Bill Donohue-Catholic League ad in New York Times is a brilliant strategy before the beatification of John Paul II
The $26 million dollars asset of the Catholic League can buy any ad anywhere at anytime especially from its archenemy the New York Times, read the assets of the Catholic League here http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2011/04/opus-deis-usa-mouthpiece-bill-donohue.html Bill Donohue’s $400,000 annual salary gives him the luxury to be one of the best American mouthpiece of the trillion dollars Vatican Bank and the John Paul II media empire in New York City and in the United States of America. God and Mammon certainly are a couple whose marriage can only be made in heaven within the Catholic Church and its arm is the Catholic League which is led by Bill Donohue who describes it as "the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization". It is the Vatican's arm whose unlimited budget can knock down all “anti-Catholic bashing” and which Bill Donohue has been using to arm wrestle against the New York Times since time immemorial. Imagine that, $52,000, for an ad in the New York Times, but that’s only peanuts and a piece of cake to the wealthy American Catholic Church which has paid 3 Billion dollars to victims of clergy sex abuse since its eruption in 2002… and still counting (the Jesuits recently paid off $166 million to their sex victims, the highest for a religious order). Looking at its core, Bill Donohue’s New York Times ad’s most disturbing statement is this: "The refrain that child rape is a reality in the Church is twice wrong: let's get it straight -- they weren't children and they weren't raped. We know from the John Jay study that most of the victims have been adolescents, and that the most common abuse has been inappropriate touching (inexcusable though that is, it is not rape)." Obviously Bill Donohue smells the Devil’s Bowels as roses because history does not lie about the last quarter of the 20th century when under the 27 years reign of John Paul II there were thousands of pedophiles and pederasts-priests who can only be justly compared to the Nazis who were an inherently all-male hierarchy born from the Devil’s Bowels - read our article The Nazis and the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army were both an inherently evil all-male elite hierarchy born from the Devil's bowels http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2011/01/nazis-and-john-paul-ii-pedophiles.html. Read our reasons (listen to the video) why we added the word “rapists” to the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-does-benedict-xvi-not-call-it-rape.html
From his most disturbing statement, Bill Donohue is a Catholic clone of John Paul II who is as callous and cold-hearted and has no interest whatsoever of serving justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army. Bill Donohue’s New York Times ad couldn’t come at a better time at 3 weeks before the beatification of John Paul II, the 27 years reigning pontiff who kept on blessing the serial pedophile Father Marcial Maciel and promoted the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law who confessed in public that he aided and abetted 80 pedophile priests in Boston. Bill Donohue copy-cat John Paul II who looked upon Father Marcial Maciel as a “holy priest” who never raped his victims. John Paul II was for 27 years the most powerful man in Christianity and he did absolutely nothing (he refused even to listen and to meet) with the victims of Father Maciel and the victims of the 80 pedophile priests of Boston which proves he had the most callous heart toward children and now he will be the “holy” Blessed John Paul II. John Paul II refused to protect children during his powerful papacy and therefore in death he cannot protect children either and in deference to those children of the 20th century, no child should be praying to him in the 21st century and forever. John Paul II is the same yesterday and today and forever John Paul II will always be the Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts and Rapists of Children no matter how Bill Donohue and the Catholic League will defend him and no matter what the Catholic League and the Vatican trillions dollars Bank ad will buy. Read the new Prayer to Saint John Paul II the Great here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/prayer-to-john-paul-ii-saint-of.html
Please sign your names to protest the beatification of John Paul II here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/03/faces-of-rapists-priests-from-father.html
Bill Donohue is preaching to the whole world as Benedict XVI did exactly this same time last year during Lent and Holy Week when he called the New York Times reportage of his cover-up of clergy sex abuse as “cheap gossip” at St. Peter’s Square read our related article here http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/benedict-promised-cheap-justice-costly.html
It isn’t a small coincidence that Bill Donohue’s most disturbing phrase “they weren't children and they weren't raped... that most of the victims have been adolescents” match the words of Opus Dei’s Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls in his essay of April 1, 2010 when he said that most of the victims “were not children but post-pubescent boys” read our article here http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/reasons-why-opus-dei-covered-up-john.html
And to think that the 600 pedophiles rapists-priests whom Cardinal Roger Mahony covered-up are still free to roam and sodomize more boys in the streets of Los Angeles. There are about 6,000 pedophiles pederasts priest in the USA alone, not counting those of Ireland and Europe and worldwide. How many Catholic priests who are pedophiles and pederasts are in jail today thus making it safer for Catholic boys and girls whether they are children or post pubescent?
Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America
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 - 6,000 priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity
Why John Paul II is Opus Dei's Patron Saint: analysis of conference at Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome on April 1, 2011 http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-john-paul-ii-is-opus-deis-patron.html
Holy Heist! John Paul II WYD had no role with Arab youths who liberated Egypt from Mubarak who stole then deposited billions into Vatican Swiss Banks http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/02/holy-heist-john-paul-ii-wyd-had-no-role.html
John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/
===================
Bill Donohue's straight talk
By
Susan Campbell
April 11, 2011
http://blogs.courant.com/susan_campbell/2011/04/bill-donohues-straight-talk.html
3261685752_a0a4e4a961.jpgToday's New York Times carries a full-page ad titled "Straight Talk About the Catholic Church," from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League.
Maybe the ad is not just in the Times. Perhaps donors to the Catholic League have the scratch to run the ad elsewhere. I went looking for it in other newspapers online, to no avail.
The ad contains Donohue's usual tropes about how unfair it is to target the Catholic Church when speaking about childhood sexual abuse, and he blames the media for fostering the idea that there is a widespread sexual abuse problem in the church today. He makes good points about the need for mandatory reporting, and the damage often done by the so-called therapeutic approach, which operates under the assumption that a pedophile can be "cured."
But his long essay also contains this rather startling statement:
"The refrain that child rape is a reality in the Church is twice wrong: let's get it straight -- they weren't children and they weren't raped. We know from the John Jay study that most of the victims have been adolescents, and that the most common abuse has been inappropriate touching (inexcusable though that is, it is not rape)."
I have not seen Donohue in Courtroom 3B, Waterbury Superior Court, but I invite him to sit in on the testimony from the victims of George Reardon, former head of St. Francis Hospital endocrinology. Reardon's victims were often children -- 8, 9, 10 years old. And they were raped.
Court resumes at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Mr. Donohue.
· Patrick O'Malley · Works at 617-PATRICK Social Media Training
Donahue: "Let's get it straight--they weren't children and they weren't raped... more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia. In other words, the issue is homosexuality, not pedophilia."
Like the case documented in the recently released Philadelphia grand jury report of a 10 year old girl who Fr Cudemo lie on top of and “ejaculate all over.” He put his penis in her mouth and ejaculated. See page 142 of http://www.philadelphiadistrictattorney.com/images/Grand_Jury_Report.pdf
Fr Cudemo was described by a top aide to Cardinal Bevilacqua as “one of sickest people I ever knew.”
So, Mr Donahue, you are correct. At 10, she was no longer a child, so it isn't pedophilia. It also isn't homosexuality, because it isn't a man. Its a young girl. And it wasn't officially rape.
Of course, it was rape a couple of years later, when the same girl was 12, and he got her pregnant and took her for an abortion.
But it wasn't pedophilia. Congratulation, Catholics.
Meryl Reyman
outrageous. so, it's no problem that many were really only adolescents? I feel better already.
By Bobby on April 11, 2011 10:46 AM
"Maybe the ad is not just in the Times. Perhaps donors to the Catholic League have the scratch to run the ad elsewhere. I went looking for it online, to no avail."
Did you try looking at the Catholic League's web page? (I know you have the URL; you linked to it). Today's press release is entitled "Catholic League's New York Times Ad." So I'm not sure why you expect to see it elsewhere.
Also, whatever the facts of the Reardon case, he was not a priest. Donohue's statements are clearly about abuse by priests.
By Susan Campbell on April 11, 2011 10:51 AM
@Bobby: Oh, good. When I checked the website this morning, the ad was not there. And now it is and I can link to it, so thank you for that. I also edited the sentence that you found unclear. I was looking for the ad elsewhere, other than the New York Times. I don't necessarily think it should run anywhere else -- or even the Times. I just didn't know if it had appeared in other publications. Are we clear on that? And I also know Reardon wasn't a priest. He was, however, the head of a department at a Catholic hospital, and much of the defense I'm hearing in court sounds extremely familiar to me.
But thanks for the head's up that Catholic League had loaded up its own ad on its own website.
By cliff on April 11, 2011 10:56 AM
Well, it IS comforting to know that the Catholic Child Abuse Horror is not limited to denial at the top, but the loyal parishioners are also dug in deeply in denial while the children suffer.
I know. I was one of the raped, and so was my brother, and so was the son of the parish housekeeper in St. Matthew's Church in Forestville, CT. The son was told that if he told anyone, he would see his mother lose her job which would leave them destitute. All under 14 at the start.
All over the news, it continues today, no matter what study you quote, Donohue.
The sad news is, Mr. Bill Donohue, is that YOU are the problem. The priests are caught in a web where they are forced to act out, leave, or die emotionally.
But it's the Parishioners who are so proud of their choice in religion that they cannot believe in their own mind that THEIR RELIGION is causing this. The parishioners are SO PROUD of their religion that they cannot admit their house has a major problem.And as long as the devoted Parishioners believe no wrong can be in THEIR HOUSE, the longer THESE SAME PARISHIONERS will never CLEAN THAT HOUSE!
Well, what are you waiting for HONEST PARISHIONERS?
For GOD to tell you that your HOUSE needs cleansing?
Get to it, and stop the denial. FIRE BILL DONOHUE and get some honest righteous Catholics to take over the mess you now call the Catholic Church!
This is NOT going away by itsownself.
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 12:23 PM
I guess you didn't pick up on the double entendre. 'Straight' Talk and then he launches into the Gay Priests thing.
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 12:58 PM
Cliff you will not change the perspective of many Catholics.
I attended 6 different parishes in my life. Only 1 priest was ever charged of all those priests. He was bagged in the 80s and died in a monestary in the 90s.
I attended a diocesan school for a couple years. No one charged there.
I attended a Catholic College No one charged there.
Of the two Catholic High Schools I attended the only person charged was a lay person. A track coach/history teacher. He had a couple victms in the 70s and wasn't bagged until the mid-90s.
Both cases are recorded at SNAP.
The same school had another charge that dated back to the 50s and early 60s. A deceased priest. A couple victims. No collusion.
As a victim I don't think you have a normal perspective on this Cliff.
Bill Donahue is right on one thing: the Catholic Clerical Culture did change. The number of fresh incidents is negligible and about what one would expect--below the national average for child abuse.
The legacy cases are a mess and many don't blame the Church alone. There are insurers, lawyers and the press involved. In some cases vindictive victims. Each interest has agendas and none have an agenda favorable to the church.
So sadly, most just ignore the mess of old cases. There are too many partisan ugly people involved to care anymore.
Donahue is right here too in his opening paragraph when he says "anger is turning on those who are distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse. That some exploit this issue for ideological and financial profit seems plain". Donahue misses one other reaction: disinterest. People moved on with their lives and are content to let the court room vultures pick at whatever bones they find.
By cliff on April 11, 2011 1:22 PM
@SF Adrien: "Cliff you will not change the perspective of many Catholics."
Then Catholicism is doomed, and so be it. The disinterested Parishioners allow their gem's demise.
Catholic Culture did NOT change, by the way. The cases just have not come out yet.
Sorry, fully disagree with your calm approach.
NO ONE is distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse except the Catholic leaders allowed by the disinterest of honest Parishioners.
Ignorance of today's culture and facts is NOT bliss.
By SarahTX2 on April 11, 2011 2:49 PM
Yeah, tell that to the guy in California who beat up his priest abuser who forced him and his brother to have sex with each other when they were 6 and 8 years old. The Catholic Church is filled with priests who are freaks and cowards. Donohue is a way overpaid hack whose little tax-exempt organization won't even say how many members it is. Donohue and the Catholic League are just another fraud on American taxpayers.
I do think it was right for the NYT to print his idiotic ad and be paid for it because it is not that newspaper's duty to protect the Catholic Church from its most rabid member.
By Judy Jones on April 11, 2011 3:28 PM
Take note latest news:
http://www.ocala.com/article/20110411/APW/1104111355
Report sees lapses in bishops' child safety policy
Quoted on NPR by William Gavin, March 29th.
"Philadelphia may not be alone, says William Gavin, a former FBI agent who was hired by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to audit each of the 195 Catholic dioceses each year and make sure they're preventing and reporting sex abuse cases. "It was an audit in quotes," he says. "I think it was more of a program review than anything else."
Gavin says he could ask whether a diocese is conducting background checks on priests and employees but he was not allowed to look at records that would indicate whether there were any allegations against a priest.
"We didn't have the benefit of drilling down into personnel files to see what might be there," Gavin says. "They were off limits."
Gavin and his auditors had to depend on a bishop's word about whether anyone had been accused of abuse. In addition, the questionnaire they use wouldn't have spotted the Philadelphia 21 anyway. It only asks about allegations within the past year, not older cases."
Quoted by Barbara Blaine, SNAP President, April 11th.
The real solution to this on-going child sex abuse and cover up crisis is two-fold.
1. Every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups must continue to come forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.
2. Archaic, predator friendly laws must be reformed so that child predators and those who shield them can be exposed in court and others who are tempted to act recklessly, callously and deceitfully are deterred.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511
snapjudy@gmail.com
"Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests"
http://www.snapnetwork.org/
By Christine on April 11, 2011 3:53 PM
I was violently raped by a priest when I was 10. I know many people, male and female, who were raped by priests as children.
"We are not the only ones," and "We are not the worst," and "Most of the kids were molested, not raped," and "Most of them were teens, not little kids," and "The problem has been fixed," and "The church is now doing the right thing," are all ways of diverting the focus from the issue. They are all ways of avoiding the truth. Donohue, and those who agree with him, like to see themselves as the victims. Nonsense. Catholics should be ashamed to have him speaking for them. He is a joke.
First, it is not over. Anyone who understands sexual abuse knows that it typically takes victims decades to come forward. Therefore, we can logically conclude that victims of the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, 2000's, will continue to come forward for decades in the future. Reports of clergy abuse have never stopped.
The bishops have not done all they should be doing. Check out www.BishopAccountabilty.org and their Abuse Tracker for recent updates on this. Many bishops still refuse to be transparent, to have productive dialogue with victims. Many perpetrator priests are free, living in your communities, able to able more kids.
Stating statistics trying to prove that others abuse too is absurd. Yes, abuse takes place in all walks of life. I have never heard anyone deny that fact. But when the topic is the church, why bring up abuse in other places and point fingers? Take care of the crimes and issues in your OWN organization first. "Everyone is doing it" serves no purpose other than to avoid taking responsibility.
The issue which Donohue, and his supporters, like to avoid is the cover-up, the fact that the church's hierarchy systimatically protected and enabled the abusers. There is plenty of hard evidence to support this fact. The main point is not what percentage of priests abused, it is the fact that bishops/cardinals hid the abuse and therefore allowed more kids to be abused. They only began to "apologize" and make changes when they got caught by the same people they now like to blame (the media, the victims).
It does not make a difference if the abused kids were 10 or 14, or if the victims are male or female, if it was rape or another assault. Abuse is abuse, betrayal is betrayal. It is a horrific crime either way.
The truth will set you free. Please, educate yourselves on ALL the facts; read church documents; read some of the many good books on the topic; face reality. Deal with the continued lack of accountable for the crimes in your own church.
Stop blaming others.
By Sister Maureen Paul Turlish on April 11, 2011 4:06 PM
Church hierarchy tried to blame all the sexual abuse of children on those with a homosexual orientation some time back. I don’t remember if it was before or after the “blame it on the devil” excuse was floated. Neither one floated very well with Catholics
.
Are the hierarchs now using What’s his name as their shill? I hope What’s his name had to pay a bundle for his ad in the Times.
How many times must it be said that the sexual abuse of anyone, and in particular of children, is fundamentally an abuse of power and authority and in the case of religious denominations and organizations it becomes abuse of children, young women, men and vulnerable adults through the spiritual power and authority the individual holds.
What neither What’s his name nor any of the hierarchs have addressed, at least publicly, is their own and/or their predecessors’, involvement in protecting and covering up for sexual predators while victims got the short shrift.
Perhaps that may change with the calls for the resignation of the Cardinal Archbishop of Philadelphia. Justin Rigali has managed to show just about all the holes in the Dallas Charter with the release of Philly’s second Grand Jury Report, the five arrests that followed and the almost thirty priests who were taken out of ministry.
Msgr. William Lynn and the other four who were arrested will have their formal arraignments on Friday, April 15th at 11:00 A.M. in the Criminal Justice Center in center city Philly.
There will be a rally with protest signs beginning at 9:30 A.M. or so in front along with press conferences outside after the formal arraignments. JOIN US.
BTW, when is the topic of disciplining complicit bishops and others going to be the subject of the bishops’(USCCB) meetings?
FYI -
Also, check your Comcast Network Channel on Wednesday, April 13th at 5:30 P.M. for Larry Kane’s “Voice of Reason” show on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
I was part of a panel discussion recently on the situation in the Philadelphia Archdiocese that has resulted from the recently released second grand jury report, the five arrests that followed and the suspensions of almost thirty priests.
Back in March I was invited by PA Representative Michael McGeehan to speak at the March 1st press conference at the state capitol in Harrisburg where House Bills 832 and 878 were introduced. Those bills will, if they become law, (832) remove all criminal and civil statutes of limitation going forward and provide a two year civil window (878) for bringing forward previously time barred cases of sexual abuse by anyone.
These bills are very similar to the 2007 legislation which provided similar civil legislation in Delaware. The criminal statutes had been removed going forward a few years before that.
The show, “Voice of Reason” is hosted by Larry Kane of the Comcast Network and was taped a few weeks ago in their Philadelphia studios. In addition to my participation, the others on the panel included an adult “alleged” victim of childhood sexual abuse, his father and Anne Shenberger, a member of the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s Review Board.
The show was broadcast on the Comcast Network, CN 8 and 201 on Sunday, April 10th at 9:30 P.M. and will be repeated on Wednesday, April 13th at 5:30 P.M. The Comcast Network is also available on Fios.
The audio is already available if you click on:
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/show/kyw-specials-place/#
Then click on:
Sex abuse
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 4:12 PM
The problem I have with SNAP: even Bill Donahue gets the need to do better tracking. Some states have databases on all professional licensing and anyone dealing with kids has to be licensed. Any and all actions against the license are recorded and on the internet.
I understand SNAP has their focus: too often its the shrill voice of retribution not restoration and prevention.
By julia on April 11, 2011 4:14 PM
When will the catholic church realize that other organizations and people and groups do NOT claim to be the appointees of GOD.. they do not represent Jesus Christ they do not claim to be chaste, pure holy, celibate and the one true church..
They do not call their leaders FATHER and give the false impression that father is a safe name and title and demands complete trust.
That is the differenc between catholics and catholic priests and nuns and bishops and cardinals and pope being held to a higher standard.. a higher standard put on them by THEM..
They are true frauds and false..
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 4:32 PM
How's VOTF goin Sister Mary?
Any openly gay priests or female clergy or married priests appointed yet? That is your agenda for hierarchichal reform isn't it and why you use the term hierarchs?
Speak openly. What's the worse that can happen? An ex-communication?
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sister-maureen-paul-turlish/9/85/b72
By bill on April 11, 2011 5:08 PM
I feel that the only difference between the common garden variety priest and the officers of the Church is that the youthful priests are in full enjoyment of their pedi lifestyle and the old officers (including Il Papa) have but pleasant memories.
By cliff on April 11, 2011 5:11 PM
First, thank you to almost everyone who commented so far so elegantly. Most of the comments speak to the Heart of the matter and it is, for me, refreshing to hear them out on the open.
As to SF Adrien, thank you for attacking the person rather than shed any real light on the matter at hand. You have very successfully and aptly demonstrated the continued tatics of the Catholic Church (present company excepted), the tactics of denial: Attack the messenger before their message is heard. This has worked for centuries but in 2011, I pray we are wiser than to fall for your dodge.
Sister Mary is not the problem, she is the solution. Love, support, and encouragement will bring forth the truth. Sister Mary is not the cause for the inaction of the Church. Sister Mary is the solution to the inaction.
I, for one, am grateful for what she brings to the table, even if she isn't so good with remembering names!
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 6:52 PM
Did I attack Sister Maureen Turlish Cliff?
Her affiliations are common knowledge. You may not appreciate why VOTF doesn't speak openly or make position statements on church reform. Ex-Communication and banishment as in Bridgeport.
Cliff, this is not a personal insult. Just because someone doesn't agree with a victims groups doesn't make them an enemy.
I don't want Dr Petit making legislative decisions about the death penalty if you get my drift. He lacks a certain objectivity. Does he view me as an enemy?
Some victims groups offer only draconian solutions like the Treaty of Versailles or a hangman's noose and they rarely acknowledge positive efforts at restitution or reform.
There are some really bad tangos being danced and I find fault in both dance partners.
By Mario Saccoccio on April 11, 2011 7:35 PM
"The Catholic Church is filled with priests who are freaks and cowards."
Sorry, but you are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.
The rate of sexual abuse among the celibate is the same as non-celibates. This is not a problem with only catholic priests but across all denominations. It goes on in the "private" sector as well. Anytime adults are exposed to children, this can happen.
The sin of the church was their denial for all those years.
By christine on April 11, 2011 8:27 PM
Recommendation for a great new book, for anyone interested in the Catholic clergy abuse situation:
Clergy Sexual Abuse Litigation - Survivors Seeking Justice, by Jennifer M. Balboni,
www.FirstForumPress.com
=========================
Catholic League President Bill Donohue Dishes Out Big Bucks for NY Times
UNITED STATES
Injury Board
Posted by David Mittleman
April 11, 2011 4:41 PM
The target of the ad is clergy sexual abuse survivors. It's interesting that Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, feels the need to take a shot at my client, Greg Guggemos, in an apparent attempt to make him a victim yet again. In a full page ad in the New York Times today, in section A, Mr. Donohue laments that Catholic priests are unfairly targeted by countless false accusations of sexual abuse. He has the audacity, in one of the world's most widely circulated newspapers, to question whether it was right for the Church to “dish out” $225,000 to Greg for the inexcusable abuse he suffered as a child. Mr. Donohue, can you say that you know what it's like to walk in Greg's shoes? Do you know, like Greg knows, the psychological burden he has carried since being sexually abused at St. Vincent's orphanage?
I can only imagine what you must have “dished out” to pay for a full page ad in the New York Times. Why? You seem very bitter, Bill Donohue. I wonder how you would feel if you were a victim or one of your children or grandchildren were molested by a priest.
Contrary to Mr. Donohue's thinly veiled suggestion that Greg's claim is fraudulent, two monsignors and a review panel of laypeople determined that his accusations were credible. Greg found the courage to stand up to his abusers and say “NO MORE!” When one person is brave enough to take on the Church, an organization that has used fear and intimidation and even outright threats to protect its darkest secrets, other survivors often find this same courage within themselves. After decades of thinking they were alone in their shame, they find hope.
===================
7 quick points re: new clergy sex abuse report
SNAP Press Statement
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2011_statements/041211_7_quick_points_re_new_clergy_sex_abuse_report.htm
Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com)
1. As bad as this report is, it is still based on self-reporting by the bishops. There’s still no independent data on the extent of child sex crimes by Catholic clergy. More important, there’s no data on the extent of the on-going cover up by Catholic bishops. That’s the part of this crisis that bishop try to make sure no one looks at.
2. With these figures, the total number of proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests in the US is now almost 6,000.
3. We believe the single most important numbers in the report are:
--“55 of the 188 participating dioceses needed to make improvements or risk being out of compliance with the national policy, more than double the number of dioceses who were found lacking in 2009.” This is clear and disturbing evidence that bishops are choosing to do less to protect kids, instead of doing more or the same.
-- “Allegations of sexual abuse involving the Roman Catholic clergy in the United States rose sharply last year to nearly 700 from around 400 in 2009,” according to Reuters. . We commend each of these brave kids, women and men who found the strength to disclose their pain and hopefully protect children.
4. Catholics and citizens need the names of the proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests. It is unconscionable that Catholic officials continue to hide the identities of these dangerous and potentially dangerous child molesters. These clerics are dangerous enough that most of them can’t work in Catholic parishes any more but can work, live, and volunteer among unsuspecting neighbors, employers and relatives.
5. It’s disingenuous for church officials to call this an “audit.” It’s not. It’s just more partial self-reporting by bishops, the same men who got us into this mess to begin with. No one had or has subpoena power. These “researchers” had no access to church files. There’s no “fact-checking.” They simply regurgitate what bishops choose to voluntarily share and then cash the bishops’ check.
6. The Philadelphia archdiocese passed this so-called “audit.”
7. The first national media coverage of clergy sex crimes and cover ups was in 1985. It’s been nearly a decade since the crisis erupted further following the Boston Globe’s investigation. Still, more than 500 individuals found the courage last year to report pedophile priests to church officials. (Who knows how many more disclosed to friends, family, therapists, police, attorneys and support groups, or whose reports to Catholic staffers went unreported to the survey team.)
This is a crucial reminder that victims come forward when they are able to come forward, not on some arbitrary timeline set by callous bishops or uninformed lawmakers. It’s also a reminder that there remains a tremendously heavy and often crippling amount of pain still being shouldered by deeply wounded women, men and children who were sexually assaulted by priests, nuns, bishops seminarians, brothers and Catholic lay employees.
We beg each and every one of those suffering individuals to dig deep and find the courage and strength to come forward, get help, expose wrongdoing, protect kids, and start healing.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. 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, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)
======================
The Disgusting Defense Of Priest Molesters That Catholic League's Bill Donohue Got The Times To Run
UNITED STATES
Queerty
In a few weeks the New York Times will cash a check from Bill Donohue's Catholic League, as payment for the full-page ad the newspaper decided to run today. Dubbed "Straight Talk About the Catholic Church," the wordy advertisement is, on its face, a defense of the Catholic Church from the lamestream media who keep trying to paint the place as a disgusting avenue for child molesters to find victims. Not fare, claims Donohue! It's just a distortion! He then goes on to list some facts, or rather, "facts," about sexual abuse cases in the church. And of course, there is the requisite blaming of homosexuality -- because the monster is male and so too is his victim -- for the sins of these men. The Catholic Church and Catholic League, of course, should be ashamed. But so too should the New York Times. Unless the paper is willing to run an ad tomorrow blaming blacks for America's poverty?
I'm reprinting the ad's text in its entirely below, because these distortions must remain a matter of public record. And while the Times can stand behind the "this is an advertisement, not a piece of editorial" excuse, it is still guilty of perpetuating falsehoods against our community. The relevant portion from Donohue's diatribe:
From his most disturbing statement, Bill Donohue is a Catholic clone of John Paul II who is as callous and cold-hearted and has no interest whatsoever of serving justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army. Bill Donohue’s New York Times ad couldn’t come at a better time at 3 weeks before the beatification of John Paul II, the 27 years reigning pontiff who kept on blessing the serial pedophile Father Marcial Maciel and promoted the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law who confessed in public that he aided and abetted 80 pedophile priests in Boston. Bill Donohue copy-cat John Paul II who looked upon Father Marcial Maciel as a “holy priest” who never raped his victims. John Paul II was for 27 years the most powerful man in Christianity and he did absolutely nothing (he refused even to listen and to meet) with the victims of Father Maciel and the victims of the 80 pedophile priests of Boston which proves he had the most callous heart toward children and now he will be the “holy” Blessed John Paul II. John Paul II refused to protect children during his powerful papacy and therefore in death he cannot protect children either and in deference to those children of the 20th century, no child should be praying to him in the 21st century and forever. John Paul II is the same yesterday and today and forever John Paul II will always be the Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts and Rapists of Children no matter how Bill Donohue and the Catholic League will defend him and no matter what the Catholic League and the Vatican trillions dollars Bank ad will buy. Read the new Prayer to Saint John Paul II the Great here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/prayer-to-john-paul-ii-saint-of.html
Please sign your names to protest the beatification of John Paul II here http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/03/faces-of-rapists-priests-from-father.html
Bill Donohue is preaching to the whole world as Benedict XVI did exactly this same time last year during Lent and Holy Week when he called the New York Times reportage of his cover-up of clergy sex abuse as “cheap gossip” at St. Peter’s Square read our related article here http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2010/04/benedict-promised-cheap-justice-costly.html
It isn’t a small coincidence that Bill Donohue’s most disturbing phrase “they weren't children and they weren't raped... that most of the victims have been adolescents” match the words of Opus Dei’s Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls in his essay of April 1, 2010 when he said that most of the victims “were not children but post-pubescent boys” read our article here http://jp2army.blogspot.com/2010/04/reasons-why-opus-dei-covered-up-john.html
And to think that the 600 pedophiles rapists-priests whom Cardinal Roger Mahony covered-up are still free to roam and sodomize more boys in the streets of Los Angeles. There are about 6,000 pedophiles pederasts priest in the USA alone, not counting those of Ireland and Europe and worldwide. How many Catholic priests who are pedophiles and pederasts are in jail today thus making it safer for Catholic boys and girls whether they are children or post pubescent?
Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America
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 - 6,000 priests - John Paul II & Benedict XVI & Opus Dei, the new Vatican Trinity
Why John Paul II is Opus Dei's Patron Saint: analysis of conference at Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome on April 1, 2011 http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-john-paul-ii-is-opus-deis-patron.html
Holy Heist! John Paul II WYD had no role with Arab youths who liberated Egypt from Mubarak who stole then deposited billions into Vatican Swiss Banks http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2011/02/holy-heist-john-paul-ii-wyd-had-no-role.html
John Paul II Pedophiles Rapists-Priests Army http://jp2army.blogspot.com/
===================
Bill Donohue's straight talk
By
Susan Campbell
April 11, 2011
http://blogs.courant.com/susan_campbell/2011/04/bill-donohues-straight-talk.html
3261685752_a0a4e4a961.jpgToday's New York Times carries a full-page ad titled "Straight Talk About the Catholic Church," from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League.
Maybe the ad is not just in the Times. Perhaps donors to the Catholic League have the scratch to run the ad elsewhere. I went looking for it in other newspapers online, to no avail.
The ad contains Donohue's usual tropes about how unfair it is to target the Catholic Church when speaking about childhood sexual abuse, and he blames the media for fostering the idea that there is a widespread sexual abuse problem in the church today. He makes good points about the need for mandatory reporting, and the damage often done by the so-called therapeutic approach, which operates under the assumption that a pedophile can be "cured."
But his long essay also contains this rather startling statement:
"The refrain that child rape is a reality in the Church is twice wrong: let's get it straight -- they weren't children and they weren't raped. We know from the John Jay study that most of the victims have been adolescents, and that the most common abuse has been inappropriate touching (inexcusable though that is, it is not rape)."
I have not seen Donohue in Courtroom 3B, Waterbury Superior Court, but I invite him to sit in on the testimony from the victims of George Reardon, former head of St. Francis Hospital endocrinology. Reardon's victims were often children -- 8, 9, 10 years old. And they were raped.
Court resumes at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Mr. Donohue.
· Patrick O'Malley · Works at 617-PATRICK Social Media Training
Donahue: "Let's get it straight--they weren't children and they weren't raped... more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia. In other words, the issue is homosexuality, not pedophilia."
Like the case documented in the recently released Philadelphia grand jury report of a 10 year old girl who Fr Cudemo lie on top of and “ejaculate all over.” He put his penis in her mouth and ejaculated. See page 142 of http://www.philadelphiadistrictattorney.com/images/Grand_Jury_Report.pdf
Fr Cudemo was described by a top aide to Cardinal Bevilacqua as “one of sickest people I ever knew.”
So, Mr Donahue, you are correct. At 10, she was no longer a child, so it isn't pedophilia. It also isn't homosexuality, because it isn't a man. Its a young girl. And it wasn't officially rape.
Of course, it was rape a couple of years later, when the same girl was 12, and he got her pregnant and took her for an abortion.
But it wasn't pedophilia. Congratulation, Catholics.
Meryl Reyman
outrageous. so, it's no problem that many were really only adolescents? I feel better already.
By Bobby on April 11, 2011 10:46 AM
"Maybe the ad is not just in the Times. Perhaps donors to the Catholic League have the scratch to run the ad elsewhere. I went looking for it online, to no avail."
Did you try looking at the Catholic League's web page? (I know you have the URL; you linked to it). Today's press release is entitled "Catholic League's New York Times Ad." So I'm not sure why you expect to see it elsewhere.
Also, whatever the facts of the Reardon case, he was not a priest. Donohue's statements are clearly about abuse by priests.
By Susan Campbell on April 11, 2011 10:51 AM
@Bobby: Oh, good. When I checked the website this morning, the ad was not there. And now it is and I can link to it, so thank you for that. I also edited the sentence that you found unclear. I was looking for the ad elsewhere, other than the New York Times. I don't necessarily think it should run anywhere else -- or even the Times. I just didn't know if it had appeared in other publications. Are we clear on that? And I also know Reardon wasn't a priest. He was, however, the head of a department at a Catholic hospital, and much of the defense I'm hearing in court sounds extremely familiar to me.
But thanks for the head's up that Catholic League had loaded up its own ad on its own website.
By cliff on April 11, 2011 10:56 AM
Well, it IS comforting to know that the Catholic Child Abuse Horror is not limited to denial at the top, but the loyal parishioners are also dug in deeply in denial while the children suffer.
I know. I was one of the raped, and so was my brother, and so was the son of the parish housekeeper in St. Matthew's Church in Forestville, CT. The son was told that if he told anyone, he would see his mother lose her job which would leave them destitute. All under 14 at the start.
All over the news, it continues today, no matter what study you quote, Donohue.
The sad news is, Mr. Bill Donohue, is that YOU are the problem. The priests are caught in a web where they are forced to act out, leave, or die emotionally.
But it's the Parishioners who are so proud of their choice in religion that they cannot believe in their own mind that THEIR RELIGION is causing this. The parishioners are SO PROUD of their religion that they cannot admit their house has a major problem.And as long as the devoted Parishioners believe no wrong can be in THEIR HOUSE, the longer THESE SAME PARISHIONERS will never CLEAN THAT HOUSE!
Well, what are you waiting for HONEST PARISHIONERS?
For GOD to tell you that your HOUSE needs cleansing?
Get to it, and stop the denial. FIRE BILL DONOHUE and get some honest righteous Catholics to take over the mess you now call the Catholic Church!
This is NOT going away by itsownself.
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 12:23 PM
I guess you didn't pick up on the double entendre. 'Straight' Talk and then he launches into the Gay Priests thing.
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 12:58 PM
Cliff you will not change the perspective of many Catholics.
I attended 6 different parishes in my life. Only 1 priest was ever charged of all those priests. He was bagged in the 80s and died in a monestary in the 90s.
I attended a diocesan school for a couple years. No one charged there.
I attended a Catholic College No one charged there.
Of the two Catholic High Schools I attended the only person charged was a lay person. A track coach/history teacher. He had a couple victms in the 70s and wasn't bagged until the mid-90s.
Both cases are recorded at SNAP.
The same school had another charge that dated back to the 50s and early 60s. A deceased priest. A couple victims. No collusion.
As a victim I don't think you have a normal perspective on this Cliff.
Bill Donahue is right on one thing: the Catholic Clerical Culture did change. The number of fresh incidents is negligible and about what one would expect--below the national average for child abuse.
The legacy cases are a mess and many don't blame the Church alone. There are insurers, lawyers and the press involved. In some cases vindictive victims. Each interest has agendas and none have an agenda favorable to the church.
So sadly, most just ignore the mess of old cases. There are too many partisan ugly people involved to care anymore.
Donahue is right here too in his opening paragraph when he says "anger is turning on those who are distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse. That some exploit this issue for ideological and financial profit seems plain". Donahue misses one other reaction: disinterest. People moved on with their lives and are content to let the court room vultures pick at whatever bones they find.
By cliff on April 11, 2011 1:22 PM
@SF Adrien: "Cliff you will not change the perspective of many Catholics."
Then Catholicism is doomed, and so be it. The disinterested Parishioners allow their gem's demise.
Catholic Culture did NOT change, by the way. The cases just have not come out yet.
Sorry, fully disagree with your calm approach.
NO ONE is distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse except the Catholic leaders allowed by the disinterest of honest Parishioners.
Ignorance of today's culture and facts is NOT bliss.
By SarahTX2 on April 11, 2011 2:49 PM
Yeah, tell that to the guy in California who beat up his priest abuser who forced him and his brother to have sex with each other when they were 6 and 8 years old. The Catholic Church is filled with priests who are freaks and cowards. Donohue is a way overpaid hack whose little tax-exempt organization won't even say how many members it is. Donohue and the Catholic League are just another fraud on American taxpayers.
I do think it was right for the NYT to print his idiotic ad and be paid for it because it is not that newspaper's duty to protect the Catholic Church from its most rabid member.
By Judy Jones on April 11, 2011 3:28 PM
Take note latest news:
http://www.ocala.com/article/20110411/APW/1104111355
Report sees lapses in bishops' child safety policy
Quoted on NPR by William Gavin, March 29th.
"Philadelphia may not be alone, says William Gavin, a former FBI agent who was hired by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to audit each of the 195 Catholic dioceses each year and make sure they're preventing and reporting sex abuse cases. "It was an audit in quotes," he says. "I think it was more of a program review than anything else."
Gavin says he could ask whether a diocese is conducting background checks on priests and employees but he was not allowed to look at records that would indicate whether there were any allegations against a priest.
"We didn't have the benefit of drilling down into personnel files to see what might be there," Gavin says. "They were off limits."
Gavin and his auditors had to depend on a bishop's word about whether anyone had been accused of abuse. In addition, the questionnaire they use wouldn't have spotted the Philadelphia 21 anyway. It only asks about allegations within the past year, not older cases."
Quoted by Barbara Blaine, SNAP President, April 11th.
The real solution to this on-going child sex abuse and cover up crisis is two-fold.
1. Every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups must continue to come forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect kids and start healing.
2. Archaic, predator friendly laws must be reformed so that child predators and those who shield them can be exposed in court and others who are tempted to act recklessly, callously and deceitfully are deterred.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511
snapjudy@gmail.com
"Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests"
http://www.snapnetwork.org/
By Christine on April 11, 2011 3:53 PM
I was violently raped by a priest when I was 10. I know many people, male and female, who were raped by priests as children.
"We are not the only ones," and "We are not the worst," and "Most of the kids were molested, not raped," and "Most of them were teens, not little kids," and "The problem has been fixed," and "The church is now doing the right thing," are all ways of diverting the focus from the issue. They are all ways of avoiding the truth. Donohue, and those who agree with him, like to see themselves as the victims. Nonsense. Catholics should be ashamed to have him speaking for them. He is a joke.
First, it is not over. Anyone who understands sexual abuse knows that it typically takes victims decades to come forward. Therefore, we can logically conclude that victims of the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, 2000's, will continue to come forward for decades in the future. Reports of clergy abuse have never stopped.
The bishops have not done all they should be doing. Check out www.BishopAccountabilty.org and their Abuse Tracker for recent updates on this. Many bishops still refuse to be transparent, to have productive dialogue with victims. Many perpetrator priests are free, living in your communities, able to able more kids.
Stating statistics trying to prove that others abuse too is absurd. Yes, abuse takes place in all walks of life. I have never heard anyone deny that fact. But when the topic is the church, why bring up abuse in other places and point fingers? Take care of the crimes and issues in your OWN organization first. "Everyone is doing it" serves no purpose other than to avoid taking responsibility.
The issue which Donohue, and his supporters, like to avoid is the cover-up, the fact that the church's hierarchy systimatically protected and enabled the abusers. There is plenty of hard evidence to support this fact. The main point is not what percentage of priests abused, it is the fact that bishops/cardinals hid the abuse and therefore allowed more kids to be abused. They only began to "apologize" and make changes when they got caught by the same people they now like to blame (the media, the victims).
It does not make a difference if the abused kids were 10 or 14, or if the victims are male or female, if it was rape or another assault. Abuse is abuse, betrayal is betrayal. It is a horrific crime either way.
The truth will set you free. Please, educate yourselves on ALL the facts; read church documents; read some of the many good books on the topic; face reality. Deal with the continued lack of accountable for the crimes in your own church.
Stop blaming others.
By Sister Maureen Paul Turlish on April 11, 2011 4:06 PM
Church hierarchy tried to blame all the sexual abuse of children on those with a homosexual orientation some time back. I don’t remember if it was before or after the “blame it on the devil” excuse was floated. Neither one floated very well with Catholics
.
Are the hierarchs now using What’s his name as their shill? I hope What’s his name had to pay a bundle for his ad in the Times.
How many times must it be said that the sexual abuse of anyone, and in particular of children, is fundamentally an abuse of power and authority and in the case of religious denominations and organizations it becomes abuse of children, young women, men and vulnerable adults through the spiritual power and authority the individual holds.
What neither What’s his name nor any of the hierarchs have addressed, at least publicly, is their own and/or their predecessors’, involvement in protecting and covering up for sexual predators while victims got the short shrift.
Perhaps that may change with the calls for the resignation of the Cardinal Archbishop of Philadelphia. Justin Rigali has managed to show just about all the holes in the Dallas Charter with the release of Philly’s second Grand Jury Report, the five arrests that followed and the almost thirty priests who were taken out of ministry.
Msgr. William Lynn and the other four who were arrested will have their formal arraignments on Friday, April 15th at 11:00 A.M. in the Criminal Justice Center in center city Philly.
There will be a rally with protest signs beginning at 9:30 A.M. or so in front along with press conferences outside after the formal arraignments. JOIN US.
BTW, when is the topic of disciplining complicit bishops and others going to be the subject of the bishops’(USCCB) meetings?
FYI -
Also, check your Comcast Network Channel on Wednesday, April 13th at 5:30 P.M. for Larry Kane’s “Voice of Reason” show on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
I was part of a panel discussion recently on the situation in the Philadelphia Archdiocese that has resulted from the recently released second grand jury report, the five arrests that followed and the suspensions of almost thirty priests.
Back in March I was invited by PA Representative Michael McGeehan to speak at the March 1st press conference at the state capitol in Harrisburg where House Bills 832 and 878 were introduced. Those bills will, if they become law, (832) remove all criminal and civil statutes of limitation going forward and provide a two year civil window (878) for bringing forward previously time barred cases of sexual abuse by anyone.
These bills are very similar to the 2007 legislation which provided similar civil legislation in Delaware. The criminal statutes had been removed going forward a few years before that.
The show, “Voice of Reason” is hosted by Larry Kane of the Comcast Network and was taped a few weeks ago in their Philadelphia studios. In addition to my participation, the others on the panel included an adult “alleged” victim of childhood sexual abuse, his father and Anne Shenberger, a member of the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s Review Board.
The show was broadcast on the Comcast Network, CN 8 and 201 on Sunday, April 10th at 9:30 P.M. and will be repeated on Wednesday, April 13th at 5:30 P.M. The Comcast Network is also available on Fios.
The audio is already available if you click on:
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/show/kyw-specials-place/#
Then click on:
Sex abuse
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 4:12 PM
The problem I have with SNAP: even Bill Donahue gets the need to do better tracking. Some states have databases on all professional licensing and anyone dealing with kids has to be licensed. Any and all actions against the license are recorded and on the internet.
I understand SNAP has their focus: too often its the shrill voice of retribution not restoration and prevention.
By julia on April 11, 2011 4:14 PM
When will the catholic church realize that other organizations and people and groups do NOT claim to be the appointees of GOD.. they do not represent Jesus Christ they do not claim to be chaste, pure holy, celibate and the one true church..
They do not call their leaders FATHER and give the false impression that father is a safe name and title and demands complete trust.
That is the differenc between catholics and catholic priests and nuns and bishops and cardinals and pope being held to a higher standard.. a higher standard put on them by THEM..
They are true frauds and false..
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 4:32 PM
How's VOTF goin Sister Mary?
Any openly gay priests or female clergy or married priests appointed yet? That is your agenda for hierarchichal reform isn't it and why you use the term hierarchs?
Speak openly. What's the worse that can happen? An ex-communication?
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sister-maureen-paul-turlish/9/85/b72
By bill on April 11, 2011 5:08 PM
I feel that the only difference between the common garden variety priest and the officers of the Church is that the youthful priests are in full enjoyment of their pedi lifestyle and the old officers (including Il Papa) have but pleasant memories.
By cliff on April 11, 2011 5:11 PM
First, thank you to almost everyone who commented so far so elegantly. Most of the comments speak to the Heart of the matter and it is, for me, refreshing to hear them out on the open.
As to SF Adrien, thank you for attacking the person rather than shed any real light on the matter at hand. You have very successfully and aptly demonstrated the continued tatics of the Catholic Church (present company excepted), the tactics of denial: Attack the messenger before their message is heard. This has worked for centuries but in 2011, I pray we are wiser than to fall for your dodge.
Sister Mary is not the problem, she is the solution. Love, support, and encouragement will bring forth the truth. Sister Mary is not the cause for the inaction of the Church. Sister Mary is the solution to the inaction.
I, for one, am grateful for what she brings to the table, even if she isn't so good with remembering names!
By SF Andrien on April 11, 2011 6:52 PM
Did I attack Sister Maureen Turlish Cliff?
Her affiliations are common knowledge. You may not appreciate why VOTF doesn't speak openly or make position statements on church reform. Ex-Communication and banishment as in Bridgeport.
Cliff, this is not a personal insult. Just because someone doesn't agree with a victims groups doesn't make them an enemy.
I don't want Dr Petit making legislative decisions about the death penalty if you get my drift. He lacks a certain objectivity. Does he view me as an enemy?
Some victims groups offer only draconian solutions like the Treaty of Versailles or a hangman's noose and they rarely acknowledge positive efforts at restitution or reform.
There are some really bad tangos being danced and I find fault in both dance partners.
By Mario Saccoccio on April 11, 2011 7:35 PM
"The Catholic Church is filled with priests who are freaks and cowards."
Sorry, but you are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.
The rate of sexual abuse among the celibate is the same as non-celibates. This is not a problem with only catholic priests but across all denominations. It goes on in the "private" sector as well. Anytime adults are exposed to children, this can happen.
The sin of the church was their denial for all those years.
By christine on April 11, 2011 8:27 PM
Recommendation for a great new book, for anyone interested in the Catholic clergy abuse situation:
Clergy Sexual Abuse Litigation - Survivors Seeking Justice, by Jennifer M. Balboni,
www.FirstForumPress.com
=========================
Catholic League President Bill Donohue Dishes Out Big Bucks for NY Times
UNITED STATES
Injury Board
Posted by David Mittleman
April 11, 2011 4:41 PM
The target of the ad is clergy sexual abuse survivors. It's interesting that Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, feels the need to take a shot at my client, Greg Guggemos, in an apparent attempt to make him a victim yet again. In a full page ad in the New York Times today, in section A, Mr. Donohue laments that Catholic priests are unfairly targeted by countless false accusations of sexual abuse. He has the audacity, in one of the world's most widely circulated newspapers, to question whether it was right for the Church to “dish out” $225,000 to Greg for the inexcusable abuse he suffered as a child. Mr. Donohue, can you say that you know what it's like to walk in Greg's shoes? Do you know, like Greg knows, the psychological burden he has carried since being sexually abused at St. Vincent's orphanage?
I can only imagine what you must have “dished out” to pay for a full page ad in the New York Times. Why? You seem very bitter, Bill Donohue. I wonder how you would feel if you were a victim or one of your children or grandchildren were molested by a priest.
Contrary to Mr. Donohue's thinly veiled suggestion that Greg's claim is fraudulent, two monsignors and a review panel of laypeople determined that his accusations were credible. Greg found the courage to stand up to his abusers and say “NO MORE!” When one person is brave enough to take on the Church, an organization that has used fear and intimidation and even outright threats to protect its darkest secrets, other survivors often find this same courage within themselves. After decades of thinking they were alone in their shame, they find hope.
===================
7 quick points re: new clergy sex abuse report
SNAP Press Statement
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2011_statements/041211_7_quick_points_re_new_clergy_sex_abuse_report.htm
Statement by Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach CA, western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (949 322 7434, jcasteix@gmail.com)
1. As bad as this report is, it is still based on self-reporting by the bishops. There’s still no independent data on the extent of child sex crimes by Catholic clergy. More important, there’s no data on the extent of the on-going cover up by Catholic bishops. That’s the part of this crisis that bishop try to make sure no one looks at.
2. With these figures, the total number of proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests in the US is now almost 6,000.
3. We believe the single most important numbers in the report are:
--“55 of the 188 participating dioceses needed to make improvements or risk being out of compliance with the national policy, more than double the number of dioceses who were found lacking in 2009.” This is clear and disturbing evidence that bishops are choosing to do less to protect kids, instead of doing more or the same.
-- “Allegations of sexual abuse involving the Roman Catholic clergy in the United States rose sharply last year to nearly 700 from around 400 in 2009,” according to Reuters. . We commend each of these brave kids, women and men who found the strength to disclose their pain and hopefully protect children.
4. Catholics and citizens need the names of the proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests. It is unconscionable that Catholic officials continue to hide the identities of these dangerous and potentially dangerous child molesters. These clerics are dangerous enough that most of them can’t work in Catholic parishes any more but can work, live, and volunteer among unsuspecting neighbors, employers and relatives.
5. It’s disingenuous for church officials to call this an “audit.” It’s not. It’s just more partial self-reporting by bishops, the same men who got us into this mess to begin with. No one had or has subpoena power. These “researchers” had no access to church files. There’s no “fact-checking.” They simply regurgitate what bishops choose to voluntarily share and then cash the bishops’ check.
6. The Philadelphia archdiocese passed this so-called “audit.”
7. The first national media coverage of clergy sex crimes and cover ups was in 1985. It’s been nearly a decade since the crisis erupted further following the Boston Globe’s investigation. Still, more than 500 individuals found the courage last year to report pedophile priests to church officials. (Who knows how many more disclosed to friends, family, therapists, police, attorneys and support groups, or whose reports to Catholic staffers went unreported to the survey team.)
This is a crucial reminder that victims come forward when they are able to come forward, not on some arbitrary timeline set by callous bishops or uninformed lawmakers. It’s also a reminder that there remains a tremendously heavy and often crippling amount of pain still being shouldered by deeply wounded women, men and children who were sexually assaulted by priests, nuns, bishops seminarians, brothers and Catholic lay employees.
We beg each and every one of those suffering individuals to dig deep and find the courage and strength to come forward, get help, expose wrongdoing, protect kids, and start healing.
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. 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, SNAPclohessy@aol.com), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, SNAPblaine@gmail.com), Peter Isely (414-429-7259, peterisely@yahoo.com), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com)
======================
The Disgusting Defense Of Priest Molesters That Catholic League's Bill Donohue Got The Times To Run
UNITED STATES
Queerty
In a few weeks the New York Times will cash a check from Bill Donohue's Catholic League, as payment for the full-page ad the newspaper decided to run today. Dubbed "Straight Talk About the Catholic Church," the wordy advertisement is, on its face, a defense of the Catholic Church from the lamestream media who keep trying to paint the place as a disgusting avenue for child molesters to find victims. Not fare, claims Donohue! It's just a distortion! He then goes on to list some facts, or rather, "facts," about sexual abuse cases in the church. And of course, there is the requisite blaming of homosexuality -- because the monster is male and so too is his victim -- for the sins of these men. The Catholic Church and Catholic League, of course, should be ashamed. But so too should the New York Times. Unless the paper is willing to run an ad tomorrow blaming blacks for America's poverty?
I'm reprinting the ad's text in its entirely below, because these distortions must remain a matter of public record. And while the Times can stand behind the "this is an advertisement, not a piece of editorial" excuse, it is still guilty of perpetuating falsehoods against our community. The relevant portion from Donohue's diatribe:
posted by Paris Arrow | Tuesday, April 12, 2011
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