Philadelphia Sex Abuse Trial Continues to Spotlight Catholic Church Moral Bankruptcy

The sex abuse trial against Msgr. William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and accused predator priests that is ongoing in Philadelphia continues to give the gift of making it painfully obvious to all but the most delusional that the Church hierarchy is morally bankrupt and that the leadership did not give a damn about the welfare of children and youths.  It was all about protecting those in the clergy.  The number of young lives damaged or destroyed never, ever mattered to these horrible bitter men.  That two cardinals played active roles in allowing the sex abuse to continue for years speaks volumes.  I truly do not know how a moral person can remain a Roman Catholic under the current hierarchy, many of whom, in my opinion, ought to be serving long prison terms.  Here are highlights from the New York Times on the latest horrors to be revealed:

Two men testified Wednesday of abuse they suffered as youths at the hands of a now defrocked Philadelphia priest. The two victims of Edward Avery, a former priest who has pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges, appeared during the landmark trial of Msgr. William Lynn, the former secretary for clergy at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, who is charged with child endangerment. Monsignor Lynn is suspected of allowing priests accused of abuse to remain in positions where they could continue to abuse children. 

One victim, now 23, told the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas how Mr. Avery abused him in the sacristy of St. Jerome’s Catholic Church in Northeast Philadelphia in 1998, when he was 10 years old.   The man said that he had already been abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, another priest who is charged with abuse, and that Mr. Avery said he intended to do the same thing with him. “He said he heard about my sessions with Father Engelhardt and that ours were going to begin soon,” said the man, who was an altar boy. 

 

The witness said the priest turned on music and forced the boy to do a striptease until he was naked. He then sat the boy on his lap, and forced him to perform oral sex and masturbation, and told him that he was doing God’s will. “ ‘This is what God wants,’ ” the witness said Mr. Avery told him. 

The other victim, now 49, struggled to keep his composure at times as he recalled being abused at Mr. Avery’s residence when he was 15 and again on a ski trip to Vermont when he was 18.   Last month, Mr. Avery pleaded guilty to rape and conspiracy and was sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison. 

Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican can crack down on American nuns for not being sufficiently anti-gay and for focusing on social ministry, yet those who protected and enabled sexual predators remain untouched.  It is beyond sickening.

Maine Anti-Gay Bigots Decry "Special Rights" While Demanding Special Rights for Themselves

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Between their deliberately disingenuous whining about attacks on "religious freedom" and claims that gays want "special rights." the ant-gay rhetoric of anti-gay Christianist is enough to make one want to vomit - and never darken the doorway of a church ever again. The truth is, of course, that the anti-gay Christianists are guilty of/demanding for themselves the very things that they attribute to same sex couples who are tired of being fourth class citizens. As noted many times before, the Christianist (and this includes the Catholic Church hierarchy) idea of "religious freedom is forcing their religious beliefs on all citizens. And as for "special rights" these lying bigots want their rights to trump those of everyone else, gay or straight, black or white, Christian or non-Christian. As the ballot initiative in Maine to restore same sex marriage moves forward, the Christianist extremists are pulling out all the stops and doing their utmost to malign and denigrate LGBT citizens. Among the vile efforts being employed is a "No Sodomy Marriage" and "No Special Rights" pledge. Think Progress looks at this nastiness that passes nowadays for "godly Christian" conduct and debate. Here are highlights:

Today, they took their first action, interrupting the beginning of Pride Week at the University of Maine to distribute a “truth pledge,” which refers to the ballot initiative as promoting “Sodomy Based Marriage.” Individuals who take the pledge are encouraged to refer to the freedom to marry as a “special right,” a “hellish” and “evil” doctrine, and an “attack by demonic forces.” Here are some excerpts:

I pledge that I will:

1. Go to the polls and vote NO on Sodomy Based Marriage in November.

3. Use the term “Sodomy Based Marriage” and avoid the deceptive terms “same sex or gay marriage.”

9. Reaffirm the Christian Church’s teaching that a child must never be denied the right to have both a mother and a father. Oppose the hellish doctrine that parents of the same sex make better parents than parents of the opposite sex, an evil doctrine which is now being advanced by the homosexual rights movement.

11. Pray that God will deliver our State and Country from this attack by demonic force, and that marriage between man and woman will be restored to its rightful place of honor, to the glory of Almighty God.

The pledge also refers to marriage equality as “an attack on the religious freedom of all Christian men and women” that oppresses, silences, and persecutes “those who hold religious or moral objections to homosexuality” and seeks to introduce “homosexual indoctrination into the curricula of our schools.” Madore also told reporters that homosexuality represents a “culture of death.”

One can only assume that the authors of this trash were looking at themselves in the mirror when they used the words "oppresses, silences, and persecutes" and "demonic force." I'm also surprised they did not simply advocate for the murder of LGBT individuals. Their invectives certainly seem aimed at fanning hate and animus.

Protection of Abusive Priests Continues in Philadelphia

Speaking of protectiong child rapist priests, the proverbial shit continues to hit the fan - and rightfully so - in Philadelphia where dozens of priests involved in sexual abuse continue to be in ministry in unsuspecting parishes. The Philadelphia Inquirer has an editorial and the New York Times has more on the outrageous (and morally bankrupt) behavior of the Catholic Church leadership in that city. Of course, the problem is anything but unique to Philadelphia and seems the norm as opposed to the exception to the rule when the Catholic Church hierarchy is involved. Meanwhile, a Catholic college has fired a gay priest who has no history of sexual misconduct. Talk about ass backwards priorities. Yet again I find myself asking how can any moral person can continue to be a practicing Catholic when it is so obvious that the institutional Church is rotten to the core including at the heart of the Vatican? First these highlights from the Times story:
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Three weeks after a scathing grand jury report said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had provided safe haven to as many as 37 priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior toward minors, most of those priests remain active in the ministry.
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The possibility that even one predatory priest, not to mention three dozen, might still be serving in parishes — “on duty in the archdiocese today, with open access to new young prey,” as the grand jury put it — has unnerved many Roman Catholics here and sent the church reeling in the latest and one of the most damning episodes in the American church since it became engulfed in the sexual abuse scandal nearly a decade ago.
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The situation in Philadelphia is “Boston reborn,” said David J. O’Brien, who teaches Catholic history at the University of Dayton.
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The church has not explained directly why these priests, most of whom were not publicly identified, are still active, though it is under intense pressure to do so. Cardinal Justin Rigali initially said there were no active priests with substantiated allegations against them, but six days later, he placed three of the priests, whose activities had been described in detail by the grand jury, on administrative leave.
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“The thing that is significant about Philadelphia is the assumption that the authorities had made changes and the system had been fixed,” said Terence McKiernan, the president of BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents from the abuse scandal in dioceses across the country. “But the headline is that in Philadelphia, the system is still broke.”
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[A]t least a few people who have said, ‘I’m not going to be giving to the church’ ” and that some were not fulfilling their pledges to give to the church’s capital campaign.
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As I have stated many times before, only massive losses of Church members - and more importantly, massive drops in donations are the only things that will force the Church to change. Any claims of contrition are clearly disingenuous bullshit aimed at calming the sheeple in the pews. Here are highlights of what the Inquirer had to say on the scandal:
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If officials of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia want to prove they really meant their apology published last week over the clergy sexual-abuse scandal, they should get behind a two-part legislative effort in Harrisburg to speed justice for victims of priests or any other predators.
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The raw details of the felony charges against two priests, one defrocked priest, and a parochial-school teacher included the raping and sodomizing of two altar boys. Meanwhile, the top official overseeing parish priests was charged with child endangerment for his role in assigning priests.
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Yet, incredibly, there was no sign this week that the archdiocese or its lobbying arm - the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference - plans to do the right thing and support the legislative reform effort, which should cover all wrongdoers and not just priests.
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Two Democratic state lawmakers from the city, Reps. Michael P. McGeehan and Louise Williams Bishop, introduced bills that would redress past wrongs, as well as better assure that no future victim of sexual abuse would be denied a day in court.
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Once opposed to the civil-suit window, McGeehan's conversion came due to the appalling revelations about the accused clergy and the grand jury finding that the archdiocese had kept as many as 37 clergymen in parishes despite abuse accusations. "We are sorry," the official church apology read. But, as scripture says: Know them by their works.
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Will the Church do the right thing and support the legislation? Of course not. Here in Virginia the Church rabidly opposed legislation that fortunately passed and extended the statute of limitations to 20 years.

Victim of Sex Abuse by Priest Receives $30 Million Vedict

If the Roman Catholic Church will not do its own house cleaning of pedophile priests - and the bishops, cardinals and Popes who enabled them and covered up abuse - then perhaps the only way to force reform is through huge judgments in favor of abuse victims. That seems to be the thinking of a Delaware jury that awarded $30,000,000 to a man who said he was sexually abused more than 100 times by a Roman Catholic priest. Moreover, the jury levied $3 million of the award against the priest's parish. Obviously, no amount of money will restore the damage suffered by this victim. However, the severe financial punishment meted out to the Church will hopefully force reform - if not at the volition of the Church hierarchy, then by demand of insurance cariers who may be rethinking issuing liability policies to the Church and its parishes. Here are highlights from the New York Times:
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A jury in Delaware on Wednesday awarded $30 million in compensatory damages to a man who said he was sexually abused more than 100 times by a Roman Catholic priest — the largest such award granted to a single victim in a clergy abuse case, victims’ advocates said.
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In an unusual outcome, the jury decided that the parish where the abuse occurred, St. Elizabeth in Wilmington, must pay $3 million of the damages, while the perpetrator is liable for the rest.
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It is usually the diocese or the religious order, not the parish, that is held responsible for damages. But the Diocese of Wilmington, which covers all of Delaware, declared bankruptcy last year just as the lawsuit was going to trial, so this lawsuit as well as more than 100 pending lawsuits against the diocese was frozen.
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The jury is set to hear evidence on punitive damages on Monday. Thomas S. Neuberger and Stephen J. Neuberger, father-son lawyers for the plaintiffs, say they have saved the most damning evidence for this phase, and that the award to the plaintiff could grow substantially beyond the compensatory damages.
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St. Elizabeth parish is a large church with an elementary school, a high school, and three resident priests. The Rev. Norman Carroll, the parish pastor, said he could not talk about the case because it was continuing. Mr. Vai, the plaintiff, testified that the parish was negligent in his abuse. He said that when he was a small boy being hauled up the stairs to his abuser’s bedroom in the rectory, he was spotted by another parish priest, who is now a diocesan official. The official, Msgr. Thomas Cini, testified that he was unaware of the abuse. Another witness testified that other priests in the parish were aware of Mr. DeLuca’s behavior.
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The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest who was an expert witness for the plaintiff in this case and many others, said, “This was egregious because of the level of direct knowledge imputed to priests who lived there at the time.”
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What is truly egregious is the fact that the current Pope and the many, many bishops and cardinals involved in cover ups still hold their positions - and that sheeple still bow and ass kiss to such morally deficient individuals.

Defending Criminal Hypocrites

I have never been one to handle criminal law matters because I do not want to put myself in the position of defending an individual who I believe is guilty. Morally, I simply do not want to compromise my integrity. True, even the guilty are entitled to a defense. I simply could not effectively represent someone who I believed deserved to be punished for their crimes. On occasion a similar moral dilemma can arise in the civil law context where a party that is guilty of morally bankrupt behavior seeks to be defended from much deserved consequences of their actions. Sometimes the client in that setting is an individual is a single person. Other times it's a corporation or institution. This is the role now facing Jeffrey Lena, the attorney defending Pope Benedict XVI from a deposition motion in a case involving child abuse by clergy in a suit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The facts revealed to date make it clear that Benedict XVI and his less than saintly predecessor were up to their eyeballs in the cover up of sexual abuse by predator priests. Now Lena is working to protect the Vatican from the consequences of its disgusting behavior and actions in this case and many others. In the sex abuse related cases, in my view, true justice dictates that he hopefully is not successful. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:
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Lena is arguing that the Vatican cannot be tried for transferring a predatory priest from Ireland to Oregon. In Mississippi, he is defending the Vatican against accusations that it participated in a money-laundering scheme. In New York, Lena is defending the Holy See in a commercial-licensing dispute about the use of images belonging to the Vatican Museums. Wherever it is in the United States that the Vatican stands accused, Lena is there to protect it.
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Victims' groups say Lena's deft navigation of legal loopholes is anathema to an institution built on the revelation of truth. But Vatican supporters say he is effective, and that his immunity defense has broader applications for international law beyond the current scandal. What is clear is that through his newly voluble response to media inquiries about the Vatican's actions, the down-to-earth lawyer has emerged as the pope's de facto spokesman.
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In 2002, the abuse victims' lawyer Jeff Anderson brought John V. Doe v. the Holy See in Portland, Ore. After many years of litigation, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Vatican did not have blanket immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act because of an exception for harm suffered at the hand of a foreign entity in the United States.
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In 2005, abuse victims filed a putative class action lawsuit in Kentucky, which does not have the burden of proving that priests are employees of the Vatican. In that case, the plaintiffs are trying to show that negligent bishops, in their capacity as Vatican officials, caused injury on U.S. soil by failing to report predatory priests to civilian authorities.
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Last month, Lena filed documents with the U.S. District Court in Louisville claiming that the pope is immune from the jurisdiction of United States courts because he is the head of a sovereign state; Lena also is claiming that American bishops are not employees of the Vatican. Lena also will dispute that the 1962 church policy required clerics to keep sex abuse cases secret from civil authorities.
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Since then, the clerical abuse that Benedict has lamented as "filth," and the resulting lawsuits that many prefects in Rome once considered endemic to a uniquely "litigious" American culture, is now at the doors of St. Peter's. According to several church insiders, Lena has expressed frustration that Vatican officials in Rome have failed to get the church's point across clearly, that too many cardinals were chiming in off-message and that the church had to speak out more because the lawyers on the other side were speaking out.
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Again, I could not in good conscience defend individuals who are so clearly involved in protecting monsters who raped and violated thousands of children and youths. Indeed, in some respects the Mafia looks to be a pillar of integrity and honor compared to the Vatican and the Catholic Church hierarchy.

Vatican Again Tries to Blame Gays for Sex Abuse Scandal

The Vatican and members of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy are increasingly adopting the homo-hating practices of the extreme Christian Right and as a result it is more and more likely that if the lips of a member of the Church hierarchy is addressing the issue of the Church's worldwide sexual abuse tsunami, that the speaker will be lying. The Church leadership will shamelessly say and do anything to shift blame from the Church's systemic causes of the abuse problem - the celibacy requirement for priests and the Church's sick and bizarre view of all things sexual. The fact that mental health experts disagree and that normal "out" gays do not engage in the sick abuse and rape of children means nothing. Lie and obfuscate at all costs. The Advocate and the Washington Post both have columns on the Church's latest effort through Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, to blame it all on TEH gays. It is a travesty but not to be unexpected from an institution that covered up the rape and molestation of literally tens of thousands of children and youth. One almost has to wonder when accusations will surface that both Benedict XVI and Bertone abused children along with countless other members of the Catholic clergy. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:
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The Vatican's second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls.
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His comments drew angry reactions from Chile's gay rights advocates. Neither Bertone nor the Vatican has the moral authority to give lessons on sexuality," said Rolando Jimenez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation in Chile. Jimenez also said no reputable study exists to support the cardinal's claims. This is a perverse strategy by the Vatican to shirk its own ethical and legal responsibility by making a spurious and disgusting connection," he said.
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At least one of the highest-profile pedophiles in the Chilean church victimized young girls, including a teenager who became pregnant. . . . the archbishop of the capital, Santiago, received multiple complaints about Father Jose Andres Aguirre from families concerned for their daughters. But the priest - known to his parishioners as Father Tato - continued serving at a number of Catholic girls schools in the city. Later the church sent Aguirre out of Chile twice amid abuse allegations. He was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison for abusing 10 teenage girls.
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She said one of the priests she confessed to about her sex with Aguirre was Bishop Francisco Jose Cox, who himself was facing allegations of pedophilia. Cox had been bishop in La Serena, in northern Chile, for seven years when he was removed in 1997 amid rumors that he was a pedophile.
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Honestly, if there is indeed a God, I cannot help but believe that Benedict XVI, Cardinal Bertone and others like them are destined to burn in Hell where they will spend time with the far less than saintly John Paul II who is already there. The amorality of these men is nothing short of shocking - particularly when acknowledges the guilt and self-loathing they willingly inflict on others who are far less morally bankrupt.

Iran Tries to Suppress Rape Allegations

It is very hard to believe that the accusations that detained protesters were in some cases raped and sodomized are untrue. These violent acts were no doubt one by some of the same thugs that beat protesters to death and/or shot them in cold blood. What better way to demean and humiliate detainees that to sexually violate them. And then there's the fact that like all religious based tyrants, the current Islamic leaders lie without a second thought and somehow expect that thinking people will buy their bullshit. My rule of thumb is that the louder people protest that fact based allegations are untrue, the more one knows that they are knowingly lying. One can only hope that the accusations will continue and that pressure will build to force and investigation that will expose the crimes of the ruling dictators. Here are some highlights from the New York Times on the ongoing issue:

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Iran’s clerical leadership on Friday stepped up a campaign to silence opposition claims that protesters had been raped in prison, with prayer leaders in at least three major cities denouncing the accusations and their chief sponsor.

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The accusations of rape — usually a taboo subject in Iran — have multiplied and provoked strong reactions in the days since a reformist cleric and presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, broached the subject last weekend. His allegations added fuel to an already volatile debate about prison abuse in the wake of Iran’s disputed June 12 election.

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Also on Friday, a group of reformist former lawmakers issued an extraordinary statement on opposition Web sites in which they denounced the government’s harsh tactics and appealed to a powerful state body to investigate the qualifications of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Although it was not clear who had endorsed the statement, or even if all of the lawmakers were in the country, it appeared to be the most direct challenge to the supreme leader’s authority yet in the unrest following the election.

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But Mr. Karroubi appeared to be undaunted, and he pressed ahead with more claims of jailhouse sexual abuse in a statement posted on his party’s Web site late Thursday. He said he had received testimony from former prisoners that they had seen other detainees “forced to go naked, crawling on their hands and knees like animals, with prison guards riding on their backs.” Others told of watching as fellow prisoners guilty only of marching and chanting slogans were beaten to death, Mr. Karroubi said.

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The former lawmakers praised Mr. Karroubi for publicizing the rape accusations and angrily dismissed the mass trial of reformists now under way as a Stalinesque show trial. They also echoed opposition complaints about the brutality of the crackdown that followed the protests.