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Austria sex row bishop 'resigns'


Bishop Krenn initially dismissed the scandal as "childish pranks"
A Roman Catholic bishop at the centre of a porn scandal involving clerics
and student priests at an Austrian seminary is stepping down, local media
report.
Bishop Kurt Krenn, 68, was in overall charge of the seminary where
investigators found thousands of lewd images, including child pornogrpahy.

"Yes, I'm resigning immediately as bishop of St Poelten," Der Standard
newspaper quoted him as saying.

The affair has shocked Austria and embarrassed the Roman Catholic Church.



In response, Pope John Paul ll appointed another Austrian cleric, Bishop
Klaus Kueng, to investigate the affair.

Bishop Kueng last month closed the seminary at St Poelten, about 80km (50
miles) west of the capital, Vienna, saying it had "veered away from its
mission".

The scandal came to light in July, when Austrian news magazine Profil
published pictures of clerics kissing and fondling student priests.

It also reported that a police investigation had uncovered as many as 40,000
images and videos - among them child pornography - on computers at the
seminary.

'Asked to go'

Demands grew for Bishop Krenn to resign or be sacked, after he dismissed the
photographs as "childish pranks" and called the allegations of sexual
misconduct "groundless".

Bishop Krenn told Der Standard that he was stepping down voluntarily and not
under pressure from the Vatican.

"The Pope does not force anybody to resign. He asks at most that someone
go," the bishop was quoted as saying.

Last month, a Polish student priest at the seminary was convicted of
possessing child pornography.

The man, identified as Piotr Z., 27, was given a six-month suspended jail
sentence for downloading hundreds of images from the internet.






--
Socrates taught his students that the pursuit of truth can only begin once
they start to question and analyze every belief that they ever held dear. If
a certain belief passes the tests of evidence, deduction, and logic, it
should be kept. If it doesn't, the belief should not only be discarded, but
the thinker must also then question why he was led to believe the erroneous









"SunDancingGuy" <SunDancingGuy@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:95421151.0409280856.115e1bec@posting.google.com...
> Vancouver "Safe" Drug Injection Site Claims "Success" with 600 Users a
> Day
>
> Only 2.3 percent seeing nurses or counselors
>
> VANCOUVER, September 27, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - North America's
> first 'safe injection' site for heroin users is being called a
> 'success' by organizers because as many as 600 users a day visit it.
>
> Calling the addicts, 'clients,' a report on the centre's progress has
> said that the site is 'exceeding expectations' for the numbers using
> the site and 'client satisfaction.' However, the statistics collected
> over the last year show that only 2.3 per cent of the clients went to
> see a nurse or counselor, the rest coming to inject drugs or collect
> tax-funded equipment. The report said, "Visits to Insite for nursing
> care or counseling have been uncommon to date." The report says that
> between March 10th and August 20th, there were 107 overdoses among 72
> clients.
>
> In 1997 local government was shocked to discover that the HIV rate of
> intravenous drug users in Vancouver's downtown east side was among the
> highest in the world. Social workers from Seattle worried that drug
> abusers from their area would travel to Vancouver and bring the same
> rates of infection back with them.
>
> Since that time the notion of harm reduction has led the thinking of
> Canadian social agencies. City officials estimate there are 12,000
> intravenous drug users among the 1.3 million people in the greater
> Vancouver area. About 40% of the drug users have HIV or AIDS, and 90%
> have Hepatitis C. Despite the publicity of the Vancouver site, new
> detox facilities have been slow to appear.
>
> The US Director of the National Drug Control Policy, John P. Walters
> and other American observers have been sharply critical of what they
> consider Canada's leniency on illegal drug use. In April of 2003,
> Waters called the idea "state-sponsored personal suicide."
>
> Last week, Vancouver East MP Hedy Fry called for a similar approach to
> prostitution saying that by making prostitution a quasi-legal
> activity, 'sex trade workers' would be put at less risk of violence.
> The suggestion was countered by local rape counselors who said that
> women needed to be helped out of prostitution, not to have it made
> 'safer.'
>
> Canadian Press coverage:
> http://www.canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040923/CPN/43457026
>
> Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
> http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/sep/04092305.html
>
> ph