L.A. Archdiocese to Pay $600M to Victims

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I heard an interview with an individual who had attended at least some of the court procedures associated with all these cases. He recounted the testimony of one of the assistants to Cardinal Mahony, someone who had been an assistant for much of the time (but not all of it) that Cardinal Mahony has been in LA.

His testimony was that there were 3 people at the top of the executive/administrative ladder in LA:
  1. Mahony
  2. Another man (whose name & position I’ve forgotten, sorry!)
  3. The man himself who was giving the testimony
Now, this may be self-serving, but the man giving the testimony stated under oath that he was “out of the loop” on these abuse cases while all the transferring and covering up was going on, that the only ones who had any information or decision making were Mahony & the one other individual. Unless Mahony delegated everything to the #2 man, he had to be part of the problem. Even if he DID delegate everything to the #2 man, he would be remiss had he not paid close enough attention.

Of course, this is all based on the testimony of one person, so there could be other people with different views, but now that there is a settlement there won’t be any more public testimony on these cases.
 
originally posted by Sheeniac
Would he still be involved in the cover-ups if this is true?
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Mahony didn’t become Cardinal until 1991 so was there even a coverup under his watch or was he simply telling what happened in the past.

In Boston, the cases went back to the 50’s, 60’s 70’s and 80’s. Even the most nortorious such as Geoghan and Paul Shanley were ordained priests in 1962 and 1960. When the first cases came out in the later 1980’s, it seems abuse was atleast looked at and when Father Porter came out in 1990, then major changes took place in the Boston churches.

Law did allow one priest,Shanley to go to another state. They are correct in that the Church did an injustice by not sending these priests directly to jail. The Church believed Christ could cure even molesters but they were wrong.

Cardinal Medeiros (1970-1983)would have been one Cardinal to go after but he was dead as were many of the priests who were charged.

What I don’t get is that it is still going on all over the place** in every profession **and I don’t see large pay-outs or jail time.

There are a few on this forum that are outraged but **in general **the public is not outraged at all about abuse of children.
 
one of the things that is hard for people to grasp is that 50 yeas ago while this definitely was immoral and criminal–it was not necessarily something there were laws against! The world was a different place than it is now. Child abuse today has much broader definitions–which is a good thing for sure! But there were not even child abuse laws on the books up until the 1970’s in some states! So when the Catholic Church and any other churches dealt with this kind of thing they were in many cases doing what was lawful and handling it how it was handled by everyone at the time.

Instead of condeming the Church for dealing with it now–we should praise God these terrible crimes have finally been dealt with properly! for opening the doors to deal with it still hidden in so many other places! What can the Church do to make reparation? Nothing can fix this. So they are doing what they are now required to do, and the rest must be a matter of prayer for healing—healing the victims and healing the corruption and healing for the criminals too. Remember very few victimizers just choose one day to be predators–they are usually taught how to be by their own victimization… this goes back generations.

Is it not the grace of God that this has been purged? We pray that all the hidden abuse be likewise purged and that it stops here with this generation.

Ravyn
 
gam197 said:
Cardinal Law didn’t come to Boston until the mid 1980’s where cases like Father Porter went way back to the 1960’s. Law wasn’t from MA and he wasn’t a local boy.

By the time Law came to Boston and was made Cardinal was well after most of these cases occurred.
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True, but Cardinal Law knew about Paul Shanley and wrote a glowing letter to the Bishop of San Bernadino, as a recommendation to take Shanley.
All was revealed when Law had to hand over to the DA, Church records. The records proved Law’s culpability in trying to cover up sex abuse cases.

Law had Catholics support from the majority of Catholics until the records were revealed. He was forced to resign.

This was a black eye for the Catholic Church, have no doubt about it.

Jim
 
Ravyn_Guiliani said:
one of the things that is hard for people to grasp is that 50 yeas ago while this definitely was immoral and criminal–it was not necessarily something there were laws against! The world was a different place than it is now. Child abuse today has much broader definitions–which is a good thing for sure! But there were not even child abuse laws on the books up until the 1970’s in some states! So when the Catholic Church and any other churches dealt with this kind of thing they were in many cases doing what was lawful and handling it how it was handled by everyone at the time.

Ravyn
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Fifty years ago, there were statutory rape laws in most, if not all states, and sodomy laws in many states, under which the worst offenders could have been prosecuted.
 
geezerbob said:
Fifty years ago, there were statutory rape laws in most, if not all states, and sodomy laws in many states, under which the worst offenders could have been prosecuted.
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And most rape cases even 30 years ago, were kept quiet for protection of the victims. Rape was a stigma that often harmed the victim more than the punishment the rapist would receive. In the case of young teen boys, which most of these were, the stigma that a boy would receive in high-school would be devastating, so, even the parents wanted to keep such things out of the press and as quiet as possible.

Jim
 
originally posted by
True, but Cardinal Law knew about Paul Shanley and wrote a glowing letter to the Bishop of San Bernadino, as a recommendation to take Shanley.
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Yes and that is why he left. That does not mean he knew everything else. He was a very busy man. I am sure he didn’t sit there and read old records.

The Church believed that Christ could cure so the Church paid a fortune to treat and cure them. Big mistake. They failed to realize the evil done until they had to face the victims, mostly teen-age boys at the time of rape or molestation. (Also during these earlier generations some boys would go with each other and experiment. It was almost like playing doctor so I don’t know how much this affected thought.)

I still have some respect for Cardinal Law because he was the only Cardinal that I knew of that actually paid for and sent buses of parishioners out to the abortion clinic to protest. Once John Salvi shot workers, those buses stopped and I wish Cardinal Law had had the courage to continued those buses.
originally posted by geezerbob
Fifty years ago, there were statutory rape laws in most, if not all states, and sodomy laws in many states, under which the worst offenders could have been prosecuted.
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The culture was very different. There were few public cases and no one talked about abuse of children at all anywhere. It was unthinkable. That is probably what help to keep it underground in the Church.
 
gam197 said:
Yes and that is why he left. That does not mean he knew everything else. He was a very busy man. I am sure he didn’t sit there and read old records.
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There was more than that. Cardinal Law received letters from Sex abuse victims and their parents. He passed the letters down to his assistant, Bishop McCormick, who is now in Manchester NH.
He never followed up to find out what was going on, even when people asked him at various functions, what he was doing about it.

If some one told you, you’re employees were sexually abusing children, would you just hand it off to a manager and not follow up on it? This is essentially what Cardinal Law did.

The press however, was also vicious, are are still today. They continue to make the claim that Pope John Paul II promoted Law by giving him a job in the Vatican. In fact, it was actually a humiliating demotion, and a place to keep him under the eye of the Vatican.

Jim
 
This sex abuse scandal is very painful to me. It is testing my faith. Thank God my faith is passing the test.

Have you read the comments people have made about the Church? This situation has given people in general and anti-Catholics specifically license to put forth no end of ignorant and hateful statements and opinions about the Catholic church.

I don’t understand how this could happen the way it has. I know priests and bishops are human and therefore sinners. How have they escaped criminal prosecution for perpetrating these acts or participating in the cover up? I know some have been prosecuted and sent to jail. I believe that is just. What of the others?

I saw a clip of Cardinal Mahoney’s apology. I felt it to be insufficient. Maybe I have missed it but, I have yet to see a priest or bishop directly involved in these crimes stand up and say publicly that they committed these crimes and that they accept responsibility and that they are sorry for the damage they have done to the victims, their families, the faithful, their brother priests and the Church as a whole. That makes me angry.

As for the monetary settlement, I understand that these victims probably have and probably will continue to need therapy to address issues related to their abuse. I think their treatment should be paid for by the Church. I don’t believe that we ought to focus on whether or not some of them have “jumped on the bandwagon” so to speak.

I wish I felt that the heirarchy handled this well but, I don’t. I say bring it ALL to the light and stop trying to do “damage control.”

I will continue to pray for the victims that they shall have faith in the Lord to bring them forgiveness of their trespassers, peace and justice. I will continue to pray for our innocent priests and bishops for the strength to withstand their detractors. I will continue to pray for the priests who perpetrated these crimes and the others who covered them up that they may seek and find forgiveness.
 
originally posted by JimR-OCDS
There was more than that. Cardinal Law received letters from Sex abuse victims and their parents.
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Was it one,two or three letters? I understand Cardinal Law didn’t pursue it and should have.

When the cases happened with Father Porter in 1960’s, some of the male fathers went to the Pastor of the Church and told the Pastor that Porter was molesting. Nothing. It was unthinkable. Porter molested over a hundred kids before he left the priesthood and later molested them after he was married.

When a person is a child molestor, he hides what he is doing. He presents a " holy than thou demeana" to everyone around him. They often do great wonderful deeds.They lie, lie, and lie.That is what makes it so difficult to trap them. The church never understood this.
 
Honestly, it seems to me that shelling out this money is an attempt by the Roman Catholics to cover up this whole thing.

And look at this article; the Vatican points the finger at everyone else, just trying to pass the buck and get the Catholics out of hot water.
 
Protestant4Life said:
Honestly, it seems to me that shelling out this money is an attempt by the Roman Catholics to cover up this whole thing.

And look at this article; the Vatican points the finger at everyone else, just trying to pass the buck and get the Catholics out of hot water.
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Honestly, it seems to me that your anti-Catholic bias is showing.

How can this be seen as an attempt to cover something up that’s been all over the news for several years?

As to the article you linked, there is already a thread discussing it. It is in no way passing the buck to admit guilt and point out that others are guilty, also.

Would you care to explain your statements a little further or are you just here to bash the Catholic Church?
 
An archdiocese molests hundreds of children and you just shrug it off, saying “Everybody sins. What’s the big deal?”
 
LOL…an archdiocese didn’t molest anyone.

I know you are “just pointing out facts,” but it sure sounds like simple bashing. The molesting of children and teens is a terrible sin, and it happens in Catholic churches, Protestant communities, schools, etc. Would a list of protestant ministers who are/were molesters, adulterers, etc. be an indictment of the Christian Church as a whole? Of course not.

BTW…Jim did not say “Everybody sins. What’s the big deal?” Please don’t mischaracterize his statement. All he did was state a recognition that we are all sinners. Are you saying you don’t believe that? Priests and bishops are just as human and just as capable of sin as you and I.
Protestant4Life said:
An archdiocese molests hundreds of children and you just shrug it off, saying “Everybody sins. What’s the big deal?”
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Protestant4Life said:
An archdiocese molests hundreds of children and you just shrug it off, saying “Everybody sins. What’s the big deal?”
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The actual numbers
PRIESTS
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According to a survey by the Washington Post, over the last four decades, less than 1.5 percent of the estimated 60,000 or more men who have served in the Catholic clergy have been accused of child sexual abuse.[iv] According to a survey by the New York Times, 1.8 percent of all priests ordained from 1950 to 2001 have been accused of child sexual abuse.[v] Thomas Kane, author of Priests are People Too, estimates that between 1 and 1.5 percent of priests have had charges made against them.[vi] Of contemporary priests, the Associated Press found that approximately two-thirds of 1 percent of priests have charges pending against them.[vii]
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Almost all the priests who abuse children are homosexuals. Dr. Thomas Plante, a psychologist at Santa Clara University, found that “80 to 90% of all priests who in fact abuse minors have sexually engaged with adolescent boys, not prepubescent children. Thus, the teenager is more at risk than the young altar boy or girls of any age.”[viii]
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catholicleague.org/research/abuse_in_social_context.htm

You can also read what Dr. Philip Jenkins, who is not a Catholic, wrote on the subject.

ad2000.com.au/articles/2002/may2002p17_1011.html
God Bless

Jim
 
Protestant4Life,

While I don’t believe pointing out the faults of others is in any way a defense of bad acts, I will refer you to an article printed in the Chicago Sun Times by Rose French dated June 15, 2007 which reports there are 260 reports of sex abuse per year among protestant churches to the three largest insurers of protestant churches. One has only to do a cursory search of the internet to find multiple reports in support of this information.

This issue of sexual abuse is not confined to the Catholic church. It is a societal problem. How sad when people read stories like this and refuse to see this issue for what it is but, instead, use it to bash millions of faithful Catholics for acts of a few among the numbers of Catholics.

You are among many who have interpreted the Archdiocese settlement as a payoff for cover up. This situation is far from being covered up. It has been brought to the light. A settlement is not unusual whenever a lawyer sees a defendant with “deep pockets” and the potential to pay out vast sums of money in a civil suit. I hope the money paid to the victims of this abuse will help them meet their individual needs and move forward in their lives.
 
Money can’t fix the problem. And I still believe that the money is being used to cover up the issue. Sure, it has been brought to the light, but the Catholics are trying to put it in the dark agains by shelling out cash and acting like everything is fine and dandy.
 
giving new meaning to the phrase, “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.

I haven’t seen Protestant churches shelling out to the victims of their clergy.

I haven’t seen parents shelling out to their own molested children.

The Catholic church has done far more to deal with an abuse problem that affects not just ‘their priests’ but is found in every segment of society, among men and women no matter what their profession. . .not just with money but with apologies, concrete programs, etc.

Nothing will stop the harpies screaming for the blood not just of the guilty but anyone ‘tarred and feathered’ with the ‘guilt by association’ of being a member of the Catholic Church.

Nothing.
More money? Not good enough.
Apologies? Not good enough.

Not even if every single Catholic were to be imprisoned for the rest of his/her life on earth, and every single ‘item’ of ‘value’ were put into the pockets of all ‘non Catholics’ everywhere would it be ‘enough’ for the venomous anti-Catholics. God pity them in their blind, arrogant assumptions. Like Pilate, they believe that in ‘washing their hands’ and claiming that they have ‘no share’ in clergy abuse, and by crucifying Catholic priests and laity, that they will somehow emerge guiltless of error and sin.
 
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