On a lark, I looked up the Wikipedia entry for Orange County Bishop Tod Brown.
I was inspired after I saw that Bishop Accountability had just completed a newer edition of Brown’s assignment history. Bishop Accountability included details of the sex abuse allegation against Brown, as well as the fact that Brown had refused to disclose the allegation, calling it “very embarrassing and very painful.”
I admit that I am guilty of using Wikipedia for references on my own blog posts. But after reading Brown’s entry, I’m going to have to rethink that practice.
The Wikipedia entry – no doubt edited by Brown’s PR people – makes NO mention of the $100 million settlement with 97 victims of abuse in 2005. It makes NO mention of the 1997 allegation against Brown (which was front page news); NO mention of the 2007 settlements with four women who were sexually abused as children; NO mention of the fact that Brown was charged with contempt for allowing John Urell to flee the country in order to avoid a deposition; and NO mention of last month’s $2 million settlement with a victim of Michael Harris.
His entry has been scrubbed so cleanly of the facts, that it shines as brightly as his new glass cathedral.
Too bad Brown can’t be just as transparent.
Has anyone else noticed that all of these multi-million dollar settlements in the Romnan Catholic Church are paid out with Tax-Free Money. Now, this money wasn’t given to the Church by the Laity for the purpose of paying for the mistakes of members of the Hierarchy in allowing Pedophile Priests to continue their services, after internal investigations showed a high probability of their guilt. It was given to the Church to spread the Gospel and to give to good, charitable works. Now, I’m not saying that Survivors don’t deserve large cash settlements, because I believe that they do. Church properties should be sold, particularly the residences of bishops, archbishops and cardinals, BEFORE any Tax Free donations are paid out! The Hierarchy was responsible in a large part for the Priest Pedophilia Scandal, and it should hurt them in their pocketbooks, before it eats into money given the Church for charitable purposes!
If the bishops can have so many skeletons in their closets and still parade around as revered holy men, imagine what their clergy and religious must be hiding in their current and past double lives. Religion is so easily polluted and turned into a haven for predators.