Jacob Prasch and Moriel Ministries
Moriel Ministries is a fundamentalist Christian ministry headed by Jacob Prasch. I first heard of the ministry when a friend of mine gave me some of Prasch’s works in an attempt to convert me to fundamentalist Protestantism. The ministry targets historically and scientifically illiterate Christians who lack the intelligence to critically assess its claims.
A quick look through the website shows a number of articles on a range of subjects. It would require considerable effort to go through them all, so instead I’ll use a recent posting to illustrate the standards of the ministry.
Under the title “Papal Visit to USA” a number of claims are made by a ministry author, presumably Jacob Prasch. I’ll address them paragraph by paragraph.
“The US Department of Justice squashed a prosecution brought against Pope Benedict XVI because it is not normally legally possible to bring a prosecution or criminally related litigation against a foreign head of state (a status the Pope enjoys ever since Ronald Reagan granted full diplomatic recognition to the Vatican as a nation).”
The author is probably referring to the 2005 decision of a US District Court judge to remove the Pope as a defendant in a lawsuit. The author refers to it as a “prosecution”. The term “prosecution” only applies to criminal matters. This was not a criminal matter so whoever wrote this article was either ignorant of basic terminology or dishonest. And it was the judge that removed the Pope as a defendant, the US Department of Justice did not “squash” anything.
“The prosecution was bought on behalf of victims of pedophilia perpetrated against small children by members of The Roman Catholic clergy. In his former position as Vatican enforcer , Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now the pope) signed the notorious ‘Criminale Solicitacciones’ instruction first issued by Pope John XXIII and re-issued by John Paul II. This documentation proves that no fewer than three popes knew of both widespread pedophilia and sex with animals by members of its clergy at least as as early as 1960, and allowed it to continue, instructing the Roman Catholic hierarchy to protect sex criminal nuns and priests at the expense of not protecting the little children whose lives these criminal sex perverts destroy by the thousands.”
Again, the lawsuit was a civil one - it was not a “prosecution.” Crimen sollicitationis was an instruction issued in 1962 under Pope John XXIII. Crimen sollicitationis remained in force until 2001, when Cardinal Ratzinger produced an “implementing letter” that brought new procedures into place. So rather than “re-issue” Crimin sollicitationis, as the author claims, Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II did the exact opposite and eliminated its effect.
Crimen sollicitationis enumerated a number of possible abuses that could potentially occur in the confessional but there is no evidence that such abuses were common, contrary to the authors assertion that three Popes “knew” of “widespread pedophilia and sex with animals.”
The author then asserts that Crimen sollicitationis “instruct(ed) the Roman Catholic hierarchy to protect sex criminal nuns and priests.” This is absurd. Firstly, Crimen sollicitationis primarily applied to abuses of the confessional and thus would not apply to nuns. Secondly, it did not “protect” priests from anything. As shown in a previous post, not even Thomas Doyle, the priest and Church critic that made Crimen sollicitationis public, believes it is a conspiracy to cover up abuse. No expert believes that.
“Copies of this official Vatican document signed by Ratzinger and English translations from the Latin are in the public domain and freely available on the internet.”
The documents that the author is probably referring to are an alleged Latin copy of Crimen sollicitationis and an English translation produced by Thomas Doyle. Neither are signed by Ratzinger.
“Instead of receiving a presidential reception upon arrival on American soil, Pope Benedict XVI should have been handcuffed, arrested, arraigned, criminally indicted, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If it is indeed his signature on that wicked document, Ratzinger should be convicted on the basis of prima face evidence and this evil criminal should die in federal prison with absolutely no chance of parole.”
I think this final paragraph amply illustrates what the author and this ministry are about: hatred. On the basis of an absurd and error-filled conspiracy theory that even the Church’s most vocal critics reject he wants to throw a man behind bars for the rest of his life. What other extreme actions can be justified on similarly weak evidence?
The kind of material produced by this ministry is morally no different from the kind of bigotry spewed from anti-Semitic and racist websites all over the Internet. When you allow hatred to dominate your thinking, you will accept any silly argument that helps sustain your hate-lust. The unfortunate thing is that most of this ministry’s followers lack the intelligence to separate truth from lies and are likely to believe this trash.
Related Posts
- My Response to Moriel Ministries
- Crimen sollicitationis
- The Pope’s Visit to Australia
- Crimen sollicitationis and the Media
- Reverend Thomas Patrick Doyle
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7 Responses to “Jacob Prasch and Moriel Ministries”
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[...] antidote to the stupidity displayed by Jacob Prasch and Moriel Ministries is an article on the Lex Communis blog. It talks of the hypocrisy of those using the Clergy Abuse [...]
“Tysen” on the General Blog/TJWoodlock blogsite appears to be both out of hisdepths and factually in error regarding hisresponse to Jacob Prasch:
1. A visit to National Center For Policy Analysis website (www.ncpc.org) or Baylor’s legal website (www.baylor.aceglobal.com) will reveal that Jacob Prasch referring to the squashed litigation against Joseph Ratzinger (cum Pope Benidict xvi) as a prosecution stopped by the US Dept. of Justice was correct in its terminology and details.
In Texas a civil litigation brought privately in connection with a criminal prosecution is legally referred to as a special category of ‘Prosecution’ called “civil prosecution” (Tex. Hum. Res. Code 36.001 et.sig).
The criminal case is the Juan Carlos Patino-Arango public prosecution of this indicted pedophile priest who is a fugative from justice. The 2005 civil action brought by Daniel Shea in conjunction with it against the present pope is thus legally defined as a civil prosecution. Jacob Prasch is perfectly correct in his terminology, and you are wrong.
2. Jacob Prasch’s report that this civil prosecution was squashed by The Justice Department is confirmed as true and was reported in multiple national publications and news mediums including USA TODAY and CBS News (references easily available on internet). The motion to squash the civil action against the pope was indeed brought by The US Justice Department at the request of The State Department for the exact reasons Jacob Prasch accurately reported.
3. The 1962 Crimen Solicitationes instruction was indeed reissued as was reported in 2005 with the memo implimenting it signed by Ratzinger (as Jacob Prasch correctly asserts) who is now pope but then Prefect of The Congregation For The Doctrine of The Faith (in former times known as ‘Inquisitor General’). It reads: ” Grave Crimes such as sexual abuse of children will be handled by his office (the congregation) with any tribunals a Secret Pontifical proceeding”.
4. The Daniel Shea litigation claimed (supported by various academic legal opinions and Latin grammar and syntax lingual experts) that the document carried two aspects ; the sacrimental and the general.
5. So afraid was the Vatican of this ’smoking gun’ that contrary to your own demonstrably abject assertions that it had nothing to do with protecting pedophile clergy and only applied sacrimentally, it was the Vatican who by diplomatic means petitioned the State Department to have the matter squashed, again further confirming the accuracy of Jacob Prasch’s statement. Indeed, the pope’s own admission that the crises was handled wrongly by the Roman Catholic church supports Jacob Prasch’s conclusions, and very plainly mitigates against your own.
You have distorted the facts, spoken in ignorance of the protocals of the law where you misrepresent yourself as having an expertise you seemingly either do not, (or else have not researched the subject carefully if you do) , and as is typical in matters of religious hypocrisy, resorted to the ad hominem approach in a feeble attempt to circumlocute the shameful reality. For the record, Moriel would not define itself as “Protestant”, but merely as biblical and Christian. Indeed, many of us are former Catholics who upon reading the scriptures, by God’s goodness, came to a saving biblical faith in Jesus Christ rejecting the hocus pocus of sacrimental superstition and the sexual perversion among your clergy.
Your own tone and insulting demeanor warrants a response less gracious than we would prefer. It would appear that your arrogance and ignorance are eclipsed only by your apparent dishonesty. But frankly, that is precisely what is to be expected. If nothing else you are indeed par for your course. Like your corrupt pontif, you ludicrously pontificate a badly orchestrated litany of convoluted babel and expect the world to believe you; but those days are long over. The efforts of a crooked religion to whitewash its disgusting grand scale malevolence against defenseless children is futile. Just as it says in your own Latin Vulgate: “Vanitas Vanitatem, Omnia Vanitas”.
Get Well Soon. For your own sake we sincerely hope that with a genuine repentence you will abandon your pedophilia plagued Roman Catholicism and convert to Christianity before it is too late. Your silly Novenas, necromancy prayers to the dead, icons , rosaries, and liturgical ‘Mea Maxima Culpas”, (let alone child molesting sex pervert priests) won’t and can’t save you; only Jesus Christ can. Salvation is only through Him alone , not a corrupt institution with a corrupt leader and thousands of sex criminals in its clergy. Do yourself a big favor - put down the catechism and papal encyclicals and pick up a bible before you spend all of eternity with no hope wishing you had. The real Jesus of the scriptures (not to be confused with that ridiculous plastic idol forbidden by the second of the 10 commandments that you keep on your dashboard to help you find a parking space or whatever) said: ‘Permit The Little Children To Come Unto Me”; He did not say to Rape Them.
Pax Vobiscum,
(The Ex Catholics At Moriel Who Now By God’s Grace Most Thankfully Became Christians)
[...] recently wrote a post in which I characterised Jacob Prasch and Moriel Ministries as unreliable. This caused a member of Moriel Ministries to respond in the post’s comment [...]
The attack on Jacob Prasch is typical of those devoid of integrity and honesty. The issue ultimately is the Catholic Cult masquerading as Christianity. Anyone who would try and assasinate or discredit a true Bible teacher in order to protect a proven currupt, paedophile “priesthood” must, by association, themselves be guilty.
Thanks for your comment Mark.
I don’t consider Prasch to be a “true Bible teacher.” Nor would even a tiny fraction of reputable biblical scholars. It’s only those that are too ignorant, or too unwilling, to see through his rhetoric who would come to that conclusion.
To deem the entire Catholic priesthood as “paedophile,” as you have done, is to use a stupid, bigoted stereotype. There are good priests and bad priests, but you simply focus on the bad ones and then generalise to the entire group. It’s the same thing that racists and anti-Semites do - they simply find those that are ‘bad’ in each group and ignore those that are good.
I note that you don’t point out why my “attack” is “devoid of integrity and honesty.” If it’s so easy to prove me wrong, then why write a nasty reply, then imply some sort of guilt by association, and leave it at that?
And why didn’t Moriel Ministries link to my original article and my response? It’s almost as though they don’t want people to hear both sides of the argument. I’ve hyper-linked to their website, and given lengthy quotes of their material before responding to it, but they didn’t even bother to link to the article that they were criticising.
We praise the Lord for Jacob Prash voice, and have leared much truth.
Thanks for the comment.
I don’t know which ‘Lord’ you worship, but he’s obviously not concerned with the truth.