Trump's Vicious Immigration Policies' Willing Accomplices

While the Trump/Pence regime's Stephen Miller physically resembles Hitler's Joseph Goebbels, the cruel immigration policies he is pushing - and which Der Trumpenführer is gleefully embracing - are more akin to the policies of Heinrich Himmler's - the man who oversaw the "Final Solution" and the murder of millions of Jews across Europe. Like Hitler and Himmler, Miller and Trump see no common humanity in the immigrants their policies abuse, including small children in some cases wrenched from their parents. There are other parallels to the horrible Nazi past alive and well in America in 2019: the portion of the population that supports such horrors and, even more so, the personnel implementing the policies and abusing immigrant families.  No doubt the latter justify their conduct in the same manner Nazi death camp workers did: we were just following orders.  As if that excuse washed away any responsibility for the harm they did to others.  A column in the New York Times looks at Trump and Miller's accomplices - individuals who deserve to be damned by history.  Here are excerpts:

As President Trump continues his mad purge of the Department of Homeland Security, a sinister figure is emerging as the driving force behind all the chaos: Stephen Miller, the president’s top immigration adviser. . . . Mr. Miller seems to have rarely met an immigrant he didn’t want to deport. He is among the hardest of hard-liners, known for spurring his boss to pursue ever more draconian measures.

Not that Mr. Trump needs much encouragement. He did, after all, ascend to the White House on an immigrant-bashing, ethnonationalist platform as dishonest as it was divisive. Many of the administration’s uglier policy ideas have been a result of Mr. Trump’s failure to deliver on his signature campaign promise of a “big, beautiful” border wall. Small wonder Mr. Miller has emerged as his favorite consigliere on such matters.

He [Miller] was a chief architect of the travel ban on citizens from Muslim-majority countries. He favors the building of tent cities at the border for warehousing asylum seekers. He’s agitating to end the 20-day limit on detaining migrant children. And he wants to reinstate the practice of snatching migrant children from their families — though this time he’d like to give parents a “binary choice” of having their kids taken from them or held with them in detention indefinitely.

Mr. Miller is being credited with the blood bath at the Department of Homeland Security. Since Friday, a handful of top leaders have been, or are soon to be, shown the door, including the head of the Secret Service, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was never quite ruthless enough for the president’s or Mr. Miller’s taste. More firings are expected as Mr. Miller moves to remake the department in his image.

Bottom line, Stephen Miller is a man whose anti-immigration zeal remains unfettered by concern for the law, international norms or basic humanity. . . . And yet. The portrait of the 33-year-old policy adviser as a figure of singular evil is both overly simplistic and counterproductive.

But no matter how much of the administration’s immigration agenda Mr. Miller has been responsible for, it’s taken a village to make that vision a reality. Giving too much credit to any one person builds up Mr. Miller, undeservedly, as a Machiavellian genius and lets many other folks off the hook.

A society does not fall because of a small coterie of bad actors. Widespread rot requires legions of enablers, many of whom are driven by varying blends of personal ambition, ideological expedience and the self-aggrandizing delusion that, through their invaluable counsel, they can save the state from total destruction.

Expect increasingly to hear this last rationalization from former administration officials starting redemption tours as they resume life outside the Trump bubble.

Advisers like Kellyanne Conway, lawmakers like Senator Lindsey Graham and the former House Speaker Paul Ryan, party apparatchiks like the Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and a whole host of Trump-friendly media personalities may not  personally share the president’s views or policy aims. But their willingness to swallow some of the administration’s cruelest acts renders them complicit. Neither their reputations nor their consciences should be wiped clean.

Take Ms. Nielsen. . . . . Throughout her tenure, stories bubbled up about how she incurred Mr. Trump’s wrath by dragging her feet on policies that would have run afoul of the law or thrown the nation into chaos. But she still carried out and aggressively enforced her share of atrocities.

Now, defenders are portraying the woman who was in charge of caging migrant children as a hapless victim of the administration’s more unhinged forces.

It’s tempting to see Stephen Miller as the archvillain of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. But there is much guilt to go around, and even reluctant collaborators cannot be allowed to absolve themselves of responsibility for the administration’s continuing outrages.

Those who quietly allowing the Trump regime's abuses to continue are little better than the "good Germans" who did nothing as millions were murdered. These people deserve no respect and deserve to be treated as pariahs. They are morally bankrupt no matter how frequently they park their asses in church pews.

Kathleen Parker: Good Morning, Democrats. Goodbye, GOP of Trump.

Tent city for child prisoners.

I left the Republican Party going on two decades ago when I could no longer abide the party's conflation of right wing Christianity with the civil laws. Hand in hand with that phenomenon was the seeping hatred of others that the Christofascists and evangelicals brought with them as the infiltrated and then ultimately hijacked local city and county committees. Slowly but surely, the GOP became a moral cesspool even as the professional Christian crowd intertwined with the Party proclaimed their religiosity - a religiosity that focused on denigrating and harming gays and opposing abortion.  The rest of Christ message had been flushed down the toilet.  Enter Donald Trump on the political scene and the hate that has simmered under the surface of the GOP agenda has now burst into flame.  Many are belatedly taking the step that I did years ago and deciding they simply can not longer be a Republican - at least not if they want to retain a shred of morality and decency.  In a column in the Washington Post, [former?] conservative columnist Kathleen Parker looks at the need to decide between morality and decency or remaining a Republican.  Here are column excerpts:

Cracking down on illegal immigration was never going to be pleasant, but this?

It’s worse than you think. The travesty of separating children from their undocumented, migrant parents was less about cracking down as a policy than about President Trump’s bet-winning. If Niccolo Machiavelli hadn’t been born, Trump would have hired someone to write “The Prince” — or his more likely title, “The King” — explaining why his merciless means justify the ends of his majestic self-ardor.

Reports from hell, which we’ve finally located at the U.S.-Mexico border, have confirmed that [Trump] this president will do anything to get his way. We’ve seen the image of the 2-year-old crying while her mother is frisked by a Border Patrol agent. We’ve read of the father who, separated from his wife and 3-year-old last month, apparently killed himself while in custody.

What, one wonders, would it take to convince Trump that he’s wrong? That this policy of separation must stop yesterday? The trauma suffered by many of the nearly 2,000 children being held in government detention centers — especially by the very young ones — is excruciating to consider. Indeed, ­two-thirds of Americans oppose Trump’s tactic of trying to force Democrats to essentially “pay for the wall.” Who knew there were so many Mexicans in the U.S. Congress?

Now, just a few months from the midterm elections, Trump wants that wall more than he once wanted Stormy Daniels’s phone number. He wants it so much, babies can cry and little boys can curl into fetal balls for all he cares. He wants it so badly that traumatizing children is acceptable to him.

This isn’t supposition, it’s data. To the rich boy from Queens, you gotta be tough to make it in this world. To the King of the Swamp, you can’t let those people run over you: Give them back their 3-year-old son, and next they’ll want a free Harvard education.

Trump’s political calculation wasn’t just way over the top, it was sick. And, yes, these tactics qualify as mental torture similar to forcing a POW to listen to the screams of a comrade as a means of extracting information or inducing submission.

The irony is also sick, but in a good way, as karma goes. Republicans have been in such a dither over illegal immigrants — lest they become Democrats — they’ve created a scenario in which virtually no one of Latino descent would now consider supporting a GOP candidate.

Good morning, Democrats. Good night, GOP of Trump.

Notwithstanding the objections of a few Republicans — and lately more, given the political omens — it’s over. What’s obvious and belated is that most congressional Republicans were silent until their political futures seemed at risk. You have to wonder what it’s like to look in the mirror and see the face of someone who was essentially willing to condone the psychological torture of little children for political gain. Nauseating, I should think. But Republican dissenters have learned that to confront their dear leader is to face expungement by the one-third of Americans who support Trumpand who, coincidentally, also support separating children from their parents. 

Election Day will tell, and the outcome will reveal who we really are.

UN to Grill Vatican Again on Sexual Abuse of Minors

While Pope Francis again recently publicly apologized for the sex abuse of children and youths by Roman Catholic Church clergy and said that he would take responsibility for the crimes against children, in reality nothing has changed. No bishops or cardinals have been publicly sacked and stripped of all benefits and perks.  It has all been talk to date and no substantive action.  Now, in the wake of a brutal past report by the United Nations, the Vatican is about to again face yet another round of grilling by a United Nations committee.    The San Jose Mercury has details.  Here are excerpts:

A second U.N. committee plans to question Vatican officials on failures to stop clergy sex abuse. 


The hearing scheduled for May 5-6 in Geneva will look at whether the Vatican's record on child protection violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The Holy See ratified the treaty in 2002.
Vatican spokesmen said Monday they could not immediately comment.

Last January, Vatican officials testified for eight hours before an obscure human rights committee on the scale of clergy sex abuse globally.

The Vatican was compelled to appear as a signatory to the U.N. Convention for the Rights of the Child, which requires governments to take all adequate measures to protect children from harm. The Holy See was one of the first states to ratify the treaty in 1990.

The U.N. committee issued a scathing report, accusing Vatican officials of systematically placing their own interests over those of victims. The Vatican condemned the findings as a reflection of "prejudiced" positions of anti-Catholic advocacy groups.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal group based in New York, submitted reports on behalf of victims to both committees urging closer U.N. scrutiny of the church record on child abuse. For the upcoming hearing before the U.N. Committee Against Torture, the Center for 
Constitutional Rights argued the rape of children by clergy amounted to torture and inhuman treatment, and the Vatican hasn't done enough to stop the abuse.

Last Friday, Pope Francis said he took personal responsibility for the "evil" of clergy sex abuse, sought forgiveness from victims and said the church must be even bolder in efforts to protect children. But Mary Caplan of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said children are still vulnerable in the church because "that unhealthy, rigid, secretive, hierarchical, virtually all-male structure is not changing."

The Survivors' Network last year had separately asked the International Criminal Court to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity over clergy abuse. The court, based in The Hague, rejected the request.

The Church hierarchy's global criminal conspiracy to protect predator priests and cover up horrors that would hav e harmed the Church's image make Mafia plots look like child's play.  Worse yet, NO ONE has been held responsible from John Paul II on down.  One can only hope that the United Nations continues to forcefully demand answers from the Vatican.

How Confession Enabled Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Having been raised Catholic I am well acquainted to the bizarre idiosyncrasies of Catholicism and confession which supposedly washes one's sins away.  This later aspect of confession bears a prominent place in the enabling of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.  Predators could confess their "sins" and get a fresh start and bishops and cardinals could thereafter pretend nothing had happened.  Or at least that is the premise of John Cornwell, a Catholic writer and veteran church-watcher, in a new book, The Dark Box.  A piece in ABC News (Australia) - the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal is continuing to explode in Australia - looks at this premise.  Here are highlights:

[I]n a new book, The Dark Box, Catholic writer and veteran church-watcher John Cornwell argues that confession in its modern form is the root cause of many of the church's ills, from paedophile priests to dwindling congregations.

Prior to the Counter-Reformation in the 16th century, confession had been an intimate experience in which penitents held hands or even embraced priests. The modern confession box, which separates priests from penitents, was invented to put a halt to the rampant sexual abuse of women in the confessional that resulted.

The problem, according to Cornwell, began at the start of the 20th century, when Pope Pius X instituted confession, which had previously began during young-adulthood, for children as young as seven. 

'My book stresses the really quite dramatic changes this made, not only to confession itself but also the whole of the Catholic Church,' says Cornwell . . . . 'It was quite a dramatic, traumatic experience for many small children.'

'We were taught that any kind of sin of impurity would be a mortal sin and would have to be confessed. So that was a serious matter for us children, but what on earth was an impure thought or act to a child?'

'I think that this was the big problem of my childhood because you were taught a sense of shame for the body at a very early age and I think this ended up with guilt ridden generations of Catholic children.'

More disturbingly, the introduction of confession for children brought them into one-on-one contact with priests who, according to Cornwell were increasingly socially maladjusted after Pius X's introduction of harsh discipline in seminaries.

'There was also that significant minority of priests who, by tendency or aptitude were likely to abuse, who had a paedophile tendency within them,' says Cornwell. 'These sorts of priests now had access to children in a circumstance of extraordinary intimacy and secrecy.' . . . . Cornwell himself was propositioned by a priest in his locked room while he was studying at a junior seminary.

[T]he focus in Australia has been on how confession was used to absolve paedophile priests and keep the church's problems out of the public eye. While many have called for the breaking of the seal of confession, clergy have staunchly defended the confidentiality of what happens in the dark box.

'It has become evident that many of the priests who were offending were squaring their moral and pastoral lives and their offending lives by going to confession,' says Cornwell. 'Several years ago an ex-priest admitted in court under oath that he had confessed to sexual abuse 1400 times to 32 different priests.'

'There's something very profoundly wrong about this. It should be incumbent on a confessor who is faced with a priest who is making these confessions to say that he will not give absolution unless the priest actually goes to the police and admits what he has done.'

Catholic Church Sex Abuse - Pope Francis' Huge Fail

I have said a number of times that the real test as to whether or not Pope Francis will bring real change to the Roman Catholic Church will be how he addresses the worldwide sex abuse scandal and those in the Church hierarchy that aided, abetted and covered up for predator priests.  And this test includes those at the very top, including the former Benedict XVI.  Sadly, it appears that we have gotten an answer to this question and it seems to confirm that while Francis is ushering in a more PR savvy papacy, nothing has really changed whatsoever.  Those responsible for decades of cover ups and the obstruction of justice on a global scale will go unpunished - including Benedict XVI who for over 20 years knew what was happening and did nothing.  Andrew Sullivan laments what we now know: 

The Acid Test For Francis - And he fails:

Speaking about the horrific abuse of children by priests, Francis said “the cases of abuse are terrible because they leave very deep wounds”.  Benedict XVI “was very courageous and opened a road, and the Church has done a lot on this route, perhaps more than all others”, he stated. He noted that the statistics reveal the tremendous violence against children, but also that the vast majority of abuse takes place in the milieu of the family and those close to them.  The Church is the only public institution to have moved “with transparency and responsibility”, he said; no one else has done as much as it, “but the Church is the only one to be attacked”.

This is more of the institutional defensiveness that has proven so devastating to the church’s moral authority and a bad omen for more thoroughgoing accountability and reform.

The UN Report on the Vatican’s role as a global conspiracy to enable, abet and cover up crimes against humanity is a vital reminder of just how hideous the Catholic Church has been in violating the souls and bodies of so many innocents.

It seems nothing every truly changes in the corrupt, morally bankrupt world of the Vatican.

Anti-Gay Archbishop to Be Compelled to Tesitify About Sexual Abuse of Minors

One of the most vile homophobic members of the Catholic Church hierarchy in America is Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt (pictured above) who has gone out of his way to demonize gays and to oppose civil equality for gay Minnesotans.  Now, deliciously, a judge has ruled that Nienstedt must testify about his role in covering up sexual abuse of children and youths by Catholic clergy.  Nienstedt is a one foul piece of work and it would be wonderful to be able to watch him be forced to testify about his own obstruction of justice and failure to take meaningful steps to stop the rape of children by priest. Nienstedt is a poster boy for members of the Church hierarchy who belong not only out of their cushy positions but also behind bars in prison.  The New Civil Rights Movement has details on this development.  Here are highlights:

On Sunday afternoon, Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North confirmed that Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt, one of the nation’s most vocal and vociferous Catholic anti-LGBT voices, must testify about covering up child abuse within the church in Minnesota. Sunday’s ruling, which mirrored his decision early last week, came in response to the Twin Cities archdiocese’s appeal to stay the testimony. 

Former Vicar General Kevin McDonough, who recently resigned in light of the cover-up, will also be forced to testify before March 13. The judge also reconfirmed his ruling that the church must turn in a list of all priests accused of child and sexual abuse since 2004, though such names will remain under seal. The archdiocese released a partial list in late 2013, but had refused to release the entire list.

The ruling stands as a boon to both those seeking recourse for decades of sex abuse within the Catholic Church, as well as those who know Nienstedt for his history of outspoken bigotry. While his anti-LGBT views aren’t as prominent as Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Nienstedt arguably carries the most acidic views among high-ranking American Catholics.

Nienstedt’s beliefs came to a head in the lead-up to the state’s 2012 anti-same-sex marriage amendment, which the archbishop both spearheaded and helped fund through the church’s charity arm. (This, while numerous churches in his diocese were closing due to a lack of financial support.) After spending years graphically detailing scenes from Brokeback Mountain in church bulletins, staking that those who “actively encourage … homosexual acts” are committing “mortal sin,” and mailing — without asking — 400,000 anti-gay marriage DVDs to the state’s Catholics, the archbishop tossed the full weight of his organization behind a state amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

The amendment, of course, failed, and but a few months later Minnesota became the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage in the US. Not long after, MPR began unearthing claims and documentation detailing the decades of sex abuse committed by Minensota priests – and the subsequent cover-up from Nienstedt and the two archbishops coming prior. Numerous priests were reshuffled, promoted, or placed on paid leave without attendant reporting to local authorities.

[A\ boy accused Nienstedt of improper touching during a Confirmation ceremony. The archbishop stepped aside temporarily while the investigation unfurled. He has not been seen in public since. As such, not only will the forthcoming testimony provide legal means to examine the decades of cover-up, but it will force Nienstedt to speak on an issue that, unlike LGBT rights, he has remained resoundingly silent on recently.

I for one hope they rip Nienstedt to shreds when he testifies.  Meanwhile, if Pope Francis is serious about addressing the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal, individuals like Nienstedt need to be removed from office and cast out of the Church.

 

Catholic Church in Ireland Accused of Hampering Sex Abuse Investigations

Pope Francis may have duped some with his feigned softened approach towards gays and his acts of humility, but where it counts, little has changed in the Roman Catholic Church since Francis' ascension to the thrown of St. Peter.  Nowhere is this more clear than in the context of inquiries into sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.  Lies, cover ups and obstruction of justice remain the norm rather than the exception.  In Ireland where the sex abuse scandal has been staggering in magnitude (as was the cover up by high Church clerics) accusations are being made that the Church is still trying to obstruct authorities investigating crimes against children and youths.  Irish Central has details.  Here are excerpts:

Ian Elliott, the author of several reports into child sexual abuse in Irish dioceses, has made the claims in an interview with the Sunday Independent.

Leader of the board’s investigations until last year, Elliott told the paper that believes that efforts have been made to curtail further probes by starving investigators of resources.

He said: “I can see no justification for this other than a desire to limit the role of the board by covert means.”

The report says that Elliott’s claims will embarrass the Catholic hierarch in Ireland as it tries to move on from endless allegations of child abuse by clerics and criticism of its handling of cases.

An independent organization, the board previously led by Elliott is funded by three major Catholic bodies – the Conference of Religious in Ireland, the Irish Missionary Union and the Irish Bishop’s Conference.

All three refused to comment but funding for the body has been cut by over $150,000 between 2010 to 2012 when it received just shy of a million dollars.

In the interview, Elliott was critical of the insistence by church authorities that the board must be invited into Catholic bodies to conduct investigations.

He said: “Ideally, the board should be given the authority to require access where they believe circumstances warrant it.

The report says he added that there had been a history of ‘cover-up’ in the Catholic Church and it was important that structures now be put in place which would no longer allow this to happen.

The Irish government is to study Elliott’s claims. Its lead adviser on child protection Geoffrey Shannon told the paper it is essential that there be a strong, well-funded oversight mechanism for the Catholic Church.

Shannon said: “I think it would be a matter of profound concern if funding was to be cut at the expense of ensuring a robust child protection system.”

Jerry Buttimer, the chair of the parliament’s Health and Children Committee, called on the religious bodies to explain why the funding had been cut.

Buttimer said: “There is a need for an explanation. If someone of the stature and calibre of Ian Elliott is raising concerns it is a very serious issue.” 

As I have asked before, when will Pope Francis clean house and sack those who participated in the worldwide cover ups?

 

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. 

Billy Graham’s Grandson: Evangelicals "Worse than Catholics" On Sex Abuse

This blog is none too kind to the Roman Catholic Church and the Church hierarchy when it comes to the issue of sexual abuse of children and minors by priests and other clergy.  The hierarchy is little more than a foul cesspool which has engaged in a worldwide criminal conspiracy to cover up abuse and to protect sexual predators.  I continue to believe that much of the abuse stems from priestly celibacy and the stunted and warped psycho-sexual development of priests that arises from the seminary system.  Add to that the Church's obsession with sex and the fact that the Church provides good cover for those with sexual/developmental problems and it is a recipe for disaster.  But while the Catholic Church has the most centralized and extensive conspiracy to cover up sexual crimes by clergy, the problem extends far beyond the Catholic Church, probably because far too many who are struggling with sexual identities and addictions see joining the clergy as a means to control their sick inclinations.  Naturally, it doesn't work as planned and the fox is in the hen house with access and a system of deference that makes abuse all too easy and subject to cover up. Billy Graham's grandson (pictured above) has had the courage to call out other Christian denominations.  Here are details via Religion News Service:

AUSTIN, Texas (RNS) The Christian mission field is a “magnet” for sexual abusers, Boz Tchividjian, a Liberty University law professor who investigates abuse said Thursday (Sept. 26) to a room of journalists.

While comparing evangelicals to Catholics on abuse response, ”I think we are worse,” he said at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, saying too many evangelicals had “sacrificed the souls” of young victims.

“Protestants can be very arrogant when pointing to Catholics,”  said Tchividjian, a grandson of evangelist Billy Graham and executive director of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), which has investigated sex abuse allegations.

Earlier this summer, GRACE spearheaded an online petition decrying the “silence” and “inattention” of evangelical leaders to sexual abuse in their churches.

Mission agencies, “where abuse is most prevalent,” often don’t report abuse because they fear being barred from working in foreign countries, he said. Abusers will get sent home and might join another agency. Of known data from abuse cases, 25 percent are repeat cases, he said.

Evangelicals often frown upon transparency and accountability, he said, as many Protestants rely on Scripture more than religious leaders, compared to Catholics.

Abusers discourage whistle-blowing by condemning gossip to try to keep people from reporting abuse, he said. Victims are also told to protect the reputation of Jesus.

Too many Protestant institutions have sacrificed souls in order to protect their institutions, he said. ”We’ve got the Gospels backwards,” he said.

Candidly, in my view, the more a denomination obsesses over all things sexual, the higher the likelihood that sexual abuse is rampant.  Not only is the forbidden fruit of sex made more attractive, but the more warped members of the clergy are likely to be themselves.  Unfortunately, Tchividjian stops short of making this connection.

Australian Royal Commission into Church Sex Abuse Begins

If similar investigation in Ireland and parts of Europe are any guides of what to expect, the Royal Commission in Australia on child sex abuse will result in horrific reports of cover ups and active aiding and abetting of sexual predator priest across Australia.  An article in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at the Commission's launch.  Here are some highlights:

The royal commission into child sex abuse is now open for business. It expects more than 5000 submissions, has already spent more than $22 million, and is unlikely to complete its task by the end of 2015 as requested.

[T]he commission had already serviced notice to produce documents on the Catholic Church, its insurer, the Salvation Army and the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions.

 

Justice McClellan said one of the commission's tasks was to "bear witness" to the abuse and suffering of victims, which it did by making known what happened, including archives for posterity.

Justice McClellan reminded people that the commission would not decide compensation for victims or convict anyone, although it had established links with police in each state and territory. The police taskforce attached to the Victorian inquiry into child sex abuse has already led to three arrests, with more expected.

On the length of the inquiry, Justice McClellan said a South Australian inquiry into abuse in state institutions heard 800 witnesses and took three years, while Ireland's Ryan Inquiry took nine years. He said it was unlikely the commission could finish by 31 December 2015, but it would work hard to get as much done as possible by the interim report, due on June 30 next year, so the government could judge the commission's future course.

A second Sydney Morning Herald article was much more direct on the crimes of the Catholic Church hierarchy and the hierarchy's refusal to accept responsibility for the damage done by sexual predatorys and the Church's conspiracy to cover up abuse.  Here are excerpts:

Catholic Church leaders in Australia were contributing to the ostracism and scapegoating of child sex abuse victims, showing little leadership and little ''will to know'', the inquiry into how churches handled sex abuse has heard.

Edith Cowan University social justice professor Caroline Taylor said church leaders, as well as judges and lawyers, too readily followed misleading stereotypes that minimised child abuse.

''The greatest insurance policy offenders have is the ignorance of the community,'' Professor Taylor said on Thursday. ''I don't believe the Catholic hierarchy has changed its attitude … I haven't seen that probity and will to know, which means setting aside preconceived ideas and being open to learn. It takes courage.''

She said many priests and churchgoers were dismissive of abuse, using language such as ''there was just a bit of touching''. She heard churchgoers say ''when are these people going to stop coming forward? Why don't they show some dignity and keep silent?''

Professor Taylor said children taught to respect the authority of the church often saw offenders as a representation of God and many victims felt their abuse showed they were unloved by God. She said grooming by paedophiles was rife and predators targeted the children of very devout families.

It is probably a safe bet that newly elected Pope Francis will do little to change the policies of cover up and abetting predator priest - unless forced to do so by criminal prosecution of members of the Church hierarchy and major suits against the Church by sex abuse victims.

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.

Irish Bishops To "Boycott" Weddings Over Gay Marriage

There are few countries in which the Catholic Church is in a bigger free fall in terms of popular support than Ireland thanks to government commissions that have disclosed rampant sex abuse of children and minors along with a concerted effort by the Church hierarchy to cover up the disgusting abuse and even protect the predators among the clergy.  Yet the nasty old men in dresses at the bishoprics still do not get the message that few in Ireland any longer give a rat's ass about what the Church's position is on almost anything.  The percentage of nominal Catholics who still attend mass is down in the single digits and the government may soon enact full blown gay marriage.  So what are the Irish bishops doing?  Threatening to cease performing their civil law role in performing marriages.  Ultimately, it might be a good thing and result in the Church being removed from the civil marriage process altogether.  The Irish Independent looks at the unfolding saga.  Here are excerpts:

IRELAND's Catholic prelates are leading the charge against gay marriage, warning that they will not perform the civil aspects of weddings if marriage is extended to gay couples.

The Irish Bishops Conference (IBC) has asked to make oral submissions to oppose any provisions for same-sex marriage to the Constitutional Convention.

The Constitutional Convention received more than 1,000 submissions on the deeply controversial issue and will finalise, next week, what interest groups and individuals will be invited to make oral submissions.

The stage has been set for an intense debate ahead of the possibility of a referendum on same-sex marriage.

In a detailed submission, Ireland's Catholic bishops have warned that the church "could no longer carry out the civil element" of marriage if there was any change to the legal definition of marriage.

Amnesty International, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the Equality Authority and Irish Congress of Trade Unions are among nine key groups who will press for full marital rights to be extended to same-sex couples.

Given the crimes committed by the Church, one can only hope that the Church's demand to submit comments is denied.  It speaks volumes about the moral bankruptcy of the Church leadership that the widespread rape and abuse of children and minors was fine, but a loving, committed same sex couple receiving CIVIL law rights is the proverbial end of the world.  It makes me proud to no longer be a Catholic when I see how foul the institutional Church continues to be.

Caption This

A friend sent out his weekly e-mail of jokes and cartoons and the image above was included in the mix.  Call me mean spirited, but I just could not resist posting it.  Readers can suggest the best caption.  Sadly, to me, it sums up what is probably an all too prevalent mindset among the bitter old men at the Vatican.

United Nations Committee Concerned that USA Gives Religious Groups a Pass on Sexual Abuse

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

I often complain about the improper deference - even special rights - afforded to religion and religious organizations in America.  A case in point is the failure of prosecutors to forcefully pursue criminal charges against religious figures who abuse or participate in conspiracies to protect sexual predators and obstruct justice.   Now, a United Nations committee is echoing this concern and believes that U.S. is soft on prosecuting sex abuse in religious groups and organizations.  Here are excerpts from an article that looks at the UN committee findings:

[A] UN committee is accusing American law enforcement of being soft on child sex abuse in religious groups – a problem infamously associated with the [Roman Catholic] Church.

­The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child stated in a February 2013 report that it was "deeply concerned" by systemic sexual abuse by higher-ups and staff of religious institutions. Most troubling was a "lack of measures taken by [American legal authorities] to properly investigate cases and prosecute those accused," partially because of "a lack of measures … to properly investigate cases and prosecute them."

The report, adopted in Geneva during a routine review of US compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child on February 1, urged American law enforcement officials to create such measures in order to get to work revealing cases of sexual abuse and taking predators to court.

Authorities from various religions have been accused and convicted of sexually abusing children, but none on the scale of the Catholic Church, which in the US alone has paid out some $2 billion in damages to victims of sexual abuse over the years.

"The committee is deeply concerned at information of sexual abuse committed by clerics and leading members of certain faith-based organisations and religious institutions on a massive and long-term scale," the report continues.

Britain's National Secular Society, a group that lobbies against privileged treatment for religious organizations at the UN, has accused Pope Benedict XVI of covering up abuse and getting in the way of the law. 

Instead of fawning over religious leaders, American politicians ought to be seeking to have those involved in sex abuse and cover ups prosecuted and imprisoned.

Did Pope Benedict XVI Receive News of An Arrest Warrant Before Abdicating?

Two morally bankrupt criminals who deserve to be criminally prosecuted

Some lesser news blogs are reporting that Pope Benedict XVI's decision to abdicate yet remain living at the Vatican may have been prompted by the knowledge that criminal warrants against were about to be forth coming.  It's unclear whether the reporting is accurate or not, although it seems very clear that Benedict XVI was up to his ears in orchestrating the global conspiracy to shuffle around predator priests and protect the appearances of the Church rather than to protect children and youths from known child rapists. Here's a sampling from one such report:

On February 4, a week before Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, Vatican allegedly received a note from an undisclosed European government that stated that there are plans to issue a warrant for the Pope's arrest. Addicting Info reports.

With his resignation announced, the former pope will have a meeting with the Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano on February 23 to beg for immunity against prosecution for allegations of child rape.

But for him this will not be easy as the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State calls upon the Italian President to deny help to Ratzinger. If the Italian President does cave there may be another venue to make sure he doesn't get away.

In addition to these alleged attempts by this European government to prosecute, a New York based organization, The Centre for Constitutional Rights, has accussed the Pope and his Cardinals of possible crimes against humanity for sheltering pedophile priests. The non-profit legal group has requested an ICC inquiry on behalf of the Survivor’s Network, citing the church’s “long-standing and pervasive system of sexual violence.”

Huffington Post is also reporting that there is a very real stagey behind the apparent decision to have Benedict XVI to remain residing at the Vatican after his abdication: enhancing his immunity from criminal prosecution.  Once again, the Vatican sees itself as above the law and not accountable to facing justice for horrific crimes against children and youth.  Here are article highlights:

Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.

"His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn't have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else," said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.  "It is absolutely necessary" that he stays in the Vatican, said the source, . . . .

The final key consideration is the pope's potential exposure to legal claims over the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandals.

In 2010, for example, Benedict was named as a defendant in a law suit alleging that he failed to take action as a cardinal in 1995 when he was allegedly told about a priest who had abused boys at a U.S. school for the deaf decades earlier. The lawyers withdrew the case last year and the Vatican said it was a major victory that proved the pope could not be held liable for the actions of abusive priests.
Benedict is currently not named specifically in any other case. The Vatican does not expect any more but is not ruling out the possibility.

After he resigns, Benedict will no longer be the sovereign monarch of the State of Vatican City, which is surrounded by Rome, but will retain Vatican citizenship and residency. That would continue to provide him immunity under the provisions of the Lateran Pacts while he is in the Vatican and even if he makes jaunts into Italy as a Vatican citizen. 

The 1929 Lateran Pacts between Italy and the Holy See, which established Vatican City as a sovereign state, said Vatican City would be "invariably and in every event considered as neutral and inviolable territory".

 Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan notes what is happening to the Church in the Western world:

My niece – now as brilliant a teen girl as you can imagine – memorized the vows and was a ring-bearer. My sister could not explain or defend. To hear the shameless protectors of child-rapists mount a campaign against her own brother’s chance to love and be loved was too much. They have all drifted away.

Without women, the Church will die. One of the more obviously radical things Jesus does in the Gospels is to treat women as complete equals. Yet the Church that was constructed after Him was based on male supremacy and eventually male segregation in the priesthood – forbidding by celibacy even the influence of wives and daughters. Of course this creates a circular, hermetically sealed worldview. But I’ll tell you this: if women had been priests or priests had ever had kids, the child-rape scandal would have been stopped in its tracks. The criminals would have been busted, not protected.

If the hierarchy still refuses to get this, if it does not shift on women and married priests, it will, in the West, lose the mothers. And once you lose them, the church is all but over.

Will Benedict XVI's Abdication Lead to Criminal Prosecutions?

While much speculation runs rampant about who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI following his abdication - the first in over 600 years - in sex abuse survivor circles the speculation focuses on something very different: now that Benedict will soon no longer be a "head of state" will he be reachable under criminal law statutes for his role in the enabling and protection of predatory priests and obstruction of justice?  It's an interesting question and which I for one is answered in the affirmative.  An article in The Guardian looks at the issue.  Here are highlights:

Victims of the child sex abuse crisis that has engulfed the Catholic church during Pope Benedict's tenure welcomed his unexpected resignation on Monday, amid speculation over what prompted his departure.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), an organisation of 12,000 members worldwide, claim Benedict is personally responsible for widespread abuse within the church because he chose to protect its reputation over the safety of children. US lawyers who are currently suing the pontiff and other high-ranking Holy See officials for systematically concealing sexual crimes around the world, said his resignation may lead to more international prosecutions.

Clohessy told the Guardian: "Before he became pope his predecessor put him in charge of the abuse crisis. He has read thousands of pages of reports of the abuse cases from across the world. He knows more about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups than anyone else in the church yet he has done precious little to protect children."

He said a big question for the pope's successor is "what he will do in a very tangible way to safeguard children, deter cover-ups, punish enablers and chart a new course. What matters is not whether a statement is unprecedented but whether an action is affected."

Clohessy cited the example of 30 US bishops who have posted the names of predator priests on their diocese websites. He said that a new pontiff should require bishops to do that and to work to reform secular laws governing abuse "so that predators from every walk of life faces justice".

Bill McMurry, a lawyer from Kentucky who has sued the Vatican for sexual abuse allegations going back as far as 1928, said: "The world is stunned. We don't see in the history of the papal world a pope stand down. It makes you wonder what's going on."  McMurry said he personally holds Benedict responsible for "decades" of cover-up of the sex abuse scandal, during which time bishops were instructed to send paedophile priests from one district to another.

McMurry said he believed Benedict was appointed to the papacy in part because he had kept the sex abuse scandal at bay to protect the reputation of the church.  "We have seen documentations. We know that this is the role that Benedict played, and he did a terrific job of containing a scandal until it could be contained no more and it exploded."  "It is hard for me to accept that Benedict would step down. Unless there was a potential scandal that we will never know about that was bargained away. There's a lot of skull-duggery here. It just doesn't add up" he said.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed a case against the pope last year at the International Criminal Court on behalf of Snap, said his departure would make international prosecution easier, both in its case at the ICC and other, potential prosecutions, because it will remove the immunity given to him as a head of state.

In a statement, the CRR said: "This pope is responsible for rape and other sexual violence around the world, both through his exercise of superior responsibility and through his direct involvement in the cover up of specific crimes. Tens of thousands of victims, most of them children, continue to suffer because he has placed the reputation of the church above the safety of its members. His resignation will make international prosecution easier for national systems of justice that still grant immunity to current heads of state."

Pam Spees, an attorney for CCR, said that since it had filed the suit in 2011, Snap has been contacted by survivors from 65 countries.  .  .  .  . "With respect to ICC, there was never any legal hurdles because he was head of state. But there were plenty of political hurdles to doing that. The fact that he is not any more should remove those political hurdles. He could also be more exposed to civil suits and criminal investigations at a national level."

I hope Benedict XVI gets prosecuted as he deserves.  The cynic in me wonders whether once out of the papacy he will quickly and conveniently die.

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.

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?