Monday, February 25, 2013

Kranj: Cardinal in Trouble. Deja Vu? Franc Frantar.

Finding the Story Behind the Statue
Franc Frantar?
Franj; or Ljubljana?

Dan and I came across this watering trough with a drowning Cardinal (see the hat? or is that a bishop's hat? or perhaps just a priest?), watched over as he goes under by a sad lady who is not an angel, no wings, and no halo, and not really looking like a Mary, and a monster beneath the water.  At first, seeing just the photo from the card, I thought it was Croatia.  No luck locating it.  Now I am looking at Dan's log, there at his feet, and the chronology of his nightly entries puts this in Kranj, Slovenia; or possibly Llubjlana. The location in the notes looks like Kranj. Or Ljubljana, not far.  The Cathedral in Ljubljana dates from the mid-15th Century, but this is a new grouping.

What issue is being addressed? Who is the Cardinal, or Bishhop? Or priest? Spoiler:  We now think this is Franc Frantar. And he was just a priest, but how did he manage to escape temporarily to Malawi with prosecution pending for child abuse, except for collaboration with a Bishop?  See FN 1



Our research:  Who knows more?  Why is this Cardinal-Bishop-Priest drowning?  What other scenario fits.

I.  First I did a search for Cardinal-drowning-monster.

That brought up a site for survivors of sexual abuse by priests, see http://nationalsurvivoradvocatescoalition.wordpress.com/vinnie-nauheimer/. So is this statuary scene part of the
drumbeat of scandal, or merely happenstance, and a local story we haven't found yet? 

In the National Survivor Advocates site are Biblical references to the manner of death shown here, but the wording does not definitely tie in with child sexual abuse.  The wording is "offend" children -- with warnings that anyone who does so should have millstones cast around their necks and drowned.  

Without taking a position on the religious interpretation, that the manner of offending referenced here is abuse.  FYI -- here is the reference, with our emphases and comment that at the least, the meaning of the original Greek was to ensnare not just "offend":
  • Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. [Offend is not the transliterated word;  ensnare is, see Strong's word numbering G4624, with Greek letters phonetically like skandallsE (scandal?), see  http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/mat18.pdf/]
  • Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. [Offend? Merely offend? Again, the word in transliteration is not "offend" but "ensnare", see G4624,  http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/mar9.pdf/]
Research continuing, and it appears that the Catholic Latin Vulgate and Douay Rheims come close to the Greek snare and scandalize, but that the King James and other Protestant versions use the washy "offense" and ambiguity more.  See http://greeknewtestament.com/B40C018.htm/; http://greeknewtestament.com/B41C009.htm#V42/; http://greeknewtestament.com/B42C017.htm#V2. Protestants:  your wording softpedals the snare.  See: says not to cause the little ones to stumble, or make trouble for them, cause a little one to sin.  Is the act of ensnaring, scandalizing, merely that?

II.  Second, I went back to Dan's entry in the green log at his feet in the picture. Dan has Down syndrome, but that does not hold him back. He writes down details that I do not, and then regret omitting.

  • Dan's entry:  "stature of man drown with octopois stature the lady folding her hands and looking at man I am beside her with tree ...." This is located as the sentence after another statue we saw, of Slovenia's paramount poet, the 19th Century Dr. France Preseren 1800-1849.  And the next entry showed Kranj to Zagreb, Croatia. The preceding entry is for Ljubljana and Lake Bled.

III.   Moving on with Dan's information - search for cleric, sexual abuse, Slovenia this time, not Croatia.

I found Wikipedia, a good starting point, but vet it yourself.  

  • Information:  Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Franc Frantar, who was detained (it says) in 2006 for "sexual abuse of up to 16 minors."  He was sentenced to prison 5 years, after having escaped to Malawi to be a missionary there, then returned to Slovenia once an Interpol warrant issued.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_by_country#Slovenia. Problem:  Wiki ran into a dead end in finding more about that name.  
  • Do a search for it, however, and a Franc Frantar appears in Slovenian articles.   
Franc Frantar:  A/k/a Franci Frantar, spellings always can vary with translation.

Search those articles, click on translate, and  the first link found does indicate in translation that he was convicted of child abuse and served some time and has been paroled, see Franc Frantar. 
Will want to check the others.  Where is he now?  On parole with  no restrictions?  Sixteen convictions, or just one?