Here’s a hypothetical: Your boss borrows your car and runs over your beloved dog Rover in the company’s parking garage. When your boss returns the car, you ask him about your dead dog and the blood stains all over the bumper. He denies all knowledge. When confronted with video surveillance footage, your boss finally admits…Continue reading Using “healing” to end the conversation … when the conversation is far from over
A boarding school. Naked dance parties. Child pornography. Molestation. An arrest. A suicide. Allegations. Lawsuits. A cover-up. Total institutional ethical failure. When I first heard about the scandal at Minnesota’s Shattuck-St. Mary’s (I’ll refer to it from now on as SSM), I had a hard time wrapping my arms around the extent of the criminal…Continue reading The Total Failure of Shattuck-St. Mary’s
In case you were wondering who Jerry Brown REALLY wants to protect: Yesterday, Brown vetoed SB 924, a bill which would have given victims of child sexual abuse until age 40 to file civil lawsuits against organizations that cover up and abet child sexual abuse. The bill was entirely prospective, meaning that it would only…Continue reading Jerry Brown vetoes victims’ civil rights bill
It’s been an interesting week: Ricardo “Richard” Aldana is goin’ to the pokey Former JSerra High School teacher Richard Aldana was convicted on three felony counts of lewd acts upon a child. The victim was a 14-year-old student. Aldana faces up to eight years in jail. JSerra is an independent (not owned by the Diocese…Continue reading Friday Round-up: Aldana, Adrian, Arizona, and the AG
Bankruptcy, that is. Diocesan bankruptcy is back in the news—this time, it’s the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. According to victims’ attorneys, yesterday’s four-hour deposition of St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt ended “abruptly and heatedly,” and Nienstedt refused to turn over some court-ordered documents and answer many questions about the cover-up of sex abuse in…Continue reading “It saves them a fortune”
One brother is Obama’s chief of staff. The other is an embattled former top deputy to St. Paul’s Archbishop, charged with covering up sex abuse and refusing to cooperate with the police. Put together, the McDonough brothers show how bad timing and bad moral decisions may push two former “superstars” into very public and very…Continue reading The Politician and the Priest: Two brothers and a fall from grace
Your question of the day: You see a child being sexually abused and beaten on a street corner. Whom do you call? Answer: The local university, your bishop, your commander or the leader of the closest nonprofit. Ridiculous? Of course it is. Utterly absurd? Yes. Child endangerment? You bet. So let’s try again with the correct…Continue reading Institutions need to get out of the sex abuse investigation business
Let’s talk about Joliet, IL and Fall River, MA, two dioceses with bishops who, were it not for public embarrassment, were more than happy to throw child safety under the bus. In Joliet, Bishop Dan Conlon (the head of the USCCB committee on child protection, by the way) was going to reinstate a priest suspended…Continue reading Joliet, Fall River, and a little lesson in “Just and Ethical”