Catholic Church and the culture of child abuse?

[Moliere]

Maybe not a formal hierarchy, but this was systemic in the SBC:

Reports of SBC leaders either downplaying or ignoring earlier reports of abuse in numerous cases were included in the newspaper report.

The cases uncovered in the investigation span the past two decades, and one case from 2007 involved communication with SBC leaders and a set of proposed reforms that were rejected. The Houston Chronicle notes that the current interim president of the SBC's executive committee August "Augie" Boto was involved in the creation of the rejection of the reforms in 2008, and they included quotes from an email he sent to a victim around that time.

[Default]

Informality of management makes things even worse because of the lack of a paper trail.

[Isgrimnur]

Virginia

Virginia’s two Catholic dioceses Wednesday released lists of clergy officials say were deemed “credibly accused” of sexually abusing youth, the latest in a slew of U.S. dioceses to make public such names amid a national crisis over clerical abuse and cover-up.

The diocese of Arlington, which covers the northeastern corner of Virginia, released a list of 16 names. It said the list was the product of independent examiners who were given access to clergy files and information dating to its founding in 1974.

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge said in a letter that he ordered the list be released to help “victims and survivors of clergy abuse to find further healing and consolation.”

None of the Arlington clergy are still in active ministry. Eight are deceased.

The diocese of Richmond, which covers the rest of the state, released 42 names.

New Jersey

Under mounting pressure to identify clergy accused of sexual misconduct, New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses opened their files Wednesday and released the names of every priest and deacon “credibly accused” of sexually abusing a child over multiple decades.

There are 188 names on the lists from the five dioceses. Of those, more than 100 are dead.

The lists include 63 priests and deacons accused in the Archdiocese of Newark, 57 in the Diocese of Camden, 30 in the Diocese of Trenton, 28 in the Diocese of Paterson and 11 in the Diocese of Metuchen. (One priest was listed on both the Newark and Paterson lists.)

[Isgrimnur]

Nevada

John Capparelli had a quiet life in Henderson, Nev., a bedroom community south of Las Vegas.

The 70-year-old — bald, his former wrestler’s frame rounded out and stooped — lived on a street of identical houses topped with terra-cotta roofs and fronted by gravel yards, occasionally chatting with neighbors as he walked his black Lab. He had put 2,500 miles between himself and the allegations that shadowed his name in New Jersey.
...
When Capparelli failed to appear for a few days this month, Henderson police officers conducted a wellness check at his house Saturday morning. They found Capparelli dead on his kitchen floor, according to Fox 5. He had been shot through the neck. The death was ruled a homicide.

In Henderson, the death initially made headlines as the third homicide notched in the city of 300,000 this year. Back east, however, Capparelli’s killing detonated with considerably more shock.

A Catholic priest from 1980 to 1992, Capparelli had been accused by at least two dozen men of sexual misconduct. The allegations included groping and forcing young men to wrestle in swimsuits while he photographed the encounters, according to NJ.com. Even after he was suspended from the church in 1992, Capparelli continued working with children as a public school teacher.

That career came to an abrupt end in 2011, when the Star-Ledger reported on the past allegations against the ex-priest, and also revealed his ties to the operation of a fetish website. He was never criminally charged with any wrongdoing and always maintained his innocence.

But Capparelli’s past continued to haunt him until this year. Last month, New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses released a list of 188 members of the clergy who were “credibly accused” of child abuse. Capparelli was included.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Aussie George Pell was sentenced yesterday for 6 years (non parole of 3 years) for 1990's abuse. The same night that I went to see Tim Minchin perform, it was very interesting , he didn't perform the come home Pell song, but he did do the Pope song (Fuck u Motherfucker song, see youtube). He had a lovely discussion/thoughts on the sentencing and those who have been standing up for him post conviction

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

The founder and staff of an all-female Vatican monthly publication are stepping down en masse, the founder said Tuesday, citing a newly difficult working environment and a Vatican attempt to undercut the women’s voices on sensitive issues, including sexual abuse against nuns.
...
Scaraffia was known as a comparatively progressive voice inside the city-state’s ancient walls, advocating for a larger role for women in the church and, more recently, devoting editorial space to the long-hidden issue of nuns abused by clergy.

But Scaraffia said she perceived discomfort with her publication’s work, and noted that the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, had instead been publishing pieces that contradicted the Women Church World editorial line. She said her publication’s editorial freedom had also been threatened with an “attempt” to put L’Osservatore Romano’s new top editor, Andrea Monda, in charge of Women Church World.

In an open letter to Pope Francis, Scaraffia accused the church of preferring women chosen by male management who are “deemed reliable.”

[Isgrimnur]

Dallas

The Dallas Police Department executed search warrants at three Catholic Diocese of Dallas properties Wednesday morning, looking for records of sexual abuse related to five priests.

The warrants were served at three locations, including the diocese's headquarters at 3725 Blackburn Street, a storage location on Ledbetter Drive and the St. Cecilia Parish.

Dallas police Maj. Max Geron, with the department's special investigations division, said Wednesday's raid was the furtherance of an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against Rev. Edmundo Paredes, the longtime pastor of St. Cecilia Parish who was credibly accused of sexual abuse by the Diocese of Dallas last year.

Since the Paredes investigation became public, Geron said, the department has received additional allegations of child abuse against four other priests, identified in a search warrant obtained by NBC 5 Wednesday morning as Paredes, 77-year-old Richard Thomas Brown, 77-year-old Alejandro Buitrago, 63-year-old William Joseph Hughes Jr, and 62-year-old Jeremy Myers.

According to the search warrant, all five priests have now been charged with sexual assault of a child, a second-degree felony. Additionally, all five of the men were included on list of priests incardinated by the Diocese of Dallas who were credibly accused of sexual abuse by the diocese earlier this year.

[Isgrimnur]

CBS News

A new report released Tuesday reveals that, over the past eight years, the Catholic Church has spent $10.6 million in the northeastern United States to fight legislation that would help victims of clergy sexual abuse seek justice.
...
In New York, for example, the Catholic Church spent $2,912,772 lobbying against the Child Victims Act, which Governor Andrew Cuomo ultimately signed into law on February 14, 2019. The act gives survivors more time to seek justice against their abusers, increasing the age at which victims are able to sue from 23 to 55.

Similarly, in Pennsylvania — where in 2018 a grand jury report detailed evidence of more than 300 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children — the Catholic Church spent $5,322,979 lobbying to keep current restrictions in place on the statute of limitations in which victims can seek criminal or civil charges against their abusers.

[Isgrimnur]

Texas

A proposal at the Texas Legislature that would give victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers and the organizations they were affiliated with is headed to the governor’s desk.

House Bill 3809, filed by state Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, would let people file civil lawsuits against alleged abusers 30 years after the victims turn 18. Current law only allows for a 15-year threshold to sue. That lengthened statute of limitations would apply to culpable entities, a provision the Senate added back into the legislation after the House stripped language related to those institutions from the bill.
...
Last month, however, before the House unanimously passed the bill, Goldman amended the legislation in a way that would not apply the lengthened statute of limitations to institutions. At the time, he told the Houston Chronicle that “sexual assault is not something organizations do, it’s what individuals do.”

When the bill went to the Senate for consideration, a trio of former gymnasts who said they were abused by Larry Nassar, a former doctor for the U.S. women’s Olympics gymnastics team, argued that stripping such entities from the legislation would only perpetuate the cycle of abuse. The senator spearheading the measure in the upper chamber then restored language including entities to the legislation. The amended legislation unanimously passed the Senate earlier this week.

[GreenGoo]

Is this the same state that requires victims of sexual assault to carry their assailant's child to term?

[$iljanus]

Is this the same state that requires victims of sexual assault to carry their assailant's child to term?

I think that's Alabama and Minnesota.

[hitbyambulance]

Is this the same state that requires victims of sexual assault to carry their assailant's child to term?

I think that's Alabama and Minnesota.

...Minnesota??

[$iljanus]

Is this the same state that requires victims of sexual assault to carry their assailant's child to term?

I think that's Alabama and Minnesota.

...Minnesota??

Yeah, that's the info I read in the WaPo article I read about this abhorrent law.

[hitbyambulance]

Is this the same state that requires victims of sexual assault to carry their assailant's child to term?

I think that's Alabama and Minnesota.

...Minnesota??

Yeah, that's the info I read in the WaPo article I read about this abhorrent law.

having grown up in that state, that doesn't sound right to me. cite?

[$iljanus]

Is this the same state that requires victims of sexual assault to carry their assailant's child to term?

I think that's Alabama and Minnesota.

...Minnesota??

Yeah, that's the info I read in the WaPo article I read about this abhorrent law.

having grown up in that state, that doesn't sound right to me. cite?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.washi ... utType=amp

"In addition to Alabama, only Minnesota has no law terminating parental rights in rape cases. Many states adopted such statutes after Congress passed the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act in 2015, granting additional funding to help sexual assault victims in states that allow courts to end parental rights when there is “clear and convincing evidence” that a child was conceived by rape."

[hitbyambulance]

Is this the same state that requires victims of sexual assault to carry their assailant's child to term?

I think that's Alabama and Minnesota.

...Minnesota??

Yeah, that's the info I read in the WaPo article I read about this abhorrent law.

having grown up in that state, that doesn't sound right to me. cite?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.washi ... utType=amp

"In addition to Alabama, only Minnesota has no law terminating parental rights in rape cases. Many states adopted such statutes after Congress passed the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act in 2015, granting additional funding to help sexual assault victims in states that allow courts to end parental rights when there is “clear and convincing evidence” that a child was conceived by rape."

ohhh ok. thinking about it... i'm not surprised

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

Southern Baptist leaders on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to adopt two proposals they hope will help to prevent sex abuse in their churches in the future.

About about 8,000 church representatives — or “messengers” — who attended the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention voted to pass an amendment to the faith group’s constitution that would allow the convention to “disfellowship,” or distance itself from, churches that cover up abuse. The same proportion also voted to set up a committee to review complaints about how abuse allegations are handled in their churches.
...
Southern Baptist leaders believe the new actions will provide a more coordinated way for the denomination to review abuse claims. Southern Baptists are expected to consider the issue of abuse again on Wednesday, though proposed resolutions will not be made public until Wednesday morning.

The issue of sexual abuse came under intense scrutiny earlier this year after the Houston Chronicle began a six-part series uncovering sex abuse allegations in Southern Baptist churches. The newspaper’s joint investigation with the San Antonio Express-News found about 700 victims and credible accusations against 380 people.

Southern Baptist leaders responded to those stories with a plea for change, and earlier this year JD Greear, the SBC president, gave an address to the SBC executive committee in which he thanked journalists for “shining light on this evil,” saying, “you are not our enemy.”
...
Last week, SBC leaders released an internal report on sex abuse, saying that “all too often it has not been handled justly” and that it was “rooted in our culture of casual indifference to predatory sexual behavior."

“We lament the fact that it took a national movement of reckoning for abuse to force us to take this issue seriously in our own convention,” the report said, appearing to nod to the Me Too movement without mentioning it.

[LawBeefaroni]

Power corrupts. Absolute power...makes people rapey.

[GreenGoo]

Power corrupts. Absolute power...makes people rapey.

see: Weinstein.

[Isgrimnur]

Power corrupts. Absolute power...makes people rapey.

see: Weinstein.

...Sandusky, Nasser, Strauss...

[Smoove_B]

You had to know it was an organized effort:

The visiting priests arrived discreetly, day and night.

Stripped of their collars and cassocks, they went unnoticed in this tiny Midwestern town as they were escorted into a dingy warehouse across from an elementary school playground. Neighbors had no idea some of the dressed-down clergymen dining at local restaurants might have been accused sexual predators.

They had been brought to town by a small, nonprofit group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. For nearly two decades, the group has operated out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, providing money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse across the country.

Again and again, Opus Bono has served as a rapid-response team for the accused.

When a serial pedophile was sent to jail for abusing dozens of minors, Opus Bono was there for him, with regular visits and commissary cash.

When a priest admitted sexually assaulting boys under 14, Opus Bono raised funds for his defense.

When another priest was criminally charged with abusing a teen, Opus Bono later made him a legal adviser.

And while powerful clerics have publicly pledged to hold the church accountable for the crimes of its clergy and help survivors heal, some of them arranged meetings, offered blessings or quietly sent checks to this organization that provided support to alleged abusers, The Associated Press has found.

Though Catholic leaders deny the church has any official relationship with the group, Opus Bono successfully forged networks reaching all the way to the Vatican.

The Catholic Church should be dismantled like a criminal enterprise.

[Isgrimnur]

The underground railroad is not supposed to actually run trains.

[Isgrimnur]

Reuters

Dozens of people in New York state who were sexually abused as children sued institutions, including the Roman Catholic Church, on Wednesday, the first day a new law temporarily enabled them to file lawsuits over decades-old crimes.

About 85 people had filed lawsuits against the Church in New York by late morning, according to New York County Supreme Court records. Most of them accuse priests of sexually abusing them as children and Church leaders of covering up the priests’ crimes.

The state’s landmark Child Victims Act includes a provision that lifts for one year a statute of limitations that had barred older complaints and which critics said was too restrictive. The law is expected to lead to hundreds of lawsuits against churches, schools and youth groups, as well as individuals.

Previously, most victims of childhood sexual abuse only had until the age of 23 to bring criminal charges or to seek damages in civil lawsuits.

[Isgrimnur]

WKBW

Agents from the FBI’s Buffalo field office have arrested Paul Lubienecki in connection to a death threat made against 7 Eyewitness News investigative reporter Charlie Specht.

Lubienecki appeared in federal court in downtown Buffalo on Wednesday afternoon; he was charged with cyberstalking. He is an adjunct professor at Christ the King Seminary and is listed as an adjunct lecturer in the SUNY Fredonia faculty directory. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
...
The voicemails began in August 2019, just as the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team reported on scandals at Christ the King Seminary, where multiple seminarians quit the seminary because of alleged abuse and corruption in the diocese.

The messages referenced members of Specht’s family and urged Specht to stop his reporting on the diocese.

“You’re still a bad Catholic and a horrible reporter,” one voicemail warned. “I hope to God I don’t see you walking around.”

[hitbyambulance]

WKBW

Agents from the FBI’s Buffalo field office have arrested Paul Lubienecki in connection to a death threat made against 7 Eyewitness News investigative reporter Charlie Specht.

Lubienecki appeared in federal court in downtown Buffalo on Wednesday afternoon; he was charged with cyberstalking. He is an adjunct professor at Christ the King Seminary and is listed as an adjunct lecturer in the SUNY Fredonia faculty directory. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
...
The voicemails began in August 2019, just as the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team reported on scandals at Christ the King Seminary, where multiple seminarians quit the seminary because of alleged abuse and corruption in the diocese.

The messages referenced members of Specht’s family and urged Specht to stop his reporting on the diocese.

“You’re still a bad Catholic and a horrible reporter,” one voicemail warned. “I hope to God I don’t see you walking around.”

tough talker when they're anonymous! that puffy old sadsack ain't killin anyone, lol

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked by The Vatican in 2019 over sex abuse allegations, is now facing criminal charges in Massachusetts for alleged sex abuse of a minor nearly 50 years ago, according to a court filing.

According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, McCarrick is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. The complaint was filed by Wellesley Police in Dedham District Court.
...
He resigned from the College of Cardinals in 2018 and was defrocked by the Vatican in 2019 after a Church trial found him guilty of sexually abusing minors.

McCarrick has been issued a summons ordering him to appear in court for an arraignment on August 26, according to the filing.

[Isgrimnur]

Aussie George Pell was sentenced yesterday for 6 years (non parole of 3 years) for 1990's abuse. The same night that I went to see Tim Minchin perform, it was very interesting , he didn't perform the come home Pell song, but he did do the Pope song (Fuck u Motherfucker song, see youtube). He had a lovely discussion/thoughts on the sentencing and those who have been standing up for him post conviction

Guardian

The Australian cardinal George Pell rose from modest beginnings to become one of the world’s most powerful Catholics but his reputation was fatally damaged by association with the church’s child sexual abuse scandals in his home country. Pell himself became the highest-ranking Catholic to be convicted of such offences, and he spent more than a year in jail before his conviction was overturned by Australia’s high court in 2020.
...
Pell, who has died in Rome aged 81, spent years crafting and defending the church’s responses to allegations of child sexual abuse as he rose to increasingly powerful positions, first in Australia, then in the Vatican.
...
Father Eric Hodgens, Pell’s schoolfriend and fellow priest, described Pell as “a political animal”.

[Pyperkub]

Maryland AG documents 600 cases of abuse and sues...

Maryland's top prosecutor accused Catholic Church officials in Baltimore on Wednesday of engaging in a yearslong cover-up of the sexual abuse of 600-plus children, some of whom were “preyed upon by multiple abusers over decades."

State Attorney General Anthony Brown chronicled the abuse in a 463-page report that named several priests and described what they are alleged to have done.

"Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible," according to the report...

...The church didn’t appear to deny any of the findings in a lengthy response by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori.

Lori called the report a "sad and painful reminder of the tremendous harm caused to innocent children and young people by some ministers of the Church."

"The detailed accounts of abuse are shocking and soul searing," he said. "It is difficult for most to imagine that such evil acts could have actually occurred. For victim-survivors everywhere, they know the hard truth: These evil acts did occur."

[Isgrimnur]

Is it time for them to be called on doing a RICO?

[Isgrimnur]

Illinois

In yet another blow to the Catholic Church in the United States, Illinois' attorney general says the state's six dioceses have failed to disclose accusations of sexual abuse against at least 500 priests and clergy members.

CBS News

An investigation has substantiated child abuse claims against Catholic clergy in Illinois by more than 1,900 victims, state Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a news conference detailing the findings of the office's five-year investigation that uncovered hundreds more cases than first reported by the dioceses in 2018.

More than 100,000 pages of diocesan documents and 600 confidential contacts with survivors of child sex abuse helped the state's office piece together the 696-page report released Tuesday on clergy sexual abuse in all six Catholic dioceses in Illinois, the office said.

[GreenGoo]

The underground railroad is not supposed to actually run trains.

Holy hell, just caught this. I mean, it's clever, but the subject matter....ugh.

[Isgrimnur]

The underground railroad is not supposed to actually run trains.

Holy hell, just caught this. I mean, it's clever, but the subject matter....ugh.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, please save me a seat in Hell for chuckling at that one.

[Unagi]

Yeah, please save me a seat in Hell for chuckling at that one.

Seat saved.

[Isgrimnur]

I think that's my personal record for a slow-burn joke at 3.8 years to land.

[Zarathud]

How many more are still cooking? :devil:

[Isgrimnur]

I don't know, as I've forgotten about them.

[Isgrimnur]

Bombshell Report Reveals New Orleans Saints' Involvement Catholic Church Abuse Scandal

Per sports reporter Jenny Ventras, "It's been known since 2020 that the New Orleans Saints worked with the local Catholic archdiocese to help it navigate the fallout from a recent abuse scandal. But more than 300 newly revealed emails show the extent of that collaboration."

Multiple reports from major news outlets, including The New York Times, AP News, and The Guardian, reveal that the Saints have been accused of working closely with the city's Catholic archdiocese to cover up clergy sexual abuse and manipulate the public narrative surrounding the release of a list of accused priests.

Sensitive emails obtained by The Guardian and NY Times reveal that top executives from the Saints and the Pelicans, the city's NBA team, were far more involved in the scandal than previously admitted.
...
One of the most troubling revelations comes from an email from Greg Bensel, the Saints' vice president of communications, on November 1, 2018.

Bensel described a conference call with then-district attorney Leon Cannizzaro that allegedly resulted in certain names being removed from the clergy-abuse list.

Bensel wrote: "Had a cc w [Cannizzaro] last night that allowed us to take certain people off the list." However, both the Saints and Cannizzaro have strongly denied any involvement in editing the list.

[hepcat]

I did wonder about the new logo on the shirts from that period. "Punt One for Jesus" seemed odd.