Catholic League president: Church must start playing hardball against victimization

CatholicNewsAgency.com ^ | 08-30-05 | CatholicNewsAgency

[Salvation]

Catholic League president: Church must start playing hardball against victimization

New York, Aug. 30, 2005 (CNA) - Yesterday, William Donahue, president of the Catholic League for religious and civil rights called recent verbal attacks on Archbishop William Levada, and legal bullying in the diocese of Spokane, WA, “outrageous” and “no longer about” the alleged victims of the sexual abuse scandal.

“The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church”, he said, “is no longer about the alleged victims—they have had their day in court—it is about the victimization of the Catholic Church. The time has come for the Catholic Church to put the vultures in their place.”

Donahue cited recent slams on newly elected head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Levada of San Francisco, who was bishop of Spokane prior to that.

He said that author Jason Berry’s “savage attack on the former San Francisco Archbishop includes the vicious allegation that Levada ‘worked tirelessly throughout his career to protect sexual predator priests.’”

“Now if this were true,” Donahue pointed out, “then Berry—who has made a career out of writing about this subject—would have blown the whistle on Levada long ago. So why didn’t he? Could it be because Levada is a much juicer subject these days (he is Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith)? What makes this so ugly is the fact that when Levada was auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles in 1985, he was one of the first bishops in the nation to seriously address this issue!”

“In short, what Berry has done is yellow journalism,” he said.

Donahue also noted a federal court decision in Spokane, which ruled Friday that all diocesan assets are now fair game for liquidation to pay for claims made by victims of priestly abuse.

“At a minimum,” he responded, “separation of church and state means that sitting judges have no right to make determinations regarding the organizational chart of the Catholic Church. But that is exactly what’s being done. By declaring all diocesan assets fair game for every steeple-chasing lawyer, a green light has been given to plunder the resources of the Catholic Church.”

“This”, he said, “has gone too far.”

Although Spokane’s Bishop William Skylstad has decided to appeal the decision, Donahue said that, “Bishops would do well not to listen to those who always want to settle and start playing hardball. It’s time to countersue.”

Added Donahue: “No amount of wrongdoing by some priests can ever justify attempts to subvert the Catholic Church, whether by the media or by the courts.”

[Salvation]

For your information and discussion.

[Salvation]

**Added Donahue: “No amount of wrongdoing by some priests can ever justify attempts to subvert the Catholic Church, whether by the media or by the courts.”**

BTTT!

[Salvation]

Catholic Discussion Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.

[Salvation]

Western Oregon Catholics named defendants in bankruptcy case

Portland Archdiocese Names Parishioners As Defendants In Sex-Abuse Bankruptcy Case

Bankruptcy judge rules parish assets available to victims [Spokane Diocese]

Diocese [Spokane] to appeal decision that parishes can be liquidated; church/state separation

Catholic League president: Church must start playing hardball against victimization

[Smartass]

Further expanding on William Donahue, president of the Catholic League. Due to the fact that sitting judges are an integral part of government, and the state, they should not be taking a side contrary to church and state. I know I'm going to raise some eyebrows, but, since an individual priest is convicted and sentenced, I believe an individual priest should liable for his own acts, and not the whole church per Se.

[Salvation]

Makes sense to me.

[xzins]

The crimes were personal crimes; they were not corporate crimes.

There was no policy of the corporation that its officers should violate young children.

This is something like charging GMC Inc. for robberies committed by employees while on lunch hour.

Even if GMC had discovered the robberies, settled them, and given the employee another chance at another plant, the crimes would still be personal crimes of the employee and not corporate crimes.

[Smartass]

A judge could be using the theory of abuse being committed "under color of authority." Whereas, the "authority" would be liable for it's "employees" or "representatives" of the "authority." Understand, a judge can pull a rabbit out of a dozen hats, and call them chickens. I still believe, other then just the abuse, the courts have been ruling outside of the constitution on church v. state issues.

[Gumdrop]

I wish these news outlets would be more careful of names when they report items. The name is William Donohue (not Donahue).

[Salvation]

I thought it was with a 'o' too. In fact, I think I spelled it that way on another thread.

[Smartass]

Pssssst...


"Donahue?

[26lemoncharlie]

The Seperation of the Church should be renamed the Seperation of the Assests of the Catholic CHurch from the CHurch, by the State!! They, the Secularists, have gone to far and for far to long!!

Time for the Christian Soldiers to rise up and defend our US Constitutional Right to Freedom of Religion and not the Secularists Interpretation; The Freedom "FROM" Religion, represented by the Democratic Socialist Party of the Clintons, Kennedy's, Biden's and the rest of the Socialist Ilk.

[pissant]

Since the media has noted that the Catholic Church is becoming more conservative, they will continue to treat it with the utmost disdain.

Thank goodness for such rough and tumble advocates like Donahue!

[TradicalRC]

What would be an example of a corporate crime?

[xzins]

One that was officially or unoffically approved as policy by the corporation

[ex-snook]

Thanks for the ping along.

Sure he is right. Fight don't back away. Pope B set the right tone when the Vatican got its back up and would not let Israelis do to Pope JP what was done to Pope P.

[ex-snook]

"What would be an example of a corporate crime?

Although not a corporation, Arthur Anderson was knocked out of the accounting business. I'm not sure for what but it involved Enron's financials. I think there were also some asbestos cases.

[CatQuilt]

Yes, the stuff pulled by Enron, Global Crossing, Adelphi, etc..., eh?

[xzins]

If an individual has committed a criminal act, then that person should be criminally convicted and held responsible for his act. If it was part of a conspiracy of individuals, then those criminal individuals, and only those, should be convicted and punished according to criminal law.

I'm not quite sure I get the point of punishing those who shared the same buildings or air or space for the acts of those who committed crimes they were unaware of.

[annalex]

The crimes were personal crimes

The cases that we hear about the most were when an credible allegation would be made against a priest and the diocese would move him to a different parish rather than remove him from active ministry. This implicates the diocese corporally.

[amihow]

It is similar to grabbing the assets of a corporation for the criminal misdeeds of the CEO in conjunction with other employees.

[annalex]

I was disappointed to hear from Donahue that he agreed with the proposal to set up a system where a decision to deny communion to pro-death politicians be done by consensus of all the US bishops and not individually by bishops.

I heard it on his recent interview with either Arroyo or Cresta. The proposal was put forward by a bishop whose name sounded like Whurley or Whorely.

Donahue's reasoning was that we want to avoid fights at the communion rail. I thought we no longer even had rails.

In my opinion, when the fact that the communion is taken unworthily is manifest to all, we all have standing to demand a stop to this scandal.

[xzins]

This implicates the diocese corporally.

I don't think so. I think it implicates those involved in a criminal conspiracy. The parties to a criminal conspiracy do not include those who were not party.

My uncle, a member of the Catholic Church, had nothing to do with the crime, yet, as a member of the corporate body, he is being punished.

Punish those involved after they've been proven to have been involved. Punish them according to criminal law. Just don't punish the innocent because of some unrelated association they have with the criminals.

[xzins]

The assets of a corporation should not be seized for the criminal acts of any of its members when the acts of the members were in violation of the rules of the corporation.

Punish the criminals; don't punish the innocent.

Beyond this, a church cannot be compared to a business corporation any more than can a government agency.

A church is an historic, synergistic association of individuals in a religious realm in which the transcendent unity is proven not by paperwork but by fidelity. In other words, "those who say they have fellowship yet walk in darkness do not practice the Truth."

[annalex]

I am not a lawyer. I think one can argue that individual conspirators rather than the diocese should be liable, and perhaps in some cases the argument will have merit, but you cannot make a blanket statement that all cases should be resolved on a strictly individual basis.

I believe, as you yourself noted, if a policy can be proven to exist that is wrong with respect to the sexual abuse, then the diocese as a whole should be liable.

[xzins]

If there is a policy condoning homosexual abuse in a diocese, I'll eat my hat.

If there was a conspiracy allowing that to happen, then I won't be surprised.

But, I do get your meaning.

[annalex]

I am sure there was no policy "condoning" abuse, but perhaps the courts found something in the policy that allowed the abuse to continue despite credible allegations. Consider these extremes (absurd, of course):

(A) Allegation examined internally; unless a parallel allegation resulted in a conviction in a secular court, no action is taken by the diocese.

(B) Allegation results in immediate defrocking and the information is forwarded to the Attorney General.

Now, the actual policy is somewhere between these extremes. So is the ideal policy. There is always room to argue that the actual policy was closer to (A) than the ideal policy, and therefore contributed to the continuation of the abuse.

[xzins]

Let's use a university as a comparison.

Imagine that Harvard has a professor accused of some inappropriate behavior by a student. The charge is heard by the administration and there is a finding that nothing can be substantiated. Would they fire the guy? I doubt it. After repeated allegations, they would still not fire the prof because he would have to be found guilty in a court of law, wouldn't he?

Here, they have upheld the innocent until proven guilty status of the prof. They have kept him on staff.

Let's say the court finds finds him guilty.

Now imagine that the court justifies the seizure of Harvard property because of their corporate status and the claim that the prof was part of a larger whole.

[annalex]

Oh, absolutely. If the abuse happened in any protected by the establishment environment, or even a tamer church, there would have been no multimillion corporate judgements.

It had to be the Catholic Church, and the intent was to discredit and bankrupt it as a whole.

But it does not mean that diocesan policies are not part of the case, nor that they indeed were perfect. We surely know of pretty sordid cases done by some individuals in accordance with the policy, although don't press me for the details. Some Shandlin guy in Boston?