The Approaching Political Armageddon

Even at his worse, Richard Nixon still had some modicum of respect for the law and America's justice system.  Hence, his decision to resign as the Watergate investigation began to put him in a corner from which he could not escape.  Such is not the case with Donald Trump who James Comey has tellingly compared to a Mafia boss.  Trump cares for no one or nothing but himself and it matters nothing to him what harm he does to the nation or the world.  Now, with both Robert Mueller and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York - a man appointed by Trump himself - appear to be closing in on revealing the ugly filth and criminality that define Trump, thinking Americans ought to be very worried about the future of our democracy and the rule of law.  In a prior time, Republicans could have been trusted to put the country first, but such is no longer the case.  A column in the New York Times looks at the likely political armageddon we are facing.  Here are highlights: 

Donald Trump can feel the breath on the back of his neck. Aggressive federal investigators . . . are getting closer to knowing things that I am sure Trump thought no one but the parties involved would ever know.  This has frightened and enraged [Trump] the president.

There are reports that Trump is thinking of ways to thwart or constrict the Robert Mueller investigation, including the possibility of firing and replacing Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein, to whom Mueller reports.  As The New York Times has reported, Trump has at least twice sought to fire Mueller.

[T]here is a pattern here: When the investigation verges into Trump’s areas of vulnerability, he seeks to squash it.

This is not the behavior of an innocent man. This is not the behavior of a “normal” president.

There is no doubt in my mind that a strong case could be made that Trump has consistently sought to obstruct justice.  . . .  Furthermore, no president should be made nervous about his or her financial dealings being made public. Indeed, almost every major party nominee for president in the last 40 years has released his or her tax returns. Trump, however, has refused.

There is clearly something there that he doesn’t want America to know, something damning and catastrophic. He will do anything to keep it from view, including bringing the government to its knees.

And now investigators have raided the room and office of his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen and will have access to the verboten.

There were always things that Trump bragged about, true, but even there he often did so with no proof. They were things that he thought grew his legend as a tycoon, cad and pop culture icon.  The truth always seemed far less glamorous and far dodgier.

That truth, the part that he has kept shoved into the shadows, is his vulnerability. Trump clearly views full knowledge of whatever that truth is as mortally injurious to his own sense of repute and renown.

If Trump has lied to the people who still support him about the most central parts of his character, not just months or years ago, but on a consistent basis, and if those lies can be proved by actual documentary evidence of some sort, the whole house of cards crumbles.
Trump’s options for keeping his secrets concealed are shrinking by the day. Therefore, Jeff Sessions is not safe. Rosenstein is not safe. Mueller is not safe. The rule of law is not safe. Our democracy is not safe.

What happens from here will truly test this country. It will test the Constitution, our protocols and our conventions.

Maybe the founders and the hundreds of years of politicians following them should have predicted that a person like Trump could ascend to the presidency, but they didn’t, so they didn’t build in sufficient constraints and strictures.

If America must be damaged for him to escape unscathed, he will take that bargain without batting an eye.

And it is by no means clear that his cowardly Republican accomplices in Congress would do anything to prevent or punish him.

The country is in a perilous position. It is in the hands and under the thumb of a man now motivated by a primal survival instinct, a consuming egotism and a petrifying fear of ignominy.

At this point, nothing is beyond the possible, no matter how ill advised and how ultimately destructive. In Trump’s mind, I can only imagine, he has settled on a strategy in the case of his own administration’s Armageddon: If he’s going down, the whole system is going down with him.

 Actually, the Founders did create a safeguard.  It is called the Elector College and it envisioned the electors blocking an unfit demagogue from the White House.   Sadly, in the 2016 election, the Electors failed their moral and civic duty and certified an unfit and dangerous individual.  Those who did so, need to be held accountable.  As for Congressional Republicans, if they do not act soon, they need to be held accountable by being replaced via the 2018 mid-term elections so that Congress can do what must be done to remove the Trump/Pence cancer.  Yes, I suspect Pence is up to his eyeballs in all of this despite his Sergeant Schultz shtick . 

Did Senate Republican Commit a Crime?

I won't be labor the issue any more today other than to lay out this provision of the United States Code:

18 U.S. Code § 953 - Private correspondence with foreign governments.

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. 

 It looks like the Justice Department needs to be drawing up criminal indictments against 47 Republicans. 

Congressional Democrats Target David Vitter on Prostitution

Louisiana Senator David Vitter: Hypocrite and Sex Crimes Criminal

There are few bigger hypocrites in the U. S. Congress than GOP Senator David Vitter.  Vitter pretends to be a "family values" Republican yet has a documented history of using prostitutes both in Louisian and the District of Coumbia even though he is a married man.  y of using prostitutes both in Louisiana and in the District of Columbia even though he is married.  Sadly, it is all too typical of today's GOP where one can pretty much count on the GOP elected officials who bloviate the most about "family values" or rails the most against gay marriage are the ones you'll see cheating on their wives or seeking out gay sex trysts like former Virginia 2nd District Congressman Ed Schrock. Politico looks at a Democratic push to penalize such hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of Vitter in particular.  Here are excerpts:

Senate Democrats have had all they can take from David Vitter and his fixation on Obamacare — and they’re dredging up his past prostitution scandal to hit back.

Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has infuriated Democrats this week by commandeering the Senate floor, demanding a vote on his amendment repealing federal contributions to help pay for lawmakers’ health care coverage.

But Democratic senators are preparing a legislative response targeting a sordid Vitter episode. If Vitter continues to insist on a vote on his proposal, Democrats could counter with one of their own: Lawmakers will be denied those government contributions if there is “probable cause” they solicited prostitutes.

According to draft legislation obtained by POLITICO, Democrats are weighing whether to force a Senate vote on a plan that would effectively resurrect Vitter’s past if the conservative Republican continues to press forward with his Obamacare-bashing proposal.

Such a hardball move could bring back uncomfortable memories of the 2007 “D.C. Madam” scandal in which Vitter’s phone number turned up in a Washington-based prostitution ring. Vitter apologized for committing a “very serious sin” but did not elaborate. In 2008, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics decided not to move forward with the matter because the alleged conduct occurred before Vitter became a senator.

There are three options Democratic senators are weighing in response to Vitter’s proposal.

Under one scenario, no federal contribution may be given to a lawmaker or an aide if a congressional ethics committee has “probable cause to determine” that the individual has “engaged in the solicitation of prostitution.”

Another option includes broader language that would deny contributions to those found to have engaged in “improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the congressional office involved.”

And a third proposal would deny coverage to lawmakers who vote for the Vitter plan, even if it doesn’t become law.

Since the prostitution scandal erupted in 2007, Vitter has methodically tried to move past it. He won reelection in 2010 and now serves as the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

While Vitter never admitted to having used prostitutes, he did offer a public apology for the incident. His wife Wendy stood next to the senator during a high-profile press conference a week after the scandal broke.

In virtually every state, soliciting a prostitute is a criminal offense.   It's interesting how Vitter's friends saved him from criminal prosecution.

The Moral Bankruptcy of the Knights of Columbus

As many readers know, I was raised Roman Catholic and was an altar boy for a 10 years and went on to join the Knights of Columbus achieving the 4th Degree eventually.  But I ended up leaving both the Knights and the Catholic Church when it became sickeningly obvious that both the Church hierarchy and the leadership of the Knights of Columbus suffered from shocking moral bankruptcy after the sex abuse scandal exploded in the Archdiocese of Boston over a decade ago.  As we all now know, the Church hierarchy from the Pope on down engaged in what can only be described as a global criminal conspiracy to enable, aid, abet and protect sexual predator priest who have left a trail of victims worldwide numbering in the hundreds of thousands.  As for the Knights of Columbus, not a peep has been said against the Church leadership from an organization founded to aid and protect widows and children.  Instead, the Knights have slavishly groveled and brown noised to the Church hierarchy (former Bishop Timothy Daly who was documented to have threatened and intimidated victims and their families under Cardinal Law remained the Supreme Chaplain for the Knights until his retirement despite his known wrong doing against victims of child rapists).  With its wealth and unrivaled power in the Catholic Church, the Knights could have been a force for reform and a house cleaning of those who enabled and protected sexual predators.  Instead, the Knights have aligned themselves with those who ought to be behind bars (including Benedict XVI) and have become the Church's principal fundraiser for the Church's anti-gay jihad against normal, well adjusted gays who merely want full CIVIL legal rights. The Minneapolis Star Tribune looks at the sick upside down values of the Knights in the war against LGBT citizens.  Here are highlights:

In Minnesota, the Knights of Columbus are best known for hosting charitable free-throw contests, collecting pennies to support seminarians and conducting Tootsie Roll drives to aid people with disabilities.

Less well known is that members of the nation's largest Catholic fraternal organization are quietly positioning themselves to be a powerful and potentially decisive force in passing the marriage amendment, which would amend the state Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

The state branch of the Knights has spent months raising money, staffing phone banks and leading seminars urging people to vote for the measure. The Minnesota Knights of Columbus are following a battle-tested formula used in several other states that passed marriage amendments. The local chapters quietly provide fundraising and crucial organizational infrastructure while the national organization pumps millions of dollars into major groups masterminding the effort to block laws around the country allowing same-sex marriage.

In the last four years, the group has given at least $3.6 million to groups leading marriage fights across the country. Now the group is trying to make its mark in Minnesota, and has directly given more than $130,000 to the fight.

The Minnesota chapters so far have given at least $31,000 to pro-amendment groups. The national headquarters has given another $100,000. But the group's 43,500 Minnesota members could prove far more valuable. In a race shaping up to be decided by a razor-thin margin, a committed bloc of thousands of energized, like-minded voters could make all the difference.

Several longtime Catholics who oppose the marriage amendment said they were surprised and troubled by the Knights' involvement in the marriage issue. They said they only knew the group for its charity work, locally and abroad.

Now they are crushed to learn the group is at the forefront of the anti-gay marriage effort and that some of their contributions might have gone to the cause.

"I don't think it is at all clear to the congregations," said Greg Seivert, a lifelong Catholic from Mendota Heights. When he was growing up, Seivert said, the Knights "were a charitable group that did the work of charity and mercy. This strikes me as a very different role. I would be very leery of contributing in any sort of way with their involvement in this political brouhaha."

The bulk of the national group's significant financial firepower comes not from its 1.8 million members, but from its lucrative and highly rated life-insurance business, Knights of Columbus Insurance.

Sharon Groves, director of the Human Rights Campaign's religious and faith program, said the group's secrecy is most troubling. The myriad entities shuffling money around to marriage-related groups makes tracking the group's contributions nearly impossible, she said.

"The Knights are really an organization pulling the wool over the eyes of many Catholics," Groves said. "They do a lot of important work, but people are being sold a bill of goods, thinking that all this work is helping the needy when really it is going toward some pretty sinister stuff."

The next time you see a Knights of Columbus fundraiser, walk on by and give your hard earned money to an organization that protects children rather than the monsters who have allowed so many young lives to be damaged or ruin - or ended by suicide.

Catholic Bishop Convicted of Shielding Pedophile Priest

In what ought to be the first in a huge volume of criminal convictions, the Bishop of Kansas City, Robert W. Finn (pictured at left), was convicted of protecting a predator priest.  Unfortunately, he was only convicted of a misdemeanor rather than a felony, but at least it's yet another signal to the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that civil authorities are no longer going to allow these foul men to be above the law.  What is sad is that Finn engaged in the very same conduct as countless other bishops, cardinals, and yes, Benedict XVI himself, yet they have dodge criminal prosecution to date.  In my opinion, the whole lot of them belong behind bars, and I cannot understand how anyone with a shred of morality can continue to give deference or financial support to these morally bankrupt individuals.  The New York Times has details.  Here are excerpts:

A Roman Catholic bishop was found guilty on Thursday of failing to report suspected child abuse, becoming the first American bishop in the decades-long sexual abuse scandal to be convicted of shielding a pedophile priest. 

In a hastily announced bench trial that lasted a little over an hour, a judge found the bishop, Robert W. Finn, guilty on one misdemeanor charge and not guilty on a second charge, for failing to report a priest who had taken hundreds of pornographic pictures of young girls. The counts each carried a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, but Bishop Finn was sentenced to two years of court-supervised probation.

The verdict is a watershed moment in the priest sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the church since the 1980s.  .  .  .  .  the Kansas City case has served as a wake-up call to Catholics that the policies cannot be effective if the bishops do not follow them. 

It was an abrupt ending to a case that has consumed the church in Kansas City and threatened to turn into a sensational, first-ever trial of a sitting prelate. The case had been scheduled for a jury trial later this month, but on Wednesday the prosecution said it would be decided in one afternoon by Judge John M. Torrence in Jackson County Circuit Court. 

Before being sentenced, Bishop Finn, 59, his jaw quivering, rose in court and said: “I am pleased and grateful that the prosecution and the courts have allowed this matter to be completed.  .  .  .  .   The church managed to avoid a lengthy, highly public jury trial like the one earlier this year in Philadelphia, where a high-ranking assistant to the archbishop was convicted of child endangerment and sentenced to prison for three to six years. 

The Jackson County prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, said that the expedited trial spared the young victims and their parents from having to testify. She said it also meant that the disturbing photographs of children would not be shown in open court. She said the victims and their families “were all ecstatic that this could end today.” 

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, like some other victims’ advocacy groups, applauded the unprecedented conviction of a bishop but said in a statement that the sentence was too lenient. “Only jail time would have made a real difference here,” it said.

I agree with SNAP.  Only jail time will force the Church to purge the ranks of the hierarchy of those who knowingly enabled and protected child rapists.

Priest Chased Boy He'd Molested Down the Street in His Underwear

No, the headline of this post is not a joke.  It's based on a real news story about an Oregon priest who molested a 12 year old boy and then chased the boy down the street wearing only his underwear when the boy managed to escape.  So what id the Catholic Diocese doing with Fr. Angel Armando Perez?  Paying for his criminal defense, of course.  The episode provides a concise testimony to the utter moral bankruptcy of the Catholic Church hierarchy which is obsessed with all things sexual, carrying out a full blow jihad against and yet continues to protect predator priests.  I suspect that from the diocese's perspective, Perez's biggest sin was getting caught.  Here are story highlights:   

An Oregon priest has apologized and said he was drunk when he was caught on the street in his underwear trying to chase down a 12-year-old boy he had just molested.  The Archdiocese of Portland has said it will pay for the priest’s criminal defense, even though it was the first in the nation to declare bankruptcy in 2004, just hours before two civil trials on sex abuse allegations were to begin.

Woodburn resident James Curths told Oregon Live that shortly after midnight on Aug. 13, an out-of-breath boy ran toward him, begging for help eluding a man who was chasing him. Moments later, the Rev. Angel Armando Perez appeared, wearing only his underwear.

Curths and his sister-in-law drove the boy to his relatives’ home.  The boy gave police a detailed account of the alleged abuse and Perez was arrested later the same day.  Perez faces charges of first-degree sexual abuse, abuse of a child in the display of sexually explicit conduct, furnishing alcohol to a minor and driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Normal, well adjusted gays marrying under the CIVIL laws is a threat to western civilization according to Pope Benedict XVI, but this kind of behavior is OK as long as the public and media don't learn about it?

Romney Campaign’s Attempts to Deny Paul Ryan’s Insider Trading Don't Add Up

Click on image to enlarge

We already know that Mitt Romney will resort to almost any tactic to make a buck and avoid paying taxes to the fullest extent possible - hence the Swiss bank accounts and accounts in offshore tax havens.  But it seems that Paul Ryan may also have a similar devotion to making a buck.  In fact, some continue to believe that Ryan may have used insider trading tips to benefit in his investment decisions.  Yep, the same sort of thing that landed Martha Stewart in prison.  A story broke over a weekend about Ryan's investment possible insider investment advantage and the Romney campaign sought to explain it away.  However, a piece at AlterNet makes the case that the purported explanation doesn't add up.  The piece clearly implies that Ryan lied on his disclosure statements or he's lying now.  You decide for yourself.  Here are story excerpts:

Over the weekend, the Richmonder blog broke what looked like a whopper of a story: that Republican vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan had lined his pockets from information he had obtained from a now-legendary meeting that took place on September 18, 2008. On that day, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson broke the news to congressional leaders that they would have to approve a bailout to avert a complete meltdown of the financial system.

America was lurching toward catastrophe. But some folks were apparently thinking about their stock portfolios. 

Checking through Ryan’s financial disclosure reports, the Richmonder discovered that Ryan had sold the stocks of several major banks that day, while purchasing – surprise! – stock in Paulson’s old firm Goldman Sachs. The story quickly circulated through the media.

The Romney campaign rapidly issued denials, based on three separate -- and clearly false -- claims: 1) the trades were not individual stock trades, but trades made as part of an index that trades big blocs of stocks according to preset formulas; 2) the meeting took place in the evening, after markets were closed, so the meeting could not have played a role in Ryan’s trading decisions; and 3) the stocks traded within a trust over which Ryan had no direct authority.

First of all, the Romney campaign’s claim that the transactions were index trades is not consistent with what’s in the original disclosure reports. AlterNet discussed the controversy with money and politics expert Thomas Ferguson, who has written extensively on the bailout. He explained, “Ryan did own some index-based securities, but they stand out in the summaries. They are different from the many trades Ryan was making in individual stocks. It is perfectly obvious that he sold shares in Wachovia, Citigroup and J. P. Morgan on September 18 and he bought shares in Paulson’s old firm, Goldman Sachs, on the same day. If these were index trades, what’s on the form is nonsense.”

While it’s not possible to pinpoint exactly what Ryan knew and when he knew it, the whole episode becomes more disturbing the deeper you look into it.  .   .   .   .  Since Ryan is a Republican, he may well have gotten word from the [Bush] White House about the gravity of the situation even earlier. If you knew that Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke were coming to brief you as stock markets fell around the world, that’s really all you needed to know to do the trades in Ryan’s portfolio.

If  you swallow the idea that Ryan just happened to buy Goldman stock that day -- a day he just happened to have a meeting with Hank Paulson, the firm’s former CEO, well, then I have some unicorns I’d like to introduce you to. 

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But if you’re a member of Congress, the odds are curiously in your favor. As I reported on AlterNet several months ago , in-depth research undertaken in 2004 considered to be the baseline work in the field revealed that from 1993-1998, US senators were beating the market by 12 percentage points a year on average. Corporate insiders only beat the market by a measly 5 percent. Typical households, in contrast, underperformed by 1.4 percent. 

And as to the Romney campaign’s claim that Ryan was not legally in control of his investments, let’s just say that this idea gives the notion of the “Invisible Hand” new meaning.

What’s most disturbing is the notion of a man like Paul Ryan focusing so heavily on his portfolio while his country was in peril. Ryan’s surely a guy who would answer the phone at 3am – provided it's his stockbroker calling. 

As has been the case with Romney, the more I discover about Ryan, the less I dislike him, both as a politician and a person.

Liberty University and Others Hit with RICO Lawsuit

Click on images to enlarge

In the wake of the conviction of Kenneth Miller for aiding and abetting in the felonious kidnapping of Lisa Miller's daughter, things look to be getting interesting. Janet Jenkins has filed a RICO lawsuit against Lisa Miller, Kenneth Miller, Liberty University, Thomas Road Baptist Church and others under the federal statute typically used to go after organized crime entities and their principals.  The RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) provides for civil lawsuits against ongoing criminal enterprises involving multiple parties under a criminal conspiracy theory.  The facts certainly suggest that Lisa Miller had many more accomplices besides the newly convicted Kenneth Miller.  Here are highlights from Right Wing Watch which include excerpts from the lawsuit:

Yesterday Kenneth Miller was convicted of aiding an international parental kidnapping for the role he played in helping Lisa Miller (no relation) flee the country with her daughter rather than abide by a court order transferring custody to her former partner, Janet Jenkins.

But that was not the only interesting development in the case, as Jenkins has now filed a civil RICO lawsuit [PDF] against Kenneth Miller and several others who allegedly played a role in helping Lisa Miller kidnap her daughter and leave the country, including Liberty University Law School and Thomas Road Baptist Church:

 41. Unbeknownst to Plaintiff Janet Jenkins, in 2009 Victoria Zodhiates (now Hyden) was an employee of Response Unlimited, Inc., and also a "student worker" at Liberty University School of Law. On information and belief, Victoria Zodhiates sent an email during this time period to her co-workers at the law school requesting donations for supplies to send to Lisa Miller to enable her to remain outside the country. Lisa Miller's attorney, Matthew Staver was the Dean of the Law School and Ms. Zodhiates's boss. Matthew Staver and Philip Zodhiates were also personal acquaintances at this time. On September 20, 2009, both Philip Zodhiates and Victoria Hyden called Lisa Miller's father, Terry Miller in Tennessee to assist in arranging her and Isabella's transportation from a Walmart parking lot in Lynchburg, Virginia, to Waynesboro, Virginia, from whence they would depart for Canada and Nicaragua the next day.

42. In early November, 2009, elders of the Thomas Road Baptist Church packed up the personal belongings of Lisa Miller in two bags. These bags were picked up from Lynchburg, Virginia by Philip Zodhiates who arranged to have the bags transported to Nicaragua by sending them with his son's school teacher who was taking some children on a mission trip to Managua. Philip Zodhiates arranged for the teacher, John Collmus, to deliver the bags at the airport to Timothy Miller. The bags also contained some supplies for Lisa Miller, such as peanut butter.
...
47. Lisa Miller's attorneys Mathew Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen also routinely instructed their Law School students that the correct course of action for a person in Lisa Miller's situation would be to engage in "civil disobedience" and defy court orders.

48. Also in 2009, TRBC Head Pastor Jonathan Falwell was among several religious leaders who made a call for "Christian civil disobedience" and published a public declaration, known as The Manhattan Declaration stating that they: "will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family."

49. Hence, Defendants TRBC and its related ministry Liberty University School of Law encouraged its agents to disregard state laws governing parental rights, particularly Vermont's law giving rights to members of same-sex families. The TRBC and Liberty University School of Law through its public declaration promoted, condoned and explicitly ratified its agent's tortious, racketeering activity. These agents and employees have followed this direction, making TRBC and Liberty University School of Law liable in respondeat superior for the consequences.

58. Lisa Miller's attorneys, Matthew Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen have at all times maintained that they did not know their client's location to various courts in Vermont (including in sworn testimony of Rena Lindevaldsen) and Virginia, and to the press that she simply stopped communicating with them and disappeared.

59. Meanwhile, Matthew Staver's acquaintance, Philip Zodhiates, and his daughter Victoria, an assistant in the Law School knew of Lisa Miller's whereabouts and solicited donations from other Law School employees for her aid. Upon information and belief, other law school employees who spoke to Victoria about Lisa Miller's whereabouts were too intimidated to come forward to law enforcement for fear of angering Dean Staver and losing their jobs. 

62. Based on the foregoing, all of the Defendants named herein, in both their individual capacities and as agents of TRBC, Liberty University Law School, Response Unlimited, Inc., and CAM are liable for conspiring with Lisa Miller and with each other to kidnap Isabella Miller-Jenkins, assure her continued detention outside the State of Vermont, and for conspiring with Kenneth Miller to participate in the affairs of the Beachy Amish-Mennonite Brotherhood through a pattern of racketeering activity .... Defendants are also liable for conspiring to violate Janet Jenkins' and Isabella Miller-Jenkins' rights to a parent-child relationship on account of Isabella having two mothers instead of a mother and a father, and Defendant Wright is liable under 42 U.S.C. 1986 for failing to prevent the violation of Plaintiffs' civil rights.

 I have long complained that Christianists see themselves as above the law.  I hope this lawsuit proves successful and perhaps reinforces the realty that far right extremist Christians do NOT get to ignore the laws or trample on the rights of others at will.  Of course seeing Matt Staver taken down would be ever so sweet.  Liberty University and Liberty Counsel continue to represent a foul stench here in Virginia.

With No Limit, Virginia Gun Sales Shoot Through Roof

In the wake of the mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin, the headline of this post is not something to make one warm and fuzzy.  Yet, thanks to Governor Bob"Taliban Bob" McDonnell and the GOP controlled General Assembly, there is no limit on the number of guns one can legally purchase, and the headline I used is straight from the Virginian Pilot.  And as police in New York and other states know, these guns often do not stay in Virginia.  Now, once again, Virginia will likely be the main source of guns used in many states to commit crimes.  I find it disgusted and frightening since the Colorado and Wisconsin murders show how easy it is for nutcases to "legally purchase" guns.  Guns that no law abiding citizen needs to be stockpiling.   Knowing that Virginia has over 30 or so KKK and white supremacy groups doesn't make me fell any better.  Here are highlights from the Pilot article: 

Firearms have been flying off store shelves all year in Virginia, but last month - the first in 20 years that didn't limit buyers to one handgun - saw the most sales yet.  Background checks for firearms transactions spiked accordingly. In July, 29,072 checks were conducted by the Virginia State Police, a 29 percent increase over the same month last year.

The actual number of guns sold could be much higher. Background checks are required only for firearms bought from licensed dealers, and one check is good for any number of guns, as long as they're part of the same transaction.

That's what upsets those who supported Virginia's one-handgun-a-month restriction. When the law was passed in 1993, the state was known as an easy mark for gun traffickers - a place where the bad guys could get unlimited weapons directly from law-abiding dealers simply by sending in a purchaser who could pass a background check.

Guns from Virginia have been a plague in neighboring states. On Wednesday night, a police officer was shot in New York City with a 9mm Ruger that's been traced to a gun shop in the commonwealth.  "Unfortunately, that's just the latest tragedy," said John Feinblatt, chief policy adviser to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "It's a pattern. Virginia is the top out-of-state source for crime guns in New York City. By repealing that law, you just took a step backwards."

Some closest to bloodshed remain unconvinced. Families and survivors of the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007 fought to keep the handgun limit, calling its end a "sad day."  Feinblatt, in New York, agrees.
"Making it easier for guns to fall into the hands of criminals, the mentally ill and drug addicts is a lethal decision," he said.

It's all typical of the Virginia GOP and McDonnell - whose other nick name is "Governor Ultrasound" - who care nothing about average voters and citizens and only seek to kiss the asses of far right fanatics and religious extremists. Once again, I hate living in this state where ignorance and bigotry pass for statesmenship and political leadership.

The Roman Catholic Church War on Gays - Continued

Even as sex abuse scandals continue to explode around the world - particularly in Australia of late - rather than clean their own putrid, cesspool like house, the Catholic bishops continue their anti gay jihad against LGBT individuals and show every inclination to demonize and stigmatize LGBT individuals, especially those seeking CIVIL law marriage rights.  First we see Oakland Bishop Cordileone (pictured at left) making pronouncements via the National Organization for Marriage - a likely Catholic Church front organization - that gay marriage is "unjust to children" with the suggestion that it constitutes some form of child abuse.   And then there is Scotland's Cardinal Keith O’Brien who has stated that the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland will “meet any cost” to fight marriage equality.  The moral bankruptcy is stark: sexual abuse of children and youth and covering up for predator priests is perfectly fine as long as the press and the public don't get wind of it, but God forbid that long, consenting adults who cannot change their sexual orientation be allowed to have civil marriage rights.  Here's a taste of the batshitery from Bishop Cordileone:

The legalization of “gay marriage” in America, even on a civil level, is unjust to children and poses a threat to religious liberty, warned Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland, Calif.   .   .   .   .  In a June interview with CNA, Bishop Cordileone, who leads the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, explained that Church teaching against the redefinition of marriage on a civil level as well as a sacramental level is a matter of justice.  “Marriage is about fundamental justice for children,” he said. “Children do best with a mother and a father.”

Never mind that some children simply will never have a traditional two parent family or that gays and lesbians will have children and be parents to children regardless of what happens in the marriage equality war.  The good bishop simply prefers that the children of these parents be deprived of financial stability and other benefits simply to satisfy Cordileone's own sexual hang ups and self-loathing if he's one of the countless closeted gays in the Church hierarchy.   But we see the same bigotry and contempt for religious freedom in the UK where Cardinal O'Brien is willing to spend whatever it takes to defeat marriage equity.  Never mind that Christ spoke about caring for the sick, the hungry and the homeless, not stigmatizing and maligning others.  Queerty has coverage on the bullshit emanating from Cardinal O'Brien.  Here's a sampling:

The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland will “meet any cost” to fight marriage equality, declared Cardinal Keith O’Brien in the Sunday Times.


O’Brien, the most senior Catholic in Scotland, is pledging to spend another £100,000 (about $154,000) to campaign against same-sex marriage in the country, including bus ads, billboards and commercials. That’s on top of the £50,000 it’s already spent.

“Marriage is under threat and politicians need to know the Catholic Church will bear any burden and meet any cost in its defense,” fumed O’Brien, who once called marriage equality a “grotesque subversion.” He further claimed the Scottish government would face an “unprecedented backlash” for backing the measure.    More than 70 members of Scottish Parliament have said they’ll vote for equal marriage, compared to 9 are against it.

In the past, O’Brien called same-sex relationships “demonstrably harmful” and claimed introducing gay marriage is akin to legalizing slavery.

 

Remember - Cardileone and O'Brien are part of a group of bitter - and I would posit emotionally/sexually disturbed - men who have engaged in a world wide criminal conspiracy that has enabled and protected child rapists and molesters.  If they actually gave a damn about children, they'd be speaking out and demanding wholesale firings of many of their despicable peers.  Of course, they're not and that tells one all they need to know about these foul men.

Judge Orders Kansas City Diocese to Turn Over Intrenal Sex Abuse Documents

Less than a week after the first member of the Catholic Church hierarchy was convicted of felony child endangerment  in Philadelphia a judge in Missouri has ordered the Kansas City diocese to turn over internal reports and documents concerning sexual predatory priests.  It is a likely safe bet to assume that as in Philadelphia internal diocese documents will confirm that bishops and their henchmen covered up for and enabled predator priests to prey on additional children and youths.   The truth is that the Catholic Church hierarchy is a disgusting cesspool that needs to be cleansed all the way to the throne of St. Peter.  If you or I had done a fraction of the things done by the hierarchy to protect child rapists, we'd be in prison currently.  Deference and special privileges for the Catholic hierarchy need to end now once and for all.  Here are highlights from the San Francisco Chronicle on developments in Kansas City:

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has to provide prosecutors with information about the diocese's investigation into past reports of priests accused of abusing children, a Jackson County judge has ruled.

Jackson County Circuit Judge John M. Torrence, who is overseeing a case against Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese, also said in a ruling Wednesday that the diocese must turn over documents from the independent investigation into the case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan that the diocese commissioned.

Ratigan has pleaded not guilty to state and federal child pornography charges and remains jailed.  Finn and the diocese are charged with misdemeanor failure to report suspected abuse to the state after learning of suspected child pornography on Ratigan's computer. Finn has acknowledged learning about the photos in December 2010, six months before Ratigan was arrested. The trial is scheduled for September.

[A]ttorneys for the diocese countered that records of interviews by U.S. Attorney Todd Graves' law firm are protected by attorney-client privilege. The judge disagreed, however, saying the diocese publicly announced Graves was conducting the 2011 investigation and said that it would issue a public report when the investigation was concluded.

"The attorney-client privilege does not apply to communications intended to be disclosed to third parties or those which are in fact disclosed," Torrence said in his ruling.

Torrence also said that while information about the diocese's investigations into alleged misconduct regarding five other priests is relevant to the state's current case, the information could not be photocopied and must be returned to the diocese's lawyers within 10 days of the case being completed, The Kansas City Star reported

As I said, all bets are that a pattern of cover up and protection of child molesters will be confirmed by the documents to be turned over to the Court.  Sadly, until every bishop/cardinal in every diocese across the nation (actually, across the globe) is forced to turn over such internal documents, we will never know the full magnitude of the moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy.

Quote of the Day: If Monsignor Lynn, Why Not Pope Benedict?

In a post today, Andrew Sullivan sums up the criminal nature of the Catholic Church hierarchy.  He posits why, if Monsignor Lynn is guilty of a felony, should not Pope Benedict XVI - who is documented to have egaged in similar conduct that led to the rape of children - be likewise charged and convicted.  Of course, in addition to Benedict XVI, the same situation applies to countless bishops and cardinals as well.  Here are highlights from Andrew's post:

Finally, finally ... some modicum of accountability for the cover-up of child rape in the Roman Catholic church. A senior cleric in Philadelphia, Monsignor William J Lynn, acquitted of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment, was nonetheless found guilty by a jury of covering up child-rape in such a manner that the rapist was able to strike again.

I might add that this precise chain of events - in which a child-rapist priest was reported as a criminal to the church authorities, then sent to therapy, then reassigned only to rape again - is exactly what Joseph Ratzinger did in Munich in the 1980s. How does an institution allow a lower priest to go to jail for such an act, while allowing the chief pontiff to carry on as if nothing had happened, as if children had not been raped because of his direct complicity in protecting the rapist?



Former Spokesperson for Anti-Gay Lutheran Group Sentenced on Child Porn Charges

Time and time again the hypocrisy of the homophobes - especially those in anti-gay religious organizations - is mind boggling.  The latest example of this truth is Joel W. Hochmuth (pictured at left) , a former spokesman for the anti-gay Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (not to be confused with the gay accepting Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a/k/a the ELCA).  It seems that the homophobic Hochmuth had a penchant for child pornography involving young boys.  One can only assume that Hochmuth projected his own perversity and perhaps self-loathing onto normal gays who live their lives as God made us.  I may seem cold hearted, but I find it very difficult to have much sympathy for Hochmuth who used his synod position to denigrate and malign others who were far more virtuous than himself and worthy of of civil equality.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has details on Hochmuth's criminal sentencing.  Here are highlights:

A former Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod official was placed on probation for 10 years Monday and ordered to serve one year in jail with work-release privileges as a condition of probation for possession of child pornography.

Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Kathryn W. Foster withheld imposing a prison term on Joel W. Hochmuth, 52, of Waukesha, who had faced up to 15 years behind bars followed by 10 years of extended supervision for the crime.

But she warned Hochmuth that if there was any hint of him "going back to any kind of behavior like this," his probation would be revoked and the full "25-year prison sentence will be staring you in the face."  Hochmuth used the Internet to download hundreds of images of boys engaged in sexual acts with other youths and men.

"I appear before you today guilty of an abhorrent and violent crime. I have offended my god, betrayed my wife, shamed our son and dishonored my church. To all of them I apologize. I also apologize to the victims portrayed in the images I viewed and downloaded. That I could have been so drawn to what I was looking at today disgusts me," Hochmuth told Foster.  He said he is in a treatment plan that he began after his arrest.

According to the criminal complaint, investigators found several hundred images on his home computer and 310 photographs and 38 videos on a thumb drive at his WELS office in Wauwatosa. Hochmuth denied downloading any explicit material while at work, or creating his own pornography, the complaint states.

He was investigated by the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force after an undercover agent identified a residence in Waukesha that was distributing child pornography, according to the complaint. Hochmuth was using a software program that allows individuals to connect to one another's computers and browse and download files as well as chat online, according to the complaint.

The complaint also states that the agent engaged Hochmuth in chats and that in one Hochmuth told the agent that he liked pictures of males who were 10 years old or older, the complaint states.

Yes, Hochmuth is a sick individual.  But his synod is equally sick given the anti-gay hate and bigotry that it disseminates.  Not surprisingly, WELS has in the past supported the "ex-gay" myth and reparative therapy. 

Vatican Scandal Continues - Is a Cardinal Involved?

Personally, I find few things more fun to watch than the dirty laundry of the Vatican being dragged out into the light of day.  Where the current “Vatileaks” scandal will go is hard to tell, but it seems the Italian media is in a frenzy and that speculation exists that tales of a power struggle and other titillating tidbits may come out.  Given all the evil that the Church hierarchy has done and continues to do, I for one hope the scandal shakes things up to the core of the secretive and possibly illegal activities that center on the Vatican.  The only thing more fun would to have documentation come forward that Benedict XVI has a gay lover.  Here are highlights from an updated story in the Washington Post:

One of the Vatican’s biggest scandals in decades widened Monday with the pope’s butler — arrested for allegedly having confidential documents in his home — agreeing to cooperate with investigators, his lawyer said Monday.

Paolo Gabriele’s pledge to cooperate with Vatican magistrates raises the specter that high-ranking prelates may soon be named in the investigation into leaks of confidential Vatican correspondence that have shed a light on power struggles and intrigue inside the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

Italian media reported Monday that a cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the “Vatileaks” scandal. However, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, denied the reports. He said many Vatican officials were being questioned in the investigation but insisted “there is no cardinal under suspicion.”

He also dismissed as “pure fantasy” a rash of other unsourced reports about the investigation in the Italian media, which have been on a frenzy ever since reports of Gabriele’s detention emerged Friday.

Gabriele, the pope’s personal butler since 2006, was arrested Wednesday evening after documents he had no business having in his possession were found inside his Vatican City apartment. He remains in custody in a Vatican detention facility, accused of theft, and has met with his wife and lawyers.

Gabriele’s arrest gave the already sordid scandal of the leaks an unfathomable Hollywood twist. So far, he remains the only one who has been arrested, but Lombardi stressed that the investigation was continuing.

VatiLeaks Exposes Rot and Corruption in the Vatican

Based on all I have read on the still ongoing sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the secret Vatican orders dating from the 1960's commanding secrecy and the cover up of sexual abuse by priests, I have admittedly come to see the Vatican and the Church hierarchy in many ways to be a worldwide criminal enterprise.  Some may say that judgment is too strong, but new secret documents leaked from the inner most circles in at the Vatican suggest that hypocrisy reigns supreme as do money laundering, corruption and blackmail.  What makes it all even better is the fact that the information apparently was leaked by Pope Benedict XVI's butler who had access to Benedict's private papers.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the developing scandal and the arrest of the butler who is being held by the Vatican's secretive judicial system that sounds like something out of the Inquisition of old.  The simple truth appears to be that the Vatican and the Church hierarchy believe that they are above the law.  They can do as they wish and no one is supposed to challenge them.  Here are highlights from the article: 

The pope's butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested in Vatican City on Friday, suspected of leaking hundreds of documents to Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI. Sources say Garbriele had been under surveillance for weeks and was caught red-handed with documents he should not have had. Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed to Italian news service Ansa that Gabriele had been found "in illegal possession of confidential documents."

For a year Nuzzi was a conduit for sensitive documents that surfaced from deep within the Curia Romana, which he highlighted in his Italian television show The Untouchables. This week, he published the documents in full in a book called Sua Santità—Le Carte Segrete di Benedetto XVI or Your Holiness: The Secret Papers ofBenedict XVI. He says he kept the documents on a USB key sewn into his neckties, and he worried constantly that someone might try to harm him or steal them back.

Since his first television program, VatiLeaks has made a major impact in Rome. The reopening of the criminal investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who disappeared 30 years ago, has come to symbolize the VatiLeaks scandal and a small victory for transparency in the Roman Catholic Church.

He says he thinks his sources gave him the documents out of duty after witnessing years of lies and manipulation by the church. “Since Karol Wojtyla [Pope John Paul II] died, I started putting copies of documents aside that I came across in my job at the Vatican,” Nuzzi quotes “Maria” in the book. “The truth emerging in the newspapers and the official discourse within the Holy See was so different, the hypocrisy reigned supreme, and the scandals were multiplying. I’m not talking only about the pedophilia and murder cases like the killing of the Swiss Guard and the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, but about money laundering, corruption, and threats.”

The heavily footnoted book has photos of the documents and transcripts of the letters, faxes, and internal memorandums between Pope Benedict XVI and key Italian politicians and world leaders. Some of the documents are titillating, like secret correspondence from Dino Boffo, the former editor of the Catholic newspaper Avvenire, asking a high-ranking cardinal and the pope to intervene against editor Gain Maria Vian of the rival Catholic newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, who had leaked allegations that Boffo had harassed the wife of his gay lover.

The book also contains ample reference to the troubled American church, which was nearly bankrupted by legal costs and payments to victims of pedophile priests. In spite of its strategic importance for the Roman Catholic Church, the American church was considered a purgatory in terms of papal appointments. No one wanted to be “sent to Washington” to deal with the crises, which included the pedophilia scandal, the liberal American nuns, and liberal government policies that contradicted key church teachings. Nuzzi was given a number of documents referencing multi-million-dollar transfers to bail out the American diocese, including $10 million sent to the Wilmington, Del., Federal Bankruptcy Court, which shows for the first time just how much money the American church has cost the Holy See.

Anyone who crossed the wrong cardinals in Rome risked being sent to oversee the troubled American diocese. For example, Cardinal Carlo Maria Vigano had uncovered widespread corruption in the Vatican accounting department and wrote a series of letters to the pope pleading that he consider making high-level changes to stem the money laundering, nepotism, and embezzlement going on in the church. Soon after his initial complaints, he received notice of his impending transfer to Washington, D.C., three years before the end of his tenure.

But the pope is not amused. He has appointed a trio of heavy-handed prelates led by Opus Dei leader Julian Herranz to stop the leaks—one way or another. “The latest publication of documents of the Holy See and private documents of the Holy Father can no longer be considered a questionable—and objectively defamatory—journalistic initiative, but clearly assumes the character of a criminal act,” said Father Federico Lombardi, the chief Vatican spokesman. For Nuzzi, that just proves he did the right thing. “What was I going to do, sit here on all these documents?” he asks. “Don’t you think Catholics who give millions to the church deserve to know the truth?” Even when that truth is stranger than fiction.

I've said it before and I will say it again: how can anyone truly moral remain affiliated in any way with theRoman Catholic Church and its cesspool like leadership?

Catholic Organizations File Suit in "Religious Freedom" Ruse - Meanwhile, More Predator Priests Exposed

UPDATED:  For a further sampling of the filth that The Catholic hierarchy wants the media to ignore, check out this Fox News story involving a Franciscan academy and the forced release of secret files.

Am I being too cynical, or is it more than a coincidence that a raft of lawsuits have been filed by Roman Catholic organizations claiming that the Obama administration is attacking "religious liberty" just as more filth and comes out of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia involving predator priests?   And leading the charge is Archbishop "Porky Pig" Dolan (pictured above) who is suspected of hiding millions of dollars while head of the Milwaukee Diocese so that victims of sexual abuse would not receive deserved compensatory damages.  The hypocrisy is palpable.  Yet the media and some conservative pundits like Michael Gerson apparently believe all Roman Catholics are so stupid that they cannot figure out that they are being played by the Church hierarchy.  Personally, I'd love to see the lazy and feckless mainstream media counter each bleating by the Church hierarchy with a story on the latest breaking sex abuse stories (my Google search agent discloses new stories EVERY day).  A story in the New York Times illustrates this point and shows precisely what the Church hierarchy hopes to keep off the front pages via these bogus lawsuits.  Oh, and note the Church's proposed punishment - a "supervised life of prayer and penance" with no reference made to turning the priests over for criminal prosecution.  Here are highlights:

Two more Roman Catholic priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been found unsuitable for ministry after sexually abusing children. 

 The archdiocese said Sunday that it had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against Msgr. George J. Mazzotta, 73, and Msgr. Hugh P. Campbell, 77, who were ordained in the 1960s and held a series of positions in Philadelphia-area parishes and hospitals.

Both men agreed to accept a supervised life of prayer and penance, and the findings were announced over the weekend to members of their most recent parishes, the archdiocese said. The priests are entitled to appeal the archdiocese’s findings to the Vatican. 

The two priests are not among the 26 who have been under investigation since a 2011 grand jury report accused the archdiocese of covering up sexual-abuse allegations against dozens of priests.  Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said on May 4 that 5 of the 26 priests had been judged unsuitable for ministry and would be barred from working as priests unless they successfully appealed the findings to the Vatican. Ultimately, they may be “defrocked,” or laicized. Three other priests were cleared, and 17 cases are still being investigated. One accused priest has died since the inquiry began.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a victims’ advocacy group known as SNAP, said the latest findings were another indication of the archdiocese’s failure to respond promptly to abuse allegations. “How do Philly Catholic officials explain keeping an admitted pedophile priest’s secret hidden for six months?” SNAP said in a statement on Monsignor Campbell.

News of the latest findings came amid the criminal trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy, who is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy on allegations that he allowed accused priests to remain in positions where they could continue to abuse children. Monsignor Lynn has denied the charges.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting another scandal involving the Legionnaires of Christ.  Here's a sampling:

The leader of the Legionaries of Christ admitted on Tuesday he knew for years the scandal-plagued Roman Catholic order's most famous priest had fathered a child but still allowed the popular cleric to preach about morality.

The moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy is nearly complete.  These lawsuits are nothing more than a disingenuous smoke screen to occupy the media and draw attention away from the real story that needs to be told and retold about the Catholic Church leadership.

 

Prosecution Rests in Philadelphia Sex Abuse Cover-Up Case

For the past seven weeks, the horrid dirty laundry of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been thoroughly exposed and the fact that not one, but two Catholic Cardinals had played active roles in covering up the repeated sexual abuse of children and minors brought very much to light.  While the case has garnered quite a bit of attention, it's unfortunate that coverage was placed side by side with stories of the Catholic Church's opposition to same sex marriage and/or Church criticism of Barack Obama in every newspaper in the country.  The Philadelphia trial shows the true face of the Church hierarchy and, at least to me, needs to be used to convince Catholics who prefer to stick their heads in the sand that they are bankrolling a foul institution.  An institution that will not change without the flight of Church members, drops in financial support, and hopefully more criminal prosecutions of members of the Church hierarchy.  The Catholic Church has been allowed to get away with heinous crimes for far too long.  Here are highlights from the New York Times on the prosecution's wrapping up of its case:

After seven weeks of testimony, prosecutors on Thursday rested their case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first senior Roman Catholic official in the United States to face criminal charges of covering up sexual abuse by priests and reassigning those suspected of child molesting to unwary new parishes. 

In rulings on Thursday, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of Common Pleas Court dismissed one of two conspiracy counts against Monsignor Lynn, involving allegations of efforts to protect the Rev. James J. Brennan, a priest who remains a co-defendant in the current trial and is accused of the attempted rape of a child. 

But Judge Sarmina left intact the charges that Monsignor Lynn endangered two minors by failing to remove errant priests and also a second conspiracy charge, that he cooperated with other officials to protect a former priest, Edward V. Avery, who recently pleaded guilty to sex abuse. Monsignor Lynn, who has pleaded not guilty, faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 ½ to 21 years if convicted in the landmark trial. 

Monsignor Lynn was indicted after a scathing grand jury report last year accused him and other senior church officials of playing down credible abuse charges against dozens of priests, and of working to protect the archdiocese from scandal and lawsuits rather than to protect children. 

The prosecutors ended their case after calling dozens of witnesses and offering numerous examples in which, they alleged, Monsignor Lynn and other church officials did not inform parishioners about credible, often multiple abuse charges against individual priests and allowed some of them to continue in the ministry for years. 

The defense team has previously asserted that Monsignor Lynn acted responsibly, passing abuse allegations to his superiors, and that only Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, who died in January, had the authority to reassign priests or remove them. 

 

The prosecutors ended their case with a flourish, allowing jurors to inspect a frayed folder that had been locked in a secret safe for years and was mysteriously discovered and provided to prosecutors only this February, shortly after the cardinal’s death. The folder contained a list, compiled by Monsignor Lynn in 1994 at the request of Cardinal Bevilacqua, of 35 active priests who were credibly charged or confirmed as child molesters. 

Cardinal Bevilacqua later ordered the list to be shredded and, according to the prosecutors, Monsignor Lynn and other officials focused on how to prevent disclosure of archives in future lawsuits against the church. 

One of the priests on that list, Father Avery, now 69, spent six months in a church psychiatric center in 2003, after credible charges that he abused boys. Monsignor Lynn then assigned him to a new parish without warning local officials about his troubled past or insuring follow-up counseling and monitoring, according to prosecutors. Mr. Avery remained in ministry, with unrestricted contact with children, until 2003. 

Father Avery, who later left the priesthood, was originally slated to go on trial with Monsignor Lynn and Father Brennan, but pleaded guilty just before the trial began in March to sexually assaulting an altar boy in 1999 — five years after he was named on Monsignor Lynn’s list. He was sentenced to 2 ½ to 5 years in prison. As part of his plea deal, Father Avery said Monsignor Lynn and other officials had allowed him to stay in ministry, with access to children, despite knowing his history of sexual abuse.

Why any moral person continues to listen to anything said by members of the Church hierarchy baffles me - especially since complicity in the protection of child rapist priest goes all the way up to Pope Benedict XVI.

Catholic Church Priests to Abuse Victim: "You never got to like it?'"

Having followed the worldwide Catholic Church sex abuse scandal since the lid first blew off of the Vatican orchestrated cover ups in Boston a decade ago, I thought I had heard just about every sick, outrageous claim possible from the lips of Catholic Church bureaucrats seeking to protect child rapists, but the Irish Independent has a story that takes the prize.  A sex abuse victim was interrogated by three priests - one of whom is now Cardinal Brady, the senior Catholic cleric in Ireland - after he reported being molested and had his inquisitors had the perverse audacity to ask the boy whether he come to the point of liking the sexual abuse.  The implication being, of course, that somehow the victim had either brought the abuse on himself or had enjoyed it.  Yes, it's pretty unbelievable, but in my estimation par for the course with the Church hierarchy which seems more morally bankrupt with each passing day.  Here are some story highlights:

'You never got to like it?" That was one of the remarkable questions put to Brendan Boland when he was interrogated by priests in 1975 after reporting to the Catholic Church his sexual abuse at the hands of Fr Brendan Smyth.

"You never got to like it?" The question itself is abusive. It serves no obvious good purpose. I sought an explanation for it last week, but was told only that the entire exercise was intended "to gather evidence against the criminal priest". 

A spokesperson for Cardinal Sean Brady, who was present as a priest at that investigation in 1975, told me that Brady "did not construct those questions or ask those questions". But he was there and he signed off on them (as plain "John" and not "Sean" Brady). 

"You never got to like it?" Being abused, that is. The answer that Boland gave to the three priests was an absolute "No". 

It was a question that might do-in the head of any victim of repeated violence, never mind the head of a teenager at puberty. What possible implication could there have been if he had answered "Yes"? That he shared the blame for his own rape? The undercurrent to this question, with its hint of erotic humiliation, raises a question about the institution that framed it, and about the nature of dominance and power within the organization itself. 

The three priests who interviewed Brendan Boland knew full well that child sexual abuse was happening in Ireland. If others were not speaking about it because of fear or ignorance, what was the excuse of church authorities who knew of actual abuse? 

Were Brady and his colleagues not dismayed when, one month after their own interview with victims of abuse, the Irish bishops published a highly significant and lengthy pastoral letter entitled Human Life Is Sacred? 

For nowhere throughout its 72 pages is sexual abuse mentioned. Nowhere are the clergy, religious or faithful to whom it is addressed alerted to the blasphemy and danger of child sex abuse that bishops knew was damaging some children's lives. 

Many other subjects were set out in that major pastoral, which some saw as a political intervention aimed against reform of the civil law. The bishops warned about abortion, "the contraceptive mentality" and sex outside marriage. They spoke earnestly of love, "certain kinds of sex education", the evils of drink in family life, celibacy, social justice and even euthanasia.  But the hierarchy made no specific reference in their 1975 pastoral to one phenomenon of which they, at least as much as anyone else, were aware. Child sexual abuse. Why?

[S]ex abuse is fundamentally about the abuse of power, and not just about sex. The exercise of power within their church remains a problem for Catholics. Already this year we have seen a Catholic headmistress closing her door in the face of a pregnant teenager and the Vatican censoring priests for their mildly dissenting views.  Last week's BBC documentary hit home partly because the reporter involved is the nephew of a priest, and most of those who appeared in it are ordinary Catholics or ex-Catholics living on both sides of the Border. If some media are engaged in a witch hunt, the BBC was not. Most media are merely reflecting the concern of the majority of Irish Catholics, who in theory are as much a part of the church as is any cardinal. 

Meanwhile,  Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, one of the few voices of decency within the Church hierarchy has called for an independent investigation of clerical sex abuse.  No doubt, Martin is not winning any brownie points in Rome.  But he seems to be one of the few members of the hierarchy that "gets it" in terms of the evil that has been done and the guilt of senior members of the Church hierarchy who not only allowed the abuse to happen but who went to great lengths to cover it up. Here are highlights from the Irish Independent:

One of the highest ranking members of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.  Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

"I know it's not fashionable to talk about commissions, but I believe an independent commission to investigate the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years - north and south, church and state," Archbishop Martin told RTE.  "I believe that would be in the public interest."  He said it was the least Fr Smyth's victims deserve.

As I have said many times before, I do not understand how any decent moral person remains a member of the Catholic Church.  Whether members of the laity want to admit it to themselves, a portion of every single dollar given at the parish level makes its way to support the bishops and ultimately the Vatican.  That's right, a part of every single dollar.  Those who give to their local parish are supporting the filth that makes up so much of the Church hierarchy.