Here we go again. As announced by Pennsylvania State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a grand jury has released a report on the child-raping pedophiles employed by the Catholic church as priests.
The nearly 1,400-page report’s introduction makes clear that few criminal cases may result from the massive investigation.
“As a consequence of the coverup, almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted,” it reads.
“We subpoenaed, and reviewed, half a million pages of internal diocesan documents. They contained credible allegations against over three hundred predator priests. Over one thousand child victims were identifiable, from the church’s own records. We believe that the real number — of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward — is in the thousands.”
Some details and names that might reveal the clergy listed have been redacted from the report. Legal challenges by clergy delayed the report’s release, after some said it is a violation of their constitutional rights. Shapiro said they will work to remove every redaction.
It’s indefensible, but then…the actions of the Catholic church have always been repellent and indefensible, but they just keep on keepin’ on. So I got to wondering what that ardent and reactionary defender of the Holy Mother Church, Bill Donohue, had to say. Easy: it’s a conspiracy.
So if no one can be prosecuted, and there is no investigation of the clergy from other religions, to say nothing of the widespread sexual abuse of minors in the public schools, why is Shapiro presiding over the grand jury report on priests? It’s not exactly hard to figure out: he wants to stick it to the Catholic Church.
The goal is obvious: the release of the most graphic accounts of molestation is being done to embarrass the Church. Why? So it will weaken its moral authority. That is what Salacious Shapiro wants to do.
Donohue has two excuses. The first is that other religions are doing it, and they’re getting away with it, so why pick on the Catholic church? I think most of us learned by kindergarten that somebody else doing a bad thing doesn’t mean you get to do it, too. This part is basically an admission that there are child-rapers in the Catholic clergy, it’s just that it’s unfair to only pick on Catholics.
But then his second excuse is that releasing stories of child molestation weakens the moral authority of the Church. I hate to tell you this, Bill, but it’s not the public exposure of moral corruption with the church that discredits it, it’s the acts of corruption themselves that do that.
I also don’t think the report is intended to stick it to the Catholic Church
. There’s a simpler motivation. The Attorney General would like priests to stop raping children, for the Catholic Church to stop enabling them, and for the Church to stop its criminal efforts to hide the facts of heinous crimes.
Statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse need to be categorically eliminated.
And notice the subtle anti-Semitism of Salacious Shapiro.
That is apparently one of the Grand Jury’s recommendations, More than 300 Pennsylvania priests committed sexual abuse over decades:
One disturbing thing about that report is that the catholics did a pretty good job of running out the clock on the perpertrators. “Oh Bishop Blimp has gone to meet his maker – nothing to prosecute, let’s just total up his crimes and say bygones be bygones.” They ought to be bankrupted with lawsuits but the leadership don’t care about that, either: kick the can down the road abd let the next generation deal with it. A ponzi scheme for liability.
“Lost records” – Gina Haspel is a rank amateur compared to the church.
And as a reminder, Pennsylvania isn’t the only place currently trying to bring the cult to justice, Chile police raid Catholic church HQ in sex abuse investigation:
A “stronger” cult is not desirable !
And in Ireland, Vatican has never co-operated with Irish inquiries into clerical child sex abuse:
If Donahue has evidence of non-Catholic clergy engaged in abusing kids I’m sure relevant legal authorities will be happy to have it. He also might want to pay attention a bit more, as we regularly see reports of Protestant preachers arrested for sexual abuse.
The difference that Protestant preachers don’t have a huge network that will help them keep things from coming out until after the statute of limitations has expired.
So… Donohue admits that there is information proving that the Catholic church is being granted more moral authority than it deserves?
Why wouldn’t the reduction of the church’s moral authority be appropriate, then? I mean, sure, you would also want other churches’ moral authority to be reduced, but I’m okay with that. Release all the records so that each church has exactly the moral authority it deserves.
Strikes me that this report ought to lead to a RICO case against the Catholic Church as an ongoing criminal organization.
#2
Care to elaborate?
Too fucking right.
Any statute of limitations should start ticking only once the allegations have come to light, not when they were committed. And for things like child abuse, no time limit. The nature of the crime is that many victims will not present to authorities until years later. It should not be treated like a burglary.
Yeah, I mean, if your organisation has been found to have facilitated the massive rape of (mostly) boys over decades you may not have any moral authority to tell consenting men that they cannot fuck each other.
the real issue that taints the Church is not the fact that priest abused children – there are teachers who do that and doctors and social workers, bad apples may be found everwhere, and peoploe with tendency to harm children may be choosing professions that help them do that.
But only religious organizations actively try to cover it up. To protect predators. To deny the victims justice.
So every priest who saw, who knew, who heard about it and went to his superior instead to the police – is an accomplice.
Every superior who didn’t went to the police – is an accomplice.
Ever high ranking member of the church who was helping known pedophiles to avoid justice – is an accomplice.
If there is an organization that works by their own rules, putting them above the laws of the nation they operate in – it is a mob.
Cherry on top is the hypocrisy of the child raping gang to preach morality to others.
Religious people like to talk about how religious people are morally superior, how religion is a spearhead of moral progress. Bullshit.
Chile situation shows it clearly – even Francis, who seems to be so nice Pope and is given credit for shaking completely chilean hierarchy – tried to hush the story and THE PEOPLE of Chile forced him to react.
This problem is profoundly theological and rests on a misunderstanding about the deity involved. Despite other statements the deity to whom the Holy Fathers pay allegiance is Priapus !well illustrated on Pompeiian frescoes. Once he is in the picture the whole Bisho-prick benediction become clear.
The “someone else did X, so it’s okay to do Y” defense of Christians in all their cults is the same for all of them. The last resort of the deathbed contrition is what they all depend on to excuse being such assholes to everyone not in their particular cult.
When the hell has the Church ever had the moral high ground, anyway?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VABSoHYQr6k
Still true.
Microraptor,
From what I read on former fundamentalist blogs the Protestant churches do as much as they can to cover up, including discouraging victims from going to authorities.
When they had swords and armies at their disposal, and if you didn’t agree they were correct and righteous, or you otherwise annoyed them (including not paying enough or sending them your children), they tortured you (unless you had sword and armies of your own, in which case things got worse for everybody).
Nowadays, they lack significant (control of) swords, armies, legal systems, and torture chambers, but continue to operate as-if what they say, or don’t say, must be correct and righteous. This could be a comedy show except for their wealth and lots of people behaving as-if the raping children cult still has their
moralpower-mad “high ground”.blf, now that’s snarky.
Christians were a nice cult, back in the days of the Romans.
(Nicer than the Zealots)
@blf:
re the stronger Catholic church:
In that quote the person was referring to removing rapists from the Catholic Church in order to make it stronger. I think we can all agree that that form of making the church stronger is a good thing.