Tuesday, October 9, 2007

John Paul II Pedophile Priests in Orange County

The Dioceses of California are settling the clergy abuse at an alarming rate. In July Cardinal Mahony settled $660 MILLION, the largest amount in USA history. Bishop Brom decided to forfeit his bankruptcy filing and settled $200 MILLION. Then Orange County followed suit and paid $7 MILLION to finish its leftover from last year's $100 MILLION. Why such speed. It is because Opus Dei want to canonize John Paul II so they can say "St. John Paul II and St. Josemaria". See http://jp2m.blogspot.com/

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/ex-cathedra/the-sins-of-the-father/14820/
The "Sins" Of The Father
While Catholic Priests Raped Orange County Children, Pope John Paul II Looked the Other Way

By Gustavo Arellano
Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 12:00 am


Pope John Paul II knew.


Of the many shocking stories to emerge from the Orange diocese's recently released personnel files, one is likely to resonate worldwide: the pope knew that Catholic priests were accused of molesting Orange County children as early as 1987--and apparently did nothing to stop the scandal.

That disturbing revelation is included in the papers of Father Andrew Christian Andersen. His file is included in the thousands of pages of documents released May 17 as part of the record-breaking $100 million settlement reached between the Orange diocese and its victims. Andersen pleaded guilty in 1986 to 26 counts of molesting four boys while working at St. Bonaventure in Huntington Beach.

One item in Andersen's file is an August 10, 1987, note to Orange diocesan officials from Monsignor Oscar Rizzato, then Secretariat of State for the Vatican. The Secretariat of State, as the Vatican's website describes it, is the arm of the Holy See's bureaucracy that "works most closely with the Supreme Pontiff in the exercise of his universal mission."

Rizzato's letter is brief: just an acknowledgement that the Vatican had received and was forwarding to Orange two letters from a non-Catholic outraged at the Orange diocese's handling of the Andersen case. As previously reported in the Weekly (see "Good Cop, Bad Church," Feb. 20, 2004), church officials stymied Huntington Beach police detectives who wanted to interview Andersen about the molestation claims.

The man, whose name has been redacted, said he was writing John Paul II "out of desperation and heartache." His letter describes the domestic havoc unleashed after a deacon abused his brother during the 1970s. The man also expressed disappointment that many St. Bonaventure parishioners and church leaders continued to support Andersen--after he admitted to the molestation charges, even after officials sent him to the Paracletes facilities in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, a remote counseling center for the church's child-molesting priests.

"If the Catholic Church would punish Father Anderson [sic] instead of hiding him in some small church in New Mexico," the man wrote, "perhaps others will look on child abuse as a real threat. I know we are not suppose to be judgemental [sic] and we are to feel compassion, especially for the ill which Father Anderson [sic] is, but is this 'out of sight, out of mind' method of dealing with the crime derived from Godly compassion or mortal embarrassment?"

His Holiness did not answer.

On June 4, 1987, the man resent his original letter to John Paul II along with another plea. "Although I have never been a Catholic member I have always looked to the Pope as a symbol of the true and pure belief in God and Christ," the man confessed. "I guess I need reassurance that you believe in what you say and the Bible's teachings and believe that the children are a great blessing from God that need our protection and love, not only when it is popular but more so when it is not."

His Holiness did not answer. Instead, Rizzato forwarded the letters to Orange, noting, "no reply has been sent." On Rizzato's letter, an unnamed diocesan official scribbled, "Michael—I will answer if you'd like—but, due to the contents, you might want to."

"Michael" was Michael Driscoll, then head of priest personnel affairs for the Orange diocese, now Bishop of Boise, Idaho. There is nothing in Andersen's files showing that Driscoll or the Vatican ever responded to the man's concerns.

Ironically, it was Andersen himself who sought a kind of justice. A couple of years later, he wrote to John Paul II, asking that the Holy See release him from the priesthood in light of his pedophilia. The contents of that letter are not known because the Orange diocese has yet to turn it over.

Monsignor Rizzato's inaction is another example of John Paul II's passivity in the face of the sex-abuse scandal destroying Catholic America. In an extraordinary essay in the June issue of Vanity Fair , John Paul II biographer John Cornwall argues the Church will never truly deal with priestly pedophilia until the hierarchy radically alters the approach instituted by the man born Karol Wojtyla. According to Cornwall, John Paul II was could not bring himself to blame individual priests and their conniving superiors for committing and aiding the rapes of innocents. Instead, Cornwall writes, the pope located the source of the crimes elsewhere, in the mysterium iniquitatis, the "mystery of evil."

"The comment distances the perpetrators, and indeed the Church, from responsibility," Cornwall wrote, "for it implies that the priests in question did not set out to abuse young people but were enticed to do so by Satan."

That's the philosophical view endorsed to this day by Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown. During a May 17 press conference at Los Angeles' Central Civil West Courthouse following the release of the priest personnel files, Brown constantly referred to the inaction of his diocese as a "sin." No one in the media challenged him. The correction was left to a sex-abuse survivor. From the back of the conference room, he asked Brown why the bishop called the crimes "sins" rather than "crimes."

It was as if Brown hadn't heard the man. He again expressly apologized for the "sins" of his church, and then he moved on.


To download the .pdf file containing the Rizzato memo and the letters to Pope John Paul II, click here. http://www.ocweekly.com/images/ink/05/37/gustavo01.pdf

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John Paul II Pedophile Priests in OC Orange County

Peter Callahan: Grade A A-Hole

Posted by Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra, Main
October 9, 2007 12:21 PM


For the past three years, employees for the Catholic Diocese of Orange have made our list of Orange County's Scariest People. In 2004, it was Bishop Tod D. Brown; 2005 included former diocesan spokesman Joseph Fenton, while last year's edition featured statutory rapist Jeff Andrade. Our Scariest People issue doesn't publish until later this month, but we can reveal the latest diocesan person to make the list: lawyer Peter Callahan.

Rather than list all the man's sins today, we'll just state one and leave the rest for our Scariest Issue. Today, after a judge ruled against the diocese today, Callahan and others staged a press conference. At the press conference was Sarah Gray, whom won a settlement from the diocese for her abuse at the hands of a former Mater Dei choir director. After Callahan asserted that Mater Dei officials properly handled all sex-abuse allegations for which the diocese was being sued (a claim we went over yesterday), Gray spoke up.
She told Callahan and a bevy of reporters that no such thing occurred when her parents asked Mater Dei officials to report her abuser (former choir director Larry Stukenholtz) to the proper authorities after they let him go in the late 1990s. Callahan didn't miss a beat.

"You had your press conference yesterday," he shot back, adding that Gray's case was irrelevant to the matter at hand in the press conference. Gray shook her head in disbelief. Orange County Register columnist (and good Catholic) Frank Mickadeit tried to pursue Gray's question further, but Callahan wouldn't hear it.

Petey: you need to stop with the uppitiness and show some compassion. Even Bishop Tod D. Brown was taken aback by your sheer asshole-ery. Then again, with all the losses you've suffered while representing the Orange diocese, you have every right to bitch. Regardless, hope you like our Scariest People entry on you later this month!


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Peepee Match Between John Manly, Jubal On!

Posted by Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra, Main, Naranja News
October 9, 2007 11:50 AM
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/ex-cathedra/peepee-match-between-john-manl/

Today, Judge Gail Andler refused to dismiss a contempt-of-court motion filed against Diocese of Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown by his longtime nemesis, John Manly for the recently settled Jeff Andrade case. Read more about the hearing in this Thursday's issue of the paper--for this post, I'll discuss a quien-es-más-macho incident that happened before Judge Andler's court went into session.

Manly associate Vince Finaldi set his suitcase in Judge Andler's courtroom a bit before 9 a.m. He went outside to take a call. Just as he left the courtroom, in came Matt (a.k.a Jubal) Cunningham, the man behind OC Blog and a fierce Manly critic. Cunningham sat next to where Finaldi was sitting. Neither knew who the other was--or so it seemed.

When Manly came into the courtroom, Finaldi pointed out Cunningham. Manly told Cunningham, "Hey Matt, want to go see the files?" Manly was referring to the thousands of pages of priestly personnel files that show diocesan complicity in the rapes of innocents.

"Not today," Cunningham replied.

"That's what I thought," Manly chortled back.

"I do have a job," Cunningham shot back.

"We all know what that is," Manly said knowingly.

"And what is that?" Cunningham asked.

Back and forth this pissing match went, until Manly basically dared Cunningham to go to his office tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and see all the documents; Cunningham said yes. Manly then looked at me.

"Are you going to be there to make sure he arrives?" he asked. Reading about the Dallas Cowboys' thrilling comeback, I demurred, stating it was a matter between them. And that's when the conversation turned weirder, with Cunningham asking if Manly would make their meeting "another media event" and Manly telling Cunningham, "How about we make a Mass out of it? How about we offer Communion?"

Now, boys. We like the both of you, although we think Cunningham doth defend pedophile protectors too much. But sling your schlongs back into your loincloths, and make that appointment (now scheduled for Friday, per Manly). Afterwards, let your respective spin start anew.

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'Tittie Twister'™!How the Los Angeles archdiocese stretched, twisted and contorted to hide bad, bad priests in Orange County — and how we learned to love it

By GUSTAVO ARELLANO
Thursday, October 27, 2005 - 12:00 am

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/ex-cathedra/tittie-twister/18482/

The Oct. 11 release by the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles of records on 176 suspected child-raping priests adds new evidence that church officials played hide-the-pedophile for decades.

Instead of disclosing psychological reports and other crucial personnel information, Cardinal Roger Mahony released only one-page summaries on each priest. Even heavily redacted, the documents provide further graphic proof that Orange County Catholic Church officials accepted, tolerated and sometimes conspired to hide known pedophiles before OC split off to form its own diocese in 1976. Here are six of the worst LA/OC cases:


MICHAEL BUCKLEY In 1959, a father of two boys complained to the Los Angeles archdiocese that Buckley -- then working at Sacred Heart Church in Los Angeles -- flashed his sons. Six years later, a parishioner sent an anonymous letter to church officials requesting that they defrock Buckley because of his "moral fitness." Then-Cardinal James McIntyre instead made Buckley a hospital chaplain in Torrance and Lynwood until 1971, when Buckley took up residence at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Santa Ana. There, Buckley is accused of molesting at least eight boys.

LYNN CAFFOE His report shows parents at St. Callistus in Garden Grove complained in 1975 that Caffoe committed "a boundary violation" with altar boys. Officials transferred Caffoe to Los Angeles, where fellow priests found an undated videotape of Caffoe engaging in "improper behavior with several high school boys." A complaint was also lodged with the Huntington Beach Police Department in 1994. Detectives never followed up. Caffoe's whereabouts are unknown.

PETER GARCIA He spent eight months at St. Polycarp's Church in Stanton between 1975 and 1976, just after church records show he wrote a letter "regarding his friendship" with a woman's son while ministering in Monterey Park. Garcia is accused of molesting 12 boys in Los Angeles County parishes after leaving St. Polycarp's.

BERTRAND HORVATH Church records show Horvath was notorious at St. Kilian in Mission Viejo during the early 1970s, where he made altar boys "remove their shirts" and gave them what the document describes as "tittie twisters." Horvath is reported to have fondled himself while asking boys whether they masturbated. Horvath left St. Kilian for a Los Angeles-area parish and bounced across the country until 2000, when Orange diocesan officials finally alerted their peers at the Amarillo Diocese about Horvath's past. After that, Horvath was placed in counseling.

JOHN KOHNKE In 1974, Santa Ana police arrested Kohnke for "engaging in oral copulation of a minor." The one-line summary provides no further details, and church records from the time do not disclose the parish in which Kohnke served.

JOSEPH SHARPE The much-beloved monsignor at St. John Vianney Chapel on Balboa Island, where he served from 1978 until 1998. It’s probable few parishioners knew of Sharpe's past: two sisters informed the Los Angeles archdiocese in 1971 that Sharpe engaged in an "improper relationship" with them. By the time he arrived in Newport, the Los Angeles Archdiocese personnel board had forced Sharpe to resign in 1973 for "various personal problems" and undisclosed "job performance issues." This didn't stop the Diocese of Orange from accepting Sharpe upon its formation in 1976.

KILL THE POOR!

After 83 years, the bells of Fullerton's St. Mary School stopped ringing in May, victims of what the Diocese of Orange described as declining enrollment and the economy. And while we can't remember whether it's a venial or a mortal sin when you lie where the lives of the poor or sex crimes are concerned, this much we know: the county's Catholic officials can't keep straight their story about St. Mary.

Last year, the Diocese of Orange paid $100 million to settle claims with 90 victims of child-molesting church employees. In a letter last month to the county's 1.2 million Catholics, Bishop Tod D. Brown announced that all but $15 million of the debt had been paid off. His Eminence promised the faithful that the monumental payout -- at the time, the largest since the time of Jesus -- "does not put our financial stability at risk and not one dollar has been taken from parish or school funds or any other restricted donation. Further, I do not envision any further reduction in diocesan staff or services beyond what has already been experienced."

But God works in mysterious ways to reveal the ways of the wicked. Sometimes his tool is the Los Angeles Times. On Sept. 20, Father Art Holquin, pastor at the Old Mission in San Juan Capistrano, told the Times that the record settlement hurt.

"It would be unfortunate if people perceived that [the settlement] caused no pain. It did cause pain," Holquin told Times reporter Roy Rivenburg. Hardest hit, Holquin said, were "struggling Catholic schools in Santa Ana and other low-income areas [that] could have benefited from the $50 million that was diverted to the sex-abuse settlement."

Rivenburg did not press Holquin for details. But a little research reveals that this year alone church leaders closed the schools at Our Lady of the Pillar in Santa Ana and St. Mary, two parishes that serve largely Latino congregations. Diocesan officials at the time claimed the settlement had nothing to do with the closures, that declining enrollment and a tough economy forced their hand.

"Enrollment in Santa Ana has been dropping because of the increasing cost of tuition," diocesan spokesman Joe Fenton told The Orange County Register on Jan. 19, about the time the church was finalizing its deal with sex-crimes victims. "Consolidating the schools will allow us to eliminate administrative positions, hold the line on tuition and provide more scholarships to needy students."

Fenton, who clearly needs some work in remedial logic and math, did not examine the possibility that the church could have spent on scholarships the millions it spent for sex crimes.

No one at the Orange diocese returned our calls. But earlier this year, a Brown confidant provided the Weekly with a list of parochial schools he -- or maybe it was she -- claimed the diocese would close in order to pay off the sex-crimes victims. St. Mary and Our Lady of the Pillar were on that list. "[Brown] and his spinmeisters will give some kind of public explanation that sounds plausible," said the source, who requested anonymity. "But the bottom line is that schools that serve the Latino community are expendable."

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

John Paul II and Cardinal Mahony: Masters of Deceit Part 2

http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/07/
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

John Paul II and Cardinal Mahony: Masters of Cunning and Deceit, Part 2

In Part 1 of "John Paul II and Cardinal Mahony, Masters of Cunning and Deceit", July 17, we revealed that Mahony shortchanged the 508 victims of Los Angeles pedophile priests of their original asking price of $1.5 Billion in 2004 and that Mahony settled to avoid testifying in LA courthouse that could have become the ‘trial of the century’ and rivaled the O.J. Simpson spectacle in 1995. Most of all, we revealed ‘where angels fear to tread’ -- for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church -- that the Opus Dei is the ultimate responsible leader in the cover-up of the sin and crime of priest pedophilia in the 20th century – hence we disclose them as the real Octopus Dei. http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007/07/john-paul-ii-and-cardinal-mahony-master.html And as a sign from God that we are doing right, suddenly ferocious gigantic squids appear in the southern beaches of California. The timing is extraordinary that such sea monsters and the Octopus Dei coincidentally do exist after all.

In Part 2, we reveal how the Opus Dei operates its Octopus Dei tentacles through its vast global media empire owned by their secret members and how they send their professional journalists to write Opus Dei spins here and there around the globe like this AP article. We accomplish this by analyzing in-depth this AP Associated Press international news on Mahony and show its hidden secretive Opus Dei spin. (If one can own the AP Associated Press, one easily own Reuters and the others as a piece of cake.) This AP writer acts like the PR for Mahony on the world stage. Like all other major newspapers act as PR for Mahony and the Pope per cunning and conniving of the Octopus Dei

For an objective study on the Opus Dei. http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/pubs/publications/1997opusdeithepopesrightarm.asp The OD operate the same way in USA and in all other countries.

"Opus Dei does not publish the names of its members, and many Opus Del members do not make public their membership in the organisation."

"Because of the high degree of members' allegiance to Opus Dei and its religious agenda, their work in the public sphere breaches the church-state division that is fundamental to modern democracy. It is essential, then, to monitor the organisation's undertakings in secular arenas -- a task made difficult by the fact that individuals' membership is often undisclosed to the public."

"The professions in which Opus Dei is strongest, particularly in Europe and South America (and USA), are the media, medicine, the judiciary, education (especially at the university level), and, above all, high finance and politics."

The OD international spins about the Los Angeles settlements are exemplified by links at the end of this post - from countries in the east Malaysia to countries in the west in America and Spain.

The Opus Dei spin and message is this: "WE rule, you kowtow to us. Other religions did pedophilia too, so the Roman Catholic church ain't so bad. So close shop, you SNAP, Abuse Tracker and Bishops Accountability, you are all finished and done. Put your files in boxes, especially you Bishop Accountability, and go home. The court cases are over. We have paid you off, the crime is paid. The cases are closed. Your files are now irrelevant like the old church Inquisition and the Crusaders history. Who cares to read them today? And who cares to read of your boxes of pedophile priests files? So go home and shut your doors and shut-up. And let us run the church as we deem fit – we want John Paul II to be canonized a saint ASAP so that together with our St? Josemaria Escriba they will rule over you and we’ll trample on you if you don’t obey us – just like we did with the Jesuit Jon Sobrino. Benedict gave him the Notification and the Opus Dei Bishop finished him off by imposing Silence on him prohibiting him to teach and publish [which he has done all his life for the poor people of El Salvador]. We don’t care about the poor; we only care about the impeccable reputation of soon-be-saint John Paul II and St? Josemaria Escriba.

“We don’t care about you and what you do for the survivors and victims of priest pedophilia. We have on only agenda – world domination and the cult and worship of John Paul II and Josemaria Escriba, our founder. You will all bow before us who are more holy than all of you. We pray in Latin, you don’t. The Opus Dei rules the world. See the map in our website? WE rule the world."

The Octopus Dei is so OBVIOUS yet invisible like the AIR we breathe. To prove with legal records the Opus Dei's cover-up of priest pedophilia at the Vatican and around the world is like trying to scientifically prove and hold with one's hands the air that we breathe.

But history is there for all of us to see-- Opus Dei's Joaquin Navarro-Valls was the Press Secretary of John Paul II from the beginning of his papacy until he died -- for more than 26 years.

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Analysis of a classic Opus Dei spin via AP Associated Press

The AP news are broken down into phrases for clarity. Our comments are preceded by hyphens. We point out the deceptions written in between the lines. Now let's dissect this Opus Dei spin by this AP secret clone daughter of Escriba.

http://www.kentucky.com/216/story/130192.html


L.A. cardinal's apology may not suffice

--- The title suggests that Mahony’s apology is not enough and must require some more things other than an apology. But what are these “other” requirements? None, if you read the entire article (which is in italics).

--- Mahony's apology was a rehearsed actor’s speech. Mahony is an actor clone of John Paul II the great actor. Mahony should be charged as a criminal for aiding and abetting pedophiles. He should resign and be exiled to Rome and room with Cardinal Bernard Law at the Vatican quarters of Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei eunuchs.

CRITICS CITE HIS ROLE IN SEX-ABUSE SCANDAL

--- Why is this subtitle all in capital letters, to emphasize “critics”?

--- But who and where are these “critics” and what are their names in this AP news?

--- Not one, repeat, not one LA theologian, nor the LA Times and major LA newspapers hollered at Mahony and cried foul like Boston Globe did to Cardinal Bernard Law in 2002. All LA media were mute about Mahony because most are owned by the invisible tycoon Opus Dei - therefore owned by Mahony. If you need proof go to their list of board members, stock and shareholders and editors. All LA media are reporting watered-down articles just to put on the appearance as if Mahony is "hurt" a little bit but really is "unscathed."

By Rachel Zoll
ASSOCIATED PRESS

---- She has written more than one AP article on the LA settlements and they are all deceptive like this one. (Can’t waste my time to search for them now. Just google her name and you’ll see the pattern of her writing)

--- She’s has the signs of a secret Opus Dei member and may have relatives and friends in Opus Dei. She’s either a graduate or has taken extra journalism courses at the Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome or other Opus Dei run or affiliated universities. She goes to confession to an Opus Dei priest who has instructed her to write this article point by point and praise her for being obedient and for defending the agenda of Opus Dei.




Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony approved a record clergy abuse payout

---“approved" is not the correct word; Mahony had to be “forced” by civil law (not church law) to settle or appear in court. He used every legal option to suppress victims’ litigations. He was too chicken to testify in court due the following Monday so he bargained out on Saturday, $660 million instead of the original 1.5 Billion asking price in 2004

opened the files of the Roman Catholic priests involved

--- This is a false statement. In fact Mahony continue to spend millions to delay court proceedings and delay the release of these files for the past 4 years and he had orchestrated to have some personal files to go "missing”.

--- And as this AP news itself suggests, the individual priest can still contest the release of their personal files which Mahony will encourage them all to do.

and looked into the cameras and apologized last week for the victims' treatment

---"looked into the camera" like a professional actor of Hollywood, all right. See his fox demeanor in our July 17 blog -- "But his eyes do not smile, they are wary, watchful, seeking the advantage, covering his sides and back.”

And it still might not be enough to satisfy some

--- This is a classic Opus Dei spin. It suggests something but prove nothing. Very vague. Typical OD line

--- To "satisfy some" who exactly? The poor victims who have no more oxygen to fight Goliath Mahony? Or is she referring to some “critics” like us who are left to voice the truth like the prophet Isaiah?

To fund the archdiocese's share of the $660 million settlement, the cardinal will have to sell property, liquidate investments and cut spending, dismantling part of what he built in more than two decades as the city's archbishop

--- She is praising Mahony now, the Opus Dei major spin.

--- She paints Mahony as a builder "built it in more than two decades" but she does not tell the other side of Mahony that for two decades he covered-up more than 500 pedophile priests, all pedophile criminals who should be rotting in jail instead of saying Mass!

--- She does not report the fact that Mahony and the Opus Dei lawyers are all laughing at the victims who had to settle for less than the original asking price of $1.2 Billion. The insurance will pay half of the settlements, religious orders will pay three-quarter of the other half, and Mahony will pay only about 50 Million which he can easily gain this in annual interest alone from the $4.5 Billion La diocese holdings and investments.

Even so, critics question whether the cardinal should have done more to rein in predatory priests in the nation's largest archdiocese.

--- Who are these "critics”? Imagine an AP professional journalist who cannot support her statement with simple facts.

--- Hello! Not ONE Los Angeles theologian dared criticize and asked Mahony to resign because he put no value in the survivors’ lives. Boston’s priests demanded Cardinal Bernard Law to resign. They pounded him non-stop until he flew to Rome to join the other cohorts-in-crime papal team at the Vatican, the Opus Dei and the then Cardinal Ratzinger.

Bishops answer only to the Vatican

--- Opus Dei is the only Prelature in the church meaning it is answerable only to the Vatican. This is an Opus Dei signature spin.

--- She is declaring that Bishops do not answer to secular judges and the courts of United States. She and the Bishops believe that Bishops are the “Prince of the Church” and are above the law of the land. This is in Escriba’s writings.

--- It had to take $2 Billion dollars to show that Bishops are subject to the law of the nation, that they are “below” or subjects to the courts. But the Opus Dei will spin that this doesn’t count because $2 Billion means zero in their church account. No parishes have been closed; no church properties have been touched in LA. $2 Billion does not make any dent in the vast real estate and secret investments of the church.

which had to sign off on some funding of the settlement, but every church leader needs the trust of the parishioners.

"He acknowledged he made some mistakes, he apologized," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

--- This is the Opus Dei’s signature: to cite a Jesuit and put him in a negative light, not with hardcore evidence but in slightly negative terms. This is like putting a drop of poison in a potable system of a city; it is enough to poison the entire water system.

--- John Allen in his Opus Dei book used the same strategy, he ended his book by citing a Jesuit who was ‘ignorant’ of the Opus Dei’ work with the poor. But the fact is Opus Dei caters and recruits only the professionals and the rich, 99.9 % of their members belong to the professionals like lawyers and doctors and the richer elite with income above $50,000.

"Now the people of Los Angeles are going to have to weigh the good that he's done over the last 22 years versus the bad things he did and decide whether they can continue to accept him as their bishop."

--- This Opus Dei AP writer couldn’t find any critic of Mahony because there are no critics to quote in Los Angeles; she had to fish Thomas Reese out of Woodstock from the east coast, from faraway Washington, DC in the Jesuit Georgetown University. What happened to the many theologians in LA? They are all being choked by the Octopus Dei threatened to have their teaching licensed repealed.

--- It is important to note that Fr. Reese was the first victim of Ratzinger soon as he was elected Pope. God’s Rottweiler demanded him to resign from his post as Editor of the America magazine in New York. We covered it in our Ratzinger blog –
http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/2007/05/benedict-xvi-gods-rottweiler-appetite.html


Last week's deal was made on the eve of a civil trial in which Mahony would have been grilled about why he left some abusive priests in churches without telling parents or police.

--- This civil trial is what forced Mahony to settle. It was the cheapest way for him to dodge the bullet of a trial wherein he couldn't hide the truth no matter how cunning he was. Still it is a small price to pay for his silence, $666 million instead of $1.5 billion.

As part of the settlement, the archdiocese agreed to release the personnel files of accused clergymen, which could reveal any direct links between Mahony and the guilty priests he supervised. But each priest tied to the 508 Los Angeles cases can challenge his records' release -- another potential obstacle to full disclosure.

--- This will be the next strategy of Mahony which is to suppress the disclosure of files. He is already doing this as of today in LA court. Church Attorneys are already objecting to production of documents over and over again.

--- Mahony strategy is “Who cares if the judge already denied this motion, if we file it 100 times, we can really wear down both plaintiff attorneys and the entire Los Angeles Superior Court civil justice system.” (a survivor)

Mahony, 71, has acknowledged the suffering of victims.

--- Oh, really? When and how did he do it? His ONE SPEECH of apology is really a sinister celebration of his own personal victory, he's fooling the people that the "biggest settlement" after all cost even less than the Boston diocese that had to get rid of its Archbishop's palace. When Mahony moves to smaller quarters like Cardinal O’Malley, then maybe he can “feel” a little bit for the “suffering of victims”. But as long as he lives in his Archbishop Opus Dei palace, he cannot feel any compunction for the victims. It’s all hearsay and crocodile tears.

He was among only a handful of bishops who revealed the names of suspected clergy so the public could be protected from them.

--- Who are you kidding? “Only a handful of bishops”? Who is this handful? Why don’t you name facts and faces? The fact is ALL Bishops had to be brought to court by secular lawyers to force them to reveal names of pedophile priests.

After a California judge approved the settlement Monday, Mahony received support from a lead lawyer for the victims. Attorney Raymond Boucher praised Mahony for meeting with victims and for working to persuade religious orders to sign onto the deal

--- This is one of the most insulting things to say to the victims and their good lawyers who worked hard to bring them some compensation and justice. It is tantamount to saying that “Hitler apologized to the Holocaust victims but at the end, their lead Jewish lawyer praised Hitler for convincing the Germans to pay the survivors.”

AP, you have sold your soul to Octopus Dei. How pathetic.

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International Opus Dei spins

Editorial: Light at the End of a tunnel
http://home.catholicweb.com/CathMessDavDio/index.cfm/NewsItem?id=207469&From=Home

Battle Fatigue
http://uscatholic.claretians.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12551&news_iv_ctrl=0&abbr=usc_&JServSessionIdr002=z2pqqh6ku1.app5a

Vatican statement
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL177195020070717?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true

Religion Beat becomes a test of faith
http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/calif/LA_settlement_2007/072107_lobell_latimes_test_of_faith.html

Clergy sex scandal a lesson for all - (Malaysia)
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=4631


Sequitur, et Non
http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/index.php?print=1145

Chicago Bishop discusses abuse cases
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/488355,4_1_JO29_SARTAIN_S2.article

L.A. cardinal's apology may not suffice
CRITICS CITE HIS ROLE IN SEX-ABUSE SCANDAL
AP - http://www.kentucky.com/216/story/130192.html

The Teflon Cardinal
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-rieff22copyjul22,0,2757313.story?coll=la-opinion-center

Nuncio in Spain says Catholic Church's cases of clerical sexual abuse rank among the lowest
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=9914

-------------

“Mahony belongs behind bars.”
http://www.richardsipe.com/Click_&_Learn/2006-06-27.html

On Saturday night, June 24, after the première showing of Amy Berg’s film DELIVER US FROM EVIL at the Independent Documentary Association’s Los Angeles Film Festival, a packed house stood amid thunderous applause as the father of victim who had been sexually abused as a five year-old proclaimed, “Mahony belongs behind bars.”

To say that the film documents the career of Fr. Oliver O’Grady, a priest born and educated in Ireland and ordained for the Diocese of Stockton, California would be true, but as deceptive as saying that Gone With the Wind is the story of how Scarlet O’Hara lost the farm.

Berg tells the story of people—parents, children, believing, faithful, church going folk—so easy to identify with that one is drawn delicately into a story as intriguing and riveting as a best-seller summer mystery novel. The story is woven between the families and kids who trusted the priest and the church—and how they became aware of the true nature of both—and O’Grady quietly, casually telling how he was abused by a priest as an altar boy and details the methods he used to groom, seduce, and sexually violate innumerable boys and girls in his parishes.

The camera follows the priest now freely walking the streets of Irish towns that are still unaware of the danger he presents and the trail of spiritual and psychic carnage he left in California as he was transferred from parish to parish to cover his trail of violations of children one as young as nine months old. (Yes, nine months old and vaginally penetrated.)

What could be visually as gruesome as open-heart surgery on TV becomes just the opposite in Berg’s production. It is like being drawn in to viewing Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp. It has a quiet, but somber, intriguing, and instructive mood.

The camera reflects with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel how the church delays, denies, deceives, and defies efforts to protect children from abuse. The anatomy of church control and the shield provided for abusing clergy is a powerful lesson. The depositions of Monsignor Cain, and especially Cardinal Mahony, speak louder than any imaginable commentary. Their performance exudes power precisely because it is literally unbelievable.

The church in predictable knee-jerk reaction will condemn this movie as anti-Catholic or anti-clergy. It is not. But this is no Da Vinci Code. Deliver Us From Evil is fact—well told fact and presented with artistry.

This documentary can be seen in Los Angeles August 18-24 during the Independent Documentary Associations’ DocuWeek. See it there if you can or hopefully in the future at a “theater near you” or the “Academy Awards.”

Check:
www.documentary.org

On June 28 this film was awarded $50,000 for Best Documentary

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

JPIIPPA balls

St. Ignatius was a soldier too but he'd be shocked if he were to visit us today -- that it isn't canon balls we are fighting against but priests' pedophile balls! Especially those of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army balls! As plump as the ego of the Pope himself...

Friday, July 20, 2007

John Paul II and Octopus Dei videos they don't want you to see

John Paul II and Octopus Dei videos they don't want you to see

Watch these videos and be-aware, beware of the Octopus Dei tentacles!

http://laist.com/2007/07/18/the_bbc_vid_the.php#post-comment

.

Monday, July 9, 2007

John Paul II cohort in crime Cardinal Mahony seek settlement out of court




Cardinal Mahony just celebrated the feastday of St? Josemaria Escriba the founder of Opus Dei at the Basilica of the Angels in Los Angeles. So per advice of the Opus Dei (who control him), he should (not appear in court to testify) settle the 500 sex abuse cases John Paul II and Benedict XVI covered-up for more than a quarter of a century -- since the Los Angeles is worth 4 Billion anyway and the insurance will pay msot of it. 500 million is not even a small dent in the bank account of Los Angeles diocese. The Cardinal and the Opus Dei modus operandi will simply raise funds again, using the imminent beatification and canonization of John Paul II as bait to get into rich Catholics wallets ...(even if the millions of JPII relics ordered to be produced in China cannot heal any priest pedophilia victims)

See "On the Lot: MR. John Paul II and MRS Josemaria de Opus Dei, the new Mystical Marriage in the Catholic Church"
June - http://jp2m.blogspot.com/

See " Benedict XVI and Georg his gay? Private Secretary are GAYS.!."
June - http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/

Archdiocese seeks a settlement as 500 sex abuse cases head for trial

The payout could go as high as half a billion dollars, the largest in the country. 'The day of reckoning is near,' says a lawyer for plaintiffs.

By Joe Mozingo, Times Staff Writer
July 9, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/
printedition/california/la-me-priest9jul09,1,3622206,
full.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=2&cset=true

After more than four years of negotiation, pressure is mounting fast to settle some 500 claims that the Los Angeles Archdiocese failed to protect children from clergy abuse, before the first trial begins this month.

"We know it's soon. We know it's inevitable. The day of reckoning is drawing near," said Jeffrey Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who represents hundreds of alleged victims of clergy abuse in California and elsewhere.

The potential payout is staggering, at more than half a billon dollars by far the largest of any diocese in the country resulting from the Roman Catholic Church abuse scandal.

Already, the archdiocese, insurers and several Catholic orders have agreed to pay more than $114 million to settle 86 claims.

If the remaining cases go to trial, jury awards could be much larger, particularly when claimants seek punitive damages.

A jury in New York, for instance, ordered the Diocese of Rockville Centre in May to pay $5.9 million to one victim and $5.5 million to another. If an agreement can be reached before trial in Los Angeles, victims are expected to garner an average of slightly more than $1 million each, based on the cases that have been settled so far.

Going to trial would also force top officials, including Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, to testify publicly about what they knew about the abuse and what, if anything, they did to stop it.

Mahony is expected to be called to the stand in the first trial, involving two decades of alleged abuse by the late Father Clinton Hagenbach, who died in 1987, two years after Mahony became archbishop in Los Angeles. Thirteen more trials are scheduled to begin by January.

"It's still my goal to reach an agreement before the first trials begin, but many, many pieces have to come together before that can happen," said J. Michael Hennigan, who represents Mahony and the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Hennigan declined to give details or comment further about the case because it "might have an impact on the ongoing discussions."

Mahony has waged a protracted court battle to keep church personnel documents from victims, their lawyers, prosecutors and the public. But the courts ruled in a Los Angeles case that grand juries investigating crimes and civil lawyers preparing for trial were entitled to the information.

Attorneys for the accusers say any settlement agreement would include a stipulation that the church release the files publicly. However, individual clergy could contest the disclosures on privacy grounds.

Settlement negotiations have been complex, with more than 60 attorneys seeking differing sums for more than 570 claims of abuse occurring over 70 years by 221 accused perpetrators.

The church has blamed its insurers for failing to pay the major share of the settlements. The insurers, in turn, have questioned whether Mahony willfully withheld information about the abuse from them and say they don't have to pay if the church officials' actions were criminal.

"This could be a Katrina moment for the insurers," said Pamela D. Hayes, an attorney who served on the National Lay Review Board, established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to study the abuse scandal. "They're fighting to the very end."

In Orange County, insurers and the Diocese of Orange ended a similar standoff in 2005 when they agreed to split a $100-million settlement for 90 victims roughly 50-50.

But in San Diego earlier this year, Bishop Robert H. Brom announced that his diocese would file for bankruptcy rather than go to trial, putting the cases there on hold while a judge examines diocesan finances.

A Times analysis published in December 2006 showed that the Los Angeles Archdiocese has vast wealth, owning at least 1,600 properties with an estimated value of $4 billion.

Victims groups blame the Los Angeles church for continuing to stonewall.

"The fact that this trial [Hagenbach] would be the first ever priest-pedophile abuse trial in Los Angeles is very telling," said Mary Grant, Western regional director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

"I think if there is a way to delay this trial, we believe Cardinal Mahony will use whatever tactics he can to keep the crimes hidden to keep him from having to testify in open court about what he and church officials knew and what they failed to do to protect kids from predators," Grant said.

Tod Tamberg, Mahony's spokesman, said, "The vast majority of these cases predate Mahony, and many of them have nothing in their files."

In the case of Hagenbach, he noted that Mahony moved from the Stockton Diocese to Los Angeles in 1985, less than two years before the priest died. "There were 2,000 priests back then," Tamberg said. "He didn't know any of these guys. And the first complaint about Hagenbach came in 2002."

Tamberg said that the archdiocese has been working to settle the cases but that their sheer number and the complexity of the litigation in Los Angeles are far greater than in any other diocese in the nation.

He noted that it is not yet clear even what the exact number of claims against the church is.

"Complex negotiations do take time, yes, especially when you're a Catholic church with limited resources," he said.

Mahony wants to minimize any loss of services to parishioners, Tamberg added. "Our parishes and schools are not there to produce revenue for us. They're there to educate children and provide spiritual welfare for the Catholic people."

Many observers expect a settlement before or during the Hagenbach trial, either a so-called global settlement for all the cases or the first of a string of settlements. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz last week pushed the trial back a week, saying there were not enough potential jurors after the Fourth of July holiday. But the delay prompted some observers to speculate that the parties were on the verge of a settlement and needed a few more days.

Jury selection is set to begin July 17.

Anderson, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said he doubted Mahony would want to wait for opening arguments.

"That's an opportunity for us to lay out a long, sordid scenario," said Anderson. "Their exposure is extraordinary."

Copyright © Los Angeles Times 2007

Text from:
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org

-----------


LA church sale to fund sex claims


Cardinal Mahony pledged not to close any parishes
The Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles has said his archdiocese will sell its main office to raise money to settle lawsuits for sexual abuse.
Cardinal Roger Mahony also said some 50 other buildings could be sold to settle hundreds of lawsuits brought by people who had been abused by priests.

In December, the archdiocese - America's largest - paid some $40m (£20m) to settle 46 cases.

But it still faces more than 500 claims that have been in litigation for years.

'Quick settlement'

"Though it has always been the position of the archdiocese that the insurance companies must honour their responsibility to fund a major share of future settlements, the archdiocese must be prepared to fund its share," Cardinal Mahony said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said the archdiocese's main administrative office - a 12-storey building in Los Angeles - would be sold to fund the settlements.

Cardinal Mahony also said that a working group had already identified some 50 other non-essential church properties for sale.

To read the rest of the article go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6660429.stm

Friday, July 6, 2007

John Paul II cohort in crime Cardinal George




http://www.snapnetwork.org/

SNAP Press Statement

For Immediate Release:
July 5, 2007

Outrage at comments by Chicago Archdiocesan staffer

Statement by David Clohessy, SNAP Executive Director 314-566-9790

Chicagoans should be outraged by the offensive comments today by Archdiocesan public relations staffer Colleen Dolan. Dolan should be ashamed of herself and should immediately and publicly apologize to Fr. McCormack’s victims and all clergy child molestation victims.

Her self-serving remarks are indicative of a pervasive archdiocesan insensitivity toward victims of childhood violence. Dolan’s remarks are reminiscent of George’s similarly insensitive comments in 2002 when he minimized the harm to teenaged female abuse victims, relative to younger male abuse victims.

Absolutely nothing positive comes from publicly minimizing the devastation cased by horrific, serial child sex crimes, especially when the victims are still young and when the hurtful, misguided remarks come from a church official. In fact, Dolan’s comments perpetuate old, painful myths about child sex abuse. Coming from a child predator’s defense lawyer, they would be bad enough. Coming from a Cardinal’s mouthpiece, however, they are absolutely inexcusable.

If church officials are so cold-hearted and hurtful in public, imagine what harmful things they say and do behind closed doors.

The violation of children’s boundaries and bodies are at the heart of child sexual abuse. The specifics of the actual physical violation are less relevant. An adult penetrating a child is terrible and damaging, whether with an object or a body part. And adult fondling a girl is severe and harmful, whether under her clothing or over her clothing. An adult kissing a boy on the lips is wrong and hurtful, whether it’s ‘normal’ kissing or French kissing.

When there’s a chance to educate, church officials often obfuscate. When there’s a chance for healing, church officials often cause more wounds.

Since Cardinal George only disciplines child predators when forced to do so, and virtually never disciplines any other wrongdoers (however egregious or inexcusable or hurtful their actions are), we doubt that he will discipline Dolan. But she should have the decency to apologize immediately and strongly for remarks that can only cause more harm where so much harm has already been done.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

John Paul II Pedophile Priest McCormack of Chicago pleads guilty to 5 counts

McCormack is one of the most recent foot soldier of John Paul II's Pedophile Priest Army as he committed his crime betwen 2001-2006. John Paul II was busy canonizing in 2002his mystical bride Josemaria Escriba of the Opus Dei -- See http://jp2m.blogspot.com/. John Paul II wasted his time on the dead saints that he had no time to examine his pedophile priests. Their victims who were and are still alive continue to suffer a living hell. Meanwhile those clone children of saints he canonized like Josemaria Escriba de Opus Dei secret members are partying in their founder's sainthood.

What use are these saints' relics in America where there are more than 10,000 victims of pedophile priests in our nation's soil alone? And there are thousands more in Latin America and Europe.

Can a relic or a mountain of relics of John Paul II heal any of these victims? NO. John Paul II did NOTHING for these victims and therefore he should not and must not be venerated in public in America and in all countries where his JPIIPPA John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army satiated their lust on helpless children.

If there are such people as John Paul II Generation of priests and youth, there is also the secret JPIIPPA John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

Benedict XVI don't care about these poor victims of priest pedophilia either. He is too busy being mesmerized by his mystical bride, his handsome private secretary, as they party everyday in their honeymoon at the Vatican surrounded by Opus Dei numerary eunuchs.

See http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/ for their lovey-dovey photos.

Below is an open letter to the judge who handed a mild sentence to JPIIPPA McCormack. This and other judges handling priest abuse cases such as the current ones in Los Angeles and San Diego are being controlled by the Opus Dei who have foot soldier lawyers influencing the judges through their wives and children and contacts. Believe or not. Octopus Dei is the worst enemy of the survivors of priests sexual abuse.

See June of the John Paul II Millstone -- http://jp2m.blogspot.com/ - the whole month weblog is on Opus Dei alone because it is the month that the Pope, all Cardinals and Bishops in major cities around the world celebrate the mystical marriage between John Paul II and Josemaria Escriba of the Opus Dei.


McCormack's victims got lifelong sentences
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/456396,CST-EDT-edits05a.article)

July 5, 2007

You the impartial judge and jury are asked to consider the following facts:

The defendant, who had served as a priest on the West Side, pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for molesting five boys between 2001 and 2006. Their ages ranged from 8 to 12. He pulled down their pants and fondled their genitals, abusing one of his victims "on nearly a daily basis" between September 2005 and January 2006, according to an assistant state's attorney.

When given the chance to speak before sentencing by a Cook County judge, the defendant stood silently, neither apologizing for his offenses nor showing contrition. He received a sentence of five years, of which he may serve only half. While making no apologies for McCormack, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Chicago, supported the sentence on the basis that he was not accused of rape. "It wasn't assault, which is a more egregious crime," she said.

Was justice served? Is 2½ years in prison just punishment for the Rev. Daniel McCormack, who committed these crimes while serving at St. Agatha Parish and Our Lady of the Westside School? Will that sentence send out the proper message to potential offenders, at a time when the Catholic Church is attempting to set things straight following this latest case in a long history of sexual abuse scandals?

The archdiocese may find relief in the fact that there was no penetration. It may say the perception of the 38-year-old McCormack's crimes is worse than the reality. And the law seems to tilt in its favor: Without penetration, the priest could not be charged with assault or rape and he could not be sentenced to more than seven years.

But, as one expert noted, the distinction is lost for the victims. Years and even decades after being abused by their priest, a powerful authority figure in their lives, victims continue to feel an overwhelming mix of torment and shame and regret. They suffer from having had their innocence stolen from them and their lives permanently altered. "Their sentence is life," said an attorney for the families of two victims.

In accepting a plea deal of five years, the state saved the boys from the ordeal of having to testify, certainly a good reason for agreeing to a plea bargain. The maximum term, with time off for good behavior factored in, would have added only eight months to McCormack's sentence. By the time he gets out, if Cardinal Francis George is successful in appealing to the Vatican, McCormack will have been permanently removed as a priest. It's safe to say the boys he molested -- who are believed to number many more than these five -- will need far more time to remove themselves emotionally and psychologically from his despicable treatment of them. That's not a matter of perception. That's a matter of truth.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Internet Video Game on John Paul II Pedophile Priests

http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/2007/07/03/internet-game-on-paedophile-priests/

This video from the USA is called Boston Clergy Abuse Scandal - Geoghan Documents Released.

In January 2002, the Boston Globe published troves of once secret documents surrounding the case of notorious Boston pedophile priest John Geoghan. News reporters and the public react with dismay amidst further calls for resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law. News report by David Boeri of WCVB TV Channel 5 in Boston.

The Italian Internet game makers Molleindustria have a new game, on the scandal of paedophile priests in the Roman Catholic church, and attempts by the church hierarchy to keep the lid on this.

In the game, the mission of you as a player is to help the church leadership to hush up the scandal.

You can play the game, in English, here.

---------


ITALY
kNOw Future Inc.

http://knowfuture.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/censorship-of-anti-clerical-game-shuts-down-noblogsorg/


Many close friends of mine in Italy take part in a collective technology project called autistici.org. Late last year they unveiled a new service to their users, a blogging platform called noblogs.org, which currently hosts several hundred users and is rapidly innovating. In recent days the site has been shut down in an attempt to suppress a computer game written in flash named Pretofila, an anti-clerical piece of agit-prop focussed on the abuse of children by members of the clergy. Ironically, I last met with members of autistici just a few weeks ago as they continued to establish servers housed in other jurisdictions, a precaution now demonstrated to be very, very well-founded. The author of the game, molleindustria, has written many other political games, many of them focussed on labour casualization.



The furore exploded after an Italian MP, Luca Volonte, submitted an emergency parliamentary question on June 26th regarding both the ‘Operation Pedopriest’ game, and a performance, ‘Messiah Game’ (part of the Venice Biennial Art show). The former was accused of being pedophile pornography and he demanded it be shut down:

“The government should act urgently to close the site which allows the download of Operation pedoporiest, a flash game containing simulations of the rape of children by priests, unimpeded by parents who are intimidated and gripped by a mafia-like silence.”

The government took the bait and the security services were wheeled into action.

Molleindustria had already made clear the political intention behind the piece and explained where the inspiration emanated from:

“Inspired by the controversial BB documentary “Sex crimes and Vatican”, Operation Pedopriest is a strategy game which introduces you to the fascinating emergency management procedures constantly put into practice by the church. It is not recommended to minors and lay-people.”

Obviously this clumsy and ill-advised act of censorship will end up having the very opposite effect to that intended: molleindustria will receive huge amounts of publicity and the game will receive an international audience. Volonte is the parliamentary leader of the Christian Democrats which governed Italy for nearly fifty years until its collapse as part of the anti-corruption investigation known as Tangentopoli. His reasoning as to why the game should be supressed is illuminating:

“Law 38/2006 (dealing with exploitation of minors and paedophile pornography, trans. note) should be applied: even where virtual… the reproduction and showing of scnes that represent such abominable events are forbidden. Let no-one seek an alibi in the excuse of freedom of expression for socalled artists thereby offending human and religous sensitivieties. It is necessary that the government take such steps as to avoid that similar cases occur in the future, offensive to religious feeling, confessional religion in general and the catholic faith in particular.”

Right, so no concern as to the ‘abominable facts’ that the game in fact highlights or for the victims of institutionalised sexual abuse? Glad to see that’s sorted out then. Given the removal of the veil of secrecy over clerical abuses in Ireland and the US over the last fifteen years, and the complicity of the hierarchy in protecting the perpetrators, a lot of clicks will be arriving from those IP ranges. Crimen Sollicitationis anyone?

The game is already available from numerous mirror sites but also on rapidshare.

A review of the game is available here.

The following statement was released by autistici:

Last Night God called America

Molleindustria.it is a site publishing satirical flash games with provocative political content. Its last game, called “Pretofilia” (i.e. Priestophilia), is a denunciation of the widespread use of pedophilia as an excuse for censorship, and of the widespread abuse on children in the catholic church.

After its publishing, the site has been immediately subjected to the attention of the Italian Parliament and the Interior Ministry answered prompting the police to act against the site. Molleindustria decided then to remove the game, but the file had already been spread far and wide on the Internet.

Soon after the news of the censorship threat was made known on the website, the game was mirrored even more, eventually also on some blogs on our noblogs.org platform.

After all that had been said and done on this harmless satire, we would not dare to say we did not expect some threats to our servers, but we would not have imagined that a small swf file could wake up someone so up above us to block all of noblogs.org (including all the blogs used by hundreds of people for their daily communication).

And when we say so up above us, we mean it!

Last night God itself called the provider hosting noblogs.org and demanded the whole server to be shut down. In the heavens above there are no fax machines, so the Almighty has deemed its voice by phone to be authoritative enough.

Unfortunately God never minds the Unbelievers.

Apart from being nerds, we are also strongly skeptical by default and we tend not to believe what anyone tells us unless we can touch it and feel it with our own hands. So we do not trust God’s voice by phone to be authoritative enough and are asking for a concrete and official injunction to shut down the site. While we wait for the Almighty to have some of its representatives on Earth send a very material letter or order, we mean to reopen noblogs.org as soon as possible with all its content (and nothing less).

In the meantime, we would like to stress that in our opinion Pretofilia has nothing to do with pedopornography and that we deem it a very good satire against children abuses. It could at worst wake up some criticism on how much priest’s abuses are hidden and silenced, but lately satire on the matter has been far from random.

That is why we ask anyone caring for the freedom of speech and satire to mirror the game, knowing that it could imply a fair degree of legal issues and attacks by the Italian government, the Vatican, and their lot. We ask anyone to publish a link to these mirrors in the comments to our blog.

If the wrath of God Almighty comes down on us, do not fear: file will prevail on p2p networks!
mininova - slotorrent - ed2k link

July 4th, 2007 - Posted by nonrival | satire, civil liberties, /, italy |

Thursday, June 28, 2007

John Paul II Pedophile Priests that have gone to Trial











Here is a list of some of the most notorious pedophile priests of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Their portraits can be seen in this link. While Benedict XVI and his handsome gay? private secretary are wallowing in self-glory in the Vatican, they couldn't give a hoot to these cases in America.



http://www.bishop-accountability.org/legal/civil_trials.htm

Sexual Abuse Cases That Have Gone to Trial
Last Updated June 27, 2007

Thousands of civil suits have been filed in the United States relating to alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests, but very few have gone to trial.

BishopAccountability.org has reviewed the evidence and documented 33 civil suits that
have been tried since the mid-1980s.

Short statutes of limitations in many states and delaying tactics by dioceses have combined to severely limit the number of civil suits that could come to trial. The small number of trials among eligible cases reflects the bishops' fear that juries might award significant compensatory or punitive damages, as in the landmark 1997 Kos trial, and even more, their abiding concern that information might become public in a trial, either by release of documents or through testimony by the bishop himself or his managers.

Whenever dioceses have filed for bankruptcy, upcoming civil trials have been a factor in the decision, and one case was settled after weeks of trial, shortly before a retired bishop was to take the stand (cf. the Freitas case). Legal scholar Marci Hamilton suggests that a trial offers survivors a chance for vindication within their community and places the responsibility for the abuse "exactly where it belongs." This outcome is one that the bishops have avoided wherever possible.

The table below lists the trials in order by the date on which a verdict was rendered or the trial was otherwise concluded. Clicking the accused priest's name in the list below will bring you directly to the table entry on that trial. Please let us know of other trials that should be included on this list, if possible with a link to a news story describing the verdict.

| Adamson | Ball | Bierman | Brett | Buser | Cramer | Feeney | Freitas | Gauthe | Gummersbach | Herek | Janssen | Kapoun | Kos | Lang | Leifeld | Luddy | Lutz | Maguire | Maiello | O'Grady | Ponciroli | Pritchard 1 | Pritchard 2 | Provost | Smith | Sprauer | Swearingen | Teczar | Vosen | Willis | Wolf |

Date Priest Diocese Source Comment
1986 and 1987 Rev. Gilbert Gauthe


Lafayette LA • Victims of "Fathers" Lose Religious Faith, by Carl M. Cannon, San Jose Mercury News (12/30/87)

• Ex-Altar Boy Found Courage to Air Priest's Betrayal, by Dan Moffett, Palm Beach Post (6/10/98)

• The Tragedy of Gilbert Gauthe, by Jason Berry, Times of Acadiana (5/23/85)
In the 1986 trial, the diocese admitted liability and a family was awarded $1.25M in damages. In the 1987 trial, a jury awarded $1.8M to a former altar boy. The diocese settled other cases and Gauthe was criminally convicted.

1989 Rev. William N. Cramer Paterson NJ • Rodimer, Abuser Priest Meet, by John Chadwick, The Record (6/19/02) Cramer pled guilty in 1988 to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was later found liable in a civil trial, and fined about $75,000 in damages and interest.

12/7/90 Rev. Thomas P. Adamson

Winona and St. Paul-Minneapolis MN • “Don't Tell Anybody ... You'll Get in Trouble, and So Will I,” by Bob Ehlert, Star Tribune (12/11/88)

• The Sins of the Fathers, by Jason Berry, Chicago Reader (5/24/91)

• Ex-Altar Boy Found Courage to Air Priest's Betrayal, by Dan Moffett, Palm Beach Post (6/10/88) A jury awarded the plaintiff $3.55M, of which $2.7M was in punitive damages. The award was later reduced to $1M.

4/21/94 Rev. Francis Luddy Altoona-Johnstown PA • Jury Awards $1.5 Million to Priest's Accuser, by Tom Gibb, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (4/22/94)

• Church Not Liable for Molestation, by Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/6/96)

• Court Puts Diocese Back into Molestation Case, by Tom Gibb, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (11/25/99)


• Verdict Against Diocese Stands, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1/26/00)

• Mixed Ruling in Luddy Case, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (10/26/00)

• Court Won't Hear Molestation Appeal, by Tom Gibb, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (10/4/01)

• Diocese Finally Pays Victim of Sex Abuse, by Tom Gibb, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (10/17/01)

• $1 Million Penalty Is at Issue in Church Suit, by Joseph A. Slobodzian, Philadelphia Inquirer (9/10/02)

• Priest-Abuse Damages Suit Goes Ahead, by Susan Evans, Tribune-Democrat (10/23/03)

• Supreme Court Sends Altoona Abuse Case Back to Lower Court, Associated Press (3/23/05)

• Pennsylvania Supreme Court Says Plaintiff Can Get Punitives for Negligent Supervision, Lawyers Weekly (4/11/05)

• Diocese Ordered to Pay $1.7 Million in Damages to Man Abused in 1970s, by Joe Mandak, Associated Press (3/24/06)

• Diocese Won't Appeal Damages, York Dispatch (4/17/06)

• Lawsuit Interest Reduced in Priest Sexual Abuse Case, by Phil Ray, Altoona Mirror (10/6/06)

A jury ordered the diocese and Bishop Hogan to pay $1.28M, Luddy to pay $236,840, and the parish to pay $58,900 (total $1,575,740). Verdict overturned 9/5/96 by state superior court. On 11/24/99 the state Supreme Court put the diocese back in the case, and affirmed its decision on 1/24/00. On 10/25/00 the Superior Court ruled against punitive damages but let stand $869K in other awards, including a $50K punitive judgment against the priest, the Rev. Francis Luddy, $519K in compensatory damages against Luddy and the diocese, and delay damages that totaled >$300K as of 1994. On 9/28/01 the state Supreme Court refused to review the awards, and on 3/22/05 it ruled that the Superior Court erred in disallowing punitive damages. On 3/22/06 the Superior Court ruled that the diocese must pay $1.7M in punitive damages.

6/29/94 Rev. Robert Lutz

Chicago IL • The Sins of the Fathers, by Jason Berry, Chicago Reader (5/24/91)

• Boy Says Abuse; Priest, Ex-Nun Say Slander, by Harvey Berkman, Chicago Lawyer (1/94)

• Jury Clears Priest, Principal, by Andrew Fegelman, Chicago Tribune (6/30/94)

• State Appellate Court Decision (6/25/96)

Jury found in favor of the defendant priest. Affirmed on appeal 5/10/96.
1995 Rev. Earl Bierman

Covington • $5.2m Church Deal May Be Just Beginning, by Kevin Eigelbach, Cincinnati Post (10/13/03) A jury ordered the diocese to pay $737K to a man Bierman abused in the 1970s.

3/28/95 Revs. James Buser, Gale Leifeld, and Jim Wolf Milwaukee WI • Jury Rejects Sex Abuse Suit Against Capuchin Priests, by Jim Schaefer, Detroit Free Press (3/29/95) Jury found against the plaintiff on statute of limitations grounds.

1/29/96 Rev. Ronald Provost

Worcester MA • Jury Clears Harrington and Diocese, by Gary V. Murray, Telegram & Gazette (1/30/96)

• Unholy Acts, by Paul Wilkes, New Yorker (6/7/93) In porn case, jury found that Provost's negligence contributed to boy's emotional distress, but also found that diocese was not negligent. Boy was not awarded damages because "physical manifestation" of his distress was not demonstrated. Provost had previously been convicted in a criminal trial.

2/7/96 Rev. Robert Kapoun St. Paul-Minneapolis MN • Man Wins $550,000 in Sex Assault by Priest, by Chip Johnson

Saint Paul Pioneer Press (2/8/96)

• Archdiocese Fined More Than $1 Million, by Leslie Wirpsa, NCR (3/1/96)

• Court Dismisses $ 1 Million Abuse Suit, by Margaret Zack, Star Tribune (5/28/97)

• Archdiocese, Priest Unlikely to Collect Legal Costs in Child Molestation Case, by Margaret Zack, Star Tribune (6/10/97)

• Lawyer: Archdiocese Not Billing, by Clark Morphew, Saint Paul Pioneer Press (6/13/97)

• Latest Polka Padre Ruling Hits Sour Note with Juror, by Doug Grow, Star Tribune (6/18/97)

Jury awarded plaintiff $550K in compensatory damages, and on 2/13/96 awarded $600K in punitive damages. On 5/27/97 the state appeals court overturned both awards on SOL grounds. The archdiocese filed a motion to recover costs from the plaintiff, then disavowed the effort.

3/25/96 Rev. Robert Kapoun St. Paul-Minneapolis MN • Archdiocese Admits Liablity for Abuse by 'Polka Padre', by Margaret Zack, Star Tribune (3/20/96)

• No Damages in Priestly Abuse, by Margaret Zack, Star Tribune (3/26/96)

After the archdiocese in its opening statement accepted responsibility for its handling of Kapoun, the jury found that the plaintiff had past and future therapy costs of $100K but on SOL grounds did not award damages.

4/4/96 Msgr. Cordell J. Lang Mobile AL • Jury Clears Priest: Man's Lawyers Vow to Appeal Verdict in Lawsuit over Alleged Sexual Abuse, by Jean Lakeman Helms, Mobile Register (4/5/96) Jury found for the priest defendant. Affirmed on appeal 5/2/97.

4/97 Rev. Felix H. Maguire Hartford CT • A Predatory Trail, a Futile Pursuit, by Edmund H. Mahony and Dave Altimari, Hartford Courant (8/11/02) Jury awarded plaintiff $262,803 in a trial closed to the public by Judge Linda Lager. Amount was later reduced as part of confidential settlement to keep Maguire from appealing the verdict. Suit was under seal from 1993, shortly after filing, until after verdict.

7/24/97 Rev. Rudy Kos

Dallas TX • Kos Jury Awards $ 119 Million: Diocese Found Grossly Negligent, by Ed Housewright and Brooks Egerton, Dallas Morning News (7/25/97)

• 3 Kos Plaintiffs Accept $7.5 Million Settlement, by Ed Housewright and Brooks Egerton, Dallas Morning News (3/6/98)

• Diocese, Kos Victims Settle for $ 23.4 Million, by Ed Housewright and Brooks Egerton, Dallas Morning News (7/11/98)

Jury awarded 11 plaintiffs $119.6M, of which $18M was in punitive damages against the diocese. To avoid appeals, 3 plaintiffs settled for $7.5M on 3/4/98, and 8 plaintiffs settled for $23.4M as announced on 7/10/98, reducing the original award to $30.9M.

8/26/97 Rev. Laurence F.X. Brett

Bridgeport CT • Diocese Took Decades to Suspend Molester, by Gerald Renner, Hartford Courant (8/13/97)

• Jury Awards $ 750,000 in Priest Misconduct Case, by Denise Lavoie, Associated Press (8/27/97) Jury awarded plaintiff $750K and deemed him eligible for punitive damages, limited to legal fees and associated costs. The jury found the diocese breached its duty to the plaintiff when it hid complaints and failed to investigate.

7/16/98 Rev. Oliver O'Grady

Stockton CA • Jury Awards $30 Million to Brothers Molested by Priest, Associated Press (7/17/98)

• Holy Hypocrite, by Ron Russell, New Times (5/16/02)

• L.A. Cardinal's Role Outrages Abuse Victims, by Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle (4/19/02) Jury awarded 2 plaintiffs $24M in punitive damages and $6M in compensatory damages. Later reduced by judge to $8M punitive and $5M compensatory. In 1999, plaintiffs settled for $7.65M. O'Grady had been criminally convicted in 1994 of molesting the plaintiffs.

3/1/99 Rev. James Gummersbach St. Louis MO • Jury Hits Archdiocese with $1.2 Million Verdict, by Tim Bryant, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (3/2/99)

• Court Overturns Jury Award to Man Who Claimed a St. Louis Priest Abused Him, by William C. Lhotka, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (3/29/00) Jury awarded plaintiff $498,280 in compensatory damages and the same amount in punitive damages, and awarded his wife $200K for damages to the couple's marriage. Appeals court overturned the verdict on statute of limitations grounds on 3/28/00.

6/14/02 Rev. Daniel Herek

Omaha NE • Jury Awards $800,000 for Abuse, by Joseph Morton, Omaha World Herald (6/15/02) Jury awarded $750 to the plaintiff and $50K to his mother. The archdiocese admitted negligence shortly before the trial began. In 1998 Herek had been convicted of sexual assault on a child and manufacturing child pornography.
10/3/02 Rev. Thomas Teczar

Worcester MA • Jury Rules Teczar Committed Abuse, by Kathleen A. Shaw, Telegram & Gazette (10/4/02) The jury ruled that Teczar committed "reckless infliction of emotional distress" on the plaintiff and caused him harm, but judged that it was not intentional, and did not award damages, apparently because the connection between distress and harm was not established.

10/15/03 Rev. Edward L. Ball San Bernardino CA • Judge Awards Brothers $26 Million in Priest Sex Abuse Case, NBC 4 (10/17/03)

• Priest Fined Millions in Molestation Case, by Tim Grenda, Press Enterprise (10/17/03)

• Diocese to Pay $2.1M in Sex Suit, by Chris T. Nguyen, San Bernardino County Sun (6/30/03)

When Ball failed to show up for the scheduled start of his trial, the judge presided over a one-day hearing, heard testimony from the victims, and awarded $23M total to two brothers. A $4.2M settlement between the brothers, the diocese, and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart had been announced 6/30/03. Ball pled guilty to abusing the brothers in 1999.

11/24/03 Rev. Robert Freitas Oakland CA • Ex-Priest Pleads Guilty to Sex Charge, by Yomi S. Wronge, San Jose Mercury News (12/7/02)

• Calif. Priest, Victim Agree to $16 Million Settlement in Molestation Case, by Terence Chea, Associated Press (11/25/03)

• Former Priest, Diocese Settle Abuse Suit, by Robert Airoldi, Oakland Tribune (11/25/03)

• Diocese, Priest Agree to Pay Man in Abuse Case, by Dana Hull, San Jose Mercury News (11/26/03)

• Priest Owes Molestation Victim Millions, KGO (10/28/04) After two weeks of trial and just before former bishop Cummins was scheduled to testify, the diocese settled with the plaintiff for $1M plus $50K for counseling. Freitas agreed to pay the plaintiff $16M. On 12/6/02 Freitas had pled guilty to abusing the plaintiff. Part of the law used to prosecute Freitas was judged unconstitutional in the 2003 Stogner decision.

3/24/05 Rev. Joseph Pritchard Oakland CA • Jury Awards Victim $437,000 from San Jose Priest's Sex Abuse, by Lisa Leff,

Associated Press (3/25/05)

The San Francisco archdiocese was ordered by a jury to pay $437K to the plaintiff.
4/15/05 Rev. Robert Ponciroli Oakland CA • Update: Jury Finds Oakland Diocese Negligent in Sexual Abuse Case, KPIX (4/15/05) A jury awarded two brothers a total of $1.93 million in compensatory and punitive damages. One brother was awarded $875,000 in compensatory and $875,000 in punitive damages, and the other brother was awarded $180,000 in compensatory damages.

4/20/05 Rev. Joseph Pritchard Oakland CA $6 Million Verdict for 4 Victims in Church Trial,

by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle (4/21/05) The jury awarded a total of $5.954M to four victims: $1.58M to John Salberg; $1.581M to Kenneth Archambault; $1.323M to John Doe; and $1.47M to Jane Doe.

5/9/05 Rev. James Janssen

Davenport IA • Jury Awards Janssen Nephew $1.9M, by Todd Ruger , Quad-City Times (5/9/05) An 8-member jury unanimously awarded the plaintiff $632K in punitive damages and $1.26M in other damages, for a total of $1,892,000.

10/7/05 Rev. Gerald Vosen Madison WI • Priest's Accuser Tearful on Stand, by Mike DuPre, Janesville Gazette (8/3/05)

• Case Report for Gerald Vosen v. John Doe (10/7/05) Jury found for the defendant in a defamation suit brought by the accused priest.

9/18/06 Msgr. Thomas J. Feeney Davenport IA • Diocese Must Pay $1.5M to Abuse Victim, by Dustin Lemmon, Quad-City Times (9/19/06) A jury awarded the plaintiff $1,536,800, more than double the $744,000 requested in closing arguments.

12/20/06 Rev. Edward Swearingen

Fresno CA • Priest Molest Civil Case Ends in Mistrial, by Pablo Lopez, Fresno Bee (12/21/06)

• Priest's Case to Be Settled: Abuse Trial That Ended in Toss-Up to Go into Private Binding Arbitration, by Chris Collins, Fresno Bee (5/5/07) The jury voted 9-3 that Swearingen molested the plaintiff, but the judge declared a mistrial when the jury voted by only 7-5 to clear the diocese of wrongdoing. On 5/4/07 private binding arbitration was agreed to, instead of a second trial.

3/30/07 Rev. Edward J. Smith

Wilmington DE/MD • Archmere Grad Gets $41 Million in Abuse Suit, by Beth Miller, News Journal (3/31/07) The jury awarded $41M to the plaintiff, $6 million in compensatory damages and $35 million in punitive damages. Smith is the sole defendant, but the plaintiff hopes to bring the school and the diocese back into the case.

5/16/07 Rev. Michael Sprauer

Portland OR • Jury Rules Priest Sexually Abused 2 Boys, by Alan Gustafson, Statesman Journal (5/17/07) The jury awarded $695K to one plaintiff and $690K to another, for a total of $1,385,000. Sprauer was cleared of accusations that he abused a third man.
5/18/07 Matthew Maiello, youth minister Rockville Centre NY • 2 Raped by Minister Are Awarded $11.45 Million, by Bruce Lambert, NY Times (5/19/07)

The jury awarded the two plaintiffs $11.45M: $2.5 million to each victim for injuries and suffering to date, as well as $250,000 annually to the woman for the next 12 years, and $115,000 annually to the young man for the next 30 years. Her total would be $5.5 million, and his would be $5.95 million. The jury attributed 70 percent of the blame to Maiello, who did not contest the suit and has few assets. Maiello pled guilty in 2003 to raping and sodomizing four minors, including the two who sued. He served two years in prison.

6/25/07 Rev. Alfred Willis

Burlington VT • Church Child Molestation Case Goes to Trial Today, by Sam Hemingway,
Burlington Free Press (6/20/07)
Judge declared a mistrial because of the questions diocesan attorneys posed to the plaintiff.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army and St. Josemaria's Army

See the John Paul II Millstone for details.

http://www.jp2m.blogspot.com/

Love and marriage
Love and marriage
Goes together
Like a horse and carriage

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

John Paul II Pedophile Priests to face landmark Delaware child abuse bill, 41-0






John Paul II and his clones Benedict XVI, those Cardinals and Bishops and devout Catholics wasting their money on John Paul II relics will choke on this bill voted: 41-0 at the Delaware House. It may take small states like Delaware to change slowly-but-surely the statutes of limitation, but it will come. This is a domino of the fall-of-dominos that will reach the Vatican - where the Temple of Solomon will be reenacted "and not one stone will be left standing" as Christ said because John Paul II worshipped in altars of pedophilia surrounded by his army the JPIIPPA John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army and Benedict XVI and his handsome secretary...

http://www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com - Benedict XVI, God's Rottweiler

http://jp2m.blogspot.com/ - The John Paul II Millstone




House passes landmark child abuse bill, 41-0

Minor amendment sends S.B. 29 back to Senate; easy confirmation expected


By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2007


DOVER -- Delaware's House of Representatives passed what one law professor called "the strongest bill for child sexual abuse victims in the country" by a 41-0 vote Tuesday.

Senate Bill 29 eliminates the two-year civil statute of limitations in cases of child sexual abuse. It also provides a two-year window during which claims previously barred by statute could be filed -- opening the courthouse door to victims unable to seek justice because the statute of limitations had expired. Institutions that allowed the abuse to occur through gross negligence also could be sued.

The bill passed by unanimous vote when it was introduced in the Senate by its prime sponsor, Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton (who received a standing ovation).

Lawmakers noted in the bill it would cost the state a maximum of $200,000, or possibly, nothing.

It would go to the governor's desk but for a minor amendment attached Tuesday night by co-sponsor Rep. Deborah Hudson, R-Hockessin. That amendment, passed unanimously, simply says the law takes effect when the money is appropriated.

Peterson said she hoped the Senate would suspend its rules to vote on the amended bill today. She believes it will pass easily there.

An amendment that would have removed the state's sovereign immunity protection from lawsuits in such cases, introduced by Rep. Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley, was defeated after lengthy debate by a vote of 24-17.

Lavelle showed photographs of his two children and urged lawmakers to make the law apply equally to private and public institutions. "Let us stand for all victims," Lavelle said.

But Rep. Peter Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, who had promised Lavelle he would vote for the amendment, saw a political problem emerging as the debate continued Tuesday. He believed the amendment would produce another lengthy debate in the Senate and probably kill any chance of changing the law before the session expired June 30.

"We're talking about two separate major, major issues," Schwartzkopf said.

Separate bill to be pushed

Lavelle said he would introduce legislation to remove sovereign immunity in such cases, and Schwartzkopf promised to support that bill instead.

"Now we've had the debate," Lavelle said. "If we stand for all children, I will file that bill Thursday, and let's do what we need to do for all children."

Among the people who spoke about the bill Tuesday were Robert Quill, 52, of Marathon, Fla., who said he was sexually abused by the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca starting when he was 13 years old. Quill grew up in the St. Elizabeth parish and graduated from St. Elizabeth High School.

DeLuca, now 77, is facing criminal charges in Syracuse, N.Y., where police say he abused a teen there over a period of five years. DeLuca served in parishes in the Diocese of Wilmington until similar allegations arose here and he was allowed to retire to Syracuse in 1993.

"The priest who sexually abused me is a prime example, perhaps the touchstone, of why this legislation is necessary," Quill said.

Diocesan spokesman Robert Krebs would not comment on the bill passage Tuesday night.

Pastor in favor

The Rev. Richard Reissmann, pastor of St. John the Baptist-Holy Angels parish in Newark, was delighted.

"This is the best thing in the world for the children of this state," Reissmann said. "This will drive the predators out."

Lawmakers also heard from plenty of lawyers Tuesday night, including Mark Sargent, dean and professor of law at Villanova University, who urged lawmakers to amend the bill, striking the two-year window during which old cases could be revived and leaving in place some limitation for filing lawsuits in the future. Sargent said the bill was "well-intentioned," but would "undermine the administration of justice and constitute bad public policy."

But Marci Hamilton, constitutional law professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law in New York, strongly disagreed. Hamilton has represented plaintiffs in many cases of clergy abuse, especially on the West Coast, where California lawmakers in 2003 passed a one-year window during which old cases could be revived. More than 1,000 lawsuits were filed.

"This is twice as long," Hamilton said, "and it makes sense. A lot of victims didn't come forward in California. This will be the strongest bill for child sexual abuse victims in the country."

Standing ovation

Peterson, the bill's main sponsor, got a standing ovation from supporters of the bill as soon as she appeared in the House chamber Tuesday.

"This has been a long, hard battle," she said. "The diocese did everything in its power to sabotage and undermine this bill."

Hudson was jubilant.

"We now have a child victims act which matches Delaware's strong criminal code," she said. State lawmakers removed the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse several years ago. "Delaware now is the leading state for fighting child abuse."

But John Sullivan, a co-founder of the Coastal Delmarva chapter of the lay Catholic group Voice of the Faithful, said the battle isn't quite over for those who support the change in the law.

"When the governor signs it, the battle will be done," he said.

Contact Beth Miller at 324-2784 or bmiller@delawareonline.com.

http://www.delawareonline.com/
apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070620/NEWS/706200394/1006/NEWS

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

John Paul II Pedophile Priests personnel files must be released: California judge rules


So, punch one on Cardinal Mahony's face - he did not win his fight for absolute secrecy in this first round at the County Superior Court in Los Angeles.


Court allows release of clergy personnel files

The ruling states that protecting children from abuse outweighs a priest's right to privacy
.


By John Spano and Greg Krikorian,
LA Times Staff Writers
June 19, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-priest19jun19,1,7242689.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

A judge ruled Monday that confidential personnel files on Roman Catholic clergy accused of molesting children can be made public even if the clerics were never charged with a crime and legal claims against them were not proven.

"The rights of privacy must give way to the state's interest in protecting its children from sexual abuse," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman said in his 22-page ruling.

The decision concerns a small number of Franciscan friars, who will have an opportunity to object to disclosure of specific documents before the files are opened.

Nevertheless, the ruling could have dramatic ramifications on more than 500 legal claims pending against the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which is accused of failing to protect parishioners from sexual victimization over the last 60 years.

In Los Angeles, lawyers spent years trying to negotiate a settlement, estimated to be as much as $1 billion, without success. The first trials are set to begin in July.

Now, the church is also facing possible disclosure of how it handled abuse complaints.

"I think it's very significant," John C. Manly, an attorney who represents plaintiffs in Los Angeles and Orange counties, said of Lichtman's ruling.

"This sends a message … that if you engage in the concealment of child sexual abuses, you will not only pay for your misdeeds but the public at large will be able to see what you did," Manly said.

J. Michael Hennigan, lawyer for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and the L.A. Archdiocese, declined to comment, saying he had not seen the ruling. Donald Steier, who represents many accused priests in Los Angeles, also declined comment.

Robert G. Howie, an attorney for the friars, said the ruling misinterpreted California law on privacy rights, which he said were stronger than in other states.

"You've got officials in Washington who want to do everything they can do to prevent another 9/11. Does that mean they can conduct wiretaps whenever they want to?" Howie asked.

But 1st Amendment lawyers praised the judge's decision.

"The court properly balanced the constitutional right to privacy against the right of the public to protect its children and safeguard itself against future harm, and it found that the public's right to know overwhelmingly won out," said Tom Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn.

The ruling came in the cases of 10 current and former Franciscans who were accused of fondling, masturbating, orally copulating and sodomizing boys and girls for 30 years starting in the 1950s.

Most of the allegations arose at St. Anthony's Seminary in Santa Barbara, which closed in 1987.

The church in March 2006 agreed to pay more than $28 million to 25 accusers. The victims asked Lichtman to release the files.

Lawyers for the Franciscan friars objected, contending that because the claims had been settled, Lichtman had no authority to order the files opened. In 2005, Lichtman released more than 10,000 pages from the personnel files of 15 priests and teachers as part of a court-approved $100-million settlement between the Diocese of Orange and 90 alleged molestation victims.

But the judge said at the time that he was "powerless" to pry open files on eight other priests and teachers who objected because the lawsuits had been settled.

On Monday, however, in a 22-page ruling, Lichtman stated flatly that California's "compelling interest in protecting children from harm is present regardless of the stage of the litigation."

"To answer any of the above questions in the affirmative would be to punish the alleged victims for seeking an early resolution of the cases and needlessly prolong matters through trial," Lichtman ruled. "It would provide the alleged perpetrators and enablers with a safe haven for settlement. The defendants' conduct would be forever hidden and safe from scrutiny."

Lichtman noted that all of the priests whose dossiers were in question had admitted abuse or "show[n] dangerous propensities toward youth."

Lichtman cited Franklyn Becker, a friar accused of multiple molestations. "In sworn testimony, Becker testified about his attraction to boys, his interest in the Man-Boy Love Association, his leanings toward being attracted to post pubescent boys, and that he gave names of people to the Archdiocese that might come forward with allegations," Lichtman wrote.

Lichtman also said that, according to sworn testimony provided by the plaintiffs, Santa Barbara had one of the highest per-capita concentrations of clergy pedophiles in the history of clergy abuse cases in the United States, with 41 clergy accused of assaulting 76 children.

The opinion gives victims "a tremendously strong argument, thanks to Judge Lichtman," said Timothy C. Hale, who argued the case for the accusers of the Franciscans.

"Often, it comes down to one simple choice: do we safeguard the reputations of one powerful adult or the well-being of many powerless kids," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "The judge made the right call."

john.spano@latimes.com
greg.krikorian@latimes.com

Copyright © 2007 Los Angeles Times

http://www.snapnetwork.org/
news/calif/061907_court_says_release_records.html


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Link to DC hearing - Click here and then click on June 1st video

http://octt.dc.gov/services/on_demand_video/on_demand_may_2007_week_5.shtm

On-Demand Video - OCTT TV-13
May 27 - June 2, 2007

On-Demand Video is presented in Microsoft Media Player Format*.

Click on a program segment to begin viewing.


Public Hearing /
Council Meeting Video Links
5/29/2007
PUBLIC HEARING, COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE, Vincent C. Gray, Chairman
• View Meeting


5/29/2007
PUBLIC HEARING, COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE JUDICIARY, Phil Mendelson, Chairman
• View Meeting


5/29/2007, Part 2, 3:00 PM
PUBLIC HEARING, COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE JUDICIARY, Phil Mendelson, Chairman
• View Meeting


5/30/2007, Part 1
PUBLIC HEARING, COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE, Vincent C. Gray, Chairman
• View Meeting


5/30/2007, Part 2, 3:00 PM
PUBLIC HEARING, COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE, Vincent C. Gray, Chairman
• View Meeting


5/31/2007
PUBLIC HEARING, COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE JUDICIARY, Phil Mendelson, Chairman
• View Meeting


6/1/2007
PUBLIC HEARING, COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE JUDICIARY, Phil Mendelson, Chairman
• View Meeting