UK Cardinal Admits to Sexual Improprieties

I have long maintained that those most outwardly homophobic and who verbally attack gays are typically the worse self-loathing closet cases.  Indeed, a University of Georgia study founded that it was the homophobes, not the gays, who were most aroused when viewing gay porn.  And this rule  of thumb seemingly holds true both in and out of religious institutions.  One need only recall Virginia Congressman Ed Schrock who had one of the most anti-gay voting records in Congress yet dropped his re-election campaign after it was exposed that he was using a gay hook up site to arrange trysts with men.  Now we can add Cardinal Keith O'Brien to this list of self-loathing hypocrites and liars.  Until recently, O'Brien was the highest ranking Catholic in the United Kingdom.  That is to say that was until accusations were leveled by five past and present priests that O'Brien had engaged in sexual improprieties with them.  O'Brien quickly resigned and was barred from participating in the conclave to elect a new Pope.  Now, O'Brien has admitted that the allegations were true.  One can only wonder (i) how many in the Church hierarchy knew of O'Brien's improper actions and (ii) how many more O'Briens there are among the ranks of the Church's bishops and cardinals.  I suspect that the answer to both issues is that many knew and many others have engaged in similar actions.  Pink News looks at O'Brien's admission that the claims against him were true.  Here are excepts:

In the statement, released on Sunday, the Cardinal apologised, and asked for forgiveness, as well as admitting that, despite previously contesting the allegations, some were true.

It read: “In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.

“However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.

“To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness… To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologize.”  He concluded by saying that he would retire, and would have no involvement in the Catholic church in Scotland, going forward.

He said: “I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland.”

Also today, one of the priests accusing Cardinal O’Brien of inappropriate behaviour came forward to call for transparency within the Catholic church, which he said would “crush him” if it could, for speaking out. 

Last November, Cardinal O’Brien was named ‘Bigot of the Year’ by a gay rights charity due to his staunch opposition to marriage equality.

In 2012, he stated that same-sex relationships were “harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual well being” and compared equal marriage to slavery and child abuse.

In an editorial on Friday, British Catholic newspaper The Tablet said:“When Cardinal Keith O’Brien called gay marriage a ‘grotesque subversion’ and ‘madness’ it attracted widespread censure. No wonder the accusations of inappropriate behaviour as a younger man – strenuously denied – were so damning. If true, it made him look a hypocrite. For the church this was a public relations disaster.”

I suspect that the college of cardinals will elect yet another right wing, reactionary homophobe to replace Benedict XVI and that nothing will change within the Church.

Pope Forces Out Closeted Anti-Gay Cardinal Keith O'Brien

Over the weekend this blog noted the exploding gay sex scandal surrounding UK Cardinal Keith O'Brien who has been an outspoken opponent to LGBT rights in general and gay marriage in particular.  While O'Brien had said he would contest the allegations made by four different priests - most of the claimed sexual advances occurred when the priest were seminarians or newly ordained - there must have been fire and not just smoke in the allegations because reportedly in a final act Pope Benedict XVI forced O'Brien's resignation.  As one might expect, perennial Catholic Church apologist William Donohue is apoplectic that the "Lavender Mafia" successfully took down a cardinal.   Despite Donohue's protestations that O'Brien should be deemed innocent until proven guilty, Benedict XVI in a rare display of decisive punishment for sexual impropriety felt forced to act.  Apparently, covering up countless crimes against children and youths is fine with Benedict XVI, but accusations of actually participating in gay sexual activities is too much for the the bitter old queen.  First these highlights from The Guardian:

The pope has forced the abrupt resignation of Britain's most senior Roman Catholic as the church made a frantic attempt to minimise the impact of allegations of "inappropriate acts" committed by Cardinal Keith O'Brien against fellow priests.

O'Brien stood down as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh the day after the Observer published accusations by three serving priests and a former priest about his conduct towards them during the 1980s.

He issued a statement in which he ambiguously apologised for "any failures" and to those he had "offended", and announced that he would no longer travel to the Vatican to help select a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who retires at 8pm on Thursday. O'Brien had been due to be the only British cardinal with a vote.

The cardinal revealed in his statement that he had been asked by the outgoing pope to stand down immediately. Already due to retire next month, the cardinal stated: "The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today."

Senior Catholics said his resignation was intended to stop the allegations turning into a crisis. The church is already under pressure over unrelated abuse and corruption scandals in other dioceses.

Professor John Haldane, one of Scotland's senior Catholic theologians and an adviser to the Vatican, said O'Brien's decision was "shocking and sad" but, given the timing of the allegations and the "inevitable" media interest, it was not a surprise.

[T]the move led critics to demand that other cardinals at the centre of scandals over failures to report sex abuse by priests – including Roger Mahony, emeritus archbishop of Los Angeles, and Seán Brady, the primate of all Ireland – "recuse" themselves from the papal conclave, citing O'Brien's decision as a precedent.

In his statement on Monday, O'Brien implied he had been told to resign immediately, stating: "The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today, 25 February 2013, and that he will appoint an apostolic administrator to govern the archdiocese in my place until my successor as archbishop is appointed."

Insiders said O'Brien's abrupt departure had left the Scottish Catholic church, which he had led for 10 years, disoriented and shocked. One source said it meant that only three out of eight Scottish dioceses now have full-time, permanent bishops in charge.

I suspect that many others within the ranks of the Church's cardinals and bishops have behaved no differently than O'Brien.  Meanwhile, here's what the always incensed  Donohue is spouting:

We don’t know the names of the four men making the accusations because the British newspaper behind this story, The Observer, won’t release them; the details of what allegedly happened have not been disclosed (all we know are vague statements about “inappropriate” and “unwanted” contact); the four accusers waited over 30 years to come forward before coordinating their joint charges.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien must be considered innocent until proven guilty. But we don’t need to wait any longer to conclude that the British media have discredited themselves again (they do so regularly with all matters Catholic). To withhold the names of the accusers, and the details of what allegedly happened (dating back to 1980), without ever allowing the accused to rebut the charges, is despicable. Am I alone in picking up the scent of lavender in the air?

Herman Cain Latest Accuser's Story Rings True

It will be interesting to see how long the objective fact deniers in the GOP's Christianist/Tea Party base refuse to accept the fact that in addition to being utterly ignorant on crucial issues, Herman Cain is also a pervert and sexual predator. Now, we're up to four (4) different accusers and the latest - Sharon Bialek - appears to sound believable. Let's face it, where there is this much smoke (not to mention paid confidential settlements) it's hard to believe that there isn't some actual fire. One has to wonder why those in the GOP seems to always grab onto unsavory blacks (think Clarence Thomas, ethically challenged dullard in chief on the Supreme Court) as they attempt to claim that the party is not racist. Could it be that decent, respectable blacks aren't self-loathing enough to play water carrier for the descendants of white segregationists? Michelle Goldberg looks at Cain's latest accuser in The Daily Beast. Here are some column highlights:

By the end of Sharon Bialek’s press conference at Manhattan’s Friars Club on Monday, you could already see the case against her taking shape. In many ways, Bialek is exactly the kind of accuser who could damage Herman Cain the most—an attractive blonde Republican, a mom who attends Tea Party events. But as the questions put forward Monday suggest, she also has vulnerabilities. She was fired from her job in 1997. For the past two years she’s been a “full-time single mom,” and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, refused to say how Bialek supports herself.

After the conference, I saw the right-wing talk radio host Mark Simone in the lobby. “You didn’t actually believe any of that, did you?” he asked, smirking. I said it sounded plausible to me. He gave a condescending laugh . . .

I have no way of knowing, obviously, whether Bialek was telling the truth. None of us do. But there’s nothing unusual about a woman seeking professional help from a powerful older man and getting sexual advances instead. More than that, it’s often hard to tell, at least initially, whether a man is offering mentorship or lechery. This is one of the difficult things about being a woman in a male-dominated workplace. Career progress often depends on relationships, and on people higher up taking a friendly interest in you. When you have a chance to have drinks or dinner with someone you look up to, it’s not always easy to figure out whether it’s an opportunity or a trap.

As Bialek tells it, she had reason to believe that Cain’s interest in her was avuncular; after all, when she worked as a manager at the Educational Foundation, part of the National Restaurant Association, she’d socialized with him along with her boyfriend. Indeed, it was the boyfriend who suggested that she seek Cain out after losing her job, as he had always been so friendly to her.

This story is wearingly familiar. Most women I know have experienced something similar, though rarely so crude. For me, it was the professor who I thought admired my writing until he propositioned me. Friends have told me about a foreign policy pro who is infamous for coming on to young women who need jobs. Despite the myths on the right about hordes of humorous and litigious harpies eager to turn every dirty joke into a payday, women tend to shrug these things off, especially when there’s no violence or retaliation. No one wants to spend her life in court, . . .

[W]hile I don’t know whether Bialek’s story is true, I do know that it rings true. It makes sense that she didn’t report Cain or come forward until now. According to two affidavits that Allred read at the press conference, she did what most women do: confide in people close to her, in her case her boyfriend and a friend, and move on. She had nothing to gain and much to lose from doing otherwise, and men who do what Cain is accused of doing count on that.

Third Woman Claims Cain Sexual Harassment

Part of me is enjoying Herman Cain's fiery plummet into the world of third rate liars. It's also fun watching the circular firing squad forming in the GOP presidential candidate race as all of the campaigns strive to blame some other candidate for leaking the dirt on Cain. Of course, the more the story develops, the more implausible Cain's previous claims of ignorance become -especially as a third accuser comes forth. Amazingly, Cain's constantly changing story lines make even Michele Bachmann appear organized and knowledgeable. The Daily Beast looks at Cain's efforts to blame everyone but himself. Here are some highlights:

Things aren’t getting better for Herman Cain: a third woman now claims that he made unwanted advances on her while they worked for the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. The woman did not file a complaint, but said Cain subjected her to aggressive and unwanted behavior, including an invitation to his private apartment. Late Wednesday, lawyers for one of the women who accused Cain said she will not go public with her story, to avoid the media blitz that surrounds the case. Meanwhile, a new poll shows Cain dominating his opponents in the GOP primary campaign, with 30 percent of support to Mitt Romney’s 23 percent. Most recently, Cain has suggested that the rumors are being fueled by Rick Perry's camp.

Forbes also has coverage on the blame games swirling through GOP presidential campaign headquarters, including these highlights:

Was the recent attack on Herman Cain’s presidential campaign a professional hit job? Absolutely, says Herman Cain. And he says he knows just where to look for the guy who did it: At 815 Slaters Lane in Alexandria, Virginia, a low-slung former warehouse in the shadow of a coal plant.

There, beside rusting rail lines, is the home of OnMessage Inc., a Republican-leaning consulting firm recently hired to bolster Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign.

Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan said it was “patently untrue” that the Perry campaign had any role in placing the sexual harassment story with Politico.

Of course, Washington being Washington, there are other links between the Perry campaign and Cain’s failed Senate bid. The pollster for the Cain U.S. Senate campaign was Tony Fabrizo, who now also works for Gov. Perry.

Will Herman Cain Self-Immolate?

I won't lie - I don't like Herman Cain. Not at all. He's a pompous bastard even if one over looks his anti-gay statements and political positions. Worse yet, as today's constantly changing story lines confirmed, Cain's either a pathological liar or he's suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s if he can't remember charges of sexual harassment, not to mention not insignificant cash pay outs to settle the sexual harassment charges. Not that a history of sexual harassment and hush money settlement payouts will shake the belief of the Kool-Aid drinkers in the GOP base who may well write this whole scenario off as attacks from the left wing media. With he GOP base, objective facts and objective reality never seem to get in the way of the base's world view. Politico - which first broke the story on Cain's sexual harassment history - has an update on Cain's flip flopping story lines. Here are some highlights:

Herman Cain backtracked on a central part of his story about the sexual harassment allegations leveled against him in the 1990s, telling PBS and Fox News that he recalled details of a financial settlement with one of the women involved.

Changing his tune on the question of cash settlements was only the most glaring of several shifts in Cain’s comments Monday on the harassment charges leveled when he was president of the National Restaurant Association.

Only hours before, Cain said he was unaware of any “settlement” related to sexual harassment – a reversal he attempted to explain away through verbal hair-splitting.

Those comments clashed dramatically with Cain’s repeated assertions earlier in the day that he was not aware of any settlements that had been reached with women who said they felt harassed by Cain.

It’s difficult – if not impossible – to explain Cain’s reversal from earlier Monday, when he said he wasn’t familiar with cash payouts, period, with his later admission that he had discussed terms of settlement with the NRA’s general counsel.

In his public appearances Monday, Cain said categorically that he had “never sexually harassed anyone.” But in the interview with PBS, Cain left some wiggle room on a question about whether he had ever behaved in an “inappropriate” way.

Cain’s shifting set of answers Monday followed an even more disastrous reaction Sunday night, when Cain spokesman attacked POLITICO’s story as an assault on him from “inside the Beltway” – without denying the substance of the report.

Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon told the Associated Press Sunday night that the campaign was denying the POLITICO report, only to have the candidate confirm much of the substance a day later.

Sexual Misconduct - It's Alright If You're a Republican According to Eric Cantor

It's the hypocrisy of the GOP that makes me want to vomit. Case in point: Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor who is demanding the resignation of Congressman Anthony Wiener based on Weiner's incredibly stupid "sex-ting" of inappropriate photos. Cantor obviously applies one standard to the GOP while demanding a far different standard of Democrats. Remember " I was hiking the Appalachian Trial" GOP Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford who was in truth boinking a mistress in Argentina? Or maybe you remember Nevada U. S. Senator John Ensign who was having an affair with the wife of one of his staff members? Still not remembering? How about Louisiana U. S. Senator David Vitter who was a client of the D.C. Madam as well as hookers in New Orleans? In each of these three instances, Cantor failed to call for the resignation of the individuals involved - even though their conduct was far more egregious than that of Wiener. Instead, he said that the decision lay with the individual involved and their constituents. But in the case of Wiener, Cantor wants a resignation. Let's be clear. I am NOT defending Wiener's stupidity. But Cantor's hypocrisy is nauseating. The Hill has coverage on Cantor's hypocritical double standard. Here are some highlights:
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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called on embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign a day after the New York Democrat admitted to having sexually charged online relationships with six women, none of whom are his wife.
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“I don’t condone his activity. And I think he should resign,” Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said after an event in his district Tuesday, according to the Daily Progress. Cantor is the first leader in either party to call for Weiner to step down
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Cantor upped the pressure on Weiner Tuesday, breaking with Republican leaders who preferred to stand out of the way as Democrats tried to untangle the mess. While GOP leaders had remained silent on the matter, the party machinery has been working to stick Weiner’s troubles to other Democrats.
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The National Republican Congressional Committee has pointed out which politically vulnerable Democratic incumbents are recipients of Weiner campaign cash, and one, Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) already has said she dump her Weiner contributions.
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Frankly, in my opinion, Cantor is an embarrassment to rational, thinking Virginians. I view has a whining little worm who while not as insane as Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli, is morally challenged at best even though he talks about so-called family values just like Ensign, and Vitter. Residents of Cantor's district need to wake up and vote his sorry, lying ass out of office.

Lillian McEwen Breaks Her Silence: Justice Clarence Thomas Obsessed with Pornography

As readers have probably figured out, I am no fan of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who, in my opinion, should never have been appointed to the Supreme Court because of his lack of competence and his inability to separate his own claimed religious views from his rulings. Likewise, I find his wife's blatant political activities and financial benefits from anonymous political action donors bordering on shocking - especially given the tradition of judicial spouses avoiding anything that smacks of political partisanship much less things that give the appearance of impropriety. (Two of my former law partners are federal judges, so I know first hand what normal judicial spouse conduct looks like).

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Apparently, Virginia Thomas like many on the far right sees herself as exempt from the rules that govern others. Recently, she even had the audacity to call Anita Hill and ask that Hill bury the hatchet by apologizing to Thomas' husband. Well, now that brazen behavior seems to be biting both Thomas in the ass. Because of Thomas' behavior, Lilian McEwen, a woman well acquainted with Clarence Thomas has loudly said what she was afraid to say 19 years ago about Thomas. In effect, she substantiates Hill's testimony and confirms that Clarence Thomas is a very seamy and warped man. Pay backs can surely be Hell. If Thomas had any integrity, he'd resign from the Court. But, of course he doesn't and will not. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:
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When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill's allegations. Lillian McEwen was that woman.
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She was never asked to testify, as then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who headed the committee, limited witnesses to women who had a "professional relationship" with Thomas.
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Now, she says that Thomas often said inappropriate things about women he met at work -- and that she could have added her voice to the others, but didn't. . . . . She did not want to do anything to harm her career, she added. Plus, she realized, "I don't look good in this."
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News broke that the justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, left a voice mail on Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, seeking an apology -- a request that Hill declined in a statement. After that, McEwen changed her mind and decided to talk about her relationship with Thomas.
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To McEwen, Hill's allegations that Thomas had pressed her for dates and made lurid sexual references rang familiar. . . . . He was obsessed with porn," she said of Thomas, who is now 63. "He would talk about what he had seen in magazines and films, if there was something worth noting."
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According to McEwen, Thomas would also tell her about women he encountered at work. He was partial to women with large breasts, she said. In an instance at work, Thomas was so impressed that he asked one woman her bra size, McEwen recalled him telling her.
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[S]he says, "I know Clarence would not be happy with me." "I have no hostility toward him," McEwen said. "It is just that he has manufactured a different reality over time. That's the problem that he has."

Another "Ex-gay" Therapist Is Busted

Wayne Besen appears to have hit pay dirt again. It seems that
Alan Downing (pictured above) - the Director of Coaching and Group Services for the Jonah Institute, and a staff member of the Spring Lake Heights Counseling Center, of Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey and Brash-McGreer Associates of Medford New Jersey - who markets the lie that gays can "change" and become straight has been busted for inappropriate sexual behavior with much younger patients in his "ministry" program. What is it about these proponents of the "ex-gay" myth (e.g., George Rekers) who get off with voyeurism and other activities with young gays who could very well be their children. Rather than allegedly counseling others about the same sex attraction ("SSA" to use their jargon), these frauds need some serious psychological counseling themselves. The sad truth is that these snake oil programs exists for two reasons: (1) so that leeches like Downing can enrich themselves off of religiously brainwashed gays and (2) so that Christianists can claim to legislators and judges that being gay is achoice and, therefore, not worthy of legal non-discrimination protections. These folks give the term sleazy a whole new meaning. Here are some highlights from Truth Wins Out:
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Truth Wins Out (TWO) released an exclusive video statement today from two former clients of “ex-gay” life coach Alan Downing. The clients, Ben Unger and Chaim Levin, alleged that during individual therapy sessions, Downing made them undress in front of a mirror and touch their bodies while the significantly older therapist watched. Unger and Levin call the sessions a “psychological striptease” and believe they were harmed by what they consider unprofessional behavior and sexual misconduct.
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Downing, who admits he is still attracted to men, is a major player in the “ex-gay” industry and a practitioner of so-called “reparative therapy”. He is the lead therapist for Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) and is listed on the People Can Change website as a “Senior Trainer” for Journey into Manhood, which is a controversial “ex-gay” backwoods retreat designed to supposedly make gay men more masculine.
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“These dysfunctional,unscientific programs are rife with sexual impropriety and need to be shutdown,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Too often,repressed ‘ex-gay’ quacks pretend they are trying to get into your head when they are really trying to get into your pants. They call what they do reparative therapy, but it’s more like re-perv-ative therapy.”
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JONAH was co-founded by Arthur Abba Goldberg, a Wall Street criminal mastermind who was convicted in 1987 of “fraud of spectacular scope”. Upon completing parole,Goldberg secretly reinvented himself as a moral leader who “cures” gay and lesbian people. Known as “Abba Dabba Do” in the financial world, Goldberg was sentenced to 18 months in jail for bilking poor communities with complicated bond schemes and served six months in prison.
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This is an unscrupulous organization of high moral turpitude that has few qualms about harming desperate and vulnerable clients. This group has consistently been tied to bizarre, sexually suggestive methods that are unsettling, dangerous and ineffective.”
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Journey into Manhood, where Downing is a counselor, exhibits similar eyebrow raising techniques. Writer Ted Cox infiltrated this peculiar program and was surprised to find what he called,“homoerotic exercises” and a cabin that he called “The Cuddle Room” because it was a space where supposedly “ex-gay” men gave each other inappropriate massages.
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I truly believe that parents who place their underage children in these "ex-gay" programs need to be charged with child abuse and prosecuted. No youth deserves to be emotionally and psychologically scared simply because their parents are religious extremist whack jobs.

Purge Clerics Who Allowed Sexual Abuse

Each day seems to bring more evidence that Pope Benedict XVI is up to his eyeballs in cover ups and mishandling of sexual predator priests. Yet the Catholic Church hierarchy still is in denial and trying to play the victim card. Now, more have called for what I have believed was the only solution for a number of years now: all high clerics who enabled and/or covered up for the sexual abuse of children and youths need to be purged from the Church hierarchy. And that would seem to include Benedict XVI himself. Absent a mass purge of those who permitted the wanton abuse of children and youth, I see no way for the Catholic Church to regain moral credibility by not only many Catholics and also many others around the world. First, new evidence on Benedict XVI's dirty hands via the Huffington Post:
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The abuse cases of two priests in Arizona have cast further doubt on the Catholic church's insistence that Pope Benedict XVI played no role in shielding pedophiles before he became pope. Documents reviewed by The Associated Press show that as a Vatican cardinal, the future pope took over the abuse case of the Rev. Michael Teta of Tucson, Ariz., then let it languish at the Vatican for years despite repeated pleas from the bishop for the man to be removed from the priesthood.
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In another Tucson case, that of Msgr. Robert Trupia, the bishop wrote to then-Cardinal Ratzinger, who would become pope in 2005. Bishop Manuel Moreno called Trupia "a major risk factor to the children, adolescents and adults that he many have contact with." There is no indication in the case files that Ratzinger responded. The details of the two cases come as other allegations emerge that Benedict – as a Vatican cardinal – was part of a culture of cover-up and confidentiality.
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There's no doubt that Ratzinger delayed the defrocking process of dangerous priests who were deemed 'satanic' by their own bishop," Lynne Cadigan, an attorney who represented two of Teta's victims, said Friday. . . . It took 12 years from the time Ratzinger assumed control of the case in a signed letter until Teta was formally removed from ministry, a step only the Vatican can take.
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"The tragedy is that the bishops have only two choices: Follow the Vatican's code of secrecy and delay, or leave the church," Cadigan, the victims' lawyer, said Friday. "It's unfortunate that their faith demands that they sacrifice children to follow the Vatican's directions."
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Obviously, the more that Benedict XVI denies responsibility as more evidence of nonfeasance and/or malfeasance, the worse it will be when the evidence hits a critical mass and can no longer be controlled. Meanwhile, Roland Martin has a timely op-ed at CNN that goes to the heart of the matter and calls for a purge of clerics involved in the cover ups. Here are some highlights:
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And frankly, I'm sick of some officials of the Catholic Church playing the victim. We don't need to hear another priest, bishop, cardinal or even Vatican official decrying the constant news stories that reveal the depth of the sins committed against boys by these sexual predators masquerading as men of the cloth.
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The reality is that had these deplorable priests been prosecuted for their crimes (some were) other church officials would have been liable for obstruction of justice, for hiding the evidence, for shuffling priests from one parish to another, depositing them in homes for spiritual healing and renewal and doing everything to keep the sordid details under wraps.
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[T]he real issue is trust. When the church protects these priestly predators, they are aiding and abetting them. Instead, the Catholic Church should do like Jesus, who turned over the tables and threw out the money-changers. He needed to root evil out of the synagogues. The church must remove every priest, bishop or cardinal who turned a blind eye and allowed this to fester, even if it means cutting all ties with them.

Oral Roberts back at ORU - Now Wants to Seek Mediation

Interesting how Oral Roberts University now wants to mediate with the fired professors who have filed a lawsuit and let loose a fire storm of possible financial and sexual irregularities at the University. I suspect the media coverage is starting to take a toll and, if mediation were successful, much of the titillating information that might come out at a trial can be kept under wraps. Here are some highlight's from today's Tulsa World (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071023_1_A1_spanc37824):

At the ORU chapel service, Oral Roberts, 89, addressing students from a chair on stage, said: “I love you. I believe in you. I trust you. God brought you here, and you’re special to the Roberts family.” Roberts told the crowd that every allegation raised by a lawsuit against ORU and his son, university President Richard Roberts, was false. He said he was proud of ORU and its accomplishments “for the word of God,” and he said “the devil has come in to steal it away.”“The devil is not going to steal ORU,” he said.Oral Roberts said the university was born out of a healing ministry, and so ORU would turn to mediation this week to resolve the lawsuit.“This will be over and behind us, and my son will be back and be president of Oral Roberts University,” he said.

On Monday, Gary Richardson, attorney for the former professors, said he and his clients asked to work through the issues with ORU before filing the lawsuit but did not get a response from the university.Now, they do not want to resolve the situation with mediation — rather than in court — unless ORU officials “quit adamantly telling the public that they’ve done nothing wrong and become somewhat humbled by being caught and willing to acknowledge the imperfections of how they’ve operated.”“We would prefer to move forward and develop the information and develop the case,” Richardson said.

I hope the plaintiffs hang tough and the financial and sexual improprieties come out in full view for the world to see. It will not be the Devil that takes away ORU - it will be hypocrisy and false Christians who do that.