John Paul II went to Pedophiles' Paradise

John Paul II went to Pedophiles’ Paradise in May 2, 1984, Fairbanks, Alaska. He led a Liturgy of the Word in Fairbanks. It was his third landing in American soil. He said Mass in Anchorage, Alaska in Feb. 26, 1981.

Ironically John Paul II’s first visit to the USA was here in Boston where he connived with Cardinal Law on how to cover-up the priest-pedophilia in the USA. In 1985, Tom Doyle gave his intensive research about priest-pedophilia in New Orleans to John Paul II (see our earlier articles) and he was fired from his job as Chaplain of the US Navy.

This is the list of John Paul II’s 7 trips to the USA. From 1979 to 1999 it covers the span of exactly 20 years until his health became frailer. 20 years is a lot of time to do something to stop priest-pedophilia in the USA – but he did NOTHING. NADA.

1. October 1979: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington
2. Feb. 26, 1981: Anchorage, Alaska
3. May 2, 1984: Fairbanks, Alaska
4. September 1987: Miami, Colombia (South Carolina), New Orleans, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Monterey, Carmel, San Francisco, Detroit
5. August 1993: Denver (World Youth Day)
6. October 1995: Newark, New York, Baltimore
7. January 1999: St. Louis

John Paul II is the most travelled pope in history. He should have seen for himself the most heinous crime against children in Catholic history.

But his obsession to be called “the Great” blinded his Holy See, and as history now proves it, all he could see was his own image in the media, especially on TV where he was like a rock superstar. He had an entourage of photographers and video-recorders of his Masses that drew people by the hundreds of thousands.

He kissed a few well-dressed bathed baby every now and then. Unfortunately, the children who needed him most were out-of-sight and out-of-mind. SNAP Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests were forbidden and anathema to his Holy See, Holy Nose and his papal presence. He lived in the ivory tower of the Vatican Palace out-of-touch with reality.

John Paul II wanted to paint a perfect papacy free from Papal Sin and Priest-Pedophilia. But history now proves it, he covered-up his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army see www.jp2army.blogspot.com together with his right hand man then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger now Benedict XVI, God’s Rottweiler see www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com.

John Paul II went to Pedophiles' Paradise in Fairbanks in 1984.

John Paul II msut not be called a Blessed nor a Saint in American soil and by American children.

Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America


Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leader

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 priests - John Paul II

=======

Racism in Fairbanks: “The Pedophiles’ Paradise”

http://secondrape.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/pedophiles-paradise/

Videos and Letters Expose the Bishop of Fairbanks’ Dirty Fingerprints. He knew kids were being raped and he covered it up.

Or: Father Jim Poole, The Great Lover of the World (his words, not mine)
There’s more to the story of Fr. Jim Poole, SJ, subject of my last post.

Seattle’s weekly paper, The Stranger (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-pedophiles-paradise/Content?oid=1065017), wrote a gripping story about Rachel Mike and other victims of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Fairbanks. The story outlines how dozens of child rapists were sent to Fairbanks to “Get them off the grid” and fill jobs where these men could rape hundreds of Alaska Native kids.
Rachel Mike was one of the kids.

Born in St. Michael (click to read William Lobdell’s LA Times story about the village http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-alaska20051119,0,1873868.story), Rachel, a Yup’ik Eskimo, grew up in abject poverty with alcoholic parents. She often suffered from the effects of starvation. By fifteen, she had tried to kill herself three times. Poole sank his claws into her after her second attempt. She was 14.

He started raping her. Soon, she had gonorrhea and was pregnant.

What did Poole do when he discovered that she was carrying his child? He had a plan: he told the starving child to say that her father raped her. So she did.
Her father went to jail. He died before she was able to tell him the truth. When Rachel came forward in 2004 to name Poole as her abuser, the Diocese of Fairbanks tried to get the case thrown out on the statute of limitations – they weren’t saying that she was lying, they said that she came forward too late.

There was too much proof that Poole was a monster for them to deny Rachel’s story.
The Proof:

– Poole had already been sent to a “Perp Camp” in New Mexico. We have the video of him talking about it – and he tells us that he was “the great lover of the world” (click here to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w41yF8epB-E).

– Around the same time in 1986, another victim was coming forward to complain about Poole. What did Fairbanks Bishop Kaniecki say? “Tried to cover all based, yet not admit anything … Nip this mess in the bud.” (Click here to read
http://secondrape.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/nip-this-mess-in-the-bud-7-16-86.pdf)

– In 1998, Fairbanks Bishop Kaniecki was actively working to erase the memory of Jim Poole by making sure that old KNOM tapes of Poole (used for fundraising) were never played. He was afraid that Poole’s white victims would hear the tapes and come forward and report. According to Kaneicki, white victims coming forward would be “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” and they would see lawsuits and scandal. (Click here to read http://secondrape.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/bishop-kanieck-sj-to-bob-grimm-sj-re-poole-sundborg.pdf). (The letter also throws Seattle University President Fr. Steven Sundborg SJ under the bus)

Conclusion

– We have proof that Poole and dozens of other men molested Alaska Native kids,
– We have proof that the Diocese of Fairbanks knew about it,
– We have proof the Diocese of Fairbanks dumped perps in the Alaska Native Villages,
– We have proof that the Diocese of Fairbanks tried to cover it up,
– We have proof that the Diocese of Fairbanks lied about abuse to victims when they came forward, and
– We have proof that the Diocese of Fairbanks is racist …
So, what is the Diocese going to do about it? They seem to think that offering $5500 to victims will take care of it.

I don’t agree.
________________________________________
Possibly related posts:
• A Lesson To The Diocese Of Fairbanks: It Doesn’t Pay To Be Racist And The… (http://secondrape.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/a-lesson-to-the-diocese/
• “If anyone knows about child rape, it’s the Diocese of Fairbanks” (http://secondrape.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/if-anyone-knows-about-child-rape-its-the-diocese-of-fairbanks/)
• Is the Diocese of Fairbanks Racist? Part II (http://secondrape.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/is-the-diocese-of-fairbanks-racist-part-ii/)

John Paul II the pope of apathy to be beatified soon

How can a pope who had no compassion nor compunction for any of the thousands of victims of priest pedophiles in the USA and around the world be beatified? Pope John Paul II had more than 26 years to do somthing to stop the stench of priest pedophilia under his Holy See and holy nose. He was the longest reigning pope who lived well hand-in-hand with priest-pedophilia.

For a pope to be able to tolerate the most grevious sin that has affected thousands of children, he cannot be called a blessed or a saint. Most of all, children cannot be praying to him for help because when he was alive, he intentionally refused to help them. Now that he is dead, he cannot help them either.

Pope John Paul II was a pope of apathy towards the children who suffered the most - a living hell - under the bestial lustful hands of priest pedophiles. That is why the more than 6,000 are called aptly his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army www.jp2army.blogspot.com. See how Benedict XVI-Ratzinger God's Rottweiler covered-up the priest-pedophilia www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com

Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America


Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leader

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 6,000 priests - John Paul II

===========

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/6487440/Pope-John-Paul-II-to-be-beatified-within-months.html

Pope John Paul II 'to be beatified within months'

The late Pope John Paul II could be beatified within months, setting him on the path to full sainthood, according to reports in Italy.

By Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 4:50PM GMT 02 Nov 2009

Pope John Paul II: Pope John Paul II 'to be beatified within months'

The late Pope John Paul II could be beatified within months, setting him on the path to full sainthood

The mayor of Rome, who would play a pivotal role in organizing the event, said the beatification of John Paul is expected to take place "at the latest" by 2010.

Speaking on a visit to Krakow, in the former Pope's native Poland, Gianni Alemmano said: "These are internal decisions (for the Vatican) but it is expected to take place at the latest by next year."

Vatican observers say the most likely date for the beatification would be April next year, on the fifth anniversary of the popular Pontiff's death.

Beatification precedes canonisation and involves a complicated process including the verification of miracles attributed to the person being considered.

A miracle normally takes the form of the curing of a disease or affliction which has no scientific explanation. A second miracle is then required for sainthood.
In John Paul's case, the miracle under consideration is said to have taken place when a French nun was cured of Parkinson's disease.

The process leading to sainthood usually takes decades, but Pope Benedict XVI launched the beatification process for John Paul just two months after his predecessor's death on April 5, 2005.

During the summer, the former Pope's spokesman said the beatification process would not be delayed by the publication in Poland of correspondence between John Paul and a female compatriot.

Wanda Poltawska, who was one of a handful of people by the Pope's bedside when he died, published a book with extracts of letters that she exchanged with John Paul, whom she met in 1962 while he was in Krakow. It is due to be published in Italy in February.

There is no suggestion that they had a romantic relationship, but some Roman Catholic Church officials were reportedly annoyed that she had "exaggerated" her friendship with the late pontiff and that the relationship would have to be scrutinised as part of the beatification process.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who ran the Vatican press office for 22 years, said there was no special connection between Mrs Poltawska, 88, and the former Pope.

John Paul II money: After clergy abuse settlements, a new suffering

John Paul II does not deserve to be called a saint in Americn soil and by American lips. His Achilles Heel which is his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army www.jp2army.blogspot.com continue to cause miseries to victims adn their families like this story of David Guererro.


After clergy abuse settlements, a new suffering

For some, money meant to soothe victims’ wounds has made things worse



Image: David Guerrero

David Guerrero, 41, is an abuse victim who received a settlement from the Roman Catholic church. For Guerrero, the money has seeped like a poison into his every relationship.

Chris Carlson / AP
updated 3:59 p.m. ET, Sat., Sept . 26, 2009


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33033999/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts

LOS ANGELES - David Guerrero lies curled like a small child in bed, his teeth chattering and his fever spiked at 104 degrees. He has left his room only once since he crawled home from his latest crystal meth binge three days ago, to let his mother drive him to the emergency room for his soaring temperature.


Now, Minerva Guerrero hovers close to her 41-year-old son, making a mental list of the day ahead: she must change his bed linens, nurse him, pick up his new prescriptions.


Sixty miles away and days later, Dominic Zamora rages at his father, who suspects he bought a house in someone else's name.


You're not my father, Dominic screams. You just want my money. When the 36-year-old finally calls his parents three weeks later, he is drunk and angry at the world — and most especially, at them.


This was not the future the Guerreros and the Zamoras imagined when their sons received millions from the Roman Catholic church to settle claims they were molested by their childhood priests. But that was before the money ushered in a new and never-ending nightmare.


The money was meant to soothe the victims' wounds and be a bridge to a better life, and for many it did. But for a few, the most deeply scarred, the six- and seven-figure checks have instead made things far worse.


For these victims, the money has seeped like a poison into every relationship and laid bare feelings of anger, mistrust, bitterness and guilt that have been buried deep in their families for years. It has fed drug habits and alcohol binges, divided siblings and fueled resentment in parents who walked through hell with their children, only to find rejection and blame on the other side.


Years after the settlements, these families, once united against the church, are slowly becoming divided — and the money is in the middle.


"He's got a lot of hate inside of him because of what happened to him and he's passed it on to everybody in the family," said Robert Guerrero, who lives with his wife in a home his son David bought with settlement money. "I'm going to suffer when I go home tonight and when I go to sleep, I'm going to think about David and I suffer every time I think about him. That's just the way life is today."


'Can't hide it no more'


Worse, these families have nothing to show for their emotional agony: The millions are gone, spent on flashy cars and art collections, drugs and alcohol and scams by investors who no longer return phone calls.


Wild spending and family dysfunction are common among people who come into fast money, said Steven Danish, a professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University who's studied the psychology of lottery winners.


But clergy abuse victims, emotionally ravaged, are especially at risk: "All the stuff that is hidden and has been brooding down there all of a sudden has this way to escape," Danish said.


"There's a lot of unconscious, or subconscious, motivation to punish members of their family — and maybe to punish themselves."

The agony of this small cluster of victims has been overlooked amid the stories of hundreds who have managed to move on after the money — to become authors and attorneys, to kick drug habits, to find forgiveness.


But a half-dozen of these families have managed to find each other and create a measure of stability in their unhinged lives through regular potlucks and phone calls and e-mails. And they are convinced they are not alone.


"Sometimes I think half the families out there are going through the same things we are, but they're ashamed to say anything," said Frank Zamora, Dominic's father. "But it's already out in the open. You can't hide it no more."


Raw emotion


Days after the attorneys deposited $700,000 from the Roman Catholic church into Dominic Zamora's bank account, he left a slurred, angry message on his parents' answering machine: "You treat me like a little stepchild."


Image:Chris Carlson / AP
Dominic Zamora with his dog at his home near Los Angeles.

The drunken message was the opening volley in a fierce and protracted battle over control of the settlement, a battle that plays on unresolved feelings of guilt and betrayal so intense that after one fight, Dominic's father blacked out at the sight of his son walking up the driveway.


Today, Dominic and his parents rarely speak, and they believe Dominic has entrusted what remains of the $700,000 to a bail bondsman named Dave whom he met on the streets of Whittier. He owns eight cars, including a '53 Imperial and a '66 Thunderbird, and two flatbed tow trucks — even though he lost his license for drunken driving.


His parents are afraid to ask how much money, if any, is left from the settlement he received last fall.


"I used to manage his money but I was so upset that I went to the bank and I withdrew his money in a cashier's check and I said, 'Here, I don't want your money. You can stick it where the sun don't shine,'" said his father.

"Ever since that money came in, it's just an argument each time we see him."


CONTINUED : Devil's horn dripping in blood — and cash

'Freak'

Childhood photos of Dominic show an angelic-looking little boy in a short-sleeved dress shirt, with neatly combed hair and a shy, inquisitive smile and piercing, deep green eyes.

Three decades later, his arms snake with angry ink, chilling tattoos of skeletons with twisted faces that represent the devil and a pair of clowns grimacing with exaggerated grins and sneers. His cell phone rings to the song "I Need A Freak" by Too Short: "I need a freak, to hold me tight/I need a freak, every day and every night."


Earlier this year, he tattooed a devil's horn dripping red blood on each temple.



He blames his mother for sending him to be an altar boy at the parish church where his childhood priest got him drunk on communion wine and molested him for years. He blames his father for not standing up to her.

Their punishment, he says, is to watch him spend the church's money any way he wants — on cars, on a string of girlfriends and on the alcohol that has left him with just 10 percent of his liver.


"I blame it on them a lot. Everyone tells me forgive and forget, but how am I going to forgive something like that?" he said. "I think I'm torturing them, which I shouldn't have to be doing to my parents. They're after the money, they wanted the money."


"I ain't got no feelings for them. Like I said, I hatched from an egg. And the money made it worse."


Relentless


Dominic's anger torments his father, a Vietnam veteran who is plagued with guilt because he did not protect his son.

For penance, he takes the abuse, the rejection and the anger — and when Dominic calls, he still comes running. When he arrives, Dominic leaves.


"He takes off and I'm there but I just, I just...," he said, trailing off. "It doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing anything and the guilt is still there. I can't make it up, I can't reverse the time."


But where Dominic's father is crippled by grief, his mother is more matter-of-fact.


Before the settlement, she would stand at his bedroom door in the middle of the night and listen with her heart in her throat as her youngest son thrashed and cried out in his sleep: "Don't hurt me, don't hurt me! I'll do what you say, I'll do what you want."

But over time, she has become hardened by his blistering anger over the money.


"If you could give me back my son's childhood, I'd gladly take that back because he had a future," she said. "Now he has no future, you see him, he has no future."


Life upside down


A year after David Guerrero received his money, he spent $40,000 to open a used modern furniture store in Palm Springs. His parents, Minerva and Robert, worked there at his request.



Image:Chris Carlson / AP
David Guerrero, 41, left, with his mother and father Minerva and Robert Guerrero near Los Angeles.

But when David called suddenly to tell them he was about to pay $20,000 for another store packed with secondhand goods, his parents rushed to intervene. They arrived too late; David had closed the deal.


As they walked into the new store, David dropped the keys in their hands. As he strode out, he told his parents: "This is your store now. Deal with it."

The Guerreros cleaned out the abandoned shop.


"We felt we had to do something or we would get yelled at," said Minerva Guerrero, as she recalled the incident. "It was like David was the parent and we were the children. We're the parents and David's the child, but it was the other way around. That's what I felt like."


The $4 million changed David, his parents say, and in changing him, it altered their family dynamic forever.


It left them with a son who would buy what he wanted, said what he wanted, did what he wanted to do. If he wanted to get high, he would leave for San Diego with no notice and come home days later to his mother's care.


In the nearly five years since his settlement, he has bought a stable of thoroughbred horses, luxury saddles and a vast collection of modern art, photography and art deco furniture. He gave $100,000 to a woman who told him the prince of Dubai was going to build a lavish development in the desert and spent $250,000 to build a yogurt shop that never opened.


He spent it all. His health insurance has run out and earlier this month, he applied for welfare.


CONTINUED : The blame game goes on and on

Is there hope?

His parents, who live with him in a new two-story home bought with David's money, are powerless to intervene. They have talked about moving out, but they are afraid if they do, their son will overdose or commit suicide.

"He says, 'Well, I bought you a home, what other kid would do that for their parents? You live comfortable, you have everything you want,'" Minerva Guerrero said. "Well, I could live in a tent and be happy rather than live in a home like this with all these problems, these problems with David. This is not normal."


When David is sober and upbeat, he opens the door to self-reflection and acceptance and his natural charisma shines through. He talks in a rapid, stream-of-consciousness monologue about forgiveness, going to catechism classes and how much he loves his parents.

His dark hair is slicked back and an open-chested cotton shirt and baggy jeans make him look half his age.

"I don't want to be a victim anymore, I want to be somebody that can redeem myself," he said. "I think I blamed my dad for not being there for me, I think I tried to blame whoever I could. I tried to blame whoever I possibly could because I had no other way of understanding what was going on with me."


'That's all I can do'


But David's mood swings erratically, and when he reflects on the money he's lost, and the broken relationships, he grows resentful.

His parents "think the money has caused conflict, but you just have to live with it. I just have to live with the damage that's been done," David said. "That's all I can do."


He blames his family, he blames his attorney, he blames his financial adviser, he blames his bookkeepers and he blames his friends.


"Everybody knew this was going to happen," David said, his voice thin and high with anger. "How come I wasn't warned enough?"

Still, there have been signs of hope.




Image:Chris Carlson / AP
Dominic Zamora at a rehabilitation center near Los Angeles.


It's been almost a month since Dominic checked into alcohol rehab, the judge's alternative to a three-year prison term for back-to-back drunken driving convictions. The program is a Christian one, and each morning Dominic rises at dawn and gathers for prayer with his fellow alcoholics.


"I never thought I'd be back in a church again, and here I am," he said, his voice suddenly gentle. "I like it here." He recently saw a psychologist.


'Prodigal son'


David, too, is staying clean for the first time in months. The crystal meth finally overwhelmed him and nearly killed him. Now, he drives to Palm Springs every day for group therapy and, so far, he's come home every night.


These halting, fragile steps are a poor bet against a lifetime of failures and false starts, but for the Zamoras and the Guerreros, they are everything. The money is gone — and, for the first time, they dare to hope that their sons are still there.

"I say to myself, he's my prodigal son," said Frank Zamora. "He went away, but he's going to come home."

John Paul II'c clone Cardinal Mahony harbored many known pedophile priests

We have featured Cardinal Mahony many times in this website and as time goes by more proofs emerge that he harbored the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army in Los Angeles. And he and those evil priests are free to preach and live the lifestyle of the rich and famous while the Jesuits who work with the poorest like Jon Sobrino are silenced by Benedict XVI and Opus Dei Bishops see Benedict XVI-Ratzinger God's Rottweiler www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com John Paul II does not deserve to be called a saint in American soil and by American lips and American children.




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← Listen to a sermon based on “Losing My Religion

(Another) smoking gun found in Cardinal Mahony’s mishandling of sexually abusive priests


September 19th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Mahony ignored church policy and didn’t inform parishioners about allegations of clergy sexual abuse, one of his top lieutenants testified.

In an institution that supposedly devotes itself to God and truth, you had to wonder: When would someone within Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s inner circle break ranks and tell the truth about how His Eminence actually handled claims of clergy sexual abuse?

Since the Catholic sex scandal broke in 2002, Mahony, with the help of his PR team, created a persona as a a long-time reformer who was way ahead of the curve when it came to tackling the problem of priests who molested minors. To listen to him, you would think he was the victims’ best friend.

Of course, the facts said otherwise. Evidence has shown Mahony harbored many known pedophile priests, some of whom went on to molest others. Still, no one in Mahony’s inner circle of brother priests and advisers ever stepped forward to say exactly what happened. “Careers over kids” is how many people saw it.



Msgr. Richard Loomis testified that Mahony ordered him not to call the authorities. Now, under oath this week in a deposition, Msgr. Richard Loomis, the former vicar of clergy for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, reluctantly told the story of how his boss handled in 2000 allegations of sexual abuse of two minors brought against Father Michael Baker. (Remember, Baker had admitted to Mahony in 1986 that he had molested two different boys; the priest remained in ministry, often unsupervised.) For Watergate buffs, Loomis appears to be a more reluctant John Dean.

In a tense deposition with plaintiff attorney John Manly, Loomis testified that:

Mahony ordered him to ignore official archdiocesan policy and not inform parishes of the allegations.

Mahony gave two reasons for deviating from the policy. Loomis said the cardinal first said he was concerned about the pending litigation. Later, Mahony said he didn’t want to disrupt the process of getting Baker removed from the priesthood.
Loomis was so upset at the cardinal’s action that he sent him an e-mail in which he cut and pasted the archdiocesan policy that was being violated.

Mahony ordered no more announcements made in parishes about any new clergy sexual abuse allegations.

Loomis wanted to contact law enforcement about Baker’s allegations and behavior, but Mahony ordered him not to.

Members of the Sexual Abuse Advisory Board were also upset at Mahony’s decision, but none informed law enforcement to the allegations.

Loomis would have considered resigning over Mahony’s order, but had a short time left in his tenure as vicar of clergy.

After stepping down as vicar of clergy, Loomis made one more attempt to get the archdiocese to make announcements in the parishes because Baker had been removed from the priesthood. He said his request went nowhere.

In legal papers filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court, Manly said that the church’s attorney, Don Woods, “repeatedly obstructed the deposition process … by excessive objections, inappropriate hand gestures, whispering in the witness’s ear …” Woods instructed Loomis to not answer “in excess of 50 questions,” including where the priest lived.

In court papers, Manly, who is representing another alleged victim of Baker, is asking a judge to prevent Woods from “making objections other than privilege or form, cease from coaching his witnesses, cease from taking breaks during lines of questioning.”

Loomis, who himself had allegations of sexual abuse brought against him in 2003, is on administrative leave and refused to say if a church court had found him innocent or guilty of the allegations.

It will be interesting how the archdiocese spins this. Will Mahony’s team go after the credibility of Loomis? Or will they simply hope that the majority of media and parishioners are too numb to handle any more Catholic sex scandal news and this will all quickly fade away?

It’s also intriguing that Loomis said Mahony’s orders were given in e-mails and memos. There should be a paper trial that Manly can follow.

Bottom line: The testimony of Loomis is a bombshell that, in any institution other than the Catholic Church, would spark an internal investigation and, if found true, lead to the firing of the boss. Don Woods, the church’s attorney, sensed its gravity. In the deposition, it’s almost comical how many different ways Woods tries to get Loomis to shut up.

We already knew that Mahony kept known molesters in ministry (including two convicted felons!), and that some continued to abuse children. Now, according to Loomis, we also know how little regard Mahony had for the children of the archdiocese, unilaterally suspending the church’s own policy to avoid public scandal and perhaps his own skin.

With this new perspective, the recent words of J. Michael Hennigan, an attorney representing Mahony and the archdiocese, ring hallow.

Hennigan told the Los Angeles Times that “the archdiocese aggressively investigates every allegation or suspected incident, and in those cases looks for other victims. If SNAP has other information, they should deliver it to us and we will pursue it as we have done in the past.”

But Mahony’s testimony in court in March now seems even more disingenuous.

“If anyone has knowledge that a child was in danger,” he said, “any human being has to do something about it.“

Tags: Faith and Doubt

2 responses so far ↓

1 Voice from the Desert » Blog Archive » Another Cardinal Mahony smoking gun // Sep 20, 2009 at 12:44 am

[...] From the website of William Lobdell, http://williamlobdell.com/archives/1005 [...]
2 Eauchiche // Sep 20, 2009 at 2:36 am

No one should wonder then, why there are so many “reluctant” Atheists and Agnostics!

9/11 anniversary of victims of John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army

This JP2M web/blog was inspired by a vision of St. Michael the Archangel in July 2002 when the late John Paul II came to America for his last WYD World Youth Day.

It is now 2009 and after 7 years and the Catholic Church in the USA has paid more than 2 billion dollars to vicitms, Ireland is now erupting with its own share of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army www.jp2army.blogspot.com the "great" John Paul II left behind -- through the great cover-up by Benedict XVI www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com and the Opus Dei who controlled his 26 years papacy!

The mission of JP2M is to be in solidarity with the victims of the 26 years papacy of John Paul II -- by showing to America and the world why John Paul II must never be called a "saint" in American lips, in American soil and in every nation where his army, the JPIIPP John Paul II Pedophile Priests reigned in secrecy and cover-up under his Holy See......


Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America


Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leader

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 5,478 priests - John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Opus Dei - the Vatican trinity



Excuses like "I was not aware", "the dog ate my homework", " I spoke out" are not going to cut it with Christ who has been reported by Gospel writers to have said: "Woe to whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea......"

John Paul II's pedophile priests abuse hearing hinges on memory, time

Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei who has a battalion of members who are lawyers and judges are working 24/7 to persuade - the courts to count as nothing - the past memories and experiences of the thousands of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army www.jp2army.blogspot.com and God's Rottweiler www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com

But John Paul II will always have the Achilles Heel of his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army which will cost him his canonization to sainthood.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090821/NEWS02/908210340/Priest+abuse+hearing+hinges+on+decades-old+memory

Priest abuse hearing hinges on memory, time

By Robert King
Posted: August 21, 2009

* Read Comments(32)

John Doe RG, as he is known in court papers, always struggled with trusting people. Personal relationships usually lasted no more than a year. His second-guessing of his bosses sent him hopping from job to job.But it wasn't until 2003 that his therapist asked him a question that would unravel his life and rattle the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis: "Do you have any sexual abuse in your past?""I sat there for a second and it was like a light switch went on," he said in an interview with The Indianapolis Star. "I just remember staring at the bookcase in front of me. I said, 'Yeah, there was an incident with a priest.' "

That memory, unlocked after lying dormant since the mid-1970s, is the subject of a court hearing today in Marion County that will prove critical to the course of John Doe RG's lawsuit against the archdiocese -- a somewhat unusual claim in Indiana because it is based on what psychiatrists refer to as "repressed memories."
The Star generally does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Normally, cases of childhood abuse must be filed by a victim's 20th birthday. But Judge David Dreyer must decide whether to grant an exception for John Doe RG, who filed his at age 40, based on the argument that he had no memory of the abuse until he was 38.

Attorney Patrick Noaker, representing John Doe RG, says the statute doesn't apply when a victim recovers his memory of childhood abuse later in life. He says his client had a two-year window to file the case from the time he recovered the memory, a deadline he beat by three days.

Attorney Jay Mercer, representing the archdiocese, says there's not enough scientific consensus about the concept of repressed memories to grant such an exception to the statute of limitations.

Repressed-memory cases are relatively rare in Indiana, said Henry Karlson, an emeritus professor of law at Indiana University. But state courts have recognized the phenomena and allowed it to be used as a basis for staying, or extending, the statutes of limitation.

John Doe RG, a former altar boy at St. Andrew Catholic Church, said memories came back to him of a priest named Harry Monroe, who John Doe RG says sexually abused him in the church rectory and on camping trips.

Monroe was assigned to parishes in Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Tell City from 1974 to 1984. The lawsuit John Doe RG filed in 2005 was the first of 13 that alleged Monroe was a child molester and that the archdiocese either neglected to protect children or, in some cases, kept the abuse hidden from public view.

Monroe was never prosecuted, because the criminal statutes of limitations had expired. Now out of the priesthood and living in Tennessee, he admitted in a deposition that he sexually molested at least five of the 13 boys who brought allegations. He wouldn't rule out others but said he couldn't remember. One of the cases he wouldn't confirm was that of John Doe RG.Of the 13 lawsuits, John Doe RG's is the only one to involve repressed memories.

To support their positions in the case, both sides have secured Harvard University experts to testify.

The archdiocese has turned to Dr. Harrison Pope, a professor of psychiatry who asserts, according to court documents, that there are serious questions about repressed memories in the scientific community and that there is a lack of consensus on the disorder, which some say is overly diagnosed.

John Doe RG has turned to Dr. James A. Chu, an associate professor of psychiatry, who says the only doubters of repressed memory are those who work in laboratories and aren't treating patients. Among clinicians, he said, there is no real debate. And although there's no biological test for the accuracy of a recovered memory, his experience with those that can be verified has been that they are amazingly accurate.

Until John Doe RG filed his suit, there had been no publicity about Monroe's abuse.

Yet Noaker said the memory he retold bore strong similarities to the dozen cases that would follow -- abuse that took place on camping trips and in St. Andrew's church rectory. His mother also remembered John Doe RG going on camping trips with Monroe.

The recovery of the memories in 2003 sent John Doe RG's life into a tailspin.

Over the course of eight sessions, he said, he began remembering bits and pieces of the abuse.

Throughout his life, he's had an aversion to baby powder. John Doe RG remembered Monroe using baby powder during one of their encounters. Memories came back in other settings, too, even during sex. Things got so bad that John Doe RG, now a 44-year-old business executive who lives out of state, found himself sobbing at his desk at work during the middle of the day.

"At that point, the lid was off Pandora's box," John Doe RG said. "And I looked inside."In today's hearing, the archdiocese isn't challenging the truthfulness of John Doe RG, just his legal claim.

Mercer said the legal avenues that typically allow a case to go forward so long after the normal statute of limitations has expired don't apply here. He said discovering the abuse late in life has been rejected in Indiana courts as a reason to allow a case involving a childhood injury to go forward. And Mercer said the church can't have concealed information about abuse that the plaintiff didn't remember for 28 years.

Finally, he said John Doe RG waited almost two years to file his lawsuit after recovering his memory. Mercer said Indiana courts require cases to be brought in a "reasonable" amount of time. And some courts have said waiting even 13 months is too long to be "reasonable."

That, said Noaker, the attorney for John Doe RG, is going to be up to the judge to decide.

Comments


jstempko wrote:
They need to weed out the sex perverts BEFORE they go to the seminary. It's a hard life to give up women but they should not turn to little boys.

If found suspicious the Archbishop should fire these guys BEFORE they cause trouble - Multi-Million dollar lawsuits.

Same thing for Nuns.
8/23/2009 8:24:13 AM
They need to weed out the sex perverts BEFORE they go to the seminary. It's a hard life to give up women but they should not turn to little boys.

If found suspicious the Archbishop should fire these guys BEFORE they cause trouble - Multi-Million dollar lawsuits.

Same thing for Nuns. jstempko



They need to weed out the sex perverts BEFORE they go to the seminary. It's a hard life to give up women but they should not turn to little boys.

If found suspicious the Archbishop should fire these guys BEFORE they cause trouble - Multi-Million dollar lawsuits.

Same thing for Nuns.jstempko


otherview2 wrote:
As a victim of sexual abuse by a priest in the Catholic church some 30 some years ago (and I remember all of it) for me to blame my successes and/or failures on what happen since then I believe is wrong. I am accountable for what I did with my life after the abuse. For me to sue the church for what happened that far back in my life for me would be a selfish act of greed and revenge. Where do the Gospel and the word of God fit into this? “For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (Matthew 6: 14)”.

If they are still molesting children, I agree they need to be stopped but to seek revenge on those from year gone and make the whole church suffer is also wrong. Remember it is God who is the final judge and who has the final judgment on all involved in this matter.


8/22/2009 11:10:08 PM
As a victim of sexual abuse by a priest in the Catholic church some 30 some years ago (and I remember all of it) for me to blame my successes and/or failures on what happen since then I believe is wrong. I am accountable for what I did with my life after the abuse. For me to sue the church for what happened that far back in my life for me would be a selfish act of greed and revenge. Where do the Gospel and the word of God fit into this? “For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (Matthew 6: 14)”.

If they are still molesting children, I agree they need to be stopped but to seek revenge on those from year gone and make the whole church suffer is also wrong. Remember it is God who is the final judge and who has the final judgment on all involved in this matter.

otherview2


As a victim of sexual abuse by a priest in the Catholic church some 30 some years ago (and I remember all of it) for me to blame my successes and/or failures on what happen since then I believe is wrong. I am accountable for what I did with my life after the abuse. For me to sue the church for what happened that far back in my life for me would be a selfish act of greed and revenge. Where do the Gospel and the word of God fit into this? “For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (Matthew 6: 14)”.

If they are still molesting children, I agree they need to be stopped but to seek revenge on those from year gone and make the whole church suffer is also wrong. Remember it is God who is the final judge and who has the final judgment on all involved in this matter.

otherview2


JustTheFactsLady wrote:

Replying to TomDunwurkin:

Replying to SarahTX2:
You'd have less raped children if you got rid of the Priests. What a connundrum!

ChiefRose 2000,

How selfish of you. Given a choice between assisting raped children or having your parish, you'd keep your parish. If all the parishioners of Little Flower think like you, we can only hope and pray that your dreadful parish gets closed one way or another. And let's really hope you don't have a school in your predator-friendly parish.



A former Pastor of mine once said "That being the Vicar of Christ thing, is a bit**" :)
8/22/2009 8:40:55 AM

Replying to TomDunwurkin:

Replying to SarahTX2:

You'd have less raped children if you got rid of the Priests. What a connundrum!

ChiefRose 2000,

How selfish of you. Given a choice between assisting raped children or having your parish, you'd keep your parish. If all the parishioners of Little Flower think like you, we can only hope and pray that your dreadful parish gets closed one way or another. And let's really hope you don't have a school in your predator-friendly parish.

A former Pastor of mine once said "That being the Vicar of Christ thing, is a bit**" :) JustTheFactsLady

Replying to TomDunwurkin:

Replying to SarahTX2:

You'd have less raped children if you got rid of the Priests. What a connundrum!

ChiefRose 2000,

How selfish of you. Given a choice between assisting raped children or having your parish, you'd keep your parish. If all the parishioners of Little Flower think like you, we can only hope and pray that your dreadful parish gets closed one way or another. And let's really hope you don't have a school in your predator-friendly parish.

A former Pastor of mine once said "That being the Vicar of Christ thing, is a bit**" :)JustTheFactsLady


AnotherSurvivor wrote:
I am also a survivor of priest sexual abuse, and a "John Doe" that has come forth legally. I wish it were easy for me to convey the intense importance of what is occurring right now with the clergy sexual molestation is this country, its laws, and here specifically, Monroe. There is so much incredible fear, confusion with disbelief, mistrust and utter disorientation from clergy sexual molestation that the mind is just left betrayed and so mistrusting that any person, even yourself can barely, if at all, cognate. It is all too surreal to express in any cogent fashion. I hope the courtswill not focus on distractions and outdated laws. I hope the medidcal community will listen to reality. I hope sexual predetors learn that they and the churches that harbor them are held accountable and prosecuted. I want the public to be more aware and sensitive to this crisis, and that other survivors of molestation find a way through this fight towards a peace. Thank you for letting me speak.
8/22/2009 12:23:19 AM

I am also a survivor of priest sexual abuse, and a "John Doe" that has come forth legally. I wish it were easy for me to convey the intense importance of what is occurring right now with the clergy sexual molestation is this country, its laws, and here specifically, Monroe. There is so much incredible fear, confusion with disbelief, mistrust and utter disorientation from clergy sexual molestation that the mind is just left betrayed and so mistrusting that any person, even yourself can barely, if at all, cognate. It is all too surreal to express in any cogent fashion. I hope the courtswill not focus on distractions and outdated laws. I hope the medidcal community will listen to reality. I hope sexual predetors learn that they and the churches that harbor them are held accountable and prosecuted. I want the public to be more aware and sensitive to this crisis, and that other survivors of molestation find a way through this fight towards a peace. Thank you for letting me speak. AnotherSurvivor



I am also a survivor of priest sexual abuse, and a "John Doe" that has come forth legally. I wish it were easy for me to convey the intense importance of what is occurring right now with the clergy sexual molestation is this country, its laws, and here specifically, Monroe. There is so much incredible fear, confusion with disbelief, mistrust and utter disorientation from clergy sexual molestation that the mind is just left betrayed and so mistrusting that any person, even yourself can barely, if at all, cognate. It is all too surreal to express in any cogent fashion. I hope the courtswill not focus on distractions and outdated laws. I hope the medidcal community will listen to reality. I hope sexual predetors learn that they and the churches that harbor them are held accountable and prosecuted. I want the public to be more aware and sensitive to this crisis, and that other survivors of molestation find a way through this fight towards a peace. Thank you for letting me speak.AnotherSurvivor


TomDunwurkin wrote:

Replying to SarahTX2:
You'd have less raped children if you got rid of the Priests. What a connundrum!

ChiefRose 2000,

How selfish of you. Given a choice between assisting raped children or having your parish, you'd keep your parish. If all the parishioners of Little Flower think like you, we can only hope and pray that your dreadful parish gets closed one way or another. And let's really hope you don't have a school in your predator-friendly parish.

SarahTX2 wrote:
ChiefRose 2000,

How selfish of you. Given a choice between assisting raped children or having your parish, you'd keep your parish. If all the parishioners of Little Flower think like you, we can only hope and pray that your dreadful parish gets closed one way or another. And let's really hope you don't have a school in your predator-friendly parish.
8/21/2009 3:29:58 PM
ChiefRose 2000,

How selfish of you. Given a choice between assisting raped children or having your parish, you'd keep your parish. If all the parishioners of Little Flower think like you, we can only hope and pray that your dreadful parish gets closed one way or another. And let's really hope you don't have a school in your predator-friendly parish. SarahTX2


ChiefRose 2000,

How selfish of you. Given a choice between assisting raped children or having your parish, you'd keep your parish. If all the parishioners of Little Flower think like you, we can only hope and pray that your dreadful parish gets closed one way or another. And let's really hope you don't have a school in your predator-friendly parish.SarahTX2


TomDunwurkin wrote:
Well written and to the point. The problem lays within the problem.

The institutional Roman Catholic Church should be beyond counting the financial costs that both justice and charity demand of them. Because they did not follow CANON LAW, CRIMINAL OR CIVIL LAW in the past they are going to have to pay now in all ways.

Dioceses across the country are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to PR spin firms, lobbyists, and the church lawyers belonging to the prestigious law firms those dioceses have retained for years. Just look at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. More than that, it has been my experience in talking with hundreds of victim/survivors of sexual abuse and their families that money has always been found to enable predatory priests in their perfidy,facilitate criminal acts, obfuscate the truth, while conspiring to harass and intimidate them.


[/QUOTE]

8/21/2009 1:07:17 PM
Well written and to the point. The problem lays within the problem.

The institutional Roman Catholic Church should be beyond counting the financial costs that both justice and charity demand of them. Because they did not follow CANON LAW, CRIMINAL OR CIVIL LAW in the past they are going to have to pay now in all ways.

Dioceses across the country are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to PR spin firms, lobbyists, and the church lawyers belonging to the prestigious law firms those dioceses have retained for years. Just look at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. More than that, it has been my experience in talking with hundreds of victim/survivors of sexual abuse and their families that money has always been found to enable predatory priests in their perfidy,facilitate criminal acts, obfuscate the truth, while conspiring to harass and intimidate them.


[/QUOTE]
TomDunwurkin


Well written and to the point. The problem lays within the problem.

The institutional Roman Catholic Church should be beyond counting the financial costs that both justice and charity demand of them. Because they did not follow CANON LAW, CRIMINAL OR CIVIL LAW in the past they are going to have to pay now in all ways.

Dioceses across the country are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to PR spin firms, lobbyists, and the church lawyers belonging to the prestigious law firms those dioceses have retained for years. Just look at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. More than that, it has been my experience in talking with hundreds of victim/survivors of sexual abuse and their families that money has always been found to enable predatory priests in their perfidy,facilitate criminal acts, obfuscate the truth, while conspiring to harass and intimidate them.


[/QUOTE]
TomDunwurkin


SMPTURLISH wrote:
The institutional Roman Catholic Church should be beyond counting the financial costs that both justice and charity demand of them. Because they did not follow CANON LAW, CRIMINAL OR CIVIL LAW in the past they are going to have to pay now in all ways.

Dioceses across the country are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to PR spin firms, lobbyists, and the church lawyers belonging to the prestigious law firms those dioceses have retained for years. Just look at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. More than that, it has been my experience in talking with hundreds of victim/survivors of sexual abuse and their families that money has always been found to enable predatory priests in their perfidy,facilitate criminal acts, obfuscate the truth, while conspiring to harass and intimidate them.



8/21/2009 12:47:27 PM
The institutional Roman Catholic Church should be beyond counting the financial costs that both justice and charity demand of them. Because they did not follow CANON LAW, CRIMINAL OR CIVIL LAW in the past they are going to have to pay now in all ways.

Dioceses across the country are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to PR spin firms, lobbyists, and the church lawyers belonging to the prestigious law firms those dioceses have retained for years. Just look at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. More than that, it has been my experience in talking with hundreds of victim/survivors of sexual abuse and their families that money has always been found to enable predatory priests in their perfidy,facilitate criminal acts, obfuscate the truth, while conspiring to harass and intimidate them.


SMPTURLISH


The institutional Roman Catholic Church should be beyond counting the financial costs that both justice and charity demand of them. Because they did not follow CANON LAW, CRIMINAL OR CIVIL LAW in the past they are going to have to pay now in all ways.

Dioceses across the country are already paying hundreds of millions of dollars to PR spin firms, lobbyists, and the church lawyers belonging to the prestigious law firms those dioceses have retained for years. Just look at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. More than that, it has been my experience in talking with hundreds of victim/survivors of sexual abuse and their families that money has always been found to enable predatory priests in their perfidy,facilitate criminal acts, obfuscate the truth, while conspiring to harass and intimidate them.


SMPTURLISH


SMPTURLISH wrote:

The institutional church has failed miserably to protect children in the past by operating beyond the pale of both charity and justice while they would have us believe now that they are operating under the ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY they promised in 2002.

However, their ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY appear to be highly selective.

Many dioceses still refuse to list the names and locations of convicted, known or credibly accused priests of their dioceses or of the religious orders who operate in the diocese at their pleasure.

They refuse to support LEGISLATIVE REFORM that would better protect all children by completely removing ALL STATUTES OF LIMITATION going forward in regard to childhood sexual abuse AND providing for a civil window of at least two years for bringing forward previously time barred cases of childhood sexual abuse BY ANYONE!
8/21/2009 12:46:17 PM


The institutional church has failed miserably to protect children in the past by operating beyond the pale of both charity and justice while they would have us believe now that they are operating under the ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY they promised in 2002.

However, their ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY appear to be highly selective.

Many dioceses still refuse to list the names and locations of convicted, known or credibly accused priests of their dioceses or of the religious orders who operate in the diocese at their pleasure.

They refuse to support LEGISLATIVE REFORM that would better protect all children by completely removing ALL STATUTES OF LIMITATION going forward in regard to childhood sexual abuse AND providing for a civil window of at least two years for bringing forward previously time barred cases of childhood sexual abuse BY ANYONE! SMPTURLISH



The institutional church has failed miserably to protect children in the past by operating beyond the pale of both charity and justice while they would have us believe now that they are operating under the ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY they promised in 2002.

However, their ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY appear to be highly selective.

Many dioceses still refuse to list the names and locations of convicted, known or credibly accused priests of their dioceses or of the religious orders who operate in the diocese at their pleasure.

They refuse to support LEGISLATIVE REFORM that would better protect all children by completely removing ALL STATUTES OF LIMITATION going forward in regard to childhood sexual abuse AND providing for a civil window of at least two years for bringing forward previously time barred cases of childhood sexual abuse BY ANYONE!SMPTURLISH


SMPTURLISH wrote:
IT WAS DONE IN DELAWARE AND IT CAN BE DONE ACROSS THIS COUNTRY.

Too many church leaders are trying to squirm out of their responsibility by hiding behind laws that have been woefully inadequate to protect of children to begin with, that they did not observe in a timely fashion anyway, and now have the chutzpah to cite the same laws in order to escape responsibility.

JUSTICE LIKE CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME. IT DOESN'T STOP THERE BUT IT SURE DOES START THERE.

The Holy See was an original signatory to the UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD.

Isn't it time to start acting as if this document were believed? Or is it still the same old -

DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO?

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
8/21/2009 12:45:23 PM

IT WAS DONE IN DELAWARE AND IT CAN BE DONE ACROSS THIS COUNTRY.

Too many church leaders are trying to squirm out of their responsibility by hiding behind laws that have been woefully inadequate to protect of children to begin with, that they did not observe in a timely fashion anyway, and now have the chutzpah to cite the same laws in order to escape responsibility.

JUSTICE LIKE CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME. IT DOESN'T STOP THERE BUT IT SURE DOES START THERE.

The Holy See was an original signatory to the UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD.

Isn't it time to start acting as if this document were believed? Or is it still the same old -

DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO?

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com SMPTURLISH


nathanial66 wrote:
If all the child molesting Catholic Priests were rounded up, there wouldn't be enough Catholic Priests left to "head" the Catholic Churches!!
8/21/2009 12:43:08 PM
If all the child molesting Catholic Priests were rounded up, there wouldn't be enough Catholic Priests left to "head" the Catholic Churches!! nathanial66



If all the child molesting Catholic Priests were rounded up, there wouldn't be enough Catholic Priests left to "head" the Catholic Churches!!nathanial66


TomDunwurkin wrote:
It is the entire Church and everyone that tithes the Catholic church, you can include everyone the gives in any monetary way to the Church. Much of it is all funnelled to defending the thousands, (yes, thousands over the years) of "men of the cloth", that have use religion and their position in the church to abuse mankind. I've said it before and it still stands - there are millions of Catholics who blindly go through life, without lifting their voice to this poisoning of their own denomination. They believe throwing money at the church will buy their place in heaven. Been there, done that, I know! Millions of Catholics who spend their hour or two in church each week, only to leave and cuss at the driver in the lot in front of them and talk about the woman in the next pew who's dress was too short.

DO NOT CONNECT THESE FIENDS with Christianity. They themselves continue to pave their way to their own reward. Can I get another Amen?
8/21/2009 12:35:33 PM

It is the entire Church and everyone that tithes the Catholic church, you can include everyone the gives in any monetary way to the Church. Much of it is all funnelled to defending the thousands, (yes, thousands over the years) of "men of the cloth", that have use religion and their position in the church to abuse mankind. I've said it before and it still stands - there are millions of Catholics who blindly go through life, without lifting their voice to this poisoning of their own denomination. They believe throwing money at the church will buy their place in heaven. Been there, done that, I know! Millions of Catholics who spend their hour or two in church each week, only to leave and cuss at the driver in the lot in front of them and talk about the woman in the next pew who's dress was too short.

DO NOT CONNECT THESE FIENDS with Christianity. They themselves continue to pave their way to their own reward. Can I get another Amen? TomDunwurkin


It is the entire Church and everyone that tithes the Catholic church, you can include everyone the gives in any monetary way to the Church. Much of it is all funnelled to defending the thousands, (yes, thousands over the years) of "men of the cloth", that have use religion and their position in the church to abuse mankind. I've said it before and it still stands - there are millions of Catholics who blindly go through life, without lifting their voice to this poisoning of their own denomination. They believe throwing money at the church will buy their place in heaven. Been there, done that, I know! Millions of Catholics who spend their hour or two in church each week, only to leave and cuss at the driver in the lot in front of them and talk about the woman in the next pew who's dress was too short.

DO NOT CONNECT THESE FIENDS with Christianity. They themselves continue to pave their way to their own reward. Can I get another Amen?TomDunwurkin


Helpmeagain wrote:
The Roman Catholic Church may be the only institution in history to have survived such a pervasive culture of abuse, cover-up and denial! It's especially distastful because the very men that have ruined so many lives have used religion, Christianity and a previously good reputation to perpetrate their dirty deeds. When will people wake up and realize that the highest levels of the church in Philly, Boston and possibly Indianapolis have looked the other way while lives have been ruined? It's immoral and likely criminal!
8/21/2009 11:29:06 AM

The Roman Catholic Church may be the only institution in history to have survived such a pervasive culture of abuse, cover-up and denial! It's especially distastful because the very men that have ruined so many lives have used religion, Christianity and a previously good reputation to perpetrate their dirty deeds. When will people wake up and realize that the highest levels of the church in Philly, Boston and possibly Indianapolis have looked the other way while lives have been ruined? It's immoral and likely criminal! Helpmeagain



The Roman Catholic Church may be the only institution in history to have survived such a pervasive culture of abuse, cover-up and denial! It's especially distastful because the very men that have ruined so many lives have used religion, Christianity and a previously good reputation to perpetrate their dirty deeds. When will people wake up and realize that the highest levels of the church in Philly, Boston and possibly Indianapolis have looked the other way while lives have been ruined? It's immoral and likely criminal!Helpmeagain
User Image
jarfrank wrote:

Replying to indybski:

Replying to jarfrank:

faith.



So, married men never cheat? Never break their vows? Never abuse young boys? No, marriage for Catholic priests to avoid abuse is not logical.

1st Corinthians - chapter 7 - look it up. My comment has nothing to do with adultery, that is a separate issue. Sure there are men out there that are married and are pedifiles. However, the abuse to young boys seems to be very problematic for the catholic church. #1 The problem has been identified - priest have been malesting and abusing young boys. #2 A possible solution - allow priests to be married. The bible tells you that it is extremely difficult to not have a mate - this (among other bible verses) makes my argument extremely logical. The church used to allow its priest to be married.

8/21/2009 11:13:48 AM

Replying to indybski:

Replying to jarfrank:

faith.

So, married men never cheat? Never break their vows? Never abuse young boys? No, marriage for Catholic priests to avoid abuse is not logical.

1st Corinthians - chapter 7 - look it up. My comment has nothing to do with adultery, that is a separate issue. Sure there are men out there that are married and are pedifiles. However, the abuse to young boys seems to be very problematic for the catholic church. #1 The problem has been identified - priest have been malesting and abusing young boys. #2 A possible solution - allow priests to be married. The bible tells you that it is extremely difficult to not have a mate - this (among other bible verses) makes my argument extremely logical. The church used to allow its priest to be married.
jarfrank

Replying to indybski:

Replying to jarfrank:

faith.

So, married men never cheat? Never break their vows? Never abuse young boys? No, marriage for Catholic priests to avoid abuse is not logical.

1st Corinthians - chapter 7 - look it up. My comment has nothing to do with adultery, that is a separate issue. Sure there are men out there that are married and are pedifiles. However, the abuse to young boys seems to be very problematic for the catholic church. #1 The problem has been identified - priest have been malesting and abusing young boys. #2 A possible solution - allow priests to be married. The bible tells you that it is extremely difficult to not have a mate - this (among other bible verses) makes my argument extremely logical. The church used to allow its priest to be married.
jarfrank

User Image
SNAPnetwork wrote:
Fourth, if (& that’s a big IF) any parish is closing anywhere that's in any way connected with pedophile priests & complicit church officials, it's the pedophile priests & complicit church officials who are the cause, not the brave victims who are coming forward to seek justice, expose predators, protect kids, & make the church a more healthy & safe institution.

Fifth, all kinds of "older cases" come before courts these days. Under President George W. Bush, the US Dept. of Justice set up a special task force to investigate & pursue criminal charges against racists in the deep South who hurt civil rights volunteers in the 1950s & 1960s. More than a dozen such criminals have been convicted. So let's not assume that criminals who conceal child sex crimes can't, or shouldn't, be subject to criminal probes.

David Clohessy, National Director, SNAP-Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 7234 Arsenal Street, St. Louis MO 63143, 314 566 9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, SNAPnetwork.org
8/21/2009 11:12:40 AM

SNAPnetwork wrote:
Let's clear up a few myths here.

First, some parishes in Boston are closing. But it's because of declining attendance, fewer priests, “white flight,” suburban sprawl, & many other sociological & demographic factors that pre-date & are independent of the church’s on going clergy sex abuse & cover up crisis.

Second, Catholic officials are incredibly secretive about church wealth & finances. So bishops can claim their costs are increasing for ANY reason & there’s no independent oversight that can prove or disprove what they’re saying.

Third, the overwhelming majority of clergy sex abuse settlements are covered by insurance policies that bishops have paid for decades ago.
8/21/2009 11:11:33 AM
Let's clear up a few myths here.

First, some parishes in Boston are closing. But it's because of declining attendance, fewer priests, “white flight,” suburban sprawl, & many other sociological & demographic factors that pre-date & are independent of the church’s on going clergy sex abuse & cover up crisis.

Second, Catholic officials are incredibly secretive about church wealth & finances. So bishops can claim their costs are increasing for ANY reason & there’s no independent oversight that can prove or disprove what they’re saying.

Third, the overwhelming majority of clergy sex abuse settlements are covered by insurance policies that bishops have paid for decades ago. SNAPnetwork


Let's clear up a few myths here.

First, some parishes in Boston are closing. But it's because of declining attendance, fewer priests, “white flight,” suburban sprawl, & many other sociological & demographic factors that pre-date & are independent of the church’s on going clergy sex abuse & cover up crisis.

Second, Catholic officials are incredibly secretive about church wealth & finances. So bishops can claim their costs are increasing for ANY reason & there’s no independent oversight that can prove or disprove what they’re saying.

Third, the overwhelming majority of clergy sex abuse settlements are covered by insurance policies that bishops have paid for decades ago.SNAPnetwork


hrhhrh wrote:
Regarding repressed memory: I have a friend who was raped and molested by his father, the organist and other members of the choir at St Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, when he was a toddler. He had no memory of this until about age 40 when he saw a fact-based movie of a boy (Steven Stayner) who was kidnapped by a pedophile and kept prisoner for seven years. Then, horrific images and memories began to emerge, causing him unspeakable suffering and pain. No therapist was involved until some years later. The memories emerged without coaching of any kind.

In the intervening years he has learned much about his father, the organist and others involved. He has no doubts about what happened and who did those monstrous things to him.

I have know him since he was a college student. He was living a happy, successful life until he saw that movie. Since then, he has become a physical and emotional wreck. My heart bleeds for him.

Repressed memory IS real.
8/21/2009 11:08:56 AM
Regarding repressed memory: I have a friend who was raped and molested by his father, the organist and other members of the choir at St Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, when he was a toddler. He had no memory of this until about age 40 when he saw a fact-based movie of a boy (Steven Stayner) who was kidnapped by a pedophile and kept prisoner for seven years. Then, horrific images and memories began to emerge, causing him unspeakable suffering and pain. No therapist was involved until some years later. The memories emerged without coaching of any kind.

In the intervening years he has learned much about his father, the organist and others involved. He has no doubts about what happened and who did those monstrous things to him.

I have know him since he was a college student. He was living a happy, successful life until he saw that movie. Since then, he has become a physical and emotional wreck. My heart bleeds for him.

Repressed memory IS real. hrhhrh


Regarding repressed memory: I have a friend who was raped and molested by his father, the organist and other members of the choir at St Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, when he was a toddler. He had no memory of this until about age 40 when he saw a fact-based movie of a boy (Steven Stayner) who was kidnapped by a pedophile and kept prisoner for seven years. Then, horrific images and memories began to emerge, causing him unspeakable suffering and pain. No therapist was involved until some years later. The memories emerged without coaching of any kind.

In the intervening years he has learned much about his father, the organist and others involved. He has no doubts about what happened and who did those monstrous things to him.

I have know him since he was a college student. He was living a happy, successful life until he saw that movie. Since then, he has become a physical and emotional wreck. My heart bleeds for him.

Repressed memory IS real.hrhhrh


wowww wrote:
There is much MISINFORMATION from bloggers here from not actually reading what others have said or telling mistruths. For the person responding to letting priest marry, NO ONE mentioned anything about marriage to cover up abuse. T the person who said thousands of priests have abused is not true either. There have been many cases, but exaggerating facts is a lie. For the nut who suggested the "victim" is being abused by the Church (3 decades later no less) for not paying restitution is a result of irrational thinking that revenge will in some way make things better. I say to those who have zero involvement whatsoever, YOU seek a form of therapy to resolve whatever drives your need to feel so emotionally attached to something that doesn't involve you. How "devout" of a Christian can you really be and be a member of any religion, Catholicism not withstanding and make hateful comments you've made?
8/21/2009 10:57:19 AM

There is much MISINFORMATION from bloggers here from not actually reading what others have said or telling mistruths. For the person responding to letting priest marry, NO ONE mentioned anything about marriage to cover up abuse. T the person who said thousands of priests have abused is not true either. There have been many cases, but exaggerating facts is a lie. For the nut who suggested the "victim" is being abused by the Church (3 decades later no less) for not paying restitution is a result of irrational thinking that revenge will in some way make things better. I say to those who have zero involvement whatsoever, YOU seek a form of therapy to resolve whatever drives your need to feel so emotionally attached to something that doesn't involve you. How "devout" of a Christian can you really be and be a member of any religion, Catholicism not withstanding and make hateful comments you've made? wowww


There is much MISINFORMATION from bloggers here from not actually reading what others have said or telling mistruths. For the person responding to letting priest marry, NO ONE mentioned anything about marriage to cover up abuse. T the person who said thousands of priests have abused is not true either. There have been many cases, but exaggerating facts is a lie. For the nut who suggested the "victim" is being abused by the Church (3 decades later no less) for not paying restitution is a result of irrational thinking that revenge will in some way make things better. I say to those who have zero involvement whatsoever, YOU seek a form of therapy to resolve whatever drives your need to feel so emotionally attached to something that doesn't involve you. How "devout" of a Christian can you really be and be a member of any religion, Catholicism not withstanding and make hateful comments you've made?wowww


wowww wrote:
Frankly, the Church should NOT be liable for actions of renegade priests decades after the fact. I question the motive(s) after 3 decades in this case of filing a lawsuit (and waiting until 3 days before the end of the 2 year statute of limitations to do so is really suspect). I also question statute of limitation laws that give one person a different set of limitations than another for the same acts. Evil is a two way street evidently.
8/21/2009 10:43:20 AM

Frankly, the Church should NOT be liable for actions of renegade priests decades after the fact. I question the motive(s) after 3 decades in this case of filing a lawsuit (and waiting until 3 days before the end of the 2 year statute of limitations to do so is really suspect). I also question statute of limitation laws that give one person a different set of limitations than another for the same acts. Evil is a two way street evidently. wowww



Frankly, the Church should NOT be liable for actions of renegade priests decades after the fact. I question the motive(s) after 3 decades in this case of filing a lawsuit (and waiting until 3 days before the end of the 2 year statute of limitations to do so is really suspect). I also question statute of limitation laws that give one person a different set of limitations than another for the same acts. Evil is a two way street evidently.wowww

indybski wrote:

Replying to jarfrank:

This is why catholic priests should be allowed to marry. God intended us to have a mate - not doing so can lead to this behavior. The catholic church should reconsider its policy - several hundred years ago priests could marry.

How terrible that "the archdiocese isn't challenging the truthfulness of John Doe RG, just his legal claim." Also that this priest has confessed to molesting children but since the victims are adults the statue of limitations has expired. There is something fundamentally wrong with how the system treats these victims. I'm sure it isn't a easy to come forward as a victim in these situations. I'm not catholic, but I consider myself a Christian. It's stories like this that can make non-believers very skeptical of the Christian faith.


So, married men never cheat? Never break their vows? Never abuse young boys? No, marriage for Catholic priests to avoid abuse is not logical.
8/21/2009 9:42:38 AM



indybski wrote:
The "Church", with a capital "C", in Roman Catholic terms, is the Family of God. As a whole, we are NOT abusers. There have been priests, to be sure, and perhaps even religouis sisters, who abused children in their care, and the history of handling of those cases has obvioulsy been poor. I would never defend the administrative decisions that were made, except to say that 25 to 40 years ago, our understanding of adult predatory behavior was not what it is today. For example, during WWII, the family doctor told my grandmother to take up smoking to calm her nerves when her son, my dad, was taken POW in northern Italy. Today, of course, we would sue for malpractice, since we know smoking is so unhealthy. Back then, we just did not know. So, accuse an entire Religion of abuse is wrong. What is also forgotten in this discussion is, that in every "occupation" or vocation, there are people who are mentally ill-pedafiles, sadists, pornographers...not just the priestly vocation.
8/21/2009 9:37:38 AM

The "Church", with a capital "C", in Roman Catholic terms, is the Family of God. As a whole, we are NOT abusers. There have been priests, to be sure, and perhaps even religouis sisters, who abused children in their care, and the history of handling of those cases has obvioulsy been poor. I would never defend the administrative decisions that were made, except to say that 25 to 40 years ago, our understanding of adult predatory behavior was not what it is today. For example, during WWII, the family doctor told my grandmother to take up smoking to calm her nerves when her son, my dad, was taken POW in northern Italy. Today, of course, we would sue for malpractice, since we know smoking is so unhealthy. Back then, we just did not know. So, accuse an entire Religion of abuse is wrong. What is also forgotten in this discussion is, that in every "occupation" or vocation, there are people who are mentally ill-pedafiles, sadists, pornographers...not just the priestly vocation. indybski


The "Church", with a capital "C", in Roman Catholic terms, is the Family of God. As a whole, we are NOT abusers. There have been priests, to be sure, and perhaps even religouis sisters, who abused children in their care, and the history of handling of those cases has obvioulsy been poor. I would never defend the administrative decisions that were made, except to say that 25 to 40 years ago, our understanding of adult predatory behavior was not what it is today. For example, during WWII, the family doctor told my grandmother to take up smoking to calm her nerves when her son, my dad, was taken POW in northern Italy. Today, of course, we would sue for malpractice, since we know smoking is so unhealthy. Back then, we just did not know. So, accuse an entire Religion of abuse is wrong. What is also forgotten in this discussion is, that in every "occupation" or vocation, there are people who are mentally ill-pedafiles, sadists, pornographers...not just the priestly vocation.indybski


jarfrank wrote:
This is why catholic priests should be allowed to marry. God intended us to have a mate - not doing so can lead to this behavior. The catholic church should reconsider its policy - several hundred years ago priests could marry.

How terrible that "the archdiocese isn't challenging the truthfulness of John Doe RG, just his legal claim." Also that this priest has confessed to molesting children but since the victims are adults the statue of limitations has expired. There is something fundamentally wrong with how the system treats these victims. I'm sure it isn't a easy to come forward as a victim in these situations. I'm not catholic, but I consider myself a Christian. It's stories like this that can make non-believers very skeptical of the Christian faith.

8/21/2009 9:36:03 AM
This is why catholic priests should be allowed to marry. God intended us to have a mate - not doing so can lead to this behavior. The catholic church should reconsider its policy - several hundred years ago priests could marry.

How terrible that "the archdiocese isn't challenging the truthfulness of John Doe RG, just his legal claim." Also that this priest has confessed to molesting children but since the victims are adults the statue of limitations has expired. There is something fundamentally wrong with how the system treats these victims. I'm sure it isn't a easy to come forward as a victim in these situations. I'm not catholic, but I consider myself a Christian. It's stories like this that can make non-believers very skeptical of the Christian faith.
jarfrank


This is why catholic priests should be allowed to marry. God intended us to have a mate - not doing so can lead to this behavior. The catholic church should reconsider its policy - several hundred years ago priests could marry.

How terrible that "the archdiocese isn't challenging the truthfulness of John Doe RG, just his legal claim." Also that this priest has confessed to molesting children but since the victims are adults the statue of limitations has expired. There is something fundamentally wrong with how the system treats these victims. I'm sure it isn't a easy to come forward as a victim in these situations. I'm not catholic, but I consider myself a Christian. It's stories like this that can make non-believers very skeptical of the Christian faith.
jarfrank

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drake007 wrote:
If you are "devout" then you are in mass every Sunday and you hear the prayers for victims, support groups, etc. Visit the Archdiocese website and read the stats on abuse claims and look at the the resources they offer for people to either make a claim of abuse, seek support, etc. They are not running away from this; but handing out $ isn't the solution

"This makes me sick - the Archdiocese continues to try to abuse these victims even more by not giving them some kind of restitution. Harry Monroe did terrible things to these boys who are now men - the Archdiocese needs to take responsibility and stop this abuse and Harry Monroe needs to be put in jail! The Catholic Church has named this next year as "The Year of the Priest" - they should change that and make it the "Year of the Victims" and seek forgiveness. I am a devout Catholic and I am sickened by this whole situation and pray that it will all be resolved in due time and that the victims can find some peace in their lives."

8/21/2009 9:02:02 AM
If you are "devout" then you are in mass every Sunday and you hear the prayers for victims, support groups, etc. Visit the Archdiocese website and read the stats on abuse claims and look at the the resources they offer for people to either make a claim of abuse, seek support, etc. They are not running away from this; but handing out $ isn't the solution

"This makes me sick - the Archdiocese continues to try to abuse these victims even more by not giving them some kind of restitution. Harry Monroe did terrible things to these boys who are now men - the Archdiocese needs to take responsibility and stop this abuse and Harry Monroe needs to be put in jail! The Catholic Church has named this next year as "The Year of the Priest" - they should change that and make it the "Year of the Victims" and seek forgiveness. I am a devout Catholic and I am sickened by this whole situation and pray that it will all be resolved in due time and that the victims can find some peace in their lives."
drake007



If you are "devout" then you are in mass every Sunday and you hear the prayers for victims, support groups, etc. Visit the Archdiocese website and read the stats on abuse claims and look at the the resources they offer for people to either make a claim of abuse, seek support, etc. They are not running away from this; but handing out $ isn't the solution

"This makes me sick - the Archdiocese continues to try to abuse these victims even more by not giving them some kind of restitution. Harry Monroe did terrible things to these boys who are now men - the Archdiocese needs to take responsibility and stop this abuse and Harry Monroe needs to be put in jail! The Catholic Church has named this next year as "The Year of the Priest" - they should change that and make it the "Year of the Victims" and seek forgiveness. I am a devout Catholic and I am sickened by this whole situation and pray that it will all be resolved in due time and that the victims can find some peace in their lives."
drake007



TomDunwurkin wrote:
Thousands of cases of abuse from around the world and there are still millions of Catholics pouring money into church coffers to defend it. All of those lost souls subsidizing child molestation and calling it religion. You'd think some of the self-righteous zealots would realize where the money is going and walk away from that Cult organization. Wake up! It's still going on and you are paying the Church to let it happen.
8/21/2009 8:57:09 AM

Thousands of cases of abuse from around the world and there are still millions of Catholics pouring money into church coffers to defend it. All of those lost souls subsidizing child molestation and calling it religion. You'd think some of the self-righteous zealots would realize where the money is going and walk away from that Cult organization. Wake up! It's still going on and you are paying the Church to let it happen. TomDunwurkin


Thousands of cases of abuse from around the world and there are still millions of Catholics pouring money into church coffers to defend it. All of those lost souls subsidizing child molestation and calling it religion. You'd think some of the self-righteous zealots would realize where the money is going and walk away from that Cult organization. Wake up! It's still going on and you are paying the Church to let it happen.TomDunwurkin
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indt1942 wrote:

Replying to OhIam:

Replying to ChiefRose2000:

taking care of these victims of abuse. The blockquote>

u r rite if same okkured in parish they cud not continue if ur priest abuses wot can you do when they close parish we r left without a priest to guide us and look aover us. Stop the payments priests r only human



Learn to write and spell. Can not read a word of this.


8/21/2009 8:01:33 AM
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patrickindyguy wrote:
How do we know the Archdiocese is doing nothing? In many dioceses they offer counseling, offer to pay for counseling and therapy, they offer other things that are directed at helping the person. In Chicago, the Archdiocese does many of the above mentioned things. Some of this may not be publicized for good reason. Victims don't always want to be known, nor do they want to be centers of public media attention, thus group therapy, counseling, etc are not broadcast for everyone to know. My only caution is, one cannot recover from something only by a monetary restitution.
So, the Church doesn't continue to abuse victims. I've heard many times at mass during the intercessions a prayer for victims of sexual abuse.
8/21/2009 7:53:38 AM

How do we know the Archdiocese is doing nothing? In many dioceses they offer counseling, offer to pay for counseling and therapy, they offer other things that are directed at helping the person. In Chicago, the Archdiocese does many of the above mentioned things. Some of this may not be publicized for good reason. Victims don't always want to be known, nor do they want to be centers of public media attention, thus group therapy, counseling, etc are not broadcast for everyone to know. My only caution is, one cannot recover from something only by a monetary restitution.
So, the Church doesn't continue to abuse victims. I've heard many times at mass during the intercessions a prayer for victims of sexual abuse. patrickindyguy



How do we know the Archdiocese is doing nothing? In many dioceses they offer counseling, offer to pay for counseling and therapy, they offer other things that are directed at helping the person. In Chicago, the Archdiocese does many of the above mentioned things. Some of this may not be publicized for good reason. Victims don't always want to be known, nor do they want to be centers of public media attention, thus group therapy, counseling, etc are not broadcast for everyone to know. My only caution is, one cannot recover from something only by a monetary restitution.
So, the Church doesn't continue to abuse victims. I've heard many times at mass during the intercessions a prayer for victims of sexual abuse.patrickindyguy
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wiljo wrote:

Replying to ChiefRose2000:

I disagree with the idea that the Archdiocese is continuing to abuse these victims. The Church is caught in the situation of trying to balance protecting funds to keep parishes open and serving those congregations and taking care of these victims of abuse. The Church has reached out with offers of counseling and other assistance. The law provides for a defense and I feel it is wise for the Church to avail itself of the protections of the law. The Archdiocese of Boston has had to close many parishes because of million dollar payouts of the priest abuse scandal. If the same were to occur here, I'm sure my own parish of Little Flower and many others could not continue.


It is simple. If they are not in a continued cycle of abuse they should prove it by opening the documentation and once and for all be held accountable. They have been as guilty as the perps by knowingly moving these animals from one parish to the other. Until then. The Church is an abuser.
8/21/2009 7:49:07 AM


I disagree with the idea that the Archdiocese is continuing to abuse these victims. The Church is caught in the situation of trying to balance protecting funds to keep parishes open and serving those congregations and taking care of these victims of abuse. The Church has reached out with offers of counseling and other assistance. The law provides for a defense and I feel it is wise for the Church to avail itself of the protections of the law. The Archdiocese of Boston has had to close many parishes because of million dollar payouts of the priest abuse scandal. If the same were to occur here, I'm sure my own parish of Little Flower and many others could not continue.
It is simple. If they are not in a continued cycle of abuse they should prove it by opening the documentation and once and for all be held accountable. They have been as guilty as the perps by knowingly moving these animals from one parish to the other. Until then. The Church is an abuser. wiljo



I disagree with the idea that the Archdiocese is continuing to abuse these victims. The Church is caught in the situation of trying to balance protecting funds to keep parishes open and serving those congregations and taking care of these victims of abuse. The Church has reached out with offers of counseling and other assistance. The law provides for a defense and I feel it is wise for the Church to avail itself of the protections of the law. The Archdiocese of Boston has had to close many parishes because of million dollar payouts of the priest abuse scandal. If the same were to occur here, I'm sure my own parish of Little Flower and many others could not continue.
It is simple. If they are not in a continued cycle of abuse they should prove it by opening the documentation and once and for all be held accountable. They have been as guilty as the perps by knowingly moving these animals from one parish to the other. Until then. The Church is an abuser.wiljo
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Tweddy wrote:
perps always have selective memories while victims remember every iota.
8/21/2009 7:21:45 AM
perps always have selective memories while victims remember every iota. Tweddy


perps always have selective memories while victims remember every iota.Tweddy
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JustTheFactsLady wrote:
While I don't doubt for a second that these people are telling the truth and are real victims, I would struggle with a prosecution with zero physical evidence and 10 year old testimony. Multiple victims with claims against the same individual, as well as physical descriptions of private areas all help, but it's still an uphill battle, not to mention the emotional struggle of testifying.
8/21/2009 6:46:03 AM
While I don't doubt for a second that these people are telling the truth and are real victims, I would struggle with a prosecution with zero physical evidence and 10 year old testimony. Multiple victims with claims against the same individual, as well as physical descriptions of private areas all help, but it's still an uphill battle, not to mention the emotional struggle of testifying. JustTheFactsLady


While I don't doubt for a second that these people are telling the truth and are real victims, I would struggle with a prosecution with zero physical evidence and 10 year old testimony. Multiple victims with claims against the same individual, as well as physical descriptions of private areas all help, but it's still an uphill battle, not to mention the emotional struggle of testifying.JustTheFactsLady
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OhIam wrote:

Replying to ChiefRose2000:

I disagree with the idea that the Archdiocese is continuing to abuse these victims. The Church is caught in the situation of trying to balance protecting funds to keep parishes open and serving those congregations and taking care of these victims of abuse. The Church has reached out with offers of counseling and other assistance. The law provides for a defense and I feel it is wise for the Church to avail itself of the protections of the law. The Archdiocese of Boston has had to close many parishes because of million dollar payouts of the priest abuse scandal. If the same were to occur here, I'm sure my own parish of Little Flower and many others could not continue.



u r rite if same okkured in parish they cud not continue if ur priest abuses wot can you do when they close parish we r left without a priest to guide us and look aover us. Stop the payments priests r only human
8/21/2009 6:40:14 AM
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ChiefRose2000 wrote:
I disagree with the idea that the Archdiocese is continuing to abuse these victims. The Church is caught in the situation of trying to balance protecting funds to keep parishes open and serving those congregations and taking care of these victims of abuse. The Church has reached out with offers of counseling and other assistance. The law provides for a defense and I feel it is wise for the Church to avail itself of the protections of the law. The Archdiocese of Boston has had to close many parishes because of million dollar payouts of the priest abuse scandal. If the same were to occur here, I'm sure my own parish of Little Flower and many others could not continue.
8/21/2009 2:47:13 AM

I disagree with the idea that the Archdiocese is continuing to abuse these victims. The Church is caught in the situation of trying to balance protecting funds to keep parishes open and serving those congregations and taking care of these victims of abuse. The Church has reached out with offers of counseling and other assistance. The law provides for a defense and I feel it is wise for the Church to avail itself of the protections of the law. The Archdiocese of Boston has had to close many parishes because of million dollar payouts of the priest abuse scandal. If the same were to occur here, I'm sure my own parish of Little Flower and many others could not continue. ChiefRose2000



I disagree with the idea that the Archdiocese is continuing to abuse these victims. The Church is caught in the situation of trying to balance protecting funds to keep parishes open and serving those congregations and taking care of these victims of abuse. The Church has reached out with offers of counseling and other assistance. The law provides for a defense and I feel it is wise for the Church to avail itself of the protections of the law. The Archdiocese of Boston has had to close many parishes because of million dollar payouts of the priest abuse scandal. If the same were to occur here, I'm sure my own parish of Little Flower and many others could not continue.ChiefRose2000
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nonebetter wrote:
This makes me sick - the Archdiocese continues to try to abuse these victims even more by not giving them some kind of restitution. Harry Monroe did terrible things to these boys who are now men - the Archdiocese needs to take responsibility and stop this abuse and Harry Monroe needs to be put in jail! The Catholic Church has named this next year as "The Year of the Priest" - they should change that and make it the "Year of the Victims" and seek forgiveness. I am a devout Catholic and I am sickened by this whole situation and pray that it will all be resolved in due time and that the victims can find some peace in their lives.
8/21/2009 1:19:26 AM

Choke on Pope John Paul II

The foot soldiers of Opus Dei are busy at their work again to dissipate all possible light on the Achilles Heel of John Paul II the Great -- which is his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army - which included Fr. Maciel as the most illustrious of them all – in this article below.



The Opus Dei produced and run the great show of the 26 years papacy of John Paul II –EVERYTHING that John Paul II did was orchestrated by the Opus Dei. Therefore, the biggest pedophile crime cover-up in the Catholic Church was led by the Opus Dei behind the face of John Paul II. John Paul II was angelic in the beginning until he became old and ugly – just like Lucifer who fell from grace from Heaven – see our earlier exposé on this matter.



So now, the Opus Dei who are master of words are saying “choke on the pope’s name” like in this article below. Read between the lines, the deceptive words and Octopus Dei tentacles are at work here.

The Opus Dei cannot allow any free speech and therefore they silenced the Jesuit Jon Sobrino - see our earlier posts for details.



Let us not be fooled that Zenit is the foremost news source of the papacy today - it publishes EVERY speech adn almost every move and meetings of the pope at the Vatican - and it is run by the Legionaries of Christ founded by Fr. Maciel. Zenit is one of the tentacles of Octopus Dei, just like John Allen of National Catholic Reporter is one of Octopus Dei’s tentacles.


Opus Dei is the most secretive and python-slimy crook on the planet today controlling the trillions wealth of the Catholic Church at the Vatican. So they need the pope with his daily pomposity meeting with royalties and diplomatic immunity to hide its wealth. Christ said: You cannot serve God and mammon – the Opus Dei can…because their true god is St. Josemaria Escriva, it is not Jesus Christ…see the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army www.jp2army.blogspot.com and God’s Rottweiler www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com for details of Opus Dei’s crimes against humanity since the 20th century and on-going!


Cough up the truth or choke on the pope

Pete VereBy on August 16, 2009 9:47 PM | | Comments (4)

The French have saying that whoever eats of the pope will choke on him. This saying comes to mind as I survey those questioning the canonization process of Pope John Paul II in light of recent revelations about Fr. Maciel's "double life." The secular press and certain anti-papist strains within protestant fundamentalism aren't the only ones questioning the appropriateness of John Paul II's potential canonization. Adding their voice to the chorus this week are CrunchyCon's Rod Dreher and Renew America and Liberal Traditionalist blogmeister Eric Giunta.

For the record, I believe Pope John Paul II probably was not aware of the evidence against Fr. Maciel. Given what we know about JPII, I put the odds of him knowing and not doing anything about it (and in fact continuing to praise Fr. Maciel publicly as an excellent example for youth) at about the same percentage as several young women, independently and years apart from each other, breaking into the hospital room of an elderly priest-founder and stealing his semen to impregnate themselves.
Possible? Yes. Probable? I'd sooner bet on the state lottery.
Having said that, this incident may still slow down Pope John Paul II's canonization process. Because of the nature of canonization, it's important that we know everything we can about the late Supreme Pontiff. Especially when allegations are as high-profile as those concerning Fr. Maciel. Thus the devil's advocate will have his job cut out for him.

Nevertheless, over at the other end of the Church spectrum, some LC/RC supporters are still using the pope to try and shut down discussion of their movement's charism. A recent example of this comes from Mark Polo in the comments section of the AmericanPapist blog. Mr. Polo writes:

The charism is not the same as the founder. The charism is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which at this point, is guaranteed by the Church in its approval of the Constitutions. While this is not an infallible act of Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict would be fully free to make changes or even remove this approval of the Church entirely, the assumption at this point has to be in favor of the validity of the charism. Any other attitude is really moving away from the respect that is due the Holy Father. (If we can decide that John Paul II was obviously wrong about this matter, and abused his power as Pope to approve these Constitutions, the next step is to start questioning everything else the Holy Father says. This is not a road I want to see people going down.)

Others commentators have refuted his errors in logic, so I'll set those aside for now. The road that ought to be avoided is that of eating of the pope by continuing to invoke an approval of one's founder and movement that was gained through deception of the founder's piety. This was the deception used to gain papal approval, to provide oneself with the cover of Catholic orthodoxy, and persecute the founder's victims while silencing the movement's legitimate critics.
That being said, I am sure that many orthodox Catholics like myself, who are part of the Pope John Paul II generation of Catholic activists, will continue to defend our pope during this time. This is not to say, however, that we will be silenced by the mere mention of Pope John Paul II's name, or that in his name our anger toward the LC/RC will dissipate.

Unlike other attacks against Pope John Paul II, this recent volley was completely avoidable. HAD THE REST OF THE CHURCH KNOWN THE TRUTH ABOUT FR. MACIEL. The controversy also could be cut short by the LC/RC coming forward with the truth and apologizing to Fr. Maciel's victims.

Nevertheless, Fr. Maciel and his movement chose to invoke the pope as shield against serious allegations concerning the founder's proclivity towards violations of the Sixth Commandment. An example of this can be seen in Sandro Magister's 2003 interview with Father Miguel Cavallé Puig, LC - a Spaniard who at the time was part of the LC's general secretariat (click here). In responding to former LC seminarians who accused Fr. Maciel of sexual impropriety, Fr. Puig states: "the true target of the accusations is not so much Father Maciel, but the church, and the pope."

In short, Fr. Puig, like his founder Maciel, ate of the pope in the name of the movement. And for all we know, the movement may have bitten off a chunk of the Holy Spirit in proposing Maciel's mother - Mama Maurita - for potential canonization. Do we have any outside corroboration of holiness and heroic virtue? Is anyone outside the LC/RC putting forward her cause? (Unlike the case of Gabrielle Lefebvre, whose cause has always been independent of the SSPX, Mama Maurita's cause appears completely driven by the LC/RC and its supporters)
And thus the LC/RC finds itself choking on the very lie which it ate. Yet the movement's supporters continue biting off more chunks of the pope, warning others of choking hazards in an attempt to stop them from noticing that the movement is choking.

Please, dear LC/RC member, I beg you. For the sake of Maciel's victims, for the sake of your own members, for the sake of the Church and Pope John Paul II supporters embarrassed by your founder's lies, please come forward now with the truth. You've eaten of the pope. So please cough up the truth and stop the choking.

4 Comments

By Molly on August 17, 2009 9:10 AM

It's so much more than violations of the 6th commandment; it's thorough deceit, it's coveting and getting what is not yours, it's aiming false witness at victims, there seems to be more than one false god in the works here, it's taking resources collected for one purpose and using them for another, it's the dishonoring of persons. Let's not make this all about sex as if that were the only morality worth noting. As for JPII's knowledge---there is such a thing as maintaining your blind spot. When you do this in traffic there's accidents. When you do this in leadership, there are consequences usually for other people. What he may not have intended, he most thoroughly facilitated with harmful consequences for many, many people.

By Anonymous on August 17, 2009 11:04 AM

Your argument for why it is preposterous to believe that JPII knew anything of Maciel's sexual exploits is the same one that the likes of Father Neuhaus used back in the day to defend the mighty Maciel. Neuhaus just couldn't bring himself to believe that this man he knew to be so holy and who had done so much "good" for the Church could possibly have been a complete deviant and a pervert. That line of argument no longer holds any kind of water.
But whether the Pope knew for sure or not seems irrelevant to me when it comes to his canonization. Even if he didn't have one inkling about Maciel, he SHOULD have. Would the Church canonize a mother who for decades ignored the cries of her sexually molested children and chose instead to listen to her coworkers who were telling her that their abuser was a wonderful and holy man? Perhaps she truly did believe it for herself. And she may have been a pious and holy woman in many other areas of her life and may have done fabulous things for the Church. But should she be canonized??!!

The Pope was the spiritual father of these abuse victims (and all the other thousands of victims of Maciel's fraud and deception). He had a duty to investigate the matter for himself. He was not in prison. The internet was readily available to him. He could have interviewed the accusers himself. He surely should have known what kind of intrigue was going on in the Vatican. It was his responsibility to know about such intrigue. You do not have the luxury of naivete when you are the Vicar of Christ.

Canonization of a pope who failed his spiritual children so utterly in a matter of such great importance would be a massive scandal in my eyes. I hope the process is at the very least slowed considerably so that the test of time will lend some perspective and clarity to the situation.

By giselle on August 17, 2009 4:40 PM

There are two questions: is JP2 in heaven and is he worthy of veneration? (which cannot exclude his years as pope). I'm at peace with the thought of him having entered heaven, perhaps having been purged of this and that, but I'm doubtful of the value of venerating his papacy. I love the man to death, have my own strong reasons for believing that he didn't know the details of MM's depravity, and I think he did tremendous things to restore many elements of Catholic culture. But if honouring him dishonours the victims (or overlooks their years of suffering in any way) then let it go. The "smoke of satan" entered the highest levels of the Church and a back-slapping session over John Paul the Great would do more harm to the Church overall than good. We can privately ask his intercession (for what he didn't know then, he surely knows and grieves for now) and through his prayers we'll get past this mess. Canonisation wouldn't be a good idea.

By Pete VereAuthor Profile Page on August 17, 2009 6:46 PM
Regardless of where one stands on the debate over Pope John Paul II's canonization process, I believe this discussion corroborates the main point I was attempting to make:

The Fr. Maciel scandal is causing many orthodox Catholics to rethink Pope John Paul II's potential canonization.

Why Pope John Paul II should not be canonized‏

Well, well, well, someone is finally paying attention to our humble weblog the John Paul II Millstone and proving our point that John Paul II MUST not be called a “saint” by American children and in American soil!


Well, someone is paying attention finally to our humble weblog the John Paul II Millstone and proving our point that John Paul II MUST not be called a “saint” by American children and in American soil! Opus Dei through Benedict XVI is speeding up the canonization of John Paul II because he is their GAY Holy Father mystically married to their other Holy Father St. Josemaria Escriva – see our earlier posts and images. Opus Dei cannot stand the Jesuits who work with the poorest of Christ and so they expel and silence them form the Vatican Radio and shut down the Vatican Observatory run by the Jesuits. The Opus Dei bishop of el Salvador silenced the Jesuit Jon Sobrino because he dared criticised the theatrical papacy of John Paul II in his book Witnesses to the Kingdom: the Martyrs of El Salvador and the Crucified People


August 14, 2009

Why Pope John Paul II should not be canonized

By Eric Giunta
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/giunta/090814

Once again, the Catholic world has been rocked by yet more allegations of sexual impropriety by Legionnaires of Christ founder, the late Fr. Marcial Maciel. It seems the now-disgraced founder-cum-pervert fathered more children than previously suspected; the latest claimants to his paternity purport to have evidence that the late Pope John Paul II knew of Maciel's sexual dalliances, and turned a blind eye to them. (If true, it would confirm the prior journalistic scholarship of author Jason Berry.)

The allegations highlight what for all too many Catholics is the elephant-in-the-room when discussing the ills which beset the modern Church: the extent to which the late Pope John Paul II was an enabler of these perversions, from sexual and liturgical abuse to theological dissent and the scandal of Catholic politicians who support the most immoral of social policies with the tacit or express blessings of their Church.

One does not need to deny or disparage the personal sanctity, thoughtful conservatism, or religious orthodoxy of the late Pontiff in order to acknowledge that his Pontificate, by all accounts, was a glorious failure. Yes, he aided in the fall of Eastern European Communism, but the Pope of Rome is not primarily a mover and shaker of state politics, but a Christian pastor whose mission it is to save souls, convert the lost, and govern his church in such a way that it resembles, as best as possible, the city on a hill, the light of the world whose radiance cannot be hid under a bushel-basket.

In terms of raw statistics, the Catholic Church shrank under the late Pope. Catholics comprised 18 percent of the world's population in 1978, the year Karol Wojtyla assumed the Chair of St Peter. At his death Catholics comprised 17 percent.

It'd be foolish, of course, to let such numbers stand alone as leading Catholic indicators, but in terms of the quality of world Catholicism the evidence, while not as quantifiable, is no less apparent or tangible. If one is looking for the fruits of the Wojtylian pontificate, several studies of the modern church paint a representative picture: Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church, Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, Amchurch Comes Out: The U.S. Bishops, Pedophile Scandals and the Homosexual Agenda, The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church, Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal, Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II, and the pioneering work of Dr. Richard Sipe and Roman Catholic Faithful. These sources approach their subject matter from very varied ideological backgrounds, but they all paint a very bleak, but well-documented, picture of the prior pontificate.

Though Catholics and others are loathe to admit it of an otherwise beloved Pope, John Paul II oversaw a church which deteriorated in both its inner and outer life. His callous indifference toward the victims of priestly sexual abuse in refusing to meet personally with a single one of them, and his stubborn refusal to compel the resignation from office of any of the bishops who aided, abetted, and covered-up the abuse, are testamentary to his utter failure: not as a Catholic or a theologian, but as a Pope.

And this is precisely why he should not be canonized. For in the Catholic (and popular) understanding, canonization is not simply a technical decree indicating one's everlasting abode in Paradise; it is, in addition, the Church's solemn endorsement of a Christian's heroic virtue. The question the Catholic Church must ask herself is: Was John Paul II a model of "heroic" papal virtue?

Contrary to leftist media reportage, the late Pope was not an authoritarian despot, bent on enforcing Catholic orthodoxy on an unwilling church. Quite the contrary: theological liberals and dissenters flourished in all of the Church's structures, from lay politics and Catholic universities, to the ranks of priests and bishops. Not a single pro-abortion Catholic politician has been excommunicated from the church; only a handful of openly heretical priests were asked to stop teaching theology, but were otherwise permitted to exercise their priestly ministry unhindered. The Church in Austria openly dissents from orthodox Catholicism with papal impunity. Fr. Richard McBrien, Sr. Joan Chittiser, Roger Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles, Hans Kung, Charles Curran, Notre Dame University, dissenters galore: the overwhelming majority of prominent far-leftist, theologically modernist Catholic organizations, speakers, and theologians are Catholics in good standing with their church, and are frequently given an official platform at church-sponsored institutions and events. To give just two more examples, several Catholic parishes and universities flaunt themselves as "gay-friendly" in a directory published by the Conference of Catholic Lesbians. These speakers and institutions are in just as good standing with the Church as so-called "orthodox" Catholic pundits and writers.

After John Paul II, the Catholic Church is virtually indistinguishable from the Anglican Communion. Everyone has their seat at the table, liberal and conservative, high church and low. The "official" teaching of the Church may lean toward religious conservatism, but this is just one option out of many which a loyal Catholic may avail himself of and remain in good standing with his Church.

The late Pope's governance of his church was laissez-faire, he personally adhering to conservative Catholic orthodoxy but not wishing to impose such on Catholic clergy or institutions. Ironically, the Papacy has been rather critical of governments who take such approaches to their economies; should it be the model for a church which regards itself as the one true religion?

The canonization of Pope John Paul II is an issue which concerns not only Catholics, but all traditionalist conservatives. For better or for worse (depending on one's religious outlook), the Catholic Church is the largest religious institution on the planet, and historically regarded as a fairly conservative one. The Washington Times recently named Pope Benedict the de facto leader of world conservatism. Just as conservatives do not wish to see their foundational principles redefined by the nomination and election of conservatives-in-name-only, so the canonization of the late Pope would represent (among other things) his church's influential imprimatur on a model of Christian pastorship that has eroded the foundational conservative principles of one of the world's oldest and most venerable conservative institutions.

As noted earlier, the Papacy is the third-rail of orthodox Catholic discourse. The respect Catholics have for the Papal institution renders the living or recent claimants of that seat virtually impervious to criticism, as if such critique automatically rendered one implacably uncharitable or schismatic. When civil society regains its conservative bearings, history will not be kind to what any unbiased observer must regard as the gross pastoral negligence of the 21st century's first Pope; if Catholics want to come out of the present cultural quagmire with their intellectual integrity intact, they must fearlessly shed the light of truth on that Pontiff's pastorship, and be sure to end up on the right side of history's verdict.

© Eric Giunta

Comments to this article are BLIND to the reality of the Octopus Dei http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/08/an-argument-against-john-paul_comments.html


Observer
August 14, 2009 10:38 PM
He may have been great in some ways, but his feet were of clay here, and canonizing him would send the message that his and the Church's response to this situation was somehow not a real problem.

Well said, Tumarion.

John Paul himself will suffer nothing if he is not canonized. Perhaps the analogy to Junipero Serra is apt here. Serra may have been a good guy, but his canonization would send a certain message (in his case about colonialism) which might not be appropriate. JP was undoubtedly a good guy too, but I don't think the Church should send the message that denial is the proper response to the horrible things that have happened.


David F. (the most ignorant of them all -- John Paul II saved NO ONE)
August 15, 2009 10:24 AM
The Person - The former Pope was clearly a highly educated man beloved by his flock. His legacy will never be defined by one issue, nor should the most important be ignored. How many pages of the “posito” deal with the sexual abuse of children by priests? I would appreciate it if the investigators would answer two questions for me.

What is the most important thing JPII did to stop the negligent supervision of abusive priests by his highest level employees?

What is the most important thing he did to show care, concern, and compassion for the tens of thousands who were raped by his employees, and betrayed by his hierarchy?
Is it just me, or do you have the feeling that when they’re done, documentation will show that no one on the planet saved more kids from sexual abuse.
Observer

August 15, 2009 12:44 PM
Is it just me, or do you have the feeling that when they’re done, documentation will show that no one on the planet saved more kids from sexual abuse.
It's just you. Unless you mean this statement ironically, or to imply that the "documentation" will fall somewhat short of reality.

thomas tucker
August 15, 2009 1:30 PM
David- you may be right. We can't know at this point. One quibbe- JPII did not see his fellow bishops as "employees." His model of Church governance, which has its flaws a swell as its benefits, was much more in the mode of first among equals. In addition, he was not a micromanager and delegated responsilbility, rightly or wrongly, to others.

Furthermore, I honestly cut the Pope a lot of slack on this issue for two additional reasons- as the Scandal began unfolding, he was rapidly aging and becoming ill in health. I think played a large part in how much he was able to dela with this problem. Secondly, don't underestimate how much someone at the top knows about what his happening in other places and how much info is given to him. And don't overestimate how much of the story is known to and correctly reported by the media. All I'm saying here is that you have to be very careful in judging how much someone knew and how culpable they werein dealing with it- there are many variables.
In the meantime, I give JP great credit for his evangelization, Theology of the Body, and laying of groundwork for the rising number of vocations with orthodox seminarians that we are now seeing- this began under his pontificate. He ably sageguarded the Deposit of Faith and was an inspiration to literally millions.
Now, let the mosquitos resume their biting.

Pentimento
August 15, 2009 4:30 PM
Saints are canonized for their holiness, not for their good judgment about temporal matters, or even sometimes about spiritual matters.

Thomas R
August 15, 2009 5:05 PM

"I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the Giunta essay." RD
TR: I know one should assume good faith, but I think it's highly unlikely you disagree more than agree with the essay. You left the faith largely because of anger over things during his Papacy. Also I don't think you've ever have linked to a case for his canonization and I'm skeptical you would be emotionally able to do so.
Anyway ideally canonization is a matter of meeting the requirements, some or most of which involve miracles beyond our say-so. I agree with those saying it shouldn't be rushed and that maybe JPII canonized others too fast. If and when he meets the standard he meets the standard. It's not up to me or you or anyone here to say he must never be canonized. (And for any Orthodoxers poo-pooing some Catholic saints may I just say Tsar Nicolas II.)

Personally Pope John Paul II means a great deal to me and even many non-Catholics I know admire him. His ability to reach out to other religions without compromising core principles is very inspiring to me. I understand the anger someone like him or you feel, but I don't share it. The lack of that rage makes me maybe insensitive to something, but I think it has its positives.

Jason
August 16, 2009 9:20 AM
Fortunately for Catholics the process of canonization is more of a supernatural process than a political one.

Observer
August 16, 2009 11:15 AM
Fortunately for Catholics the process of canonization is more of a supernatural process than a political one.

Kind of.

However, the promotion of a Cause down here on Planet Earth requires quite a lot of money. The people best situated and motivated to spend this money are the religious orders. As a result, the calendar of saints is heavily weighted towards founders of religious orders, even and including some pretty obscure people. Married people (who did not manage to get martyred) and other ordinary people are very much underrepresented.

One could draw the conclusion that being married and having a family is a sort of second-class Christianity, that according to the Catholic Church the "laity" is only there to "pay, pray and obey" while the heights of "real" holiness are accessible only to religious.
In fact people have drawn that very conclusion from this data. Religious and priests are especially fond of this take on the data, but they're not th only ones. After all, remember, religious life is "the state of perfection." Which makes my life "the state of imperfection," which it is, but not in the way they mean.
If you think this process is mostly "supernatural" you should buy into the idea that God agrees. (Also, I have a bridge to sell you.)

Jason
August 16, 2009 1:44 PM
Observer, apparently you have not been observing the Church for the last forty years post Vatican II in which She has stressed the role of the laity. With regard to your comment about selling me a bridge, "for those who have the gift of faith, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not, no explanation will suffice." Please be assured I will keep you in my prayers.


David J. White
August 16, 2009 4:11 PM
Aside from the early martyr popes, relatively few popes have been canonized
Of course the early martyr popes, and other saints from the early centuries, were not "canonized" in anything like the modern understanding of the term.
Who cares if the Roman church "canonizes" one more dead saint?
We Catholics care a great deal, Siarlys.
Fortunately for Catholics the process of canonization is more of a supernatural process than a political one.
According to a cousin of mine who is a diocesan priest, it is very much a political -- and financial -- process. That's why so many members of religious orders are canonized, according to him: the orders have the funds to keep the cause open and to advance it.

Siarlys Jenkins
August 16, 2009 10:09 PM
David J. White:
You Romans are welcome to care, within your church, about what your church does. That is your freedom of religion, ethically and, in this nation, constitutionally. My point is, why should a self-professed Greek Orthodox care, why should a true blue Protestant, and proud of it, care, why should an atheist care, why should secular media care, why should any government anywhere care? It is indeed a private internal matter of your church, and of no significance to anyone else, either to object to or take note of. I had only one comment on the selection of Ratzinger as Bishop of Rome: "Thank God for the Reformation."
Thomas R:
Let the Russian Orthodox worry about Bloody Nicholas. The rest of us don't have to revere the autocrat. If there is a hell, I'm sure he is burning in it right now. I hope his children are not suffering for the sins of their father.

Siarlys Jenkins
August 16, 2009 10:10 PM
David J. White:
You Romans are welcome to care, within your church, about what your church does. That is your freedom of religion, ethically and, in this nation, constitutionally. My point is, why should a self-professed Greek Orthodox care, why should a true blue Protestant, and proud of it, care, why should an atheist care, why should secular media care, why should any government anywhere care? It is indeed a private internal matter of your church, and of no significance to anyone else, either to object to or take note of. I had only one comment on the selection of Ratzinger as Bishop of Rome: "Thank God for the Reformation."
Thomas R:
Let the Russian Orthodox worry about Bloody Nicholas. The rest of us don't have to revere the autocrat. If there is a hell, I'm sure he is burning in it right now. I hope his children are not suffering for the sins of their father.

Thomas R
August 16, 2009 11:07 PM
I shouldn't have painted all Orthodox with the brush of what the Russians do or don't do.
Still I intended a larger point. Most religions have saints who are "questionable" in some way. Even in the case of the Humanists I'd think several of those named "Humanist of the Year" had qualities that not all Humanists find admirable.
It bothers me to overly pick on a religion for having a questionable saint or to focus in only on the moments a saint had bad judgement. I think non-Catholics care about this as it's a way to bash or praise Catholicism. I would say non-Catholics are more likely to admire John Paul II than castigate him, from what I remember of polls, but for ex-Catholics and secularists his canonization is a big deal relating to their anger at the Church. (Of Popes considered for canonization John XXIII and Pius IX would likely be the ones that would cause some unease for me.) So I think that's why it matters to other religions even if I might agree it should be none of our business.

Your Name
August 17, 2009 9:45 AM
Siarlys- if you don't care, then why comment on this post?
Just to be inflammatory, or rude?

Siarlys Jenkins
August 17, 2009 11:00 PM
http://siarlysjenkins.blogspot.com
Since you asked, Your Name, no, I didn't comment to be inflammatory or rude. The post itself strongly suggests that the canonization of JPJP is a matter of broad concern, and examines arguments why or why not. I initially responded by saying that I have a very different understanding of what a "saint" is -- based on very early church history, and modern Protestant usage. In the sense I understand the word, canonization is either redundant or a nullity. A sincere, devout, Christian of the Roman branch explained that to him, and to his co-religionists, whether JP is canonized makes a great deal of difference. I acknowledged that, internal to their denomination, that is entirely up to them. I know of course that, according to orthodox Roman understanding, my saying that is a bit of an insult, since that denomination still claims to be the ONLY "Church," and their canonization process the ONLY way to "sainthood." I don't, incidentally, mind seeing Bishops of Rome playing modest roles as peacemakers in the world, as long as they don't reach for the kind of secular powers which have in many centuries corrupted their bureaucracy. But my comments are a legitimate observation on the significance of JP being "made a saint." Nobody has any obligation to agree with me. I hope we all know that God will do as God chooses, regardless of what any of us opine here.

Tom Doyle versus John Paul II

Tom Doyle is the best witness against the canonization of John Paul II.

In 1985, Tom Doyle presented John Paul II at the Vatican his scholarly findings about the priestly sexual abuse in Louisiana and predicted that it will cost the USA Catholic Church millions of dollars in victims’ settlements. The Opus Dei laughed at him and continued to ignore him even until the eruption of the pedophile priests’ scandal in Boston in 2002 -- on the way of John Paul II to the World Youth Day in Toronto. So Opus Dei got Tom Doyle fired from his job as chaplain at the navy in Washington DC, one year short of his retirement which would have helped in his pension plan. See our coverages in the John Paul II Millstone weblog in earlier months www.jp2m.blogspot.com

=====July 1, 2009...7:02 am

Thomas P. Doyle: Fighting to Prevent Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Thomas_P_Doyle2The Rev. Tom Doyle was on the fast track. Eleven years after ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood he was a canon or church lawyer on the staff of the Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C. His future looked exceedingly bright.

But in 1984 his career took a swerve he didn’t see coming. The idealistic Doyle was about to receive a crash course in radical evil, both individual and institutional.

A National Spotlight

The Vatican had been receiving reports of a high-profile case of clergy sexual abuse in Lafayette, Louisiana, about a two-hour drive west of New Orleans. Doyle was responsible for preparing files, monitoring correspondence, and preparing responses in the case for the Vatican ambassador, his boss, Archbishop Pio Laghi.

The trial involved Gilbert Gauthe, Jr., a 39-year-old Roman Catholic priest, who had been indicted in October 1984 on 39 counts of alleged sex crimes against children. He was defended in court by Ray Mouton, Jr., a highly respected member of the Lafayette community and a hard-charging attorney, trusted and retained by the Catholic Church.

Watershed events don’t usually occur in Lafayette, but here was an exception three times over. It was the first time in U.S. history national media turned its spotlight on a Catholic priest accused of alleged sex crimes. Next, it was the first time a family brought a civil suit against a diocese (Gastal v. Lafayette) for failure to take proper precautions when warned of Gauthe. Finally, the trial was a textbook case study for prosecutors seeking to bring pedophiles in the clergy to justice.

As trial testimony became public, both the community of Lafayette and the nation struggled with the details of Gauthe’s monstrous crimes against young children, mostly pre-pubescent boys. But perhaps more shocking were revelations of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of Gauthe’s despicable past.

Over a 12 year period Bishop Gerard Frey, head of the Lafayette diocese, routinely transferred Gauthe to a new parish when sexual-abuse complaints came to his attention. At each new parish church members would welcome Gauthe, popular with both children and adults, into their community, unaware of his history.

Given a clean slate by the bishop, the unsupervised Gauthe continued to molest young boys. In depositions he couldn’t recall the exact number but it may have been as many as a hundred.

Far from being punished, Gauthe was actually promoted to pastor from associate pastor during his tenure in the Lafayette diocese.

Outrage from victims’ families and widespread negative publicity finally caught up with Gauthe and the Church. He pled guilty to all counts against him and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

An Anomaly or Tip of Iceberg

Many outside the Church thought the Gauthe case was an anomalous blip on a screen, not soon to be repeated. But following the Gauthe conviction, civil and criminal lawsuits of alleged molestation by Catholic priests were filed across the country. Was the Gauthe case an abnormality or the tip of the iceberg?

Doyle was deeply concerned. He feared the U.S. bishops were in the dark about the magnitude of the problem and that they would continue to put Church interests ahead of victims’ needs.

Acting on their own initiative, Doyle, Mouton — working now to put pedophiles behind bars, not defend them – and Rev. Michael Peterson, M.D., a psychiatrist, took an unprecedented step.

“We put together a report for the U.S. bishops on how to respond appropriately and responsibly to reports of sexual abuse of children by clergy,” Doyle said. The 100-page report, really a how-to manual, was entitled The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy: Meeting the Problem in a Comprehensive and Responsible Manner.

“We put it together in good faith with every confidence that U.S. bishops would respond to what we believed to be a problem they were not aware of and would respond in an effective way, especially toward victims.” Interestingly, in the report they predicted the Church could pay potentially a billion dollars to defendants in diocesan lawsuits over the next decade. The claim would later prove prophetic.

They arranged a meeting with Auxiliary Bishop A. J. Quinn of Cleveland to discuss the report. Prior to the meeting Mouton said to Doyle, “You have the most to lose here. If you cross this threshold and go into that room, your career will never be the same.”

“I didn’t think a lot about it at the time,” Doyle said. “Obviously, I chose to cross the threshold, and we were wrong. They had known about the issue for some time. By ‘they,’ I mean certain bishops were aware; some weren’t. But I’ve learned since then that many were quite well aware.”

Sociologist Myron Glazer who studied 55 whistleblowers made this remarkable comment: “Virtually all of the ethical resisters…had long histories of successful employment.

They were not alienated or politically active members of movements advocating major changes in society. On the contrary, they began as firm believers in their organizations, convinced that if they took a grievance to superiors, there would be an appropriate response. This naivete led them into a series of damaging traps. They found that their earlier service and dedication provided them with little protection against charges of undermining organizational morale and effectiveness.” 1
Glazer could have been describing Doyle word by word.

Ally, Then Adversary

At their first meetings Quinn, initially an ally, was cordial to them and positive about their report. But in the following months he became an adversary, convinced the report was written to wring consultancy contracts from the Church.

A 2,000-year-old, male-dominated, hierarchical institution knows how to deal with perceived interlopers. After months of bureaucratic paper shuffling and minor discussions at bishops’ conferences, The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy report had itself become a problem. It was consigned to the dust bin, only to re-emerge 17 years later when another major sexual-abuse scandal of Boston clergy shocked the nation.

But by 1985 Doyle, a quick study, had become a student of how the inside game of Church affairs was played. “I discovered, especially after learning about the sexual abuse issue, how profoundly important internal Church politics were and how important the image of the institution and its structures were,” he said.

“I learned the policy of the institutional Catholic Church was not to respond to victims with any sense of pastoral concern or compassion, but to remain silent about the abuse victims had suffered and keep the matter as secret as possible so no harm or embarrassment would come to the institutional church,” Doyle said. “People suffering from sexual abuse by the clergy were an ‘entity’ the institutional Church would just as soon forget about. And, in fact, they did.”

Like countless other ethical dissenters, Doyle began to feel unwelcomed in his once beloved Church. Mouton was correct; Doyle’s career would never be the same.

In 1986 he took two decisive steps. First, he left his position at the Vatican embassy to enlist in the United States Air Force as a Catholic chaplain. Stationed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Doyle would serve his country for the next two decades, with assignments in several overseas’ conflicts including Operation Iraqi Freedom. He retired with the rank of major in 2004.

No Way to Treat a Victim

Next, he found a new calling. Doyle became a relentless and outspoken victims’ advocate. “The events that made me choose the course I took was knowing the families and the victims of clergy sexual abuse,” he said. “I didn’t have any idea the depth and devastation that occurs when this happens.

“I began to learn from knowing these people how much incredible harm has been done, not only by the rape and sodomy of priests but by the – and I can’t use any other word – shameful way these people were treated by Church authorities, by the bishops. [They were] ignored, cajoled into silence, promises broken, phone calls never answered, threats made, and children ignored. I could not reconcile what I understood the Church to be, or the ministry to be, with that kind of behavior. I still can’t.”

One comprehensive survey determined that 10,667 individuals had made allegations of child sexual abuse by 4,392 priests, or 4 percent of Catholic priests in the U.S. during 1950-2002. Of accused priests, 384 were charged, 252 were convicted, and 100 served time in prison. The percentages mask a grim reality – only 2 percent of all priests alleged of child sexual abuse have ever gone to prison!

2
Still Persona Non Grata

Despite all that Doyle has done to prevent a radical evil, comfort the suffering, and change the Church’s policy of silence and denial toward victims of clergy sexual abuse, he is still persona non grata within the Church.

“I’m not welcome to do any public ministry in any diocese,” he said. “I’m the problem. Many times I get asked to speak around the United States and Europe about this issue or about the need for reform in the Catholic Church. Inevitably, and I would say without exception, in the past several years when the talk is scheduled in a Catholic church, university or college the local bishop, when he finds out, will either cancel the talk or cancel me.”

Still, Doyle hasn’t any regrets. “No, I’d rather have followed the path I did because I can live with myself,” he said. “I could not have lived with myself if I had looked the other way. I don’t want to be part of that type of life, the clerical life, of privilege, monarchial, isolated from reality.”

Other Catholics share Doyle’s sentiments. A Gallup poll found that Americans’ trust and confidence in churches, more specifically in the people who ran organized religion, declined from 68% in 1975 to 45% in 2002. 3


Integrity Is What’s Important

Growing up in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, Doyle did not lack for mentors, secular or clerical. “My father was a business executive, a man of principle. I admired him greatly, and my mother as well. I was blessed with a good, solid family, with good parents.”

Doyle relished telling one story about his father. “He had been told by the ‘high command’ in his company – the new generation — to fire several men he knew for ages. These were good men. He told management, ‘No way’. I won’t use his exact words, which were pretty salty, but he refused. He faced them down. What was important to him was integrity.”

Doyle also recalled honorable priests from his childhood in Canada. “Priests I knew in our parish were decent men,” he said. “They were very active in the community in a very positive way. I still recall my pastor with tremendous affection. He was a gruff Scot-Irishman with a heart of gold.”

Apparently, Doyle learned well from his mentors. He received the Cavallo Award for Moral Courage in 1992, the Priest of Integrity Award from Voice of the Faithful in 2002, and the Isaac Hecker Award from the Paulist Fathers in 2003.

In 2003 Doyle, a priest in the Dominican Order for the past 39 years, received an official commendation from the Order for his “prophetic work in drawing attention to clergy sexual abuse and for advocating the rights of victims and abusers.”

Over the past 20 years Doyle has interviewed more than 2,000 survivors of clergy sexual abuse, written seven books, developed policies and procedures for dealing with clergy sexual abuse for dioceses in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, testified in support of child protection laws before state legislatures, and served as an expert witness in trials of alleged sexual abuse in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Israel and the U.K.

Reflecting on his legacy, Doyle said, “If I am remembered for anything I would like to be remembered as someone who tried to be compassionate in dealing with people who are suffering; who tried to understand the pain they are in; who gave them support with their problems, and helped them find peace and serenity.”

Endnotes

1. Boatright, John. Ethics and the Conduct of Business. Third Edition. (Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2000, p. 113)

2. Terry, Karen, et al.. “The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests and Deacons.” John Jay College of Criminal Justice 2004 Web.6 Aug 2009.

3. Opinion, “A Clay-Footed Cardinal.” Los Angeles Times. June 13, 2003 Web. 17 July 2009.


Copyright © 2009 by Vince Reardon
http://vincereardon.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/thomas-p-doyle-fighting-to-prevent-clergy-sexual-abuse-in-the-catholic-church/



Challenge

By Jeff Israely/Rome and David Van Biema/New York Friday, Apr. 11, 2008
pope benedict catholic pedophiles sex abuse

Alberto Pizzoli / AFP / Getty
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

* The Pope’s Sex Abuse Challenge http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1730196,00.html
* Victim On Church Sex Abuse http://atlantis2.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5029042n
*

9 Comments

Filed under Books, Legacy

Tags: clergy sexual abuse, Legacy, ostracized, pedophilia, Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, The Problem of Sexual Molestation by Roman Catholic Clergy, whistleb, whistleblower
9 Comments

*
hrh
July 4, 2009 at 7:14 am
And that’s why he’s known as Saint Tom in our house.
Reply
o
Vince Reardon
July 4, 2009 at 7:19 am
HRH,
Thanks for the reply. I’m writing a book called “Legacy: Passing on Cherished Values in a Values-Starved World” and Tom is one of the exemplary individuals I profile. As you can gather from my article my admiration for Tom is unbounded.
Again, thanks for sharing your comment.
Best regards,
Vince Reardon
Reply
*
Albino Luciani
July 4, 2009 at 7:22 am
Ton Doyle, OP; priest, prophet, doctor, brilliant canon lawyer, and clearly a REAL SAINT IN THE MAKING!!!
GOD BLESS THOMAS P. DOYLE, and may his tribe increase and flourish!
Fiat Lux & Veritas!
Albino Luciani,
MURDERED POPE
PS: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/abusetracker for daily verified & vetted reporting on the Roman “La Cosa Nostra” Pedo Curia Cult & USCCB (Unremoved Sexual Criminal Cabal Bishop). THE SOLUTION? “STOP DONATING LAITY” as St. Peter Damien correctly asserted.
Reply
o
Vince Reardon
July 4, 2009 at 8:18 am
Dear Mr. Luciani,
Thank you for your comment. We are clearly in agreement about the awe-inspiring Tom Doyle!
Best,
Vince Reardon
Reply
*
Steven Spaner
July 4, 2009 at 2:17 pm
The uniqueness of Tom Doyle among clergy of the Catholic church is that he can read. The theme of every core sacred document of every religion … be it the Bible, the Koran, the Confucian Canons, the Torah, etc. … is that of humanitarianism: respect for, care and protection of for all living persons, creatures, environments. Tom Doyle has learned these rules, lives these rules, and models these rules. It is an honor to know him, listen to him, and read him in a time where it is very difficult to have respect for, care and protection of any religious.
Reply
*
mike ference
August 6, 2009 at 7:31 am
If we had more compassionate people like Tom Doyle in the Catholic Church who were more concerned with protecting innocent children instead of dysfunctonal sex freaks, I’d still be a member.
Mike Ference
Reply
o
Vince Reardon
August 6, 2009 at 11:51 am
Thanks for reading my profile of Tom Doyle. I can see that you admire him as much as I do. There are lots of clay-footed leaders in our society. So it’s reassuring and inspiring when you meet a real leader with, as you noted, compassionate, and who’s willing to take an institutional beating year after year to protect the most vulnerable in society — our children. Thank God for Tom Doyle!
Kind regards,
Vince Reardon
Reply
*
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
August 6, 2009 at 9:19 am
Thank you for this well deserved tribute to Tom Doyle.
Even at this late date I find it hard to accept the fact that there are only a few priests like him across this country.
God bless him.
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims’ Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
Reply
o
Vince Reardon
August 6, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Dear Sister Maureen,

Thanks for your kind note. As I gather from your note, you too are a great admirer of Tom Doyle. He is one of two dozen people I’ve interviewed for a book I’ve written and am publishing soon. It’s called “Legacy: Passing on Cherished Values in a Values-Starved World.”

In total I interviewed 50 notable Americans and selected 25 of the most compelling stories. Tom and Harry Wu, a Chinese dissident who spend 19 years in the Chinese gulag for his political beliefs, both stood out immediately. It was the sound of their voice. When they described the innocent victims of abuse (in Tom’s case, clergy sexual abuse; in Harry’s, abuse for political beliefs) they spoke with deep pain and sadness. I knew I was in the presence of special individuals. I never heard such voices! You can’t fake a voice like that.

In my life I’ve had the privilege of meeting a couple of people of true distinction. Both were scientists of the highest achievement. But they don’t come close to the admiration I feel for Tom Doyle.

May God continue to bless you for your good work as a victim’s advocate.
Kind regards,
Vince Reardon
Reply

All Roads Sex-Abuse Lawsuits Lead to Rome and John Paul II

John Paul II must never be called a saint by American children and in American soil because he led his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for more than 26 years together with the Opus Dei -- the wealthy elite Opus Dei who silenced the Jesuit Jon Sobrino who work with the poor in El Salvador.

===


All Roads Sex-Abuse Lawsuits Lead to Rome <

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 11:07 AM

Another month, another multi-million dollar settlement against the Catholic church for knowingly—knowingly—putting children directly in harm's way, this time in Nova Scotia.

This suit claims the conspiracy went all the way to the Pope. The church doesn't deny it and doesn't want to spend any of its (considerable) resources disproving it. The silence speaks volumes:

The suit against the Roman Catholic diocese of Antigonish was filed last year. It claimed the church, under instructions from the Pope, had a policy to keep sex-abuse allegations against priests secret, with ex-communication as the penalty. It also claimed the church, diocese and bishop sent priests from the Antigonish diocese for treatment for "sexual deviations," but kept it secret and didn't protect children.

That "treatment" was most likely at the Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico, run in the 1940s and 1950s by a Father Gerald Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald got sick of seeing predatory priests coming in and out of the revolving door of his facility. In 1957, wrote a letter to the Bishop of Manchester, arguing that predatory priests could not be effectively treated and should not be allowed to continue in the ministry:

Their repentance and amendment is superficial and, if not formally at least subconsciously, is motivated by a desire to be again in a position where they can continue their wonted activity. A new diocese means only green pastures... We are amazed to find how often a man who would be behind bars if he were not a priest is entrusted with the cura animarum [the cure, or care, of souls].

Father Fitzgerald eventually proposed building an island fortress in the Caribbean to keep these priests away from the public. He even bought an island but was forced to sell it—according to an ex-Benedictine monk named Patrick Wall—because "it all became too public. The Holy See would never be able to explain Father Fitzgerald's leper island for pedophile priests."
(I only know this—sometimes I wish I didn't—because of a long, depressing story (the Pedophile's Paradise) I wrote about it earlier this year.)


Is there an island big enough for the pope and his perverts? Oh, that's right, it's called The Vatican. Keep suing the fuckers. Keep suing.

Posted by Vince on August 7, 2009 at 1:39 PM
=======


The "Pedophile's Paradise"
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-pedophiles-paradise/Content?oid=1065017

John Paul II's compassionate face of an arrogant Catholic Church

The legacy of the John Paul II and his Pedophile Priests Army keep marching on...from the USA to Ireland! The pedophile-Achiles Heel of John Paul II cannot make him a saint no matter how much deception the Opus Dei will play on his title as John Paul II the Great.

Compassionate face of an arrogant Catholic Church

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/compassionate-face-of-an-arrogant-catholic-church-1829694.html

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is out of place in a disgraced and dishonoured Church, writes Emer O'Kelly

Sunday July 19 2009

HIS Grace Diarmuid Martin, DD, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, a 64-year-old scholar now in religious charge of his native city, has been much in the news lately. Not least because his is the name which automatically springs to the minds of non-Catholics who want to find some excuse for his Church. They don't want to believe that the Roman Catholic authorities are vicious, arrogant, uncaring, amoral, power-hungry and often sadistic. And Diarmuid Martin is the one man who seems to offer reassurance.

He offers it consistently and persistently. When the Ryan report into institutional child abuse was published in May, Diarmuid Martin called its contents "stomach-churning". Prior to the publication, he had uttered dire warnings of expectation that the findings would be shaming and shameful for the Church. And even the faithful thought, if they thought at all, that he might be exaggerating; what could be revealed in the report that was not already known? That the Church -- through many of its ordained and consecrated members who chose to desecrate the vows which imposed compassion and decency on them -- had abused their positions and the trust Church and State vested in them?

But more, much more, came out. It was deliberately sadistic, vicious, and institutionalised. It was not the actions of a few disturbed or psychopathic men and women. It was the system. Hundreds of thousands of children were subjected to a regime which, under the United Nations definition, amounted to torture: daily torture of years' duration directed against suffering helpless children who had committed no crime, but were poor or unruly.

Cardinal Sean Brady, Diarmuid Martin's direct superior, said what he had been saying for several years beforehand, and what we expected him to say: that he was "profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed".

Diarmuid Martin, on the other hand, called the contents of the Ryan report "stomach-churning", his usually rubicund, cheery face grey and furrowed, his eyes as haunted as though the children had been his own blood. It was a phrase a father would use.

And what was the response from the men who shared Holy Orders with him? In the words of Redemptorist priest Father Tony Flannery, angered that the cardinal and the archbishop had gone to discuss Ryan with the Pope without consulting the heads of the orders, he had "betrayed the religious orders". They felt "enormous anger at being scapegoated", especially by Diarmuid Martin, who "led the public criticism".

All of which is hardly fair on Diarmuid Martin, a man who speaks four languages, five if you count Latin (which, apparently, he can actually converse in). He was ordained a priest in 1969, and soon rose through the ranks. By 1994, he was at the dizzy height of being Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. In 2001, he left Rome for another placement; with some reluctance, it is said. He was appointed Permanent Observer for the Holy See at the United Nations in Geneva.

A pattern had been established: this was an ambassador who used his considerable abilities and intellectual force in defence of the weak. But, unlike many who see only the big picture of rights violation, he has shown that he sees the million small pictures which form it, and that each picture of human loss and indignity involves a single helpless being denied civil and human rights.

Uniquely -- or so it seems, from what we have experienced in Ireland in recent years as the forces of the right try to make us act against civil liberties -- Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is also prepared to support rights which Canon Law condemns. When Cardinal Brady roundly condemned the government's (then) proposed Civil Partnership Bill, saying it "undermined the will of God", and suggested that those committed to "the word of God" might have to "pursue all avenues of legal and democratic challenge to the published legislation", it was absolutely bang-on for Catholic teaching: you can't have any rights unless they fit under Roman Catholic Canon Law. That's always been the way in Ireland from the days when General Sean McEoin marched into a cabinet meeting and told his colleagues that the Mother and Child Scheme was gone: "He won't wear it" -- he being John Charles McQuaid, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin (ref: the memoir of Dr Noel Browne, Against the Tide).

When Sean Brady let fly from his Canonical tower, Diarmuid Martin held his fire for a couple of weeks, then announced quietly that other bishops "might have put the matter differently". But there was no rush to support him when he added, "I am aware of the need to protect the rights of a variety of people in caring and dependent relationships different to marriage."

On Holy Thursday he told the congregation in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin that the two biggest problems for the young in relation to the Church's credibility were its condemnation of gay couples, and suicide.

"They see through the superficial answers we give," he said devastatingly.

A father of the Church accepting that Catholic answers are superficial? He has even suggested that the Church divest itself of control of many of the schools, and called the current figure of 92 per cent control a "near monopoly" and "untenable", an exact description that would make the blood of most "self-respecting" school patrons boil.

This extraordinary man has even suggested that if parents have the right to avail of schooling alternatives "inspired by other philosophies", Catholic education will actually be strengthened. He actually wants to open children's minds.

It has been cynically suggested that Diarmuid Martin is playing a very careful political game, opposing Sean Brady in order to undermine and succeed him for a cardinal's hat. If that is the case, he's going a very odd way about it, and not one which will endear him to Rome.

For myself, I can't understand why this extraordinary, compassionate, moral, free-thinking man is sticking with his dishonoured, disgraced and morally bankrupt Church. He doesn't belong there.

The morph of Michael Jackson's face and St. Josemaria Escriva de Opus Dei's name

Michael Jackson face morph


The morph of St. Josemaria Escriva's name


The Opus Dei controlled, produced, and run the 26 years papacy of John Paul II and logistically and logically they covered-up his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army see the JPIIPPA in www.jp2army.blogspot.com


http://www.odan.org/

This was the letter of protest sent to John Paul II which of course he completely ignored http://www.odan.org/tw_letter_to_pope.htm

One of the weirdest thing about the "Holy Father" of the Opus Dei is the many changes of his name. http://www.odan.org/what_is_opus_dei.htm This is Josemaria Escriva's plastic surgery on his image, the Opus Dei Nip Tuck.

Note: The author of this article has asked that his name remain anonymous.

http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/11/john-paul-ii-and-saint-josemaria.html


The Many Names of Opus Dei’s Founder

But if they ask me what his name is, how shall I answer?


Exodus 3:13

Honors, distinctions, titles: things of air, puffs of pride, lies, nothingness.



Maxim 677, The Way

To understand Opus Dei, one needs to study the Founder.

Alvaro Del Portillo

Baptismal name

Opus Dei’s founder changed his name many times over the course of his life. He was born on January 2, 1902.[1] Four days later, he was baptized in the Cathedral at Barbastro, Spain with the baptismal name recorded among Church records as José María Julian Mariano.[2] “According to the entry in the baptismal register of the Church where he was christened, his surname was spelled Escribá[.]”[3] He was given the same first name as his father, José Escribá; his mother was named María de los Dolores Albás y Blanc.[4]
-
Adding the aristocratic “y Albás”

Some time after his father’s textile business failed in 1915, he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1925.[5] Before the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), he began joining “y Albás” to his surname; it appears in the published memento of his first Mass.[6]

In Castilian Spanish, use of the conjunction “y” (“and”) joining father’s and mother’s surnames is associated with aristocratic families.[7] Use of a modified conjunctive surname would not have been socially acceptable by someone not belonging to the aristocracy; since Escribá did not come from an aristocratic family, he may have been subjected to ridicule: as late as the 1960s, Father Escribá rarely experimented publicly with the use of “y Albás”.[8]

From Escribá to the more distinguished Escrivá

On May 24, 1941, Bishop Leopoldo Eijo Garay of Madrid sent a letter that systematically has been cited in Opus Dei literature as the first document written by a member of Church hierarchy in defense of Opus Dei and its founder. [9] In his letter, Bishop Garay refers to the founder, whom he says he knows very well, as Dr. Escribá—three times.[10]

But as early as his school days, José Escribá had “adopted the rather more distinguished version spelled with a “v” rather than a “b,” which in Spanish sounds exactly the same.”[11] His name is spelled Escrivá in the memento of his first Mass.[12] In 1943, when he was 41, Church records were altered on June 20 to memorialize the change: the registry book of the Barbastro Cathedral and the baptismal certificate of José María were annotated to reflect “that the surname Escribá was changed to Escrivá de Balaguer.”[13] None of the official Opus Dei biographies reference this spelling alteration.[14]

Adding the distinguishing “de Balaguer”

On June 16, 1940 [age 38], the Spanish Boletín Oficial del Estado records that Father Escrivá requested of the government that he be permitted to change his “first surname so it will be written Escrivá de Balaguer.”[15] He justified the petition by claiming that “the name Escrivá is common in the east coast and Catalonia, leading to harmful and annoying confusion.”[16]

One of the earliest members of Opus Dei, architect Miguel Fisac, describes reasons why Father Escrivá may have chosen to modify his name. First, Fisac describes that Escrivá may have suffered a childhood trauma as follows:

When he was still a child, his father and a partner had a cloth business in Barbastro, the founder’s birthplace. The firm went bankrupt and the founder was embarrassingly forced to leave.

His father was reduced to the position of simple shop assistant[.][17]
Fisac describes Escrivá’s embarrassment at his father’s failure, and reflects on the likely motivation for Escrivá’s name changes:

I suppose that his interest in giving importance to his surname was related to his childhood trauma which I have mentioned before. Living in close contact with Monsignor Escrivá, it was easy to appreciate the great affection he felt for the aristocracy: Marquises, Counts[,] etc. As some of these personages were related to some of the nuns in the Royal Foundation of Santa Isabel, and he was its rector, whenever the nuns introduced him to any of these aristocrats and they heard his surname was Escrivá, they would at once ask casually, “Escrivá de Romaní?” (a well known aristocratic family). When he answered that he wasn’t, they made their feeling of rejection obvious and deeply upset him. This is not my imagination; I heard Escrivá himself tell how he decided to add the name of the Catalan town where his family possibly originated from: “Balaguer.” This he did. I was present when the documents were gathered for presentation in the Ministry of Justice for approval. [18]

The leader of an organization known for proclaiming to be composed of common Christians claimed that confusion caused by having a common name is annoying.[19] None of the Opus Dei biographies comment on the official 1940 petition for the name change or its justification.[20] And as to the claim of confusion with the names as alleged in the official petition, it has been pointed out that Escrivá de Romaní is not “exactly ‘common in the east coast and Catalonia.’”[21]

From José María to Josemaría

Monsignor Escrivá also modified his first name. From the common José María, he changed it to the original Josemaría. Biographers state, that around 1935 [age 33], “he joined his first two names because his single love for the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph were equally inseparable.”[22] Though there had been many Saint José’s, there had never been a Saint Josemaría.

Doctor Escrivá

For a while, Escrivá tried on the title of Doctor, but eventually he abandoned this adventure. His doctoral degree from the university appears to be surrounded with mystery.[23] Of the alleged doctorate in theology obtained at age 53, nothing is known, not even the topic of the thesis, which was never published.[24]

According to Antonio Perez, one of Escrivá’s principal collaborators, ordained in 1948 and a former Opus Dei general manager, “Father Escrivá was not a great jurist, as we were later led to believe. I even have serious doubts about whether he studied law at all. I never saw his bachelor’s degree, and the way things were in the Work, if he had it, he would have put it in an impressive gold frame. But he might have lost this document, like so many others during the war.”[25]

Monsignor Escrivá

In 1947, Father Escrivá was nominated to be “Prelato Domestico di Sua Santita.” This title conferred the right to be addressed as Monsignor. Official biographers claim that before accepting Father Escrivá hesitated, “since he wanted nothing for himself. If, in the end, he accepted, it was so as not to anger those who had nominated him.”[26]

However, it turns out that the honor had been proposed by one Alvaro del Portillo, then number two man at Opus Dei, we are asked to believe without the knowledge of Father Escrivá. According to biographers, Monsignor Escrivá “rarely wore the showy prelate’s robes, or wore the buckled shoes. He felt the weight of the purple vestments as a hair shirt; but on notable occasions, knowing how much the color entertained his children, he followed the path of good humor.”[27]

On the other hand, according to many who have left Opus Dei, Escrivá was especially fond of luxury, aristocratic refinements, honors, titles and symbols of prestige.[28] One need only visit Opus Dei properties to observe the conspicuous display of wealth.

The Marquis of Peralta

In January 1968, The Official State Bulletin in Madrid published the following Ministry of Justice announcement:

Don José María Escrivá de Balageur y Albás has requested the rehabilitation of the title of Marquis, granted on 12 February 1718 by the Archduke Charles of Austria to Don Tomas de Peralta, the interested party having chosen in grace the distinction of Marquis of Peralta. The provisions of Article 4 of the Decree 4 June 1948 for granting the request having been satisfied, a delay of three months from the publication of this edict exists for any persons wishing to be made known their opposition. Madrid, 24 January 1968.[29]

The notice was signed by the Ministry’s Under Secretary, Alfredo Lopez, an Opus Dei supernumerary.[30]

Opus Dei supporters have maintained that this was not a “puff of pride,” but rather the just exercise of a fundamental right. Monsignor Escrivá insisted that he had not made the request for his own benefit, but that the title was intended to benefit his nephews. He claimed he merely was compensating his family for the sacrifices they had made to permit him to carry out The Work. Official biographers portray it as “a matter of filial piety and justice.”[31]

According to researchers, the Marquisate of Peralta was bestowed upon one of Escrivá‘s more distant ancestors who had been Minister of Justice in Naples following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Monsignor Escrivá had in recent years accepted awards of the Spanish Gold Cross of St. Raymond of Penafort, the Grand Cross of Alfonso X the Wise, the Grand Cross of Isabel the Catholic, and the Cross of Charles III. But to show his modesty, his biographers assure that he never wore them.[32]

[1] http://opusdei.com/.
[2] Hutchison, Robert, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the secret world of Opus Dei, 1999, at p. 20
[3] Walsh, Michael, Opus Dei: An investigation into the secret society struggling for power within the Roman Catholic Church, 1989, at p. 13.
[4] Hutchison, at p. 19.
[5] http://opusdei.com/.
[6] Estruch, Joan, Saints and Schemers: Opus Dei and its paradoxes, 1995, at p. 32.
[7] Id.
[8] [8] Walsh, at p. 14.
[9] Estruch, at p. 32.
[10] Id.
[11] Walsh, at p. 14.
[12] Estruch, at p. 32.
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Id. at pp. 32-33.
[16] Id. at p. 33.
[17] Opus Dei Awareness Network, Inc., An Interview with Miguel Fisac, 2000, at p. 9.
[18] Opus Dei Awareness Network, Inc., An Interview with Miguel Fisac, 2000, at p. 12.
[19] Estruch, at p. 33.
[20] Id.
[21] Id.
[22] Estruch, at p. 34, citing references.
[23] Id. at p. 35.
[24] Id. at p. 36.
[25] Id. at p. 37, citing references.
[26] Id. at p. 38, citing references.
[27] Id.
[28] Id.
[29] Hutchison at p. 150.
[30] Id.
[31] Id. at p. 151, citing references.
[32] Id. The author goes on to state that after the announcement in the state bulletin that Monsignor Escrivá would adopt the title of Marquis of Peralta, the obvious irony was noted by those unwilling to make excuses for the duality of his message and practice. One joke going around Madrid at the time suggested that “The Way” would be republished as “The Super Highway” by the Marquis of Peralta.

posted by Paris | Monday, November 06, 2006

2 Comments:
Anonymous said...
Good on you!!

More and more needs to be learnt about this man, this 'Saint'.
Notice also that the Devils Advocate was not used in his canonization process, as was the case with many of JPII Saints. Over 400 letters of objection were written to the Pontiff about this man, none of them heeded.
Also a good book to read about Josemaria and Opus Dei is called 'Beyond the Threshold'
by Maria del Carmen Tapia. She was Josemaria’s personal secretary and former Numerary.
It is written without malice and sure does answer a few questions.
Keep up the good 'work'.

Louis.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 4:21:00 PM
Paris said...
Louis,

If you know some links to any of the "400 letters of objection" - I'd like to post them too.

Thanks for saying "Keep up the good 'work'...I've gotten some nasty emails lately.

Paris

Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:53:00 AM
Post a Comment


http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/11/john-paul-ii-and-saint-josemaria.html

Hypocrisy, thy name is John Paul II, Hyporcisy, thy name is Mel Gibson

Pope Benedict XVI is shown a map of Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula in Antarctica.

The Opus Dei Plan is to make John Paul II the greatest of ALL Saints and to put his gigantic statues in every major basilicas in the world – like the Notre Dame Basilica in Paris and names in every city in the world, see list below. The WORSHIP of John Paul II – as the Second Christ - imposed strategically by the Opus Dei is the most ego-maniac and narcissist of its kind.

But John Paul II is a hypocrite and he is not the Second Christ because he had one Achilles Heel and that is his John Paul II Pedophile Priest Army that numbers by the thousands with thousands of victims of altar boys and girls in the United States and worldwide www.jp2army.blogspot.com Because of this Achilles Heel, John Paul II can NEVER be a `saint nor should he be called such by American children in this generation and all generations to come. The Jesuit Jon Sobrino criticized the strategy of Opus Dei for their god-John Paul II in his book Witnesses to the Kingdom and so the Opus Dei Bishop silenced him in El Salvador and Pope Benedict served him Notification. Then Benedict closed down the Jesuit's Vatican Observatory becauase there are no Opus Dei astronomers, they are too stupid to have one.

When The Passion of the Christ was released, John Paul II said `It is as it was`` vouching for Mel Gibson. Turns out that Mel Gibson is a hypocrite after all and he did it for the money and is now divorcing his wife because he prefers the adulterous life with a younger woman. John Paul II the hypocrite condoning Mel Gibson the hypocrite!

Below is an excerpt from Jon Sobrino's book that speaks of John Paul II's un-realistic papal attitudes and ignorant perception towards the poor. These are the paragraphs that made Benedict XVI issued the "Notification" and the Opus Dei Bishop of El Salvador "silence" Sobrino, meaning he can no longer teach or preach and help the poor to whom he has given all his life in service.

Witnesses to the Kingdom: The Martyrs of El Salvador and the Crucified Peoples

Page 141. Important ecclesial events, like a papal visit, are often organized in such a way that they too produce a feeling of unreality. In the Pope’s 1996 visit to El Salvador, it is true that most of the people who attended were poor. But all one could see of their reality was their religious enthusiasm, more or less effectively organized. One didn’t see their poverty, their fears, their discouragement and helplessness, not even their true faith and hope; one didn’t see their reality. As the event was organized, the poor served more as a backdrop than as the reality of the country; in the foreground were minorities that do not represent the reality: the government, legislators and politicians, the rich and powerful, and the Church beside them. The Pope’s visit neither reflected reality nor, to judge from the consequences, had any important effect on it.

On page 140. This applies to the allocutions and homilies of the Pope to the Congregation when he was an "adult-pope’. And that is still a serious problem: humanistas without sarx, factuality without reality (in the world of the poor). To give a few examples: one often gets a feeling of unreality from homilies, documents and messages that do not make central - although they may mention it - the poverty of reality, the injustice and corruption that cause it, and the cover-up that accompanies it. The feeling of unreality comes especially from the lack of commitment to get involved in the conflict, to struggle against injustice and to suffer the consequences. Words, words, words, as J. Comblin calls such messages in the article mentioned above. At another level, one gets the same feeling of unreality from a seminary formation that protects the seminarian from reality; or from the spiritualities and pastoral practices promoted or tolerated by movements that lead the human being into an a-historical transcendence with infantilizing consequences. (From Martyrs of El Salvador. By Jon Sobrino)

John Paul II and the Opus Dei and Benedict XVI are only playing with words, words, words at the Vatican Palace and praying in useless Latin (like Mel Gibson does in his Catholic Church in Los Angeles that is why they condone him)!

Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America


Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leader

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 5,148 priests - John Paul II


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_named_for_Pope_John_Paul_II

Pope John Paul II was celebrated during his lifetime and later posthumously with several honours and as the namesake of several places and institutions. Such places often bear the name John Paul II but newer institutions are using the name John Paul the Great.

Educational and cultural centres named in honour of the Pope include the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family whose largest campuses are located at the Lateran University in Rome, Italy and Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, United States. Affiliated campuses are found in Australia, Benin, Brazil, India, Mexico and Spain. There is also a Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in the United States capital. John Paul the Great Catholic University is a rededicated degree-granting institution in San Diego, California.[1] Several John Paul II Catholic Centres may be found on college and university campuses around the world, usually serving students and staff as Roman Catholic chapels.[2] Several elementary and secondary schools also use the name John Paul II or John Paul the Great, like Pope John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Prince William County, Virginia,[3] administered by the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia or "Nashville Dominicans." (The tabernacle and cornerstone of the school were blessed by Pope Benedict XVI during Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on 17 April 2008.)

Several national and municipal public projects were named in honour of the Pope. Rome's main railway station, the Roma Termini station, was dedicated to Pope John Paul II by a vote of the City Council, a first municipal public object in Rome bearing the name of a non Italian. International airports named after him are John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice — one of the principal airports of Poland — and the João Paulo II Airport in the Azores. The Juan Pablo II Bridge is located in Chile, while John Paul II Square in Bulgaria denotes the Pope's visit to Sofia in 2002. Estádio João Paulo II (John Paul II Stadium) is a football (soccer) stadium in Mogi-Mirim in Brazil. Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II is a centrepiece of one of Paris' neighbourhoods. Pope John Paul II Park is a feature of Boston, Massachusetts[4] while Pope John Paul II Drive serves residents of Chicago, Illinois.[5] In San Diego, California, New Catholic University has renamed itself John Paul the Great Catholic University.[6]

Of international interest, Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands was named in honour of the Pope. The Antarctic landmark recognises his contribution to world peace and understanding among people.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Airports
* 2 Parks and green areas
* 3 Squares
* 4 Railway stations
* 5 Schools
o 5.1 Italy
o 5.2 Brazil
o 5.3 Canada
o 5.4 New Zealand
o 5.5 Poland
o 5.6 United Kingdom
o 5.7 United States
* 6 Roads and avenues
* 7 Natural places
* 8 Other
* 9 Notes

[edit] Airports

* The airport of Bari, in Italy, is named Bari "Karol Wojtyla" International Airport; (IATA: BRI, ICAO: LIBD).
* The airport of Kraków is named John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice; (IATA: KRK, ICAO: EPKK).
* The airport of Ponta Delgada, in Portugal, is named João Paulo II Airport because he visited that city; (IATA: PDL, ICAO: LPPD).

[edit] Parks and green areas

* Medellin, Colombia; 1986. El Parque Juan Pablo II, o Aeroparque Juan Pablo II es un parque acuático, ubicado en la ciudad colombiana de Medellín, al lado del Aeropuerto Olaya Herrera. Cuenta con una gran variedad de piscinas, con poleas, toboganes, de olas. También cuenta con un sendero para la práctica de los deportes sobre ruedas. Además cuenta con un coliseo y una concha acústica, empleada para espectáculos.
* Cremona; on May 6, 2006.[7]
* Milan; on January 19, 2007.[8]
* Pisa; on March 20, 2006.[9]
* Rimini; on January 9, 2007.[10]
* Verona; on December 20, 2006[11]
* Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA; in June, 2001.[12]

[edit] Squares

* In Biella.
* In Cesena in the Province of Forlì-Cesena.
* In Frosinone since 2005-04-20 to commemorate the mass which the Pope celebrated in.[13]
* In Montescaglioso, in the Province of Matera, since 2007-01-06.[14]
* In Paris, on August 15, 2006; the place du Parvis-Notre-Dame (french for "Notre-Dame square") was renamed Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II ("Notre-Dame - John Paul II square") after a ceremony and a religious procession with the Archbishop of Paris André Vingt-Trois and the mayor Bertrand Delanoë. In the squere now is located a stone where is written: «"Amour et Vérité se rencontrent. Justice et Paix s'embrassent" L'hommage du monde et de Cambrai.»
* In Wrocław Plac Jana Pawła II
* In Ponte San Nicolò in the Province of Padua.
* In Sofia the John Paul II Square was named for him on the occasion of his visit to Bulgaria in 2002.
* In Jersey City, NJ at St. Peter's Preparatory School, the section of Warren Street between the streets of Grand and York was renamed Pope John Paul II Square.
* In Las Condes, Santiago de Chile: "Plaza Juan Pablo II", named after his visit to the southern country.
* In Dunaújváros, Hungary II. János Pál pápa tér.[15]
* In Győr, Hungary II. János Pál pápa tér
* In Coimbra, Portugal, "Praça João Paulo II" [16], inaugurated 15 May 1982, on the first visit to Portugal.

[edit] Railway stations

* The train station of Roma Termini was entitled to him on 23 December 2006.[17]

[edit] Schools

[edit] Italy

* In Cesena.
* In Ostia.
* In Lecce.
* In Cimbro-Cuirone, in the Province of Varese; it's the first school named Giovanni Paolo II (since 2005-12-28).[18]
* In Peschiera del Garda, in the Province of Verona.
* In Tropea, in the Province of Vibo Valentia.

In Australia John Paul II Church and Primary School

[edit] Brazil

* In Brasilia, there is a Marist School: Colégio Marista João Paulo II.

[edit] Canada

* In Okotoks, Alberta. (Pope John Paul II Collegiate)
* In Barrie, Ontario. (Pope John Paul II Catholic School)
* In London, Ontario. (John Paul II Catholic Secondary School)
* In Hamilton, Ontario.
* In Oakville, Ontario. (Pope John Paul II Catholic Elementary School)
* In Scarborough, Ontario. (Pope John Paul II Secondary School)
* In Thunder Bay, Ontario. (Pope John Paul II School)

[edit] New Zealand

* In Greymouth, have a Marist High School: John Paul II High School.

[edit] Poland

* John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
* Elementary school in Oksa, in Jędrzejów County
* Elementary school in Dalachów, in the Opole Voivodeship.
* Economic High School in Złotów
* Elementary School in Łomża
* Secondary School in Sochaczew
* Elementary School in Zielonki
* Elementary school in Nowy Sącz in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship

[edit] United Kingdom

* Secondary school in Glasgow, Scotland.

[edit] United States

* John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego, California
* See Pope John Paul II Catholic High School
* John Paul II Catholic School in Houston, Texas
* John Paul II High School in Plano, Texas
* [2]
* Pope John Paul the 2nd School in Wilmington, Delaware
* John Paul II Academy in Racine, Wisconsin
* Pope John Paul II High School in Nashville, Tennessee
* John Paul II Elementary in Mitchell, South Dakota
* John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Dumfries, Virginia

[edit] Roads and avenues

* In Aachen, Germany - a section of the Klostergasse (near the city's cathedral was renamed Johannes-Paul-II.-Straße.
* In Altopascio in the Province of Lucca.
* In Noceto in the Province of Parma.[19]
* In Montevago, Province of Agrigento.
* In Pieve a Nievole, in the Province of Pistoia.
* In Vercelli.
* In Częstochowa, Poland, John Paul II Avenue (Aleja Jana Pawła II).
* In Złotów, Poland, John Paul II Roundabout (Rondo Jana Pawła II).
* In Radom, Poland, John Paul II Street (Ulica Jana Pawła II)
* In Puebla City, Mexico: John Paul II Circuit (Circuito Juan Pablo II)
* In Mexico City, Mexico: John Paul II street (Avenida Juan Pablo II) is the residence where he used to stay at his four visits to the city.
* In El Alto, Bolivia: John Paul II Avenue (Avenida Juan Pablo II.)
* In Chicago, Illinois, United States: Pope John Paul II Drive
* In San Salvador, El salvador: Alameda Juan Pablo II
* In Lisbon, Portugal (neighbourghood of Chelas): Avenida João Paulo II Drive.[20]
* In Fiumefreddo di Sicilia, in the Province of Catania: Pope John Paul II street ("Via Giovanni Paolo II").
* In Solarino, in the Province of Syracuse: Pope John Paul II street ("Via Giovanni Paolo II").
* In Chihuahua, Chihuahua, in Mexico: John Paul II Boulevard ("Blvd. Juan Pablo II").
* In Trujillo, Peru, the avenue John Paul II, near the Papal Square ("Ovalo Papal") were the pope offered a mass during his trip to Peru.
* In Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Poland, John Paul II Avenue ("Aleja Jana Pawła II").
* In Warsaw, Poland, John Paul II Avenue.
* In Jędrzejów, Poland, John Paul II street.
* In Victoria, Gozo, John Paul II street ("Triq Gwanni Pawlu II")
* In Pécs, Hungary, John Paul II street, the road on which John Paul II entered the city on his visit in 1991.
* In Yonkers, New York, John Paul II Boulevard.

Additionally, almost all Polish cities have a street called after John Paul II.

[edit] Natural places

* In 2005, a 2424 m (7900 ft) peak previously named "The Gendarme" was renamed "Pope John Paul II" at a ceremony celebrated by the Cardinal Josè Saraiva Martins in a medieval chapel on what would have been the Pope's 85th birthday[21][22] The 2,424-metre (7,900 feet) The Pope who felt mountains were "a special place to meet God" often visited the Gran Sasso saying it reminded him of the mountains of his native Poland. After that dedicatio was born the association "cima Giovanni Paolo II" chairman by Gianni Alemanno.
* Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named for Pope John Paul II in recognition of his outstanding contribution to world peace and understanding among people.

A street in Victoria the capital of Gozo (Malta) was named after Pope John Paul II and a monument with his figure was erected at its beginning. The street leads to the national shrine dedicated to Our Lady of ta' Pinu.

[edit] Other

* The Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. is named for and dedicated to him.
* The public canteen of the needy in Rome was named for him by Pope Benedict XVI.
* The main library of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth was named after Pope John Paul II to mark his visit to the college

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "John Paul the Great Catholic University" (in English). © 2005-2008, John Paul the Great Catholic University. http://www.jpcatholic.com. Retrieved on 2009-01-08.
2. ^ "John Paul II Newman Center" (in English). © 2009 John Paul II Newman Center, Chicago, IL 60607. http://www.jp2newman.com/. Retrieved on 2009-01-12.
3. ^ "Catholic Diocese of Arlington" (in English). © 2009 Catholic Diocese of Arlington. http://www.arlingtondiocese.org/. Retrieved on 2009-01-12.
4. ^ "Pope John Paul II Park Reservation" (in English). © 2009 Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Mass.. http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/pjp.htm. Retrieved on 2009-01-12.
5. ^ "Google Maps: ‘Pope John Paul II Dr, Chicago, IL, USA’" (in English). © 2009 Google Maps. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=W+Pope+John+Paul+II+Dr,+Chicago,+IL+60632,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title. Retrieved on 2009-01-12.
6. ^ "New Catholic University changes name to ‘John Paul the Great’ Catholic University" (in English). © 2005-2009, John Paul the Great Catholic University.. June 6 2005. http://www.jpcatholic.com/NCUNews/Jun2005.php. Retrieved on 2009-01-11.
7. ^ (Italian) e-Cremona, "Comune: i giardini pubblici saranno intitolati a Giovanni Paolo II" 2006-5-5.
8. ^ (Italian) Comune di Milano, "Toponomastica. Milano dedica una via a De Andrè e Gaber, un parco a Giovanni Paolo II e Oriana Fallaci".
9. ^ (Italian) Comune di Pisa, "Delibera n°22".
10. ^ (Italian) rimini.com, "Al Papa Giovanni Paolo II dedicato il parco del PEEP Fiera".
11. ^ (Italian) Comune di Verona, "Delibera Giunta comunale del giorno 20 Dicembre 2006".
12. ^ "Mass Dept. of Conservation and Recreation" Retrieved on 22 June 2008
13. ^ (Italian) Comune di Frosinone, [1].
14. ^ (Italian) montescaglioso.net, "Inaugurazione piazza: Giovanni Paolo II".
15. ^ (Hungarian) Announcement of the City of Dunaújváros http://www.dunaujvaros.hu/hir.php?newsid=296
16. ^ Google Maps
17. ^ (Italian)News on italian railways official website.
18. ^ (Italian) Comune di Vergiate, "Intitolazione della scuola primaria di Cimbro/Cuirone a Karol Wojtyla".
19. ^ (Italian) noceto.it, "Manifestazione in memoria di Giovanni Paolo II".
20. ^ Google Maps
21. ^ "Peak is named after late pontiff". BBC News. 2005-05-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4377651.stm.
22. ^ (Italian) Corpo Forestale dello Stato, "Comunicato stampa. Cima Giovanni Paolo II".





====

Hypocrisy, thy name is Mel Gibson

The former religious zealot failed to practice what he preached

Quote:

I’ve never been the type to throw things at the television screen out of anger. But I’ll admit I did shout something nasty at my TV when I caught Mel Gibson yukking it up with Jay Leno and calling himself “Octo-Mel” since his pregnant girlfriend is carrying his eighth child.

My anger, of course, was directed at Gibson’s hypocrisy. Not so long ago, Gibson was the world’s best-known Traditionalist Catholic, talking about his preference for the old-style teachings of Vatican I (no divorce, no Russian girlfriends while still married). These days, he’s not yet divorced and living the kind of life he preached against. What’s worse is that Gibson seems unrepentant, to use church lingo. Even publicity mongers Jon and Kate Gosselin seemed more chastened when confronted with their alleged indiscretions. And that’s saying something.

Five years ago Gibson co-produced, co-wrote and directed, “The Passion of the Christ,” a film he said his beliefs inspired him to make. Back then, he spent a lot of time talking about his “spiritual journey,” not cracking jokes on late-night TV. Gibson’s zealotry turned some people off (especially the media tastemakers), but he stood his ground despite some very vocal criticism.

Gibson put up his own money to get “The Passion of the Christ” made, and then couldn’t find a distributor because of the film’s graphic goriness and claims by the Anti-Defamation league that it was anti-Semitic. Still, he did his best to quiet the naysayers and got his vision of the Crucifixion onto the big screen. It went on to be the top grossing film of 2004 and one of the biggest in the country’s history.

Gibson had no qualms about telling people that the topic of his film — the Crucifixion of Jesus — was a huge deal to him, and should be to all of us. As he said to Reader’s Digest: “I wanted to impress on the viewers the enormousness of this sacrifice, the willingness — and the horror of it. I wanted to overwhelm people with it.”

It’s an American tradition to champion people who overcome obstacles, so Gibson’s story struck a chord with a lot of people, even if they didn’t necessarily agree with his views. But there’s also an American tradition of despising hypocrites, especially religious ones. That meme was popularized by author Sinclair Lewis in 1927, when he drew on real life examples to paint a vividly disturbing portrait of a religious charlatan in his classic novel “Elmer Gantry.”

Celebrities and scandals
Gibson has now become a modern Elmer Gantry. Forget Vatican I, the new Vatican still says adultery and out-of-wedlock births are a no-no. Oh, and if Mel gets remarried, that marriage won’t be recognized unless he gets the first annulled. Strike three! Mel’s out!

Gibson’s indiscretions are somewhat similar to those of Jimmy Swaggart or Jim Bakker, the TV preachers of the 1980s whose careers were brought down by sex scandals. Although their situations seemed more serious than Gibson’s because they were televangelists, they were not taken seriously by the majority of the public. Gibson, on the other hand, has movie star power and reached more people with “The Passion” than they ever did, since it was a worldwide hit.

Like them, he also didn’t walk it like he talked it. In 2004, the New York Daily News reported that Gibson “has spoken out against the reforms of Vatican II (and) promoted his anti-abortion and anti-divorce views.”

What’s different this time around is the reaction from the media. Since Gibson had more influence, his fall from grace should be a lot worse. You’d think someone, somewhere, in medialand might have called him on being, you know, a phony. Hell, David Letterman was tougher grilling Paris Hilton over her stint in jail than Leno was with Gibson, who violated the very Catholic tenants he supposedly stood for.

But it’s not the 1980s anymore, and celebrity now trumps morality when it comes to wrongdoing. Had Bakker and Swaggart been around today, they probably would have gotten to spin a reality show out of their scandals, instead of sobbing on the idiot box.

It’s the same with politicians. Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was at the center of a political scandal last year, but now he’s writing opinion pieces for the Washington Post and Slate, and everyone is behaving as if nothing ever happened.

Turning religion into money
All of which makes me wonder if Mel Gibson’s passion for “The Passion of the Christ” was ever sincere. Or was he just in it for the money, like a better-looking, more articulate version of those cheesy TV preachers? Proselytizing is one thing; it’s part of many religions. Profiteering is another.

Also, when anyone who is religious seems too exhibitionist, it throws the purity of their intentions into doubt. After all, one of the most popular passages of the New Testament admonishes making a show of your religion.

Gibson supposedly found religion nearly 20 years ago and had said it straightened up his wild life as a movie star. But his religious beliefs suddenly surfaced in public about the time he had a film to promote. They sure don’t seem to be on the front burner now that he’s heating it up with a new girlfriend on the side.

The crude anti-gay comments Gibson made back in 1992 didn’t seem to hurt his career. And when Gibson went on an alcohol-fueled, anti-Semitic tirade after his drunk driving arrest in 2006, conservative commentator Michael Medved (who is Jewish) seemed willing to forgive him, if grudgingly. But you wonder if the millions of people who shelled out money to see “The Passion of the Christ” will be as forgiving.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe “The Passion of the Christ” was just “product” to Mr. Gibson, and should be considered something of a spiritual kin to Paris Hilton’s reality show “The Simple Life.” Pun intended.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31001748/

John Paul II & Ratzinger & Vatican told bishops to cover up sex abuse

Vatican told bishops to cover up sex abuse

IRELAND
DORCHA

Expulsion threat in secret documents

**Poster's Note: Please keep these words in mind when you read the following archived article from 2003: 'Lawyers point to a letter the Vatican sent to bishops in May 2001 clearly stating the 1962 instruction was in force until then. The letter is signed by Cardinal Ratzinger...' In case you have forgotten, Ratzinger is now the Pope. The time span in this article covers at least 5 popes, including Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II and the current man holding the title, Benedict XVI [a.k.a Ratzinger]

I note with interest the stories about how disturbed the Pope was at hearing the clerical abuse report from Ireland. I find this to be sheer hypocrisy, and I also do not think that asking for public apology from anyone even BEGINS to cover what must be done to bring even a tiny amount of justice for the victims. Nothing can ever make up for this obscenity and crime against humanity that has been covered up down through the years.

The reason I am posting this now has to do with the release of the Ryan report in Ireland, detailing the 'Endemic' rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care', which was also happening in the North of Ireland.

>>Read the 1962 Vatican document (PDF file)http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Observer/documents/2003/08/16/Criminales.pdf

John Paul II clever tax evations

John Paul II’s clone Cardinal Mahony is a real fox who covered-up hundreds of pedophile priests. Through the pope's diplomatic immunity, Cardinal Mahony sends almost a billion dollar of revenue to the Vatican Bank each year generated from oil revenues which the diocese inherited from a wealthy family. Mahony should be jailed for his cover-up role instead he is a `prince of the church``.

All John Paul II Cardinals and Bishops are foxes and they serve both God and Mammon (money). The San Francisco diocese illustrates this two-Gods of the Catholic Church.
Opus Dei now controls and runs all major dioceses in the world, San Francisco being one of them. Opus Dei is very clever in using secular titles for their religious corporations and Opus Dei agencies to expand their Opus Dei agendas and propagandas worldwide. see www.ODAN.org for lists of secular titles of Opus Dei foundations.

===

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

SNAP Press Statement

For immediate release: Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Clergy sex abuse victims comment on archdiocese tax issue

Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director 314-862-7688
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

When it comes to their ‘separate corporations,’ Catholic officials want it both ways. In clergy sex and cover up lawsuits, they routinely claim that schools, parishes, and other church entities are entirely separate and their assets can’t be ‘co-mingled.’ Now in San Francisco, to gain tax advantages, they claim these ‘separate corporations’ aren’t really separate at all.

This just seems like more ingenuous and desperate lawyering by a hierarchy more committed to self preservation than anything else.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We've been around for 20 years and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word "priest" in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and protestant ministers. Our website is snapnetwork.org)

Contact

David Clohessy, SNAP National Director 314 566 9790, Barbara Blaine, SNAP President and Founder 312 399 4747, Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director 314 862 7688

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/06/sf_assessor_phil_ting_takes_on.php

S.F. Assessor Phil Ting Takes on the Catholic Church Tomorrow Morning

By Anna McCarthy

Monday, Jun. 15 2009 @ 11:59AM

Tomorrow morning, assessor Phil Ting will be arguing in front of the San Francisco Appeals Board that the Catholic Church owes San Francisco up to $15 million in transfer taxes -- one of the largest tax bills in the city's history. The hearing will be held at 1 South Van Ness on the second floor atrium conference room starting at 10 a.m.

Ting says the Archdiocese of San Francisco transferred ownership of 232 properties among three different nonprofits without paying the required taxes. Nonprofits are exempt from property and federal income taxes, but not from property transfer taxes. The properties in question include such city favorites as: Mission Dolores, Old St. Mary's Cathedral, and St. Francis of Assisi.

The diocese claims that the three nonprofits aren't actually "separate" per se, as they all fall under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church -- and that the transfers were just gifts under canon law. It refers to the exchange as "internal reorganization." But Ting isn't buying it. Apparently, a gift worth between $210 million and $1.25 billion (estimated worth of the properties in question) is a little suspect.

In a June 6 article, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Ting believes the diocese is primarily trying to shield assets from liability to help pay off the $40 million in settlements related to sexual abuse lawsuits. Ting also said that he has been receiving calls from other religious nonprofits with a stake in the outcome of the case.

In a recent press release, Archdiocesan General Counsel Jack Hammel called Ting's "extreme position" an "assault on all religious organizations and other nonprofits." But calling Ting a religion/charity-hater is actually pretty mild stuff considering Catholic organizations' track record of comparing San Francisco officials to the Third Reich.

John Paul II's legacy in Ireland reveals thousands of victims of his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army

John Paul II's 26 years papacy and his legacy in Ireland is just beginning to be unearthed.


Raw anger as Dublin rises up to support victims of clerical abuse

Thursday, 11 June 2009

The centre of Dublin was silenced yesterday by 5,000 people marching on the heart of Ireland’s government in the name of all those abused in church-run institutions over 60 years.

The huge, extraordinary and raw demonstration of suffering and anger, came just weeks after the Ryan Commission catalogued the horror of what took place.

Yesterday, under the emotive banner ‘Cherishing all of the children of the nation equally’ — taken from the 1916 Proclamation — the throngs marched to the gates of the Dail at Leinster House.

The march was led by |familiar faces of the victims’campaign in the Republic, among them spokespersons Christine Buckley and Michael O’Brien, and was attended by many more who thanked the most vocal among them for giving them a voice.

Ms Buckley was supported every step of the way by her son Conor, who squeezed his mother’s hand and hugged and kissed her in support as they walked.

Shaking with emotion, she said after she never thought the day would come.

“I wish we had 365 days like this,” said the former resident of Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage. “We have tried and tried to say what happened to 165,000 children in 216 hellholes.”

Representing Archbishop |Diarmuid Martin was Monsignor Mike Callan and Phil Garland, the child protection officer for the diocese. Speaking later, the Archbishop said it was a day of “rising up”.

When they arrived at Leinster House, the crowds expressed fury Fine Gael had forced the cancellation of a debate on the report in favour of the entire afternoon devoted to a post-election motion of no confidence in the government.

The survivors laid children’s shoes at the gates the Dail in a symbol of their lost innocence, as well as floral wreaths — a white one for survivors and a black one for those who died in instituional care.

They wanted, too, to hand Taosieach Brian Cowen a copy of a petition given to Christian Brother Kevin Mullan and Sr O’Connor, now head of the Conference of Religious of Ireland, but the plan was abandoned amid security concerns.

Among the gathering of abuse survivors, their families and their supporters, there was a palpable sense the politicians were simply not listening. “We’re really p****d off,” said Paddy Doyle, author of The God Squad, his searing 1989 personal account of how he spent years being abused.

“We met the government just weeks ago and it was all tea and sympathy. Now we know they were never listening,” he said.

In the warm lunchtime sunshine, office workers and passing tourists stopped and listened to some now notorious names being read out along with sickening accounts of abuse that took place there: Letterfrack, Artane, the O’Brien Institute, St Vincent’s, Limerick and Goldenbridge.

The victims included Marie Therese O’Loughlin, who attended Goldenbridge, run by the Sisters of Mercy. She said she was forced to make rosary beads in what she called the ‘Goldenbridge factory’.

She demanded to speak and was handed the microphone. “There are lots of people like me,” she told the crowd. “We want justice” she cried to loud cheers.

As 216 black and white balloons marking the number of institutions were released into the air, many protesters made the short walk to the front of Leinster House and tied white ribbons, children’s shoes and teddy bears to the gates.

It was all they could do after a day in which TDs had turned their backs on debating the scandal.

John Paul II Bishops continue cover-up of pedophile priests

John Paul II, Benedict XVI then Cardinal Ratzinger, the Opus Dei, Cardinals and Bishops all over the USA and around the world continue to cover-up the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. Amazing what harm INFALLIBILTY can do to children and altar boys, it is murder of the soul.

------

Group claims Saginaw Bishop covered up abuse

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 12:33 a.m.

SAGINAW -- Nearly a month into his appointment and controversy is already swirling around the new Bishop of Saginaw.

A victims advocacy group, the Survivors Network Of Those Abused By Priest or SNAP, claims a 2005 grand jury report showed Bishop Joseph Cistone and other catholic leaders took part in covering up sexual abuse cases involving priest in Philadelphia.

The group gathered outside the Diocese of Saginaw Tuesday and spoke with reporters about what they'd like to see from Bishop Cistone.

"The action of the bishop has caused a great deal of harm for many victims and their families. The innocence of the children was shattered needlessly because of the action and inaction of their bishop," said SNAP President Barbara Blaine.

The group is asking the bishop to hold a public forum explaining his actions and to also to give up the names and locations of priest involved in sex abuse cases.

Bishop Cistone has not moved to Saginaw yet but he released this statement:

"I am deeply aware of the suffering caused to victims of abuse as well as the pain experienced by catholics throughout archdiocese of philadelphia as a result of the grand jury report. I have taken the opportunity to publicly express my sincere personal sorrow for these abhorrent acts as well as for any mistakes in judgement made by those of us in the administration and professional fields with responsibility for these matters."

The bishop plans to be completely moved to Saginaw by July.

John Paul II's most unforgiveable sin...Betrayal

The Opus Dei likes to coin the phrase "John Paul II Generation" and John Paul II Priests". Well, lo and behold, the Opus Dei hid under the Vatican carpet all these tens of thousands of victims of the "John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army" and now they are being unearthed. No Opus Dei "sanctification in daily work" can stop these major discoveries of the hidden crimes of their Opus Dei Pope John Paul II. All these sexual abuses were overshadowed by Opus Dei writings published with John Paul II's signatures. What good is Opus Dei’s “Theology of the Body” as thousands of John Paul II priests feasted with demonic lust over little altar boys’ bodies!

John Paul II traveled all over the globe kissing rich babies for photo-ops arranged by Opus Dei. Well, those photos are meaningless now because the children he should have cared for --- as the “Holy Father of Catholics” – should have been the victims of his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army www.jp2army.blogspot.com . But how could John Paul II and the Opus Dei eunuchs see his own pedophiliac army when he was in awe with those tall handsome Swiss Guards day and night at the grandiose Vatican Palace? Yap, Mr. John Paul II and Mrs. St. Josemaria Escriva feasting in Latin menu at the Vatican Palace…while the Jesuits like Jon Sobrino work with the poorest of Christ in El Salvador and in the poorest countries in the world www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com

===

The Catholic clergy’s most unforgiveable sin... betrayal

By Laurence White


Monday, 25 May 2009

The Ryan Report showed that thousands of children were abused, raped, assaulted and terrorised over a period of three decades in institutions run by the Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland.

Another report into the activities of deviant priests in the Dublin Archdiocese is to be published soon.

As a Catholic, and as one who grew up at a time when the authority of the Catholic church, certainly in rural areas, was unquestioned in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, such reports make for very uncomfortable reading.

Nothing can ever undo the harm done to the victims, those who were beaten or abused. The sheer random nature of the brutality was summed up for me by one survivor who said: “Sometimes I was beaten for smiling, other times for not smiling”.

The perpetrators were priests, nuns and Christian Brothers. It seems that every institution run by the church had a number of vile brutes among its throng who preyed on the children.

It is almost impossible to comprehend how those children must have felt. They had been handed over to the institutions by the state, or in some cases even their parents because of domestic circumstances. Once there, it seemed, no-one cared what happened to these children. Instead of being cared for they were brutalised.

Worst of all they had no-one to turn to. Their families didn’t know; the state either through the education authorities or social services seemingly didn’t care and the only other figures of authority – the clergy and religious orders – were the perpetrators. Little wonder so many of the children on reaching adulthood fled Ireland, the country that had failed them at every turn.

Given the scale of the abuses, one wonders how they could have gone undetected so long. The shameful fact is that they were known about. The Church knew that it had thugs and paedophiles in its ranks. It moved them about when there was any chance of detection or scandal.

That, for me as a Catholic, is the most unforgivable sin of all. The Church betrayed the children in its care, it betrayed the congregations who followed the faith and it betrayed all the caring decent priests, nuns and brothers who were not party to any abuses.

Those men and women now find themselves tainted with the sins of others because the Catholic hierarchy would not do the decent thing and hand the abusers over to the police voluntarily. That would have sent a powerful message to other abusers and paedophiles who have followed down the years. Instead they also felt the church would protect them and hide their sins.

The laity has also been betrayed. They put their trust in priests and bishops and cardinals and that trust was broken. The laity in the Catholic Church in Ireland has made enormous sacrifices over the years in funding education, new churches and the general running of the church. Does the Catholic hierarchy even now think how much it owes the ordinary men and women of the church and how grievously it has wounded them?

Does it think how its decent priests and religious people feel when they go about their daily work and see the questioning glances of their congregations? People of my generation had great devotion to their faith and great faith in their priests and religion.
One has only to look at the empty pews on any Sunday to see that the devotion is waning among succeeding generations. Can we really blame them?

John Paul II's murder of the soul

John Paul II kept silent for 26 years and most of all, his Opus Dei secretary Navarro-Valls kept silent about the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army feasting on altar boys’ flesh all over the world. Now that more than 5,600 John Paul II American Pedophile Priests have been exposed, Ireland is up next for exposure. As Jesus said, "For whatever is hidden shall come to light", even the Vatican cannot keep its crimes secret forever.

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak. - Audre Lorde http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=2752

According to the first 7 theologians to protest John Pauil II's canonization in April 2005, see the John Paul II Millstone archive of 2006, South America has hundreds of thousands of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army; but they do not have the lawyers and system we have in America and in Europe e.g. Ireland to expose them.



So John Paul II suppressed Liberation Theology and Jon Sobrino because he and then Cardinal Ratzinger were too busy planning for his glorious speedy canonization. Mr. John Paul II and St. Josemaria Escriva, the perfect Vatican couple married in bullsh_t sainthood. All those books and homilies the Opus Dei wrote for JP2 are now thrashed by the legacy of his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. Behold Ireland, the most Catholic country that sent missionaries all over the world is now crying to Heaven for vengeance. Opus Dei owns many of Ireland's publishing houses and many Opus Dei members sit as judges in courts!



John Paul II the Great left a hell of a pedophiliac legacy. His papal silence was golden only during his lifetime, he and the Opus Dei thought his papacy was the MOST PERFECT and the longest after St. Peter. After his death all hell broke loose and revealed his hidden crimes. Hail, John Paul II the Pedophiliac Pope! Hail, John Paul II Criminal against Children! Hail, John Paul II the criminal against humanity!


Qoute from this article which defines John Paul II as the "merciless masquerading as the merciful" toward his JPIIPPA victims and to the Jesuits of Liberation Theology like Jon Sobrino -- see B16 God's Rottweiler www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com and John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army www.jp2army.blogspot.com for details:

The state protected itself, its agents and servants; the Church protected itself, its agents and servants. Both combined and conspired to protect hideous, monstrous, violent men and women at the expense, not only of those who, as children, were placed into the hands of the merciless masquerading as the merciful, but of Irish society as a whole.



--
‘It was murder of the soul’

Sunday, May 24, 2009

A terrible legacy is born. What emerges from the publication of the Ryan Commission’s report on the penal system in which thousands of Irish children were incarcerated for long periods of their lives, is that Church and state are still one, still arm in arm, and that they will protect each other, no matter what.

There are many ways in which violence is perpetrated on humans by humans. As Oscar Wilde said, some do it with a kiss, some do it with a sword.

The Irish state does it with a report. Silence is violence, because in that silence is the hurt and the stress caused by denial. The unacknowledged impact of what happened to the children of Ireland will not rest and we will further traumatise generations to come with what the Irish state has done by failing to honour the universal code of natural law.

People will frenzy obsessively, as they have in the past, around the sordid details of sexual abuse. They will look for extreme examples to measure the extent of its brutality.

Sexual assault is merely a term employed to describe parts of the human body and human biology. It belittles, to some extent and, to another extent, sexualises violence for the onlooker and the reader. But for the victim there is no sexual aspect; there is just the extreme violence of the act perpetrated on them. The act is immeasurable, as its impact ebbs and flows and bashes against the coast of the individual’s life, gnawing away at personhood and spirit forever.

When I hear the words sexual abuse, it betrays what happened to me and to countless thousands of other children and adults. I believe it is now time for the phrase ‘sexual abuse’ to be dropped and replaced with a much more realistic definition, more befitting the actual crime, which is an act of extreme violence and murder of the soul.

The report confirms to me in its entirety the overwhelming willingness of the Irish state to offer protection to the perpetrators of inhuman acts on the most vulnerable in our society, children.

These acts were perpetrated, by and large, on one class within Irish society, a class or a community of people regarded as ‘‘God’s unfortunates’’.

The perpetrators convinced themselves of a great untruth: that people in a lower socio-economic group needed their intervention, their charity and their moral guidance. They endlessly sought to corral, close down, disempower and render voiceless this whole section of society.

It is enormously difficult to find your voice in a society that wishes to overwhelm you with the way it wants you to live its version of your life.

For many years, my struggle for a place in Irish society was based on the false principle that, somewhere out there, someone in the state cared and was going to bring truth and honour, justice and consequences, and so give me and others our rightful place as equal citizens in this society.

We looked to the great white hope of the Ryan Commission, and those hopes have been dashed. What is the point in deliberately building a car that won’t work? This was, in effect, the process the Irish state set in train. Thousands of statements of fact were taken, vital evidence of collaboration, of crimes against humanity were gathered by Mr Justice Ryan’s Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and, instead of being handed to the law enforcement officers of the state, they were rendered impotent, null and useless.

What is printed now - the horror stories - will go down in history as a sort of pornography, the black diaries of the Irish state and its ruling classes and how those classes protected their henchmen and women, those who ran for them a series of what can only be described as inhumane labour camps and child prisons.

All of this was done under the state’s legal system but, in real terms, it had no basis in law. Here, the state has failed to probe how it contained and incarcerated 150,000 children. Before the children arrived in any of these institutions, all their legal, civil and human rights were stripped from them by the state. Throughout their detention, they were violently stripped of every other asset, right down to the core of their humanity.

In the place of the innocence that all children carry was instilled an experience of extreme violence, fear and terror that they would carry throughout their lives and that would permeate down through the generations to their family and community.

What this report has ensured is that the next generation of innocent children will inherit from the Irish state a legacy of brutality and cowardice in place of courage. The world will look and acknowledge that this state, when faced with a choice of bringing criminals to justice, chose to protect them, because those criminals were, after all, its very own.

The state protected itself, its agents and servants; the Church protected itself, its agents and servants. Both combined and conspired to protect hideous, monstrous, violent men and women at the expense, not only of those who, as children, were placed into the hands of the merciless masquerading as the merciful, but of Irish society as a whole.

This report is a further act of violence. I can only look now to the Human Rights Commission to set up a complete independent inquiry as to how the Irish state betrayed all of its citizens and in doing so betrayed the human race. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was trampled on last week by the failure of the Ryan Commission report to use any of its witness statements to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

Rest assured that this was no mistake and, as the saying goes, this report did indeed do the state some service. Let’s see what the UN has to say about that.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS+FEATURES-qqqm=nav-qqqid=41970-qqqx=1.asp

Author and playwright Mannix Flynn spent two years in the late 1960s at Letterfrack Industrial School in Galway

Help indict John Paul II's LA clone Cardinal Mahony face a new criminal probe

Friends,

As many of you know, LA's Cardinal Roger Mahony faces a new criminal probe (see articles below).

It would be very helpful to have as many 'letters to the editor 'as possible on this subject.

The rule of thumb: the quicker and the shorter, the better. No need to write more than 4-6 sentences. Just calmly, clearly, simply express your opinion and keep this in the public eye.

Here are just a few of the stories:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/us/30mahony.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=mahony&st=cse

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-mahony30-2009jan30,0,7839159.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mahony30-2009jan30,0,72353.story

Here's where letters can be sent:

letters@nytimes.com

letters@latimes.com

Need to remain anonymous? Please consider commenting on line, at the bottom of these articles, without disclosing your name:

http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_11587690

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=2740

(Other publications let you do this too. Just use "google news," type in "Cardinal Mahony," and a number of other articles will appear.)

The national staff is a little overwhelmed. If you have questions please contact your local SNAP leader. Please go to our website, SNAPnetwork.org for names and contact information.

Thanks for your help,
Barbara Dorris




Letters to the Editor

Tips to help you get published!

Abuse thrives in secrecy. Media coverage helps end that secrecy. It also emboldens other victims and concerned family members to come forward. Therefore, one easy step survivors can take to help one another is to write letters to the editor (for publication) of newspapers. Here are some tips.
Be brief, be quick and leave your phone numbers. These are the three most important things to remember when writing letters to the editor.

Be brief, because there's a lot of competition for a small amount of space.
Be quick in writing because the best letter in the world won't get run if the newspaper gets it 3 or 4 weeks after the original article it refers to was printed.
Leave your number. Many papers won't print letters unless they can call the author to verify that he or she wrote it. So sign the letter, and leave both your day and evening phone number.

Other tips:

1) Use statistics sparingly. They can get confusing and overwhelming very quickly.

2) Mention an article already printed by the paper. This dramatically increases the chances that your letter will be run.

3) Remember your audience. In most cases you're trying to sway the public, not your adversary. Therefore, you should take pains to seem moderate and fair. This doesn't mean you should be bland. But you should write with the average person in mind, and use phrases and arguments that resonate with them. You don't want John Q. Public to be turned off your rhetoric and think, "Well, both sides are extremists" (as often happens with the abortion issue for example).

4) A catchy first line is helpful. Instead of "I'm writing to respond to the Star Tribune editorial of August 3rd," try "As a gun owner, the August 3rd editorial left me wondering if Star Tribune editorial writers live in the real world."

5) Don't mention criticism that has been leveled against you or your organization. Avoid saying "I am not a crook, thief and a liar as reported in last week's Star Tribune." Better to say "Star Tribune readers wonder who's telling the truth in the controversy over___."

6) Use short punchy sentences. This makes it easier for the reader to follow your thinking and easier for the editor to cut your letter if necessary (and better to have an edited version of your letter printed than none at all).

7) Papers accept letters by fax and email as well as U.S. mail these days. It never hurts to send your letter via both fax and email.

John Paul II, A Moral, Abject Failure When It Mattered

Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei are working fast to beatify and canonize John Paul II. But the Americans must never call John Paul II a ``saint`` because he led the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army, now numbering more than 6,000 in USA alone.



A Moral, Abject Failure When It Mattered
Pope John Paul II, 1920-2005

By Gustavo Arellano
OC Weekly
April 8, 2005

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/31/ex-arellano.php
[See also other articles by Gustavo Arellano.]

Let's cut the beatitudes: Pope John Paul II was a moral, abject failure when it mattered.

Screw his ecumenical efforts. Never mind his opposition to communism. Forget his apologies for the horrors that the Roman Catholic Church inflicted upon so many of the world's innocent throughout two millennia. All those "breakthroughs" were inevitable, none of them particularly revolutionary, the media spectacles surrounding each vanity and striving after the wind.


Pay attention to the times when the pope, who died on April 2, had the opportunity to right the Catholic Church in the here and now. Pay attention to the Americas. In two of the more profound matters to affect Roman Catholicism during his 25-year reign—the struggle of liberation theology in Latin America during the 1980s and the sex-abuse scandal in the United States—the man born Karol Wojtyla did worse than nothing: he comforted the comfortable and afflicted the afflicted.

This supposed champion of the oppressed, this Vicar of Christ, consistently supported the church where it aligned itself with the despots of the Americas. Last year, he allowed American bishops to publicly declare Democratic presidential nominee and Catholic John Kerry unfit to receive Communion, a blatantly political stance to sway numerous Catholics toward the Republican Party. In Mexico, John Paul II canonized 26 people associated with the Cristeros revolt, the 1920s movement in which the Catholic Church, infuriated by the Mexican government's call to surrender its extensive land holdings, organized parishioners against the government.

But John Paul II's most egregious sin was committed in Latin America. There, during the 1960s, Catholics married Marx's paean to the working class with Jesus radical notion that the meek shall inherit the Earth. With the advent of this liberation theology, the Latin American faithful sighed in relief: the Roman Catholic hierarchy—which had aligned itself with the ruling class in the New World since the time of Columbus—would finally fuse the light of heaven with the struggle of Earth. Now the Church would join the oppressed rather than merely bathe their wounds with the promise of salvation in the afterlife.

The Latin American gentry, understandably, became furious and called upon the United States for funds and troops—the infamous contras and death squads. Soon came the murders of priests, nuns, brothers, parishioners, even bishops—any Catholic who dared question social inequity.

But rather than reprimand these right-wing governments and their henchmen, John Paul II choked the life out of liberation theology. He removed priests and bishops who bravely stood against the marauding forces. In one famous incident, he reprimanded Nicaraguan priest Ernesto Cardenal on national television for his support of the Sandinistas over the Reagan-backed contras and scolded into silence a crowd of parishioners who shouted, "¡Queremos la paz!" ("We want peace!")
John Paul II's defenders will claim that his opposition to liberation theology wasn't because it loved the poor too much, but rather because of its relationship to Marxism, which Wojtyla suffered through as a young priest in Poland. They'll even point out that John Paul II would visit the tomb of Salvadoran Bishop Oscar Romero, the most prominent practitioner of liberation theology, who was shot through the heart by a government sniper's bullet while saying Mass in 1980. At Romero's shrine in 1983, the pontiff remarked the bishop was a "zealous and venerated pastor who tried to stop violence. I ask that his memory be always respected and let no ideological interest try to distort his sacrifice as a pastor given over to his flock."

But that was all flapping lips. While Romero lived, John Paul II reprimanded him thrice in private, once even asking him to align himself with the Salvadoran dictatorship; Romero refused, calling such a request "unjust." Shortly after Romero died, a Washington Post columnist gasped that "the pope's outrage was so muted that it was taken as a political statement of its own." And while John Paul II rewarded other, lesser Catholics with sainthood, Romero isn't so much as beatified, even though his shrine in San Salvador includes crutches, photographs, testimonies—the witness of thousands.

When the opportunity was there, John Paul II spat on the graves of martyrs. Consider Fernando Saenz Lacalle, a member of the ultra-conservative Catholic lay organization Opus Dei. In 1996, John Paul II appointed Lacalle as the archbishop of San Salvador, the very position Romero once held. Shortly after assuming the bishopric, Lacalle accepted the post of honorary brigadier general in the Salvadoran military—the very military that covered up the rape and murder of four American nuns in 1980. When Pope John Paul II visited the country in 1996 for Lacalle's installation, both refused to visit the tomb of six Jesuits murdered by the Salvadoran military in one gruesome night in 1989. Most outrageously, Lacalle asked for and received a $2 million donation for a brand-new cathedral from the Republican Nationalist Alliance (known by its Spanish acronym, ARENA), the coalition whose founder, Roberto D'Aubuisson, allegedly ordered Romero's assassination personally and routinely declared his admiration for Hitler.

"While the church seeks the political, social and economic liberation of the downtrodden, its primary goal is the spiritual one of liberation from evil," the Vatican said in a 1986 statement. By then, its inaction had already led to the murders of hundreds of thousands of Central Americans and the forced migrations of millions. More tellingly, the withdrawal of the Roman Catholic Church from an active role in the Latin American struggles of the 1980s led to a region-wide exodus into Protestantism that continues to this day.

Shortly after the popes 1996 visit, one Salvadoran Jesuit summed up John Paul II's influence over Latin America in an open letter to one of his slain fellow Jesuits:
"Our church has changed, Ellacu. I dont know if you would recognize in her the church of Monsignor Romero, the church that gave voice to the voiceless and the one that reminded us of Jesus of Nazareth. . . . She doesn't cause many stirs anymore. The powerful don't feel she is a threat, and I don't know if the poor find in her help and refuge. I think our church is seen more often than necessary standing beside the powerful of this world."

Closer to home, Catholics should remember John Paul II's ignorance of what's shaping up to be his Church's spiritual genocide—the priestly sex-abuse scandal. His defenders will mention that what the pope told the 12 American cardinals who visited the Vatican in 2002—"There is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young"—was penance enough.

That was too little, too late. By then, the pope already knew. He knew as early as 1985, when Tom Doyle, a priest with the Vatican Embassy in Washington, helped author a confidential report alerting American Catholic officials about the pederast storm on the horizon. He knew as early as 1990 that bishops were advising one another to send potentially incriminating documents to the Apostolic Delegate, the papal representative to the Catholic Church in the United States, because the office has diplomatic immunity. He knew in 1993, when he first addressed the American sex-abuse scandal by accusing the media of treating his prelates' cover-up "as an occasion for sensationalism."

He knew! Last year, he propped up former Boston Cardinal Bernard Law with a cushy job in St. Peter's Square—the same Law who resigned in 2002 lest the feds make him sing about his role in the rape of children! John Paul II opposed the zero-tolerance policies that American bishops installed in 2002 to ensure that child rapists would never officiate over Mass again! John Paul II never removed scoundrels such as Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown from their posts despite their active shielding of child-molesting priests from the law. In fact, many of these scoundrels—demons such as Mahony, Law and the entirety of the United States' delegation of cardinals—will vote soon on John Paul II's successor, ensuring that their patron's twisted policies will endure.

* * *
In my cubicle, I have a silver medallion of Pope John Paul II—of course I do. But I place it in a specific spot—away from my rosary, away from a Virgin of Guadalupe Christmas display, away from my statue of the Santo Nio de Atocha, away from my baptism photo. I keep the medallion directly above an excerpt from the Book of Gomorrah, the landmark study by Saint Damian in which he warned Pope Leo IX of the sex-abuse scandal in the 11th Century.

One passage sticks out in particular:

For Truth says, Whoever scandalizes one of these little ones, it were better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Unless the strength of the Apostolic See intervenes as soon as possible, there is not doubt but that this unbridled wickedness, even though it should wish to be restrained, will be unable to stop on its headlong course.
And on this note, Pope John Paul II meets Christ.

John Paul II's clone Cardinal Mahony is Wrong About the Catholic Church Being Safer Today for Children

Why Cardinal Mahony is Wrong About the Catholic Church Being Safer Today for Children
April 24, 2009 8:32 PM

From The Times:

Why a child today is no safer from sexual abuse than I was

The acclaimed documentary Chosen, about systematic sexual abuse of young boys at Caldicott school four decades ago, is nominated for a Bafta. Here, one of those former pupils who appears in the film, warns that the school protection system that failed him then could just as easily fail your child now

by Tom Perry

There is a common reaction from people whenever I talk about the sexual abuse that I and other pupils suffered at the hands of teachers at Caldicott boarding school in the 1960s and early 1970s, events which were successfully hushed up. “Ah, but that was then,” they say confidently, “things are different now.”

Really? Are you sure? Well, let’s take the case of Alastair, who was targeted at the age of 11 by a career paedophile at Caldicott and whose abuse was discovered by the matron in 1972 . His parents and those of other boys abused by the same teacher — Martin Carson — were called to the school, in Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire. Carson was dismissed but police and social services were not alerted, apparently “for the benefit of the children”. None of the victims was seen by a doctor, nor any psychologically assessed. Carson later resumed teaching at another private school. (In 2003 he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment after admitting indecent assault and possessing indecent images of children.) Faced with exactly the same events, what is different today? I’ll tell you — nothing. No school in England, maintained or independent, is under any statutory obligation to report alleged abuse to the authorities. This includes the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), the police or social services. Successive governments and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) have delivered no practical improvements for the abused child for the past 38 years, despite endless child protection rhetoric.

I can almost hear the cries of “No — he’s wrong”. I have heard it so often. If you do not believe me — and many don’t — I suggest you try to identify a statute, then seek counsel’s opinion thereon if you think you've found something. I will wave you goodbye knowing that I will never hear from you again. Because nothing of the kind exists. You may encounter something that looks and smells like a statute but it does not bark like a statute. It is related to Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 for maintained schools, and Section 157 of the same Act for independent schools. These statutory duties are supported by “guidance” contained within Working Together to Safeguard Children, issued by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in April 2006, and Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education, which was also issued by the DfES in November 2006 and took effect in January 2007.

All you will find at the cornerstone of child protection in English classrooms is that schools should report alleged abuse to the LADO. If a school fails to follow this “guideline” there is no sanction for “failing to report”. In theory the School Inspectors should put any such school on an undertaking to the DCSF to report alleged abuse appropriately: but this rarely happens (and is a frequent example of failure in the inspection process).

Presenting this “guidance” as quasi-statutory misleads most in the world of education, including, to my knowledge, a senior officer in the DCSF involved with Safeguarding. It is a triumph of presentation over reality. But the losers are the child victims of abuse, and it is this that the DCSF fails to understand. From many years of communication with the DCSF it has become clear that “Safeguarding” is not a subject of which there is much practical understanding. As far as I’m aware, I have never yet had an exchange about this with an officer from the DCSF who has had the benefit of a social-care background.

I discovered more about the fractured landscape of child protection in education as a result of finally and belatedly trying to confront the legacy of sexual abuse that has so troubled my life.

I was abused from the age of 12 by one of my teachers at Caldicott, Peter Wright, who went on to become headmaster. The abuse began when he asked me to visit him in his room close to our dormitory. It continued when I would be asked to take up his morning cup of tea. After all these years I can still remember his smell when he kissed me. At the time I said nothing, silenced by fear, shame and a deeply dysfunctional sense, then fostered within the school’s culture, that I had been singled out for special treatment, that I was somehow “privileged”. This experience I have recounted in detail in the Bafta-nominated Channel 4 documentary Chosen, which has ignited the debate about sexual abuse in schools.

A unique combination of events prompted me to find my voice late in life. The mental death of my mother from Alzheimer’s; my son moving towards the age at which I had been abused; the appalling revelations of sexual abuse by clergy in the US that filled the news. And an extraordinary article that I’d read about a lawyer who was the Roman Catholic Church’s principal child sexual-abuse lawyer in Florida, who stopped mid-sentence mid-trial when cross-examining a male complainant and said: “I can’t do this any more, I was abused by my priest when I was an altar boy.” His extraordinary state of denial and years of silence chimed with mine. Mentally, I imploded and became very unwell.

Several years ago I filed a complaint with the police, and four other men who say that they had been abused by Wright came forward and Wright was charged with 13 counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency with a child between August 1964 and May 1970. But in 2003 a judge stayed the case as an “abuse of process”, ruling that the alleged offences had happened so long ago that Wright could not get a fair trial. (He denied all charges.) Seeing how other abused pupils at Caldicott had been failed by the system I wanted to discover how similar events might be handled today, and what legal obligations schools are now under when the same happens to a child. A number of former pupils and parents of Caldicott shared this concern and we started to turn over the stones.

What we found is the shameful failure of primary legislation to support an abused child. A potentially sound inspection and regulatory framework does exist — but presently it’s not working. The situation shares much with Northern Ireland prior to the publication in 2005 of the Cabin Hill School Inquiry report, which made extensive recommendations after the discovery of pupil-on-pupil sexual abuse at that school, and the concealment of it by the school’s administration. The report demonstrated that a fundamentally sound framework existed, but little of it was working to any effect. The Northern Ireland Executive acted on the recommendations and now the Northern Ireland education department has a superb Safeguarding Policy document. Furthermore, it is prescriptive for all schools, and supplemented by school-specific policies. Reporting the crime of abuse in Northern Ireland is a statutory obligation. That’s it — everyone knows where they stand and it makes the efforts of our DCSF look third-rate.

All of us also need to understand that the only independent reports on schools are those produced by Ofsted and ISI, although the ISI is not independent in any meaningful sense of the description. Parents have nothing else on which they may safely place reliance. That is why failures in this realm have serious implications for parents, for pupils, for schools and for local authorities. In my view, Ofsted is in breach of its child welfare inspection responsibilities in maintained schools and all independent and state boarding schools. This is because its inspections and its reports fall far short of the standards of the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to which Ofsted undertook to adhere in the handover to it from that body on April 1, 2007. There is a persistent failure to inspect against the notifications returned by schools under the Education Acts (and since January this year to the Independent Safeguarding Authority) to the former Teacher Misconduct Section of the DCSF in Darlington, and continuing failure to report appropriately — or in many cases at all — on child welfare issues arising out of the notifications.

Discovering examples of abuse that have not been reported on or inspected against by Inspectorates is difficult because of the artifice of pronounced confidentiality, which is used to keep these matters out of parental sight. But here’s an example: Stony Dean School, in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, a maintained special-needs school. In the most recent Ofsted report dated May 10, 2007 by Melvyn Blackband under the heading “Care, guidance and support” the school receives a grade 1 (outstanding) and the same grade for the sixth form. In the comments section, the inspector writes: “Child protection procedures are exemplary.”

Having read the report, one would think that the school would be at the top of every “probable” list for parents in that area who have children with special needs. The school was previously inspected March 1, 2002 and received a favourable report. But is this a true reflection of Stony Dean since the last inspection in 2002? In November 2005, Anthony Bulley, the former head of care at the school, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court to ten years in prison for raping two boys and for other sexual offences.

Bulley had previously worked at a school in Oxford where similar allegations had been made. In 2002 he had been suspended from Stony Dean after a number of allegations by pupils. A General Teaching Council hearing in July 2008 concluded that the former head Peter Newsholme and his deputy Deryck Miller failed to ensure that the school properly acted on and managed child-protection issues. It also found that, contrary to DCSF childprotection guidance, Newsholme failed to follow up references for Bulley when he applied to Stony Dean. Had he done so, it would have been discovered that Bulley had been the subject of similar allegations in a previous post.

When such appalling child abuse occurs at a school, what should we as parents reasonably expect to see in an Ofsted child-welfare inspection report? We would want to be assured that any failures exposed by events in the school have been re-inspected and that the owners, the governors and the staff have learnt from the events and put in place procedures and protocols to reduce the likelihood of it happening again. We expect no more, but certainly no less. But do we see it in Stony Dean’s childwelfare report? It is silent on all these matters. It reads as if nothing ever happened there.

Next month the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children Board is expected to publish an executive summary of the “Serious Case Review” on events at Stony Dean.

The recent report into safeguarding in independent schools by Sir Roger Singleton recognises that Ofsted has not been fulfilling its welfare remit. His report to the Secretary of State contains many Ofsted-related recommendations. These recommendations seek nothing new in this regard, but merely require Ofsted to deliver what it should have been doing all along. However, the report does not address what should be made to happen to rectify the nationwide legacy of inspection failure that remains at schools such as Stony Dean, or Caldicott, where the current inspection reports of both the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) and Ofsted are silent on all the matters raised with them by the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children’s Board, or at Gatehouse School, Milton Keynes, where a culture of staff bullying and physical restraint of children continued for three years but where a favourable Ofsted report was held aloft by the former head as evidence of the staff’s good work.

That school has recently emerged from an independent review in which the author says: “Ofsted inspected the school in 2006 and reported favourably on the school’s management.” However, staff recruitment was as flawed in 2006 as it was in 2008. It is surprising that such a serious defect was not identified. The report continues: “Understandably officers [from Milton Keynes Council] were frustrated that there was a widely held view that ‘things were not right’ at Gatehouse School but that, largely because of such a positive [June 2007] Ofsted inspection and local review [Independent report called for by council officers December 2007], it was not possible to demonstrate this.”

From my limited personal research I can sadly name a double-digit number of schools, maintained and independent, which have inaccurate, unreliable and sometimes wrong child-welfare reports from either Ofsted or the ISI or both. My opinion is that all schools that have been failed in this way should be subject to re-inspection so that we can finally place reliance on those child welfare reports.

In her appearance before the Children Schools and Families Select Committee to give evidence on December 9, 2008, Christine Gilbert, Chief Inspector, Ofsted, said that, except where a complaint is made, Ofsted’s practice is to keep its notes for only three months after publication of a report. This surely handicaps and undermines the next child-welfare inspection, as there are no notes to which to refer and no means of carrying out any meaningful check on a school’s performance. It means that inspectors are left in the dark about whether the earlier problems have satisfactorily been resolved or not. Thus, over time, child-welfare inspection becomes gradually less effective because of a failure to “track back” and maintain a consistent overview. Child abuse that occurs as an isolated incident is one thing; child abuse that occurs in the same way three, four or five years previously before that is quite another. Later inspectors depend upon the earlier reports for their knowledge of trends in the school and previous child-welfare information.

Another important component of child protection is you, the parents. How many of you have read the child-protection policy of your child’s school? Do you understand what you should be looking for in it and requesting it to say? If in doubt please look at questions4schools.org.uk — which was assembled by the survivors of abuse at Caldicott and is for the benefit of all parents.

The other former pupils and I hope that your children have nothing less than a happy and, above all, safe childhood in education, and emerge unscathed on their journey into adulthood. As I and other former Caldicott pupils know, the alternative is a very high price to pay.

http://losangeles.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/why-cardinal-mahony-is-wrong-about-the-catholic-church-being-safer-today-for-children.aspx?googleid=261670

Comments:
Posted by Susan Acker
April 24, 2009 11:59 PM
I would not believe anything Cardinal Roger Mahony had to say on any subject. And I would love to know what some of these clerical sexual predatory perverts have on Mahony; enough to make him fight so hard to protect them.
Posted by Victoriag
April 25, 2009 3:56 AM
The Roman Catholic Church is a decaying house, who's leaders, along with those who serve them closely, are always on the look out for a scapegoat on which to deposit their failure, stupidity and inhumanity. Roger Michael Cardinal Mahony is certainly one of it's (the RCC's) most visible cancers on the face of the church; what catholics refer to as the "Living Body of Christ". From what I have observed, Mahony has not one ounce of pity or humanity for the sufferings of the victimized children of the church who suffer endlessly. At first, many wanted to believe that Mahony, along with his fellow bishops, did not know what was happening to the children, young people and vulnerable adults of the RCC. We now know how foolish we were. But if the children of the Catholic Church are safer today than they were a few years back, it is not the RCC's doing; nor Mahony's, nor his brother bishops. Children are perhaps safer because the Victims/Survivors are still visible outside churches, schools meetings and conventions all across the country. Victims/Survivors are the visible reminders of what can happen when men and women, even so called, "religious" men and women sell their souls in the name of perversion, greed, hedonism, perjury and even murder. The bishops of this country, and around the world; even the pope in Rome, have ridden to their present positions of wealth and power over the raped, sodomized, bloodied and broken bodies of the children of this decayed church. And may those bishops and popes hear the screams of those tortured butchered children through all eternity. And may the bishops and popes never rest in this world, or the next.
Posted by Mike Bryant
April 26, 2009 12:53 AM
Wow, quite a post. Keep Shouting. Thanks for your work in spreading this message.

John Paul II's Views on Nudity Inspired Sexiest Swimsuit Model

Pope John Paul II's Views on Nudity Inspired Sexiest Swimsuit Model' Joanna Krupa

Friday, March 27, 2009
By Hollie McKay

"I was born in Europe, and Europeans have a more casual, natural way of dealing with nudity," says Joanna.

It should come as no surprise that Joanna Krupa is comfortable removing her clothes.
The Polish-born beauty is one of the most Googled gals on the Internet, has been named the "Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the World" by Playboy, and graced the cover of almost every men’s magazine on the planet, from Maxim to Esquire to GQ.

But did you know the first Polish pope was involved in her frequent disrobing?
PHOTOS: 11 stunning Joanna Krupa swimsuit pics.

"I think worrying about going topless in a photo shoot or film is really ridiculous," Krupa told FOXNews.com in an exclusive interview. "And the fact is Pope John Paul said, since we were born naked, it is art, and it's just showing a beautiful body that God created."
Amen.

"I was born in Europe, and Europeans have a more casual, natural way of dealing with nudity," Krupa adds. "Interestingly enough, these days, you see nudity and toplessness in almost every critically acclaimed movie, and whenever I pick up a French Vogue, I see bare breasts, and French Vogue still sets the standards."

John Paul II's favorite Cardinal Sin portrayed in a play in Los Angeles, March 25, 2009

It’s about time that -- a play portraying - the John Paul II favourite Cardinal Bernard Law – is presented in the USA.

Cardinal Law is sitting as the Archpriest of the Saint Mary Maggiorre Basilica in Rome, wearing colourful albs, praying in Latin with the Opus Dei, greeting the wealthy tourists of Italy.

John Paul II gave one of the most glorious reward to Cardinal Bernard Law who covered- up pedophile priests in Boston. Instead of excommunicating him for his crimes, eh is elevated to the Archpriest of the mother basilica in Rome

Benedict XVI also rewards Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles who should be in jail for covering-up the most numbers of pedophile priests in America.

John Paul II should never be canonized a saint for leaving a legacy with his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

========
SNAP Members/Supporters General Public invited to a Benefit Performance of the play "Sin: A Cardinal Deposed."

Proceeds to Benefit Survivors in Southern California and Nationally

Attendees invited to a "Meet and Greet" with the Cast



About "Sin: A Cardinal Deposed:"

In Suffolk Superior Court, lawyer Orson Krieger treads a fine line between respect and contempt.

He relentlessly pursues answers from the elusive Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, for his failure to protect the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests in his archdiocese.

Every question, every answer, every word of this play was taken from two hearings and one trial.

All the characters are real.


When: Thursday, March, 26, 2009

6:30 PM - Cocktails and appetizers
7:30 PM - Show

Where: The Hayworth Theater
2509 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Cost: $50 - includes food, wine and meet and greet with the cast

Paid parking is available next to the theater

For more information and tickets: www.thehayworth.com or (323) 960-4442




SIN: A CARDINAL DEPOSED
Directed by Paul Muzursky
with Bruce Davison, Gary Cole, Wendie Mallick, James Handy, Dan Lauria and Hamish Linklater

Playing Thursdays through March 26th with an alternating cast that also includes Nicholas Brendon, Joe Spano, Frances Fisher, Christian Campbell, Paul Ben-Victor, Richard Kind, Charles Shaugnessy, John Ciccolini & Carl Bressler.

• Actors from Close To Home, Knight Rider, The L Word, New Adventures Of The Old Christine, Entourage, The Practice, X-Men, The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, Taladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
• Directed by Award-Winning film director Paul Mazursky
• From Playwright Michael Murphy, nominated for 2005 Obie Award for SIN

Benefit performance for SNAP ~ "Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests"
Thursday March 26th ~ Tickets $50

John Paul II clone Cardinal Egan covered-up priests' sexual abuse

Egan Criticized For Underreporting Abuse Cases

By Eizabeth Hamilton Courant Staff
February 23, 2009

As Cardinal Edward Egan prepares to the exit the New York Archdiocese, his critics are voicing their hope that the prelate will be held accountable for what they believe is his refusal to honestly report abuse cases there.

The group Bishop Accountability.org, which describes itself as the world's largest independent source of information on the clergy sexual abuse crisis, says Egan under-reported the number of accused priests in the New York diocese in 2004 when the U.S. bishops were asked to release the information.

At that time, Egan reported that 49 priests had been accused of abuse from 1950 to 2002, which amounted to 1.3 percent of the diocesan priests. In Boston and Los Angeles, by comparison, the percentages were higher, at 7 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.

"New York must have one of the longest lists of unregistered sex offenders in the country," said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the organization. "Egan should be held accountable for that."



Related links
Cardinal Edward Egan through the years Photos Doyle said her organization, and victims' rights groups, will also be closely watching the outcome of the Connecticut court case in which the Courant and several other daily newspapers have sought the release of 12,000 pages of documents from sealed lawsuits against the Bridgeport Diocese.

Egan, who served as bishop of the Bridgeport diocese from 1988 to 2000, was a defendant in some of the lawsuits and fought them aggressively from 1993 until they were settled in March, 2001.

The case to unseal the documents stalled in 2006, when the Diocese of Bridgeport appealed a Superior Court judge's ruling to unseal the secret files. The files contain documents pertaining to allegations of abuse by as many as 23 priests. The case was then transferred to the state Supreme Court.

Clergy Abuse Victims Blast New NYC Archbishop Dolan, clone of John Paul II

Clergy Abuse Victims Blast New NYC Archbishop

WHAT

At a sidewalk news conference, clergy abuse victims will criticize New York's new archbishop and

- discuss his track record on handling child sex abuse and cover up cases,

- put forward suggestions for how he can better protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded, and

- urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes to report to police, not to the archbishop

WHEN

TODAY, Monday, 2/23, from 2 pm until 3 pm

WHERE

Outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, 460 Madison Ave (at 5th), New York City

WHO

Two-three clergy abuse victims who belong to a nationwide support group called SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org). One is a woman who was abused on Long Island. Another is a former Milwaukee seminarian.

CONTACT

David Clohessy, SNAP National Director 314-566-9790

Peter Isely, SNAP Midwestern Director 414-429-7259

Beth McCabe, SNAP Connecticut Director 860-335-8187

Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director 314-503-0003

Barbara Blaine, SNAP President 312-399-4747

===========

For immediate release: Monday, February 23, 2009

Archbishop Dolan’s abysmal track record on clergy sex abuse and cover up

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, Milwaukee
CONTACT: 414.429.7259 (cell)

Milwaukee archbishop Timothy Dolan has been named head of the New York archdiocese. Catholics and citizens deserve to know his track record on the most pressing issue the church faces.

Sadly the Vatican has consistently shown that a bishop’s mismanagement of clergy sex crimes against children has little or no bearing on career advancement.

When Dolan came to Milwaukee in 2002 from St. Louis he was widely praised as an antidote to Catholicism’s penchant for dour and humorless prelates, a wizard of media relations, the embodiment of a new, ascendant and conquering retro-Catholicism.

But like so many other bishops who mismanage the abuse issue but still manage to get promoted, Dolan left St. Louis having failed to properly supervise sex offenders, remove them all from ministry, and fully notify civil authorities.

When Dolan got to Milwaukee, he boldly proclaimed that “it is sledgehammer obvious that things cannot go on with business as usual” in handling clergy sex abuse cases. Yet, for six years it has been pretty much exactly that in Milwaukee, just like in St. Louis.

Dolan did not forward to Wisconsin police direct admissions of guilt from clergy child rapists, even from clergy who were subsequently criminally charged and convicted. He continues to leave known clerical offenders working or presenting themselves as clergy in good standing in the Milwaukee archdiocese, a direct violation of the Dallas Charter. And for six years, secure at their chancery posts are virtually every single member of the senior management who plotted and executed the cover up of child sex abuse under Dolan’s disgraced predecessor, Rembert Weakland.

Why, for instance, does Dolan still publically praise without reprimand long term20Milwaukee auxiliary bishop, Richard Sklba? Sklba, according to sworn testimony this June by Weakland, was the chief architect of two decades of cover up for priest pedophiles. Weakland, in fact, called Sklba his “go to guy’ on “all abuse cases.”

Also, according to Weakland, Dolan has not once talked with him about the 67 known clerical sex offenders in the Milwaukee archdiocese reported to church authorities by at least 480 victims. How can Dolan arrive in New York and claim he has effectively addressed clergy sex crimes in Milwaukee without once asking Weakland about abusive priests? Will Dolan even dare to have such a conversation with Cardinal Eagan for fear of what he might learn?

As Dolan exits, the clergy sex abuse cover up crisis is not behind the Milwaukee church, but looms in front of it. Civil trials against the archdiocese are expected this summer in Milwaukee County for sex abuse fraud.

Victims greeted Dolan when he came to Milwaukee with great hope. He was replacing, after all, a bishop who resigned because he took a half a million dollars in church contributions for a hush money payoff to a seminarian who said he was “date raped” by him. The bar in New York may not be quite as low as it was in Milwaukee, but after years of stagnancy and pastoral malaise under Cardinal Eagan, Dolan is likely to make a very good first impression.

But on matters of child protection Dolan is the Vatican’s standard “business as usual” fare.

The vetting of bishops remains, unfortunately, a highly secretive and non-democratic process. How else could Pope Benedict, as we recently learned, spend years in high level negotiations and talks only to end up reinstating a bishop who publically denies the Holocaust?

As the rape of children by so many priests in the United States has conclusively demonstrates -- the number of predators over the past several decades is now within the range of six thousand -- something is wrong with the governing of the church, no matter who the governing bishop happens to be.

Dolan will bring some highly praised qualities to New York: political savvy, fundraising acumen, theological orthodoxy, and populist pastoral skills.

None of these qualities, however, guarantees a bishop will fervently embrace his most basic duty of protecting God’s children. For that, something else is needed, something on the order of true spiritual heroism. Maybe this is simply too much to ask of Dolan, or any other American bishop for that matter. But can parents of the New York archdiocese afford not to ask, indeed, demand it of Dolan?

The problem, ultimately, is not any one cardinal or bishop—Dolan or Weakland, Eagan or Sklba, Mahony or Law -- but a system that moves around predator sheltering bishops as freely as it moves around its predators.

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest self-help organization of clergy sexual abuse survivors, founded in 1987 with over 8,000 members in 63 chapters (SNAPnetwork.org).

CONTACT
Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director (Milwaukee), 414.429.7259
David Clohessy, SNAP National Director (St. Louis), 314.566.9790
Barbara Dorris, SNAP National Outreach Director, 314.503.0003

Archbishop Timothy Dolan “Clergy Abuse Fact Sheet”

Dolan record as Archbishop of Milwaukee, 2002-2009

Note: There are 67 clergy offenders from the Milwaukee archdiocese substantiated child sex assault reports, including 2 deacons and 20 religious order clergy.

In August of 2002, a bishop for less than a year in St. Louis, Dolan was appointed archbishop of Milwaukee, to replace the disgraced Rembert Weakland. Weakland had just been discovered to have paid a former Marquette University seminarian a half a million dollars in hush money for a sexual abuse allegation that Weakland characterized as a sexual relationship.

While in Milwaukee –

Dolan has failed to report direct admissions by clergy sex offenders concerning prosecutable cases of child rape. In February of last year, Sr. Norma Gianni was convicted of child sex assault in Milwaukee County after victims went to police. Yet archdiocesan officials, under the direction of auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba, had obtained a previous confession (http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/currentIssue/full_feature_story.asp?NewMessageID=21398).

In March, Fr. Bruce McArthur was sentenced for child sex abuse in Juneau County although McArthur had also admitted to the archdiocese that he had assaulted children in several parishes in Milwaukee and a hospital chaplain West Bend (http://www.wisn.com/news/13717963/detail.html).

Dolan is leaving priests or clergy in ministry or publically presenting themselves as priests in the Milwaukee archdiocese, in violation of the 2002 U.S. Bishops Charter to Protect Young Children, including Fr. Joseph Mika, who has admitted to child sex assault while a pastor in the Green Bay diocese and is now living with Dolan’s permission in Milwaukee. Victims groups in Milwaukee are claiming there are more such clergy still working under Dolan (http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/39246402.html).

Dolan secretly paid off one of Milwaukee’s most notorious priest child molesters, Fr. Franklyn Becker, in exchange for the priest to sign papers to leave the priesthood. Dolan sent a delegate to Becker to then assure him that the archdiocese would not publicize why he had left the priesthood (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=493276).

In a June deposition released in November, former Milwaukee archbishop Rembert Weakland revealed what had long been suspected that Dolan’s number two man, Bishop Richard Sklba was his “go to man” in all sex abuse cases and covering up child sex crimes from authorities and parishioners (http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/34836444.html).

Dolan has refused to remove Sklba from his post, saying that he has “complete confidence” in Sklba (http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/34823894.html).
Dolan, according to Weakland, has never once talked with him about the scores of abusive priests in the archdiocese nor has Dolan read or viewed Weakland’s deposition admitting to concealing and transferring sex offenders to “every parish” in the Milwaukee archdiocese (http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/34335169.html).

In September, Dolan told archdiocesan leaders that due to fraud cases filed against abusive priests and their bishops the archdiocese is going to face a “big financial hit” that is likely, according to archdiocesan officials, to lead to bankruptcy (http://www.milwaukeemagazine.com/murphyslaw/).

Dolan has repeatedly lobbied against sexual abuse reforms in Madison, including a bill that would allow childhood victims of sexual abuse by non-blood relatives to bring cases to Wisconsin civil courts.

Last year, Dolan permitted a letter to be published in the Catholic newspaper describing clergy child sex abuse victims as “prostitutes” (http://reform-network.net/?p=1459).

Weekly church attendance under Dolan in the Milwaukee archdiocese has dropped every single year and the rate of decrease is increasing at an alarming rate (http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2008_statements/062408_dolan_church_attendane_drop.htm).

Other informative documents from Milwaukee about the clergy abuse crisis and cover up --

-- Read a 2004 history of sexual abuse of children in the archdiocese of Milwaukee (http://terrenceberres.com/ise-sex.html).

-- Read the entire transcript with video excerpts of former Milwaukee archbishop Rembert Weakland’s deposition (http://www.bishop-accountability.org/depo/2008_06_05_Weakland_Rembert)

Dolan’s record as Auxiliary Bishop of Saint Louis, 2001-2002

Before his appointment to Milwaukee, Dolan was briefly auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, where he was put in charge of the abuse response for the archdiocese by Archbishop Justin Rigalli, who was subsequently promoted to cardinal archbishop of Philadelphia.

While in his St. Louis --

Dolan left at least three priests in ministry who were charged in civil court with child sex assault, including one, Fr. Thomas Graham who was later convicted by a jury (http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2002_03_03_StLouisPostDispatch_ArchdioceseSought_John_Campbell)

May have failed to supervise Fr. Gary Woken, a priest sex offender living with Dolan at Our Lady of Sorrows rectory in St. Louis. Wolken was arrested in 2002 for raping and sodomizing a boy from age 7 to 10. Wolken had already been under suspension for child sex abuse (http://www.lawyersweekly.com/reprints/grg12.htm).

Wrote a letter to the judge at Wolken’s sentencing to keep Wolken from prison, praising Wolken. Wolken was sentenced to 15 years Dolan refuses to release the letter (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=125556).

Besides Woken, Dolan was also living at Our Lady of Sorrows with another priest sex offender, Fr. Michael Campbell. Campbell was removed from ministry for substantiated abuse reports in 2002. Dolan praised Campbell to parishioners saying he trusts him so much he would go to him for confession
(http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/probpriests.nsf/story/3C8A7CE41AB0ABB186256B9000199E3C?OpenDocument).

After being suspended in March 2002, Dolan's friend Campbell showed up just weeks later, in April, on the altar of a nearby parish (during Holy Week, no less) to the consternation of many parishioners.

(http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2002_04_03_Rice_OustedPastor_Michael_Campbell_4.htm).

Dolan failed to meet with abuse victims or reply to direct abuse reports (http://www2.jsonline.com/news/metro/jun02/54058.asp).


Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org

=======

The injustice legacy of John Paul II

Recent Developments Regarding Clergy Child Abuse: How They Reveal Both Good and Bad News About the Chances of Getting Justice for Abuse Survivors and Preventing Future Abuse

By MARCI HAMILTON

It is difficult to get the big picture regarding clergy abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, for a number of reasons. One is that the Church - and, unfortunately, its abusing priests - are spread all over the world. Another is that the Church is organized in dioceses, which tend to be city-specific. A third is that the organization reports in a hierarchical fashion, toward Rome. And a fourth, and final reason is that the Church prizes secrecy and avidly resists accountability to civil authorities.

For these reasons, in the United States stories that concern a local diocese tend to be picked up by local newspapers, and not as often by the national media. Still, the timing of three recent stories regarding clergy abuse - stories largely seen by the media as local, despite the fact that they concern a pressing nationwide issue — counsels in favor of assessing the big picture at this time. The news is good and bad.

The Good News: Victims Are Increasingly Coming Forward

The good news is that victims are increasingly coming forward, finding each other, finding support, and seeking justice. Many are victims from decades ago, but certainly not all.

States like Delaware and California have encouraged victims to tell their stories by removing the statutes of limitations for bringing civil claims and opening the courthouse doors. Moreover, there is a movement afoot - a movement I strongly support — to create such opportunities across the country.

The Bad News: Dioceses are Either Slow to Reveal Abusers' Identities, or They Simply Refuse to Do So

The bad news, however, is that the Church hierarchy seems incapable of improving the lot of victims. For instance, Los Angeles's Cardinal Mahony promised to release Archdiocese files that contain information about perpetrators when he settled with victims many months ago. But Archdiocese lawyers are now fighting the release of each and every one of the thousands, if not millions, of pages therein. The victims' lawyers thought the cases were done with the "global settlement" that was reached, but, in fact, the Archdiocese appears to be just as recalcitrant now as it was before the settlement when it comes to releasing the information that could prevent future children from being victimized by the abusing priests and employees who are still in the system. There is more than a whiff of bad faith arising from the Archdiocese's actions of late.

Cardinal George of Chicago, who ironically was elected by his peers as head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, seems even less capable of making the world a better place for children. Even after the bishops' reforms were adopted in the wake of their Dallas meeting, George has still consciously covered up the identities of current abusers in his jurisdiction, whether they were his own priests, order priests, or priests traveling through the jurisdiction and staying in his home.

Finally, Portland's Archbishop Vlazny fits into the same appalling pattern. Vlazny settled the bankruptcy suit he filed in order to avoid clergy abuse lawsuits by making promises that went beyond the diocese's monetary compensation for the harm the diocese had caused. The promises have not been honored, especially the implicit promise that the diocese would reform its dealings with future child abuse victims.

Kelly Clark, a Portland attorney who represented some of the victims, put it this way: "The Archbishop and his lawyers are litigating new cases like any other powerful corporation with a pack of insurance lawyers. He has attempted to force plaintiffs to use their full names in public litigation, breaking the time-honored practice, virtually unanimously agreed upon by all institutions facing child abuse cases…..[N]othing has changed."

The Message the Church Is Sending Is That Abuse Victims Are Its Last Priority
Forget for the moment what actions like these say to the Church's own victims. The message to the millions of victims who have suffered child abuse from all sources - including the most likely sources, family members and family acquaintances — is that from the perspective of the hierarchy, the problem is just not that important. While the Church only has direct responsibility to its own victims, its prominent place in society means that its messages spread far and wide, and this message of detachment and really derision is not subtle. With at least 20% of the population sexually abused as children, the audience is quite large.

There have been public revelations and bombshell news exposes, with excruciating details revealed, yet the leadership has been drawn back into its previous practices and attitudes as though sucked into a black hole. What young person suffering abuse from a family member would now go see a priest for guidance? What loving parent would suggest it?

The hierarchy's recalcitrant, public stance pushes away all victims, not just those who are the direct victims of the cover-up. Indeed, the hierarchy's more recent actions may well further incapacitate the honorable priests who would otherwise be available to address the pain and victimization of some of their most vulnerable parishioners.

Bad habits die hard, to be sure, but these institutional structures are concrete pillars sunk into a concrete foundation. Anyone who expects to help victims in our lifetime will have to look elsewhere - likely to legislatures and civil authorities.



Marci Hamilton is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge 2008). A review of Justice Deniedappeared on this site on June 25, 2008. Her previous book is God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge University Press 2005), now available in paperback.

One Response to "Marci Hamilton on recent developments in clergy child abuse"
John Wirtz Says:

September 19, 2008 at 9:57 pm

The last sentence above tells the sad truth. I don't expect anything will happen in my lifetime to help victims of the past or present. But I support your efforts completely and voice my remarks every time possible. The "institution church" has been endoctrinating people for centuries that its leaders are successors of the spostles, that it teaches truth, that you con't get to heaven without their help, that their ministers are "other Christs" with the result that the laity think the clergy are always right in whatever they do. Probably, most Catholics think the bishops are given a bum rap about sex abuse. They do not believe the news (truth); think abused are just after money and some were not even abused. Such thinking makes enablers of the people in the pews enablering the bishops to get away with their crimes.

John Paul II's First Things attack Marci the lay lawyer who defends victims of John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army

First Things is Opus Dei's mouthpiece in America and this is how they attack Marci Hamilton the advocate of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

We have featured Marci Hamilton many times here in the John Paul II Millstone.

Opus Dei has two American mouthpieces - First Things and John Allen of NCR......

Notice the snake's strategy on how Opus Dei attack her - without grounds and without substance - that is why Opus Dei are the Fathers of Lies cohorts of Satan the Father of Lies burning in Hell with the Opus Dei Holy Father St. Josemaria Escriva.


The full articles are printed in full for your discernment - in the power of words Opus Dei use in their greed for WORLD DOMINATION.

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...Why the Grand Jury Probe on Mahony Should Be Welcomed, Not Criticized
LOS ANGELES (CA)

The Federal Investigation into the Catholic Church's Los Angeles Archdiocese Based on Allegations of a Coverup of Child Sex Abuse: Why the Grand Jury Probe Should Be Welcomed, Not Criticized

By MARCI A. HAMILTON

Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009

Recently, it was announced that Los Angeles United States Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien was starting a grand jury investigation into allegations of a child sex abuse coverup by the Catholic Church's Los Angeles Archdiocese. The announcement was met with consternation and defensive cries from various Catholic quarters. Before they drown out the larger public good, however it is worthwhile to spend some time with the facts – which, I will argue, show that a grand jury investigation is exactly what should be occurring now.

Professor Kmiec's Argument: The Claims of Abuse Were "Well-Litigated"
Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec (who has also been a guest columnist on this site) quickly posted a lengthy critique on Catholic Online, arguing that "wading into this already well-litigated matter gives every appearance of 'piling on.'" In support of his claim, he pointed to the fact that the Archdiocese settled civil claims with over 500 victims for a total of $660 million. The fact, though, is that the claims never were "well-litigated." Kmiec is right about one thing: The end result was a settlement, not hundreds of trials, which would have released mountains of information to the public.

The apparent reasons behind the settlement are very pertinent: First, early on, the church hierarchy succeeded in getting many claims consolidated together, so as to avoid individual litigation. Many survivors wanted their day in court and opposed consolidation, but this procedural move by the hierarchy meant that large collections of cases were treated as though they were single cases with judges overseeing many at one time. That way, the hierarchy could argue to reduce per-person claims, because the size of the total award would be large no matter what and the hierarchy could more effectively and efficiently control what information about the coverup would be released.

Second, the Archdiocese settled essentially on the eve of trial, when it appeared that the Cardinal would have to testify regarding his obvious knowledge of a great deal of abuse. In other words, the settlement was a tactic to keep a further lid on damaging information. Thus, despite the settlement, relatively little information, especially given the amount that is still under the sole control of the Archdiocese, has reached the public.

Kmiec still claims, however, that the public has enough information. He writes: "What's more, the hypothetical prosecution cannot really be said to promote greater disclosure, as the Cardinal already issued a 2004 report giving individualized detail of priests accused of abuse." Yet that report is better described as a mere outline. Moreover, and more importantly, as part of the Los Angeles settlement, Cardinal Mahony promised to release millions of pages of files on the abusers, the abuse, and the coverup. Survivors insisted on it as a necessary element of the settlement.

These promises have not yet been worth the paper they were printed on. Mahony's lawyers, on behalf of their client, have been in court ever since the agreement was signed, to oppose release of each of the papers, one by one. As Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley has said, "Three years ago, I urged Cardinal Mahony to provide the fullest possible disclosure of evidence of sexual abuse by clergy. Despite two court rulings ordering full disclosure, Cardinal Mahony continues to claim 'confidentiality privileges' that no court has recognized." Few citizens know that the Archdiocese's lawyers still continue to drag the plaintiffs' lawyers to court on a regular basis to evade Mahony's promise to reveal all of the relevant secrets. It is not over, and the reason it is not over is because of the continuing tactics of truth-evasion practiced by Mahony.

The Church's Claims of a New "Zero Tolerance" Policy Are Belied by the Evidence
Kmiec goes on to claim that "under Rome's supervision, which the Holy Father personally reasserted just months ago in his visit to America, abusers have been defrocked and a 'zero-tolerance' policy is in place." But Kmiec is simply too smart to make such hollow claims. If zero-tolerance is the policy, then the Cardinal has made a mockery of it.

The facts speak for themselves. In 2006, Los Angeles police questioned church and school officials about Daniel Murphy Catholic High School's Dean of Students, John Malburg, against whom current child sex abuse allegations were being asserted. (Malburg comes from a prominent Los Angeles family.) Yet, despite receiving clear notice from authorities that there were claims of abuse asserted against Malburg, the Archdiocese did not suspend him and kept the information secret. When Malburg was arrested and charged six months later, and parents complained that they had not been timely alerted about the allegations, the Archdiocese blamed the police, saying that they had asked that the information be kept secret. The LAPD, in the Los Angeles Times, said it had never made such a request.

And Malburg is far from the only example demonstrating the Los Angeles Archdiocese's and sadly the larger Church's continuing tolerance – and, indeed, protection – of alleged child abusers. Fr. Nicholas Aguilar Rivera allegedly abused at least 26 boys in Los Angeles in a mere nine months. In August 2007, church records about Aguilar were released to the public. The records indicated that then-Msgr. Thomas Curry notified Aguilar about the release of the records, leading Aguilar to escape to Mexico to avoid prosecution, where there are credible allegations that he went on to molest more children. The upshot? Far from being demoted for violating the "zero-tolerance" rule, Curry was promoted to be one of Mahony's auxiliary bishops, and was never disciplined for putting more children within reach of a priest whom evidence strongly suggests is a serial pedophile.

Then there is Franciscan monk Gerald Chumik -- an admitted child molester who has been a fugitive from his native Canada for fourteen years. Until 2005, Mahony had permitted Chumik to live in the Los Angeles Archdiocese; Chumik left only because the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and others demanded that he be turned over to the authorities. Even in the face of these reasonable demands, Mahony did not go to the authorities; instead, he let Chumik move to Missouri.

This is not remotely zero-tolerance. Rather, it is just plain tolerance of pedophiles. Mahony has not made a clean break from the internal culture and rules requiring coverup and secrecy, and his actions and omissions have obviously created danger for children in other states and countries. According to Kmiec, though, "this is not the equivalent of a federal public or corporate corruption offense meriting 20 years in the federal pen." Explain that to the kids evidence strongly suggests were abused by Malburg, the Mexican kids believed to have been abused by Rivera, or to Chumik's acknowledged victims, wherever they may be. Explain that to the parents at Malburg's school who surely trusted in all of the public assurances from the Pope on down about zero-tolerance, whose children attended school with a credibly accused pedophile and were told nothing about it until the authorities were involved.
Other Arguments Against the Grand Jury Investigation Are Also Completely Unconvincing
Others came to Mahony's defense as well, including Professor G. Robert Blakey of Notre Dame Law School, who said the investigation was "outrageous" because the alleged conduct at issue is unrelated to the federal government. That is a mistake, though. It is a fact that predator priests often have been sent across state or national boundaries (see above). The national and international movement of pedophiles makes the task of a full investigation by any local district attorney impossible. Moreover, many of the perpetrators have taken their victims across state lines, frequently for "vacations" or camping trips. The United States should have been involved long ago, and one can only speculate what took the Department of Justice so long to consider investigating what are obviously federal crimes.
Professor Nicholas P. Cafardi, of Duquesne University School of Law, called the inquiry "an intrusion into the church's First Amendment rights." For him, "It's time for this to be over. L.A. has settled with all of their claimants." Yet it is crucial to recall that one of the very reasons the victims participated in the civil settlement was to obtain the release of the Archdiocese's records on abusers – and recall that they continue to wait as the Archdiocese balks, claiming non-existent privileges. The First Amendment is no dispensation from the law or decency.

Moreover, since when do crime victims have to choose between civil and criminal justice? Those molested deserve compensation from those responsible, those at risk deserve protection, and the rest of us deserve real justice in criminal court.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Archdiocese issued a statement referring to picketing abuse survivors as "an angry mob" and asserting that "there is no priest currently in the ministry in the archdiocese who had been found to have abused a minor." Yet the latter point offers no comfort: As I explained above, there were virtually no trials and no "findings" in the settlement involving hundreds of victims, likely because the Archdiocese did not want its sins, omissions, and crimes spelled out.

Religious Rules Against Airing "Scandal" Cannot and Should Not Be Enforced in Our Secular Justice System

Finally, it is most telling that the Archdiocese's defenders would become so worked up over the start of a grand jury investigation. They are opposing the gathering of information and evidence. Why do they care so much, if all the information to be released is out, as they claim? And why do they care so little about children that Mahony's recent, appalling record regarding credible child-abuse allegations does not give them pause?

The answer likely lies in culture and theology. There is an internal rule within the Church against "scandal." That is, believers are not supposed to bring shame to the Church by airing its dirty laundry in public. The same principle can be found in Orthodox Judaism, in which it is known as chilul hashem. The phrase literally means "desecration of God's name," but is used to prohibit giving the community a bad name. The parallel is notable, for certain Orthodox Jewish organizations have become the latest religious groups whose secret coverup of child sex abuse is being exposed to the public. Despite their very different religious beliefs, the two religious groups' organizational operations with respect to child sex abuse within their community are strikingly similar. Each has something to learn from the other.

The Orthodox can learn that internal control of sex abuse never works and the Catholics can get over the destructive tendency to cling to notions of persecution when in fact they are simply on the wrong side of the law.

If U.S. Attorney O'Brien has hit upon a "novel" legal strategy, as has been alleged, so be it. We have an epidemic of child sexual abuse, which is attributable in part to a lack of imagination and sometimes political will on the part of prosecutors and courts. O'Brien should be applauded for joining the small group of federal prosecutors who are now taking a stand for children who suffer abuse in religious settings. Let's hope that, in the Obama Administration, more U.S. Attorneys will take the same courageous stance. Making children a top priority would be a true change in federal policy.

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Marci Hamilton is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (Cambridge 2008). A review of Justice Denied appeared on this site on June 25, 2008. Her previous book is God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge University Press 2005), now available in paperback.

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First Things is Opus Dei's mouthpiece in America and this is how they attack Marci Hamilton the advocate of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

Notice the snake's strategy on how they attack her - without grounds and without substance - that is Opus Dei are the Fathers of Lies cohorts of Satan the Father of Lies burning in Hell with the Opus Dei Holy Father St. Josemaria Escriva.

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MarciWorld

First Things

By L. Martin Nussbaum and Melissa Musick Nussbaum

Thursday, February 5, 2009, 8:58 AM

Welcome to MarciWorld, where legislation can stop the sexual abuse of children. Marci Hamilton, a Yeshiva University law professor, describes her book, Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children, as “a how-to book on stopping child abuse, empowering survivors, and helping society identify child predators.”

The answer, Hamilton claims, “is straightforward and attainable: eliminate SOLs”—statutes of limitation, in other words, both for criminal prosecution of sexual perpetrators and for civil damage suits against them and their employers.

In Child Maltreatment 2006, a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we’re told that around 66 percent of those who sexually abuse children are parents, other relatives, unmarried partners of parents, friends, or neighbors, and that only 0.5 percent are “professionals.” And clergy are a subset of “professionals,” and Catholic priests are a subset of clergy. Neither Child Maltreatment 2006 nor any other study identifies clergy (much less Catholic priests) as a statistically significant class of perpetrators. Statistically insignificant and taken from years and decades past, cases of abuse involving Catholic clergy—though profoundly troubling—are nonetheless few compared to the cases involving, for example, public-school teachers.

Thus, for example, in both actual numbers and percentages, sexual abuse of children by teachers, coaches, and employees in public schools exceeds anything that occurred in Catholic institutions. Furthermore, in contrast to Catholic institutions, sexual abuse of children in public schools is still occurring in significant numbers. Prof. Carol Shakeshaft, an expert cited by Hamilton, told Education Week, “So we think the Catholic Church has a problem? . . . The physical sexual abuse of students in [public] schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”

The difference between the problem in the Catholic Church and the continuing problem in public schools is likely greater than that. The 2007 Annual Report prepared by the Catholic bishops identifies fifteen allegations of childhood sexual abuse in the American Catholic Church from 2000 to 2007—an average of less than two per year. The 2007 Associated Press investigation identifies 2,570 public school teachers who, from 2001 through 2005, had their teaching licenses “taken away, denied, surrendered voluntarily, or restricted” as a result of sexual misconduct with minors—an average of 514 per year.

The comparison is based on different criteria, but the differences hardly help the public schools. The bishops’ study is based on an outside audit. It counts possible victims based on unproved allegations. The AP report is based on public records. It counts only perpetrators when the allegations are sufficiently proved to warrant the restriction or loss of a license. Assuming only one victim per disciplined public school teacher, the ratio of abuse in public schools to that in the Catholic Church could run as high as 275 to 1.

If Hamilton’s goal is to stop child abuse through the repeal of statutes of limitation in every state, and if child abuse is a more pervasive problem in public institutions than in private ones, why does Hamilton concentrate on private institutions and, in particular, the Catholic Church? For a book claiming to consider the problem of childhood sexual abuse everywhere it occurs, Justice Denied expends most of its effort on the place where even Hamilton notes “only a small fraction of sexual abuse” took place. Seventy-one of the 113 pages in her book mention Catholic clergy and institutions.

But there’s a reason she wants to concentrate on the Catholic Church. In 2002, a coalition—consisting of Hamilton, other plaintiff attorneys, and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests—persuaded the California State Assembly to enact the first window bill concerning private, not public, entity defendants. (“Window” legislation retroactively revives time-barred claims and, for future claims, eliminates the statute of limitation altogether.) As a result, over a thousand previously time-barred claims were filed against Catholic institutions. Some alleged abuse from the 1930s, and a significant percentage alleged abuse by over a hundred priests long dead.

While Hamilton claims that Catholic “dioceses were not targeted” by this legislation, John Burton, president pro tem of the California Senate and chief sponsor of the bill, told the Los Angeles Times, that his “bill was a direct response to the widening national scandal over sex-abuse by Catholic priests” and was aimed at “deep pocket” defendants such as the Catholic Church. When these claims are all resolved, the California window bill will generate over one-half billion dollars in legal fees for plaintiffs’ counsel including the $700 per hour that Hamilton charged the Diocese of San Diego when she represented the creditors committee in its resulting bankruptcy.

When Hamilton and her coalition came to Colorado in 2006 to lobby for window legislation, the Colorado Catholic Conference, led by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, asked only that legislation in question satisfy two principles: fairness and prevention. In fairness, the conference asked that the general assembly protect the welfare and safety of children in public institutions under the same rules and with the same real penalties applied to private institutions. How could Hamilton object to such a reasonable goal?

Hamilton calls the Colorado Catholic Conference’s argument for fairness and prevention “an insidious strategy” and writes that “there is not a more vile strategy out there.” But given that she knows the Catholic Church “is responsible for only a small fraction of the total number of child sex abuse survivors,” she seems oddly unwilling to admit that “stopping child abuse” by eliminating statues of limitation must include public institutions. Calling for childhood sexual abuse legislation that treats public and private entities alike is only insidious if one’s real goal is to burden only private institutions.

Hamilton scolds Catholic leaders, accusing them of “orchestrating” the sexual abuse of children. She describes Catholic Church representatives and their allies as “sleazy” and “vile,” while those who align with her are “visionary” and on “the side of the angels.” This may explain why the Findlaw website lists twenty-seven commentaries Hamilton has written about the Catholic sexual-abuse scandal and none about the public-school sexual-abuse scandal.

In a section of her book entitled “State Reform in the Private Sphere,” she calls both for abolishing “statutes of limitation going forward” and for retroactively reviving time-barred claims. But when she turns to public entities, Hamilton goes curiously vague. She notes that public entities are often protected by sovereign immunity, a doctrine that “protects a state’s treasury from private lawsuits in order to shield a state from onerous interference with the performance of governmental duties and to preserve its control over state property and funds that might otherwise be endangered.” She shows no such concern for soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and schools endangered by private lawsuits against the Catholic community. Indeed, she claims that the Catholic institutions and their insurers were able to pay in settlement over two billion dollars to date without affecting the Church’s “charitable public works.” In MarciWorld, settlements paid by public schools “onerously interfere” with their mission, while settlements paid by Catholic ministries miraculously do not.

She suggests ever so politely that legislators “have an obligation to investigate the financial and legal ramifications of eliminating” statutes of limitation “for childhood sexual abuse by state employees” and says that hearings should be “held and public discussion fostered,” but she never expressly calls for abolishing “statutes of limitation going forward” for public entities as she does for private entities. The Catholic community in California should be made to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for suits brought against dead priests while suits against the public school institutions in which living, and still active, sexual predators stalk their victims should be “discussed.” Or, rather, public discussion should be “fostered.” Where’s the call for withholding federal dollars?

Hamilton blames Republicans for fighting her efforts in the statehouse, arguing, “Republicans tend to be more beholden to religious interests than others.”

The others are Democrats, of course, who tend to be more beholden than Republicans to the interests of the public-school teachers’ lobby and the plaintiff lawyers’ lobby. Hamilton advises her readers to “follow the money.” Do so, and one will likely find the reason she is loathe to treat public and private institutions alike.
Hamilton calls statutes of limitation “arbitrary,” “technical,” “artificial,” and “unjust.” She offers only one sentence stating the purpose of such laws: “They encourage litigants to get to court before evidence is lost or stale.” She then tries to confine this purpose to “contract and property disputes” and concludes, “there is no good reason [for statutes of limitation] to barricade the courts against victims of sexual abuse.”

In fact, there are many good reasons that statutes of limitation exist, and getting to court before “evidence is lost or stale” is surely one. Because sexual abuse is an act of darkness and secrecy, it often occurs hidden from sight. Such acts are hard to prove or disprove. Reliable evidence is crucial to uncovering, stopping, and punishing child abusers. The more institutions and individuals are encouraged to act promptly to report abuse, the greater the chance the abuser will be apprehended and convicted. Nearly every child-abuse-reporting statute mandates immediate reporting because prompt reporting leads to persuasive evidence, arrests, and prison sentences.
Furthermore, statutes of limitation protect the falsely accused. In his 2004 sworn declaration filed in the Melanie H. case, Msgr. Craig A. Cox, vicar for clergy for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, testified that Hamilton’s “window bill” enacted by the 2002 California State Assembly resulted in 760 individuals suing the archdiocese. Many of these claims allegedly involved one of the sixty-eight priests who had died before the claims were brought.

Msgr. Cox describes in detail twelve exemplar claims for conduct alleged to have occurred from 1931 to 1968. In each of the cases, not only is the priest long dead but so is any one who knew or supervised him. Bishops, seminary professors, fellow priests, school principals, housekeepers—all dead. There are no witnesses, either to confirm or deny the man’s alleged guilt. Prompt reporting makes a just outcome more likely. In MarciWorld, a person can be tried and found guilty on the testimony of one person, the one person who stands to gain financially from his or her testimony.
Statutes of limitation protect innocent future generations. When window legislation is proposed for either public or private institutions, the liability—the cost—falls on someone other than the abuser. In the case of public schools, the financial impact falls not on the molesting teacher but on the later students who suffer budget cuts and citizens who pay higher taxes. In the case of churches, the financial impact falls not on the priest perpetrator, often long dead, but on churchgoers who must tithe, not to support ministry, but to support the plaintiff lawyers’ forty-percent cut.

What of the small child who is abused and, afraid to tell, keeps her terrible secret? Is she barred from bringing a claim against her accuser when she finds the strength to do so? Current statutes of limitation already protect her right to bring a delayed claim through minority tolling provisions.

Hamilton not only ignores the purpose but the facts of statutes of limitation when she writes, “It was not uncommon twenty years ago for states to impose a mere two-year [statutes of limitation] on legal actions concerning childhood sexual abuse, which meant that a child abused at age seven would have to get to court by age nine or else lose the right to sue.”

That’s simply wrong. Such statutes were uncommon twenty years ago. Hamilton is also wrong regarding the current situation when she alleges, “over the years, some states have started counting from the age of eighteen, instead of the date of the abuse, and some have added two, five, fifteen, and even twenty-five years to the original” statutes of limitation.

Hamilton leaves the impression that, in most states, seven-year-old victims must engage legal counsel and file suit by age nine or forfeit their claims. This is false, and Hamilton knows it. According to the study she cites, “Nearly every state has a basic suspension of the statute of limitation (‘tolling’) . . . while a person is a minor.” In fact, all fifty states and the District of Columbia suspend the running of the statute of limitation until a child victim turns eighteen. So Hamilton’s seven-year-old victim would have eleven years to reach majority plus, depending on the state, up to twenty-five more years before the statute bars the claim. Hamilton’s straw man may fill pages, but it does not help the child victims or child targets of molestation, and it does not help inform public policy.
Marci Hamilton’s Justice Denied is a sloppy piece of work, poorly researched and poorly written. It is a diatribe against the Catholic Church disguised as a solution to child sexual abuse. Hamilton’s clients and ours—all of us—deserve better.
L. Martin Nussbaum is legal counsel for the Colorado Catholic Conference and other religious institutions. Melissa Musick Nussbaum is the author of six books and numerous articles. Her work has appeared in Commonweal, the Notre Dame Magazine, and National Catholic Reporter.

References

Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children by Marci A. Hamilton (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

John Paul II clone Cardinal Mahony to Iraq War vet: SCREW YOURSELF

Cardinal Mahony sends one billions dollars to the Vatican Bank every year -- from oil barrels left to the Archdiocese by a wealthy heiress. Therefore the Opus Dei and Benedict XVI hold Cardinal Mahony as one of the most valuable American Cardinal and will laud him for covering up the hundreds of American pedophile priests, elites of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.


Comments:

The major problem with Mr. Mahoney is his reckless abuse of power. His cunning attorneys are reaping big money rewards to keep this devil in power. Another big problem is the lethargy of Catholic laity who do not want their easy rituals disturbed. They will pay any amount to have the institution 'save their souls'. It is almost in their genes. However, the problem goes all the way to Rome, where a man in white robes presides over the multibillion empire of brainwashed members,and lives in one of the most splendid palaces in the world. A fish rots from the head down. Put him in a three piece business suit and watch what happens. The Roman Empire will crumble. Take away the costly robes from every RC parish and then follow Christ. Stop all money to the empire and it will collapse. The sooner this is done the better.

posted by henrydoc on 2/06/09 @ 01:20 p.m

When are the Catholic people going to wake up and demand an end to this revictimization of those who have already suffered so grievously? Not anytime soon.
I hope the federal investigator is aware of this development. Please, hold Mahony and his cohorts accountable under the law. This is the USA, not Vatican City.

posted by janet on 2/05/09 @ 09:20 a.m.


The photo of the soldier carrying the cross of a complict cardinal is a realistic picture of the victims' experience in the sex abuse scandal. Based on the facts of your article, sadly, I can visualize Mahony and his attorneys whipping the soldiers while he is carrying the cross.

The only thing Mahony is carrying is his lies, deceit and Catholics' cash donations to fund his cover-ups at all costs.

I hope that after reading about this brave soldier, other victims and witnesses in the LA archdiocese (sadly, there are thousands of more victims) will find the courage to come forward, report the crimes, expose abusers and enablers and protect kids. That's Mahony's biggest fear.

Thanks to these brave soldiers who fought for our country despite their horrific childhood trauma in Mahony's fiefdom of abuse.

posted by kari on 2/04/09 @ 11:52 p.m.


The church's actions clearly show that it is in touch with something other than the god the people expect or the god this failed religion speaks of. When perverted incomplete men such as these fail as they have and as they will blindly continue there is a need to see them exposed as the frauds they are. Gods representative? What a perverse joke these abusers and users have played on society for centuries. Let their futile struggles to defend the indefensible crime of child rape be long, painful and maddening for them. Bringing these social monsters to account provides hope for all those deceived and abused by these incomplete men. There is no halfway point on this, the safety of children from sexual abusers and their enablers says that if you fail to speak out against these atrocities then you are as incomplete as the perpetrators, enablers and deniers. Let justice rain down on the heads of these pedophiles and their enablers and supporters.

see Pedophile Paradise for the reality today for the many others
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the__...

posted by JohnBMBS on 2/04/09 @ 07:28 p.m.

Leave it up to Cardinal Mahony and his lawyers to use every legal tactic he can find, to re-abuse victims and keep his secrets safely filed in the chancery office safe under lock and key. I admire this soldier/survivor for his determination to expose his truth, and therefore stop the abuse and protect kids.

Judy Jones,
SNAP Director Southeastern Ohio
636-433-2511
http://www.steubenvilletruth.org/

posted by JudyJones on 2/04/09 @ 07:48 p.m.

Well, this latest revictimization by the Prince Archbishop of Los Angeles, of yet another clergy sexual abuse survivor; a survivor who also happens to be a War Hero, is certainly going to heat up that pit of hell fire where Cardinal Roger Mahony will be spending the rest of eternity. Personally, I don't believe Roger Mahony believes in, "The Supreme Being That Made All Things". But, in the event Mahony does "believe", he obviously feels the ritual of, "Extreme Unction" (Last Rites) is going to save him from eternal damnation. Sorry, Roger, there have been too many raped and sodomized children who, bleeding and screaming, begged for mercy from the very pervert priests you moved heaven and earth to protect. And because of the protection you gave those sexually predatory priests, the blood of hundreds of children is on your hands and no amount of rancid oil is going to wash that blood away. Mahony, may you hear those screams in your sleep for the rest of your life, and beyond.

posted by victoriag on 2/05/09 @ 01:23 a.m.

http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/mahony_to_iraq_war_vet_screw_yourself/7989/

=========


MAHONY TO IRAQ WAR VET: SCREW YOURSELF

An Air Force pilot claims he was molested as a kid, but Cardinal Roger Mahony works quietly to keep him from getting his day in court

By Matthew Fleischer

In 2002, with the Catholic Church molestation scandal erupting around him, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony took to the media to make an announcement: “We want every single thing out, open and dealt with, period,” he insisted.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese then spent the better part of a year stonewalling the release of church personnel files – which, when finally liberated, revealed the identities of the abusers and those who aided them.

Nearly seven years later, things haven’t changed much. A new chapter to the sex abuse scandal has recently opened, and once again the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is doing its best to close it.

In this case, the alleged victim is an Iraq war veteran.

In documents obtained by L.A. City Beat, a man identified as “John TH Doe” says he was 16 years old when a priest in his L.A.-area Catholic high school sexually abused him. For years he said nothing. At the age of 22, he enlisted in the Air Force, where he has served continuously since 1993, flying countless, dangerous combat missions in the Iraqi theater.

After years of silence, while still serving in Iraq, John TH Doe is now ready for his day in court.

There’s a chance, however, that day could never come.

Last week, as lawyers for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried to downplay news that Cardinal Mahony had come under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office for his role in dealing with pedophilic priests, those same lawyers were taking an unprecedented step – quietly pushing a legal challenge in Los Angeles County superior court that would seek to deny John TH Doe, and potentially other California servicemen and women who were molested by members of the church, their chance
at justice.

The case begins in 2002 when, in response to a public outcry over widespread allegations of child molestation in the Catholic Church, the California legislature opened a civil window that allowed victims of sexual abuse to file suit against their abusers, no matter when the alleged abuse occurred, or when the statute of limitations for the crime should have expired.

That window closed in 2003, but for members of the military serving in active duty during that time who missed the deadline, there was hope in a little known law: the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act of 1940. SCRA suspends statutes of limitation where men and women in active military duty are concerned. “The period of a service member’s military service,” the law states, “may not be included in computing any period limited by law, regulation, or order for the bringing of any action or proceeding in court.”

The law was designed to allow members of the military to serve without having legal woes in their civilian lives cloud their ability to fight, and to protect their legal rights should they be unable to return home for a court date.

But there’s a small loophole in the law, one the archdiocese is trying to exploit. It allows the court to use its discretion to ignore the law and throw out SCRA cases it deems meritless. And that’s exactly what lawyers for the Archdiocese are asking Judge Emilie H. Elias to do.

“Plaintiff in this case is not someone who was drafted or a guardsman or reservist called to active duty,” lawyers for the diocese argue in their court filings. “He is not entitled to have the SCRA ‘liberally constructed’ in his favor.”

In other words, the archdiocese says, because John TH Doe volunteered to serve his country and fight in Iraq, instead of being drafted, the protections of the SCRA shouldn’t apply.

“Our client was abused as a child,” says Vince Finaldi, John TH Doe’s attorney, at the Newport Beach-based law firm Manly & Stewart. “He didn’t file earlier because he was serving this nation. If the court is going to exercise discretion, it should be in favor of those ravaged by priests in California and throughout the United States.”

Calls to Lee Potts, the Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman lawyer representing the archdiocese, went unanswered.

So far, there’s just one other SCRA case, in San Diego. There, “John Roe 65,” a career military man, has told the court he was stationed in Guam during the 2003 sexual abuse filing period; in his remote location, he had no idea a window for a lawsuit existed. He filed suit under the SCRA in 2008, two years after he got out of the military. The Catholic Diocese of San Diego is fighting that case, too. Published: 02/04/2009



=========


The Long Arm of Honest Services Fraud Could Reach Cardinal

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Wall Street Journal, Law Blog
Posted by Dan Slater

Remember Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of the nation’s largest archdiocese? Last week, the Journal reported that he’s back on the hot-seat. A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas and begun calling witnesses in a probe to see whether top church officials tried to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by priests.

The somewhat unusual crime of “honest services” fraud is one possible weapons federal prosecutors could use against church officials, if they find sufficient evidence of criminal activity to bring charges. Today, in this WSJ column, the Law Blog takes a look at honest services fraud and how it could apply in the church case.

The concept is simple enough. One court has described honest-services fraud as “the public not getting what it wants and deserves: honest, faithful, disinterested service from a public employee.” In other words, it redresses the loss — not of property — but of an intangible right.

John Paul II ignored letter about his pedophile priest in Boston

Here is one of the biggest proof that John Paul II the Great knew and covered-up the most heinous crime against children in Catholic Chruch history and therefore he must not be canonized and be called a saint by American children and in American soil.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/docs/boston/cotter/1994_05_20_Costello_JPII_01.htm

Robert Costello Writes to Pope John Paul II
about Rev. John M. Cotter of Boston

For more information on this case, see Robert Costello's account, one of several accounts collected by attorney Laurence E. Hardoon. This web page was scanned from the original letter in Cotter's file.

John Paul II clone to succeed Cardinal Egan in New York

The possible successor of Cardinal Egan of New York - experts in the cover-up of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army


Clergy sex victims weigh in on Cardinal’s successor

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2008_press_releases/052208_replacement_cardinal_egan.htm
They write Vatican officials opposing six possible candidates

Self help group backs bishops from New Jersey & Georgia instead

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is asking Pope Benedict to rule out appointing six prelates who have been repeatedly cited as possible successors to retiring Cardinal Edward Egan of New York.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing the papal nuncio in Washington DC criticizing Brooklyn Archbishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Hartford Archbishop Henry Mansell, Springfield MA Bishop Timothy McDonnell, Newark Archbishop John Myers and Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli.

All have been named in Catholic magazines, newspapers and on several widely respected Catholic blogs in recent weeks as likely candidates to replace Egan.

“Each of these has a disturbing track record of recklessness, secrecy and callousness when it comes to protecting the vulnerable and healing the wounded, even in recent years,” SNAP’s letter to Archbishop Pietro Sambi says. Sambi is the Pope’s representative in the US.

“It is intensely demoralizing and hurtful to us and to many Catholics when we see church officials promoted who are concealing or have concealed clergy sex crimes,” SNAP’s letter says. “We’re hoping to prevent more disillusionment and pain for those still in pain.”

Roughly 15 US bishops have in recent years posted the names of proven, admitted credibly accused pedophile priests on their diocesan web sites. SNAP leaders consider this move “the bare minimum every bishop should do to help prevent future child abuse,” said Barbara Blaine, SNAP’s president and founder.

But among likely replacements for Egan, only Dolan has taken this step, and he did so, SNAP says, only under extreme public pressure.

“It’s pretty clear Dolan’s motive (for posting the names) was to forestall a strong legislative effort to pass a victim-friendly bill in the Wisconsin legislature,” said Blaine.

Lawyers and lobbyists for both Dolan and Myers have vigorously fought proposed reforms of child sex abuse laws in their respective state capitols.

The group is not opposed to two other potential candidates: Bishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta and Bishop Paul Bootkoski if Metuchen NJ.

In 2003 SNAP praised Bootkoski for putting victims on his abuse review panel, meeting with SNAP leaders, cooperating with prosecutors in a criminal abuse case and settling some molestation lawsuits that his diocese could have tossed out because of “the archaic, arbitrary, and predator-friendly statute of limitations.”

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2003_statements/020603_metuchen_review_board.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20030622/ai_n14551830

http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/expresstimes/index.ssf?/news/expresstimes/stories/molesters6_bootkoski.html

http://www1.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46&aid=38783


Gregory was the president of the US bishops’ conference during 2002 and 2003, when the abuse and cover up crisis was at a fever pitch. In the mid-1990s, as the bishop of Belleville (Illinois), he dealt with at least half a dozen allegations of child molestation involving his priests.

“Gregory has enjoyed very good public relations, sometimes undeserved,” said SNAP’s letter. “But on this critical issue, he’s better than many of his peers.”

In 2004 Gregory was found in contempt of court for refusing to turn over documents about an abusive priest in a civil child sex abuse case. The cleric, Fr. Raymond Kownacki was accused of raping a teenager for several years in the 1970s, performing voodoo rituals on her and then forcing her to have an abortion.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E7DD153DF931A35756C0A9629C8B63&scp=1&sq=wilton+gregory+contempt+of+court&st=nyt

The group is also disappointed in Gregory for not following through to make sure that the US bishops sex abuse policy was strengthened and vigorously enforced.

“The oversight panel that he depicted as a watchdog has in fact become a lap dog, and Gregory did and is doing little or nothing to stop this disturbing trend,” Blaine said.

SNAP especially feels he should have fought harder when some bishops forced the board’s chairman, former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, to resign as head of a lay panel overseeing the crisis.

“Still, in the 1990s Gregory publicly removed several accused predators from parishes and sometimes held question-and-answer sessions with parishioners,” SNAP’s letter said. “In that sense, he was ‘ahead of the curve’ relative to his even more secretive colleagues across the country.”

SNAP says it knows little about three potential candidates:

- New York archdiocesan auxiliary bishops Dennis Sullivan and Gerald Walsh, and

- Puerto Rico’s Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves who has been a pastor in the Bronx and a bishop in Boston and Corpus Christi, Texas.

The group notes, however, that Nieves worked as an auxiliary bishop under notorious Cardinal Bernard Law from 1988 to 1995. .

“Given the well-documented and widespread cover up of more than 200 Boston predator priests, it’s hard to believe that Nieves wasn’t involved at some level,” said Blaine. “We’ve seen no signs that he spoke up, challenged Law, or advocated for victims.”

A copy of SNAP’s letter, detailing its objections to the possible Egan replacements, is below. It was sent to the papal nuncio today by fax and e mail.
*******

May 22, 2008

Dear Archbishop Sambi:

Last month, Pope Benedict urged Catholics to “do everything possible” to heal the wounds cause by the church’s horrific child sex abuse and cover up scandal.
When complicit bishops are promoted, however, these wounds are exacerbated, not ameliorated. Clergy sex abuse victims and Catholics deserve leaders who are unsullied, or at least less sullied than many bishops, on this critical issue.
For this reason, we are writing to offer our views on possible replacements for retiring Cardinal Edward Egan of New York. We feel it’s crucial that the Pope chose a prelate who has not, in the Pope’s own words, “badly mishandled” the on-going child molestation and concealment crisis.

In fact, we believe that many Americans will view this key appointment as a test of whether the pontiff’s recent words and promises about the scandal are merely words and promises, or are a sign of change and reform.

Here are six prominent prelates who have been publicly identified as possible replacements for Cardinal Egan, along with troubling examples of recent recklessness, secrecy, deceit or insensitivity that, we believe, makes them unfit to become the head of the New York Archdiocese.

--------- Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio

In 2004, after a seven year struggle by two victims (and a nearly year-long struggle involving DiMarzio), the Brooklyn bishop finally suspended an accused predator priest.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/otherstates/ny_accused_priest_dismissed.htm
While in Camden, DiMarzio let an admitted and charged molester, the Rev. John P. Connor, work as a hospital chaplain and live in two parish rectories, where he allegedly abused more children. http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/12912027.htm
He was also criticized for taking "hard-line legal action" against survivors, including "secrecy" and "mean-spirited and venomous attacks" of victims by church lawyers. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E0D8153CF937A35753C1A9659C8B63

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E1DA133EF931A3575BC0A9659C8B63
In 2003, DiMarzio refused to let Voice of the Faithful meet on church property.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_01_06/2003_06_19_Gallicho_AreThe.htm

----------- Archbishop Timothy Dolan

In February, Dolan let his archdiocesan newspaper print a letter to the editor that compared child sex abuse victims to prostitutes. http://reform-network.net/?p=1459
Even now, Dolan continues to honor Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who resigned in 2002 for paying nearly $500,000 in hush money to a man with whom Weakland admits having had a lengthy sexual relationship. Among other honors, Dolan keeps Weakland on the board of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference and has named a parish hall after Weakland.

Dolan refuses to discipline or reprimand long time Milwaukee auxiliary bishop Richard Sklba, who court records show directly covered up child sex crimes and helped transfer dozens of pedophile priests.

Dolan has paid thousands of dollars of ‘hush money’ to a serial predator priest, Fr. Franklyn Becker, in exchange for Becker’s cooperation with the laicization process. Dolan let Becker move quietly into an unsuspecting small community where he’s been getting no treatment.

In 2003, Dolan wrote a judge urging that a priest who was convicted or repeatedly sodomizing a five year old be given no prison time.

While in St. Louis, abuse victims gave Dolan ‘low marks’ for his handling of such cases, especially for being non-responsive to abuse reports. In 2002, he lived in a rectory with two priest who were suspended because of credible abuse allegations.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=54058

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E4D71E31F930A35750C0A9649C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22bishop+dolan%22+abuse&st=nyt

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/probpriests.nsf/story/D074A91782B707FF86256BA3004DEAB1?OpenDocument

---------- Archbishop Henry Mansell
In 2005, Mansell settled two child sex abuse cases against an accused priest, Fr. William Przybylo, but kept the priest in active ministry.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2005_07_12/2005_11_01_Yardley_ChurchSettles.htm

He also refused to run announcements of SNAP support group meetings in his archdiocesan newspaper or on his archdiocesan website.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/2004_04_12_Robinson_PriestAbuse.htm
As recently as 2004, Mansell’s Buffalo diocese had not fully implemented its safe environment program, as required by the 2002 US Bishops Conference sex abuse policy.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/usccb/audit2003/Section_II/buffalony.htm

In 2003, according to the Buffalo News, “Nearly a year after the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo revealed that 12 to 15 area priests had been accused of sexual impropriety over the past 20 years, diocesan officials have yet to make public what happened with as many as eight of the accused priests. . . declining to give an exact number or to explain whether the accused priests are still in ministry.”
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_01_06/2003_04_22_Tokasz_QuestionsFollow.htm


----------- Bishop Timothy McDonnell
McDonnell is essentially taking no steps to defrock or disclose information about his predecessor, Bishop Thomas Dupre (who is accused of molesting at least two boys) or to protect kids from him. McDonnell is also refusing to do any meaningful community warnings about two serial predator priests, one of whom (Fr. A. J. Cote) is being sued for molesting two Massachusetts boys in 2005, and another (Fr. Edward Paquette) who is accused of molesting 19 kids, both of whom now live in McDonnell’s diocese

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/03_04/2008_04_09_Barry_SpringfieldArea.htm

http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/17441539.html
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ma_springfield/

In 2005, he was accused by a Catholic lay group of spreading ‘misinformation’ about the proposed state measure for greater transparency by charitable organizations
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2005_07_12/2005_11_16_Zajac_ChurchesOppose.htm

In 2004, he publicly attacked widely known and respected ‘whistleblower’ pastor Fr. James Scahill, comparing him to a serial predator priest who is also a murder suspect.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2004_01_06/2004_05_13_AP_NewBishop.htm
-------- Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark

In 2003, the Newark Star Ledger reported that “Victims and lay groups criticize Myers more than other New Jersey bishop,” citing his ban of Voice of the Faithful, his criticism of the woman hired by the US Bishops Conference to oversee the church’s sex abuse policy and his refusal to meet with our group. When victims asked for the bishop for information that was available in the archdiocese directory, Myers’ public relations staffer publicly and coldly replied that they could purchase a directory.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_01_06/2003_06_18_Diamant_BishopsGet.htm
While in Peoria, Myers was “accused by some of showing indifference or even antagonism to those who have claimed to be victims of abuse,” according to the New York Times.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE5DC1F3EF933A05756C0A9629C8B63
He was also accused of leaving “a very messy situation in Peoria" according to one nationally-known priest. Within months, his successor in Peoria removed seven priests for alleged child sex abuse. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/753510/posts

Myers also refused to let sex abuse victim and advocate Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit meet with a progressive group in the diocese, marginalizing survivors who also wanted to speak about their abuse. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/518122/posts

--------- Bishop Arthur Serratelli
Last year, he kicked out a victims’ support group that had been meeting in a local Catholic church.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/05_06/2007_06_09_Diamant_ChurchEvicts.htm

In 2006, a local newspaper editorialized against Serratelli, accusing him of “systematically trying to discredit and ostracize” a priest who’s been very supportive of victims and who was named a national “Priest of Integrity” by a lay Catholic group called Voice of the Faithful.

http://bishop-accountability.org/abuse2005b-archives/017062.html
A group of Paterson victims “had sought for priests' confidential personnel files to be opened” but were (refused) by the diocese.” He also kept three priests in parishes despite settling civil child sex abuse lawsuits against them.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2005_02_16_Chadwick_PriestlyAbuse_Thomas_Rainforth_7.htm

Serratelli has also refused to communicate with members of Voice of the Faithful. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/01_02/2006_02_23_Manochio_BishopCancels.htm

On the other hand, two potential candidates have proven themselves more responsive on child sex abuse than most of their peers. They are Bishop Paul Bootkoski and Bishop Wilton Gregory.

In 2003, our group publicly praised Bootkoski for putting victims on his abuse review panel, meeting with SNAP leaders, cooperating with prosecutors in a criminal abuse case and settling some molestation lawsuits that his diocese could have tossed out because of the archaic, arbitrary, and predator-friendly statute of limitations.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2003_statements/020603_metuchen_review_board.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20030622/ai_n14551830
http://www.nj.com/specialprojects/expresstimes/index.ssf?/news/expresstimes/stories/molesters6_bootkoski.html
http://www1.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46&aid=38783
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gq7KQubcoZYlyDvdQtL1eVU3fEzQD90CUK380

Gregory has enjoyed very good public relations, sometimes undeserved. But on this critical issue, he’s better than many of his peers.

In the 1990s Gregory publicly removed several accused predators from parishes and sometimes held question-and-answer sessions with parishioners. In that sense, he was ‘ahead of the curve’ relative to his even more secretive colleagues across the country.

We would obviously prefer if the Pope would select either Bishop Bootkoski or Bishop Gregory for this crucial, high-visibility position.

If the Holy Father appoints a new prelate to head our nation’s most visible diocese who has “very badly mishandled” or is badly mishandling clergy sex abuse cases, it could seriously set back the progress he has tried to set in motion here during his recent US visit.

We respectfully offer these comments in the hopes of preventing future harm to those who have been and still are hurting and in the hopes that the New York Archdiocese’s next leader will be better poised to respond to future abuse and cover up scandals.

David Clohessy
National Director, SNAP
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
7234 Arsenal Street
S t. Louis MO 63143
314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 5915
Barbara Blaine
President, SNAP
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
PO Box 6416
Chicago IL 60680
312 399 4747
Barbara Dorris
Outreach Coordinator, SNAP
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
6245 Westminster
St. Louis MO 63130
314 862 7688
SNAPnetwork.org

John Paul II clone Cardinal Mahony on new federal probe in LA

We featured in depth in this weblog the cunning fox Cardinal Mahony of LA, now it is time for him to be put into trial and jailed for life.

But of course Cardinal Mahony sends a billion dollars worth of contribution to the Vatican Bank and therefore Opus Dei will use all its powers through its lawyers and judges to save the neck of Mahony. We'll see if there is some non-Opus Dei justice left in the USA.

=========

Barbara Blaine's statement

Statement by Barbara Blaine of Chicago, national president member of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (312-399-4747)

Even the launching of this probe is a vindication and validation for thousands of deeply wounded victims and betrayed Catholics. While dozens of pedophile priests have been criminally convicted, hundreds of complicit church officials have ignored or concealed known or suspected clergy sex crimes and experienced no consequences whatsoever. Morally, that's wrong. Practically, that's reckless.

More than 250 Los Angeles archdiocesan priests are proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesters. Most were repeatedly moved to unsuspecting parishes time and again despite suspicions and reports of their crimes. Some in the hierarchy must be held accountable for the devastation caused by this deceit and callousness.

If employers can enable child molesters and escape punishment, more employers will do just that. Justice must be done so that future wrong-doing is deterred and future sex crimes prevented.

Our biggest worry now is complacency. It's a long way from investigation to conviction, and it's crucial that anyone with information about clergy sex crimes and cover ups comes forward now. We especially appeal to church employees and members - current and former - to search their consciences and find the courage to call law enforcement and share what they know. Even information that may seem old or inconsequential might make a difference, so we beg every person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy misdeeds to contact police and prosecutors immediately.

Some have asked whether victims will be disappointed if church officials end up not facing charges. Our view is that while dashed hopes are sad, no hope at all is even sadder, and that's what thousands of clergy sex abuse victims have felt for decades.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 20 years and have more than 8,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Peter Isely (414-429-7259) Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688), Mary Grant (626-419-2930), Mark Serrano (703-727-4940)



Mary Grant's statement

Statement by Mary Grant of Long Beach, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (626-419-2930)

We welcome this investigation. We know every victim will be glad to cooperate. We hope every single church employee and church member will cooperate. Hundreds of them, we believe, have information about clergy sex crimes and cover ups. It may be old or partial or even second hand. But it's information, and it should be given to prosecutors. We hope church workers and members - current and former - will come forward and cooperate.

We've heard Mahony's lawyer claim he will cooperate. We don't believe him.

Some ask "Will this succeed?"

We of course don't know. But we know it's worth the effort. Justice demands that there are consequences for those who help predators escape the law, get new positions and molest kids again.

Some ask whether Mahony himself is a target.

Again, we don't know. If he's not now, he may be later. And in one sense, it may not really matter.

Some church officials must be held responsible for the thousands of kids who've been raped, sodomized and molested by LA Catholic clergy. If this gaping wound is to be healed, and if kids are to protected, decades of recklessness and deceit and secrecy must be punished. Highly educated, powerful men in huge, wealthy institutions can't get by with ignoring and concealing felonies against kids.

Some ask about this apparently somewhat novel legal approach.

Frankly, it doesn't seem so innovative to us. It sounds like common sense. Mahony pretends that serial child predators are celibate spiritual guides, when he knows they aren't. So Catholics trust these priests. And these priests sexually assault kids. How can this NOT be considered fraud?

Let's talk about Mahony's response to this news. It's classic Mahony. He doesn't respond. He sends out his lawyer.

And his lawyer responds by attacking the source of the information.

We're not lawyers, but here's our view:

Is it possible someone broke the rules in disclosing this investigation? Sure.

Have Mahony and his staff concealed and enabled horrific child sex crimes? Absolutely.

Which of these offenses is worse? That goes without saying.

In the last few days, if someone in the Justice Dept. broke the rules, we suspect they'll face consequences. But for decades, Mahony has been callous and reckless and deceptive, enabling child predators to hurt innocent kids. So far, he's escaped consequences. That must change.

As we understand it, this is about fraud. It’s not about Mahony’s view of forgiveness. It’s not about whether he got perfect advice. It’s not about whether predators can be ‘healed.’ It’s about whether Mahony lied to his flock. We believe the evidence will show that he did.

Finally, Catholic officials claim they’ve ‘reformed.’ We haven't seen it. There's lots of policies and procedures and public relations. There's little real change in behavior. Church officials, here and elsewhere, still fight to keep clergy sex crimes concealed, victims silenced, and records hidden.

But even if someone believes that a tiger can change his stripes and a fox can safely watch the chicken coop, it’s crucial that men who deceptively and callously put kids in harms’ way, time and time again, here and elsewhere, must be held accountable.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 20 years and have more than 8,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

CONTACT:

Mary Grant of SNAP (626) 419-2930, David Clohessy of SNAP (314) 566-9790, Joelle Casteix of SNAP (949) 322-7434, Barbara Dorris of SNAP (314) 862-7688 home, (314) 503-0003 cell, Esther Miller of SNAP (562) 673-9442 bilingual/Spanish



Joelle Casteix' statement

Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, SNAP southwestern regional director (949 322 7434)

-- We're hopeful because federal laws differ from state laws. At the state level, a number of prosecutors have tried to prosecute bishops but have been hamstrung, in part, because of arbitrary, archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations. We hope that federal prosecutors will succeed where their local counterparts have largely failed.

-- This is another step in a long, slow trend in law enforcement to be more creative and determined in going after predators and those who protect predators. We welcome this and encourage this. The FBI estimates that fewer than 10% of all child molesters are ever prosecuted. That alone is proof that more aggressive and resourceful measures must be taken.

-- No event - a pedophile being jailed, a predator being defrocked, a bishop being charged - can magically restore the shattered trust and stolen childhoods of thousands of once trusting and now devastated Catholic kids and adults. So it's crucial that victims keep taking care of themselves, attending support group meetings, going to recovery programs, and realizing that we must heal one another regardless of what does or doesn't happen in the church or the courts.

-- It's silly for Mahony to claim he's mystified by this. He and his colleagues deceived four million Catholics about more than 250 predator priests, and those priests assaulted hundreds, if not thousands, of kids. That's what this is about.

And the deception continues. Just this week, we in SNAP learned about Fr. Loren Riebe. He faces several credible abuse reports. Church officials admit this. He's fled the country. He works for the church in Mexico. He was a Los Angeles area priest.

But Mahony and his staff have disclosed little or none of this to the parishioners and the public. To this day, Riebe benefits from the on-going secrecy of Mahony and his colleagues. How is this any different than what's gone on for decades in the church?



Cardinal calls victims 'mob'

Statement by Peter Isely of Milwaukee, SNAP Midwest Director (414 429 7259)

Mahony's public relations man today issued a statement claiming that "SNAP runs to every investigation and rumor with torches and pitchforks, shouting half truths and outright un-truths."

It's a shame that Mahony would rather attack victims than work with victims to bring forward the truth.

We wish the Cardinal would join us, instead of insulting us, in begging witnesses, whistleblowers and victims to speak up and help the investigation.

We suspect Mahony is upset by our impassioned plea to current and former church employees to search their consciences and share their knowledge of cover ups with the prosecutor.

It's ironic that when they feel vulnerable, church officials threaten to call the law promptly (re the alleged grand jury leak). Sadly, when hundreds of LA priests were molesting kids, church officials rarely called the law.

We again repeat our call to every current and former church staffer and member who knows anything about clergy sex crimes and cover ups: "Please, for the safety of kids, call police and prosecutors with anything you know about pedophile priests and their corrupt supervisors."

(for a copy of archdiocesan release: http://cityofangels5.blogspot.com/)

CONTACT: David Clohessy 314 566 9790, Mary Grant 626 419 2930, Joelle Casteix 949 322 7434



Other federal prosecutors' involvement in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases

An AP article on US Attorney Sullivan of Boston & his investigation of Bishop Murphy for falsifying a federal document:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/2005_11_18_Lavoie_ArchdioceseProsecutors.htm

Boston Globe reporter Michael Paulson's article on Murphy case describes it as the first deal between a diocese and federal prosecutor:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2005_11_19_Paulson_ArchdioceseWill_William_Scanlan_2.htm

And from Western Massachusetts, here's a story re the US Attorney's secondary involvement with the Bishop Dupre investigation:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2004_01_06/2004_03_05_Barry_USAttorney.htm


Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org

John Paul II's clones Bishops and Cardinals who covered-up abuses in 2008

Friday, January 2, 2009

The most under-reported clergy sex abuse stories of 2008 - a baker’s dozen

(Topics include the papal visit, pedophile nuns, Baptist officials, an Episcopal bishop, the USCCB president, abusive bishops, lawsuit settlements, on-going secrecy, the National Review Board, President George H. Bush’s church and re-offending offenders)

• Despite the hype and nice words, papal visit changes nothing

He won kudos for talking about clergy sex abuse during his spring trip to the US. (Catholic should “do everything possible” to heal wounds caused by pedophile priests, Benedict said. And bishops should “bind up the wounds,” admitting that the crisis had been “badly handled.”) But as best we can tell, that visit has been ignored, by

* bishops, who have changed nothing about how they handle abuse, and
* journalists, who haven’t even asked “Did the Pope’s words have any impact whatsoever.”

• Congressional chaplain oversaw predator priests & tried to get one out of jail

In the fall, a Washington DC newspaper, Roll Call, disclosed that US House of Representatives chaplain Fr. Daniel Coughlin spent ten years “at the center of the Chicago Archdiocese’s efforts to manage priests who had been accused of sexual abuse.” For five years, he ran “a Catholic facility where the archdiocese sent priests who were suspected of committing sexual offenses.”

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/11/house-chaplain-asked-for-sex-offenders-release.html

In subsequent interviews, Coughlin makes no mention of ever notifying police or parishioners about the accused clerics. That’s not surprising, since his boss Cardinal Francis George, admitted under oath this year that never, in 48 years as a priest, did he call the police about a child molesting clergyman. If Coughlin did, we’d love to see the proof.

In 1999, Coughlin wrote a letter to Wisconsin prison officials, urging them to free Fr. Norbert Maday, a convicted, imprisoned serial predator. In a deposition given this year, George said, “I have never seen this (letter) before ... I didn’t approve this letter.” We’ve asked George to discipline Coughlin for making this unauthorized, reckless move. George has not responded.

• Suspended and unsupervised, dozens of predator priests commit more crimes

Recently, and especially over the past year, more and more suspended unsupervised pedophile priests have begun to commit more subsequent crimes. This proves what history, psychology and common sense have long indicated (and we in SNAP have long said): merely removing a child molesting cleric from ‘active duty’ doesn’t ‘cure’ him. These men remain dangerous.

Cases like these and dozens more, show that it’s irresponsible for church officials to do the bare minimum: suspend predatory priests but refuse to house and/or supervise them.

For a list of these publicly disclosed cases over the last few months, go to http://www.snapmidwest.org/FACTSHEET061208.htm

• In 2008, Cardinal George secretly keeps pedophile pal on payroll, breaking 5 year old pledge
“He won't be coming back to Chicago, obviously." That’s what Cardinal Francis George, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, promised in 2003 when he was caught with a convicted pedophile priest

* working in his archdiocese and
* living part time in the Cardinal’s mansion

The trouble is the predator apparently never left. Until two months ago, he was still working in Chicago.

In October 2008, the Chicago Sun Times disclosed that five years after making this pledge, George still let Fr. Kenneth J. Martin, a friend of his, secretly work for the archdiocese. In 2001 Martin pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy. In September 2008, he was defrocked by the Vatican. (No church official anywhere made any announcement, however.) Still, George quietly kept paying him.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/09_10/2008_10_19_Thomas_PriestWho.htm

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/09_10/2008_10_23_Chicago%20Sun-Times_CardinalsDismaying.htm

Note that Martin was initially exposed as living with and working for George in 2003, more than six months after America’s bishops promised a) to never let pedophile priests work in ministry and b) to be open’ about clergy sex cases. Back then, George violated both pledges. He continues to do so even now.

This is one of the most stunning, deceptive and reckless cases we’ve seen in recent years. (But the Chicago Tribune hasn’t printed a word about Martin since 2003.)

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2003_02_28_Falsani_GeorgeHosting_Kenneth_J_Martin_3.htm

• America’s largest Protestant denomination rejects predator database

The largest Protestant denomination in the land refused to even try to implement any system of record-keeping on credibly-accused clergy child molesters. Southern Baptists claim 16.2 million members, and they have 101,000 clergy in this country. Yet, they provide no clergy oversight mechanism nor any tracking system -- deficiencies that allow child-molesting Baptist clergy to roam unstopped from church to church.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1861760_1862212,00.html

http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3719&Itemid=53

• Secret settlements still happen & predators aren’t ‘outed’

Bishops want us to believe they no longer make quiet settlements and never disclose the predators’ identities. But they still do.

- In New York City, Jesuits at Fordham University and Fordham prep (and New York archdiocesan officials) kept silent for years about credible abuse allegations against two prominent priests: Msgr. Eugene O’Brien and Msgr. Roy Drake. The Jesuits secretly paid a settlement to one of O’Brien’s victims and secretly moved Drake to a pedophile priest center in Missouri. The accusations surfaced at a SNAP news conference in October 2008, O’Brien is still alive and believed to be living in Manhattan. Drake died recently.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news5/2008_10_21_Vitello_JesuitSchool.htm

- The US Bishops Conference sent a brief, confidential notice to all American bishops warning them about a Newark priest, Fr. Daniel Medina, who has been suspended since 2002 and has been instructed to no longer present himself as a priest in public.( In church circles, this language is used to describe alleged or confirmed pedophile priests.) When SNAP disclosed this at a news conference in September, Newark diocesan officials confirmed that Medina was arrested in 2004 on unspecified charges of abusing a boy and pleaded guilty this summer.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/09_10/2008_09_11_Mooney_NewarkArchdiocese.htm

- In Santa Rosa California, Bishop Daniel Walsh paid a victim of Fr. Thomas Parker a $ 215,000 in September. Walsh kept silent about it, even though Parker had never been accused of molesting kids before.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/11_12/2008_12_23_SNAP_NewClergy.htm

The identities of these credibly accused child molesting clerics was disclosed only because of brave survivors and persistent journalists. Families now know about these dangerous men in spite of, not because of church officials (despite their repeated promises to be ‘open’ about clergy sex cases).

This secrecy even extends to cases involving already-disclosed perpetrators. In December 2008, for instance, the Paterson NJ diocese admitted, when confronted, that it had paid another settlement to the seventh known victim of Fr. Ronald Tully.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20081209/UPDATES01/81209011

• For once, a church disciplines a bishop for covering up abuse

For perhaps the first time in US history, a bishop has been disciplined by his denomination for covering up child sexual abuse.

This fall, after a full church trial, Bishop Charles Bennison of Philadelphia was ousted by the Episcopal Church for concealing child molestation by his brother, Fr. John Bennison in California years before.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_91477_ENG_HTM.htm

Contrast this case with another one involving two ordained Episcopalian brothers: the Baumans. Ward Bauman directs the Episcopal House of Prayer, a retreat center on the grounds of a Catholic seminary in Minnesota. He repeatedly hires his brother Lynn Bauman to lead retreats there, even though Lynn is an admitted and convicted child molester and defrocked clergyman.)

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/01_02/2007_02_06_Miller_RetreatFacilitators.htm

http://www.snapmidwest.org/htm/LynnCBauman.htm

• Two firsts: a Catholic panel calls a bishop a predator & another bishop pays his own victims

Nearly 20 bishops are accused of molesting kids themselves (in addition to covering up sex crimes by other clergy).

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/bishops/accused/

Though most bishops who have abused children continue to escape consequences and live unmonitored among unsuspecting neighbors and families, there were two encouraging developments in this area this year.

In November, for the first time ever, a church panel has looked at abuse allegations against a bishop and deemed them credible. The Davenport Iowa review board determined that now retired Sioux City Bishop Laurence Soens molested several boys when he was a priest in their diocese. (He’s accused of abusing at least 31 boys.)

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081103/NEWS/81103035/-1/ENT06
http://www.davenportdiocese.org/comm/commlib/prRevised_Priest_List_11_03_2008.pdf

(This raises the question: What’s up with the other review boards? Why have they ignored these cases? Why haven’t they probed these allegations?)

And for the first time in history (as best we can tell), a bishop has paid a portion of the settlements his victims received. In December, Springfield Massachusetts Bishop Thomas Dupre (who resigned in 2004 because of abuse allegations against him) paid an undisclosed sum to help resolve two civil lawsuits against him.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/07_08/2006_07_22_Zajac_BishopDupre.htm
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/roman_catholic_diocese_of_spri.html

(Contrast this with Bishop Joseph Hart of Wyoming. Six child sex abuse lawsuits against him have been settled in Kansas City, where he molested kids as a priest. Yet through his lawyer, he denies any wrongdoing. A wing of a children’s home was named in honor of him, even after he was sued for abuse. It bears his name today.

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2008/08/20/local_news_updates/20local_08-20-08.txt

• The ‘watch dog’ has become a ‘lap dog’

The nearly-invisible National Review Board was criticized in December, when its head, Michael Merz, authored a controversial op ed in the Boston Globe.

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=2588

But think about this: when was the last time you saw or heard or read about a single member of this panel say a single critical comment about a single case or bishop? It just doesn’t happen anymore, not since 2003 when Frank Keating and Ann Burke spoke out.

In the November issue of St. Anthony’s Messenger, Merz claimed the Pope’s visit “has changed things” and “I don’t see how any bishop could say he doesn’t have time to meet with survivors. You know if the pope’s got time, any bishop ought to have time.”

http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=judge+merz+archdiocese+ohio&fr=hp-psnb&u=www.americancatholic.org/messenger/Nov2008/feature3.asp&w=judge+judging+merz+archdiocese+%22arch+diocese%22+ohio&d=cfyW2EfiSAyr&icp=1&.intl=us

A month later, Merz was asked by two groups to lean on a bishop who refused, for three years, to meet with them, the judge immediately demurred, saying the board does not respond directly to local issues and has “never been involved in local matters."

http://www.bnd.com/news/local/story/589505.html

Putting Merz aside, take a closer look at the individuals who are now playing key roles while serving as the "watchdogs" for the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

At first, the National Review Board (NRB) was headed by former Governor Frank Keating, a truly independent, outspoken, high profile ex-prosecutor. Later, the NRB is chaired by Nicholas Cafardi, a less independent, quiet, low profile defense lawyer. (Merz, the current head, has held several key positions in the Cincinnati archdiocese, one of the nation’s most corrupt.)

As a former U.S. Attorney, Keating investigated and prosecuted criminal cases. As a defense attorney, Carfardi represents a Catholic bishop.

Keating never got a paycheck from the church. Cafardi represents several Catholic religious orders and teaches at a Catholic university.

Keating spoke out when he saw bishops dissembling and attempting to back pedal. Cafardi was remained silent.

Keating repeatedly made public comments designed to prod bishops toward real reform. Cafardi did not.

Keating believed in studies and research. But he didn’t hesitate to bluntly call backsliding bishops to task. Cafardi remained silent.

The Director's job at the bishop's Office of Child and Youth Protection (OCYP) was originally held by a former FBI official. Later, the OCYP deputy, Sheila Kelly, is a long time church insider, having served as a Chancery official for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Now the office is held by Teresa Kettlekamp. Ever recall her saying anything critical of bishops?

In December 2004, the bishops appointed five new board members to their 14-person NRB panel.

The outgoing board members included: a former White House chief of staff, a former governor, a former legal counsel to the President of the United States, an Appeals Court judge (and child welfare expert), and the CEO of a major newspaper chain. (Outgoing board members: the Hon. Leon E. Panetta, Governor Frank Keating, Robert S. Bennett, Justice Anne M. Burke, and William R. Burleigh)

The new board members included: an educational consultant, a doctor at a Catholic hospital, a magistrate judge, and two lawyers. (New board members: Dr. Patricia O'Donnell Ewers, Dr. Angelo P. Giardino, Judge Michael Merz, United States Magistrate Judge; Ralph I. Lancaster, and Joseph Russoniello)

Board member Russoniello's first public comment about the Church's sex abuse crisis is disturbing. He argued against publicly naming known, admitted, and suspected abusive priests. "My experience tells me it's easy to make an accusation -- especially from a deranged, angry, vengeful person striking out against an authority figure," he said. (November 12, 2004, San Francisco Chronicle, "Levada takes heat over abuse inquiry/Panel member resigns, says church suppressed results," by Don Lattin).

Consider the public comments of those NRB members who have left:

Frank Keating wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece of his "frustration over the efforts of a small minority of church leaders to obstruct the workings of the board. When we asked valid questions, they gave us few or no answers. Where information and cooperation was called for, we received delay or an outright refusal to help."

When dozens of bishops wanted to scuttle the entire "audit" process, Justice Anne Burke commented, "We were manipulated. Those who said bishops were never serious about breaking free from the ... bad judgments of the past will be vindicated."


Former White House Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta, stated, "These dioceses are separate fiefdoms. It's an almost medieval organization we're dealing with. Each bishop runs his own fiefdom. There is very little communication between those dioceses and bishops and indeed, very little communication between bishops and the Vatican. The basic culture that developed is, 'We take care of our own, we really don't want to open ourselves up to being questioned by others.'"

But it’s been years since we’ve heard such "tough talk" from any of the existing NRB members; much less see any concrete action toward reform.

• Baptist General Convention of Texas keeps secret file with child-molesting clergy.

The largest state-wide Baptist organization in the land -- an organization with 5500 affiliated churches -- keeps a confidential file of ministers reported by churches for sexual abuse. (It doesn't consider abuse reports from the victims themselves.) Though it has publicly admitted that the file includes ministers reported for child molestation, the Texas convention doesn't remove the men from active ministry and doesn't inform people in the pews.

http://stopbaptistpredators.org/article08/group_wants_names_of_accused_clergy.html

• Ex-head of California Southern Baptist Convention kept quiet about child sex case

According to lawsuit documents, a Southern Baptist pastor in California, Wayne Stockstill, wrote in a letter that he "erred on the side of grace" in keeping quiet about a deacon's reported sexual abuse of children. Stockstill is a recent two-term president of the California Southern Baptist Convention, a fact that was virtually completely overlooked in news accounts.

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/child_5703___article.html/resurfaces_church.html

• Nuns continue to shun victims & essentially ignore abuse crisis

For years, many looked at each new pedophile priest case as some kind of isolated aberration. This assumption proved to be terribly misguided at best and downright reckless at worst. Thanks to brave victims and determined journalists, we now know that hundreds of thousands of clergy sex crimes have been and are still being concealed.

Nevertheless, many now look at each new child molesting nun story in the same wrong-headed way, naively assuming “well, this can’t be as bad as the pedophile priest crisis.”

The truth is: we don’t and can’t know, especially because the leadership of America’s nuns won’t disclose secrets or figures, or urge victims of abusive nuns to come forward, get help and call the police.

For the past four years, SNAP members have contacted (in writing and in person) the nation’s largest organization of nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, seeking both a dialogue and real action to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. The organization has basically shunned us.

• Settlements reached, promises made, then ignored or delayed

Under pressure, dioceses sometimes reach settlements with victims. (These often happen on the eve of a potentially embarrassing civil trial in which top church officials will have to face tough questions under oath in open court about their complicity.)

But when it comes time to honor their commitments, bishops often drag their feet.

In August 2008, the Kansas City diocese reached a settlement with 47 victims in August. Victims insisted that church officials write to 50 state licensing agencies, warning them about Fr. Thomas Reardon. (In recent years, Reardon has worked as a drug and alcohol counselor. He faces more civil child sex abuse lawsuits than any other clergyman in Missouri.) The diocese agreed, but four months later, they still haven’t honored this pledge.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/07_08/2008_08_23_Murphy_PriestAbuse.htm

In Aug. 2007, South Carolina diocesan officials announced the settlement of a class action lawsuit involving 11 victims of allegedly predatory Catholic employees (priests & parochial school teachers). Sixteen months later, they still haven’t paid.

For months, church figures have given conflicting explanations for why they haven’t met the deadlines to distribute the settlement. In March 2008, a separate lawsuit was filed against the diocese for its breach of contract. But church officials continue to refuse to pay.

(http://www3.charlestoncounty.org/surfer/form/emulator/11_kyF284768407_284770668
or
http://www3.charlestoncounty.org/docs/CoC/index.html)

And we should point out that 1.5 years after the Los Angeles archdiocese settled more than 500 clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, and pledged to release long-secret church documents, no such records have yet been released.

• He imports dozens of predators & wins a promotion

There's a disturbing recent Rome promotion pattern: conceal abuse in the US, get elevated to the Vatican (see Levada, William and of course Law, Bernard). The latest example: Archbishop Raymond Burke who imported and concealed dozens of proven, admitted and credibly accused predators while archbishop of St. Louis yet was named a high ranking Vatican official in June.

http://snapmidwest.org/htm/UnderBurke.htm

While many of the sexually troubled priests are in housing and treatment centers in the St. Louis area, several (including Fr. Nicholas Voelker of the Wichita diocese, Fr. Joseph R. Monaghan of the Philadelphia archdiocese and Fr. Darell Mitchell of the Yakima diocese) have been quietly allowed to work in unsuspecting parishes.

One priest, an admitted child molester (Fr. Vincent Bryce), continues to work and live today directly across the street from St. Louis University. (Few, if any, in the college community have been warned about him.)

http://www.wednesdayjournalonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=9404&TM=24148.37

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/11_12/2007_11_11_Dwyer_PastorReportedly.htm

http://www.ai.edu/contact/directory.php

In addition to recklessly and secretly importing predators from elsewhere, Burke has acted similarly irresponsible with local pedophiles too. Two priests (Fr. Robert Osborne and Fr. Alex Anderson) still work today in archdiocesan parishes even though they’ve faced at least two allegations of abuse and at least one lawsuit against each has been settled.

http://www.snapmidwest.org/htm/OsborneFactSheet.htm

• The USCCB president keeps violating charter & nothing happens

The Kenneth Martin case, described above, is just the tip of the iceberg in the Chicago Archdiocese. Just during the last year,

-- newly release secret church records and Cardinal George’s sworn deposition show that an accused serial predator priest, Fr. Joseph R. Bennett. Bennett was suspended from his suburban parish in 2006 only after at least a dozen of his victims had reported him to church authorities.

-- Those same documents show that George overruled the recommendations of his own hand-picked abuse panel and had him alleged and secretly (but ineffectively) ‘monitored’ by a fellow priest (Fr. Leonard Dubi) who is a close friend of Bennett’s. The two of them own property together in Indiana. They then took a trip to Mexico together.

-- George’s hand-picked abuse panel specifically, in two memos, urged George to NOT assign Dubi to this role. The Cardinal rejected their recommendation.

-- The same deposition and documents also reveal that George and his top staffers spent considerable time and effort secretly trying to win the early release of a convicted serial child predator, Fr. Norbert Maday, who is in a Wisconsin prison.

-- We suspect and fear there are or have been other jailed sex offender clerics who have gotten or are getting the Cardinal’s ‘behind the scenes’ help. We have asked George to stop it immediately, and to disclose if he’s taken similar reckless action with other pedophiles. He has ignored us.

--This fall, we publicly called on George to promise he’d never again try to get a convicted pedophile priest out of jail early. He has not responded.

-- We fear other accused child-molesting clergy are in still Chicago parishes right now, unbeknownst to parishioners, allegedly being ‘monitored’ by peers. We’ve asked George to disclose who and where they are and/or abide by the church’s national abuse policy and publicly suspend them. He has ignored us.

-- In the same documents, Fr. Edward Grace, the archdiocese’s Vicar for Priests. Grace, urged Bennett to essentially lie about birthmarks on his genitals to ‘beat’ multiple child sex abuse allegations before a lay church panel.

-- Also this fall, we asked George to discipline these ‘enablers’ – Dubi and Grace - whose deceit put kids in harm’s way.

Finally, many are familiar with the 2005-06 case of Fr. Daniel McCormack in Chicago. Five top church staff who were involved in the McCormack debacle have all essentially been promoted since then. Only one has been disciplined – the female school principal who actually called the police and reported McCormack’s crimes.

http://snapmidwest.org/htm/askingCardinalFrancisGeorgetoresign.htm

SNAPnetwork.org

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
David Clohessy, National Director Barbara Blaine, President
314 566 9790 cell, 314 645 312 399 4747
SNAPclohessy@aol.com SNAPblaine@gmail.com

John Paul II Betrayed 'Totus Tuus Marie' the Mother of God

January 1 is the feast of the motherhood of Mary, Mother of God and it is important to understand how John Paul II betrayed Mary -- by neglecting her thousands of altar boys and young girls -- by giving free reign to his pedophile priests during his 26 years papacy.

Pope John Paul II consecrated his 26 pedophiliac-papacy-years to Our Lady Mary....... with a Devil's tail encompassing 12,000 American little boys (and girls) sodomized by his JPIIPPA Pedophile Priests Army. He thought he was so holy he was embracing Our Lady everyday --- while he covered-up the worst evil committed against children under his Holy See of Peter. But Mary is no sweet-submissive woman under John Paul II's autocracy.



In her Magnificat Mary proclaims:

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.


He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree


One of those "mighty and proud" that God will soon scatter is John Paul II (together with his proud partner Escriva the Marquis de Peralta.) It is only a matter of God's timing when Christ will turn the Vatican like the Temple of Solomon into rubbles because of the John Paul II Altar of Sodomy. Benedict XVI, his papal clone has just touched the first domino that will make the Vatican fall like a deck of cards domino effect.

John Paul II went to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico three times as Pope but while he was there, he wallowed in his self-glory and was dumb as he knelt before Mary . Before this very image he intentionally ignored all the thousands of little boys (and girls) victims of his JPIIPPA pedophile-priests papal-army. Now Mexico is erupting with the cover-up of the heinous pedophilia of his 26 papal years, the Culture of Secrecy which he left behind.

John Paul II eternally mocks the Birth of Christ and his Mother Mary

Pope John Paul II consecrated his 27 pedophiliac-papacy-years to Our Lady Mary....... with a Devil's tail encompassing 12,000 American little boys (and girls) sodomized by his JPIIPPA Pedophile Priests Army. He thought he was so holy he was embracing Our Lady everyday --- while he covered-up the worst evil committed against children under his Holy See of Peter. But Mary is no sweet-submissive woman under John Paul II's autocracy. In her Magnificat she proclaims:

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree

One of those "mighty and proud" that God will soon scatter is John Paul II (together with his proud Marquis de Peralta.) It is only a matter of God's timing when Christ will turn the Vatican like the Temple of Solomon into rubbles because of the John Paul II Altar of Sodomy. Benedict XVI, his papal clone has just touched the first domino that will make the Vatican fall like a deck of cards domino effect.

Posted in honor of the feast of the Immaculate Conception and Christmas.

John Paul II insult Our Lady of Guadalupe

http://www.sancta.org/intro.html


December 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. With his famous Totus Tuus Marie slogan, John Paul II insulted Mary non-stop because he seized fame and fortune for himself and not for Mary and the poor of El Salvador and the poor Jesuit Jon Sobrino.

St. Josemaria Escriva de Opus Dei instilled an Opus Dei practise that -- the first thing a member must see upon entering a room is an image of Mary. St. Josemaria Escriva’s big image in his office was the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was the first and last thing he saw when he suffered a heart attack in his office in Rome in June 26, 1975.


St. Josemaria was canonized as the speediest saint in the 20th century because John Paul II his mystical husband cooked him up a saint in the Opus Dei John Paul II saint-factory at the Vatican. On his canonization an Opus Dei rosary was created with the face of St. Josemaria on one side and Our Lady of Guadalupe on the other side --- the first of its kind in the history of the Rosary and the saints. But this is what the Opus Dei does not know which mystic Paris Arrow now reveals here -- in obedience and in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in this month of July.



First reason of St. Josemaria Escriva’s heart attack

St. Josemaria Escriva had a heart attack because of what he saw in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that other Opus Dei priests and eunuchs couldnot see. First of all he saw that the custodians of this sacred image is St. Ignatius of Loyola, his chosen archenemy and St. Francis Xavier, the first missionary to the Far East. St. Josemaria Escriva could not believe or accept that the Jesuits are “closer” to Mary -- than the Opus Dei who uses her for their selfish greed for fame and fortune. Mary cannot stand the sight of St. Josemaria Escriva and his Opus Dei members who are worse than the hypocrites in Christ's days.


St. Josemaria Escriva suffered a heart attack because he was so shocked to see St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier holding the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on both sides http://www.sancta.org/intro.html. St. Josemaria Escriva could not stomach or accept the truth that the Jesuits are the custodians of Our Lady of Guadalupe and he suffered a heart attack to find out that in reality he is the Father of Lies the representative of Satan’s WORLD DOMINATION today as he silence Jesuits and suppress them in the most subtle of ways.

Our Lady of Guadalupe has a 4 volume Enciclopedia Guadalupana by Xavier Encalada, a Spanish Jesuit who singlehandedly researched and wrote this one and only encyclopedia of Our lady of Guadalupe. But St. Josemaria Escriva "stole" this image from the Jesuits making it his trademark in his Opus Dei Rosary and Opus Dei medals. Christ said that Satan is a thief and so is St. Josemaria Escriva a thief!


Second reason of St. Josemaria Escriva’s heart attack


Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in 1531in Mexico to stop the sacrifice of hundreds of babies at the temple of the Aztec Indians. The hearts of babies were removed by “high priests” and then they were burnt as offering to the gods on top of the pyramid and the leftover bodies were thrown down into the bottom of the pyramid. The sight of blood and screaming of the babies gave power and pleasure to the “high priests” as was also given to satiate their gods.


The Opus Dei founder upon seeing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in his office in June 26, 1975, St. Josemaria Escriva saw the thousands of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army being burned and sacrificed in pedophile altars – while the Opus Dei and John Paul II concocted “the greatest papacy of John Paul II the Great and Opus Dei the greatest militant order of the church.” The price of the WORLD DOMINATION of Opus Dei was the thousands of altar boys victims being consumed by the burning lust of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army while Opus Dei and John Paul II amassed fame and fortune at the Vatican. Opus Dei and John Paul II knew about these pedophilias – Tom Doyle has been warning them for decades, but they ignored him -- for the sake of the fame of Opus Dei and John Paul II.

Vatican Trinity

That is why St. Josemaria Escriva is one of the new Vatican Trinity responsible for the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army because he took over the Vatican and he did not want his canonization to be deterred by the Pope spending time on these clergy abuse investigation. Our Lady of Guadalupe showed him the “price” of his speedy canonization and the title “John Paul II the Great” (we expose this in the John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com and our expose on the John Paul II the Great University in San Diego, an Opus Dei university of communications and business which will collaborate with the new Vatican Radio and Vatican TV run by the Opus Dei.

So as Opus Dei build its WORLD DOMINATION and as Benedict XVI go on hopping around the world in his red shoes --- he can NEVER walk on water like St. Peter --- St. Josemaria Escriva is dancing in Hell with Satan and John Paul II -- because of the thousands of victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army that thrived because St. Josemaria Escriva “stole” the time from the Vatican from investigating what Tom Doyle has been warning the Pope for decades. Yes, Christ said Satan is a thief and St. Josemaria Escriva de Opus Dei is also a thief and “THE father of Lies”.

Jon Sobrino was silenced by the Opus Dei Bishop of El Salvador


Go ahead Opus Dei and Pope Benedict XVI, you have silenced Jon Sobrino who has worked all his life with the poor in El Salvador, and now you will silence Tom Doyle who has worked all his life to defend the victims of John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army……your days are numbered because the hundreds of thousands of boys, altar boys and girls victims of priest-pedophilia are crying to heaven for vengeance and the Vatican will sink into the ground as Leo X saw in a vision and was revealed in Fatima. Benedict XVI apologies at WYD World Youth Day are crocodile tears.


Black sash of Mary of Guadalupe means she is pregnant


Woe to you Opus Dei and Benedict XVI for you insult Our Lady of Guadalupe who wears the black sash to indicate she is pregnant – she had to carry Christ to 9-months full term – but you FATHERS of LIES you claim to clone and stem-cell the flesh of Christ – at the “consecration of the Host and wine in the Eucharist --- at the speed of your words of lies -- woe to you for you have fallen into the temptation of Satan (“Eat of the fruit and ye shall become as gods”) “Be ye priests and stem-cell and eat the flesh of Christ and ye shall be as Christ”. Woe to you Benedict XVI and Opus Dei priests for practising divination and for leading millions of youth into your sins of LIES in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.



The Immaculate Conception did not speedily clone or stem-cell Christ


God created Mary as the one and only Immaculate Conception human being on earth to be able to carry to full term – 9 months pregnancy – his only begotten son Jesus Christ. So Jesus was born after the normal human gestation, he did not by-pass this human scientific phenomenon but had to be conceived and grow in the womb of a woman and he wasn’t dropped in from heaven by a stork or by the dove of the all-powerful Holy Spirit.

So after being born, Christ had to grow as a child in Egypt and Nazareth as a carpenter and when he was about 30 years old he started his 3 years ministry and then was crucified, died, buried and resurrected as written according to his 12 apostles and witnesses.

Now, with all these said and done and after God went to all that trouble for his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ,, at the speed of the words of the Pope and priests and St? Josemaria Escriva of the Opus Dei and the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, the little host at Mass and wine SUDDENLY becomes the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – who took 33 years to gestate and grow on earth? Is this scientifically sane or is it pure Catholic lunacy? Opus Dei and Benedict XVI are Lucifer-beasts hungry for WORLD DOMINATION power of Satan on Earth!

When the Da Vinci Code came out in 2006, Opus Dei launched a worldwide campaign to protest it because Jesus Christ couldNOT sleep and marry a woman because he was DIVINE and GOD --- well, so how can all these Opus Dei priests and Popes be converting host and wine into the body and blood of GOD? If God could not sleep with a woman, how can all these sin-full Pope and Opus Dei priests be touching his body and cloning it at the speed of sin-full words of sin-full pedophile-priests?

Sacrament of Eucharist the biggest lie of Satan to overpower Mary


The Eucharist is the BIGGEST LIE OF SATAN to overpower Mary the Mother of God and the Opus Dei in their WORLD DOMINATION AGENDA overpower the Blessed Virgin Mary by cloning and stem-cell producing Jesus Christ the Son of God she bore for 9-months on Earth!

Opus Dei and Benedict XVI hate the Jesuits so much that Benedict XVI did not celebrate ONE single Mass with them at their General Congregation 35 in Rome. The Gesu Church and the Jesuit Curia is only a stone throw away from the Vatican so there is NO REASON whatsoever that the Pope could not say ONE single Mass with them. These are Jesuits from around the world who do all the dirty job for the Pope and the Opus Dei but they were snubbed and treated like Jesuit-elephants on Octopus Dei leash. The Jesuits are the largest religious order and they were founded with Queen Mary de la Strada (the Way). It is no surprise that Opus Dei will SUPPRESS in the most subtle way the Jesuits through the Pope and John Allen the Pinocchio-nose of Opus Dei. Opus Dei is Opus Satanas on earth.

The greatest proofs that John Paul II is in Hell

The greatest proof that John Paul II is in Hell is that in his final years he looked hellish. His papacy was filled with lies of the cover-up of his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army and God was so disgusted with him -- that God wanted to see the world how disgusting John Paul II really was inside. "Rock star" and "Superstar" were Pinocchio-nose liar John Allen's favourite title for him but God saw otherwise and God let the whole world to see what John Paul II has become as a greedy King Herod greedy for fame as a pope created by the Lucifer St. Josemaria Escriva de Opus Dei. Drooping like an ugly widemouth dog as he spoke with undecipherable words, he kept on talking in his Opus Dei elected position as the Vicar of Christ. Clinging on to his titles as Supreme Pontiff and the second longest reigning Pope, but Christ was so disgusted with him that he let him appear to the world as a pathetic old fool and not as his regal Vicar. John Paul II had become an Octopus Dei beast, ugly, repugnant, repulsive, gross, vile, odious, horrible to look at and to listen at, ugly as Lucifer (once the brightest and most beautiful of Angels in Heaven like John Paul II was once a handsome pope) has become after he was cast down from heaven. John Paul II was also cast down from the seat of St. Peter. God showed us the true ugliness and evil interior of John Paul II -- JPII was abhorent to look at and his words were worse than the barks of a dog because his papacy was filled with lies because like Lucifer, John Paul II was the Father of Lies partner of St. Josemaria Escriva.


Benedict XVI's God's Rottweiler appetite for Jesuit Jon Sobrino -- http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/05/benedict-xvi-gods-rottweiler-appetite.html

John Paul II clone Bishop Richard Malone of Maine circumventing the law

Questions arise about Maine Catholic bishop’s respect for the law

Is Bishop Richard Malone of Maine circumventing the law by signing a legal document in which he attests that his primary residence is located in Massachusetts, and not in Maine?

A person’s primary residence is the dwelling where they usually live, typically a house or an apartment. A person can only have one primary residence at any given time. A primary residence is considered as a legal residence for the purpose of income tax, acquiring a mortgage and filing for a homestead exemption. Bishop Malone not only resides in Maine for the overwhelming majority of days each year, he is a registered Maine voter, has a Maine driver’s license and registers the car he owns in Maine.

Bishop Malone filed a Declaration of Homestead with the state of Massachusetts in order to protect from creditors the home he co-owns (with Rev. Paul E. Miceli*) at 51 Hazelwood Drive, South Dennis, Massachusetts.

An Estate of Homestead is a type of protection for a person’s residence, in the form of a document called a “Declaration of Estate of Homestead”. The form is filed at the Registry of Deeds in the county where the property is located**.

It allows homeowners in Massachusetts to protect certain equity in their principal residence from the majority of creditors up to five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000). Homestead Declarations are for primary residences only and do not apply to vacation homes or investment property.

In addition, by declaring the South Dennis home as his primary residence, Bishop Malone would be able to circumvent capital gains taxes should he decide to sell the property.

* http://search.bishop-accountability.org/search?q=miceli&ie=&site=ba-prod&output=xml_no_dtd&client=ba-prod&lr=&proxystylesheet=ba-prod&oe=

** http://www.bcrd.co.barnstable.ma.us/

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The following press release from the Ignatius Group was sent to Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire media

Ignatius Group

For immediate release:
Tuesday, December 2, 2008

For more information:
Paul Kendrick (207) 838 1319 kendrickpt@aol.com

John Paul II Religious Duress and its Impact on Victims of Clergy Clergy Sexual Abuse

The modus operandi of Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei is religious duress and by using ALL the writings of John Paul II as if he were the Word of God and they threaten any Catholic to be excommunicated or silenced like the Jesuit Jon Sobrino who criticizes John Paul II .

We print here in full the paper by the foremost priest advocate of the victims of the John Paul II pedophile Priests Army Tom Doyle. We have written several articles about Tom Doyle in this weblog and in www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com on Benedict XVI.


Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 5,448 priests - John Paul II + Benedict XVI + Opus Dei (the new Roman Catholic Trinity! the Vatican Trinity)

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RELIGIOUS DURESS AND ITS IMPACT

ON VICTIMS OF CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE


Thomas P. Doyle, M.A., J.C.D., C.A.D.C.
Marianne Benkert, M.D., D.L.F.A.P.A.


November, 27, 2008

Abstract:

Religious duress is a unique kind of threat and constraint involuntarily experienced by some members of the Roman Catholic Church as a result of religious indoctrination and training. Fear, awe and respect for the clergy foster the development and actualization of religious duress. This phenomenon can seriously impede a person’s capacity to accurately perceive and evaluate abusive actions perpetrated on them by clergy. This constraint poses an impediment to emotional and spiritual development. Internalized religious duress confuses and psychologically overwhelms such individuals and renders them incapable of absorbing their sexual trauma. The consequent feelings of numbness and immobility distort the perception of reality. It then becomes impossible for the individual to act in a manner that would protect and promote their emotional growth and spiritual well being.

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Introduction:

The concept of religious duress does not lend itself easily to demonstration by the conventional scientific research methods. The foundation for the theory of religious duress is not confirmed by the results of a survey but by a study of official Church doctrine and careful clinical observation. The consistent pattern of doctrinal, catechetical and disciplinary statements throughout the span of Church history is the basic source for demonstrating the external source that can cause distorted reverential fear in the believing Catholic. The second level of information comes from direct witness of victims of clergy sexual abuse. Thousands of these men and women have reported their experiences with the Church, priests and their abuse in interviews with psychiatrists, psychologists, attorneys and pastoral ministers

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Religion and religious institutions provoke a wide variety of effects on individual members, on the religious community as a whole and on individuals and groups in secular society. Their impact can be both positive and negative although the predominant prejudice that favors institutionalized religious organizations in many societies often prevents the negative effects from being widely accepted as real. Professor Marci Hamilton confronted the negative side of religion from the legal perspective in her book God Versus the Gavel. She begins her book with a statement that describes the American prejudice, which could easily be applied to organize religion in many cultures:

The United States has a romantic attitude toward religious individuals and institutions as though they are always doing what is right. As one scholar has quipped: “There is a long history in this country of religion being reduced to Sunday school morality in service of the common good.”….The unrealistic belief that religion is always for the good, however, is a hazardous myth.[1]

On the other hand social revolutionaries have often zeroed in on organized religion as a major barrier to the establishment of a society that provided justice and economic stability for all. Karl Marx’s often quoted statement that “Religion is the opiate of the people”[2] was not just a subjective opinion based on personal experience but a theory grounded in his study of the juxtaposition of religious bodies and the social condition of the masses in the England wherein he lived and worked, and other countries living through the early nineteenth century industrial revolution. The fundamental question is why organized religion and its key functionaries have such power and control over people.

The exposure of widespread sexual abuse of children and other vulnerable people by the clergy in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have once again caused people to question the power and control of religion. In this case the main focus has been on the Roman Catholic Church. Yet the exposure of corruption in the Catholic Church emboldened members of other denominations to come forward, resulting in revelations of similar abuse in other main-line denominations such as the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Orthodox Jews, Greek Orthodox, Baptists and Methodists, to name but a few. The leaders of established religious denominations recoil at any accusations of abuse or irrational control, often pointing to oddball cults as the true source of such bizarre behavior. The tragedy of the Branch Davidians in Waco TX in 1993 and the mass suicides in Jonestown in 1978 are often used as examples of extreme religious fanaticism and control. All-be-it extreme, they do serve as examples of religious duress. Yet control similar in its destructive effects on individuals can be found in most mainline religious denominations even though such dramatic examples of it on such massive scales are seemingly rare. Religious leadership in our own era conveniently isolates such blatant excesses to a bygone age or simply denies any wrongdoing, claiming that present day criticism of the past is based on inaccurate information. Catholic leadership and rank and file members have relegated the horrors of the Inquisition, the Crusades, the missionary conquests of central and South America and the tolerance of Nazi Germany to either an unenlightened past or simply misunderstanding by malicious critics.

The response to reports of clergy sexual abuse has been so inexplicable and confounding that it has prompted once again a deeper study into the nature of organized religion and the source of what appears to be irrational control over people. The experience of the past 25 years presents several foundational questions;

-why have victims of clergy sexual abuse been reluctant to resist their abusers?

-why have victims been reluctant to disclose their abusers?

-why have parents resisted believing their children when they report clergy abuse?

-why have secular agencies such as media, law enforcement and judiciary often favored

religious organizations to the detriment of the vulnerable victims?

-why does the leadership of religious organizations go to such lengths to protect itself at

the expense of the victims of its own neglect? The focus of this article is sexual abuse by clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. Although the Catholic hierarchy’s response to the massive problem of abuse within its own community has dominated the news over the past two decades, the revelations of similar institutional responses to abuse in other denominations point to factors common to other and perhaps all organized church bodies.

Sexual abuse of minors or other vulnerable persons by clergy is not an issue that can be limited in its scope to the destructive actions of dysfunctional clerics. Clergy victims experience a range of effects that are common to all victims of sexual assault, harassment or abuse. They also experience effects that are unique because of the culture in which the abuse occurred.[3] This culture commonly referred to as the “clerical culture” exerts a powerful conscious and subconscious influence on church members and on secular society in general. It often determines the victim’s immediate and short-term reaction to the actual abuse. This culture also shapes the community response to the abuse. The experience of the past three decades as well as historical evidence from previous centuries[4] has shown that the church culture actively supports the clergy-perpetrator while covering the incident of abuse in denial, minimization or blame-shifting. In secular society sexual abusers are considered criminals and are effectively separated from the community. In the church-based culture, the errant clerics are protected while the victims are separated from the community. Such a response not only compounds the damage to the victim, but also adds a new layer of harm. The cultural context of clergy sexual abuse also has a serious impact on the recovery of the victim.


The reality of Religion-based psychological duress

Catholic victims, conditioned by their religious indoctrination, look on the clergy-abuser with a mixture of awe and fear. The cleric=s attitude of superiority and power elicit a degree of emotional security in the victim. These strong feelings about clerics often impede victims from recognizing the seductive patterns the abuser is using to court them. The awe, fear and wonder experienced by the victims cause a significant degree of internal stress best described as religious duress. This is a kind of fear inspired in victims that so constrains them that they cannot extricate themselves from abusers. In many ways religious duress is similar to the notion of reverential fear, a well-established category in Catholic Canon Law. This is a fear that is induced not from an unjust force from without but from the reverence one has for an authority figure. The victim experiences such a degree of fear of invoking the displeasure or even wrath of the authority figure that the will is significantly impeded. Child or adolescent victims are especially vulnerable to a priest-abuser. The priest is an adult with automatic power over the victim. He is also a priest with vast spiritual authority. Another component that often enters into the relationship is secrecy. The seduction process has created a secret and special relationship that entraps the victim.

Religious duress is an objective reality, experienced by reasonable people who are so influenced by the power of their religious beliefs and the system that imposes these beliefs that the will is unduly and unjustly constrained to perform an otherwise unfavorable act or to omit an act that the person would otherwise intend to do. Religious duress is the internal pressure experienced by a person as a result of fear-based beliefs. These beliefs focus on the reaction of an unseen supreme being to something the person either does, or conversely, chooses not to do. Religious duress is a very special kind of fear the ultimate source of which is an unseen but all-powerful supreme being. Between the individual and this Supreme Being are religious personages who function as advocates or buffers.

From the dawn of history men and women have created religious belief systems and religious societies to communicate with the unseen powers. Some scholars have opined that the concept of religion appeared as a result of meteorological phenomena that were regularly observed but not understood by people. They did not know their origin especially the more spectacular and destructive ones such as thunder, lightning, tornadoes, tidal waves or hurricanes. In their naiveté, people attributed such power to angry supreme beings or forces and sought ways to control or at least influence them so as to ensure their safety. In his book Religion Explained, scholar Pascal Boyer sums up the theories of man