US Diocese: Pedophile Priests Should Receive Retirement Benifits

The Sudbury Staer ^ | 21 November 2009

[Gamecock]

WILMINGTON, Del.-- The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is obligated to pay retirement benefits to six priests who are confirmed pedophiles, church officials argued in a bankruptcy court filing Thursday seeking permission to keep making the payments.

After filing for bankruptcy last month, the diocese agreed not to make payments to priests accused of sexual abuse without court approval. That agreement was made after objections were raised by attorneys for alleged abuse victims who now sit on a creditors committee.

Attorneys for the diocese now seek authorization to provide pensions, housing costs and medical coverage to six confirmed child abusers. They cited an obligation to care for retired clergy, including priests dismissed from public ministry and facing laicization, or defrocking.

"Only the Vatican has the power to laicize clergy," the diocese said. "Thus, while several priests have been dismissed from the public ministry and have laicization proceedings pending against them, for the time being they remain clergy whom the debtor supports, and must continue to support."

The motion also seeks permission to keep paying benefits to another priest who has been accused of sex abuse, though the claims have not been substantiated. He still has authority to serve as a priest.

The diocese argues that pension payments would not be taken from funds that might be used to pay creditors, including abuse victims waiting for settlement payments.

James Stang, an attorney for the creditors committee, described the filing as "outrageous."

Officials with the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, could not recall a similar motion in the six other bankruptcies involving Catholic dioceses in the U. S. The group also noted that the Wilmington diocese is paying a public relations firm a minimum of $100,000 for bankruptcy-related work.

"It's morally wrong for a church official to cry poverty and then pay six figures to a PR firm. And it's morally wrong for a church official to put helping child predators ahead of helping child victims," said Barbara Dorris, national outreach director for SNAP.

The diocese wants to continue paying medical coverage for former priest Francis DeLuca, 80, who was removed from public ministry in 1993 and defrocked last year after serving a jail term in New York for repeatedly abusing his grandnephew.

The diocese said it has provided DeLuca "charity" since he was defrocked in the form of a $1,000 monthly allowance and medical coverage. The allowance has been terminated, but the diocese still wants to provide medical coverage

[Campion]

Therefore as "another Christ," they are entitled to whatever comforts they desire.

LOL. Yeah, even the innocent ones get the "comfort" of living alone in a old rectory, being on call 24x7 ("you're sick ... that's too bad, Father ... please come right away ... I realize it's 3am"), and having to deal with every sort of trouble sinful men and women can dig themselves into.

Not to mention having to say funeral masses for children.

And for that, they get paid well under $20,000 year, out of which they have to pay for -- among other things -- their own car, which they use for work.

And out of the pittance that's left, they can pay for "whatever comforts they desire".

Here's the comfort and ease to which "another Christ" is entitled, according to Scripture. (Executive summary: same as the first one).

Looks like fun, doesn't it? Just a barrel of laughs.

I've known too many holy priests who poured out their lives for their people until there was nothing left, to put up with any more of your vicious, unChristian slander of the Catholic priesthood as a whole.

My former pastor ministered to us until he was 84, and toward the end, he was so frail it was a bit scary to shake his hand ... you thought something might break. He's one of the holiest men I've ever met.

Part of the "comfort and ease" with which he was rewarded to have the crazies from Westboro Baptist outside his church one Sunday with a big sign that read

FAG PRIEST

I'm curious. Were you there with them?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I wasn't there. I'm not Baptist. But you know what they say...where there's smoke, there's fire.

And with the horrific number of pedophile priests in the RCC, the fire alarms have been sounding for decades.

Centuries.

Any man who calls himself "another Christ" is not of Christ, but somewhere else. Somewhere far from the truth.

"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." -- Matthew 24:4-5

It doesn't seem too difficult to understand. Anyone who believes the Bible to be the inspired word of God should be equipped to rebuke those pretenders who seek the glory of God for themselves...at their peril.

And those who foolishly follow such false prophets cannot say they weren't told.

Wake up.

[AlaninSA]

Meh...who cares? If a cult wants to give criminals a retirement plan, that’s their business.

[gilor]

Why does everyone only pick on the priests?

Pick on them? They should be shot.

[big'ol_freeper]

[Salvation]

You are aware of the multitude of pedophiles and where they come from, aren’t you.

1. Fathers
2. Teachers
3. Coaches
4. Ministers

and further down the list — I don’t remember which number are the priests.

OK< let’s say that you are a father who teaches American History or biology, coaches a mid-high or Little League team and on the weekends you are a youth minister at your protestant church.

That’s four strikes against you, and according to the source I saw — you are to be watched.

[Poe White Trash]

I was wondering if it was an especially US problem.

Uhmmmm.... no.

Roman Catholic sex abuse cases by country

And here's the link -- once again -- to the Murphy Report. It's kind of long, but well worth reading. What I got from it is that the key problem was antinomianism amongst those in charge in the Archdiocese of Dublin. Canon law and protocols that had been in place for several decades to stop sexual abuse were routinely, and consciously, ignored.

Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

However, I don't see how any Protestant or Reformed church can claim immunity from the same evils which beset(s) the RC Church in Dublin and elsewhere. Look at the recent history of the Anglican Church. To ignore the perennial problems of moral depravity, antinomianism, and nihilism, and to say "Look! They have fallen and we have not!" is to court the worst sort of foolishness.

[Mad Dawg]

To me the question here is what is my duty if my father, my brother or my child is guilty of a horrible crime. How do I obey the duties of familiar piety? What is appropriate care for my family member who has sinned grotesquely and viciously?

What does He who died for sinners want for them? How do I show it?

My GUESS is I do not protect them from civil penalties. If I am bishop I tell them they must hand themselves over to the government.

But when they are discharged from prison, to whom else should they expect to go if not to the father they adopted before sin and sickness overthrew them?

[Clemenza]

Yes, we know that the majority of priests are fine men. As for these a-shats, by their FRUITS you will know them. Ditto the beanie-wearing political hacks who call themselves "bishops" and covered up this perversion for years. They deserve EVERYTHING that is coming to them.

Those folks who continually defend GUILTY (again, GUILTY is the operative word) priests and the enabling bishops would literally drink cyanide-laced kool-aid if the bishops told you to do so.

[al baby]

YES

[narses]

‘Passing the trash’

Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.

“They might deal with it internally, suspending the person or having the person move on. So their license is never investigated,” says Charol Shakeshaft, a leading expert in teacher sex abuse who heads the educational leadership department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

It’s a dynamic so common it has its own nicknames—“passing the trash” or the “mobile molester.”

Laws in several states require that even an allegation of sexual misconduct be reported to the state departments that oversee teacher licenses. But there’s no consistent enforcement, so such laws are easy to ignore.

School officials fear public embarrassment as much as the perpetrators do, Shakeshaft says. They want to avoid the fallout from going up against a popular teacher. They also don’t want to get sued by teachers or victims, and they don’t want to face a challenge from a strong union.

[Sioux-san]

Here is the reaction of Ann Barnhardt, newly converted Catholic of the old tradition, to the newly appointed Bishop of Rome:

http://barnhardt.biz/

[narses]