Did the Catholic Church really apologize for abuse?

by blondie 24 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  blondie

  http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_brooks_thistlethwaite/2007/07/keeping_secrets_the_laity_the.html

  After 4 ½ years of protracted negotiations, the settlement was announced just as the Cardinal was slated to testify in the first trial. “He avoided the No. 1 thing he fears, which is disclosing under oath how much he knew and how little he did about predatory priests,” said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those abused by priests.

  It has been Catholic lay people who, with attorneys and the legal system, have for the most part been the ones who have uncovered the cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. I have been a domestic violence counselor, both as a professional and as a volunteer, for 30 years and I can tell you for a fact that victimization of the vulnerable thrives in a climate of secrecy and a lack of accountability. Victims are always told by perpetrators, “Don’t tell, don’t tell, don’t tell.” The way to stop abuse child sexual abuse is to develop a church that is not secretive in its hierarchy and held accountable by its laity.
• 

  Junction-Guy

  Thanks Blondie, that last sentence is the reason why I'm a Freewill Baptist, the laity keeps the clergy in line in my church.
• 

  blondie

  http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-07-16-priest-molestation_N.htm

  They were among the first 552 victims of clergy sexual abuse who shared an $85 million settlement paid in 2003 by the Archdiocese of Boston, epicenter of the national scandal.

  "I would give back every cent if the person who raped and molested me were put in jail," says Alexa MacPherson, 32, of Holbrook, Mass., who was abused between ages 3 and 9 by a priest who also assaulted two of her siblings.

  She bought a home with the settlement and paid medical bills. Now she's a single mother struggling with the mortgage. The money is gone, and she's working overtime as a lab tech to care for her two daughters.

  "The money hasn't made anything else in my life any easier or made the pain go away. I would sell this house and give the church every dime if he'd be prosecuted," she said. Her molester, who she says is now working in Boston as a nurse, is still a priest because his bishop in Thailand, where he was ordained, has not had him defrocked.

  Despite the big-money settlements that make the headlines, "the overwhelming majority of victims never get a nickel," says David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
• 

  blondie

  Have Church Officials Reformed?

  - Here are Four Recent Cases
  That May Shock You -

  http://www.snapnetwork.org/

  http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2007_statements/012307_three_recent_cases.htm

  SNAP Press Statement

  Four Recent Cases Show Church Officials
  Have Not Reformed

  1) In January, the Grand Rapids bishop claimed he just 'found' a 1993 admission of child sexual abuse by Fr. David LeBlanc in the diocesan files. He suspended LeBlanc, but took no action to determine who else in the diocese knew of the admission and kept silent, enabling a known predator to stay in active parish ministry for 14 years (and five years after the bishops' much-touted 'Dallas charter' was passed.)

  http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/01_02/2007_01_19_Honey_BishopKnocked.htm

  2) In Fresno, CA, a civil trial was held in November 2006. Fr. Swearingen was accused of molested Juan Rocha as a boy. The jury found Swearingen guilty. (They deadlocked on whether church officials knew about the abuse.) But the Fresno bishop is keeping Swearingen in active parish ministry even now.

  http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/11_12/2006_12_21_FresnoBee_SwearingenDecision.htm

  http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/11_12/2006_12_06_Lopez_FresnoPriest.htm

  3) In Los Angeles, church and school officials were questioned by police about current child sex abuse allegations against John Malburg. Malburg was a Catholic hi school principal from a politically prominent family. The archdiocese didn't suspend him. They told no one about the investigation. Six months later, Malburg was arrested and criminally charged. Parents asked church officials "Why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you suspend him?" Cardinal Mahony's guy told the LA Times "Law enforcement told us to keep quiet." The next day, in the LA Times, prosecutors said they never made any such request.

  http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2006/11_12/2006_11_19_NBC4_ArchdioceseChurch.htm

  4) In Yakima, the local newspaper reported that Fr. Darell Mitchell, who'd been caught with naked photos of young boys on his computer, was quietly working in a St. Louis parish with a parochial school. It turned out to be true. And it was the second time in a year that a sexually troubled priest from another state was transferred to this one inner city St. Louis parish. In neither case was anyone warned.

  http://www.snapmidwest.org/htm/ImportingPredators.htm

  Yakima Herald-Republic 12.21.06;
  
  Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP) 12.21.06;
  
  Yakima Herald-Republic 12.23.06;
  
  KNDO/KNDU 12.24.06 ;
  
  Yakima Herald-Republic 1.07.07;
  
  Yakima Herald-Republic 1.07.07 (2nd);
  
  Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1.11.07;
  
  Yakima Herald-Republic 1.12.07;
  
  St. Louis Post Dispatch 1.12.07
• 

  blondie