870 Allegations of Child Sex Abuse Against Catholic Order

While being attacked by the far right, Pope Francis faces another growing problem: a resurgence in media coverage of the Church's foul conspiracy to aid, abet and protect sexual predator priests.  A new bombshell has exploded in Ireland where the Church is already in a free fall with the release of a report on the rampant sex abuse within the Christian Brothers religious order.  Meanwhile, things aren't going well for the Church in Australia and else where as reports on the abuse and cover ups mount.  As for Francis, he still has failed to hold anyone in the hierarchy accountable and no one has been drummed out of office.  Here are highlights on the new report out of Ireland:

The child protection watchdog of the Catholic Church has published eight reviews of the practices and procedures in place to address sex abuse cases. The audit covers the period between January 1975 and May 2013.

It examines six separate dioceses and two religious congregations.

The work was carried out by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC).

This latest tranche of reports from the Catholic Church child protection watchdog shows that during a period of almost three decades 870 allegations of child sex abuse were made against 325 members of the Christian Brothers order.

The audit shows that 12 have been convicted and describes the number of allegations as 'substantial'. It says the reviewers were in no doubt that a great number of children were seriously abused by the Brothers.

The review of the St. Patrick's Missionary Society - known as the Kiltegan Fathers - says 50 allegations were made against 15 members of the order, with one conviction since 1975.

In the Archdiocese of Armagh 16 priests were the subject of 36 allegations. One of the those have been convicted of child sex abuse office.

As noted, things are not sweetness and light for the Catholic Church in Australia where a Royal Commission is investigating sex abuse by Catholic clergy.  Indeed, faced with the drumbeat of news of abuse and cover ups, the Archbishop of Perth felt the need to issue a public apology:

The Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe has issued a public apology for the Catholic Church's failure to recognise and prevent the sexual abuse of children.

In an open letter to 100 parishes and the wider community, Archbishop Costelloe says he is sorry the abuse happened and ashamed that some church leaders did not adequately respond to allegations.
"The key message of the letter is really to acknowledge the terrible suffering of people who have been victims of sexual abuse by clergy and other church workers," he said.

"I really do feel ashamed of the actions of those who betrayed everything the church stands for.

The apology comes as the Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse examines the Catholic Church's Towards Healing program, which was set up in 1996 to deal with complaints against it.

Let's be clear.  The Church did recognize child sexual abuse.  It merely sought to cover it up and throw the victims on the trash heap like garbage.  The Archbishop's apology is disingenuous at best.  Meanwhile, when will Pope Francis begin purging the hierarchy of those who participated in the cover up conspiracy?

Apostolic Nuncio to Dominican Republic Investigated for Sexual Abuse

The news media - and Catholics who are eager to engage in wishful thinking that the Catholic Church is changing - have given Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt if not a free pass entirely since his elevation to the Papacy.   Sadly, nothing has changed substantively not withstanding Francis' more humble conduct and statements that have been misread to believe gays can perhaps hope for kinder treatment at the hands of the Church.  Another thing hasn't changed either: there still has been no thorough house cleaning of clergy and members of the Church hierarchy that aided, abetted, covered up, and in some instances engaged in sexual abuse of children and minors.  Bringing this reality into focus is the news that the Apostolic Nuncio to Dominican Republic (pictured above) is under investigation for sexual abuse.   The UK's Catholic Herald looks at the development.  Here are excerpts:

The Dominican Republic’s top prosecutor has said that he plans to investigate claims of sexual abuse allegedly committed by the apostolic nuncio to the Caribbean country, just a day after the Vatican confirmed its own investigation into the allegations.

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, appointed as nuncio in 2008, was removed from the post on August 21, and a Dominican bishop confirmed in early September that the dismissal was due to the sexual abuse scandal unfolding in the country.

Days after Archbishop Wesolowski’s removal, a television news programme aired allegations that he had paid for sex with minors and was connected to a Polish priest accused of sexually assaulting at least 14 underage boys.

The programme, “Nuria”, claimed that Archbishop Wesolowski regularly visited Santo Domingo’s historic center, where he allegedly drank alcohol and paid for sex with underage boys in an abandoned monument nearby.

Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito said he plans to open an investigation, although it was unclear if he had legal jurisdiction over the case since it involves a diplomatic representative.

Archbishop Wesolowski arrived in the country in January 2008 and also served as apostolic delegate to neighboring Puerto Rico. He drew praise from Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez of Santo Domingo, who called him a “great friend and promoter of peace” as recently as last week.

The cardinal’s press office said it had no comment on the claims against Archbishop Wesolowski and that Cardinal Lopez had no immediate plans to make a statement on the situation.

The Church hierarchy remains a foul cesspool.  Catholics who continue to give deference to these horrible men are complicit in the crimes they have committed and are either utter fools or prefer to keep their heads buried in the sand rather than face the face that they have been duped by the Church.

Catholic Church Seeks to Hide Sexual Abuse in Uganda

Some things never change when it comes to the Roman Catholic Church: gays are treated like lepers, women remain subservient and inferior members of the Church, and the quest to hide sexual abuse of children and minors never ends.  Efforts to bring to light widespread sexual abuse in Uganda once again demonstrate that the Church hierarchy's main objective is to silence anyone who might expose the foul cesspool that is today's institutional Church and the criminal conspirators in the hierarchy.  Africa is the last growth area for the Church so one can expect the leadership to go to great lengths to hide the scandal.  Here are highlights from the Daily Monitor:

A Catholic priest, who last month exposed prevalence of sexual adventure by his colleagues in violation of celibacy oath, has disengaged from the debate citing an “agreement” he reached with Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga.

Fr. Anthony Musaala, whom the prelate suspended about a fortnight ago for raising the allegations in public, yesterday said he was constrained to further discuss a subject he thrust into the public domain. “I made an agreement with the Archbishop [not to talk to the media] because there was so much happening; so much at stake, he said, “So, I will not comment and I hope you appreciate that.”

Fr. Musaala’s premature withdrawal came a day after Archbishop Lwanga, who suspended him mid-last month, made a U-turn on Easter eve to acknowledge and apologise for alleged sexual abuses, including of minors, by some priests. “It’s sad that there has been some misbehaving by some (priests) as alleged,” he said, before announcing an ad hoc commission had been constituted to inquire into the matter.

Findings of the investigations, according to Archbishop Lwanga, would not be made public because the Church has a cocooned mechanism of resolving such slip-ups.

Fr Musaala, who was suspended on March 19, told this newspaper that he had no regrets for authoring the dossier and demanded that cases of sexual abuse, especially of children, in Uganda should not be left to the church alone to tackle. He said then that his exposure of the vice was “a good thing” to draw attention of state actors to sex crimes and child abuse by catholic clerics.

You can change the name of the continent or country involved, but the pattern of abuse and cover ups remains the same worldwide.

Catholic Bishops Knew of 20 Sex Abuse Allegations Against Priests

As the College of Cardinals assembles to select the next Pope to replace retired Nazi Pope Benedict XVI, the PR spin doctors for the Catholic Church strive to dupe the public and the Church laity into believing that things have changed in terms of the Church hierarchy's behavior towards predator priests.  As news reports out of the United Kingdom reveal, the truth of the matter is that little if anything has changed.  A story in The Guardian shows that it is still the same old pattern of cover ups and deception.  Here are some story highlights:

The hierarchy of Scotland's Catholic church was on the defensive again last night over claims that bishops knew of as many as 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests in the 1980s and 90s, along with a separate revelation that the Vatican is currently considering the case of a Scottish priest accused of child sex abuse.

The claims about the 20 cases, which were made by an academic previously involved in advising the church on sexual abuse and how to respond to it, also came as a report suggested that Cardinal Keith O'Brien was summoned to Rome to answer charges of sexual impropriety as early as October last year.

O'Brien was forced to resign last month by Pope Benedict XVI, barely 36 hours after the Observer disclosed that three serving priests and one former priest were accusing him of "inappropriate acts" against them nearly 30 years ago.

While he made a dramatic admission last weekend that he was guilty of sexual misconduct throughout his career in the church, new questions about the handling of his case have now been raised by a report by the Catholic weekly, the Tablet, which claimed that he was called to Rome last year after a priest lodged an allegation with the Congregation for Bishops. 

A separate report by the BBC, which claimed that bishops knew of as many as 20 allegations of child sex abuse by priests, was based on correspondence between senior clerics and Alan Draper, an expert in social work and lecturer at Dundee University who compiled a report for the church on how to deal with abuse.

He remains scathing about the hierarchy's response to the report drawn up by him and a working party and last night called on the church to open up its files and records to an independent assessment.

"Certainly there's strong evidence to say some of the priests were out of control sexually, whether they be homosexual or heterosexual," he said. "The file should be made open to an independent group, preferably chaired by a judge."

The Church hierarchy remains a veritable cesspool.  How anyone can honor and give deference to these horrible men is dumbfounding.

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.