The Philadelphia prosecutors are going after the Archdiocese of Philadelphian as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of Msgr. Lynn, and want to introduce evidence of the pattern of enabling abusers.
When I had lawyers review my book Sacrilege for libel issues, they were astonished at what bishops had done. Bishops came very close to being accessories before the facts to felonies. Bishops escaped because a prosecutor had to prove that a bishop assigned a known abuser to a parish with children with the intention of helping the crime be committed. Intention is very hard to prove, although when a bishop makes a known abuser a Boy Scout chaplain, circumstantial evidence is pretty strong.
Bishops repeatedly showed a total disregard for the safety of children, and as I understand it their legal culpability depends on the statues in each state about child endangerment. New Hampshire has a very strong statute; I do not know what Pennsylvania has. Lynn is no doubt guilty morally of endangering children, but whether his actions and failures are caught by the statute remains to be seen.
The current head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Levada, testified under oath that he knew he was appointing a known pedophile to head his efforts to establish guidelines for the handing of child abuse issues when he was in California. He now is in charge of sexual abuse issues for the entire Church. Does that not suggest the very real possibility of a ring of molesters and accomplices worldwide? It is almost too unbelievable to imagine that he testified and was not indicted, and that he was promoted to the most responsible position in the Church in regard to children. Our children are still gravely at risk.
CM, given your post and given what others have related about homiles on this problem, a reasonable man can come up with only one conclusion:
The Catholic Church is a church of the bishops, by the bishops and for the bishops. As far as they are concerned, the lower clergy and the laity can go to Hell. What they’ll find surprising, however, is that they will wind up in that same spot at the proper time.
It is so that Cardinal William Levada placed Rev. Gregory Ingels, an admitted pedophile later indicted, as his chief canon lawyer and sex abuse policy maker for the wider church. Levada admitted under oath that he knew Ingels was a rapist ( one of his victims’ parents had been killed in a car accident) since 1996 but appointed him anyway.
According to Cardinal Levada, priests who rape children should be promoted, not incarcerated. And they should be allowed to continue the alchemy of evil around altars and the notion of sacraments.
Men without consciences are not priests, no matter what their title. They are sociopaths.
AW
Augusta, don’t forget that Pope Benedict chose Cdl. Levada to be the head of the Confraternity for the Doctrine of the Faith. One would assume that Benedict would have the final say over Levada’s appointments to such a theologically important body. If Benedict did not know about Ingels’ background and didn’t inquire about it, then he is a grotesquely ignorant incompetent. If he didn’t care, then he is worse than an enabler.
More and more, I’m convinced that Catholicism is apostate.
The Vatican II Church is a joke. Abuse was going on before the Council but it took the collapse of the Church after the Council to make the whole thing blow up. Not only did the Church condone abuse, it also subtly (and not so subtly) pushed contraception and sabotaged efforts to ban abortion. Church leaders also helped to legalize sodomy, at least in California under Bishop Cummins. The whole thing is one big exercise in deception of massive proportions.
Apparently Cardinal B just died.
Was that a collective sigh of relief from the defence team i just heard?
TheAltonRoute, do you know how I can get ahold of information about Bishop Cummins’ political activities?
http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a02z_003_Sodomy-Arnold.html
There might be something more about this in Paul Likoudis’ book AmChurch Comes Out.