The Fight to Reveal Abuses by Catholic Priests - and Hierarchy Coverups

The Roman Catholic Church despite the nice words of Pope Francis on a few occasions remains one of the most anti-gay churches on the planet.  In terms of official dogma, nothing has changed and the Catechism of the Catholic Church continues to describe gays as "inherently disordered."  Paradoxically, the Church at the same time remains filled with gays, including gay prelates at the highest levels, and the Church hierarchy also has been shown to have conspired on a world wide basis to protect pedophiles and child molesters.  The disconnect between dogma and the pattern of knowing cover ups could not be more complete.  A lengthy article in the New York Times looks at the difficulty experienced by those seeking to identify  predator priest and to hold their protectors accountable.  Here are some excerpts:

Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the former Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, is in no way the principal face of the sexual abuse scandals that have buffeted the church and its priesthood almost without pause for three decades. But he embodies a certain mind-set among some in the highest clerical ranks. It is an attitude that has led critics, who of late include the authors of a scathing United Nations committee report, to wonder about the depth of the church’s commitment to atone for past predations and to ensure that those sins of the fathers are visited on no one else.

The conditional nature of the apology, a style favored by innumerable politicians caught with hands in the till, was not lost on many listeners. Nor was the cardinal’s use of “mistakes” to describe a pattern routinely described by district attorneys as a cover-up. As if that were not enough, the reluctant penitent turned thoroughly unrepentant a decade later. By then retired, he withdrew his apology.

That sort of unyielding stance amid institutional promises of change continues to bedevil the American church, the Holy See in Rome and, no doubt, many among the faithful. 

By now, the story is amply familiar. Thousands of wayward clerics have been found to have sexually abused and emotionally scarred many more thousands of boys and girls. It is, too, a story of the church hierarchy as enabler: bishops who ignored the criminality, or evaded public exposure by shuffling abusers from parish to parish. The scandals have cost the church dearly, both in lost moral suasion and in its coffers. 

Nor is this a uniquely American peril. Similar scandals have erupted in Europe, Latin America, Canada and Australia.

For sure, sexual maltreatment of children and cover-up are not Catholic monopolies.  . . . . The existence of a website like StopBaptistPredators.org points to problems in other denominations. As for secular institutions, who could be unaware of abuses within the Boy Scouts of America and at Penn State?

But the Catholic Church has a hierarchical structure unlike any other, not to mention two millenniums of tradition and a claim to universality. 

Then again, the church in this country has plenty of concerns other than sexual misconduct. . . . The number of American priests, 39,600 last year, is two-thirds what it was at the time of the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s. Ordinations of new priests, 511 in 2013, amount to barely half the total of five decades ago. The painful closing of Catholic schools by financially burdened dioceses has become routine.

But it is the abuse scandals that loom ever-large. In early February, the report by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child sternly took the Vatican to task for, in the panel’s view, not having acknowledged the extent of past criminality and not doing enough to protect today’s children. The relatively new pope, Francis, recognizes the problem. 

Yet as popular as Pope Francis is, he has left some skeptics wondering where his heart lies. He did not endear himself with support groups for abuse victims when, in an interview with two newspapers in early March, he said of the scandal: “The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution to have acted with transparency and responsibility. No one else has done more. Yet the church is the only one to have been attacked.”

To some ears, those remarks sounded almost Egan-like in defensiveness.

Let's be blunt.  Unless and until Francis sacks numerous current bishops and cardinals and ends the cushy retirements of men like Cardinal Egan, Cardinal Roger Mahony and Cardinal Bernard Law, his credibility will remain suspect.  Meanwhile, between the Vatican's refusal to end the anti-gay jihad being pushed by many bishops and cardinals and its failure to severely punish those who enabled predators, the Church's membership will continue to plummet in all but backward and ignorant areas such as Africa.  Hispanic immigration will help disguise the Church's decline in America for only so long.  And, with America providing some 60% of the Church's financial inflow, the decline will become catastrophic at some point. 

Los Angeles Archbishop Kept Altar Boy List From Police

More tawdry facts and more examples of the deliberate obstruction of justice have emerged from a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and, as is always the case, the Church clerics responsible have yet to be punished or stripped of titles and perks by the Vatican.  If Pope Francis truly wants to change the Church's approach to sexual abuse of children, a good place to start would be to toss Archbishop Roger Mahony out of the Church and deny him a cushy retirement.  Sadly, we should not hold our breath to see any such justice done.  Meanwhile, in settling the last round of lawsuits, the Archdiocese has paid out $740 million in settlements.  Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

When Los Angeles police were investigating allegations of child abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in 1988, they asked for a list of altar boys at the last parish where the priest worked.

Archbishop Roger Mahony told a subordinate not to give the list, saying he didn't want the boys to be scarred by the investigation and that he felt the altar boys were too old to be potential victims, according to a deposition made public Wednesday.

The detectives investigating allegations against Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, a visiting Mexican priest, ultimately got the names of  the boys from parish families. They determined the priest molested at least 26 boys during his 10 months in Los Angeles, according to the priest's confidential archdiocese file and police records made public by attorneys for the victims.

Twenty-five of the alleged victims were altar boys and the 26th was training with the priest to be one, said Anthony DeMarco, a plaintiff attorney. It's not clear what impact Mahony's action had on the investigation, though at the time police complained that the archdiocese wasn't fully cooperating.

Mahony's deposition was obtained by The Associated Press and is part of the evidence included in a settlement of abuse claims against Aguilar Rivera and four other priests. The archdiocese, the nation's largest, agreed to pay $13 million to 17 victims.

Mahony, who was elevated to cardinal and retired in 2011, maneuvered behind the scenes with his top aide, Monsignor Thomas Curry, to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners in the dark.

When the files were released, prosecutors said the cases fell outside the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of any church officials.

Mahony's sworn testimony in the case of Aguilar Rivera is significant because it's the first time he has been questioned under oath about clergy abuse since the confidential church files were released. During past depositions, attorneys haven't had documents to back up their questions, DeMarco said.  "This time when he's trying to do the `I don't remember' routine, I put the document in front of him and said, `You wrote this, right?'" he said.

Aguilar Rivera was accused in January 1988 by two families who told church officials that he had fondled their children and, in one instance, climbed into bed with a boy after drinking too much during a Christmas celebration at the family's home.

The priest was told about the complaints by Curry and fled to Mexico before police were notified. He remains a fugitive and is believed to be in Mexico.  

Church files released last year show that Mahony ordered Curry to withhold the altar boy list from the LAPD.

There's more in the article on efforts made to obstruct justice and protect predator priests. The take away?  How can anyone moral and decent remain an active Catholic?  The institution's leadership is morally bankrupt.

Cardinal Mahony: A Case Study in Sex Abuse Cover Ups

Few things pushed me more to leave the Roman Catholic Church more than the sex abuse scandal that exploded in Boston in 2002.  As time went by, it became clear that Boston was not some anomaly but rather symptomatic of a worldwide problem and a worldwide conspiracy orchestrated from the Vatican to cover up widespread sexual abuse of children and youth.  The problem, in my view tracks back to three main sources: (i) the celibacy requirement for priests, (ii) the Church hierarchy's bizarre obsession with all things sexual, and (iii) the priesthood providing a safe hiding place for pedophiles and others not  emotionally/psychologically mature.  The Los Angeles Times has a lengthy piece on Cardinal Roger Mahony who oversaw wide spread cover ups during his tenure.  The article quickly makes it clear that protecting children and youths was not a priority.  Here are some excerpts:

Mahony typed up a detailed account of the conversation and placed it in the priest's confidential file, meticulous record-keeping that distinguished the archbishop from his predecessors.

By the time the holidays were over, Baker had been sent to a New Mexico treatment center for accused pedophile priests. Police weren't notified. Victims weren't contacted.  It would become a familiar pattern.

Mahony and his aides insisted on secrecy even when lives were at risk. In one case, the archdiocese was informed that a man dying of AIDS had been having sex with a parish priest, who in turn was abusing high school students. At the time, the average life expectancy after an AIDS diagnosis was 18 months. Yet church officials did nothing to alert the priest or the students. "People involved in these activities usually are aware of these matters," a Mahony aide wrote.

Mahony's schedule brought him in regular contact with the police chief and the district attorney, but he never mentioned the accused abusers in his ranks or reported them to law enforcement. In private memos, he discussed with aides how to stymie police.

Mahony and his aides selected therapists who they knew wouldn't report abuse to authorities, and urged suspected molesters to remain out of state to avoid police investigations and lawsuits. Mahony ordered one priest who had admitted preying on as many as 20 children to stay away from California "for the foreseeable future" to avoid prosecution.

Inside the Los Angeles Police Department's Sexually Exploited Child unit, detectives had come to think of clergy cases as a footrace against the chancery. When a tip about a priest came in, the starting gun went off.

LAPD policy was to notify the archdiocese when an investigation was underway. But once the church was informed, Barraclough said, "we knew that the suspect, 99% sure, that he was going to be out of the country or out of state."

Detectives begged parents not to inform the church and held off telling their own supervisors, Barraclough said in an interview, buying time to talk to witnesses, track down other victims, and seize toys and photos from rectories.

"They lied as bad as any thug or ex-con I've ever come across on the street," Lyon recalled in an interview. "They were more interested in saving the reputation of the church than helping us find these young victims."

[L]ocked cabinet in the archdiocese headquarters, files bulged with evidence that Mahony was covering up sexual abuse of children.

Manila folders alphabetized by abusers' names contained letters from distraught parents, graphic confessions from priests, and memos between the archbishop and his aides discussing how to stymie police investigations and avoid lawsuits.

There is much more in the article which deserves a full read.  Many have gushed over Pope Francis' purported changed atmosphere at the Vatican.  However, until Francis takes strong action against Mahony and a multitude of other members of the Church hierarchy who acted as Mahony did, any perceived change will be merely a facade.  And the Church leadership will remain morally bankrupt. 

Thoughts from a Victim Sex Abuse by Priests

Will Lynch in San Francisco, 2012. (LiPo Ching)

An op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News looks at the continued cover ups of sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church and how the Church continues to enable predators.  The piece also focuses on why those who believe that things will change under Pope Francis are deluding themselves.  The Church has for centuries seen itself as above the law and nothing will change as long as (i) prosecutors fail to relentlessly prosecute both the sexual predators and those past and present who protect them, and (ii) the Catholic laity acts like mindless sheep and continues to bankroll the criminal enterprise that is the Church hierarchy.   One can continue to hold one's Catholic beliefs if they must, but that does not mean one has to finance a criminal conspiracy.  With a portion of every single dollar put in the collection plate going to the local bishop and Rome, only a total cessation of giving will get the attention of the narcissistic nasty old men in dresses who do not give a damn about the sexual abuse of children.  Here are some column highlights:

On its surface the election of Pope Francis would appear to offer renewed hope for true reform within the Catholic Church. 

Two weeks into his reign the honeymoon continues, with the media marveling at the new pope's easy smile and obvious warmth. They speak of his willingness to live modestly and travel around Rome in a Volkswagen instead of a big limousine.

While the media have the power to effect real change, they continue to focus on the superficial while ignoring the elephant in the room.

The real question to be addressed is this: When and how will Pope Francis confront the ongoing cover-up of the sexual abuse of children within his church?  I am a victim of this Catholic Church. And I want an answer to that question.

When I was seven years old and at a Catholic Church camping trip in northern California, my four year old brother and I were raped by Father Jerold Lindner. Lindner, who has been accused of abusing many others, including his own family members, has never been prosecuted. Still a priest, he roams freely from the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos while still being paid by his enablers, the Catholic Church.

Not unlike many large corporations, what has driven the Catholic Church for centuries is money and unfettered power. For just those reasons, the church refuses to take responsibility for all its Fr. Jerrolds.

My story and [Cardinal] Mahony's blatant criminal neglect are sobering reminders of why the Catholic Church will never reform on its own. Only when flawed church policies and legal strategies are deemed criminal and no longer economically viable will church leaders be forced to take action against their in-house child abusers.

The most effective means to force those reforms are twofold:
1) The elimination of all civil and criminal statutes of limitations for the sexual abuse of children nationwide.
2) The withholding of all monetary contributions to the Catholic Church.

Stop wishing and hoping that this new Pope might be different. That's irrelevant.

Reach out to your local representatives and law enforcement to demand real change.  And stop reaching into your pocket.  Hit them where it hurts — in court and in the wallet.  Only then will the enablers be stripped of their power.  Only then will our children be safe.

The author of the op-ed, Will Lynch of San Francisco is founder and executive director of R.I.S.E. (www.riseaboveabuse.org), whose primary focus is a ballot initiative to eliminate the civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse in the 2014 California election.  Check out his ongoing effort.  Better yet, make a donation.

Justly Deserved Criticism of the Catholic Church and Francis I

One blogger is unhappy that this blog has been critical of the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I, as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church:

Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I hadn't been the newly elected Pope an hour when LGBT bloggers, groups and other self-appointed important voices were attacking him.

This continuing attack against the Roman Catholic Church, of which this writer is not a member, is getting almost as old as the Church itself . . . There is a very simple solution for the detractors to follow.  Leave the Church if you can't abide by its rules of Faith.  No one presuming you're an adult forces you to be Roman Catholic. Find another Faith, more progressive to you're liking.

Those not of the Faith, particularly the Atheist faggots just need to stifle.

Easy words for a blogger who lives in a progressive state like Connecticut where it is a different world from Virginia where the Catholic Church teams up with the Christofascists at The Family Foundation almost daily to deny LGBT Virginians such things as basic employment non-discrimination protections.  Easy words for a blogger who perhaps doesn't know victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests who suffered threats and intimidation in the Church's efforts to keep them silent.   Easy words for a blogger who may not have personally known talented young men who ended their lives because of their inability to deal with the religious based hate and stigma the Catholic Church hierarchy works to perpetuate daily.   And easy words for a blogger who admittedly wasn't raised Catholic and who never experienced the psychological abuse that such an upbringing entailed, especially if one is gay.  And lastly, easy words for a blogger who may not have look at reports on Bergoglio's failings during Argentina's "Dirty War."

Meanwhile, events continue to demonstrate the true face of the Catholic hierarchy and its moral bankruptcy - including one of the electors of Francis I.  Yes, the Los Angeles archdiocese is paying out another $10 million to victims of sexual abuse - on top of the $600 million previously paid out.  Here are highlights from USA Today:

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay four men almost $10 million to settle allegations of sexual abuse by a former priest who more than a quarter century ago had confessed to molesting children, attorneys said Tuesday.  Two brothers will receive $4 million each, and the other two men will get nearly $1 million apiece, said John Manly, a plaintiff's attorney.

The settlement is the first since the Catholic Church released thousands of internal records detailing the actions of the defrocked priest, Michael Baker, and how church officials responded. Baker was convicted in 2007 of child molestation and paroled in 2011.

In January, as the files were about to be made public, a California judge ordered the archdiocese to identify all priests and church officials named in the documents.

Mahony retired as Los Angeles archbishop in 2011. Last month, his successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, stripped him of his official duties.  Mahony is in Rome participating in the conclave selecting the next pope. He was aware of the settlement, J. Michael Hennigan, an archdiocese attorney, told the Associated Press.

Another plaintiff attorney, Vince Finaldi, told the Los Angeles Times that he believed that the release of the files was a major factor in the settlement.  "Once we got the files it confirmed everything we had argued for years and years," Finaldi said. "Cardinal Mahony's fingerprints were all over the case."

If Francis I cleans house and strips men like Mahony and Cardinal Bernard Law and many others of their titles and plush retirements and stops inciting hatred towards gays now that he's pope, I may reconsider my criticisms.  Frankly, I do not expect any meaningful change to occur, so my criticism will stand.  The days of special rights, deference and respect for the Catholic Church need to end.

The Catholic Church Heirarchy's Perverted Values

In the wake of the release of Archdiocese files that have conclusively shown that Cardinal Roger Mahony and his minions actively protected predatory priests and deliberately kept law enforcement officials in the dark about serial child rapists a cat fight has developed between Mahony and his successor Archbishop Jose Gomez who stripped Mahony of his public duties - although Mahony remains a cardinal and a "prince of the church" entitled to great deference and to vote in electing the next Pope.  The arrogant and vain Mahony is REALLY pissed that that Gomez has publicly announced that he was stripping the cardinal of any public role in the local church.  Indeed, Mahony has hurled back "Not once over these past years did you ever raise any questions about our policies, practices or procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct involving minors."

While I have ZERO sympathy for Mahony - who belongs behind bars in my view - what he says about Gomez is true.  And most of the rest of the Church hierarchy.  NO ONE in the hierarchy gave a damn about the victims of abuse.  Indeed, they still don't.  Their sole concern is the PR damage being done which shows the moral bankruptcy of the entire senior Church leadership.  This damage needs to continue full bore to the point where some of the sheeple in the pews will finally open their eyes and stop financially supporting the criminal enterprise known as the institutional Church.

One other thing that is stunning has been shown by the newly released documents: while nothing was done to stop or punish child rapists, the Church was swift to act when non consequential - at least in real world terms - Church rules were broken by priests.  All of which further underscores the hypocrisy  and moral bankruptcy of the peevish old men who flounce around in dresses demanding respect and deference from the ignorant and gullible.  A piece in the Los Angeles Times looks at the swift and sure punishment that was meted out for violations of Church rules even as nothing was done to known sexual predator priests.  Here are some highlights:

The archdiocese of Los Angeles learned in the late 1970s that one of its priests had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy so violently that he was left bleeding and "in a state of shock." The priest said he was too drunk to remember what happened and officials took no further action.

But two decades later, word reached Cardinal Roger M. Mahony that the same priest was molesting again and improperly performing the sacrament of confession on his victim. The archdiocese sprang to action: It dispatched investigators, interviewed a raft of witnesses and discussed the harshest of all church penalties—not for the abuse but for the violation of church law.

"Given the seriousness of this abuse of the sacrament of penance … it is your responsibility to formally declare the existence of the excommunication and then refer the matter to Rome," one cleric told Mahony in a memo.

The case of Father Jose Ugarte is one of several instances detailed in newly released records in which archdiocese officials displayed outrage over a priest's ecclesiastical missteps while doing little for the victims of his sexual abuse.

The revelations emerged from 12,000 pages of the once-confidential personnel files of more than 100 priests accused of abuse.  .  .  .  . The files also suggested that the attempts to protect abusers from law enforcement extended beyond the L.A. archdiocese to a Catholic order tasked with rehabilitating abusers.

"Once more, we ask you to PLEASE DESTROY THESE PAGES AND ANY OTHER MATERIAL YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM US," the acting director of the order's treatment program wrote to Mahony in 1988 in a letter detailing therapists' reports about a prolific molester. "This is stated for your own and our legal protection."

The order, the Servants of the Paraclete, closed the New Mexico facility where many Los Angeles priests were sent amid a flood of lawsuits in the mid-1990s. A lawyer for the order declined to comment, but indicated in a 2011 civil court filing that all treatment records were destroyed.
Mahony disregarded the order's advice, and therapy memos are among the most detailed records in the files.

In some cases, the behavior that drew the greatest ire of the hierarchy involved breaking church rather than criminal laws. After first learning of Michael Baker's abuse of boys in 1986, church leaders sent the priest to therapy, then returned him to ministry believing his word that he would stay away from children.  Yet in 2000, information that Baker was performing baptisms without permission set off a new level of alarm among the church's top officials. They discussed launching a canonical investigation, and for the first time in Baker's checkered years with the church, officials raised the prospect of contacting police.

The church fought all the way to the state Supreme Court to keep many of the records secret. The archdiocese abandoned a plan make the documents public with the names of the hierarchy blacked out only after media organizations, including The Times, sued in court. The judge sided with the media, but in many of the documents posted online, Mahony's name and that of his top aide on abuse in the 1980s, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry, are still redacted.  Asked about the redactions, a lawyer for the archdiocese, J. Michael Hennigan, pledged to "fix it."  "It was our intention to always release the Cardinal and Bishop Curry's names when they appeared," he wrote in an email.

There's much more in the article, but suffice it to say, it reveals a putrid cesspool.  How any moral person can continue to attend a Catholic and put money in the collection plate defies logic.  These men are monsters and until they are driven from power and their positions, financially supporting the Catholic Church makes one an accessory to their crimes.

Retired LA Cardinal Symbolically Stripped of Duties

Apparently, the increasing amount of dirt coming to light in the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has finally hit the tipping point where even the child rapist protectors at the Vatican believed that some sort of symbolic gesture had to be taken against Cardinal Roger Mahony who has been shown to have deliberately protected molesters and kept information from authorities.  And the volume of dirty is only likely to get worse as more files are released under court order.  While I welcome any kind of action that will humiliate the pompous and arrogant Mahony, the sad reality is that what he did is likely the norm across diocese after diocese around the world.  Protecting children simply did not matter to these horrible men who prance around in dress demanding deference from the gullible.  A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at this latest development out of Los Angeles.  I don't for a moment believe Archbishop Gomez's feigned disgust - he's only upset the world is seeing the extent of the hierarchy's moral bankruptcy.  Moreover, it is telling that Mahony has not losthis title as cardinal.  Here are story excerpts:

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who retired with a tainted career after dodging criminal charges over how he handled pedophile priests, was stripped of duties by his successor as a judge ordered confidential church personnel files released.

The unprecedented move by Archbishop Jose Gomez came less than two weeks after other long-secret priest personnel records showed how Mahony worked with top aides to protect the Roman Catholic church from the engulfing scandal.

One of those aides, Monsignor Thomas Curry stepped down Thursday as auxiliary bishop in the Los Angeles archdiocese's Santa Barbara region. Gomez said Mahony, 76, would no longer have administrative or public duties in the diocese.

"I find these files to be brutal and painful reading," Gomez said in a statement, referring to 12,000 pages of files posted online by the church Thursday night just hours after a judge's order. "The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children."

The fallout was highly unusual and marks a dramatic shift from the days when members of the church hierarchy emerged largely unscathed despite the roles they played in covering up clergy sex abuse.

"It's quite extraordinary. I don't think anything like this has happened before," Reese said. "It's showing that there are consequences now to mismanaging the sex abuse crisis."

Several of the documents released late Thursday echo recurring themes that emerged over the past decade in dioceses nationwide, where church leaders moved problem priests between parishes and didn't call the police.

In one instance, a draft of a plan with Mahony's name on it calls for sending a molester priest to his native Spain for a minimum of seven years, paying him $400 a month and offering health insurance. In return, the cardinal would agree to write the Vatican and ask them to cancel his excommunication.

It was unclear whether the proposed agreement was enacted with the Rev. Jose Ugarte, who had been reported to the archdiocese 20 years earlier by a physician for drugging and raping a boy in a hotel in Ensenada, his file shows.   "He has been sexually involved with three young men in addition to the original allegations," Curry, then Mahony's point person for dealing with suspected priests, wrote in 1993.

In another case, Mahony resisted turning over a list of altar boys to police who were investigating claims against a visiting Mexican priest who was later determined to have molested 26 boys during a 10-month stint in Los Angeles

Prosecutors, who have been stymied for years in their attempts to see the internal church files, have said they will search for new evidence of criminal wrongdoing by church leaders. Most of the material, however, now falls well outside the statute of limitations.

Some church critics said Gomez's actions, particularly against Mahony, amounted to a slap on the wrist as long as he remained a cardinal and a member of the powerful Vatican body that elects the Pope.

The reprimand is a "purely symbolic punishment that they hope will satisfy at least some people in the archdiocese," said Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks the release of priest files nationally. "I don't think that many savvy observers of this will be deceived."

Oh, and do check out the letters found here which show that the current Pope was involved in the protection of predator priests as well.  The Church hierarchy continues to be an utter cesspool that ought to shock the conscience of decent moral people.  It deserves no repect and certainly no deference by politicans or anyone else.

How Long Does It Take a Supposed Man of God to Admit Child Rape is Wrong?

Fortunately, the story first launched by the Los Angeles Times about the deliberate, many years long cover up efforts by Cardinal Roger Mahony and Los Angeles archdiocese officials continues to get much play.  As additional records are released relating to another 75 predator priests, one can only expect that the much deserved negative coverage of the Catholic Church will only increase.  Meanwhile a piece in Religion Dispatches raises the question of how a supposed man of God like Mahony could show noting but contempt for child victims while protecting their abusers.  Its a phenomenon which to me demonstrates the utter moral bankruptcy of the Church's leadership all the way up to Benedict XVI.  Here are excerpts from the piece:

Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles sat on reports of felony-level sexual abuse of children by priests for almost 15 years before he took action, and that the Los Angeles Catholic diocese waited at least 14 years before reporting abuse to law enforcement.

The LA Times report was based on letters written by Mahony in 1986 and 1987 recently entered as evidence in a civil suit. More documents will be disclosed in the coming weeks.

Here at RD, I have argued that it was the feminist movement’s emphasis on bearing witness to sexual abuse that raised consciousness and created critical mass among Catholic laity towards breaking the abuse scandal open.

And it sure doesn’t take a degree in gender studies to see how a hierarchical patriarchal institution will protect its own before it protects children.


Wrote one Los Angeles Times commentator: “If the Catholic Church had allowed women to become priests, would it even be having this ongoing sexual abuse problem? Maybe the Holy Spirit is trying to tell the Magisterium something, but I doubt most of these folks would be listening to her anyway.”

Still.  Fifteen years’ gap between crime and compunction.  Fifteen years.  Fifteen years. First-degree felonies.  Rape.  Committed against the most vulnerable: undocumented, Spanish-speaking children.  As young as twelve.

While preaching from a sacred text that plainly states: “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).

As Bob Felton at Civil Commotion makes clear, the Catholic Church doesn't have a monopoly on sexual predator clergy.   The Southern Baptist Convention may be just as bad in some ways.  But the arrogance and attitude of the Catholic Church hierarchy that it is above the law has few equals.   The moral bankruptcy - not to mention chilling hypocrisy - of the bitter old men in dresses speaks volumes about why the Catholic Church in its present form needs to die.  It is truly something hideous.

More on the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' Protection of Child Rapists

Recently this blog looked at the incredible filth the Los Angeles Times exposed to have been a matter of routine policy within the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles where covering up crimes against children and protecting sexual predators was the norm.   The absolute disregard for the victims of abuse underscores a blood chilling amorality of those who strut around seeking deference and pontificating to others about morality.  It is hard to describe Archbishop Mahony (pictured above) and his minions as anything other than monsters.  And it makes one ask again, what is wrong with the Catholic laity that they continue to financially support such a criminal organization and kiss the asses of men who ought to be behind bars.  As noted in the prior post, if one is looking for decency and true morality, the last place to look is within the Catholic Church and conservative Christianity in general.  A piece in Salon takes a further look at the cesspool which is the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  Here are excerpts:

It’s been a good 10 or so days since the last time the Catholic Church revealed itself to be somewhat less than forthcoming about the decades of sexual abuse perpetrated by trusted members of its own ranks. So it should come as a demoralizingly thorough non-surprise that it’s time again for another revelation of harrowing behavior – and systematic deceit. 

The memos, which the L.A. Times notes “the Archdiocese fought for years to keep secret,” show, in sickening detail, how the local church authorities endeavored to make sure to attract as little legal and public attention for three men they knew to be abusers. In a June 1987 memo, for example, Curry writes of Rev. Michael Baker, who admitted his sex abuse to Mahony in 1986. In it, he suggests Baker avoid meeting with a psychologist or psychiatrist, because “if he were to mention his problem with child abuse it would put the therapist in the position of having to report him,” and adds, “he cannot mention his past problem.” Mahony replies with a handwritten “Sounds good – please proceed!”

In another document, Mahony writes to a New Mexico treatment center about Msgr. Peter Garcia, who was known to have had “perhaps 15 to 17 relationships with youngsters in the age range of 12 to perhaps 17 or 18.” He tells the staff there, “I feel strongly that it would not be possible for Monsignor Garcia to return to California … The two young men who were involved with him and their parents have switched attorneys on several occasions, and I believe that if Monsignor Garcia were to reappear here within the Archdiocese we might very well have some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors.”

There’s also a memo from Curry that describes the actions of Father Michael Wempe, and of how “we discussed the possibility of his consulting a lawyer who would refer him to therapy, thus putting the reports under the protection of privilege.” Man, these guys were slick. As the L.A. Times notes, “Two decades would pass before authorities gathered enough information to convict Baker and Wempe of abusing boys.”

What’s astonishing now, in light of a continuing deluge of new information, isn’t that the local Catholic Church administration would put protecting its own ahead of considering the nightmare it was perpetuating for the victims — that’s pretty much a given.  .  .  .  .  It’s the apparent total lack of empathy that had to exist to describe a relationship between a priest and a 12-year-old child in terms of “surrogate father but also sex partner.”

In the coming weeks, more church files will be made public. They involve “at least 75 more accused abusers” — and over 500 victims.

I for one will never set foot in a Catholic Church again for any reason - to do so would leave me feeling literally dirty and morally deficient.  I simply cannot understand those who continue to support such a morally bankrupt institution.  Are they indifferent to the crimes committed and covered up or are they too lazy to bestir themselves to walk away and find a less disgusting denomination?

Catholic Church Leaders Sought to Hide Sex Abuse Cases from Police

Cardinal Roger Mahony, seen at a 2007 trial of a case involving sexual abuse by priests, wrote memos in 1986 and 1987 that offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by archdiocese officials to shield abusers from police. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / July 16, 2007)

Cardinal Roger Mahony, seen at a 2007 trial of a case involving sexual abuse by priests, wrote memos in 1986 and 1987 that offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by archdiocese officials to shield abusers from police. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / July 16, 2007)

The foul cesspool that is the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy seems to be becoming even more vile and stench ridden.  Or more accurately, with every passing day we simply learn more about the past strenuous efforts to obstruct justice and protect predator priests by high members of the Church hierarchy.  All orchestrated no doubt from the Vatican.  One has to truly wonder when criminal indictments will finally be handed down.  Likewise, one has to wonder when rank and file Catholics will open their eyes and stop financially supporting a criminal conspiracy.  The latest bombshell is from the Los Angeles Times which is reporting that  some fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal in Boston exploded, Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top adviser plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement officials.  If you or I did this, we'd be on our way to prison.  Here are highlights on the latest revelations which I personally find to be confirmation of past suspicions: 

Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping them out of California to avoid prosecution, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.

The archdiocese's failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known. But the memos written in 1986 and 1987 by Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offer the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials in the nation's largest Catholic diocese to shield abusers from police. The newly released records, which the archdiocese fought for years to keep secret, reveal in church leaders' own words a desire to keep authorities from discovering that children were being molested.

In the confidential letters, filed this month as evidence in a civil court case, Curry proposed strategies to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to church officials that they abused young boys. Curry suggested to Mahony that they prevent them from seeing therapists who might alert authorities and that they give the priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal investigators.

One such case that has previously received little attention is that of Msgr. Peter Garcia, who admitted preying for decades on undocumented children in predominantly Spanish-speaking parishes. After Garcia's discharge from a New Mexico treatment center for pedophile clergy, Mahony ordered him to stay away from California "for the foreseeable future" in order to avoid legal accountability, the files show. 

[I]n a letter to Mahony about bringing Garcia back to work in the archdiocese, Curry said he was worried that victims in Los Angeles might see the priest and call police.  "[T]here are numerous — maybe twenty — adolescents or young adults that Peter was involved with in a first degree felony manner. The possibility of one of these seeing him is simply too great," Curry wrote in May 1987.

Garcia was never prosecuted and died in 2009. The files show he admitted to a therapist that he had sexually abused boys "on and off" since his 1966 ordination. He assured church officials his victims were unlikely to come forward because of their immigration status. In at least one case, according to a church memo, he threatened to have a boy he had raped deported if he went to police.

Curry did not return calls seeking comment. He currently serves as the archdiocese's auxiliary bishop for Santa Barbara.

The confidential files of at least 75 more accused abusers are slated to become public in coming weeks under the terms of a 2007 civil settlement with more than 500 victims. A private mediator had ordered the names of the church hierarchy redacted from those documents, but after objections from The Times and the Associated Press, a Superior Court judge ruled that the names of Mahony, Curry and others in supervisory roles should not be blacked out.

The records show that sex abuse allegations were handled almost exclusively by the archbishop and his vicar. Memos that crossed their desks included graphic details, such as one letter from another priest accusing Garcia of tying up and raping a young boy in Lancaster.

There is much more in the article that is worth reading disgusting as it may be.  It is crucial that the Church hierarchy be criminally prosecuted for the horrors that they aided and abetted.  It is also crucial, in my view, that the Catholic laity be forced to face the reality that they are financing a criminal enterprises.  They need to cease all further financial donations to the Church in any form until the hierarchy is completely rid of all who participated in these criminal conspiracies, including the current Pope and many sitting cardinals.  Catholics who don't cease financing these monsters are little better than monsters like Mahony and Curry.

Deposition Paints Portrait of Catholic Church Cover Ups

I have addressed the issue of the egregious behavior of Cardinal Roger Mahony before - in fact most recently just earlier this week when Mahony had been quoted as saying that he had none nothing for abused boys because they were "illegal aliens." Prosecutors have in the past said that dealing with Mahony was worse than dealing with a crime family boss. Now, a deposition of Mahony in a civil lawsuit has been released and it underscores the mind numbing moral indifference shown by "prices of the church" to the sexual abuse of children and youths. As a parent, I find the moral bankruptcy displayed appalling. All the more so since these men hold themselves out as "men of God." They merely omit that their GOD is power, control and money. The Los Angeles Times reports on the details of the shocking deposition. Here are some highlights:
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I've said many times that Cardinal Roger Mahony should stop resisting the release of church documents in the sex abuse scandal. But after a Mahony deposition in a molestation case was made public by the courts last week at the request of The Times, I can see why the cardinal has fought to keep things under wraps.
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Despite reports that Baker continued to have contact with minors in violation of church orders, the archdiocese did nothing to stop the priest, who went on to molest other kids. You can see why this one troubles Mahony. But is he troubled about the suffering of the victims or the reflection on him?
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Consider this exchange between the cardinal and attorney John Manly, who was representing one of Baker's many victims: Manly: I mean, you would agree with me that the first thing any priest should do … when you learn that a priest has molested a child is call the police, right? Mahony: Not necessarily.
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It's not a difficult question. A child is abused; that's a crime, so you call the police and rush to the aid of the minor, right? Not Mahony. . . . [H]e didn't call the police and he didn't call the parish where Baker was living to warn of other potential victims. Manly: I take it at that point you instructed your staff to try and find the kids? Mahony: No, I did not.
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"It's utterly ridiculous for him to say, 'I couldn't find them,' " [Attorney Lynne] Cadigan said of Mahony. "He didn't want to find them." In fact, Cadigan said, the boys' mother worked at the parish where they were molested. Baker knew that, and continued molesting the boys for years, according to Cadigan, in Los Angeles, Mexico and Arizona.
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[I]s there any reason to believe that without lawsuits, media pressure and the threat of criminal prosecution, there would have been any changes [in the Church]at all? And would there have been the $660-million payout in 2007, when the archdiocese settled 500 cases of clergy sex abuse? As we saw again last week, the cardinal is a man who, even when he admits mistakes, doesn't seem capable of taking full responsibility for the consequences of them.
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Despite this clear malfeasance - which ought to merit criminal prosecution - mindless Catholics continue to grovel and kiss Mahony's pompous, corrupt ass. And he is only one of a plethora of princes of the Church who acted in similar manners. I literally cannot understand it.

Cardinal Roger Mahony Ignored Abuse of "Illegal Aliens"

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles (pictured at left) ranks right up there in terms of high level Catholic Church clerics who have enabled and run covered up for sexual predator priests. Like most of the Church hierarchy, Mahony is also a total phony and hypocrite. A case in point: he pretends to care about Hispanic members of the Church - likely so that he can shake them down for money and claim their numbers of Church rosters to make membership appear stable, yet callously dismisses sexual abuse of Hispanic youths because they are "illegal aliens." Now there's Christ like action - not. Once again I remain dumb founded as to why people continue to brown nose and pander to such morally challenged Church leaders like Mahony - who some speculate may move to Rome to avoid potential legal problems in the USA in the same manner as Cardinal Law who was "punished" by being given a plum position at the Vatican so as to avoid possible prosecution. Here are some highlights from the Orange County Weekly:

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For years, the greatest shield Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has used to protect his pedo-priest-protecting ass from the full wrath of the public is Mexicans, specifically of the illegal kind. His Eminence blesses marches for LA's many amnesty rallies, has spoken out against Proposition 187, SB 1070, and many other Know Nothing resolutions--and that's a good thing.
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Critics have long claimed Mahony does this only out of convenience given the demographic future of the Catholic Church, and I actually now finally believe that after reading a whopper of a disclosure in a deposition just released that's gaining national attention.
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The deposition--taken Jan. 25 of this year for a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of a sex-abuse victim by Newport Beach attorney John Manly, who has proven as much as an annoyance to Mahony as he has to Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown--proves again and again what a pedo-apologist and protector the leader of Southern California's Catholics are, but that's not a new story. To me, the biggest shock came early in the deposition, when Manly asked Mahony what did he do when a priest confessed that he had molested boys. "He told me that they were two families of illegal aliens and they had left the Los Angeles area," Mahony responded.
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That's right. He did NOTHING. The story continues in part as follows:
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Oh, and for the record: Mahony also told Manly he didn't bother to try and find those two families and the sex-abuse survivors--you know, because who cares about Mexicans unless they can deliver the tithes and nalgas in the pews?

Sex Abuse Cover-up by L.A. Archdiocese is Alleged

Meanwhile, even as the Roman Catholic Church is losing members, the hierarchy's cover up of the sexual abuse of minors continues to remain in the media, albeit not as much as deserved. The latest expose involves testimony that Cardinal Roger Mahony (pictured at left) covered up sexual abuse and ordered subordinates to not report it to authorities. It is beyond ironic that the Church is spending millions of dollars to defeat CIVIL marriage rights for NORMAL same sex couples in states across the country even as it continues to try to cover up for pedophiles and their enablers in the hierarchy in lawsuits brought by victims of sexual abuse by priests. Hypocrisy doesn't begin to describe the situation. Here are some highlights from the Los Angeles Times:

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The former vicar of clergy testifies under oath that Cardinal Roger Mahony ordered him in 2000 not to contact police about allegations of sexual abuse by a priest. In deposition papers filed Friday as part of a civil case, Msgr. Richard Loomis also testified that Mahony ordered him not to inform parishes of allegations against the now defrocked Rev. Michael Baker.In 2007, Baker was sent to state prison for 10 years after his conviction on molestation charges. He has been called before a federal grand jury investigating how the archdiocese handled priest abuse cases.Loomis is on leave from the archdiocese after also being accused of sexual abuse.

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Manly said in an interview Friday that, "because of Cardinal Mahony, they never called the police until 2002."In a 2002 interview, Baker told The Times that he had informed Mahony in the 1980s that he had sexually abused children. "I told Mahony I had a problem," Baker said.Mahony allowed Baker to remain active in the archdiocese and sent him to a New Mexico treatment center. Later, Baker was assigned to other parishes and, according to court records and interviews, abused other boys.

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John Aravosis at America Blog correctly sums up what in my mind is the only way the Catholic Church will ever be forced to impose accountability on the enablers and those who covered up for pedophiles:

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At what point does this stop being a church and start being a criminal conspiracy? We are talking pedophilia here. And it's clear that this "church" never quite got the message that raping children is a bad thing. The fact that these perverts who protected these other perverts remain in power in the church speaks volumes about the level of moral corruption in the Catholic leadership.

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Just how many children have to be raped before the Catholic leadership in America and Rome take pedophilia seriously? Maybe it's time we added prison sentences for the enablers as well.

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The thought of some of the pompous blowhards who make up the Church hierarchy sitting in prison cells is a wondrous vision to contemplate - especially when there are many in prisons right now who have done less heinous things than these bishops and cardinals - and dare I say Pope.