U.S.: What is joke for school children is death for crapaud

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- An official with the Archdiocese of Vienna urged the Vatican on Wednesday to oust a Roman Catholic bishop in charge of a seminary where candidates for the priesthood hoarded child pornography and photos of themselves kissing and fondling each other.

The cleric, Bishop Kurt Krenn, dismissed the photos as part of a "schoolboy prank" and accused critics of exaggerating the case - the worst church scandal in Austria since allegations of pedophilia brought down a cardinal nearly a decade ago.

Police examined hard drives on computers seized at the seminary in St. Poelten, 50 miles west of Vienna, as part of a child pornography investigation.

Officials said the discs contained some 40,000 photographs and numerous videos, including child pornography and photos of young seminarians kissing and fondling each other and their older instructors and engaging in sex games.

As some of the photos began appearing in Austrian newsmagazines - depicting students in sexual situations while clad in black shirts and priestly collars - calls mounted for Krenn to resign.

Only if Krenn steps down "will an extensive investigation be possible," said Helmut Schueller, the Vienna Archdiocese's ombudsman for victims of sexual abuse.

The seminary's director, the Rev. Ulrich Kuechl, already has resigned along with his deputy, Wolfgang Rothe.

But Krenn, 68, refused to step down and rebuffed his critics.

What will Krenn call it when these seminarians venture out into the parish and commence sexually abusing parishioners' sons? What will Rome say, I wonder? Rome has not exactly been a model of virtue on this issue in relation to the homosexuality cum paedophilia of American priests. Is it any wonder that Austrian bishops felt encouraged to flout Scripture and doctrine on this issue?

Events like this can only contribute to the decline of the Church (and I don't refer just to Rome, but to the Church Visible, which is to say, all Christendom). Already in Boston, a number of churches have been sold; elsewhere in the U.S., dioceses are declaring bankruptcy. Now is not the time for the Church Visible to be indulging in the moral failures of the society in which it is located. The Church must be showing modern society a better way, for it must influence and not be influenced by the prevailing culture. In this age of Islamism, corruption in the Church Visible can only contribute to the decline in attendance and the weakening of absolutism.

Once more, let me ask the anti-Boy Scouts crowd this: if you can't trust homosexuals in the pulpit, why should you trust them in the tent?