Belgian Catholic Offices Raided in Sex Abuse Probe - U.S. Church Hiding Assets

In a lesson that needs to be learned by police departments across the USA, in Belgium, police have raided and locked down the palace of the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and also raided the home of retired Archbishop Godfried Danneels in connection with the investigation of sex abuse allegations against a number of Catholic Church officials. Meanwhile, it has come out that Dan Rather will be hosting a story that looks at coordinated effort by the U.S. Catholic Church to hide and protect Church assets from the claims of abuse victims - even as Pope Benedict XVI disingenuously makes statements that the Church wants to do right by abuse victims. As I have said before, I believe that members of organized crime families have more integrity than many of the "princes" of the Catholic Church who continue to prove themselves to be morally bankrupt. Even as they continue their anti-gay jihad and pronounce that gays are "inherently disordered." First, some highlights from the BBC on events in Belgium:
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Belgian authorities have raided the headquarters of the Belgian Catholic Church during an investigation into child sex abuse claims. A spokesman for the Brussels prosecutors' office confirmed that the palace of the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels had been sealed off. Police also raided the home of retired Archbishop Godfried Danneels.
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Brussels prosecutors were looking for material relating to allegations of sex abuse, a spokesman for the prosecutors' office said. "This is a case that the Brussels prosecutors' office received recently, containing a statement of facts in relation to alleged sexual abuse of minors by a number of people within the Church," said Jean-Marc Meilleur.
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Separately, the offices of an independent commission set up to look into cases of sexual abuse were also raided. An inquiry into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Belgium has been running for several years. In April, the then-bishop of the city of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, resigned after admitting that he had sexually abused a boy earlier in his career.
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Pope Benedict XVI himself has been accused of being part of a culture of secrecy, and of not taking strong enough steps against abusers when he had that responsibility as a cardinal in Rome.
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My, my!! At last someone is treating high clergy as the criminal conspirators that they are. What a refreshing concept. Back here in the USA, Dan Rather is about to blow the lid off of more sleazy behavior by the Catholic Church. Rather's report, entitled "Spiritually Bankrupt" premieres on HDNet, Tuesday, June 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET with an encore at 11:00 p.m. ET. It will focus on the deliberate actions of the Church in hiding assets and seeking to avoid accountability for decades of criminal conduct against children and youths. Here are some highlights from PRNewswire:
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Next week, "Dan Rather Reports" investigates how the Roman Catholic Church has been hiding and shielding assets from victims of priest abuse. Some say the Church is behaving more like a big corporation than a sacred institution.
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From the Vatican on down, the church has vowed to make peace with hundreds of victims of a decades-long epidemic of sex abuse by its priests. But "Dan Rather Reports" found evidence that the church has done just the opposite: Wealthy U.S. Dioceses from California to Delaware have claimed to be broke and have filed for bankruptcy to avoid paying damages; Bishops have exploited arcane corporate laws to shield church assets from liability; and, in San Diego, parish priests have been caught literally hiding money in safes, according to court records.
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"If you or I did what the Diocese of San Diego did in that bankruptcy, we'd be charged with bankruptcy fraud, and we'd probably be in prison," said attorney John Manly, who has represented dozens of priest abuse victims in lawsuits across the country. "Dan Rather Reports" found evidence that some high in the church hierarchy have provided guidance.
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"One of the comments that came from one of the bankruptcy attorneys is that, 'These guys make Enron look like altar boys.' Pardon the pun," said Don McLean, who was abused as a 10-year-old altar boy, and sought damages from the San Diego diocese.

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What is maddening to me is that even as more and more evidence mounts that the Church hierarchy is for the most part utterly unscrupulous and morally bankrupt, members of the Catholic laity continue to grovel to these criminals and worse yet, continue to give them money.