…that he skipped the country, just to make sure that the cops never find him.
I hope his supporters (like the ones who tried to tamper with the jury) finally realized that he just flipped them the bird.
Category: Clergy Abuse Crisis
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Most of the time – but not every time – our courts get it right …
I am a huge fan of the US justice system. After more than 200 years, our impartial courts have “gotten it right” a vast majority of the time. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best in the world.
Here’s a great example:
Last week, a jury unanimously found that Fr. Michael Kelly was liable for abusing a boy in the 1980s. The trial is currently in its second phase to determine whether or not the Diocese of Stockton knew about the abuse and covered it up. It took the alleged victim years to get the case in front of a jury, and 12 impartial citizens made their decisions based on the evidence. (One of Kelly’s supporters has been accused of jury tampering. Let’s hope that if true, that person is punished to the fullest extent of the law).
And another:
A Missouri judge has refused to drop misdemeanor criminal charges against Kansas City- St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese. The charges stem from allegations that Finn knew that one of his priests possessed child pornography. Instead of reporting to law enforcement (possession of child pornography is a federal crime, remember?), Finn allegedly sat on the information, sent the priest out of state (?!), and didn’t warn local families that their kids may have been victims of abuse. The priest who took and kept the photos has been indicted on 13 counts of exploiting five children ages 2 to 13.
But sometimes, judges get it wrong:
A bankruptcy judge in Milwaukee has refused to make public secret church documents and depositions that outline the scope and scale of child sex abuse and cover-up in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The documents were produced when the Archdiocese of Milwaukee sought bankruptcy protection to avoid potentially embarrassing public civil trials.
Judge Susan V. Kelley’s reasoning? They were “too scandalous.”
Note to Judge : Civil law exists to punish wrongs, compensate victims for injury and DETER FURTHER WRONGDOING. The only way to truly punish the Archdiocese and deter further wrongdoing is to expose the full scope and scale of the abuse. If we don’t know what church officials knew and did, how can we be sure that they won’t turn around and do it again?
This bankruptcy has nothing to do with finances. Instead, it has everything to do with silencing victims and denying them their days in court.
Yes, scandal is ugly. No one likes to learn that hundreds of kids were abused and that priests and bishops knew about the crimes and did nothing to help kids. But shining a public light on secret church files will serve every community where a predator worked. The documents will also help law enforcement who, in places like Delaware and California, used these kinds of documents to put child molesters behind bars.
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Breaking News: Jury says Fr. Michael Kelly Abused Victim
The jury came in with a unanimous verdict for Michael Kelly’s victim. If a jury can determine that in less than two hours, why did the Diocese of Stockton allow him to keep working with kids? For years?
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Honoring the tragically flawed is tragically flawed
Why, oh why, does the Catholic Church continue to bestow honors and awards on tragically flawed wrong-doers?
Disgraced Former Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali
Trial watchers in Philadelphia have been treated to a firsthand view of vile and disgusting human behavior. What makes it worse is that the evildoers are priests and the victims are children. The lede from the Philadephia Inquirer’s Sunday story on the trial is enough to make even the hard-hearted ill:
Stalking. Groping. Gay bondage porn.
A sexually graphic love letter to a grade-school boy.
That they emerged in testimony about priests – and at times, from priests – only amplified the uneasiness.
One would think that the big boss who allowed this activity to continue and flourish would be castigated and forced to live a life of penance and contrition. Not so much.
Disgraced Philly Cardinal Justin Rigali—who retired last year after the Philadelphia Grand Jury exposed the fact that he was keeping more than two dozen accused priests in ministry in 2011—has been honored by the Pope as a special envoy and this week will be a special Mass celebrant at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
So, while Philly jurors hear about how Rigali kept 37 accused predators from ministry, sat idly by as children were abused and accusers came forward, deceived his review board, and oversaw an organization that employed five men who were criminally indicted in 2011 for sex abuse and/or cover-up, Rigali will be the special guest of honor in one of the most famous landmark Catholic Churches in the United States.
Ummm … hello?
In 2004, LA Times writer William Lobdell (full disclosure: Bill is good friend and former business partner) wrote a great story about how child molesting clerics have been honored by Catholic officials, groups and communities that refuse to comprehend the horror of sexual abuse, can’t believe that “such a nice priest” could hurt kids, or simply don’t care:
When congregants at a parish in Rancho Santa Margarita in southern Orange County were told in 2002 that their longtime pastor [Fr. Michael Pecharich] had admitted to molesting a boy three decades earlier, the first reaction by some was to name the parish hall after him. The idea was quickly dropped. Three more alleged victims have come forward since then.
Fast forward to 2012, and little has changed:
- In Cheyenne, Wyoming, a wing of a children’s home is named after Bishop Joseph Hart (a native of Kansas City, a diocese embroiled in its own criminal sex abuse and cover-up scandal) who is accused in civil lawsuits of molesting at least three boys.
- In Missouri, there’s a city park on the edge of the St. Louis University campus named after Fr. Maurice Nutt. He resigned his position on the Police Board after being accused of sexually harassing two police officers.
- Last month in Louisville, Kentucky, the Louisville Catholic Education Foundation honored Owensboro Bishop William Medley, who was personally involved in reassigning at least six predator priests, ignoring the pleas of victims and therapists, and not reporting to the police.
Honors and awards are for people who do nice things. Honoring predators and enablers (who have never accounted for their crimes, atoned, made penance or attempted to right their wrongs) is little more than salt in victims’ wounds. I don’t think Jesus would approve.