The latest legal analysis from the Philly Priest Abuse Trial Blog…
Click here to read: http://www.priestabusetrial.com/2012/04/canon-law-expert-cardinal-bevilacqua.html#comment-form
The latest legal analysis from the Philly Priest Abuse Trial Blog…
Click here to read: http://www.priestabusetrial.com/2012/04/canon-law-expert-cardinal-bevilacqua.html#comment-form
Fr. Doyle is a living saint and an inspiration to us all. He has endured over a quarter century much for Jesus and the countless victims abused by his criminal brethren. He almost got Bevilacqua on board in 1986, but Tough Tony opted for career advancement instead.
Tom’s support for my advocacy has meant, and still means, a great deal to me.
For more on Tom’s Philly testimony and his earlier efforts with Tough Tony, please read my piece, “Philly Priest Child Abuse Trial & U. S. Bishops Standard Operating Procedures”, accessible by clicking on at:
http://www.bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2012/04/gerald-t-slevin-philly-priest-child.html
Susan, please either remove my comment from “moderation” or erase my comment, thank you. And you wonder why I prefer to post my important comments elsewhere. We are in a struggle with a ruthless adversary and need to be aggressive and timely. I sent you my comment by separate e-mail to you 48 hours ago. It is very frustrating to be treated thusly.
Jerry,
I’m a massive fan of yours, and I think you will be in the Hall Of Fame for people that change the world.
However, this is Susan’s (and Kathy’s) living room. Susan has blocked a bunch of my posts because they aren’t appropriate for her living room. It doesn’t mean you and I are wrong, but she doesn’t like that in her living room.
That’s her freedom. God bless America. God bless Susan & KK. They brought hundreds of thousands of people into their living room to take a remedial course on how to combat evil. They have more guests than we do, and we should be eternally grateful for it.
If your opinion doesn’t show up here, call me and I’ll show you how to create a blog, promote it, and tell people (even from the C4C blog), that they can find the Slevin version of the truth with power and anger and truth that can’t be shared in a living room with newbies and teenagers and children and victims and survivors. Rating: R.
C4C is a living room run by two mothers that are sensitive to every visitor from the neighborhood. YOU should set up a living room in the house next door for adults that want to hear the brutal truth on earth before they pay for it for eternity. I’ll help you set up, and then I’ll help you clean up when people throw bottles through our window.
I just wrote a two paragraph response to your living room comment that I just erased…..instead two words…..Thank You. Someone came up to me at the Vigil and commented that Susan and I sometimes take a beating on this site . I have my own anger about what has happened to children,I don’t need to be the brunt of anyone else’s anger, so again…thank you. And when you get that site set up, I am sure Susan will be happy to link it under Resources – a large directional arrow to the living room next door.
Susan and Kathy, you deserve only praise and respect for your site. I hope you know that.
Jerry, I agree with you completely. “We are in a struggle with a ruthless adversary and need to be aggressive and timely.”
Had I not been very aggressive, I would have had no chance in my case against the RCC, and a pedophile priest would be walking around today. As it is, he’s in prison.
If one is going to stop these CLERICAL FREAKS, either you go for the jugular, or you’re just wasting your time and money!
Jerry, I did not have access to my email at all points yesterday as I was working. As important as this cause is to me, I do need to pay my bills, care for my children and meet other responsibilities.
Susan and Kathy,
I echo Crystal’s comment. You both deserve nothing but “praise and respect” for this site.
It is my opinion that you guys are generous in what you allow commenters to state. In several of my posts, I’ve used explicit terms describing the ungodly and inhumane acts by these monsters. Thanks for granting us a format to be educated, to vent, and to support the victims.
PS. Kathy, I LOVE the mama bear reference.
Can we speak through email, Jerry, maybe on the phone? Please send me an email Victims4JusticeNow@yahoo.com
Thanks!
Jerry,
Your blog was spot on! Do you have any ideas on how an investigation into Rigali can be initiated? It’s clearly needed.
Tom Doyle in an interchange with the prosecution said the following…..”But on redirect, Assistant District Attorney Blessington zeroed in on Lynn’s role as the late cardinal’s secretary for the clergy. If you work for the cardinal, and he tells you to do something illegal, what should you do, the priest was asked.
“You’re responsible for what you do,” Father Doyle testified. The cardinal, he said, was “not a puppet master.”
And who is the archbishop supposed to emulate, Blessington asked. Isn’t it Jesus?
“Yes, that’s what it’s all about,” Father Doyle said. “We were Christians before Catholics.”
Theres not much to add to that!!!
Don’t you just admire the man.
They could do with him downunder, with the likes of Mark Coleridge changing his attitudes as often as the wind changes, which is pretty often if living in Victoria where he originally hails from.
He has now been made Archbishop of Brisbane. I wonder if he’ll be called back for the Inquirey.
The same with Cardinal Pell from the same Archdiocese and timeline, where it is said, taking off to Rome.
Big question for the confused Catholics – if Cardinal Bevilacqua told Msgr Lynn to kill a stray puppy that was living outside the church because a priest kicked the puppy out, what would you do? After all, Cardinal Bevilacqua said to kill the puppy, and he is the best Catholic out of 1.5 million Catholics in Philly.
Here’s the answer from the cheat sheet: you don’t kill the puppy because Bevilacqua said to do it. You follow the laws of God. If God didn’t specifically say what to do about killing puppies, do What Jesus Would Do, or do the right thing.
Or at least be honest with yourself, and be ready to tell God that you followed Bevilacqua or Lynn, and did WBWD, or WLWD, and follow them where they go for eternity.
It’s becoming painfully evident Bevilacqua and Rigali were being protected by a dead dictator, John Paul II. and his little side-kick, now Benny 16. Who is looking more and more like a criminal himself.
Where is the International Court of Justice? Because if this was going on in Philly, you can be damned sure this type of protection racket was and is contining to take place elsewhere throughout the Church.
Thank you Father Dunstan. I agree totally, JP2 is deeply embedded into these colossal crimes against humanity.
The notion of fast-tracking JP2 into sainthood, without time for a complete investigation…is very disturbing.
There are very few people who possess the power of a Tom Doyle. The only people who do, have no fear of anyone and anything, because they never have a difficulty or a challenge when it comes to telling the truth!Only people imprisoned by FEAR ignore or distort the truth.
We are dependant for trial news on AP, or local media, or some national guys….I would love to see the transcript of Doyle’s testimony…any way that’s possible?
I believe the only reason Fr Tom Doyle can act on his conscience is because he knows sooooooo much and they know it.
Imagine what he hasn’t said, yet!
I agree clergy are catholics first and foremost, but who would be game enough to throw the first stone?
The power of the Confessional.
“pastoral care” of the victims!!!!!!!!!Wow what an interesting concept ………we would no be were we are if the AD had figured that out and that it should have been a priority……..Thankyou Fr. Doyle…..
Tom Doyle has been investigating allegations of clergy sexual abuse for over 25 years and is an expert on canon law as it relates to the responsibilities of Church leadership in the management and investigation of such horrific claims. He is a truly exceptional individual who is committed to holding the institutional Church accountable for what it has done and what it has failed to do for the victims of sexual abuse. There is no one better qualified to explain just what canon law expects, allows and requires Church officials to do when receiving such allegations of the sexual abuse of children. I am honored to have met this man at a conference a couple of years ago at Chestnut Hill College.
Michael Skiendzielewski
Word Press isn’t perfect, don’t blame Susan & Kathy. I know a few people who set up sites on Word Press and they also have problems. Don’t take it personal. God loves us.
Presumably there will be further testimony from Tom Doyle, correct?
The culture of clericalism has the pseudo-effect of removing clerics from reality.
When a prosecutor asks what a cleric is to do when his superior orders him to do something illegal and he has evidence that the cleric did it, he’s exploring on what grounds and according to what standards might a cleric act in ways other than the ones that are clear and distinct to the rest of us. What Other realm of reality might clerics occupy, and according to what alien conscience and moral standards might they act?
Doyle’s response to the prosecutor’s question grounds clerics in this reality, the one, true, one, the one having moral standards that are clear and distinct to the consciences of the rest of us, dismissing the Other one as nothing more than a skewed and distorted figment of clerical imaginations albeit one they conform to.
Pondering clerics conforming to a clericalism-induced, Other mind-trip is disconcerting and alarming. As Doyle proved, neither the density of the trip’s purple haze nor its highs obscure the reality that clerics and the rest of us occupy the same space and are subject to the same moral standards.
Ouch! Such an abrupt come-down for the addict, Lynn.
haditCatholic, it looks good on paper, and I know Tom is aware of it, if a cleric lies under oath, because they’re protecting the church, in a particular circumstance, they are forgiven, and I suspect laity the same.
Also the vow of obedience, is the certitude of doing Gods will, for a religious.
I know of so many instances where statements /documents have been altered for the same reason, and if the persons hadn’t secretly taped their conversation/interview/s no one would ever believe them.
Hadit, that includes psychologists and lawyers.
The hierarchy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia hasn’t checked their own website recently. If they did, they could go to the Victim Assistance and Safe Environment Tab, and go to Archives. (http://archphila.org/protection/DocArchive/arc_main.htm)
There they could read the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People which was first published in 2002, under Policies and Procedures: National (http://new.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/Charter-for-the-Protection-of-Children-and-Young-People-revised-2011.pdf)
Still in the Archives, they could go to their own policy Policies and Procedures: Archdiocesan, to read Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries
5 May 2003 (http://archphila.org/protection/DocArchive/Policies/stand_en.htm ). Section 6 is important.
Msgr. Lynn must feel the, “I was just following orders,” plea will work. If it does work for him, which I hope doesn’t, he will still burn in hell for carrying out decisions that hurt and scarred children for life.
Msgr. Lynn must feel the, “I was just following orders,” plea will work.
———————————————————————————-
C.M. Whelan, If that plea didn’t save Nazi generals and bureaucrats of the Third Reich at the Nuremberg war trials in 1946, why would that be a believable defense in Philadelphia?
I was wondering, does anyone know who runs themediareport.com, that site disgusts me. I never realized there was a pro pedo site out there.
Dave, I just heard from them via a private message last week. I was going to provide their link in a blog post for discussion. I’ll post shortly. Seems like the Jr. League of the Catholic League. Certainly lacking in the Philadelphia facts.
http://www.themediareport.com/about/
Ahhhh, so that’s where Pierre comes from. Makes sense now.
Thanks Ed for the link.
I might be wrong but the guy that started that site blogged here before or at least a supporter. I thought I saw it referenced when C4C first started.
Beth – contact page on this site and many other sites, probably on many other sites also. SW he is on many sites – one did mention – Pierre as one who always argues with him. He takes a few facts and stretches the truth. I’ve been through the deciet. My wife reminds me of the confrontation I had a month before my stroke – had a problem with a priest and nun in my parish. We were able to keep that priest away from my kids – his attitude reminded me of those who did abuse in the congregation I belonged to.
My wife was able to get restraining order against her minister, but the RCC, they were able to hide everything until recently. These sexual assualts may have occurred over a decade, but these priests were still in active ministry and we don’t know if other victims are waiting to tell their story. So I have a big problem with Pierre’s garbage – the media has a seen a history of deceit from the RCC.
themediareport suggested the same blog we do for covering the trial…………….I found that interesting
“He takes a few facts and stretches the truth”.
Ed, can you give me some examples of that, please? If that’s true, I have another reason to feel disappointed.
Beth, I think the reason the Priest Abuse Trial blog is so popular among various groups no matter which side of the fence,is because it literally takes you into the courtroom. It doesn’t matter what people’s personal opinions or thoughts,it is a comprehensive view of the day’s events. I know just attending the trial put it in perspective for me. There isn’t a person I don’t meet who doesn’t have their own personal theory or opinion but in reality this is a jury trial,one of many taking place in the criminal justice building. There will be good days and bad days for both the prosecution and defense and in the end a verdict rendered by a jury. I also like Max Kennerly’s input on the trial because it focuses on the laws that can play a part in the ability to successfully prosecute individuals.
http://www.amazon.com/Double-Standard-Scandals-Attack-Catholic/dp/1453730699/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Dave Pierre founder of that site. What do you think?
I think that Dave Pierre and I are diametrically opposed.
THE TRUTH ABOUT DAVE PIERRE FROM THEMEDIAREPORT
themmediareport is run by a guy named Dave Pierre, who is trying to sells books about the innocence of convicted pedophile priests, so he has a financial stake in this matter, and distorts statistics accordingly with half truths and outright lies that comfort the Catholic congregation while filling Dave’s bank account.
Of particular note is his fondness for a New Hampshire pedophile priest named Fr Gordon Macrae, convicted and spending 30-60 years in jail for having sex with one child. Macrae also PLEADED GUILTY to sexually abusing another 3 children. At least 7 other victims came forward, and there are undoubtedly at least 10-20 more who will never be heard from. You know the pattern.
Pierre and Macrae endorse each other on their web pages.
BOMBSHELL – Why Dave Pierre hates Fr Tom Doyle
Dave Pierre has been trashing Tom Doyle with his typical incendiary remakrs that fuel the congregation, saying thatDoyle was kicked out of the church for being a bad preist. Of course, Doyle was kicked out for disagreeing with pedophile protection, but Dave’s explanation sells books.
Note: All of his references to themediareport point to pages that sell his books. If you look at the Amazon reviews, guess who gave a bad review of Dave’s book?
Fr Tom Doyle
He trashes Dave’s book, saying that Dave is hiding or distorting the truth, just like the Catholic church.
The devil is in the details….
Neil, I think Doyle was removed from military chaplaincy by a bishop in Germany, shortly before being eligible for a pension, but definitely is still a priest.
His recent article in The Irish Times is excellent.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0327/1224313953836.html
And a quote from the above cited article, since we have been discussing Ireland…is. “Catholics in Ireland are walking away not because they need a “deeper formation in the content of the faith” but because they no longer equate faith in God with childish obedience to a clerical establishment that feeds on control.
The younger generation needs the new ecclesial movements as much as a duck hunter needs an accordion. These are nothing more than agents for the return to a model of church dominated by clerical control where intellectual creativity and theological self-determination are anathema.
The abominable legacy of abuse in the Irish church has nothing to do with orthodoxy and fidelity to the pope. It has everything to do with a destructive clerical culture that sacrificed the innocence of children for the distorted image and power of the hierarchy.
They did it to damage Fr. Tom Doyle’s military career, pure and simple. I hate the RC hierarchy more with every passing day!
http://www.votfnj.org/page.cfm?Web_ID=70
You hate the RC hierarachy?
Then according to Jesus, you’ve broken the 5th commandment by committing murder in the heart!
I am so with you drwho13.
This blatant mistreatment of Father Tom Doyle is repugnant. I am moving more into Patrick O’Malley’s camp every day
“After hearing the testimony of all of the witnesses, Judge Brennan made the following comments in support of the sentence he imposed on Gordon MacRae:”
“I’ve listened to the evidence presented at the sentencing hearing and used my own education and experience and the constitutional and legal standards for sentencing to render an appropriate sentence for the convictions against Gordon MacRae resulting from his assaults on [John Doe XVI). I want to thank the witnesses who testified at this hearing, both for and against Gordon MacRae. I found, with the exception of Father David Deibel, the priest and lawyer, that you all spoke in good faith, whether I agreed with what you said or not. I believe that Father [page 151 begins] Deibel attempted to mislead the Court, that he intentionally minimized the behavior of Gordon MacRae, and that he is not a credible witness.”
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2003_03_03_NHAG/NHAG_10_MacRae.htm
VOTF 2004….Doyle, and episcopal ‘leadership’
Speaking from Bamberg, Germany, Archbishop O’Brien rejected suggestions that he was punishing Father Doyle…
He also said he could have waited until Father Doyle retired in August (when Doyle eligible for pension),and avoided the turmoil. “But I can’t abdicate my pastoral responsibility because of what some others who are rather deeply involved in the sex-abuse issue would conclude,” he said.
Father Doyle declined to characterize his reassignment as punitive. “I don’t think it would be fair for me to say yes it is, no it isn’t,” he said. He said he did not want to “pick a fight” with his archbishop and was neither angry nor bitter. However, he acknowledged that his role as victim’s advocate “has not been received well by many bishops.”
His dismissal stemmed from a memorandum he wrote for two superiors at Ramstein interpreting the archbishop’s expectations for how Catholic base personnel should be ministered to. On several points, he appears to contradict the written guidelines of Archbishop O’Brien.
For example, the archbishop had said that base chaplains were expected to celebrate Mass daily and that Catholics at installations with assigned priests “have the right to attend Mass regularly.”
Actually, Father Doyle wrote, Catholics do not have a right to daily Mass, according to church law. Daily Mass is a strong custom, but not “an essential element of the practice” of the faith. He also contradicted Archbishop O’Brien by saying the archbishop’s permission was not needed to substitute a communion service on Sunday for a Mass if no Catholic priest was available.
Archbishop O’Brien said Father Doyle’s positions had caused him to lose confidence. “There is nothing more important to our priests and our people than the Eucharistic celebration,” he wrote in terminating the priest’s chaplaincy. “Your refusal to accept that and your attempt to provide an alternate authority on that issue is unacceptable.
For his part, Father Doyle said that he was giving his opinion on church requirements at a time when there was a shortage of priests to cover Ramstein and two nearby bases. He said he completely accepted the central role of the Eucharist…
The really helpful thing about Doyle is that he’s the quintessential insider. He cited canon law in Germany relative to Catholics ‘right’ to daily communion.
He just did it in Philly when the prosecutor asked him if a cardinal directed a priest to perform illegal actions, what was the priest’s responsibility?
The cardinal is NOT a puppet master, he said.
The truth about Neil Allen.
First of all, that’s not his real name. It’s an alias Patrick O’Malley hides under to insult Catholics. If you don’t believe me, Google Patrick O’Malley 617 Neil Allen. It amazes me how Susan Mathews and Kathy Kane can allow his posts to appear on this blog.
More to the point, he keeps saying on other websites that all Catholics are going to Hell. What he doesn’t tell us is that his mother was Catholic. Which would mean she was in Hell, wouldn’t it?
Also, I have read enough to think that Gordon McCrae night be innocent. Of course I could be wrong but if I am right, all the people who say he’s guilty are just as bad in God’s sight as real pedo priests and bishops who protect such priests.
And Dave does *not* hate Fr Tom Doyle. As critical as Dave might be of Fr. Tom, he also credits Fr. Tom for his, and I quote, “desire to seek justice and compassion for innocent victims of Catholic clergy abuse”. He says that it “is to be commended, and Catholics can learn much from his seemingly unrestrained fervor to provide healing.”
Really? That site never seemed pro pedo to me.
Here is another great blog post from the Priest Abuse Trial blog. What I like so much about the blog is it captures the reality of this trial. I have said it before,it is a methodical prosecution, a sharp defense, and a jury box full of everyday citizens. That is all that matters in room 304 of the Criminal justice Building .
http://www.priestabusetrial.com/2012/04/reporters-notebook-did-moms-testimony.html
I turned my local newspaper on to Cipriano’s blog. Do you know him, Kathy? I would love to meet him when I come to Philly in May. If you are in the courtroom when I am, maybe you can point him out to me?
Yes, I met him briefly in court, just long enough to tell him we follow his blog. There is a lot more he is able to write in his blog then the newspapers. He is not limited to space or answering to editors. Always provides a very fair summary of the day’s events.
One of the points the mediareport.com makes is that the hierarchy is being held to the standards of today when they made decisions decades ago.
There is merit in that point…UNTIL you realize, the hierarchy knew enough to hide, lie and conspire to move predators around regardless of what they believed about pedophilia being curable. Sure, the hierarchy wouldn’t have known in 1960 what we knew in 1985, but they lied about it anyway? Why? If they believed it was curable, based on their consultations with mental health professionals, then why lie about it???
They knew enough to lie.
There is no merit to that point. Its a distraction.
The only point is that the Catholic church moved known pedophiles to parishes without telling the parents or children, and when the priest raped more children, they moved him aain without telling parents.
There have never been parents at any time in history that would have allowed their children to be with a known child rapists.
Don’t tell me there is merit. There is an excuse. Hey paid specific doctors who said these freaks were cured when they weren’t, and the same doctors said it again and again for money.
The bishops wanted a doctor’s note that said their predator was cured so they would have a written excuse. This has no merit – its a red herring and a lame excuse that would appease an ignorant congregation.
“One of the points the mediareport.com makes is that the hierarchy is being held to the standards of today when they made decisions decades ago.”
I thought that the RCC was our infallible guide to morality. Has the Church changed its standards of morality? Decades ago did the Baltimore Catechism teach that Buggery of children was moral?
Face up to it; there are are a lot of freaks hiding behind that Roman collar. We believe that we know them, but they are in fact strangers.
APRIL 16: Happy birthday Hadit and Benedict.
Dear Benedict,
Last evening, my mother called me to wish me an early, happy birthday. In contemplating a gift for me over the last few days, she said she kept returning to the idea of how she wished, on the day she delivered me, she had waited 23 minutes, pushing my birthday to April 17 so I wouldn’t have to share it with you. “If there is a more wrong person in the world to share Benedict’s birthday, it’s you,” she said!
If there is a more pious Catholic in the world, it is my mother. Interestingly, if there is a more informed Catholic in the world, it, too, is my mother. So, I told her what an extraordinary gift it was to me that we share the same view on you, and the same vision of Church.
In the midst of all of the birthday fanfare in Rome, today, I pray that you periodically think about the Church in disarray.
Hadit
I wish the Holy Father a very happy birthday. Now, Pope Benedict must give a birthday present to the Universal Church. By submitting his resignation from the papacy and seeking God’s forgiveness by doing penance for the rest of his days within a strict monastic enclosure.
Father Dunstan,
Here is Jerry’s excellent essay updating SNAP’s filing of criminal charges against the Vatican in the International Criminal Court.
http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2012/04/gerald-t-slevin-update-criminal-charges.html
Continued excellent work, Jerry. Thank you.
After reading many comments and excerpts from other blogs, I am more hopeful than I have ever been. Perhaps the RCC hierarchy will finally get what they deserve. They deserve to be stipped of their power, their influence, and their money…However, they are a powerful lot, and will not go willingly. The struggle is only just begun. Let us pray that we have the guts to see it through…God Bless us all during this difficult time.
Also, many thanks to Kathy and Susan. You both gave me my first inkling of hope that I was not alone in knowing that the RCC is mired in evil–
What I don’t understand is, what is all of this talk about: policies, procedures, and Canon Law on how to deal with pedophile or alleged pedophile priests? If a priest gets a complaint about another priest, CALL THE POLICE!!!! Then let the courts deal with it, NOT the CHURCH !