagesix.com/2018/12/15/disney-fires-andi-mack-actor-stoney-westmoreland-after-arrest-for-enticing-a-minor/">according</a> to Page Six. &#8220;Given the nature of the charges and our responsibility for the welfare of employed minors, we have released him from his recurring role and he will not be returning to work on the series which wraps production on its third season next week.&#8221;
Westmoreland, 48, has also appeared on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;Scandal&#8221; and AMC&#8217;s &#8220;Breaking Bad.&#8221;
The actor was corresponding with the supposed child, whom he met through an online dating app, in a sexual capacity before the arrest. &#8220;According to reports citing court documents, Westmoreland asked the minor to engage in oral sex and other sexual acts, and requested that the minor send him nude photos,&#8221; reports Page Six. <a href="https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news/disney-channel-actor-arrested-on-charge-of-enticing-a-minor/1660939733">According</a> to ABC News 4, Westmoreland sent the minor pornographic photos of himself.
Westmoreland was apparently planning to bring the supposed child back to his hotel room for sex.
The actor now faces four counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor and one count of enticing a minor.
As noted by ABC News 4, the characters on the &#8220;Andi Mack&#8221; show are the same age as Westmoreland&#8217;s alleged victim: 13. &#8220;The comedy, created by Terri Minsky, follows 13-year-old Andi Mack and her best friends, Cyrus Goodman and Buffy Driscoll, as they attend middle school.&#8221;
Pedophilia has been described as an &#8220;<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/hollywoods-other-open-secret-besides-harvey-weinstein-preying-on-young-boys">open secret</a>&#8221; in Hollywood.
Recently, award-winning actor Kevin Spacey was <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/11/07/kevin-spacey-scandal-complete-list-13-accusers/835739001/">accused</a> of sexual misconduct by 15 individuals, one of whom is actor Anthony Rapp. Rapp claims Spacey made sexual advances toward him when he was just 14 years old. Spacey responded to the accusations by <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/10/30/kevin-spacey-apologizes-after-actor-accuses-him-past-harassment/812203001/">coming out</a> as a gay man.
Former child actor Corey Feldman has <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/corey-feldman-pedophilia-problem-child-actors-contributed-demise/story?id=14256781">long claimed</a> &#8220;the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia,&#8221; a statement he made during a 2011 interview on Nightline. &#8220;That&#8217;s the biggest problem for children in this industry &#8230; It&#8217;s the big secret,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;[Corey Haim] had more direct abuse than I did,&#8221; Feldman <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/hollywoods-other-open-secret-besides-harvey-weinstein-preying-on-young-boys">told</a> The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. &#8220;With me, there were some molestations, and it did come from several hands, so to speak, but with Corey, his was direct rape, whereas mine was not actual rape. And his also occurred when he was 11. My son is 11 now, and I can&#8217;t even begin to fathom the idea of something like that happening to him. It would destroy his whole being. As I look at my son, a sweet, innocent, 11-year-old boy and then try to put him in Corey Haim&#8217;s shoes, I go, &#8216;Oh my God&#8212;well of course he was erratic and not well-behaved on sets and things like that.&#8217; What more could we expect of him really?&#8221;
Haim <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/05/local/la-me-0505-corey-haim-20100505">died</a> of pneumonia in 2010.
As to why Feldman cannot &#8220;name names,&#8221; the former actor told The Hollywood Reporter, &#8220;I would love to name names. I&#8217;d love to be the first to do it. But unfortunately California conveniently enough has a statute of limitations that prevents that from happening. Because if I were to go and mention anybody&#8217;s name, I would be the one that would be in legal problems and I&#8217;m the one that would be sued. We should be talking to the district attorneys and the lawmakers in California, especially because this is where the entertainment industry is and this is a place where adults have more direct and inappropriate connection with children than probably anywhere else in the world.&#8221;
Memorably, Feldman was once ridiculed on &#8220;The View&#8221; by executive producer and co-host Barbara Walters when he was speaking out about the alleged pedophilia in Hollywood. &#8220;You&#8217;re damaging an entire industry,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rujeOqadOVQ">chided</a> Feldman.

&#8216;Disney&#8217; Actor Fired After Being Arrested For Trying To Solicit Sex With A 13-Year-Old Boy

Bishops from across the United States are meeting in Baltimore this week. The number one item on the agenda was to deal with the sex scandals plaguing the Church. The bishops were supposed to come up with new codes of conduct, and, most importantly, develop a lay-led group to investigate corruption and scandal in the hierarchy. And then, right as they were set to begin, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-cancels-us-bishops-vote-on-sex-abuse-reform-measures-13052">put a stop to it</a>. Orders came from the Vatican yesterday to suspend voting on any new measures. Apparently, Francis wants to wait until February. Then perhaps he will want to wait until June. Then I guess we might as well wait until the Second Coming.
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It is important to see this latest act of obstruction by the Vatican in context. But it is a context that makes the Vatican look even worse, not better. The media have long since forgotten, but we should not forget, that Pope Francis was credibly accused of covering for one of the worst sex predators in the clergy, Cardinal McCarrick. The accuser, Archbishop Vigano, a former high-ranking Vatican official, has since written two more letters elaborating on his claims. Far from backing away from his allegations, he has doubled and then tripled down on them. And yet the Pope has still, to this day, offered no substantive response to the claims made against him. He has largely ignored the whole controversy, except to call his accusers Satan and admonish anyone who would dare demand answers or clarity on this subject.
Pope Francis was sold as a reformer. &#8220;The Great Reformer,&#8221; according to a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20696031-the-great-reformer">biography</a> published in 2014. It is clear now that &#8220;Francis the Reformer&#8221; was a myth. The real man has no interest in reforming anything. On the contrary, he is a defender of the status quo. That&#8217;s what this McCarrick business was all about. McCarrick, sent into exile by Benedict, was rescued from obscurity and reinstalled into a position of power and influence.
We are told that Francis is oriented towards the future. I see little evidence of this. It&#8217;s true that Francis has little affection for the most ancient traditions of the Church. Infamously, he spat in the face of young Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass, calling them &#8220;rigid&#8221; and &#8220;insecure.&#8221; He has also upended 2,000 years of Church teaching on the death penalty, declaring that the Church (and apparently God Himself in the Old Testament) had been ignorant, narrow-minded, and unjust for all those years. But this does not make him a forward-thinking reformer. It makes him a man stuck in his own time and place. He sees the way the Church has operated for the last few decades and wishes to remain on that same track. He is a conservative in the sense that he wishes to conserve the Catholicism of his generation. He does not want to go back to how things were, but he does want them to stay basically as they are.
That is not the approach of a reformer. It&#8217;s not even progressive. Indeed, you might call it rigid.

WALSH: Pope Francis Is No Reformer. He Is A Defender Of The Status Quo.

It has now been three days since the Pope was credibly accused of personally covering up sex abuse. The charges against him, originating from a former high-ranking official in the Church who purports to have firsthand knowledge of the cover-up, are detailed and well-documented. They have been corroborated by one other party and the integrity and credibility of Francis&#8217; accuser, Archbishop Vigano, has been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/pope-francis-homosexuality-gay-children-psychiatry-vatican-catholic-church-a8510721.html">confirmed</a> by six other bishops. In light of these allegations, and the rampant corruption and moral rot infecting the Church at every level, many faithful Catholics are confused, heartbroken, and outraged. This is one of the greatest moral crises the Catholic Church has faced in its 2,000 year history.
And what has this Pope said in response?
Nothing. The Pope has said nothing. The Vatican has issued no statement. Well, I shouldn&#8217;t say that. It did issue a statement just today &#8212; to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/pope-francis-homosexuality-gay-children-psychiatry-vatican-catholic-church-a8510721.html">clarify comments</a> that offended gay people. This is the Vatican&#8217;s priority. It cares about soothing the hurt feelings of the LGBT community. As for the spiritual chaos and despair of devout Catholics everywhere, it has no concern at all.
Has anyone else offered a halfway plausible defense of this suddenly mute Pope? The liberal Cardinal Cupich, a disgrace of a man and an embarrassment to Christians everywhere, said Francis is too busy <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/cardinal-cupich-pope-francis-has-to-get-on-with-other-things/">protecting the environment</a> to bother with these allegations. All of the defenses offered for the Pope have been as weak and stupid as that. The leftist media (which has only very recently discovered a burning love for the papacy) claims that this is a &#8220;<a href="http://coup against francis">coup</a>&#8221; against the innocent Francis waged by dastardly conservatives. Snakes and liars within the Church have attempted to deflect by slandering Archbishop Vigano and accusing him of his own sex abuse cover-up. These accusations are not only <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vigano-issues-new-statement-documents-to-clear-his-name-of-false-charges">false</a> but irrelevant. Call Vigano any name you want to call him. Accuse him of anything &#8212; sex abuse cover ups, the JFK assassination, whatever &#8212; none of that answers the question: are his claims true? Nobody has answered that question. Nobody has said, simply, &#8220;No, they are not true.&#8221;
And the weakest defense of all is the one offered by Francis. It is weak because it is non-existent. He offers no defense. He gives us no explanation. He waves us off dismissively, as he has been doing to faithful Catholics for six years. Can it be reasonably imagined that an innocent man would behave this way? The accusations are clear and easily denied if false. If Francis never knew about McCarrick&#8217;s predatory behavior, he can say so. If Francis never lifted any sanctions, he can say so. It should not take three days to figure out how to say, &#8220;This thing didn&#8217;t happen.&#8221;
The only explanation that reasonably ties together all of these factors &#8212; the accusations, the reaction (or lack thereof) from the bishops, the Pope&#8217;s silence &#8212; is that Francis is guilty. We still cannot say with certainty that he is guilty, but we can say that everything points to guilt. We have been given no reason to disbelieve the allegations and several reasons to believe them. And, aside from the question of guilt or innocence, Pope Francis has provided us with strong evidence of something else: that he is a coward.

WALSH: The Shameful, Cowardly Silence Of Pope Francis

Pennsylvania State Attorney General Josh Shapiro told multiple news outlets Tuesday that there&#8217;s evidence that the Vatican knew about the cover-up of the sex abuse of children by Catholic priests in his state.
Shapiro said Pennsylvania bishops shared the secret archives they&#8217;d recorded containing details of the sex abuse cases with the Vatican. It was those archives that helped form the basis of the damning report his office presented on August 14, alleging the sexual abuse of potentially over 1,000 children by approximately 300 priests over decades and a cover-up of that abuse among the state&#8217;s Catholic hierarchy.
&#8220;Though Catholic Bishops in Pennsylvania systematically denied the sexual abuse of thousands of children over a 70-year period, they secretly documented the cases and often sent information on them to the Vatican, Shapiro told two national news shows,&#8221; <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pennsylvania-religion-sexcrimes/vatican-knew-of-pennsylvania-sex-abuse-cover-up-prosecutor-says-idUSKCN1LD2KL">Reuters</a> reports.
&#8220;There are specific examples where when the abuse occurred, the priests would go, the bishops would go and lie to parishioners, lie to law enforcement, lie to the public, but then document all the abuse in secret archives that they would share oftentimes with the Vatican,&#8221; Shapiro told CBS &#8220;This Morning&#8221; Tuesday. &#8220;There are specific examples where the Vatican knew of this abuse and they were involved in the cover-up.&#8221;
Shapiro offered no comment on whether the current pope or his predecessors knew about the cover-up.
Reuters notes that this is not the first time Shapiro has made the allegation; he also made the claim in a press conference unveiling the bombshell report on the findings of the two-year investigation, which he described as the most comprehensive investigation of sex abuse by clergymen in American history.
Amid questions of what he knew about the cover-up and increasing <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/08/28/pope-francis-facing-calls-to-resign-sexual-abuse-scandal-exposes-rifts-in-vatican.html">calls for his resignation</a>, Pope Francis has remained silent. He has, however, recently apologized to victims of abuse for &#8220;some members of the hierarchy [who] didn&#8217;t own up to these painful situations and kept silent.&#8221;
&#8220;We ask forgiveness for the abuse in Ireland, abuse of power and of conscience, sexual abuse&#8221; by clergy, Francis <a href="http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2018/pope-begins-mass-in-dublin-with-penitential-plea-for-abuse-scandals.cfm">said</a> at a mass in Dublin on August 26. &#8220;In a special way, we ask forgiveness for all the abuse committed in the different institutions run by religious men and religious women and other members of the church.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34622/vatican-feels-shame-and-sorrow-over-abuse-paul-bois">Vatican Feels &#8216;Shame And Sorrow&#8217; Over Abuse By Pennsylvania Priests</a>

Prosecutor: The Vatican Knew About Sex Abuse Cover-Up; Here&#8217;s How We Know

The Vatican

Before his death in 2016, the Vatican&#8217;s chief exorcist for over a quarter century, Father Gabriele Amorth, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7416458/Chief-exorcist-says-Devil-is-in-Vatican.html">observed</a>, &#8220;The Devil resides in the Vatican, and you can see the consequences.&#8221; We are seeing the consequences now from Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. all the way up to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/28/cardinal-theodore-mccarrick-facing-sexual-abuse-reports-resigns-from-the-college-of-cardinals/">College of Cardinals</a>. Fr. Amorth described &#8220;cardinals who do not believe in Jesus and bishops who are linked to the demon.&#8221; The <a href="https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tribdem.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/64/86477024-9ffa-11e8-82d3-1795acf52e56/5b733183e8c7d.pdf.pdf">Pennsylvania grand jury report</a> relates one instance of ritualized, satanic abuse of a young boy by four priests. There is some ambiguity regarding the precise nature of the incident owing to page-long redactions in the report. Another priest rinsed out the mouth of a nine-year-old boy he had sodomized with holy water. Yet another priest sodomized yet another boy with a seven-inch-long crucifix.
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Fortunately most of the 301 priests listed in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report are now dead, and many have been dead for decades. If so horrific and widespread a crime can be said to have a silver lining, it is that the vast majority of sexual assaults took place decades ago, during the 1960s, &#8216;70s, and &#8216;80s. Their incidence seems to have waned substantially in recent decades, which complicates justice in its own way: because so much time has passed, statutes of limitations will protect most abusive clerics still alive from prosecution.
On what can we blame the abuse? Some will blame priestly celibacy, or else the prevalence of homosexuality among the clergy. But the social scientific data, including a five-year study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, show <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/do-the-right-thing/201105/the-new-john-jay-report-clergy-abuse-in-the-catholic-church">no link</a> between either celibacy or same-sex attraction and child abuse. Further, these studies <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/priests-commit-no-more-abuse-other-males-70625">show</a> that sexual abuse of children is no more prevalent among priests than among the general male population.
Is there something wrong with the Catholic faith itself? According to findings of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, child abuse is no more prevalent in the Catholic Church than in any other religious setting. Companies that insure various Christian denominations affirm those findings. One executive <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/priests-commit-no-more-abuse-other-males-70625">explains</a>, &#8220;We don&#8217;t see vast difference in the incidence rate between one denomination and another. It&#8217;s pretty even across the denominations.&#8221; In fact, sexual abuse appears to be far more prevalent outside of churches and synagogues. One study prepared for the U.S. Department of Educations <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/has-media-ignored-sex-abuse-in-school/">found</a> that &#8220;the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.&#8221;
Of course we expect greater moral character from our priests than we do from schoolteachers and the general male population. Further, the incidents outlined in the Pennsylvania grand jury report seem so particularly wicked: the scheming, the grooming, the perversion, the hypocrisy &#8212; above all, the eerily spiritual character of the abuse, the ritualized sexual sacrilege, the &#8220;<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+6%3A12&amp;version=KJV">spiritual wickedness</a> in high places.&#8221; It isn&#8217;t merely the acts themselves that horrify but also the evil that prompted and sustained them.
Last year, an American couple, Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, quit their jobs to ride their bicycles around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. During their journey, Austin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34581/american-couple-believing-evil-make-believe-hank-berrien">declared</a> on his blog, &#8220;Evil is a make-believe concept we&#8217;ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own.&#8221; Last month, Muslim terrorists murdered the couple as they bicycled through Tajikistan, ramming them with their sedan and stabbing them until they died.
Evil is not a make-believe concept. Neither is it mere metaphor for disordered sexual desires or feckless bureaucratic management. Evil exists, and it has a personality. Secular, self-styled sophisticates often deny the existence of the Devil. But as the late Antonin Scalia <a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/antonin-scalia-2013-10/index3.html">reminded</a> a flippant New York Magazine interviewer in 2013, &#8220;Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.&#8221; The particular evil of the present moment is a call to arms against the Devil, not the Church. Of course the Devil resides in the Vatican. Where else should he concentrate his efforts? The Devil exists. He is a <a href="https://biblehub.com/john/8-44.htm">murderer</a> and a <a href="https://biblehub.com/john/8-44.htm">liar</a>, and he is <a href="https://biblehub.com/genesis/4-7.htm">crouching</a> at your door. Any reform that denies that reality will not only fail but will let evil fester.

The Devil Resides In The Vatican

Catholicism

Christianity

A German woman committed one of the worst acts perpetrated on an innocent child in recent memory, selling her eight-year-old son on the darknet to pedophiles, who raped him repeatedly.
The 48-year-old woman, who has been sentenced to over 12 years in prison for selling her young son on the darknet to abusers, has a 39-year-old partner who is a convicted pedophile, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/german-couple-who-sold-son-to-paedophiles-on-darknet-jailed">The Guardian</a>. He was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/world/europe/germany-couple-sexual-abuse-son.html">The New York Times</a> reported. The Times added:
<blockquote>
The court found that the man had assaulted the 3-year-old daughter of acquaintances who had visited the family for play dates. When the families&#8217; relationship soured and the girl no longer visited, the man started his repeated assault of the woman&#8217;s son, the court said, with the woman&#8217;s full knowledge and participation. &#8230; The mother always stayed close by during the assaults, to act as a calming influence, according to testimony heard in court.
</blockquote>
Almost 60 separate identified acts starting in 2015 targeting the son were listed; the partner received a 12-year prison sentence plus a preventative detention order, which will effectively function as a life sentence. Six other men who had paid the couple to abuse the boy, who is now 10, were sentenced to between eight and 10 years.
The men who abused the boy allegedly paid as much as $11,000 to the couple, who identified as Berrin T and Christian L, and admitted in court that they had sold the boy and even abused him themselves. The Guardian added, &#8220;Others on trial included a 44-year-old German who was given access to rape the boy but was prevented by the mother from carrying out his wish to kill him.&#8221;
Videos of the abuse were reportedly sold for huge amounts of money via the darknet. According to Judge Stefan Bürgelin, the boy&#8217;s mother decided to take part in putting her child in the sex ring because she was afraid her partner would leave her, although later the vast amounts of money were the motivating factor.
A youth services agency had been monitoring the family, but it wasn&#8217;t until 2017 that the boy was placed in a foster home. He was returned to his mother, who convinced a court that she could protect him from her partner.

MOTHER FROM HELL: Woman Repeatedly Sells Young Son To Pedophiles Who Rape Him

Germany

Supporters of embattled director James Gunn, including some high-profile Hollywood stars &#8212; among them Dave Bautista and Selma Blair &#8212; are calling on Disney to rehire the director after the company fired him for old social media posts joking about pedophilia, violence against women, and the Holocaust. Along with personal tweets of support for the director, a Change.org petition asking Disney to reverse its decision takes a particularly raw approach to trying to promote its cause.
Gunn, who defended ABC&#8217;s firing of Roseanne Barr and recently called on Hulu to stop advertising with Laura Ingraham, came under fire last week after The Daily Caller published some of his <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/07/19/disney-filmmaker-conservative-tweets/">old posts</a>, including jokes about the Holocaust, AIDS, and a monkey masturbating on a child&#8217;s face. Though Gunn has disavowed the revolting posts and apologized, within 24 hours of the tweets coming to light, Disney fired the popular director.
&#8220;The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James&#8217; Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio&#8217;s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,&#8221; said Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn in a <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-gunn-exits-guardians-galaxy-vol-3-1128786">statement</a> Friday.
While some of the &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; stars, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, have been more indirect in their support of Gunn, Bautista has made clear that he disagrees with Disney&#8217;s decision.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I will have more to say but for right now all I will say is this..<a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGunn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JamesGunn</a> is one of the most loving,caring,good natured people I have ever met. He&#8217;s gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He&#8217;s made mistakes. We all have. Im NOT ok with what&#8217;s happening to him
&#8212; Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) <a href="https://twitter.com/DaveBautista/status/1020502763430559744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
What will you do when the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cybernazis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cybernazis</a> attack you? Who will stand by you? Who will cowardly distance themselves from you? Who will punish you for horrible JOKES in the past instead of defending you for INSPIRING millions? MILLIONS!!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Redemption?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Redemption</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/injustice?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#injustice</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGunn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JamesGunn</a>
&#8212; Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) <a href="https://twitter.com/DaveBautista/status/1021123102082707456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
In addition, over 268,000 people, including &#8220;Hell Boy&#8221; star Selma Blair, have now signed a petition to &#8220;<a href="https://www.change.org/p/marvel-re-hire-james-gunn">RE-HIRE JAMES GUN</a>.&#8221; The rather quirky petition acknowledges off the bat that it &#8220;likely won&#8217;t change anything,&#8221; but goes on to defend people making &#8220;sh***y jokes&#8221; every now and then.
&#8220;I agree on the point that if people say a bunch of stupid sh** while working for a studio, the studio has full right to fire him over the possible controversy,&#8221; the petition reads. &#8220;This situation is very different though as he made these jokes years before he was working for Disney and also the fact that they were jokes. I agree with most, including Gunn himself that the jokes were sh***y and un-funny but they were still jokes, it wasn&#8217;t an opinion or a statement, it was just a bad attempt at being funny.&#8221;
Here&#8217;s the full text of the petition (warning: language):
<blockquote>
I&#8217;m smart enough to know this most likely won&#8217;t change anything but hopefully, this could get Disney to realize the mistake they made and not do it again in the future.
I agree on the point that if people say a bunch of stupid shit while working for a studio, the studio has full right to fire him over the possible controversy. This situation is very different though as he made these jokes years before he was working for Disney and also the fact that they were jokes. I agree with most, including Gunn himself that the jokes were shitty and un-funny but they were still jokes, it wasn&#8217;t an opinion or a statement, it was just a bad attempt at being funny.
The other thing is if you do this to Gunn you have to do it for all the other directors who have said some crappy joke sometime in their life, which is all of them, cause I doubt there&#8217;s one human on this planet who hasn&#8217;t made a shitty joke once or twice in there life.
If Marvel would come to their senses and re-hire Gunn that would be great but if all we can do is have proof by your signatures that Disney made a mistake i would still count that as a win.
Thanks
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