Church Files Show Mahony Discussed Shielding Abusers

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The news article concerns memos written in the mid 1980s. The memos concerned how to handle priests who admitted to sex abuse and were being treated. The article claims a strategy of moving such priests out of state, and forbidding their return, was motivated by a desire to keep law enforcement out of the picture.
 
Dale_M said:
The news article concerns memos written in the mid 1980s. The memos concerned how to handle priests who admitted to sex abuse and were being treated. The article claims a strategy of moving such priests out of state, and forbidding their return, was motivated by a desire to keep law enforcement out of the picture.
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Right. And when someone commits a crime and you conspire to keep them from being charged and standing trial, you are have committed a crime, also.
 
Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry have issued public apologies.
“I wish to acknowledge and apologize for those instances when I made decisions regarding the treatment and disposition of clergy accused of sexual abuse that in retrospect appear inadequate or mistaken,” Curry said in a statement obtained by the Ventura County Star. “’'Like many others, I have come to a clearer understanding over the years of the causes and treatment of sexual abuse and I have fully implemented in my pastoral region the archdiocese’s policies and procedures for reporting abuse, screening those who supervise children and abuse prevention training for adults and children.”
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Mahony apologized on Monday, expressing regret for mistakes he made after taking over the nation’s largest archdiocese in 1985.
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Prosecutors are reviewing the files to see if possible charges can be filed. However, it is unclear if the files have previously been reviewed. Also uncertain is whether the statute of limitations has been passed
news.yahoo.com/bishop-apologizes-role-hiding-priest-abuse-053701786.html;_ylt=AwrHgPtjlv9Q4RMAtwCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNsNTcwdGUwBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBGUARwa2cDZThjYmYyODktY2MwNi0zZjhmLWIzMjAtNTc3ZmEwM2FhN2NiBHBvcwM2BHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzU5NDFhYzc0LTY1MmQtMTFlMi1iOWZjLWY3OTQzMGZkYmY2Mw–;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3
 
Dale_M said:
Cardinal Mahony and Bishop Thomas Curry have issued public apologies.

Prosecutors are reviewing the files to see if possible charges can be filed. However, it is unclear if the files have previously been reviewed. Also uncertain is whether the statute of limitations has been passed
news.yahoo.com/bishop-apologizes-role-hiding-priest-abuse-053701786.html;_ylt=AwrHgPtjlv9Q4RMAtwCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNsNTcwdGUwBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBGUARwa2cDZThjYmYyODktY2MwNi0zZjhmLWIzMjAtNTc3ZmEwM2FhN2NiBHBvcwM2BHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzU5NDFhYzc0LTY1MmQtMTFlMi1iOWZjLWY3OTQzMGZkYmY2Mw–;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3
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I’m sure that makes the victims feel SO much better.
 
Seeker1961 said:
I’m sure that makes the victims feel SO much better.
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You’re probably right.

To receive an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and an apology can heal a huge amount of pain.

Forgiveness does the same.
 
Gosh, what can we as Catholics say?

It’s pretty shameful. A great scar on the Church in our time.

I pray that our Bishops are living up to their words regarding the travesty of clergy sex abuse. If it is shown that they aren’t or are still covering up- I don’t see any more forgiveness.
 
JoeMike said:
You’re probably right.

To receive an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and an apology can heal a huge amount of pain.

Forgiveness does the same.
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And concerning Litigation? Are the Statutes of Limitations different? I hate seeing this. Just curious.

My main thought was the church has probably been sued enough, I thought that Diocese already went through a lot and these kinds of transfers happened a lot during that time.
 
JoeMike said:
You’re probably right.

To receive an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and an apology can heal a huge amount of pain.

Forgiveness does the same.
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Would you say that about a pedophile that abused YOUR child?? Would you smile and say, “Oh, thank you so much for admitting that you did wrong and apologizing!”

I’m sorry, but if these guys weren’t priests people would be calling for their heads on plates.
 
JoeMike said:
If they weren’t priests, we would never have heard anything about them.
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Please don’t play the victim card, it’s not only unbecoming but it’s also false. Child molesters make the front page of any paper-teachers, TV personalities, coaches…they 've all been there recently. Maybe you only read the stories about Catholics, but doing a little research would show you that Priests are hardly the only molesters we hear about.
 
Seeker1961 said:
Please don’t play the victim card, it’s not only unbecoming but it’s also false. Child molesters make the front page of any paper-teachers, TV personalities, coaches…they 've all been there recently. Maybe you only read the stories about Catholics, but doing a little research would show you that Priests are hardly the only molesters we hear about.
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strangely enough, that isn’t true. religious abuse, which includes shouting, housing in poor conditions etc. as well, made up only 3% of all child abuse.
97% of child abuse was perpetrated by lay people.
but for at least 5 years non-stop all the media reported on was religious cases. they repeated, literally, the same story at every news broadcast, (tv, radio, papers), morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night, & late night news for 5 years.
in the same period i only remember two lay cases reported, a swimming coach and a man who burned his young family to death and himself, he was an abuser once. but these stories were gone from the news in a few days.
 
Paddy_Walker said:
strangely enough, that isn’t true. religious abuse, which includes shouting, housing in poor conditions etc. as well, made up only 3% of all child abuse.
97% of child abuse was perpetrated by lay people.
but for at least 5 years non-stop all the media reported on was religious cases. they repeated, literally, the same story at every news broadcast, (tv, radio, papers), morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night, & late night news for 5 years.
in the same period i only remember two lay cases reported, a swimming coach and a man who burned his young family to death and himself, he was an abuser once. but these stories were gone from the news in a few days.
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Exactly.

Or maybe you and I are the only ones who missed all those reports about the abuse that occurs in public school systems, and how teachers get moved around, and how the magnitude of the problem absolutely dwarfs the abuse cases in the Catholic Church…
:rolleyes:
 
Paddy_Walker said:
strangely enough, that isn’t true. religious abuse, which includes shouting, housing in poor conditions etc. as well, made up only 3% of all child abuse.
97% of child abuse was perpetrated by lay people.
but for at least 5 years non-stop all the media reported on was religious cases. they repeated, literally, the same story at every news broadcast, (tv, radio, papers), morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night, & late night news for 5 years.
in the same period i only remember two lay cases reported, a swimming coach and a man who burned his young family to death and himself, he was an abuser once. but these stories were gone from the news in a few days.
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All this tells me is that you live in some kind of bubble where the only information you pay any attention to is that which concerns the Catholic Church.

Penn State Scandal?

Pay any attention to goings on in England? BBC TV personality??

Ever watch DATELINE for heaven’s sake??? They spent YEARS documenting abusers and NOT ONE OF THEM WAS A PRIEST.

Google is your friend. Take some time to do a little research.
 
Seeker1961 said:
All this tells me is that you live in some kind of bubble where the only information you pay any attention to is that which concerns the Catholic Church.

Penn State Scandal?

Pay any attention to goings on in England? BBC TV personality??

Ever watch DATELINE for heaven’s sake??? They spent YEARS documenting abusers and NOT ONE OF THEM WAS A PRIEST.

Google is your friend. Take some time to do a little research.
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Penn State and Jimmy Savile though are very high profile cases.

I mean Joe Paterno is a household and Penn State was one of the most successful college football programs in a football crazy nation.

So I will say, I agree with you, google is your friend but you do have to sift through stories.

What I found is “child abuse” doesn’t necessarily show you the cases but if I “bing search” (because that is my preferred search engine):

bing.com/news/search?q=sodomy&qs=n&form=QBNT&pq=sodomy&sc=8-6&sp=-1&sk=

That’s what you get, I get something for Youth Mentor, something about the Military. I have done this before so I would say one would really need to study it closely. I have checked it before and I don’t care to cast stones at anyone but will say I did not come up with connections to the Catholic Church in the few times I have done it.
 
Lormar said:
Right. It is called aiding and abetting.
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IT seems unconscionable to do such. I guess at times, it hasn’t been like helping a criminal on the run but more like getting them treatment and setting them free again. Not that I say that makes it okay, there are some differences again.
 
Seeker1961 said:
All this tells me is that you live in some kind of bubble where the only information you pay any attention to is that which concerns the Catholic Church.

Penn State Scandal?

Pay any attention to goings on in England? BBC TV personality??

Ever watch DATELINE for heaven’s sake??? They spent YEARS documenting abusers and NOT ONE OF THEM WAS A PRIEST.
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Well, of course they weren’t priests, silly! If they had been priests, those scandals wouldn’t be treated as “old news” today; they would still be front page headlines.👍
 
I websearch news for “sodomy” because I was curious about a non-related to the church case about Sodomy, if I websearch “child abuse”

christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-web-only/sovereign-grace-ministries-courts-shouldnt-second-guess.html
In response to a civil lawsuit alleging that it covered up numerous cases of child sexual abuse, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) has pledged to “carefully review” each accusation.
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However, the lawsuit—which claims the association of Reformed church plants discouraged victims’ parents from reporting abuse to authorities and had victims forgive their abusers in person—has also prompted the denomination to cite its First Amendment right to religious freedom.
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The story above was the first one involving a “religious organization”.

Boys Scouts in Australia, so these stories are all over the board:

upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/01/24/80s-abuse-charges-to-Australia-commission/UPI-19891359043417/
 
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