Posted on 07/03/2013 4:02:29 PM PDT by haffast
MILWAUKEE (AP) — As more victims of clergy sex abuse came forward, then-Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan oversaw a plan to pay some abusers to leave the priesthood after writing to Vatican officials with increasing frustration and concern, warning them about the potential for scandal if they did not defrock problem priests, according to documents released Monday.
Dolan’s correspondence with Vatican officials and priests accused of sexual abuse was included in about 6,000 pages of documents the Archdiocese of Milwaukee released Monday as part of a deal reached in federal bankruptcy court with clergy sex abuse victims suing it for fraud. Victims say the archdiocese transferred problem priests to new churches without warning parishioners and covered up priests’ crimes for decades.
The documents have drawn attention in part because of the involvement of Dolan, who is now a cardinal and New York archbishop and the nation’s most prominent Roman Catholic official by virtue of his position as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The records provide new details on payments made to some abusers to leave the priesthood and the transfer of nearly $57 million for cemetery care into a trust as the archdiocese prepared to file for bankruptcy.
Victims and their attorneys accused Dolan of bankruptcy fraud, pointing to a June 2007 letter in which he told a Vatican office that moving the money into a trust would provide ‘‘an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.’’
Church law requires bishops to seek Vatican approval for any property sale or asset transfer in the millions of dollars. Dolan wrote in the letter that the transfer had been approved by archdiocese’s Financial Council and College of Consultors.
A Vatican office approved the transfer within a month.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Release of Deposition by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
http://blog.archny.org/index.php/release-of-deposition-by-the-archdiocese-of-milwaukee/
Archdiosesan documents released
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
The do this every week in the IUSD. The schools union makes it impossible to fire these people so they just buy them out.
FR has plenty of RCC apologists and proselytizers to post those, yet strangely, they don’t want to see the vileness inside their own cup.
It’s not just about sex abuse. It’s about a pattern of coverup and deceit that seems to show more regard for the reputation of their (c)hurch, while at the same time espousing about the “Culture of Life”, and the poor, with little regard for damaged lives, and even those languishing in Hell after being exposed to the “Image of Christ” as presented by Catholic priests.
This story is currently in the news in this area.
Like I said earlier....
Funny, my experience is that FR has more than its share of anti-Catholic bigots.
I’d agree that FR has its fair share, and of every other stripe as well.
Of 42 priest files released Monday by the Milwaukee Archdiocese and reviewed by the News Tribune, 22 contain references to child molestation on camping trips, a cross-state bicycle ride and at least one Caribbean cruise.
The abuse is often explicitly described. But the geographic details are less so, many noted vaguely as occurring “up north” — a generalization that sometimes refers to suburban Milwaukee, sometimes Wisconsin’s northern counties and more often left unidentified.
There are just as many (some reports indicate more) cases of sexual abuse against minors in protestant churches than in the RCC.
_______________________________________________
Sexual Abuse of Minors in Protestant Churches
Written By Father Jonathan Morris
Published June 24, 2007
The mainstream media has all but ignored the recent Associated Press report that the three major insurance companies for Protestant Churches in America say they typically receive 260 reports each year of minors being sexually abused by Protestant clergy, staff, or other church-related relationships.
In light of the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church beginning five years ago, religious and victims’ rights organizations have been seeking this type of data for years. It has been hard to come by since Protestant Churches are more de-centralized than the Catholic Church.
Responding to heavy media scrutiny, the Catholic Church has reported that since 1950, 13,000 “credible accusations” have been brought against Catholic clerics (about 228 per year.) The fact that this number includes all credible accusations, not just those that have involved insurance companies, and still is less than the number of cases in Protestant churches reported by just three insurance companies, should be making front page of The New York Times and the network evening news. It’s not.
The report is even more telling if we consider the plethora of independent or “store front” Protestant churches that don’t have insurance and whose numbers, therefore, certainly are not taken into account in this study.
This bad news for Protestant Churches is sad news for all of us. I would prefer the problem be limited to any one church — even if that church were my own — because it would mean more kids would be safe. But as I have said repeatedly over the last few years, the problem of sexual abuse of minors is not an issue of religious affiliation because there is nothing religious about abusing children. The phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors in church settings is the story of sick human beings taking advantage of their position of moral authority to prey on the weak and vulnerable. If Catholic clergy were to be faithful to their church’s teaching, there would be no abuse in the Catholic Church. The same goes for Protestant clergy. The problem, then, is not one of corrupt doctrine, but of individuals being unfaithful to the most basic precepts of their own religious belief.
Let’s be clear: the report of abuse in Protestant Churches in no way clears guilty members of the Catholic Church — neither the predators nor those who moved them from church to church and put other young people in danger. But the report does give us better perspective. The problem of sexual abuse has no denominational boundaries.
But why, then, is there so much abuse in church settings in general? Because contemporary society is sick and it is producing so many sick people that some of these disjointed souls even end up in churches. It should also be noted that we are more likely to hear about the church-related cases because they tell a more salacious story — what should be white is black, and so on. The Catholic Church is the best story because the blame (and the money trail) can go all the way to Rome.
I would like to be able to say that the sexual abuse of minors is limited to church settings because, if that were the case, once again, more kids would be safe. But it’s not. Sexual predators are in our schools, hospitals, and foster families. It hurts to say it, but because our society is so sick, sexual predators are everywhere.
But there’s hope. Society does not spin out of control on its own. It has fallen with us and it can rise with us. Society is cultivated and formed by human beings who are capable of changing behavior patterns and doing the right thing. The most important thing we can do to heal societal wounds is to teach our children, day in and day out, by words and example, what it means to love and be loved. Disjointed and sick people, the ones who abuse children, don’t fall from the sky. They are born into families, into towns, and communities. It is to the degree that more moms and dads, teachers, pastors, and neighbors are able to pass on the beauty of selfless love that society will start to get better — and our churches too.
God bless, Father Jonathan
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286153,00.html
____________________________________________________
See also
http://stopbaptistpredators.org/article07/child_sex_abuse_by_protestant_clergy.html
http://regator.com/whatshot/Youth+Pastor+Watch/
Published June 24, 2007
That’s interesting. This story is fresh.
I live in Milwaukee. I am sure I now know more of the details than you.
It could be argued that this is indeed NOT news. It is instead salacious DECADES OLD material combined with legal jockeying to bankrupt the archdiocese. We know that abuses took place, there has been no dispute regarding that. Now we are delving into HISTORICAL detail and the “victims” are trying to get money in held in a trust for cemetery maintenance. Gotta get every nickel from those Catholics.
Is this about consoling victims or a big jackpot? Is it about news or national enquirer voyeurism?
As the Catholic League has abundantly documented, many institutions have the same level of sexual abuse of children. The Catholic Church made itself more of a target by its mishandling of the perpetrators but it also is a continuing lightning rod for secular leftists with axes to grind.
How much coverage was there really about Michael Jackson and his pedophilia? How about what really happened at Penn State? It won’t be long before we see similar stories about the new homosexual Boy Scouts or should I say the media will be hiding stories stories about the new homosexual Boy Scouts.
All I know is what your Archdiocese told us this past Monday.
I think that what the whole deal demonstrates is that, from altar boy to the Pope, everyone is merely a human being with the same sinful tendencies of all other human beings. The reverence some see to think should be attributed to these mere humans is misplaced and causes expectations that are unreasonable of mere humans. We have plenty in the Holy Trinity to revere without elevating men beyond their capacity.
You could argue that it’s not news but you would be wrong.
If nothing else, the evidence is a searing indictment of now Cardinal Dolan.
If this organization was something other than the Catholic Church, Dolan would be headed towards jail.
Catholic bashing would be making up charges. This case is not based on made-up charges.
Either one is against child molestation or one thinks it is no big deal. I think it is a big deal and “newsworthy” no matter who the perp is.
When homosexuals molest young boys, I want them prosecuted.
When heterosexuals molest young girls, I want them prosecuted.
When an organization molests and covers it up, I want them prosecuted. When that is the only scenario where prosecution lags far behind the crime, it’s a big deal.
For the record, I am Jewish and when the Orthodox Jewish community commits similar acts and covers them up, I want them prosecuted in court. A few have been, recently, but most are not.
Glad to see any and all perps prosecuted.
Did you care when NY laws were passed focused on abuse in parochial schools while ignoring measurable sexual abuse in public schools? This might target orthodox jewish schools too. Why are we not protecting all children?
====Sexual abuse of students in the New York City schools is exploding, yet New York State Assemblywoman Margaret Markey turns a blind eye to it. She recently introduced legislation, as she does annually, that exclusively targets private schools for cases of abuse that occurred a long time ago.===
http://www.catholicleague.org/sexual-abuse-in-nyc-schools/
Same in California
=====a bill passed the Senate last week that seeks to lift the statute of limitations for one year so that Catholic schools (and other private institutions) can be sued for sexual abuse that allegedly occurred decades ago, but it does not apply to the public schools.
To be specific, no one who was abused in a public school before 2009 can sue the teacher, the school, or the school district, but if someone was abused in a Catholic school when JFK was president, he can sue the teacher (if he is alive), the school, and the diocese.======
http://www.catholicleague.org/sexual-abuse-in-california-schools/
You fall for the media narrative yourself making Dolan an indicted man. Dolan was trying to clean up a mess that was decades old...
====In 2003, nearly 40 years after some of the earliest reported abuse took place, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who was then archbishop of Milwaukee, sought permission to have the priest, Daniel Budzynski, officially defrocked.
The Budzynski case was among at least a half-dozen Dolan inherited when he took over the archdiocese in 2002 amid the growing clergy abuse scandal. It shows some of the difficulty church leaders had in dealing with serial molesters and a church bureaucracy that in many cases sat on pleas for priests’ removal for years.
While other church leaders, including Dolan’s predecessor, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, have acknowledged they didn’t immediately grasp the extent of the problem, Dolan appears to have quickly determined a crisis was in the making.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/usandworld/national/records-dolan-paid-some-problem-priests-to-leaveba6eff7ce7864dcdaec3689831ebe9de-213946671.html
Nice affirmation to ‘indict’ the guy who was cleaning up the mess. Way to go media.
My stomach turns that the church responded so terribly to these offenses over the years. In Milwaukee that response was led by the corrupt, homosexual Rembert Weakland who used church funds to pay his lover. I spit on him.
http://www.seattlecatholic.com/article_20020607_Archbishop_Weaklands_Legacy.html
Human bureaucracies can be counted on to fail due to their humanness.
But now, you show some fairness and admit that in public schools teachers can be found to abuse children and the bureaucracy is unable to fire them.
Dolan was trying to clean up a mess? Really?
He was trying to protect the guilty. He transferred $57 million to a Cemetery Fund to shield it from sexual abuse victims.
The files released Monday contain a letter Dolan wrote to the Vatican in 2007, in which he explained that by transferring the assets, “I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.”
The Vatican moved swiftly to approve the request, the files show, even though it often took years to remove known abusers from the priesthood.
Please explain how he is not culpable in the coverup and in any crimes that occurred after that date.
I’m all for prosecuting em all. You seem willing to look the other way in Dolan’s case. And you are the one preaching fairness and equality.
If you participate in pedophilia or cover it up, you belong in jail. That is right and fair for everyone.
I don’t care if you are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, atheist or anything else. If they are guilty they should pay the price.
That you deny what even the lefty Milwaukee Journal documents - that Dolan had inherited the criminal sexually abusive priests from decades before - shows that yours is not a good faith argument. Milwaukee’s scandal is part of the entire church’s scandal and it well documented that that past abuses are being addressed.
====The researchers found that a total of 10,667 individuals had made allegations of child sexual abuse against 4,392 Catholic priests between 1950 and 2002, and that most such acts took place between 1960 and 1984. The 4,392 priests made up 4% of all Catholic priests in the 14 Dioceses/ Eparchies in the United States.=====
There is a real lefty bonus to this, because Cardinal Dolan is leading Church as it stands up to the Obama administration’s assault on our right to exercise our religious beliefs. I’m sure that the word has gone out to demonize him. So, jolly good attempt!
Especially the little twist about crimes following that date. Are you hearing about those crimes from the voices in your head? What specific Milwaukee crime are you alleging?
Its pretty easy to accuse the church of vast ‘crimes’. Over the last 3 years 173 false accusations have been made against Catholic priests nationwide. How many teachers have been arrested during that time?
The Church’s transparency following these awful decades of coverup by the church should be acknowledged. But I don’t expect that from you.
My parents lie in a Catholic cemetery. They paid whatever amount with the understanding that their graves would be maintained by the arch-diocese. What justice is it for their funds to be appropriated? Why are you so covetous for that?
Is there really ever enough money to provide justice to the righteous victims? (and what of ‘victims’ looking for an easy payoff?) Can money smooth the spiritual damage? Are we looking for a pound of flesh?
I find your focus on the letter totally unpersuasive. We have a legal system and Dolan is not required to disregard the interests of hundreds of thousands of innocent parishioners because of the acknowledged and complex guilt of the leadership.
What is Dolan to do? Empty out and sell all the Catholic schools? Empty out and sell the missions for the poor? Empty out and sell the Hospitals, the residences for the aged, the retirement homes for the clergy (the vast majority of whom were innocent of these crimes as noted above). Shall we dig up all the graves in the cemeteries? How about reclaiming the gold in the dead’s dentures?
So he was protecting the guilty as the archdiocese goes bankrupt? So you consider me guilty as well? Yes that’s a lefty tribal group analysis, but as a Jewish person you should see the historical dangers in collective guilt.
Long response by you. I can answer it in a much shorter way.
What Dolan was legally bound to do when informed of the raping of children was to turn the perps in. You have lost sight of right and wrong because you are too wrapped up in defending indefensible acts. Maybe if one of your children was raped you would understand that this not about the persecution of Catholics. It is about rape. Hiding rapists is as bad as raping.
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