Ioan Pop admits to sexually assaulting 10 women

It's a sad day for Ioan Pop, his family, and Romanian Christian Orthodoxy in general, but on the bright side, the abused women are finally getting some closure and Ioan Pop won’t have a chance to repeat his weird brand of sexual religiosity. As usual, I am not content with only reporting on the news; I have a few other things to say.

The news that Father Ioan Pop has admitted to a number of sexual assaults will most likely fly under the radar in Canada, as it is outclassed by news far more interesting: Canada’s Patriot Act (Bill C-51) was voted in (while the Patriot Act comes up for renewal), Omar Khadr was granted bail and spoke to the press for the first time since arrested and tortured, and parents are upset with the new sexual education curriculum which teaches kids that homosexuals exist and that masturbation, to quote Michael Jackson, “is a wonderful thing”.

A survey released only days ago shows that only one in three Canadians has an understanding of sexual consent (inbo-rape), and I suspect that understanding is even thinner among Romanians. Consensual sex means positive verbal or behavioural consent AND ongoing affirmation and I’ve a feeling that most men and some women are rapists by that definition. But forget all that, it’s far more interesting to focus on what the Romanian “Western Journal” titled “Romanian priest, crazy sex in the burial chamber” (jdv-pop).

And indeed, the details are rather cringe-worthy (ts-pop).

• Ioan Pop, 56, used his holy position to fondle, kiss and make unwanted sexual advances at women from April 1, 1999 through September 2013. The assaults occurred while victims were seeking religious services such as confessions, weddings and funerals.
• Pop also tried to confine, seduce and spark an affair with a despondent woman in 1999. He vowed to curse her and her family for generations if she exposed him, court heard.
• Pop pleaded guilty to seven sexual assault charges but he also admitted the facts on three other allegations. Those facts can then be weighed by the judge as an aggravating factor on sentencing, which could result in a more severe sentence.
• Crown attorney Jackie Garrity read out the disturbing facts to Justice Peter Hryn. The Romanian women, whose identifies are covered by a publication ban, ranged in age from early 20s to mid-30s.
• One woman was kissed on the mouth by Pop while he was performing a memorial service for her grandmother in All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church in February 2009. Another married woman had her breast groped and her knee kissed by Pop during a confession in November or December 2011. He also told her what he would do to her sexually “if he were her husband,” and then told her she was “his angel and that he wanted to spend days with her,” said Garrity.
• One victim had emigrated to Canada with her husband and young child, court heard. Her husband became gravely ill. The devoted wife attended his hospital bed every day and in July ’99, she reached out to Pop to bless her dying spouse. The woman and Pop were going to the hospital when they stopped off at a friend’s home “to pick up some religious robes,” court heard. Once inside, Pop propositioned the woman, who vehemently rejected him. He restrained her by his forceful hugs as she threatened to scream to escape. “Pop said, ‘No one would know as he was a priest and he could not tell anyone,’” said Garrity. The terrified, crying woman finally left with Pop, court heard. He threatened to curse her and her family “for generations to come” if she revealed the incident. The victim took “this threat very seriously” and never reported it until after the police first charged Pop in September 2013 after another woman complained he molested and licked her in church when she sought his help in a child custody matter, Garrity said. The ’99 victim and 12 others came forward after the 2013 victim’s complaint was made public.
• In another incident, Pop, now 56, visited a 24-year-old East York woman’s apartment home to bless it in July 2006. “Pop suddenly stopped the ritual and began crying and talking to the victim about women who suffer breast cancer, describing the fact that many women do not survive this illness,” Garrity told Hryn. “Ultimately, he offered to bless the woman’s breasts. She was concerned that the priest had some kind of premonition that she herself may have breast cancer.” The victim agreed to the blessing. He “put his hand inside her top, making the sign of the cross of her bare nipples with holy water to purportedly bless her breasts,” Garrity said. He then “hugged her tightly for about 30 seconds ... in what the victim perceived to be a sexual manner.”
• Pop, who emigrated to Canada in 1999 with his wife and two children, started a religious community in East York and then built the All Saints Romanian Orthodox Church at 545 Danforth Rd. in Scarborough, where he served from 2004 until 2013. He’s now barred by a court order from practising as a priest.
• “He was a very caring priest who contributed so much to the Romanian community, from fundraising to accommodating the poor and distressed families,” his prominent lawyer Joseph Neuberger said.
• Pop “went beyond the boundaries of permissible behaviour after his daughter’s tragic death a few years after he came to Canada,” the lawyer said.

Meanwhile, in Romania, after having scored a massive victory in the indoctrination of the young, the Church (BOR), taking a page from Islam’s book, managed to force the City Hall to remove a mural painting with St George, without as much as an official request (gn-sfgh):

Obie Platon, Kero and Irlo, the artists who, supported by Interesting Times Bureau, painted a mural on a building in the Square St. George in Bucharest, are having to remove the work, due to the pressure of the Church. The priests who serve the church in the area claim that although they have not made any formal complaint, parishioners warned that the painting in question might undermine the Christian religion. "Artists have discussed with the Town Hall, the Town Hall was willing to give their consent also for other buildings in the area, but at the same time, the signals were that any conflict with the church is undesirable". (See more on Perjovschi.)

Is there any wonder that I’m losing my religion?

With all the above, an argument can still be made that father Ioan Pop is innocent and simply could not afford to defend himself, but I won’t bother unless more than one commenter requests it.

Sources / More info: ts-pop, jdv-pop, gn-sfgh, inbo-rape

Zamo, ioan pop, pop, popa, father, religie, religion, rape, sexual assault, viol (Tags)