Colorado AG targets the Catholic Church

[JimG]

Catholics in Colorado were recipients of a recent bombshell in the form of an agreement between our three Catholic dioceses and the State Attorney General’s office. According to the agreement there is to be a new ‘independent review’ of every priest’s file in the state going back seven decades to 1950.

The argument for this unprecedented inquiry is that the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report issued last fall warrants a “re-evaluation” of any handling of past clerical abuses in Colorado, with the added bonus of a review of our current policies and procedures. (When were we annexed to Pennsylvania?)

In other words, the Attorney General is asking the Church in Colorado to prove that it’s “clean” despite the AG’s insistence that, “this is not a criminal investigation.”

The Colorado AG Targets the Catholic Church

Catholics in Colorado were recipients of a recent bombshell in the form of an agreement between our three Catholic dioceses and the State Attorney General’s office. According to the agreement there is…

www.crisismagazine.com

 

[ZMystiCat]

I’m as upset about the Church’s tarnished reputation as much as the next Catholic, but this article is…confusing…

Catholics in Colorado were recipients of a recent bombshell

How is this a bombshell? We knew stuff like this was going to happen.

(When were we annexed to Pennsylvania?)

How is this at all relevant? The Catholic Church is not limited to Pennsylvania, and we have very good reason to believe that Pennsylvania was just the tip of the iceberg.

Why here? Why now? Why only the Catholic Church?

So after spending the first paragraph explaining why…the author asks why? I mean, do we need a third massive revelation of abuse in the U.S. along with all the ones not as big as Spotlight or Pennsylvania before the reason for these investigations become clear?

And why, in Colorado, where allegations of clerical abuse over the past 20 years have been practically nil, is the attorney general now angling for public mea culpas ?

Did the author know about Pennsylvania for years and was not at all shocked by what came out in the grand jury report? At this point, that’s the only explanation I have, at least besides them acting crazy because crazy sells.

in 1991, inaugurated a strict sexual protocol for its clergy, including the reporting of credible allegations of abuse to civil authorities. Recall that this was more than a full decade before the Dallas Charter

And more than 40 years after the start of how far back this investigation will look…

Yeah, I don’t feel like reading any more. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out why the Church is being investigated. It has, on more than one occasion, completely betrayed people’s trust, and it doesn’t exactly take some nefarious schemer to think up, “Hey, we should investigate this further!” I could sort of take this article seriously if the author both recognized the problem but offered counterpoints as to why it didn’t warrant any investigation, but the author’s approach of asking “why?” really makes this article lose all credibility it might have had.

 

[JimG]

The attorney general is supposed to investigate crimes. What crime is being investigated? This is not a criminal investigation. Even the AG says “this is not a criminal investigation.” No, it’s not. It’s a fishing expedition.

In the Pennsylvania case, they went looking back 70 years! Most of the incidents they uncovered involved priests who were dead or incarcerated. Is that a good use of investigators?

In Colorado, there is no probable cause relating to any crime. It’s just a fishing expedition.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Good. This needs to happen in every diocese in the US. This or an independent auditor. Sad that the Church has been unable to police itself. Who’d have thought between the Church and the state that the state would be on the side of the Angel’s. Weird times we live in.

 

[JimG]

So every State AG should start an investigation into every Catholic diocese, even when no crime has been alleged and no probable cause has been presented? Why not also begin an investigation of every public school, every Baptist Church, every Boy Scout Council, or any other institution that the AG may choose. Father Joe, living peacefully in his rectory who has never been accused of anything nor had any allegations against him, will now have his records open to the AG’s scrutiny. If it happened to me, I’d be mad.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Well I guess the AG can see how awesome fr Joe is and convert if he isn’t Catholic. Where I live we have had some issues. We have a great and awesome bishop. But with our latest case against a priest who did horrific things the diocese had no idea how to handle it. Even to evict this man from his residence he rented from the Church. They said their hands were tied. So it was the neighbors who informed the diocese of the law allowing them to evict after the arrest before the trial. They didn’t even know simple landlord tenant law. It’s not that it’s a good situation. But in your school example there are steps and protocol that are tried and true. Especially with schools. For many the Church has lost credibility and from outside the Catholic world imagine how the state must feel its obligation to protect its citizens and children. If you look at recent events with the FLDS and Warren Jeff’s you can see how it might look to the outsiders. Heck even us insiders should probably just recognize that the Church even when it wants to police itself just cant. Even when the bishops tried to make meaningful changes, Rome said wait then 2 months later Rome said it’s up to the bishops conferences to police and have rules? What? Look, if I want to volunteer as a youth minister in my own kids youth group i need a background check. Privacy is no longer a right that trumps safety. If some priests feel uncomfortable about that… tough.

 

[JimG]

I checked the Bishop’s Accountability Project website to find stats on my diocese. There were a total of 5 cases listed. One case was dismissed. One was certainly guilty; I remember the publicity on that one. All five accused priests are deceased. Last year there were ten ordinations of new priests. Out of all the parishes I have been in and priests I have known, none have ever been accused of abuse.

 

[KMC]

Good. This needs to happen in every diocese in the US. This or an independent auditor. Sad that the Church has been unable to police itself. Who’d have thought between the Church and the state that the state would be on the side of the Angel’s. Weird times we live in.

Would you also agree to reviewing the records of all school teachers, since schools have had a higher incidence of abuse than the Catholic Church?

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Sure, of course. Teachers with a union have always had a powerful lobby when it comes to these issues. But just because they should do that with teachers, cops, and Janet at the DMV (I think she specializes in a special kind of abuse) but dont, has no bearing on if they should do this with an organization that cannot do it itself. When a teacher is accused things happen. And imagine the scrutiny by an ombudsman if a policeman is involved in a shooting etc. The Church needs help here. And I HATE giving authority over the Church to the state. But The Church has already done that in places like China with the appointment of bishops, Germany with taxes, the USA with tax exempt status as long as you dont talk in favor of conservative politics and worldwide with the idea that one must obtain a certificate of the state (divorce) before the Church will investigate the validity of it’s own sacraments. Speaking of the USA specifically, if the Church needs the Gov to step in here I’m glad its here, in this country.

 

[KMC]

Sure, of course. Teachers with a union have always had a powerful lobby when it comes to these issues. But just because they should do that with teachers, cops, and Janet at the DMV (I think she specializes in a special kind of abuse) but dont, has no bearing on if they should do this with an organization that cannot do it itself. When a teacher is accused things happen. And imagine the scrutiny by an ombudsman if a policeman is involved in a shooting etc. The Church needs help here. And I HATE giving authority over the Church to the state. But The Church has already done that in places like China with the appointment of bishops, Germany with taxes, the USA with tax exempt status as long as you dont talk in favor of conservative politics and worldwide with the idea that one must obtain a certificate of the state (divorce) before the Church will investigate the validity of it’s own sacraments. Speaking of the USA specifically, if the Church needs the Gov to step in here I’m glad its here, in this country.

I agree that the Church has an issue and needs to clean house. However, the idea that the state can apply one set of rules / standards to one particular group and not to others goes far beyond the Catholic abuse crisis.

If you support the state stepping in here, would you also support the state requiring priests report what they hear in confessions (Louisiana considered doing this)?

There is a 1st amendment in the US that does not exist in China or Germany, that protects the free exercise of religion. There are also other constitutional rights the Church enjoys that they do not give up simply because they are a Church.

California tried to pass a law that would have extended the statutes of limitations on child abuse cases for private entities only (i.e. the Catholic Church) and would not have extended it for public entities (i.e. Public Schools).

So I have to ask in addition to my prior question about the confessional seal:
Do you support equal protection under the law and the equal application of law for all entities? And if so, why do you seem to gloss over public schools that have a greater problem? (Note: Teacher unions have protected molesters and its very difficult to fire them…so no, you should not trust their governance any more than you trust the Catholic Church’s governance)

 

[ZMystiCat]

The attorney general is supposed to investigate crimes. What crime is being investigated? This is not a criminal investigation. Even the AG says “this is not a criminal investigation.”

Unless I’m mistaken, Attorneys General do more than just criminal investigations. Colorado, for instance, has put the protection of natural resources under their AG, effectively involving the AG in civil matters, and according to NAAG, it’s not uncommon for Attorneys General to oversee other civil matters like victim compensation programs.

Furthermore, this is hardly, as Crisis Magazine implies, as simple as some Democratic AG investigating the Church for easy political points. The Denver Post has a considerably better article on the matter that goes into its history. Interest in doing such an investigation began under the last AG, Republican Cynthia Coffman, after receiving numerous complaints from Coloradans of priestly abuse following the Pennsylvania report. As they were looking into options, since she couldn’t go to a grand jury as Pennsylvania did, the Catholic dioceses approached her and offered to work out a plan for an independent investigation. Weiser simply inherited the AG’s role in the matter from Coffman. And since the AG does involve itself in civil matters related to the public’s interest, this seems totally within their responsibility.

If anything, Colorado seems to be a rather friendly case of this, since the matter was worked out together with the Catholic Church, not separate from it. But otherwise it is a pretty standard case of the public raising a complaint and the office whose duties most closely align with addressing those complaints seeking how to address them.

Janet at the DMV (I think she specializes in a special kind of abuse)

I think we all know that it takes a particularly sick person to ever even think about applying to work at the DMV. Imagine how awful one must be to actually get the job!