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isabella R

America Magazine Fixing the System That Put Monsignor Lynn in Jail - 0 views

www.americamagazine.org/...entry.cfm

abuse of power Roman Catholic catholic abuse sexual-abuse scandal corruption bishops

shared by isabella R on 17 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • In this elite environment there are few priests who are willing to oppose the   bishop’s wishes for fear of falling out of favor
  • “You keep the rules and the rules will keep you.”
  • A great sign of success for a priest is to be invited to join the Diocesan   Curia, the bishop’s circle of collaborators in the administration of the diocese. The position of Vicar for the Clergy, the post held by Lynn from1990 – 2002, is just such a sinecure.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • “You keep the rules and the rules will keep you.”
    • isabella R
      isabella R on 17 Aug 12
       
      "You keep the rules and the rules will keep you."
  • Camaraderie is strongly impressed upon priests. We often refer to our fellow priests as our brothers. The fact is that we do have a real dependency on each other since we do not have an immediate family of our own.
    • isabella R
      isabella R on 17 Aug 12
       
      THIS is the sticking point of what the celibate culture creates....it has nothing to do with sex....it has everything to do with being so cut off from the whole community--its kind of a Stockholm Syndrome....you end up believing you have no choice but to go along with what you are told or you will be out in the cold with nothing, no one, homeless, friendless......and that is the harm of celibacy. "Camaraderie is strongly impressed upon priests. We often refer to our fellow priests as our brothers. The fact is that we do have a real dependency on each other since we do not have an immediate family of our own. "
  • Priests rely on each other for acceptance, for sharing the work load and even living arrangements. If a priest deems any of these to be inadequate or unjust he may be, rightly or wrongly, labeled a malcontent or a problem. This perception can follow   him throughout his priesthood.
  • Very often a priest, may have some very serious concerns, yet simply “Go   Along to Get Along.”
  • Because a priest’s circle is often limited to fellow priests his vision may   also be limited. Therefore, if there is a problem, in certain cases, the advice he receives from them does not always come from fresh or unbiased eyes. Defense mechanisms can also easily set in; denial, rationalization and silence for self preservation.   As one wizened old priest said about speaking up or speaking out, “Who needs the aggravation?
    • isabella R
      isabella R on 17 Aug 12
       
      So many parallels to the cycle that results in families that are imprisoned by domestic violence....how could he do what he did?  If you can answer that you will have the answer to the age-old question "why do women stay with men who clearly will end up killing them." "Because a priest's circle is often limited to fellow priests his vision may   also be limited. Therefore, if there is a problem, in certain cases, the advice he receives from them does not always come from fresh or unbiased eyes. Defense mechanisms can also easily set in; denial, rationalization and silence for self preservation.   As one wizened old priest said about speaking up or speaking out, "Who needs the aggravation?"
  • Therefore, I make the following suggestions:
    • isabella R
      isabella R on 17 Aug 12
       
      NOTherefore, I make the following suggestions: First, that Diocesan Pastoral Councils be given greater prominence in dioceses. This group is comprised of clergy, consecrated religious and laity elected by the people of the diocese. Second, that Diocesan Boards of Consulters (BOC), a canonically established group of priests who advise the bishop on administrative matters, include men and women religious and laity. Presently the BOC is comprised of a representation of   priests chosen by the bishop who are elected by their peers to serve on the Diocesan Presbyteral Council (Priests' Council). Third, that the priests and lay people of the diocese have recourse to the BOC in areas of   concern.... NO, NO, NO, AND NO.....IT IS ALREADY BEEN PROVED OVER AND OVER AGAIN THAT IT CANNOT BE HANDLED IN HOUSE.....YOU DON'T SEND THE PATIENTS WITH A LITTLE EXTRA "MORAL SUPPORT"EXPECTING THEM TO SUDDENLY BECOME A COHESIVE, EFFECTIVE TEAM OF DOCTORS....IT'S NOT MAGIC. ROOT OUT THE WHOLE INFECTION...ANTI-BIOTIC....NOTE THE ANTI-TOTALLY OTHER....EVEN VACCINES ARE MADE FROM A DEAD VIRUS
  • isabella R on 17 Aug 12
     
    "You keep the rules and the rules will keep you."
isabella R

Cover story -- Philadelphia: Shining light on a cover-up - 0 views

natcath.org/...042806a.php

catholic abuse scandal sexual-abuse priest bishops abuse of power philadelphia

shared by isabella R on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • “They needed someone with my talent for drudgery.”
  • Molloy met victims in a small office on the 12th floor of the archdiocese’s Center City headquarters, which was located across the hall from the cardinal’s large office and a few doors down from the “Secret Archive” records room. The secretary for clergy, Msgr. Bill Lynn, was also present. One of the men would take notes while the other conducted the interview. To avoid giving the impression that the accused priest might be guilty, Molloy said he and Lynn were instructed not to treat complainants with excessive sympathy or compassion.
  • We were functionaries, auditors,” said Molloy. “Our job was to interview the victim and the accused priest, then write up a report for the archbishop. We didn’t have marching orders to do anything other than that.”
  • ...40 more annotations...
  • One of the earlier cases Molloy handled was that of Fr. Nicholas Cudemo.
  • Cudemo already had numerous allegations and subsequent reassignments on his record. Molloy told the latest victim that although he still had to talk with Cudemo, he had “no reason not” to believe her. He assured the victim the cardinal would suspend Cudemo if he contacted her family. Upon learning of his remarks, Molloy said, Cullen verbally reprimanded him for “overreaching.
  • The Cudemo case was when I truly realized that I couldn’t be sure that I could trust my superiors to do the right thing,” said Molloy. “So I decided to operate in a manner that would eliminate the need to trust anybody.” Molloy said he then went into “hyper-documentation” mode, taking great pains to make his files to Bevilacqua and Cullen as detailed as possible. At the time, he said, it was the best contribution he felt he could make to the situation, to history. If it all blew up one day -- and he was pretty confident it would -- he wanted as detailed a record as possible to exist. If his superiors were making the correct decisions in handling the abusers, they would be happy to have his reports. If his superiors were making the incorrect decisions, then his reports would help explain what went wrong.
  • “I wanted my memos to be there,” he said, “if the archdiocese’s decisions were eventually put on the judicial scales.” He was also motivated by self-protection.
  • Molloy said he never contemplated calling the press, alerting parishioners or contacting the authorities.
  • “The archbishop was still the archbishop,” he said. “He deserved the benefit of the doubt.”
  • Two of Gana’s victims informed the archdiocese of their abuse in the early 1990s.
  • In filing his report to Bevilacqua, Molloy strayed from his usual recitation of the facts and injected his own bit of advice, suggesting to the cardinal that a “forensic psychiatrist” examine Gana. In Molloy’s eyes, offering this common sense suggestion was some type of bold, defiant course of action. He was, he said, a “frustrated messenger.”
  • The secrecy surrounding the complaints had become too much for him. “It had gotten to the point where I felt like I was working for the CIA instead of the church,” he said.
    • isabella R
      isabella R on 23 May 12
       
      Spade sat at the prosecutor's table, listening as another attorney asked Lynn to identify for the grand jury a batch of documents detailing the transfers of dozens of abusive priests. It was as if the courtroom had become an arena for the unimaginable. Fr. Nilos Martins, who in the mid-1980s was the assistant pastor of Incarnation of Our Lord in North Philadelphia, invited a 12-year-old boy, Daniel, up to his rectory room one Saturday afternoon to watch television. The priest ordered the child to undress and then anally raped him. Spade listened as Daniel, now a Philadelphia police officer, testified that as he cried out in pain, the priest kept insisting, "Tell me that you like it." When the priest was done, he gave Daniel a puzzle as a present and told the boy to get dressed and leave.A few days later, Daniel returned to the church to serve Mass as an altar boy. The pastor, Fr. John Shelley, had learned of the attack from a teacher Daniel confided in. He informed Daniel that he was no longer welcome as an altar boy. Word of the attack then spread through the parish school. According to his testimony, one of Daniel's teachers, a Sr. Mary Loyola, began to refer to him as Daniella, prompting laughter from the rest of the class. When Daniel begged his teacher to stop, she gave him a demerit."I can't be sitting here listening to this," thought Spade. "I must be imagining what I'm hearing." The names of the victim and Sr. Mary Loyola were changed for the report.
  • “I washed my hands of the place,”
  • There is John Delaney, who explained how the priest who began raping him when he was 10 years old made him believe that his own mother consented to the abuse.
  • “I’ve harbored this feeling toward my mom for going on 20 years,” Delaney testified, “only to come to find out the other night that it wasn’t true. She had no idea. She had absolutely no idea. I’ve been hating her for 20 years for no reason whatsoever, and that’s not right. That’s my mom.”
  • ome of the testimony is so shocking Allen wishes she could forget it as quickly as she heard it. “These were just babies, 9 or 10 years old,” said Allen. “And to think they had to live with the fear of this happening day after day and not knowing if it would ever end. It was heartbreaking.
  • Allen was shocked that the archdiocese didn’t conduct more serious investigations when allegations arose. Most times, if the accused priest denied what happened, that was good enough for the archdiocese. “They were feeding these kids to the wolves,” she said.
  • Lynn explained, was not only having sex with children. He was also sleeping with women, abusing alcohol and stealing church property. “You see,” said Lynn, “he was not a pure pedophile. Otherwise he would have been removed.”
  • “It must have fallen through the cracks.” “We all just gasped at that,” remembered Allen. “It was sickening.”
  • Bevilacqua as “arrogant and cocky”
  • “He would ignore every question and answer with the same refrain of ‘Our main concern was the safety of the children.’ It was angering because it was obvious that his main concern was protecting his priests and the church.”
  • Bevilacqua testified in front of the grand jury a total of 11 times. “You could tell how annoyed he was at having to be there,” said Allen. “His tone, his mannerisms, they never changed. He was always cold. And every time it was the same thing of ‘I’m the cardinal and I’m telling you our main concern was for the children.’ ” Allen wondered how someone could be in a position of power all those years and never do anything to stop the evil being committed against those children. “In the end,” she said with a sigh, “I guess he knew that regardless of what he did he’d always have people supporting him.”
  • In his final act as assistant vicar for administration, Molloy requested the alarm code to the records room be reprogrammed and that all the locks and combinations to the filing cabinets and safes be changed. He wanted to make sure no one could ever accuse him of coming back to steal or alter the reports he had written.
  • Fr. Nilos Martins, who in the mid-1980s was the assistant pastor of Incarnation of Our Lord in North Philadelphia, invited a 12-year-old boy, Daniel, up to his rectory room one Saturday afternoon to watch television. The priest ordered the child to undress and then anally raped him. Spade listened as Daniel, now a Philadelphia police officer, testified that as he cried out in pain, the priest kept insisting, “Tell me that you like it.” When the priest was done, he gave Daniel a puzzle as a present and told the boy to get dressed and leave.
  • A few days later, Daniel returned to the church to serve Mass as an altar boy. The pastor, Fr. John Shelley, had learned of the attack from a teacher Daniel confided in. He informed Daniel that he was no longer welcome as an altar boy.
    • isabella R
      isabella R on 23 May 12
       
      This was never an anti-Catholic project. It was just something that needed to be done."
  • According to his testimony, one of Daniel’s teachers, a Sr. Mary Loyola, began to refer to him as Daniella, prompting laughter from the rest of the class. When Daniel begged his teacher to stop, she gave him a demerit.
  • He found himself becoming overprotective and paranoid about his own children’s safety. “I was dealing with all these cases where kids were betrayed by those they were taught to trust the most,” he said. “I was like, ‘My God, you can’t trust your children with your friends, teachers, or even other family members.’ I don’t think it’s healthy to be like that.” From the very beginning of the investigation, public relations spokespersons connected to the archdiocese condemned the probe as an anti-Catholic witch-hunt. The Catholic-bashing talk became a running joke among investigators. Three of the five frontline investigators were Catholic. “I was raised Catholic,” said former prosecutor Maureen McCartney. “I had 12 years of Catholic school. My family is very Catholic. It is a big part of my life. This was never an anti-Catholic project. It was just something that needed to be done.”
  • The investigation allowed Spade an opportunity to meet the noted Jesuit canon lawyer Ladislas Orsy
  • Over lunch, the Jesuit delivered a long discourse on how the general attitude of the Vatican, as well as the local hierarchy in Philadelphia, was to save the “institution” from scandal while the biblical precept to protect children went largely ignored.
  • “I was learning about canon law and the rituals and history and tenets of the Catholic faith,” he said. “And I found myself being drawn to it.” He began attending Mass. Spade would discuss his feelings with his wife, Karen, a lapsed Catholic. “I would tell her how I really liked the faith and she would say, ‘Are you out of your mind? You’re seeing what this institution has done to these kids and you’re saying you like it?’ And I’d say, ‘No, I don’t like the institution but I like the faith, I like the intellectual and spiritual part of it.’ “It’s funny,” he continues. “We were all being bashed as being anti-Catholic and here I was defending the church to my own wife, who was Catholic.
  • Once, while going over old documents, Spade had asked him, “Father, you’re such a nice guy, how could you have been a part of this? I mean you had to know what you were doing was wrong.” “He didn’t have any real answer,” recalls Spade, “other that it was his job and that he was trained to be obedient to his cardinal.” When it is all done, when the report is finally released, a single sentence on Page 41 will distinguish Molloy from others who participated in the handling of the complaints. It reads, “Molloy displayed glimpses of compassion for victims.”
  • He believes the scathing tone of the report was due to the investigators’ anger over the archdiocesan attorney’s “hardball tactics.”
  • “I look back and say what happened was insufficiently protective of the welfare of children,” Molloy said. “But I don’t want to say there was a lot of badly motivated men trying to conspire to achieve a cover-up.” As for his own regrets, he said, he wished he had shown more compassion, offered more assistance to the victims he encountered. “I regret that very much,” he said. “More than anything.” He said he sat down numerous times to write letters offering assistance to John Salveson, the president of the Philadelphia Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP. He said he wanted Salveson to know he would meet with the victims with whom he had had contact “to try to answer any questions they had about the way things had developed in the diocese with their cases.” But he never finished the letters.
  • I had to hesitate in the end because there is the possibility of lawsuits being filed down the road, and I did not want to create a situation which would be construed as an attempt to manipulate people’s opinion.”
  • At the time of the interviews with this writer, which occurred during the final three months of Molloy’s life, he said attendance at St. Agnes was strong and collections were increasing. “People have been supportive and understanding.” “After all,” he said. “I wasn’t the one making the decisions. I was just a frustrated messenger.” Would he have done anything differently? “I suppose that I would like to think that there could have been more insistence on my part that some of these perps could have been dealt with more severely.” Or maybe, he said, “I would find some polite way of convincing the archbishop that it would not be good for me to accept appointment to a position in such an office of the central administration.” But in the end, he said, “My job now is the same as it was then. To do the assignments I get from my bishop to the best of my ability.”
  • No mention was made of Molloy’s cooperation with the grand jury investigators. “I’m disappointed nothing was said about it,” Spade said after the funeral. “After talking with Molloy for a long time, I believe he was a good and decent man who was a product of the church he had committed his life to. I think he realized mistakes had been made and would have liked people to know that he helped get the truth out.”
  • “I’m beginning to believe it [the investigation] will amount to nothing more than just a scathing report which will set out in detail the way the archdiocese through Krol and Bevilacqua allowed child abusers to continually abuse children without removing them from their ministries.” “Prophetic, huh?” he asks now.
  • There was also another major obstacle to prosecution. Because of the way the archdiocese is set up legally, as an “unincorporated association” rather than a corporation, investigators realized that a loophole in Pennsylvania law most likely protected church officials from being prosecuted for crimes such as endangering the welfare of children, intimidation of victims and witnesses, and obstruction of justice. In short, Pennsylvania law did not seem to hold Bevilacqua or other church officials responsible for “the supervision of children.” Only the individual priests who committed the abuse could be prosecuted, but they were almost all protected under the statutes of limitations.
  • ivision developed within the district attorney’s office on how to proceed. Some believed the office should indict Bevilacqua and other church officials in the hope of creating new precedent. Others within the office viewed indictments as irresponsible and unlikely to succeed, given the narrowly defined laws. They feared failed indictments would tie the investigation up for years, which would delay them from releasing a detailed report, create sympathy for church officials, and open the office up to even more accusations of Catholic-bashing than the archdiocese was already hurling at them. “That’s where we had arguments,” said Spade. “On whether or not we should try and push the envelope.” Spade was among the most vocal calling for indictments.
  • “When someone is harmed, there should be retribution,” he said. “I thought that’s why we have a legal system.”
  • He still occasionally attends Catholic Mass and he and his wife have decided to send their children to a Catholic grade school in the Philadelphia suburbs run by the Sisters of Mercy but not directly associated with the archdiocese. “That was important to us,” said Spade. “We liked the ideal of service and charity that the sisters instill in the children, but we did not want any school that was actually run by archdiocese officials.
  • isabella R on 23 May 12
     
    Fr. Nicholas Cudemo.
isabella R

Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog: The Cardinal Sin: Disobeying the Big Guy - 0 views

www.priestabusetrial.com/...cardinal-sin.html

Monsignor William J. Lynn sexual-abuse scandal philadelphia trial crime

shared by isabella R on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • Because in the archdiocese of Philadelphia, that's the one unpardonable sin for which there is zero tolerance.
  • So what was Msgr. Picard's unpardonable sin? When he got the news that Cardinal Bevilacqua had just approved the transfer of Father Mills to St. Andrew's, Picard got on the phone with Msgr. Lynn and said no way
  • Lynn became "very upset because the die was cast, the letter was written," Msgr. Picard told the jury
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • It's hard to overstate what happened next. A meeting of the priest personnel board was convened by Msgr. Lynn and Cardinal Bevilacqua. All 15 board members unanimously agreed that Father Picard had disobeyed the archbishop. Father Picard had now landed somewhere in between double secret probation and the Inquisition.
  • the cardinal, saying that Picard had committed a grave offense. "He did disobey the archbishop, and this is what's out on the street,"
  • n the secret archive files, Cardinal Bevilacqua stated, "He will not tolerate even the appearance of disobedience by any priest."
  • The cardinal's men discussed having Father Picard write a letter of apology to Father Mills, another letter of apology to Cardinal Bevilacqua, and finally a third letter of apology to every priest in the archdiocese. At the end of the meeting, the records noted, the cardinal thanked the members of the priest personnel board for their "wisdom and support."
  • The cardinal told Picard he was weighing several punishments. They included taking away Picard's pastorate at St. Andrew's, and transferring him to another parish. Since Father Picard had turned down the transfer of Father Mills, he was told not to expect any replacements at St. Andrew's for the foreseeable future. A church deacon, a seminarian in his eighth and final year of studying for the priesthood, had been sent to St. Andrew's, to help out.
  • But after the flap over Father Mills, the cardinal decided that Picard might be a bad influence on the deacon, and so the deacon was shipped to another parish.
  • Father Picard was told that his reputation had been tarnished by his disobedience. And that when he was through with his penance, he was told he could seek another meeting with the cardinal,
  • t was noted in the secret archive files that "there is no remorse on the part of Father Picard at all." But after he went on his retreat, it was noted in the secret archive files that Father Picard "exhibited more contrition"
  • The archdiocese secret archive files say that besides disobeying Cardinal Bevilacqua, Picard had also injured the reputation of Father Mills.
  • Catholic priests are like the gang of losers that are the pitiful, petty, freak fraternity from any high school. No one would care, except they rape children, lie about it, bully the victims, and try to convince people that they have the only free tickets to heaven, as if God would put these freaks in charge of tickets.
  • isabella R on 23 May 12
     
    If you're a priest in the archdiocese of Philadelphia, you can "act out sexually" all you want. You can get away with it for years, even decades at a time, while they transfer you from parish to parish, in between recuperative stays at St. John Vianney's, the friendly archdiocese clinic for sex abusers. Just make sure that you don't disobey an order from the archbishop. Because in the archdiocese of Philadelphia, that's the one unpardonable sin for which there is zero tolerance. To make that point Wednesday, the prosecution had Detective James Dougherty read into the record 34 formerly confidential documents regarding the case of Monsignor Michael C. Picard. And then, the prosecution brought the monsignor to the witness stand to tell his story.
isabella R

Nun 'abused' by priest appears before court seeks to engage lawyer - General | hindujag... - 0 views

www.hindujagruti.org/...14306.html

catholicism Roman Catholic abuse of power sexual-abuse rape nuns india

shared by isabella R on 25 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 25 Jun 12
     
    Jyeshtha Amawasya, Kaliyug Varsha 5114 Why popular secular media channels are silent on this. Is it because Hindus are not involved in this ? Trichy (Tamilnadu) : All the five accused in the Sister Florence Mary rape case appeared before the mahila court in Trichy on Wednesday, even as the victim submitted a petition before the judge, seeking permission to officially engage a lawyer for the prosecution, along with the public prosecutor before the start of the trial. Meanwhile, defence lawyer A Rajendran, who appeared for Fr Rajarathinam, a Jesuit priest and accused number one in the case, asked the judge to grant more time to counter the victim's plea. Judge Rahman posted the hearing to May 28. Fr Rajarathinam, the former principal of St Joseph's College, Trichy was accused by Florence Mary (31), a former member of St Anne's congregation in Trichy, of rape in 2006 and later in 2008. The priest was granted anticipatory bail by the Madras high court on November 3, 2010 after he allegedly went underground for over a month. The other accused in the case were Fr Provincial Mudiappasamy Devadoss, Fr Joe Xavier, Fr Xavier Vedam, the principal of Arulanandar College, Karumathur and Dr Suchitra attached to Kavery hospital, Trichy who had allegedly conducted the abortion on the nun who was allegedly raped by Fr Rajaranthinam... Source : TOI
isabella R

2 Kailua priests accused of rape - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL - 0 views

www.hawaiinewsnow.com/...kailua-priests-accused-of-rape

abuse of power sexual-abuse Roman Catholic scandal abuse rape hawaii

shared by isabella R on 27 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 27 Aug 12
     
    "Simultaneously I told another priest. Nothing happened. I told a nun. I told another nun, so now four adults at my church know about this. Two nuns and two priests and nothing stopped the abuse," said Pinkosh
isabella R

When Trust Is Betrayed, Big Guys Should Answer Big Questions - Los Angeles Times - 0 views

articles.latimes.com/...me-patt8

catholic abuse abuse of power priest scandal Los Angeles church history

shared by isabella R on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 23 May 12
     
    If anybody on God's green and just Earth deserves a great big "I told you so," it's a 40-year-old Los Angeles medical assistant named Rita Milla. Eighteen years ago, she sued Los Angeles' Roman Catholic Archdiocese and seven of its priests. As a girl of 16, she said, she had been seduced by the seven, impregnated and sent off by the priests to their home country, the Philippines, to have the baby in secret.
isabella R

Following is the text of the settlement agreement between Paul J. Marcoux, Archbishop R... - 0 views

www.bishop-accountability.org/...Weakland-Marcoux-Agreement.htm

abuse of power abuse sexual-abuse child-abuse corruption catholic Roman Catholic bishops Archbishop Rembert Weakland hush money crime criminal

shared by isabella R on 26 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 26 Jun 12
     
    http://www.misconductinlatrobe.com/the-prophet/ This was in November 1992, long before a scandal over such abuse would erupt nationally, yet Weakland felt too much attention had been paid to the issue. He declared that sexual abuse by priests had "become almost a preoccupation in our society" and that "priests need to be reassured by the entire Catholic community that they are loved and supported." Only one sentence in the 800-word column acknowledged the victims: "My heart goes out to all victims and I am sincere in saying that the Catholic community wishes to do what is right in helping those so affected to regain full and productive lives." The column hit Isely hard. Brought up as a devout Catholic, Isely seemed destined to join the clergy. Isely had attended St. Lawrence, a seminary prep high school where he was sexually abused. Although he ultimately abandoned his dream of the priesthood, he was still a practicing Catholic who attended Mass weekly. He had tried to put the abuse behind him and consciously avoided stories on the subject. "I turned away when something was reported on television," Isely says. "I wanted to put it all behind me." But after reading Weakland's piece, Isely went immediately to his computer and wrote a response. "In a moment, I knew what I had to do," Isely recalls. "I hoped I could prod Weakland to take the lead in the church" and take on the clergy abuse issue. Journal Editor Sig Gissler received the response from Isely and decided the newspaper would run it the following Sunday, again on Page One. "We checked his credentials," Gissler recalls. "He was a psychotherapist and had a divinity degree from Harvard." And his "open letter to Weakland" was compelling. Isely called on Weakland and the church to not only banish the abusers but confront the culture that allowed the abuse to occur. "Root out the priest sex offender, yes; but also root out, when necessary, any attitude
isabella R

Amen - Autobiography of a Nun, by Sister Jesme, alleges sexual abuse and corruption in ... - 0 views

www.dancewithshadows.com/...iography-of-a-nun-sister-jesme

corruption catholic politics abuse autobiography nuns Roman Catholic crime organized crime india

shared by isabella R on 25 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 25 Jun 12
     
    A suicide note that accused another nun of sexual harassment Photo: Sister Anupa Mary Photo: Sister Anupa Mary On August 11, 2008, Sister Anupa Mary committed suicide in St. Mary's convent, in Kollam. She left a suicide note that accused a senior nun, in the convent, of sexual harassment. In a fit of uncharacteristic originality, the Superior of St. Mary's convent denied the allegations by saying that sexual abuse is impossible because the nuns sleep in a cubicle which is only 6 feet high. And two orphans try to kill themselves.. On August 26, 2008, two girls living in the Nithya Sahaya Matha Balika Mandiram, an orphanage for girls, tried to commit suicide. The orphanage is part of the Holy Cross order in which Sister Anupa was ordained. The two girls who had consumed poison and were admitted in a hospital run by the church gave a rather garbled explanation. They said that an apprentice priest Benedict spoke to them in a humiliating tone when he was counselling them and also told them that he had come to know that they were not good girls. Another girl who was also present at the counselling session told the Kerala State Women's Commission the priest had only blessed them by putting his hands over their heads and told them to be good girls.
isabella R

Religion News Service | Blogs | Mark Silk - Spiritual Politics | Cardinal Dolan fibbed ... - 0 views

www.religionnews.com/...dolan-fibbed

cardinal dolan sexual-abuse scandal pedophile priest abuse of power lies corruption vatican Roman Catholic catholic payout politics religion news

shared by isabella R on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 01 Jun 12
     
    Timothy Dolan, when he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee a while back, approved a number of $20,000 settlements to rid the Church of abusive priests in a more time-efficient and expeditious manner - without long, drawn-out canonical or civil proceedings. The problem the story poses for Dolan is not that he did such a thing, however, but that he didn't tell the truth about it back in the day.
isabella R

Enlightened Catholicism: Vati-Leaks: The Titanic Has Hit The Ice Berg And The Crew Is I... - 0 views

enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com/...h-is-in-northern-italy-in.html

catholicism Roman Catholic catholic vatileaks sexual-abuse scandal pedophile priest

shared by isabella R on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 01 Jun 12
     
    "Somehow this is even worse than the storm caused by the Church paedophilia scandal," said a priest who entered the great gate of Porta Angelica with brisk fearful steps.
isabella R

Fighting Irish Thomas: The penitent priest and the Catholic crackpot: the "Saving Fathe... - 0 views

www.fightingirishthomas.com/...est-and-catholic-crackpot.html

Euteneuer HLI Priests for Life pro_life misogyny abuse of power Roman Catholic catholic corruption sexual-abuse scandal

shared by isabella R on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 12 Jul 12
     
    "I take full responsibility for my own poor judgment, my weakness and my sinful conduct that resulted...[in] one particularly complex situation...[that] led me to imprudent decisions with harmful consequences, the worst of which was violating the boundaries of chastity with an adult female who was under my spiritual care…[w]hile I would much prefer to allow this public act of contrition to stand alone, I regret having to address the malicious falsehoods...[of] every crackpot with a website. --from Father Euteneuer's January 31 confessional statement..." THANKS TO THE "CRACKPOTS"OR WE WOULD NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH....AND WOULD REMAIN LIKE SHEEP WAITING TO BE SLAUGHTERED, BECAUSE THAT IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN CAUSING SCANDAL
isabella R

Philly Church Mum on Priest Until Donor Complained :: EDGE New York City - 0 views

www.edgenewyork.com/...riest_until_donor_complained__

abuse of power Monsignor William J. Lynn philadelphia Bevilacqua sexual-abuse bishops scandal Roman Catholic catholic corruption abuse

shared by isabella R on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 01 Jun 12
     
    Documents from a clergy-abuse trial show Catholic church officials ignored complaints a Philadelphia priest had molested two boys until they heard he was also running a travel business - and competing with a big donor
isabella R

Bishop Accountability - 0 views

www.bishop-accountability.org/...mahony-2002-05-b.htm

bishop abuse Cardinal Roger Mahony abuse of power Roman Catholic

shared by isabella R on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 23 May 12
     
    Cardinal Roger Mahony's projected himself as leading a charge to clean up the Roman Catholic sex scandal. Now, like Boston's beleaguered Cardinal Bernard Law, his dismal record of protecting predator priests has come back to haunt him.
isabella R

Bilgrimage: Richard Sipe on Sexual Abuse as Product of Clerical Culture - 0 views

bilgrimage.blogspot.com/...n-sexual-abuse-as-product.html

richard sipe abuse abuse of power Roman Catholic Catholic

shared by isabella R on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • "The context of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic bishops and priests is the culture of the priesthood."
  • clerical culture centers on the maintenance of a club whose boundaries are impermeable to non-ordained outsiders and are premised on the assertion that everything one does to keep those boundaries intact is done for God and the church--even when that "everything" comprises keeping noxious secrets, telling toxic lies, and maintaining absolute silence when faced with demands for transparency and accountability.
  • Sipe writes:  If a priest is apparently compliant with the demands of the culture he receives automatic status regardless of any individual merit. The culture provides an assurance of employment and continued material compensation for the duration of his life. The identification with the power system and subordination to it relives individuals of responsibility for the consequences of their individual actions. Truth telling is curtailed and subjected to the welfare of the organization (the good of the church). The prevailing rationale is that clerics’ first duty is to the higher law of God. Secrecy and loyalty are essential binding elements operative to the function of clerical cultural. Men within the clerical culture are labeled "special" since ordination confers an "ontological" superiority. Clerics thus incorporated into the culture often demonstrate qualities of dependency, entitlement, superiority/arrogance, variable degrees of psychosexual immaturity, but in many cases "they possess enormous powers of empathetic discernment—albeit for purposes of self-aggrandizement." And he concludes:
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The fundamental causes of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy are within the clerical culture.
  • That is, after the gentlemen running things get done with their bashing of Girl Scouts.  And gays.  And women in general and nuns in particular.  And abuse survivors.
  • Anybody but their own sweet selves.  And the super-rich right-wing men on whose behalf they are doing all this theatrical staging
isabella R

Bishops Play Church Queens as Pawns - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ay-church-queens-as-pawns.html

catholic nuns abuse of power Roman Catholic church history

shared by isabella R on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 23 May 12
     
    Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York recently told The Wall Street Journal that only "a tiny minority" of priests were tainted by the sex abuse scandal. But it's a global shame spiral. The church leadership never recoiled in horror from pedophilia, yet it recoils in horror from outspoken nuns
isabella R

Bilgrimage: Breaking News: Victim of Father Thomas Euteneuer Files Suit - 0 views

bilgrimage.blogspot.com/...s-victim-of-father-thomas.html

catholic Roman Catholic abuse of power crime corruption organized crime sexual-abuse abuse Euteneuer

shared by isabella R on 27 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 27 Jun 12
     
    ARLINGTON, Va. - A Roman Catholic priest "kissed (a woman) on all parts of her body" during a so-called "exorcism" session, and "frequently explained full, passionate kisses as 'blowing the Holy Spirit into' her," the woman claims in court. -the opening paragraph from today's "Courthouse News" article
isabella R

Abbey-Roads: Euteneuer back in the news. - 0 views

abbey-roads.blogspot.com/...euteneuer-back-in-news.html

catholic Roman Catholic abuse of power crime corruption organized crime sexual-abuse abuse Euteneuer

shared by isabella R on 27 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 27 Jun 12
     
    A Roman Catholic priest "kissed (a woman) on all parts of her body" during a so-called "exorcism" session, and "frequently explained full, passionate kisses as 'blowing the Holy Spirit into' her," the woman claims in court. -the opening paragraph from today's "Courthouse News" article
isabella R

The "naked" truth: "Doe" sues Arlington Diocese (and HLI) over Euteneuer's abuse - 0 views

www.fightingirishthomas.com/...oe-sues-arlington-diocese.html

catholic catholicism Roman Catholic abuse abuse of power sexual-abuse corruption crime criminal Euteneuer HLI

shared by isabella R on 27 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 27 Jun 12
     
    ARLINGTON, Va. (CN) - A Roman Catholic priest "kissed (a woman) on all parts of her body" during a so-called "exorcism" session, and "frequently explained full, passionate kisses as 'blowing the Holy Spirit into' her," the woman claims in court. -the opening paragraph from today's "Courthouse News" article
isabella R

Sister Abhaya murder case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Sister_Abhaya_murder_case

india Roman Catholic catholic abuse of power abuse corruption murder sexual-abuse crime organized crime Sister Abhaya

shared by isabella R on 25 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • isabella R on 25 Jun 12
     
    The CBI informed the Kerala High Court in late November 2008 and early December 2008 that Sister Abhaya had accidentally intruded upon Sr. Sephy and the other two accused priests in a "compromising position". Sr Sephy panicked and, on the spur of the moment, Sephy hit Abhaya with an axe meant for chopping firewood. The three accused together dumped Abhaya's body into the well.

    CBI also informed the High Court about the remarkable degree of care the accused took to hide the crime. This allegedly included the bizarre claim of a hymen-restoration (hymenoplasty or hymenorrhaphy) procedure on Sr. Sephy which was discovered through gynecological tests conducted on her in late 2008. This was strongly refuted by the accused. The counsel for the accused dared CBI to prove that such an operation has ever been conducted in India. Further, the building where the crime was allegedly committed was extensively remodeled.
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