John Paul II Millstone

St. Michael the Archangel tied an 8ftX3ft millstone to the neck of John Paul II in North America at the July 2002 WYD World Youth Day - because JP2 refused to stop his papal army,JP2 Army John Paul II Pedophiles Priests Army. 9/11 WTC attacks 3,000 victims-by 19 Muslims-led by Osama bin Laden, USA Pedophile Priests 15,736 victims victims-by 6,000 rapists-priests- led by John Paul II...JP2 Army was JP2’s Achilles Heel so St. Michael threw him into the depths of Hell- see Paris Arrow's vision

My Photo
Name:
Location: East Coast, United States

Danish cartoonist (of Mohammed) drew John Paul II holding up robes of altar boys to expose their BUTTS to SATIATE his bestial PAPAL JP2 Army - John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army who sodomized hundreds of thousands of little boys - with inscription - I am against homosexuality but for pedophilia. Read the vision of Paris Arrow on how Saint Michael the Archangel tied the giant millstone on John Paul II's neck at his last WYD in 2002 -- in the John Paul II Millstone post August 1, 2006. John Paul II's neck broke and Saint Michael threw him into a raging sea of fire... The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for (enough) good men - and good women - to do (and say) nothing. Youths of today, do not be deceived by the pathological lies of the Pope and the Vatican. The Vatican own the Swiss Banks where all moneys from corrupt regimes are hidden and poor peoples and poor countries are therefore perpetually oppressed....ABOLISH ALL VATICAN CONCORDATS THAT USURP BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM COUNTRIES that are already BURIED IN DEBTS!!! EXTERMINATE VATICAN MAMMON BEAST -- read our NEW BLOG: POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ. Pretender &Impostor of Jesus

Monday, February 23, 2009

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

=======

Sunday, February 15, 2009

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.

Monday, February 09, 2009

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.

====

...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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

=========

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.

=

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.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

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

free counters
Free counters
best web hosting
http://www.hitwebcounter.com/htmltutorial.php
Stats Review