Bright Spark
Posts: 496 
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
October 14th, 2006, 09:49 PM
There have been an estimated 1,400 sexual abuse lawsuits launched against Roman Catholic priests in the United States since 1985.
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Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Current settlements in the Boston, Massachusetts suits could reach up to $100 million. In some cases insurance companies have balked at meeting the cost of large settlements, claiming the actions were deliberate and not covered by insurance.
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Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas
In 1997 a jury awarded $120 million to victims in a sex abuse case against the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, Texas.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville
Outside of the U.S.
Abuse in literature
There have been an estimated 1,400 sexual abuse lawsuits launched against Roman Catholic priests in the United States since 1985.
Contents
[hide]
- <LI class=toclevel-1>1 Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston <LI class=toclevel-1>2 Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas <LI class=toclevel-1>3 Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu <LI class=toclevel-1>4 Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville <LI class=toclevel-1>5 Outside of the U.S.
- 6 Abuse in literature
[edit]
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Current settlements in the Boston, Massachusetts suits could reach up to $100 million. In some cases insurance companies have balked at meeting the cost of large settlements, claiming the actions were deliberate and not covered by insurance.
[edit]
Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas
In 1997 a jury awarded $120 million to victims in a sex abuse case against the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, Texas.
- Reverend Rudolph Kos - Dallas, Texas, United States. On July 10, 1998 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas agreed to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by Kos. The diocese declared bankruptcy and closed many of its agencies and schools.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu
- Reverend Arthur O’Brien, formerly of the Archdiocese of Boston, was incardinated into the presbyterium of the Honolulu diocese by Msgr. Joseph Anthony Ferrario, only to be convicted in 1992 of four counts of sexual assault on a ten-year old boy. Father O’Brien entered into a plea bargain with the prosecutor. The subsequent suggestion of the prosecutor that Father O’Brien's conviction be erased was rejected by the judge due to the gravity of the offense. He was permanently retired from clerical ministry by Msgr. Francis X. DiLorenzo in 1994.
- Reverend Mark Matson (priest), C.R., former chaplain at Tripler Army Medical Center and a member of the Congregation of Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence, was convicted in Honolulu on March 8, 2000, of molesting a thirteen-year old boy at Maunalua Bay Beach Park on August 5, 1998. At the time of his arrest, Father Matson was not affiliated with the Diocese of Honolulu, and was living in the Hawai‘i Kai neighborhood known as Portlock. He is currently serving a twenty-year prison term at the Halawa Correctional Facility on O‘ahu.
- Reverend Joseph Bukoski, III, SS.CC., Honolulu, Hawaii. Fr. Bukoski is a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In 2003, he was canonically removed as the pastor of Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in Lahaina by Msgr. Francis X. DiLorenzo for allegations relating to sexual improprieties some thirty-years earlier. Fr. Bukoski has since issued a written public apology to his victim on November 12, 2005.
- Reverend Mr. James "Ron" Gonsalves, Wailuku, Hawaii. Deacon Gonsalves was the former administrator of Saint Ann Roman Catholic Church in Waihee on the island of Maui. On May 17, 2006, he plead guilty to various counts of sexual assault on a 12-year-old male. Msgr. Clarence Richard Silva has permanently withdrawn his faculties and has initiated laicization proceedings against Deacon Gonsalves with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville
- Fr. Louis Miller - Louisville, Kentucky, United States. On March 31, 2003, Rev. Miller pled guilty to 44 counts of "indecent or immoral acts" and six charges of first degree sexual abuse, relating to incidents involving at least 21 children between 1957 and 1982. Miller also pled guilty to 14 further charges in Oldham County, Kentucky. Miller was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on the Louisville convictions. The Archdiocese of Louisville made a $25.7 million dollar settlement involving 243 victims of sexual abuse, which was approved by a Louisville court on August 1, 2003.
Outside of the U.S.
- Fr. Paul McGennis - Dublin, Ireland. He abused Marie Collins when as a thirteen year old she was in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in 1961. Collins was later told that McGennis had admitted abusing children. However the Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell, refused "on legal advice" to supply his file on McGennis to the Irish police. McGennis was nevertheless convicted and gaoled. Marie Collins subsequently received an apology from Cardinal Connell.
Abuse in literature
Bright Spark
Posts: 496
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
October 14th, 2006, 09:50 PM
On 22 October 2005 a government-commissioned report compiled by a former Irish Supreme Court judge delivered a damning indictment of the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Irish diocese of Ferns. The report revealed over 100 cases of child sex abuse in the small diocese, involving a number of clergymen, including Monsignor Micheál Ledwidth, the former head of the National Catholic seminary, Maynooth College.
Among the facts revealed were
There was however praise in subsequent debates and among survivors of abuse of the actions of the new Apostolic Administrator (acting bishop) for instituting wholesale reforms, including the toughest anti-abuse rules in any diocese in the Catholic Church, and also his willingness to hand over all files and all information to the inquiry. Victims' spokesman and himself one of the victims of one of the abusers, Colm O'Gorman praised the administrator and compared his actions with the inaction and incompetence of his predecessors.
[edit]
Forthcoming Dublin Inquiry and Irish Parliamentary comment
Following November confirmation concerning a subsequent child sexual abuse Inquiry for the Diocese of Dublin, on November 09, 2005, TD Liz O' Donnell, former Government Minister and member of the liberal Progressive Democrats governing alliance, spoke at length in the Irish Parliament concerning the necessary changes required following the Ferns report.
O' Donnell stated that it was clear to her, and to everyone, that the Ferns report would prove to be entirely typical of any such report carried out in any Irish Diocese, and that therefore the relationship between Church and state in Ireland must now change from that of deference towards complete separation .
O' Donnell characterised the Catholic Church in Ireland and as a whole as a secret, un-accountable, and anti-democratic organisation at variance with the State through its inability to uphold or adhere to civil law. She called for immediate financial auditing of all Church assets in Ireland .
Liz O' Donnell also called for termination of deference to supposed Church morality in the fields of IV treatment, stem cell research, abortion, homosexuality and Third-world birth-control programs. Ireland does not possess civil legislation for the protection of children, and the references to separation of Church from State arises in the context of providing such legislatory enaction.
Media programming containing debate upon the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases has focused particularly on the fact that Diocesan insurance policies against financial reparation claims by the victims were opened from 1987 throughout Ireland. The contradiction between this action and the complete inaction and failure at civil reporting, coupled with continuance of ministry by the very numerous offenders, has led to a point in Ireland where even the Church's senior theologian is unable to continue the general hierarchy claim of being within a "learning curve" at that time. On state broadcast, it is admitted that indeed this contradiction is as indefensible as the crime and the seeking of insurance against sex abuse settlements overshadows the validity of what O' Donnell referred to as Catholic Church "denial" and "self-preservation" .
The question of "canon law" and its quasi-legality in a modern state has been democratically raised amidst general popular shock that abusive rapist pril continuance of their abusive behaviour (as was the case in the seminary). The leading Irish theologian Father Twomey, on the same evening as the O'Donnell intervention, was unable to publicly affirm, on State broadcast, that any one of the 26 diocesan bishops of Ireland would, in 1987, have understood or recognised that child sexual abuse (statutory rape) was a civil crime. This contrasted weakly against Deputy O' Donnell's assertion as to the necessity for legal accountability of the Catholic Church in Ireland in 2005.
[edit]
Flawed policies
[edit]
Abusers moved from location to location
Some bishops have been heavily criticized for moving offending priests from parish to parish rather than seeking to have them stripped of their faculties. Many dioceses submitted priests accused of sex abuse for intensive psychotherapeutic treatment and assessment, with the priests only resuming pastoral duties when the bishop was advised by the treating psychologists or psychiatrists that it was safe for them to be so assigned.
In response to questions, defenders of bishops' actions suggest that in re-assigning priests for duty after treatment they were acting on the basis of the best medical advice then available. Critics have questioned whether bishops are necessarily able to form accurate judgements in serious circumstances on the nature of the recovery of a priest based on advice from professions widely considered to have shifting opinions.
Critics have also condemned bishops for acting as business managers who viewed the issue as a disciplinary and medical matter for the priest and were concerned about secresy for optimal financial management rather than the interests of the victims.
"Ancient Catholic tradition codified in the Church's canon law, has long held that certain grave sins by their nature disqualify a man from further public exercise of the priesthood. The issue is not retribution; the issue is iconography. A priest who sexually abuses children has grossly disfigured himself as a living re-presentation of the Christ who asked that the little children be brought to him[Luke 18:16]. A priest who sexually abuses post-pubescent minors in a habitual way is almost certainly guilty of the sin of seduction as well as the specific sin of sodomy or fornication. Don't habitual sins of this sort also render a man incapable of manifesting that spirtual fatherhood that is the essence of Catholic priesthood? These are fundamentally theological questions, not simply questions of "Church discipline."... When a bishop has neglected his fatherly responsibility to his priests, when he has been accustomed to treating clergy sexual abuse as a disciplinary matter only, and when the pressures of the therapeutic culture begin to weigh on him, a noble virtue, compassion, can be transformed into a vice - episcopal irresponsibility. The bishop fails to understand that some acts make a man unfit for any priestly ministry. And so the bishop recycles into his parish (or to other dioceses) men who are both threats to their potential victims and irreparably disfigured icons.".[11](pp105-106)
An example of the policy of shifting offenders from place to place is demonstrated in the case of Fr Ramos. Typical of these examples he was reassigned to another parish after treatment. Below is a copy of the letter reassigning him after his treatment
On 22 October 2005 a government-commissioned report compiled by a former Irish Supreme Court judge delivered a damning indictment of the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Irish diocese of Ferns. The report revealed over 100 cases of child sex abuse in the small diocese, involving a number of clergymen, including Monsignor Micheál Ledwidth, the former head of the National Catholic seminary, Maynooth College.
Among the facts revealed were
- the "inexplicable" failure of Bishop Donal Herlihy to exclude clearly unsuitable candidates from the priesthood;
- his failure to report incidents of proven sexual abuse to the legal authorities and his failure to acknowledge that abusers needed to be kept from children;
- the failure of his successor, Brendan Comiskey to report incidents of abuse and remove abusers from positions where they worked with children.
- the rape of teenage girls² on the altar of a church by one priest;
- the use of blackmail by another priest to force children to perform sex acts on him;
There was however praise in subsequent debates and among survivors of abuse of the actions of the new Apostolic Administrator (acting bishop) for instituting wholesale reforms, including the toughest anti-abuse rules in any diocese in the Catholic Church, and also his willingness to hand over all files and all information to the inquiry. Victims' spokesman and himself one of the victims of one of the abusers, Colm O'Gorman praised the administrator and compared his actions with the inaction and incompetence of his predecessors.
[edit]
Forthcoming Dublin Inquiry and Irish Parliamentary comment
Following November confirmation concerning a subsequent child sexual abuse Inquiry for the Diocese of Dublin, on November 09, 2005, TD Liz O' Donnell, former Government Minister and member of the liberal Progressive Democrats governing alliance, spoke at length in the Irish Parliament concerning the necessary changes required following the Ferns report.
O' Donnell stated that it was clear to her, and to everyone, that the Ferns report would prove to be entirely typical of any such report carried out in any Irish Diocese, and that therefore the relationship between Church and state in Ireland must now change from that of deference towards complete separation .
O' Donnell characterised the Catholic Church in Ireland and as a whole as a secret, un-accountable, and anti-democratic organisation at variance with the State through its inability to uphold or adhere to civil law. She called for immediate financial auditing of all Church assets in Ireland .
Liz O' Donnell also called for termination of deference to supposed Church morality in the fields of IV treatment, stem cell research, abortion, homosexuality and Third-world birth-control programs. Ireland does not possess civil legislation for the protection of children, and the references to separation of Church from State arises in the context of providing such legislatory enaction.
Media programming containing debate upon the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases has focused particularly on the fact that Diocesan insurance policies against financial reparation claims by the victims were opened from 1987 throughout Ireland. The contradiction between this action and the complete inaction and failure at civil reporting, coupled with continuance of ministry by the very numerous offenders, has led to a point in Ireland where even the Church's senior theologian is unable to continue the general hierarchy claim of being within a "learning curve" at that time. On state broadcast, it is admitted that indeed this contradiction is as indefensible as the crime and the seeking of insurance against sex abuse settlements overshadows the validity of what O' Donnell referred to as Catholic Church "denial" and "self-preservation" .
The question of "canon law" and its quasi-legality in a modern state has been democratically raised amidst general popular shock that abusive rapist pril continuance of their abusive behaviour (as was the case in the seminary). The leading Irish theologian Father Twomey, on the same evening as the O'Donnell intervention, was unable to publicly affirm, on State broadcast, that any one of the 26 diocesan bishops of Ireland would, in 1987, have understood or recognised that child sexual abuse (statutory rape) was a civil crime. This contrasted weakly against Deputy O' Donnell's assertion as to the necessity for legal accountability of the Catholic Church in Ireland in 2005.
[edit]
Flawed policies
[edit]
Abusers moved from location to location
Some bishops have been heavily criticized for moving offending priests from parish to parish rather than seeking to have them stripped of their faculties. Many dioceses submitted priests accused of sex abuse for intensive psychotherapeutic treatment and assessment, with the priests only resuming pastoral duties when the bishop was advised by the treating psychologists or psychiatrists that it was safe for them to be so assigned.
In response to questions, defenders of bishops' actions suggest that in re-assigning priests for duty after treatment they were acting on the basis of the best medical advice then available. Critics have questioned whether bishops are necessarily able to form accurate judgements in serious circumstances on the nature of the recovery of a priest based on advice from professions widely considered to have shifting opinions.
Critics have also condemned bishops for acting as business managers who viewed the issue as a disciplinary and medical matter for the priest and were concerned about secresy for optimal financial management rather than the interests of the victims.
"Ancient Catholic tradition codified in the Church's canon law, has long held that certain grave sins by their nature disqualify a man from further public exercise of the priesthood. The issue is not retribution; the issue is iconography. A priest who sexually abuses children has grossly disfigured himself as a living re-presentation of the Christ who asked that the little children be brought to him[Luke 18:16]. A priest who sexually abuses post-pubescent minors in a habitual way is almost certainly guilty of the sin of seduction as well as the specific sin of sodomy or fornication. Don't habitual sins of this sort also render a man incapable of manifesting that spirtual fatherhood that is the essence of Catholic priesthood? These are fundamentally theological questions, not simply questions of "Church discipline."... When a bishop has neglected his fatherly responsibility to his priests, when he has been accustomed to treating clergy sexual abuse as a disciplinary matter only, and when the pressures of the therapeutic culture begin to weigh on him, a noble virtue, compassion, can be transformed into a vice - episcopal irresponsibility. The bishop fails to understand that some acts make a man unfit for any priestly ministry. And so the bishop recycles into his parish (or to other dioceses) men who are both threats to their potential victims and irreparably disfigured icons.".[11](pp105-106)
An example of the policy of shifting offenders from place to place is demonstrated in the case of Fr Ramos. Typical of these examples he was reassigned to another parish after treatment. Below is a copy of the letter reassigning him after his treatment
House Member
Posts: 4,480 
Location: Saint John N.B.
Location: Saint John N.B.
October 15th, 2006, 04:41 AM
I'm catholic and was told by the priesthood that there ws only a small amount of sexual abuse by a few "bad apples" in the church,so imagine my surprise when I find that there are an estimated 10,000 pedophile priests in the USA alone. If that's the few bad apples, then its time to prune the orchards.
I'm catholic and was told by the priesthood that there ws only a small amount of sexual abuse by a few "bad apples" in the church,so imagine my surprise when I find that there are an estimated 10,000 pedophile priests in the USA alone. If that's the few bad apples, then its time to prune the orchards.
Electoral Member
Posts: 408
Location: hopelessly entagled
Location: hopelessly entagled
October 15th, 2006, 06:10 AM
Catholic has only a small part to do with it. Molesting children is all part of the western pasty faced tradition. Its biological. Its those genes that code for burnable skin and dorkiness that also code for murder and rape and the genetic sequences used to build atomic bombs and test them on people while of-course doing the right thing,
Catholic has only a small part to do with it. Molesting children is all part of the western pasty faced tradition. Its biological. Its those genes that code for burnable skin and dorkiness that also code for murder and rape and the genetic sequences used to build atomic bombs and test them on people while of-course doing the right thing,
Bright Spark
Posts: 496
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
October 15th, 2006, 03:54 PM
I put this up because i wondered like missle just informed did Catholic officials try to make it a smaller issue than what it is. Because Catholic leaders in Canada are the only ones that have not apologized in Canada and taken action for what occured at Residential school as of 2003 because they believed that it didn't show the goodness of Catholic residential schools.
I put this up because i wondered like missle just informed did Catholic officials try to make it a smaller issue than what it is. Because Catholic leaders in Canada are the only ones that have not apologized in Canada and taken action for what occured at Residential school as of 2003 because they believed that it didn't show the goodness of Catholic residential schools.
Knows No Bounds
Posts: 2,976
October 15th, 2006, 07:14 PM
I'm still stunned at the level of "Cover-up" visa vie straight to the Vatican these scandles went. The Catholic Church hid case after case after case. Not a care or concern for the victims, they'd move the Offending Priest to another Parish to molest more children. I left the Catholic Church because of the Coverup, it's not much of a religion when it sacrifices children to perverts ergo build more Gold Crosses in Rome.
I'm still stunned at the level of "Cover-up" visa vie straight to the Vatican these scandles went. The Catholic Church hid case after case after case. Not a care or concern for the victims, they'd move the Offending Priest to another Parish to molest more children. I left the Catholic Church because of the Coverup, it's not much of a religion when it sacrifices children to perverts ergo build more Gold Crosses in Rome.
just special
Posts: 1,226 
Location: not in Kansas anymore
Location: not in Kansas anymore
October 15th, 2006, 08:56 PM
Way back when, my dad was routinely braced by the church to contribute more.RC church. He was not putting in the 10% that was expected.Back then every house recieved envelopes to put thier donation. This was done for his convenience. These envelopes were numbered,they may still be.The numbers also allowed the church to monitor donations.My old man could not put up the 10%.He was the only wage earner in the house.Mum was busy watching soaps and raising seven little curious children. My point is that the R.C.'s have only one concern and that is thier own butt. It is a haven for the righteous. They do alot of good,but also they,as most religions prey on the weak. If you need help from above to get through the day,put your meds on the top shelf. Back on topic,ever wonder why priests are not allowed to marry? Maybe to dissuade heteros?
Way back when, my dad was routinely braced by the church to contribute more.RC church. He was not putting in the 10% that was expected.Back then every house recieved envelopes to put thier donation. This was done for his convenience. These envelopes were numbered,they may still be.The numbers also allowed the church to monitor donations.My old man could not put up the 10%.He was the only wage earner in the house.Mum was busy watching soaps and raising seven little curious children. My point is that the R.C.'s have only one concern and that is thier own butt. It is a haven for the righteous. They do alot of good,but also they,as most religions prey on the weak. If you need help from above to get through the day,put your meds on the top shelf. Back on topic,ever wonder why priests are not allowed to marry? Maybe to dissuade heteros?
World Police
Posts: 4,789
Videos: 1
Videos: 1
October 15th, 2006, 09:03 PM
Quoting Researcher87
The mollestation of children by anyone is vile and disgusting. Were you expecting people to defend the Catholic Church on that?
Just wanted to discuss Catholic sexual abuse. What is everyone's take on it.
Bright Spark
Posts: 496
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
October 15th, 2006, 09:08 PM
Quote:
Nope I wanted to know if anyone was Catholic and did they lose or question their Catholic faith. Or did they feel angry and the actions taken by transferring these sickos from one place to the other.
The mollestation of children by anyone is vile and disgusting. Were you expecting people to defend the Catholic Church on that?
World Police
Posts: 4,789
Videos: 1
Videos: 1
October 15th, 2006, 09:16 PM
I am a baptised Catholic, I haven't set foot in a chruch in about 15 years though. I don't really consider my self to be "catholic" anymore so to speak, so the mollesting issue has no real bearing on my faith.
Transfering these priests around to other parishes was wrong, they should have been immediately handed over to the cops. The vatican seemed to be more interested in hiding their dirty laundry I guess...
I am a baptised Catholic, I haven't set foot in a chruch in about 15 years though. I don't really consider my self to be "catholic" anymore so to speak, so the mollesting issue has no real bearing on my faith.
Transfering these priests around to other parishes was wrong, they should have been immediately handed over to the cops. The vatican seemed to be more interested in hiding their dirty laundry I guess...
Bright Spark
Posts: 496
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
Location: In Monsoon West (B.C)
October 15th, 2006, 09:28 PM
Quote:
Not the first time the Catholic church has done something like this. And also there are Papal official who do state publically state that it was not as serious as before.
Transfering these priests around to other parishes was wrong, they should have been immediately handed over to the cops. The vatican seemed to be more interested in hiding their dirty laundry I guess...
World Police
Posts: 4,789
Videos: 1
Videos: 1
October 15th, 2006, 09:31 PM
Yeah, they are full of excuses. Not much ever changes with them it seems.
Yeah, they are full of excuses. Not much ever changes with them it seems.
