This is the shocking moment a middle-aged woman picks up a cat - and stuffs it into a WHEELIE-BIN. The terrified cat, a four-year-old tabby called Lola, was trapped in the bin for 15 hours before her owners finally found her. Owner Darryl, 26, a mobile phone repair man, said: ''I'd like to know how she would feel if she was stuck in a bin for 15 hours without food or drink. Woman Caught Dumping Cat in Trash Bin on CCTV Donna sorpresa NOTE - Please do not leave offensive comments, any comment containing swear words or offensive remarks will be removed. Many thanks.police in southern Russia will launch a probe into an initiative by local entrepreneurs who sent a donkey into the sky on a parachute in an advertising stunt. The official spokesman for the local directorate of the Interior Ministry told reporters that the parachuting donkey incident took place last Thursday on an Azov Sea beach in the Temryk District in Krasnodar. "They gave this donkey a parachute ride in order to attract holidaymakers' attention to this sort of entertainment. The parasailing donkey brayed and the children cried, but no one was smart enough to inform the police about the incident," RIA Novosti news agency quoted the official as saying Monday. The police will launch a probe and if the entrepreneurs are found guilty, they could face criminal persecution under the article on cruel treatment of animals of the Russian Criminal Code, which carries a maximum punishment of two years in ,Deranged Lady Throws Cat Into Trash Can (HDprison.Flying donkey shocks beachgoers in Russia's south

The Russian government is considering moving one of its special zones allocated for legal gambling, following the failure of Azov City due to a lack of infrastructure, Vedomosti reported on Thursday.

The parasailing donkey will never fly again and can look ahead to a life of luxury.



Moscow - Russia - Arts and Entertainment - Sun - Azov Sea

The female donkey Anapka arrived in Moscow on Wednesday after her brays of terror over an Azov Sea beach last month prompted a British newspaper to step in and buy her.

The donkey that was sent parasailing over the Sea of Azov in a cruel advertising stunt will get elite treatment at the Kremlin's own stables in the Moscow region starting Wednesday, before relocating to Britain.

Anapka, the donkey who was savagely attached to a parasail and sent out over the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, may be getting a new home with football (soccer for those in the U.S.) boss Harry Redknapp. The Spurs manager was so outraged by the video footage, he has offered a home to [...]

Anapka, the donkey who was savagely attached to a parasail and sent out over the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, may be getting a new home with football (soccer for those in the U.S.) boss Harry Redknapp . The Spurs manager was so outraged by the video footage, he has offered a home to Anapka at a farm sanctuary he plans to open in southern England. “I am sickened by the actions of the scumbag who treated Anapka so badly,” said Redknapp . “If I had my way, I’d throw the idiot in prison. He should be prosecuted for what he’s done.” Last week a team from The Sun rescued the shaken and bruised 17-year-old donkey and is currently caring for her in the Russian city of Krasnodar. The UK paper is working with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to see if it will be possible to bring Anapka to England.

Parasailing donkey? Pah

We're delighted to report that the RAF have shown Russian donkey dangler Vasily Gorobets - the man responsible for the Sea of Azov airborne ass - just how it's really done.…

A furious Brigitte Bardot has demanded that those responsible for the Sea of Azov flying donkey outrage be brought to book, the Sun reports.....

Register -- A furious Brigitte Bardot has demanded that those responsible for the Sea of Azov flying donkey outrage be brought to book, the Sun reports.

Kremlin cops an earful over airborne ass

A furious Brigitte Bardot has demanded that those responsible for the Sea of Azov flying donkey outrage be brought to book, the Sun reports.…

On August, 7th,2010 military-historical reconstruction of the Azov obsidional sitting of the Don Cossacks of 1641 will gether under its banners the participants of the event, spectators, true patriots and experts in Russian history for the sixth time

Police have refused to open a case against an Anapa resident who sent his female donkey parasailing over the Sea of Azov because a veterinarian found the animal to be "clinically healthy," RIA-Novosti reported.

Police have refused to open a case against an Anapa resident who sent his female donkey parasailing over the Sea of Azov because a veterinarian...

Investigators have failed to find the donkey that parasailed over the Sea of Azov for 30 terrifying minutes last week, RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday.

Angry Dog will not tolerate animal cruelty.

Some Russian business men put a donkey on a parasail to promote their parasailing company, and thankfully, there’s video. The first time I watched it I couldn’t help but laugh, and then quickly felt like a horrible person. There’s nothing funny about animal cruelty. That being said, try and watch this without laughing. It’s impossible. Russia Today gives a synopsis of what went down.

Police in southern Russia will launch a probe into an initiative by local entrepreneurs who sent a donkey into the sky on a parachute in an advertising stunt. The official spokesman for the local directorate of the Interior Ministry told reporters that the parachuting donkey incident took place last Thursday on an Azov Sea beach in the Temryk District in Krasnodar. “They gave this donkey a parachute ride in order to attract holidaymakers’ attention to this sort of entertainment. The parasailing donkey brayed and the children cried, but no one was smart enough to inform the police about the incident,” RIA Novosti news agency quoted the official as saying Monday. The police will launch a probe and if the entrepreneurs are found guilty, they could face criminal persecution under the article on cruel treatment of animals of the Russian Criminal Code, which carries a maximum punishment of two years in prison. –Russia Today’s Youtube Channel

Video after the jump.

–via Bro Bible

Russian police are currently scanning the sea and skies for signs of an unnamed donkey whose owners strapped him to a parasail as some sort of publicity stunt last week. (The act is not a convincing argument for water sports or pet adoption, so it was unsuccessful in that respect, among many others. Although perhaps the donkey, like his aeronautical human equivalent Balloon Boy, is destined for reality-show stardom.) According to reports from the Sea of Azov, before the creature’s half-hour flight, “the donkey was braying with fear and children were crying. The shocked beachgoers reported the incident to local newspapers but nobody called the police. The donkey’s ordeal was over when it landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several meters along the water, after which the trembling animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore.” The parasailing purveyor does not own the donkey; he claims the animal’s owner requested the airborne mammal engage in the unpleasant voyage for reasons unknown. Both the donkey and his master are at large. Their returns will be met with a trip to the vet and a potential animal cruelty charge, respectively.

On July 15, the donkey was forced to parasail along a beach on the Sea of Azov for half an hour to promote paragliding. The donkey was braying with fear and children were crying. The shocked beachgoers reported the incident to local newspapers but nobody called the police.

In this viral video day and age, people will try anything to get some attention. Some may lip sync behind their webcam, others strap a donkey to a parachute and parade the poor animal up and down their beach while being towed by a boat.

You really can't make this stuff up, and despite the animal cruelty involved, none of the people on the beach did anything to stop the stunt, and all stood around watching the screaming animal fly into the sky.

The operators of the beach used the donkey as a way to bring some new tourists to their location on the Azov Sea near the village of Golubitskaya. According to local authorities, the men behind the stunt could end up in jail for up to two years.

Paragliding donkey stunt lands Russian beach operators in hot water originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Los rusos que veraneaban en el pueblo cosaco de Golubitskaia, a orillas del Mar Azov (suroeste), quedaron consternados cuando vieron a un burro planear en el cielo con un paracaídas sobre su lomo, atado por un cable, y con fines publicitarios. El burro, aterrado, fue...

Azov denizine giden tatilciler, parasailing yapan eşeği görünce şoka girdi

Crazy Russians. Must have had too much vodkas. Look at the poor donkey in the video, damn. Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday. Attached to a parachute, the ...

(Break.com link) A leisure firm in Golubitskaya on the Azov Sea launched a donkey into the air on a parasail as a promotional stunt. After the video was released, Russian police began investigating the matter and may file charges of animal cruelty. If convicted, those responsible could be sentenced to up to two years. Link

MOSCOW, July 20 (UPI) -- Russian police are investigating a stunt in which a "screaming" donkey harnessed to a parasail was sent soaring 100 feet in the air to attract customers.



Russia - Police - Cruelty to animals - Azov Sea - Travel and Tourism

Os russos que, na semana passada, passavam o verão no povoado cossaco de Golubitskaia, às margens do mar Azov (sudoeste), ficaram consternados quando viram um burro voar de parapente, preso por um cabo a um barco que o puxava para a água, informou a polícia nesta terça-feira (20/7).

Apavorado, o burro voou durante meia hora "antes de aterrissar na água e ser arrastado por vários metros", relatou o canal de televisão Russia Today, mostrando imagens do fato disponibilizadas na inetrnet.

O animal zurrava de medo, enquanto voava diante de uma multidão de veranistas reunidos na praia.

Segundo Larissa Tuchkova, porta-voz da polícia regional, o trote com o burro fazia parte de uma campanha de publicidade improvisada em uma praia particular. De acordo com a emissora Russia Today, os organizadores queriam promover um paraquedas especial.

A cena incomum chamou a atenção da polícia regional, que abriu uma investigação. "As autoridades estudam acusar os responsáveis de crueldade com os animais, (um delito) que pode ser sancionado com dois anos de prisão", destacou a Russia Today.

"O burro aterrissou de forma atroz: foi arrastado durante vários metros no mar antes de chegar, meio morto, à margem", noticiou o jornal local Taman.

Felizmente, o animal sobreviveu.

Os russos que, na semana passada, passavam o verão no povoado cossaco de Golubitskaia, às margens do mar Azov (sudoeste), ficaram consternados quando viram um burro voar de parapente, preso por um cabo a um barco que o puxava para a água, informou a polícia nesta terça-feira (20/7).

Apavorado, o burro voou durante meia hora "antes de aterrissar na água e ser arrastado por vários metros", relatou o canal de televisão Russia Today, mostrando imagens do fato disponibilizadas na inetrnet.

O animal zurrava de medo, enquanto voava diante de uma multidão de veranistas reunidos na praia.

Segundo Larissa Tuchkova, porta-voz da polícia regional, o trote com o burro fazia parte de uma campanha de publicidade improvisada em uma praia particular. De acordo com a emissora Russia Today, os organizadores queriam promover um paraquedas especial.

A cena incomum chamou a atenção da polícia regional, que abriu uma investigação. "As autoridades estudam acusar os responsáveis de crueldade com os animais, (um delito) que pode ser sancionado com dois anos de prisão", destacou a Russia Today.

"O burro aterrissou de forma atroz: foi arrastado durante vários metros no mar antes de chegar, meio morto, à margem", noticiou o jornal local Taman.

Felizmente, o animal sobreviveu.

Russian beach-goers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week, police said on Tuesday. Attached to a parachute, the animal screamed in fear as it circled over the heads of holidaymakers...

(11 votes - 4 comments - 103 views)
"Police in southern Russia will launch a probe into an initiative by local entrepreneurs who sent a donkey into the sky on a parachute in an advertising stunt. The official spokesman for the local directorate of the Interior Ministry told reporters that the parachuting donkey incident took place last Thursday on an Azov Sea beach in the Temryk District in Krasnodar. "They gave this donkey a parachute ride in order to attract holidaymakers' attention to this sort of entertainment. The donkey brayed and the children cried, but no one was smart enough to inform the police about the incident," RIA Novosti news agency quoted the official as saying Monday. The police will launch a probe and if the entrepreneurs are found guilty, they could face criminal persecution under the article on cruel treatment of animals of the Russian Criminal Code, which carries a maximum punishment of two years in prison." - YT

This needs no introduction: [dope] Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia. Loves it. Related posts:Closing Bell: Flying Out of the Airport in Your Car Your WTF of the Week: Does Boehner Have a Chimpanzee? Famous Friday [Round Up]: [...] Related posts:

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El animal rebuznaba de miedo en una isla en la península de Taman, a orillas del mar de Azov, Rusia, cuando le fue atado un parapente y se elevó al ser tirado por una barca motora, de acuerdo con la información. Los niños lloraron al ver lo ocurrido con el animal. (Vea el impactante video).

El animal rebuznaba de miedo en una isla en la península de Taman, a orillas del mar de Azov, cuando le fue atado y se elevó al ser tirado por una barca...

What’s the best way to drum up business for your parasailing operation? How about trying a donkey to the setup and flying it above a beachcrowd? That was the idea of one Russian businessman in the Sea of Azov last week — much to the horror of everyone witnessing the act of cruelty. And it got much worse when the donkey started screaming, causing kids everywhere to start crying. According the Russian newspaper Taman, “The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore.” Awful. That business owner should be hung by his balls and sent up. via Gawker

Moscú.- En el marco de una acción publicitaria, unos rusos hicieron volar a un burro en parapente, lo que podría llevar a la cárcel a los cerebros de la idea, según informan hoy medios rusos.

El animal rebuznaba de miedo en una isla en la península de Taman, a orillas del mar de Azov, cuando le fue atado un parapente y se elevó al ser tirado por una barca motora, de acuerdo con la información. Los niños lloraron al ver lo ocurrido con el animal.

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What’s the best way to drum up business for your parasailing operation? How about trying a donkey to the setup and flying it above a beachcrowd? That was the idea of one Russian businessman in the Sea of Azov last week — much to the horror of everyone witnessing the act of cruelty. And it got [...]

La discutibile iniziativa dei proprietari di una spiaggia privata sul mare di Azov, nella Russia meridionale

Holidaymakers in Russia got quite a surprise when then saw a flying donkey soaring in the blue skies above them in a beach resort on the Sea of Azov.

Telegraph -- Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia.

Russian beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia.

Taken from a distance of 400 kilometers, this astronaut photograph shows details of agricultural fields and city blocks on the Kerch Peninsula, on the shore of the Sea of Azov.

MOSCÚ, 14 (Reuters/EP)

Cada día se ahogan en Rusia decenas de personas, muchas de ellas bajo los efectos del alcohol, cuando se sumergen en lagos, estanques y playas para intentar escapar de la ola de calor que está experimentando el país, según informó este miércoles un responsable del Ministerio de Emergencias.

A menudo se ven grupos de personas que han estado bebiendo vodka, algunos con niños pequeños, que van a refrescarse a lagos y estanques de Moscú y sus alrededores, donde la ola de calor, que ya dura tres semanas, podría llegar a generar una temperatura récord de 37 grados centígrados este fin de semana.

Vadim Seryogin, director de un departamento del Ministerio, dijo en una rueda de prensa que las autoridades están "muy preocupadas por la situación actual". "Sólo en el último día se han ahogado (en Rusia) 49 personas, incluidos dos niños", afirmó.

Seryogin añadió que el pasado mes de junio murieron ahogadas más de 1.200 personas en todo el país, y otras 233 entre el 5 y el 12 de julio, el 95 por ciento en playas donde está prohibido bañarse. "La mayoría de los ahogados estaban ebrios", precisó el responsable, que señaló que "los niños murieron simplemente porque los adultos no estaban cuidándolos".

Seryogin indicó que el caso más "escandaloso" que demuestra esa incompetencia ocurrió el pasado fin de semana en el mar de Azov, en el sur del país, donde seis niños se ahogaron porque los monitores del campamento de verano donde se encontraban estaban borrachos.

Como reacción a las protestas de la opinión pública por la tragedia, el presidente ruso, Dimitri Medvedev, ha asegurado que lo ocurrido podría constituir un "delito" y ha pedido que se castigue a los responsables y que se refuerce la protección de los menores en los campamentos de verano.

Los pronósticos de los servicios meteorológicos dicen que la ola de calor --la peor registrada en Rusia desde hace varias décadas-- durará una semana más y que lo más probable es que después no bajen drásticamente las temperaturas.

how is a site like this legal in the united states or anywhere for that matter? i came across this site when i was doing a paper on sub cultures and i chose the naturist society. it just doesnt seem like it makes sense that it is at all legal

Las víctimas formaban parte de un grupo de 63 niños y 7 adultos, todos de Moscú, y que descansaban un campamento de verano.

City a major port during the 1800s. SETTING SAIL: According to the Burlington Historical Society, the two-masted schooner Azov was built in 1866 for William Bunton of Wellington Square, at the shipyard operated by John Potter and the accredited master builder John Simpson.

Russian gamblers trickle into Azov By Kevin O'Flynn AZOV CITY, Russia - It takes a bumpy, three-hour drive along crumbling roads to travel from the nearest city to this lonely outpost in the middle of a barren field.

AZOV CITY, Russia -- It takes a bumpy, three-hour drive along crumbling roads to travel from the nearest city to this lonely outpost in the middle of a barren field.

We are to talk today about one of the Soviet Union republic, Ukraine. The country is bordered by the Russian Federation to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991 when Ukraine got independence, the country continues to maintain the second largest military in Europe, after that of Russia. That year also gave a start to a period of transition to a market economy, in which Ukraine was stricken with an eight year recession.

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A new pathway across Anatolia celebrates the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi – in a landscape that has barely changed since he wandered here in the 17th century

In 1671, the great Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi, left Istanbul to undertake the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. So circuitous was his route that he took twice as long as the typical pilgrim to reach his destination.

Evliya was a courtier of the Ottoman sultan who loved to travel. For 40 years he criss-crossed the empire and beyond, from Vienna to Tabriz, from the Sea of Azov to Sudan, officially on state business, but mostly out of curiosity.

Evliya set out for Mecca with 15 horses, three companions and eight servants. Last September, I was one of six riders who embarked on an idyllic horseback expedition to retrace the early stages of his epic journey, through northwest Anatolia. Ours was the first attempt to follow one of Evliya's trails travelling as he would himself have travelled. We rode first south, then west, following in Evliya's tracks from the Sea of Marmara to the town of Simav, northeast of Izmir. Here we left his itinerary to loop back east to his ancestral home, the historic city of Kütahya, covering some 1,000km in six weeks. We aimed to establish the Evliya Çelebi Way, an equestrian and walking route (cyclists also welcome) that snakes through the ancient provinces of Bithynia and Phrygia, and also the region where the Ottoman empire was born. The Way will be the first long-distance route for riders in Turkey, and one of the handful that exist for walkers, and it takes in some of the most dramatic scenery in the country.

Horses can go anywhere. For 40 days we traversed spectacular landscapes and saw remnants of past cultures. We followed Roman roads and goat tracks, Ottoman roads and forest paths. In Turkey, unlike in Europe, there are few walls and fences. We rode along riverbeds and up and down mountains. We wound through woodland and across open plains, and walked beside cultivated fields and among laden fruit trees where local people greeted us and shared their harvest. We drank tea in isolated villages and negotiated milling cities. I had not ridden for 40 years, but revelled in my newfound freedom every stride of the way.

Our journey paid homage to a little-known individual who wrote a compendious 10-volume account of his wanderings. Unesco's decision to proclaim Evliya Man of the Year on the 400th anniversary of his birth, in 2011, will publicise his remarkable life and work – of which little except the sections on Istanbul are at present available in English.

Sparing our horses Istanbul's sprawl, we hit Evliya's trail at the small village of Hersek, two days' ride north of the walled, lakeside town of Iznik, where the early church fathers famously gathered for the first Council of Nicaea in AD325. From there we climbed up and over a mountain range to reach the broad agricultural valley of Yenisehir, and headed west, towards the 14th-century Ottoman capital of Bursa. Again avoiding the traffic, we took one of Turkey's ubiquitous minibuses into the city to explore its gracious monuments and enjoy a day at the races; not the sort where horses gallop as fast as their jockeys can make them, but the popular Anatolian sport of rahvan (ridden pacing), where galloping can bring disqualification.

From Bursa, Evliya returned east, and then south across the lower slopes of the Uludag Massif (ancient Mt Olympus), dipping briefly down and rising again to cross thickly-wooded mountains that offered breathtaking views at every turn. Emerging on to the plain, we arrived at Evliya's ancestral home, the historic city of Kütahya.

Here we bathed in the 16th-century balıklı ("fish") hammam, where Evliya would have seen the ancestors of the carp that inhabit the courtyard pool today.

We left our steeds at a new horse sports centre while we stayed in a bed after many nights in a tent. Wild camping is permitted in Turkey except in fenced areas. Each night we asked the local village authorities to suggest a level site where we could pitch our tents near one of the ubiquitous water troughs fed by springs.

Much of the stage from Kütahya to Afyon is as flat as the ocean, and still strewn with classical remains, just as described by 19th-century travellers. In the small town of Altıntas is a long section of Roman pavement culminating in a bridge that has seen better days. Afyon itself is famous for its many thermal baths and its medieval fortress high on a basalt plug. Half an hour's exertion takes you up a rock-cut staircase to the summit, where a panorama of mountain and plain spreads below you.

From Afyon we continued to the city of Usak, where we camped outside a village just short of the city. Usak also has a rich past. It was once the source of fabulous carpets rarely seen outside museums, and its museum houses a fabulous collection of gold artifacts dating from the seventh century BC. It is also famous as a centre of cirit, the other great Anatolian horse sport where riders hurl wooden javelins at one another as they dash from end to end of the pitch.

Leaving Evliya's route at Simav, we returned to Kütahya along the north of the Saphane mountain, via Çavdarhisar, a town best known as the site of the extensive classical city of Aizanoi whose ruins lie all around in romantic profusion. The most celebrated of these is the well-preserved Temple of Zeus, standing proudly on its high terrace. Our post-expedition cleansing, this time in Kütahya's thermal baths, was a welcome finale.

In September 2010, the Evliya Çelebi Way long distance cultural route will be inaugurated with the first ride organised for equine-tourists. The 17-day trip, of which nine days will be on horseback, will begin near Istanbul and finish in Kütahya.

Finding horses outside an organised expedition cannot be guaranteed, but the whole route will be accessible to walkers from next year when a guidebook based on the GPS waypoints recorded on our expedition is published by Upcountry (Turkey) Ltd. Relying also on signposts at critical junctions, other riders should then be able to follow in our – and Evliya's – tracks across this under-appreciated region of Turkey.

Best of all, our adventure is not yet over. Next year we will make another journey in Evliya Çelebi's hoofprints to establish a second Way in his honour: from Gaziantep, in southeast Turkey, to Aleppo in Syria, and back to Urfa in Turkey.

• A place on The Great Anatolian Ride (29 August-14 September or 14-30 September) can be booked through the following operators: Far And Ride from £2,572pp; Equitours from US$3,900; or Akhal-Teke Horse Riding Center, same price as Equitours.

• For more information on the Evliya Çelebi Way project, visit kent.ac.uk/english/evliya/index.html or hoofprinting.blogspot.com. In August, The Book of Travels: Evliya Çelebi's Journey Through the Ottoman World, edited and translated by Robert Dankoff and Sooyong Kim (Eland, £18.99), will be published. Caroline Finkel is the author of Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300‑1923 (John Murray, £14.99).

Pope Benedict faces an epic scandal as victims of clerical sex abuse in Ireland, Western Europe and America raise the issue of justice denied by secret tribunals that allowed predators to remain priests. Yet an editorial in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, scored the media for "an ignoble attempt to strike at Pope Benedict and his closest aides at any cost."

Benedict is grappling with an unfinished crisis that drew media coverage in America in 1992; victims' lawsuits revealed bishops who had sheltered predators from prosecution. By 1994 the coverage had ebbed. Then, in 2002, The Boston Globe gained access to voluminous documents, exposing a vast clergy sexual underground. Pope John Paul II called the American cardinals to Rome for an emergency conference. In June, the U.S. bishops enacted a youth protection charter. Lay review boards would comb clergy files and investigate new accusations. Bishops began weeding out sex offenders.

The Vatican drew the line, however, at giving these review boards the authority to investigate bishops. That decision has come back to haunt the church.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as archbishop of Boston in late 2002, remains today part of the Roman Curia and pastor of a great basilica, St. Mary Major. In recent years, at least 16 bishops who sexually abused children quietly "stepped down." One was a cardinal, Hans Hermann Groer of Austria, who has since died. A Vatican double-standard -- priests subject to defrocking, bishops quietly moving on -- has made the pope vulnerable to even greater criticism amid a new round of investigative reports.

Benedict's most immediate task is to change the Vatican's archaic system of closed tribunals, which prize secrecy. The pope is final arbiter on canon law, a sovereign who has the power of a one-man Supreme Court to intervene, halt or change a canonical decision. But changing that system is a much tougher reform than meets the eye.

Ironically, for all the bad press he is getting, Benedict has done more to confront the abuse crisis than anyone else in the Vatican. But he must choose between governing and upholding his theological vision as a moral absolutist. As many a president and prime minister has learned, the shift from an ideological stance to a pragmatic one can be laden with risk.

The root crisis lies in the church's view of apostolic succession. The pope and bishops consider themselves descendants in a spiritual lineage from Jesus's apostles. Apostolic succession is as much a part of Catholicism as icons and stained glass windows. But Judas was also an apostle -- a reminder that all humans, regardless of proximity to the Word, are capable of betraying the faith. Apostolic succession has fallen victim to hubris, the pride and entitlement of a religious elite who consider apology or penance a substitute for human justice.

Bishops answer directly to the pope, also known as Supreme Pontiff. But this monarchical system of governance is colliding with two pillars of democracy, a court system and a free press. As abuse victims clamor for the punishment of bishops, information from America holds a stirring of hope. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released data that show a 32 percent decline in reported cases of clergy abuse from last year. Most involved priests were deceased or out of ministry. The USCCB reported six victims in 2009 who were younger than 18. Six too many, yes; but after an estimated $1.8 billion in losses from payouts to victims, legal fees and therapy for sex offenders, the youth protection charter is taking hold. Moreover, 96 percent of Catholic school students have "safe environment" training to warn against improper adult behavior.

The Vatican has no youth protection charter, nor binding procedures for the world's bishops. Some church leaders, however, now see a crisis in that aloofness. Cardinal Walter Kasper of Germany bravely distanced himself from the Roman Curia in telling Italy's La Repubblica, "We have to seriously clean up the church."

Benedict faces a stark dilemma. To "clean up," he must challenge apostolic succession, start a process of sacking bishops who abused children, and demote prelates who grossly betray the trust. Such as:

- Frank Rodimer, who as bishop of Patterson, N.J., used church money to pay $250,000 after he was personally sued in a case with a priest who for several summers had sex with a boy in a beach house they shared with Rodimer. The priest went to prison. Rodimer stepped down, on reaching the retirement age at 75, and simply moved into a house the diocese bought.

- Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, who used church money to pay $450,000 in 1998 to silence a former male lover. When ABC News broke the hush money story in 2002, Weakland resigned his office -- but not his title. As archbishop, he was high-handed toward victims while playing musical chairs with pedophiles.

- Anthony O'Connell, who resigned as bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., in 2002, admitting that he abused a seminarian years before. He moved into a South Carolina monastery.

To defrock bishops who abused children would send a vital signal to all Catholics that Benedict is serious about reform. His recent letter to Irish Catholics, which followed lengthy government investigations of the church, was strongly worded. Citing "grave errors and failures of leadership," he said: "I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way church authorities in Ireland dealt with them." His words evince a deeper struggle: "I openly express the shame and remorse we all feel."

Still, his delay on the offer of four Irish bishops to resign spurred more outrage, as did his role as archbishop of Munich, decades ago, in approving treatment for a pederast. Will Benedict demote bishops for "grave errors"? That would mean a new juridical standard.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was decisive in running the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is housed in a 17th-century palazzo where Galileo the astronomer was convicted of heresy. On issues ranging from the Vatican prohibition of birth control devices to Liberation Theology of Latin America, the C.D.F. used anonymous investigators to critique the works of suspect scholars. In closed tribunals, Ratzinger and his assistants interrogated those out of step with doctrine, punishing some by excommunication or orders to keep silent for periods of time. Catholic liberals were aghast as Ratzinger clashed with some of the church's leading thinkers. The Swiss theologian, Father Hans Küng, famously called him "The Grand Inquisitor," after Dostoevsky's religious persecutor in "The Brothers Karamazov."

Ratzinger's belief in absolute moral truth drove him to confront the pedophilia scandals when just about every other Vatican leader recoiled from it.

John Paul, so brilliant a geopolitical figure, stood passive as scandals jolted America, Ireland, Canada and Australia in the 1990s. In 2001, Ratzinger persuaded the pope to take the authority for such cases from scattered Vatican offices and consolidate them in his tribunal. Insisting on secrecy from bishops sending the files, the C.D.F. began defrocking scores of priests.

Küng wrote in a March 18 essay for National Catholic Reporter: "Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide cover-up, at least pronounce his own 'mea culpa' " -- Latin for "my fault."

Küng is an esteemed scholar, but this opinion is off base. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest organization in the world, and as split as Congress in its warring tribal camps. Who could orchestrate a global cover-up of anything? The crisis arose in countries that share a base in English common law with surgical discovery procedures for secret documents. Italian law is more restrictive; Italy has reported far fewer cases. Most cardinals in the Curia look to Italy as a base line, which has created a huge myopia, to put it charitably.

In a 2005 Good Friday sermon, Ratzinger decried the "filth" that had crept into the priesthood. Several days later, in a sermon opening the conclave that would elect him pope, he gave a cri de coeur on Europe: "We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive."

The crisis of moral relativism he faces now is internal. Consider the dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, 82. As secretary of state under John Paul II, Sodano defended to the hilt the notorious Father Marcial Maciel. Maciel, who died in 2008, was a Mexican who founded the Legion of Christ, a small religious order known for militant spirituality, papal loyalty and a $650 million budget. The Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who lent The New York Times $240 million, was a major benefactor.

In 1997, nine ex-Legionaries opened their lives for the Hartford Courant, telling me and Gerald Renner how Maciel had sexually abused them in seminary. Asserting his innocence, Maciel refused to be interviewed. The Vatican was utterly silent on our questions about victim accusations against Maciel that went through church channels to Paul VI in 1976, John Paul II in 1978 and 1989. In 1998, the men filed a prosecution request in Ratzinger's tribunal. Sodano pressured Ratzinger to halt the case. Maciel and Sodano were close friends for years. As secretary of state, Sodano was effectively John Paul's prime minister. Finally, with the pope dying in 2004, Ratzinger broke ranks with Sodano and ordered an investigation. In 2005, Sodano's office stated, falsely, that the investigation was over. In 2006, Benedict banished Maciel to "a life of prayer and penitence."

The Legion then compared Maciel to Jesus for refusing to defend himself. When he died in 2008, the Legion Web site said Maciel had gone to heaven. In 2009, the Legion revealed with "surprise" that Maciel had a grown daughter. On March 4, in Mexico City, Maciel's three grown sons (by a second woman) publicly accused the Legion of denying them financial compensation. Two of the sons said Maciel had sexually abused them as boys.

A new investigation of the Legion, ordered by Benedict, is under way. If he follows his theological bearings, Benedict has the capacity to engineer radical reforms (from the Greek, meaning roots or primary things). He should disband the Legion of Christ. If he holds listening sessions with a representative group of victims, he will dramatize reconciliation to a scandal-wearied church that aches for moral leadership.

He should also convene a group of legal scholars to create a Vatican criminal court system. By forcing bishops and cardinals who have done the most damage out of the hierarchy, he can restore integrity to the concept of apostolic succession. It is probably beyond him to make the celibacy law optional; but if he takes these other hard steps to reverse the scandal, he will put himself on the right side of history. To stall or continue making merely symbolic gestures will produce an even worse spectacle.

"Justice is that virtue that gives every one his due." -- St. Augustine.

 

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