San Diego Priest-Abuse Files Shows How Diocese Worked to Protect Predators

Over the last two years the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and its ass kissing sycophants in the Knights of Columbus have spent millions of dollars to deprive same sex couples civil marriage rights and denigrating LGBT Americans in general. All the while, the Church pretends it is taking the high ground and "protecting marriage" - even as the Church works tooth and claw to hide its true moral depravity from public view. That effort has taken a major blow in San Diego where 10,000 pages of sex abuse trial court documents have been released against the Church's protestations. Attorneys for sex abuse victims claim that there are another 200 pages that the Church is working overtime to keep sealed in the court records. Among other things, the release documents confirm that the diocese had quietly moved priests who had molested children from parish to parish and sometimes even slipped them out of the country. As I have asked before, why does anyone continue to remain a member of and fund this foul institution. Here are highlights from the San Diego Union Tribune:
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The release of thousands of pages of previously confidential files on San Diego Roman Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse is a landmark development in the abuse scandal, lawyers and advocates for victims said Monday.
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The approximately 10,000 pages of documents made available over the weekend extend back more than a half century and constitute what one expert called the most significant cache of clergy abuse files that has been released since 2003.
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The diocese is claiming some 2,000 more pages of documents relating to the priests should remain private, but the final decision will be made by a retired San Diego Superior Court judge who has been charged with deciding what documents should be made public.
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In 2007, the diocese agreed to a nearly $200 million settlement of all the claims.
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A portion of the released documents offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the diocese over the decades as it dealt with some priests accused of abuse. They confirm what plaintiffs and their lawyers have long said — that in some instances the diocese quietly moved priests who had molested children from parish to parish and sometimes ushered them out of the country.
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Among other things, he said, he was struck that many priests who were accused of abuse were from foreign countries, perhaps more than any other diocese in the nation.
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That raises the question of whether San Diego bishops actively recruited, or agreed to accept, problem priests being moved from other dioceses, he said.
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Irwin Zalkin, a San Diego lawyer who represented many of the plaintiffs, said the San Diego diocese is arguing that certain legal privileges — such as those between a therapist and patient, or attorney and client — bar the release of the remaining 2,000 pages of records. He said because most of the 48 priests whose files have been released are deceased, the protection does not apply.
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The lawyers suspect those documents contain the most embarrassing and damaging records of how the diocese handled problem priests. “These documents that have been released are just the tip of the iceberg in San Diego,” Boucher said.