Former Nova Scotia bishop charged with possession of child porn

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Ailina said:
This sickens me. He was a BISHOP, a leader of the church in his diocese. Possessing pictures such as this is supporting an industry that abuses children. There is NO excuse for it. How can he represent Christ to his parishioners if he is behaving in such a depraved manner? Why on earth would he even be searching out porn, let alone child porn? It can’t be that easy to find child porn on the Internet. Don’t the service providers monitor for such usage?

When I hear such horrible news about the leaders of our church, I really wonder if our religion is valid, if the Catholic Church is valid. I am sure I am not the only one who has doubts, after hearing about incidents such as this. It is so sick.
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No, you’re not. It is scandalizing the Church in America more than any other issue. Half of popular media is dead set on the notion that the entire existence of the Catholic Church is about (their phrase, I apologize) “boy f----ing.” They see the entire purpose of the Church as an age old institutional way to allow people in power to sexually abuse children. It is one of the most popular anecdotal views of standup comedians, and any time there is an abuse article in the media, you can be sure that 99% of commenters will espouse this view, or something akin to it. “Altar boy” has become synonymous with “servicing a priest.” “Priest” has become synonymous with “molester.” Every new case becomes not only a dagger in our hearts, but a poster to the world that says “THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS PURE EVIL.” :stretcher:
 
jmcrae said:
Sadly, it is all too easy to encounter every kind of porn on the Internet, simply by mistyping a search word in a search engine, or mistyping a URL address in the task bar. Porn distributors love to use URLs that are very similar to those used by the everyday public.

Also, if your computer has ever experienced any kind of a virus, then the chances are good that during the period of time that your computer had the virus, it was being used as a “drone” to store pornographic images and videos while they were being transferred somewhere else - and when you deleted the virus, it’s possible that the pornographic images themselves, etc. did not get deleted.

So it would be perfectly possible for anyone’s computer to be storing these images, inadvertently. The police would need to figure out whether the images were on there because of that sort of misadventure, or whether the owner of the computer had actually intended to download and use those images.
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I’m all for innocent until proven guilty, but what you’re suggesting is that the Canadian police went digging in every crevice of the bishop’s computer. Why would they do that? I’m not going to assume anything, but it would make more sense that the pornography was readily apparent on his computer.

I hope your scenario is correct, however, why would he have resigned so swiftly? Innocent people don’t just let these things happen without defending themselves.
 
damooster said:
I’m all for innocent until proven guilty, but what you’re suggesting is that the Canadian police went digging in every crevice of the bishop’s computer. Why would they do that? I’m not going to assume anything, but it would make more sense that the pornography was readily apparent on his computer.

I hope your scenario is correct, however, why would he have resigned so swiftly? Innocent people don’t just let these things happen without defending themselves.
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Well, I would draw a distinction between resigning from his job and defending himself in a court of law. The proper thing to do, I believe, is resign regardless of your belief in your innocence. It is probably the best way to serve the common good of the diocese, and in all likelihood, he would have been suspended anyway. He would not have a lawyer if he were not planning on defending himself.
 
SonofMonica said:
Well, I would draw a distinction between resigning from his job and defending himself in a court of law. The proper thing to do, I believe, is resign regardless of your belief in your innocence. It is probably the best way to serve the common good of the diocese, and in all likelihood, he would have been suspended anyway. He would not have a lawyer if he were not planning on defending himself.
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I really do hope you’re right. I hope he stepped aside to put the people first, but it just seems so rushed to me.
 
damooster said:
I’m all for innocent until proven guilty, but what you’re suggesting is that the Canadian police went digging in every crevice of the bishop’s computer.
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Well, how would they have targeted him in the first place, unless his computer sent something to someone they were already watching.

The question to answer is whether the Bishop actually sent something to someone, or whether his computer was under the influence of a virus at the time.

I actually don’t know anything about the case itself, or what really happened, but I know that I’ve encountered stuff on the Internet and elsewhere that I certainly wasn’t looking for, and one of the reasons, actually that I use the brand of computer I do is because it’s not very common in the marketplace, and therefore not as susceptible to viruses. I also have a regular Windows computer, but it isn’t allowed out to play on the Internet - it is very strictly quarantined.
 
Ailina said:
This sickens me. He was a BISHOP, a leader of the church in his diocese. Possessing pictures such as this is supporting an industry that abuses children. There is NO excuse for it. How can he represent Christ to his parishioners if he is behaving in such a depraved manner? Why on earth would he even be searching out porn, let alone child porn? It can’t be that easy to find child porn on the Internet. Don’t the service providers monitor for such usage?

When I hear such horrible news about the leaders of our church, I really wonder if our religion is valid, if the Catholic Church is valid. I am sure I am not the only one who has doubts, after hearing about incidents such as this. It is so sick.
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jmcrae said:
Well, how would they have targeted him in the first place, unless his computer sent something to someone they were already watching.

Customs can examine any ‘document’ coming into the country, regardless of format. They did a quick search, saw something not kosher and seized the computer.

The question to answer is whether the Bishop actually sent something to someone, or whether his computer was under the influence of a virus at the time.

I actually don’t know anything about the case itself, or what really happened, but I know that I’ve encountered stuff on the Internet and elsewhere that I certainly wasn’t looking for, and one of the reasons, actually that I use the brand of computer I do is because it’s not very common in the marketplace, and therefore not as susceptible to viruses. I also have a regular Windows computer, but it isn’t allowed out to play on the Internet - it is very strictly quarantined.

One day at work, while I was attempting to delete a whole bunch of spam from my inbox, Outlook opened an email that I was deleting. Kiddie porn popped up on my computer. I was horrified and quickly deleted it, but I’m sure that the images were on my computer until we got rid of it.

I’m the parish secretary and the only other people with access to the computer? The pastor and the assistant pastor, both of whom were computer illiterate. Wanna bet what the reaction would have been if the RCMP had done a forensic search of the Church computer?
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UPDATE: Quotes from the news conference, more reaction from church members and additional back ground information: cbc.ca/cp/Atlantic/091001/t100119A.html

Bishop set free on bail: cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/10/01/ns-lahey-charged-sydney.html

One thing, the town where the monastery is located, if he gives the townsfolk any cause to think their children are at risk, they’ll string him up in the middle of town and worry about the law later-they don’t have many youth and are very protective of them.

Now for those who might be looking for something to distract you from this story: cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/10/01/gender-teacher-fired.html
 
Always remember that the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings remain pure and inviolable in the face of all human perfidy which might attach itself to Her body…For the Church is the Bride of Christ…and will be until the end of time. The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and breathes life into Her…but failed humanity inhabits her, and it is this sad truth that you must lament. The Church is beauty, light and it is blessed; it has been since its inception and will remain so until Christ returns. Lament the dark nature which inhabits the human heart…weep for it, cry out against it…but please…do not spurn the Church. She has enough enemies. Remember, heresy is often born of scandal. Evil’s author wants you to lose your faith. Don’t do it!!
 
It is sad that catholics have to live with this hanging over them because some sick people have disgraced a whole religion. keep the faith and keep spreading the word of god. people will see through this stuff with time.
 
durhamfire said:
It is sad that catholics have to live with this hanging over them because some sick people have disgraced a whole religion. keep the faith and keep spreading the word of god. people will see through this stuff with time.
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Thank you and God bless you. :hug3:
 
damooster said:
I’m all for innocent until proven guilty, but what you’re suggesting is that the Canadian police went digging in every crevice of the bishop’s computer. Why would they do that? I’m not going to assume anything, but it would make more sense that the pornography was readily apparent on his computer.

Customs saw something that concerned them. They seized the computer and gave it to the RCMP for a thorough forensic check which, allegedly, eventually revealed kiddie porn.

I hope your scenario is correct, however, why would he have resigned so swiftly? Innocent people don’t just let these things happen without defending themselves.

I strongly suspect that he drafted his letter of resignation shortly after he left the airport. We were advised of his resignation by fax either Thursday or Friday with the information under embargo.
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SonofMonica said:
Who is “We”?
The parishes, or at least the priests.

What does this phrase mean?
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Information is often revealed to the priests or to the Bishops “Under Embargo” which means that the information is not to be released to the public until the ‘embargo’ is lifted. In this case the information came to us with the notation “under embargo until Saturday, September 26, 2009”

Said information could be appointments or, as in this case, resignations or it could be a copy of the latest encyclical or even something as insignificant as photos taken in an official photo shoot and not released until a specific time.
 
Phemie said:
Information is often revealed to the priests or to the Bishops “Under Embargo” which means that the information is not to be released to the public until the ‘embargo’ is lifted. In this case the information came to us with the notation “under embargo until Saturday, September 26, 2009”

Said information could be appointments or, as in this case, resignations or it could be a copy of the latest encyclical or even something as insignificant as photos taken in an official photo shoot and not released until a specific time.
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Thanks. Who is “us”? Do you work for the diocese?
 
He who is without sin cast the first stone I would say. What annoys me about all of this stuff is the attitude that our sins are “normal” but the bishop committed sins that are “abnormal and really evil”. But all sins are evil, none are good. I think there’s a strange double standard in society. It seems to me, society at large wants to accept many things and not call them sins anymore, but those things which society deems “sinful” are condemned as unforgivable. Would we have such contempt for a woman who killed her own child in her womb? No, our society would say this was a free choice and she’s still a good person. But when a bishop has pictures of child pornography, suddenly he’s the spawn of Satan. This is ridiculous. Why would child porn be worse than child murder? I was listening to the radio this morning and a woman killed her 3 children and helped her husband commit suicide. They say people are not condemning her because she was in a really bad financial situation so they feel bad for her. So she kills her 3 kids and husband and people feel bad for her, but a man looks at child pornography and it’s the worst thing in the universe. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think what the bishop did was good, but I think to consider it worse than anything imaginable and to be unforgivable goes against Christianity big time.
 
Those who make the loudest protests are usually harbouring ulterior motives and hidden agendas. Of course no one is condoning the charges and in our legal system he’s innocent until proven guilty. The fact remains child pornography is disgusting and unfortunately quite prevelent in our society. The vast majority of people who suffer from this illness are non-clergy.
 
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