Unfortunately, I missed this CNN special that aired over the weekend due to social obligations and prepping for a medical procedure this morning (which went well, BTW other than the anesthesia knocking me on my butt for most of the day - I did today's earlier posts yesterday afternoon and set them to publish today). CNN's affiliated blog has some of the details and I am thrilled that a network has had the balls to air the Catholic Church's dirty linen in such a public way and punch holes in all of the damage control bullshit that has emanated from the Vatican and Catholic Church apologists. Not surprisingly, some of that latter group are having conniption fits that his less than holiness properly got the spotlight focused on his misdeeds and malfeasance. Here are highlights from CNN's Belief Blog:*
Matt McCormick was in the seventh grade when Father Alvin Campbell gave him a ride home from a baseball game. As they were driving along country roads, Campbell put his hand on McCormick’s thigh and “just left it there.” It was the first time the priest had touched him. During the next three years, McCormick says, the abuse would go much further.
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That was 25 years ago. Just three months ago, he learned that Pope Benedict XVI played a role in keeping his abuser in the church when CNN told him about a letter signed by the pontiff – then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – refusing to defrock the pedophile priest. Walking around the 1,000-person Illinois farming town where he grew up, McCormick pointed out where he was molested: inside the church school, inside the rectory, and inside the church itself
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"He [Fr. Campbell] used the cloak of Christianity in his role as a priest to embed himself with children of parishioners and he would molest them,” said Fred Nessler, an attorney who has represented hundreds of church sex abuse victims, including 10 who named Campbell as their abuser. “They groom children. First, luring them with the idea that they’re going to be around a priest and their parents usually think that’s a fine idea."
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When he was 16, McCormick tried to kill himself with a knife and with an overdose of pills. His father had to break down the door to his room to save his life.
“I felt like a victim and I felt ashamed,” McCormick said. “So [it was] denial, denial, denial until I got to the point that I could move away and not have to deny anymore because people wouldn’t ask.” As a teenager he also drank heavily and used marijuana.
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The priest was convicted in 1985 on multiple charges of sexual assault and sentenced to a 14-year prison sentence. But Campbell’s bishop, Daniel Ryan, was bothered by a disturbing fact: Despite his criminal conviction and prison sentence, Campbell was still a priest – and refused to quit.
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[Bishop] Ryan brought the case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who today is Pope Benedict XVI. Ryan asked Benedict to forcibly remove Campbell from the priesthood.
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In a personally signed letter, Ratzinger, citing Canon law, said he couldn’t defrock Campbell without Campbell’s permission – and instead suggested a local church trial, which would have taken years. It would be three more years before Bishop Ryan could persuade Campbell to request his own defrocking
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McCormick was speechless when he read the letter that kept his abuser an ordained priest. “I think common sense should supersede Canon law,” McCormick said.
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Common sense and minimal public decency - if not the felony conviction - should have moved Ratzinger to act. However, as continues to be the case even today, from the Pope on down far too many in the hierarchy continue to put the safety of (and much belated justice for) children and youths far below the need to protect priests and the foul and rotten institutional Church. If I sound angry, it's because I am angry. I was an altar boy for 10 years in a parish probably not much different that McCormack's and fully comprehend the ease with which a predator priest could have abused me and other altar boys, all of whom were good friends. Fortunately, we were lucky and to my knowledge no predator served at our parish. Tens of thousands were not as lucky. And Benedict XVI STILL doesn't get the magnitude of HIS sins of commission and omission. Oh, and how are the apologists - who are the ones actually ignoring "inconvenient evidence" and refusing to admit that the corruption and moral bankruptcy emanates from the Vatican - reacting? Here's a sample of the ass kissing hysteria via Catholic Culture:
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This weekend the CNN television network will air a special report, “What the Pope Knew.” The goal of the show, apparently, is to persuade viewers the Pope Benedict XVI bears much of the blame for the sex-abuse scandal. If that requires massaging the facts and covering up inconvenient evidence, CNN is prepared to take those steps.
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In addition to the Murphy case, CNN has also unearthed the similar case of an Illinois priest who was convicted of sexual abuse. CNN contacted one of the priest’s victims, and “told him about a letter signed by the pontiff—then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—refusing to defrock the pedophile priest.”
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