Grand Jury Excoriated Philadelphia Archdiocese

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There is no joy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia today as the local newspapers, TV and radio are covering the story from yesterday:

An ‘Immoral’ Cover-up

You may have to register to read the whole story. It’s not pretty. It’s a bit easier to see what got the laity so riled up in Boston.
 
And for the ArchiDiocese response, you may view some of it here (beginning fifty paragraph down):

abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=3462809

*In a sharply worded rebuttal, the archdiocese Wednesday denied the allegations of a cover-up and said that Bevilacqua, now 82, and other church leaders had been unfairly attacked. *

*The church said the report’s “callous treatment of Cardinal Bevilacqua” reflected the treatment he got during his grand jury testimony, which occurred over a total of 10 days. *

*“His inquisitors sought to bully and intimidate him,” the statement said. “These grueling examinations sought not to obtain relevant information he possessed but rather sought to trap the cardinal and to humiliate, prosecute and disrespect him.” *
 
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malibu364:
There is no joy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia today as the local newspapers, TV and radio are covering the story from yesterday:

An ‘Immoral’ Cover-up

You may have to register to read the whole story. It’s not pretty. It’s a bit easier to see what got the laity so riled up in Boston.
Click to expand...

Could you perhaps quote the first sentence ? That would make it easier to search for the story on other sites, so that one needn’t register on this site for just the one story.​

Thanks ##
 
The “edited” article pasted from The Philadelphia Inquirer.

{monitor’s note: article deleted. quotes are to be short. 1-4 paragraphs in length. Also need link}
 
Hmmm…

63 cases followed out of 167 claimed.
28 in detail…

Bottom line for me, even if just ONE of those was covered up, shuffled, concealed, and parents pressured not to file a claim, then the Bishop is wrong.

That 28 could be substantiated in detail is truly sad.
 
The details of the crimes committed are horrid.

That these priests were shuffled around is even more horrid.

As a member of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia I found the response disheartening. Even if the DA and the Grand Jury were “gunning” for you, admit the harms done, admit that Cardinals Krol and Bevilacqua were wrong in how they handled it and lay out all of the actions taken since 2002. To play the “legal” card in this matter helps no one. We know the statute of limitations were up; we know they didn’t look at all the evidince (most notably the reports from St. John Vianney Hospital); we know there are no indictments; we also know that these priests have admitted to their wrongdoings and that alot of people have, are, and will continue to suffer as a result of their actions. The only thing playing the legal card will do is prevent the Archdiocese from going bankrupt!

More importantly, though, our good priests in this diocese and all priests (good & bad) need our prayers. A great priest of 32 years who I admired as a kid growing up is PO’d to say the least. The only thing keeping him going is the realization that his primary boss is God, not the so-called “princes” of the Church.

Personally - I’d like to see Cardinals Law & Bevi laicized if for no other reason that to prove that the Catholic Church is genuinely concerned and doing something about the situation. Otherwise, from an outside it’s “business as usual”.

Sorry for the rant but it’s been a pretty emotional 24 hours…

Ken
Glenside, PA
 
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malibu364:
The “edited” article pasted from The Philadelphia Inquirer.

{monitor’s note: article deleted. quotes are to be short. 1-4 paragraphs in length}
Click to expand...
Yeah, nice work, monitor… if the post was too long, why not just shorten it? Oh yes, I forgot… we’re not supposed to “question” moderator actions.
 
In a town near mine a united methodist minister was suspended and dimissed for molestation.

It isn’t talked about, and it was recent. The local newspaper wouldn’t run anything on it, nor would the nearest city paper. Swept under the table… I know some parishoners that told me he was dimissed.
If this allegation was on a Catholic priest, even the BBC would have a live feed broadcast in front of this town’s church.
 
I read the letter that Cardinal Regoli, and it struck me that he complained that his predecessors were unfairly maligned in the grand jury’s report.

I don’t know how he could possibly know that, as he didn’t sit in and listen to the many hours of testimony from the witnesses that the people on the grand jury did.

Regoli wrote “the report is unjustifiably critical of Krol and Bevilauqua” , but there is no way he could know that. Its really an uncharitable attack on the folks who took time off from their days to hear it all.
 
I think John Paul II"s appeal to the laity to be more actively engaged was, in part, to fill the vacuum of leadership not undertaken by our prelates. The laity must lobby for increasing the statute of limitations in sex crimes against children.

The laity must lobby for increased penalties for those in a fiduciary position having client secrecy privileges–doctors, lawyers, pastors–who abuse this trust through sexual predation. The laity must support Catholic broadcaster Bill O’Reilly’s push to get Jessica’s Law, a mandatory 25 year sentence for sexual predators, to be adopted in all states. Pray and work, and watch what the wolves do, not what they voice in hollow apologies.

Blessed Virgin Mary, pierced with a sword of sorrow that the thoughts of all may be revealed, expose all thoughts, cleansing them in the fire of love which is your Son’s Sacred Heart. AMEN
 
It is the same as many other diocese.Its like the bishops were using the same playbook. That indeed they were like the Mafia, as the former Governor of Oklahoma said. The defense of the archdiocese is pityful and only a fool would believe them.
 
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malibu364:
There is no joy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia today as the local newspapers, TV and radio are covering the story from yesterday:
Click to expand...
No doubt, they are having a field day.

As a Catholic, I am saddened and outraged by these revelations. Abominations like these cry to Heaven for vengeance. I am reminded of Jesus’ warning in the Gospel about it being better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around your neck than to go before God having destroyed the faith of an innocent child.

However, we shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking that media organizations like the Philadelphia Inquirer wish to see a serious revival of Catholic morality.

What would the *Inquirer *say if the Vatican announced that it was undertaking a major effort to scour the seminaries and root out the homosexuals?

What would the *Inquirer *say if the Philadelphia Archdiocese announced that it would sponsor an initiative to get Congress pass laws outlawing internet porn? And that Catholic politicians were duty bound to ignore Court attempts to strike down such laws?

What would the *Inquirer *say if the American bishops started a campaign to get MTV off the air?

What would the *Inquirer say *if the bishops attempted to act to financially ruin any motion picture studio that dared produce any film that ridiculed Catholic sexual morality?

My point is that the enemies of the Church (and I would include the people running *The Philadelphia Inquirer *in that category) are probably the ones screaming the loudest about these revelations. They acted to sexualize the culture, and when that cultural sexualization affects the Church, they yell about the abuses committed by priests. Seems to me what these media people really want is to bring the Church under the control of the state.
 
I am happy to see that others are equally disappointed in the Archdiocese’s reply. It’s hard to take the cry of “unfair” when there has been priest shuffling. Even if the grand jury did present some information in a misleading or biased manner, it’s time for the representatives of the Body of Christ to turn the other cheek - especially since the first slap was deserved. It just gives one the impression that the Archdiocese cares more about what the world thinks that what God thinks, that it is being run by lawyers and not by saints.
 
Since I am from Philadelphia, I am extremely upset about all
of this. Of course I feel sorry for the victims, but I also feel
very bad for all the many good priests who have spent their
lives serving God and others. Our priest at Mass today spoke
on this as the Cardinal had instructed all the priests to do
this Sunday. It was obvious that it was very upsetting for
him.

I am expecting to have people ask me about this since I have
always defended the church and spoke of the anti-catholic
bias that exists in this country.

Already today after church I was talking to two ladies who
work in our parish gift store, they are both active and faithful
Catholics. They were very angry since one of the priests who
had been moved around had been at their daughters’ high
school at that time. One mentioned that why would people
want to confess their sins to a priest now when some of
them have done such horrible things. I reminded her that
Christ forgives us in the sacrament, not the priest.

I have told people before that priests are human like the rest of
us and they sin too, that being ordained does not exempt them
from it.

I want to be able to give the proper responses when I’m questioned, so any advice anyone here could give me would
be deeply appreciated.

I know we should not despair, that things will work out in the end,
but with Mass attendance down and the church being constantly
put down, this just makes it all the worse. 😦
 
William Donohue of the Catholic League has weighed in on this a couple of timew:Philly D.A. Rips Off Church And Taxpayers
Philadelphia D.A. Comes Up Empty

I was living in the Philadelphia area when this first started and one of the evening talk shows had William Donohue and someone from the Philly D.A.'s office on. Donohue wiped the floor with this guy. In the case of the priests that were already dead, Donohue made reference to the case where a dead Pope (I forget which one) was dig up and put on trial.

PF
 
I’m from philly, i knew 3 of those priests indicted. at one time or another they all said mass at the churches i go to… (i go to 4 or 5 different parishes - dictated by time of service) - and the fact that they were permitted to continue performing their duties and skirted legal punishment by the hands of the Archbishop, is at least, woefully negligent. It pains me that they’ve escaped punishment from the legal system due to statute of limitations. They should be made to pay for their crimes, not simply retiring to a vacation home. Anyone who knew of the crimes and continued to put children in danger by shuffling the priests around, is themselves guilty of the same crime.
I’ll pull no punches.

But the explanation for this scandal comes from Pope Paul VI - “From some fissure the smoke of satan entered into the temple of God.”
  • Pope Paul VI, June 29, 1972
    These priests aren’t the church, we are. They are sinners, they are agents of satan himself working alongside the dark demon to try and topple a church Christ himself said nothing would prevail against.
    This is an attack from evil against the church, those priests who molested, are guilty of bringing evil into the Catholic church. They should be tried, sentanced and put away.
    The Church herself did nothing wrong.
 
The one thing that strikes me as I read all of this is that we need to pray for the victims, the bishops and the priests who were involved in any of this. Also, as a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area, any story about Catholicism in the Philadelphia Inquirer should be taken with a grain of salt. They are not exactly a “Catholic-friendly” newspaper.

Given the gravity of the situation, I can understand people’s anger over what took place. However, at some point we need to move on. I find it hard to believe that the bishops and priests involved in any coverup are not feeling some guilt for what they did. In any event, they really need our prayers. I’m thankful that the Vatican is about to address the homosexuality issue, which is the cause of most of these problems.

Most people on this board (especially me) have no idea of the advice that was given to the bishops on this matter. I will continue to believe that they thought they were doing the right thing. These men are servants of God. Let’s not fall into the trap of accusing them of being power hungry and anxious to cover things up. This is exactly what Satan wants us to believe.

Calling for the heads of bishops and priests is not going to do any good at this point. We need to trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide the Church, despite the imperfections of those who are in charge. Above all, we need to continue to pray for all involved.

God Bless,
Gary
 
I hope the moderators will allow some latitude here. First off, to stick to the “rules” on such an important topic and delete almost my entire second post (after being asked by another member to provide some context), and quote the rule about one to four paragraphs, which would take the entire article out of context, was short-sighted.

Secondly, to my mind, this post was moved, and intended to buried in Liturgy & Sacraments, because of the topic. After all, what does clergy sexual abuse have to do, specifically, with liturgy and the sacraments? When most people who read these threads think of “Abuses” as is noted in the sub-section to the general topic, they think of liturgical abuses, not clergy sexual abuse. I could be mistaken, but I don’t think so.

Now, to the responses since my first post.

Ken (phillycaster), I grew up Ardsley, PA, but now live in Springfield, PA (Delaware County) so I was happy to read your post. I shared your emotions until Sunday – importantly, more on that later.

Penitent - yes, the Archdiocese response was sharply worded, but tried to defend the indefensible. As some here have already noted, Justin Cardinal Rigali, in my opinion, did precisely the wrong thing by hiding behind the attorneys for the Archdiocese, then coming out and saying the laity should not read the report, and then backtracking off that statement.

mgy100 and gnjsdad – while I respect your point of view, your responses smack of the “shoot the messenger” philosophy. I don’t expect a newspaper to cover in depth analysis of Catholic moral and theological issues. That’s an everyday battle for all of us, which isn’t particularly newsworthy. We shouldn’t expect the newspaper to become an arm of the Church, nor should we maintain the notion that media organizations are desirous of having the Church controlled by the State. This investigation did not entail reports of a single abuser, but large numbers of child abuse cases and potential “cover-up” spanning a number of years. This was a newsworthy story and was handled as such from my perspective. What was reported in the news section of the paper was fine by me. I didn’t really care what the editorial writers had to say. I read the entire grand jury report and the Archdiocese’s response on line where available and actually printed them both out in their entirety (over 500 pages of material). All that being said, I’m sure that there were some people who were just jumping for joy that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Catholic Church were getting knocked around here. But I don’t go for that anti-Catholic bias, “Oh! woe is us” shtick.

WanderAimlessly – the URL links you have posted don’t work for me, so I cannot really comment on the specific objections by William Donohue. My only comment about him is that (1) I’m not surprised he would use a “shoot the messenger” tactic, and resort to the good old Republican line about wasting taxpayers’ money and, (2) he could use a dose of humility. Please show me taxpayer money that isn’t ever, or hasn’t ever, been wasted at any level of government by any political party. Besides, when was Philadelphia ever noted for using taxpayer money wisely? Philadelphians who live and/or work in the city (as I do) are used to the incompetence and corruption. We try to deal with it as best we can. I’m sure there were some in the D.A.’s office licking their chops over this case, but overall, I don’t think it’s a case of anti-Catholic bias. I rather think they may have done a real service here.

Finally, to Donna Mc: your wonderful post which brings me back to yesterday’s Mass and homily, where our Assistant Pastor, Father Michael Filippello, addressed the issue in an almost perfect fashion. I told him after Mass, it was his “finest hour”.

This mild-mannered, humble priest said that he felt shock, anger, disgust, betrayal, etc., over the abuse revelatons like probably many of us did. He said he was equally disappointed by the Archdiocese’s response, probably like many of us were. He personally apologized on behalf of the church, and then humbly asked us for our prayers and that we not allow this crisis or the actions of others to stand in the way of our faith and our own salvation, and pledged his support to continue to be available for the parishioners for whatever spiritual and pastoral needs we might have. No media finger pointing, no anti-Catholic bias rant, no “they don’t understand how the Church works” excuses. None of that. When I walked into Mass I was downcast and angry, afterwards grateful and renewed. I expected denial and avoidance. What I got was:

**acknowledgement, repentance, affirmation **– all wrapped in a tone of humility, which pointed the way to getting beyond this and a new beginning.

I wish I could get a copy and post in on here for you – but it would only get deleted.
 
I have read the letter to the faithful and the comments at the news conference.At no time did the Cardinal say that his predacessors had not done what the Grand Jury said.
Now an interesting item
The Catechism of the Catholic church !

2287​

ANONE WHO USES THE POWER AT HIS DISPOSAL IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT LEADS OTHERS TO DO WRONG BECOMES GUILTY OF SCANDAL AND RESPONSIBILE FOR THE EVIL THAT HE HAS DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGED.
I would say that moving pedophiles from parish to parish and saying nothing, would qualify under this.
 
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