Catholic bishop of Phoenix arrested

FOXNEWS | 6/16/2003 | John Gibson

[sinkspur]

Roman Catholic bishop John O'Brien was arrested for leaving the scene of a fatal hit-and-run accident, and his car impounded.

[sinkspur]

I'm not making excuses for O'Brien or any of the other church leaders but I think even our forum has become part of this national mood to lynch accused priests, who, by the way, are still half as likely to commit criminal offenses than any of the other professions.

This sounds like an excuse to me.

The greatest sin was not the abuse, Havisham. Protestant ministers abuse kids too.

The greater sin was the covering-up and transferring of abusive priests without telling new parishes that "father" was a sexual predator.

Abusing one child is the priest's fault; abusing two children is the priest's AND the bishop's fault!

[Endeavor]

His response was to try and get his windshield fixed on SUNDAY - after the Saturday night "accident."

His response was to claim he thought he hit a cat -- yeah, right. A cat that jumps up and cracks the heck out of your windshield and leaves a pool of blood on the top of your car? I'm a vet - when a cat gets hit its injuries come from the initial collision - which may knock it out of the path of the car but usually brings it under the frame of the car inducing further trauma. It doesn't get thrown up into the windshield because it isn't big enough relative to the bumper of the car.

Use a little common sense. When you hear hoofbeats, don't think zebras.

[Drango]

Look, does anyone here honestly think O'Brien would have left another human being to suffer or die if he had understood what had happened?

YES...particularly if he had been drinking. But this is not related to O'Brien per say, people do stupid things.

[kaktuskid]

There ain't no deer running around at 19th and Glendale..that has been urban since the 1950s (and farmland before that)

[Robert_Paulson2]

hard for me to imagine FEAR being a motivating factor... with a guy like keating.

but you may be right.
I always thought that the links between organized crime, corrupt government officials and the church were broken long ago.

perhaps keating knows some things we have yet to hear.

[Xenalyte]

A drunk Irishman is no joke.

Oh, I don't know . . . I'm pretty funny when I'm housed.

[Xenalyte]

Hearing even an unusual thump, I'd be concerned even about hitting an animal, or I'd even want to stop to check out any car damage.

Hearing an unusual thump, as I have many times, makes me pull over to see what punctured my tire. (Not "if something," "what." I'm keeping Goodyear in business.)

[saradippity]

Thanks for the comments they are very much on target.

You ask:"how many were females?"

As far as I know,one priest fathered a child,the mother,an adult,had gone to him for counselling. He has been accused of diddling little boys and it does seem true. However,it happened a long time ago and paperwork and reports have gotten things in a tangle. I believe there is a warrant out for his arrest but he went to his family home in Ireland.

The other one involved with females was a young jpriest,27,who was accused by the choir director of molesting her two daughters,one was 14 and the other may have been 11. There was no under clothing contact,it seems,but rough housing with some "feels" and bathing suit top snapping.He was advised to plea bargain,by the lady d.a. and promised that he might spend a year in jail with good behavior.Ha,he got ten years and just got out about 8 months ago. The last report in the paper had the charge worded this way,"alleged,attempted molestation".

I knew lawyers and firms and everyone who knew him was just sick about it although the girls and their mom insist that it was terrible and ruined their lives,blah,blah and yadda,yadda,and I must add that there are others from the parish who say their kids were scared of him and that he was spooky. I thought he was adorable but then I am the mother of some boys that may not be spooky but were a little goofy,they were all around his age when this was going on.I just want you to know where I am coming from and how I might be influenced and be more sympathetic to him than merited.

Nonetheless, when he got out of prison,I believe most people realized how absurd the sentence was,except the bishop,who immediately used him again.Yes,that was the priest he was going to defrock or laicize. He announced he was filling out the paperwork on Father Lehmann to send to the Vatican. That was another case of homosexual favoritism,the ones who raped and sodomized boys were never treated like that.

[MARTIAL MONK]

Deer at 19th Ave and Glendale? Sheesh. More likely it was the return of the "Phoenix Lights".

The "I thought I hit a dog" lie become the standard excuse after the Scottsdale hit and run about 10 or 12 years ago. It's wearing a little thin.

[Xenalyte]

When a comical clown like Swaggart gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, it's an occasion for humor; when one of Our Guys gets busted, it's news.

IIRC, Swaggart's offense involved neither a minor nor a homicide. Just a hooker and lots of crocodile tears.

[Xenalyte]

Time to pray for ALL involved!

Sorry, dude - no dice. Prayers for the Reed family, but O'Brien can't suffer enough for what he's done, and for what he's allowed others to do.

I'm not God, and I don't have to forgive squat. Be nice if I could, but I'm an imperfect and fallible human being.

[Xenalyte]

I'm praying for him because he must be suffering terribly.

Not nearly as much as a) all those molested children whose abusers he enabled, or b) the Reed family.

[CdMGuy]

Sorry, but you simply just don't get it. You seem to refuse to recognize that there is a law that has been passed in CA that were the same law passed in regard to any other issue, you and most all other Freepers would be up in arms. You refuse to recognize that fact. CA is not TX. I don't know s**t from shinola about what is happening in Catholic churches in TX. What makes you think you really know what is happening out here?

And your argument that a falsely accused priest of some supposed crime 30 years ago can easily defend himself is nonsense. As an example, there resides a monsignor in my parish rectory who says mass and administers a nearby chapel on weekends. His main job is to assist the Bishop of the diocese. An adult woman who won a molestation lawsuit against another priest, then turned around and filed a molestation case against this monsignor. She claimed that she had consulted with him one time for assistance on the original molestation case and that he came on to her in their meeting.

This all supposedly happened quite a few years ago. In fact, the monsignor claims he did not recall ever meeting the woman, who, by the way, did not even live in his parish at the time. The monsignor was so PO'd, especially as he is a rather public figure in the diocese, that he filed suit against the woman for defamation of character. Well, the judge dismissed his lawsuit without it even going to trial. She subsequently dropped her suit. Just where does this monsignor go to get his reputation back???? Here is a guy who had a good chance of being appointed a Bishop in a few years. What are his chances now?

Have you ever been sued? I have. My crazy neighbor sued me twice on trumped up claims. He lost twice. He also has been engaged in 25 lawsuits in the last 20 years. My point is that just as there are emotionally disturbed priests out there, there are emotionallly disturbed and/or unethical lay people ready to hop on the sexual molestation bandwagon. This situation is not as black and white as you make it out to be.

[Xenalyte]

An hour or hour and a half is not alot of time to get drunk beyond all sense of human responsibility IMHO.

C'mon over with a bottle of Cuervo, and I'll give you ten to three you'll be drunk LONG before an hour has passed.

[Z10N157]

"The drivers of both vehicles fled."

WTF is wrong with people? What are they thinking? Could you just ignore something like that and go on with your life?

I could not.

[Z10N157]

What he did was far worse then being at fault.

[Z10N157]

"A drunk Irishman is no joke"

Can't be half as bad as a sober irishman.

[Aliska]

Not nearly as much as a) all those molested children whose abusers he enabled, or b) the Reed family.

I'm not privy to that. I wish them all peace, comfort, and healing, especially the victims.

[george wythe]

But remember the point of the parable about the Good Samaritan. The injured man was passed over by the rich man and the priest. It was the Samaritan who stopped and helped. So who was the injured man's 'neighbor' in this case? In this case, two cars left the pedestrian to die; a priest and (a rich man?). It was the third that stopped and called the police...

You made that parable come back live in my mind.

Very good point; very likely, the people to whom I don't even care to say "Hi" are the ones who will come to my rescue when I'm a nobody bleeding on the side of the road.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Had Rome relieved him, he'd have never been there, drunk, to kill that man.