More Catholic Church Lies and Malfeasance

It truly has become nearly impossible to address issues involving the Roman Catholic Church on a daily basis since each day there seem to be new lies floated by the Vatican or some horrible new details of sexual abuse - some of it very recent and not in the distant past as the Church would like to pretend. And then there is the disingenuous campaign of the Church in Connecticut where the state's bishops have sent a "pastoral letter" to all Catholics urging their assistance in defeating a proposed law that would eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims. The full letter can be viewed here and it is literally sickening how the bishops pain a picture of the Church being unduly victimized as opposed to the truth that the Church and its morally bankrupt priest and hierarchy allowed the victimization of thousands. Here are a few passages that underscore the disingenuousness of Connecticut's bishops:
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This bill would put all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk. The nature of bankruptcy litigation puts all assets at risk, even if your parish has had no past incidents, reports or allegations of child abuse. That is why it is important for you to join other Catholics across Connecticut in opposing this legislation. And this is not simply about bankruptcy or the loss of property. Ultimately the legislation would undermine the mission of the Catholic Church in Connecticut, threatening our parishes, our schools, and our Catholic Charities.
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The bottom line is that this is terrible public policy, discriminatory by its nature, and a huge threat to us all. Most importantly, it does nothing to protect the state’s children because it delays reporting. We must stop this bill now.
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Please take action today! This is our Church, your Church, and we love and cherish it. Please contact your State Senator and State Representative now and express your strong opposition to House Bill 5473 as soon as possible.
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Shockingly, virtually nowhere in the letter do the bishops acknowledge the rampant sexual abuse by priests or the hierarchy's criminal role in covering up such abuse for decades. The Church is depicted as the wrongfully accused victim. It is in short, disgusting. It is yet another reason why I am no longer a Catholic. Bad things happen - or continue to happen - because good people look the other way or by their silence tacitly endorse it.
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As for the bishops false claims that alleged abuses would date back 50, 60 or 70 years, a case out of Texas shows that apparently little has changed in terms of the freedom of predatory priests to prey on victims. It is still happening. Here are highlights from the San Antonio Express News on incredible abuse - some at gun point - that occurred less than two years ago and occurred in the diocese headed by the newly named archbishop of Los Angeles:
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A Catholic priest from a rural parish west of San Antonio is accused in a lawsuit filed Thursday of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy at gunpoint and during private catechism sessions two years ago. The suit, which names outgoing Archbishop José Gomez as a defendant and claims he sought to conceal the matter, comes three days after the Vatican named Gomez as the next archbishop in Los Angeles. He is transferring to California next month. Gomez said recently through a spokesman that his five-year tenure involved no new sex-abuse allegations.
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The suit claims that Father John M. Fiala repeatedly assaulted the youth from January to August 2008 while Fiala was working as administrator at Sacred Heart of Mary in Rocksprings. That’s the county seat of Edwards County, which is about 110 miles west of San Antonio and is part of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
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The archdiocese said Thursday it has cooperated in the investigation, but it did not say whether it had reported any complaints against Fiala to police. During a news conference Tuesday to announce Gomez’s new assignment, Father Martin Leopold, head administrator for the archdiocese, said only a couple allegations of sex abuse by priests had surfaced during Gomez’s tenure. He said they involved claims from 20 and 30 years ago and were made public at Gomez’s request and in keeping with the standards of transparency codified by bishops in the aftermath of an explosion of sex abuse allegations earlier this decade. “In the last five years, we’re blessed to not have had any allegations of new abuse,” Leopold said, reasserting programs and policies to protect from such abuse.
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The Fiala case follows the same pattern of cover-up of sex-abuse complaints in the Catholic Church in the U.S. and Europe, said David Clohessy, national president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Bishops are so quick to say that they have made changes,” he said. “And the ones to pay the price are the young victims.”
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On other occasions, the priest manipulated the teen into performing oral sex, once by leveraging his gift of a car and another time pulling a revolver on him, according to the suit. The teen eventually ran away from home and attempted suicide, the suit says. A school counselor learned of the alleged abuse and contacted the Sheriff’s Office.
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“One of the issues in this case is he had numerous transfers and periods of no assignments at all,” said the teen’s attorney, Tom Rhodes. “That’s a pretty good red flag.”
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This case, if proven suggests that Los Angeles' new archbishop is little better than outgoing Cardinal Richard Mahoney who always put the interest of protecting predator priests ahead of the safety of children and youths. Indeed, NOTHING has really changed. Every Catholic who gives ANY money to the Church at the parish level is underwriting and enabling this obscene system. Money is assessed against parishes and passed to the diocese level from which some of it is passed on up to Rome. Why can't the Catholic laity see that it is being cynically used by the Church's morally bankrupt leadership?