Would Tod Tamberg Say That? Catholic PR Spin Machine Works Overtime on the Internet

*****
By Kay Ebeling

“No decent human being should ever lose his or her initial revulsion at the accounts of children being offered up to predators again and again, over decades. It is not a ‘problem’ - it is debased behavior that should not be known to man.”

Marci Hamilton put into words what I’ve been trying to say for months in the quote above from "How to Solve the Appalling Problem of Child Sex Abuse: Why Catholic Priest Andrew Greeley Is Very Wrong to Suggest Church Self-Policing Is the Answer," posted on FindLaw today and immediately linked by Kathy Shaw in Abuse Tracker. In the article, Hamilton takes off on the Greeley piece with an argument against “self policing,” but in the quote above she points out the emptiness of Greeley’s referring to decades of organized crime in the Catholic Church as a “problem.”

The Catholic hierarchy must be spending millions in public relations to create this spin, that sex crimes by five thousand priests on God knows how many children, just in the last 60 years alone, is a “problem.”

A “problem.”

This Catholic PR spin is insidious, today finding new ways to use the internet to mutate the message. Articles pop up online in ways only a PR agent with lots of cash can do. They place stories designed to look like legitimate news on the paid side of websites.

Then, even on Sundays, Catholic flacks, apparently even Tod Tamberg in LA, monitor the Comments sections after real news stories so they can pop in with more of the same lies, and even worse, change the topic, turn the dialogue in a different direction. They say, Look at what a great job the church is doing, All but 1 percent of priests are innocent plus we've started these great programs. Spin, spin, quick look over there, not here. That's how Spin works, and the Catholic PR machine is working overtime on the internet.

Copy and pasted in full below:
Fake news story
and
Comments placed on a recent Sunday by Tod Tamberg.

So as Hamilton wrote in today's FindLaw:

When Greeley refers to "the problem," he is talking about the hierarchy's evil pattern of covering up child abuse by clergy, and about the dead silence of fellow priests who knew full well that their cohorts were taking children into their bedrooms and to their vacation homes.
===
At Irish Independent Online recently, while reading an article linked by Abuse Tracker, you could find an apologist piece running down the right hand column, on the Paid Side of Irish Independent Online. The story reads like a professional news article with one thing missing. Attribution. Not even a byline on this piece that puts forth the excuses that no longer work even in mainstream media: Pedophilia in the church is a small problem, only 1 percent of the priests do it, that was just the 1960s, it stopped in the 1980s.

Plus: Someone calling them self Tod Tamberg pops up wherever I go online to say, Kay Ebeling just needs anger management: Look at the great job the LA Archdiocese has done to clear out the pedophiles.

Hamilton points out the great job the church has done so far:

Perhaps by "self-policing," Greeley means the church process of defrocking. What a joke. One of the sickest pedophiles within the church to date, Fr. David Sicoli, whose crimes were detailed in the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report on the Philadelphia Archdiocese, was defrocked just last week, which is a good six years after the Boston Globe first broke the coverup story and over two years following the Grand Jury Report - and thus decades after the hierarchy started hearing about him.

The Irish Independent online paid puff piece said basically that church hierarchy can’t testify or even give records to prosecutors: "to protect spiritual and confidential communications between priests and the Archbishop, privacy of which goes to the heart of the way the Catholic Church practices religion.”

Their Spin that Privacy is Their Religion is Criminal collusion.
Paid to PR firms with your parish dollars.

Many of those “Tod Tamberg” posts are in the comments section of recent City of Angels blog posts.

This person couldn't be the real Tod Tamberg, who is the full time paid person in charge of media at the LA Archdiocese, because if it is, these comments are extremely unprofessional.

Copy and pasted below is a little spar that took place at LAIst last month as well as the entire False News Story that ran in the paid column at Irish Independent, obviously placed there for spin purpose only by a PR firm, likely Stritch & Associates who are the LA Archdiocese’s PR firm in Century City.

Meanwhile you think this post is long?

City of Angels lady is tied up in her paid job but watch here this weekend for an in depth story of one parish in one small American city.
----

Tod Tamberg’s posts at LAIst and what followed:

TAMBERG: The facts: The 12-floor Catholic Center was sold for $31 m. The Archdiocese is renting back four floors. Cemeteries Department is moving to office space at one of our cemeteries. (They had been in separate offices prior to the move to the Catholic Center in 1996.) Thrifty-Payless gave the building to the ADLA when it moved to Oregon and then sold out to Rite-Aid.
In the past few days, Associated Press, La Opinion, and KPCC all mangled what should have been a simple story. AP said we got the building due to the riots. La Opinion said we sold 12 historic buildings and that all the staff were moving to a cemetery. KPCC also said the entire staff were moving to a cemetery.

We can now add another goof thanks to LAist, which claims that the Archdiocese abandoned its property on James M. Wood (1530-1531 West Ninth) because of the 1992 riots. Not so. That property was taken over by Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, and is still part of the Archdiocese.

All this would almost be funny, except that this kind of lazy reporting is par for the course when it comes to reporting on the Catholic church in Los Angeles. Perhaps some journalists should occasionally look up from the grinding wheel, put down the axe, and do a little old-fashioned research before making silly statements that aren't factually-based? What a nice change that would be.

Tod Tamberg, Director of Media Relations, Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

By Russ Bianchi
[2] | 01/25/08 01:59PM
We recommend www.bishop-accountability.or/abuse tracker for daily vetted and authenticated FACTS regarding the ongoing criminal cover-up of decades of pedophile rings in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, dating back (at the very least) to Bejanmin Hawkes, the late and known serial pedophile, and pedophile clergy ring enabler (under Timothy Manning) and continued and condoned under Roger Mahony from 1985 though the present.

Mahony is still enabling pedophiles on the LA Archdiocese payroll, as well as hush moneying, annuitying, pensioning, or diverting laity monies to many hundreds in Ireland, Asia, Mexico and elsewhere, to stop them from testifying against him (Mahony) and his ongoing crime spree(for free watch 2006 US Academy Award Best Documentary nominated DELIVER US FROM EVIL at www.youtube.com).

Are your children any safer now in the LA Archdiocese under criminal enabling Roger Mahony, than prior to a record $660 Million dollar out of court settlement (to squash public disclosure of Mahony's DIECT guilt) on many hundreds of cases (by the way there are still many hundreds of cases still pending in the civil and criminal courts spin artist Tod Tamburg doesn't talk about)? The answer is a resounding NO!

What is the real solution? Withhold all monies from the LA Archdiocese, until Mahony, like pedophile founder of the Legionnaires of Christ, Marciel, is removed from office, canonically censored for life, and sent off preferrably to a remote, dark, cold, bad food and hard labor monastic prison, OR if Rog Teflon Mahal resists further, he should be swiftly and irrevocably Papally EXCOMMUNICATED.

No Cardinal Or Bishop Accountability? No Laity Monies!
Respectfully submitted,

Russ Bianchi
Lay Member in the Diocese of Monterey, CA
Under The LA Archdiocese

By tod1
[3] | 01/26/08 12:09PM
The real solution is to speak truth to the falsehoods that Mr. Bianchi spews on every website he can get into. Not only has the Los Angeles Archdiocese settled ALL of the cases against it -- including those that the court dismissed -- the Archdiocese has enacted policies and procedures to prevent abuse in the future. 250,000 children have been trained in "good touch, bad touch" programs; all priests, employees and volunteers must be fingerprinted and background checked before working with children; 50,000 people and counting have undergone abuse prevention training; and all allegations of abuse against minors are immediately reported to the police.

Mr. Bianchi and other naysayers can't wipe away the facts by continuing to make outrageous and illogical statements from his tower somewhere in Monterey, which is not "under the Archdiocese," whatever that means.
As for "Deliver Us From Evil," try www.la-clergycases.com and read about the multitude of falsehoods, distortions and lies that went into the making of this so-called "documentary."

Finally, Mr. Bianchi, parish contributions in Los Angeles have gone up an average of four percent each year for the past six years. Our annual appeal which supports poor parishes and schools also has risen steadily each year. That should tell you that nobody believes your falsehoods down here in Los Angeles.
Tod Tamberg

By alumni
[4] | 01/26/08 10:23PM
"What a nice change that would be?" Maybe the Arcdiocense could sell the Cathedral for a nice chunk of change and enter a lease-back arrangement with the new owner? While you're at it, why not ask all convicted, or for that matter alleged, priests to forfeit their salaries for LIFE, as penance for their sins? How about that Tod? What a nice change it would be if all those abusing priests would keep their hands to themselves. What a nice change it would be if the archdiocese did not move them around from parish to parish. Church to church, and cover for them. What a nice change it would be if the Church actually HELPED and counseled the affected priests!! so they wouldn't abuse again, and would be content themselves. What a nice change it would be if the leaders in the Catholic Church accepted responsibility, beyond monetary settlement, and truly instituted changes from the top-down, including allowing priests and sisters to marry, cause if they don't, it's inevitable the church could be paying out forever....unless of course, the church doesn't settle and someone, better yet everyone convicted, is forced to face the sentence of a jury. What a nice change THAT would be.

By Russ Bianchi
[5] | 01/26/08 10:26PM
Mr. Tamburg is a either highly ill informed, intentionally spinning, and/or a paid for spokesperson, for an overt criminal, who is in a tradition, and documented history, of many curial LA pathological LIARS, harkening back to the late Vicar General, Benjamin Hawkes, of the LA Archdiocese, a known pedophile, and pedophile ring enabler, under Cardinal Timothy Manning, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Mr. Tamburg does not go as far (as of yet) to invoking the 'imperial canon arrogance', and criminal posture, of Cardinal Francis MacIntyre, who threw entire nun religious orders onto the streets in the 1960's, in the LA Archdiocese, while stealing their life long assets and pensions, in the process, however the feable argumentation to refute REAL TRUTH & LIGHT, by Tamburg, on behalf of Mahony, is yet very young, and entirely without any merit.

In point of fact, the LA Archdiocese has a long history of criminal corruption, prior to, during, and to this day, which Mr. Tamburg does not want divulged, of his employer (with laity revenues) Rog 'Mahal' Mahony.
Tod Tamburg, is a paid for (by laity) PR spokesperson, for Roger M. Mahony.

Mahony is a documented 'Enabler' since the Diocese of Fresno, let alone the Diocese of Stockton ('DELIVER US FROM EVIL' at www.youtube.com, for free), of the likes of serial pedophiles like O'Grady, prior to taking over (and campaigning for the LA job, to John Paul II, with lots of money exchanging bank accounts, which is DOCUMENTED) for the 'chair' of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, in 1985 (to the present).

We also recommend the empirical book by Leon Podles, available for free, at your local library, or online, at: www.amazon.com, entitled: 'SACRILEGE'.
Mahony's enabling, pimping, and criminal co-conspirating, destruction of evidence, of the rape, oral copulation, physical assaulting, sexual assaulting, physical maiming, suciding, murder, kidnapping, perjury, liable, embezzling, felonious conspiracy to harbor felonious fugitives from justice, across state, federal, and international borders, and continued employment, pensioning, annuitying, and hush moneying, of these felons, as well as obstructing justice, by intentionally seeking to beat statutes of limitations, though overt and premediated racketeering, of THOUSANDS of children in California, from criminal prosecution, is very well documented.

In point of fact, The Devil Himself, must be very embarassed, by how well Roger M. Mahony, and Tod Tamburg, are showing The Prince Of Darkness up.

For daily VETTED and empirical coverage of the FACTS, we recommend:
www.bishop-accountability.org/abusetracker,

NOT the feable attempts by SPIN-MEISTER, Tod Tamburg.
"And the truth shall set you free." St. John
Respectfully submitted,

Russ Bianchi
Lay Member of the Diocese of Monterey, CA (which is canoncially under the LA Archdiocese)

TOD:
Mr. Bianchi is not a sexual abuse victim. Mr. Bianchi has never knowingly met a sexual abuse victim of the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. Bianchi is not, nor has ever been, in any litigation with the Roman Catholic Church. Mt. Bianchi is neither a member of, nor contributor to, any sexual abuse victim organization or advoacy group or campaign.

Mr. Bianchi's strongly held opinions, which he believes to be 100% factual, are protected under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, and further backed by publicly disclosed and published documentation (not hearsay).

*****
CITY OF ANGELS INSERT HERE:
ROGER?
ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?
Your Media Director at the Archdiocesse is attacking good Catholic people here on Websites on Sundays.

Dear Cardinal Mahony, I have a bachelor's degree in Public Relations. Maybe you could hire me to take Tod's place.
It would certainly help the LA Archdiocese's credibility and I could finally buy a condo.
*****

RUSS BIANCHI RESPONDS TO TOD'S ATTACKS:
Mr. Bianchi is the CEO and Managing Director of ADEPT SOLUTIONS, INC, a global food, beverage and pharmaceutical formulation corporation, who travels the globe annually for his profession, and has seen first-hand the OVERT EVIL, CORRUPTION, and CRIMINAL COVER-UP, of the institutional Roman Cahtolic Church, as exsemplified by Roger M. Mahony.

Mr. Bianchi is a family man, a daily Mass penitent, a lay Mass presider, and lay Communion Service presider.
Mr. Bianchi has direct family members, as well as close friends, that are vocationed, ordained, seminarial, ordered, secular, monastic, cloistered, scholared and academic, and yes, even currently Papally Curial, in Rome.

By tod1
[6] | 01/27/08 09:50AM
"Imperial canon arrogance"? What the heck is that? I have a degree in theology and never heard of it. Perhaps it is something that people exhibit when speaking of themselves in the third person -- something that Mr. Bianchi does quite a bit, it seems. How does traveling the world selling pepto bismol and other exotic potions give Mr. Bianchi a first-hand view of "overt evil" in the Catholic Church? Keep writing, Mr. Bianchi. This is great entertainment. Tod Tamberg. Tamberg, Mr. B, not Tamburg.

By tod1
[7] | 01/27/08 10:30AM
The Official Catholic Directory lists only one priest with the name "Bianchi" -- in Des Moines. "Seminarial"? "Papally Curial"? Those aren't even proper words. Be careful of making claims that others can fact-check, Mr. B. Tod Tamberg

FINALLY I PIPED IN:

By Kay Ebeling
[8] | 01/27/08 11:15AM
Tod Tamberg is the PR rep for the LA Archdiocese and he comes on these comments like gangbusters, firing shots right and left, ignoring the truth, just like Cardinal Mahony fought down plaintiffs in the civil suits settled last year. It's never about compassion or acting Christian, it's always been about beating down the crime victims and protecting the criminals with these bishops and cardinals. Tod Tamberg reveals the true fangs of this organized crime unit disguised as religion. Who cares about them, really, except to see the guys at the top finally go to prison. We won't stop until that happens. http://cityofangels4.blogspot.com

By Russ Bianchi
[9] | 01/27/08 12:05PM
Mr. T:
Direct relatives, or close friends, do not necessarily have the same family sir name, last time I checked; or perhaps your mother did not have a different family name than your father?

The 'Bianchi' you mention is not known to me, nor a relative. 'Bianchi' is a very common name in Italy.
Your demonstration, or attempts, to change the subject, remain feable, for all the read.

Keep going Mr. Tamburg, you, and Tef Mahal's self dug graves grow deeper (figuratively speaking), by the every falsehood you claim, or write.

Am I really even corresponding with the real spokesperson for the office holder in charge Archdiocese of Los Angeles?

Perhaps this is just some poor disturbed soul, or if the real Tod Tamburg, perhaps you do have a conscience, and the truth and light of thousands of children raped, sodomized, orallly copulated, sexually assaulted, physically maimed, kidnapped, mentally tortured, extorted, etc., on Mahony's, and your, watch, at 100% laity expense, since Mahony took over in 1985 in LA, some 23 years ago, with no personal accountability (thus far) is getting to you? But I doubt it.

Back to the subject at hand, the continued enabling of pedophiles in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and the global Roman Catholic Church, and still condoned by the Curia to this very day, as well as many perpetrators currently being hidden in religious orders, or in active ministries, with complete acces to more children to be assaulted, in Mexico, Ireland, Asia, Central & South America, Australia, Africa, the EU, Russia, and elsewhere, from LA and the USA, is documented daily at:
www.bishop-accountability.org/abusetracker for all to read.

A recommended additional reading list, for those of you with, or without, a "theology degree", but perhaps a proclivity to common sense, would include:

SACRILEGE by Leon Podles
SEX, PRIESTS, & SECRET CODES by Fr. Thomas Doyle, OP, A.W. Richard Sipe & Patrick Wall
GAY CATHOLIC PRIESTS & CLERCIAL MISCONDUCT by Donald L. Boisvert
SEX, PRIESTS & POWER by A.W. Richard Sipe
LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION by Jason Barry
PERVERSION OF POWER by Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea
SEXUAL ABUSE & THE CATHOLIC CULTURE by Myra L. Hildago
THE TRAGIC GRACE by Stephen J. Rosetti
SAVING THE SOUL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH by Robert Grant, MD
VOWS OF SILENCE by Jason Barry
A CHURCH IN SEARCH OF ITSELF by Robert Blair Kaiser
SACRED SILENCE by Donald B. Cozzens
OUR FATHERS by David France
SLAYER OF THE SOUL by Stephen J. Rosetti
THE GOSPEL OF SHAME by Frank Bruni
SIN AGAINST THE INNOCENTS by Thomes G Plante
SURVIVORS OF PREDATOR PRIESTS by J.M. Handlin
COMING OUT & COVRING UP by Lisa Rene Reynolds
BETRAYAL: The Crisis In The Catholic Church by The Boston Globe
DOUBLE CROSSED by Kenneth Briggs
GOD VERSUS THE GAVEL by Marci A. Hamilton
BROKEN TRUST by Patrick Fleming
THE POWER & THE GLORY by David Yallop
IN GOD'S NAME by David Yallop
FAITH THAT DARES TO SPEAK by Donald Cozzens
THE SECRET WORLD by A.W. Richard Sipe
DELIVER US FROM EVIL, free trailers and previews at YouTube

RUSS BIANCHI CONT'D.
Mr. Tamburg characterizes this documentary as "multitude of lies" and then refers us to an LA Archdiocese run ans sponsored disinformation and propaganda web site. If the documentary is mostly "lies" Mr. Tamburg, then I guess you are calling the US Acadamy Award Nominating Judges & Most Of The Film Industry, "Liars" Also?

THE CHANGING FACE OF THE PRIESTHOOD by Donald B. Cozzens
LOYAL DISSENT by Charles E. Curran
The NCCB JJ Criminal Justice Report On The American Roman Catholic Church's Sexual Crisis
The Philadelphia Criminal Grand Jury Report on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia
SEMINARY BOY by John Cornwall
THE RULE OF BENEDICT by David Gibson
AMBITION & ARROGANCE by Douglas O. Slawson
THE UNHEALED WOUND by Eugene Kennedy
TWIST OF FAITH by Matthew Simon
CARDINAL MAHONY: A NOVEL by Robert Blair Kaiser
SHAKEN BY SCANDALS by Thomas Paul Thigpen
THE RITE OF SODOMY by Randy Engel
MARRIED CATHOLIC PRIESTS by Anthony P. Kolwaski
SIN, SHAME & SECRETS by David Yonke
SEX, PRIESTLY MINISTRY, & THE CHURCH by Len Sperry
SCANDALS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH by Otto von Corvin
THE SILENCE WE KEEP by Karol Jackowski
VIEW FROM THE ALTAR by Howard Bleichner, PhD & SS
AMCHURCH COMES OUT by Paul Lidoukis
SEEKING WHOLENESS by Marie Evans Bouclin
CLERICAL CULTURE by Michael L. Papesh
KEEP THE FAITH, CHANGE THE CHURCH by James Muller

This non complete list will give all readers a better background of the FACTS of the ongoing criminal cover up in the Roman Catholic Church, but is by no means a comprehensive list.

The Bottom Line remains the only way to hold non accountabile pedophile enablers, like Roger M. Mahony, is to withold all funding, and all monies or donations, to the LA Archdiocese, and the Church at large.

It was not The Boston Globe coverage that drove Bernard Law from his office, but rather laity, who pay 100% of all the church bills, withholding over 75% of the income for two years in a row in Boston, and despite false claime to the contrary, by O'Malley and others there, that income has NOT returned to pre 2002 Sexual Crisis announcement and litigation levels.

Rome may pretend not to get much, but they move swiftly when the money dries up.

Such bills that all laity are paying include, but are not limited to, Mr. Tamburg's salary, all legal and lawyer fees, all insurance liability premiums, all assets sold off, and ministries slashed, all out of court settlements, all hush monies, all in court settlements, hiked school tutions, etc.
Until 1.1 billion global faithful laity stop donating, evil, and the totally corrupt and criminal activity, in the Roman Catholic Church, will continue unabated, with children STILL in direct, clear, and present danger, by less that 3,500 global miters and red hat enablers.
Russ Bianchi
Lay Member of The Diocese Of Monterey, CA, Which Is Part Of The Los Angeles Archdiocese
russ@adepthq.com

By tod1
[10] | 01/27/08 01:35PM
Well, Russ, Monterey has a bishop and a diocese. I doubt very much that you have any real relatives among the clergy here or anywhere else. Kay and Russ ignore the facts in the second post. Safeguards are in place and they are working. Go to www.la-clergycases.com to read about the lies and deliberate misinformation that went into the making of "Deliver Us From Evil."

Both Kay and Russ should know that their own personal vendettas are rooted in the past. The church has learned from its mistakes, and safeguards are in place. Russ and Kay might -- might -- have a bit more credibility if they'd acknowledge these programs and the lay people who run and monitor them. No matter, parish donations, parish school enrollment and religious education enrollment continue to go up in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The people of the Archdiocese are a lot, lot smarter and better informed than you think. You insult good parents who care about their kids' safety when you spread untruths and misinformation to the contrary. Time to move forward.

By Russ Bianchi
[11] | 01/27/08 02:51PM
It's indeed time to "move forward" when enablers like your boss, Roger M. Mahony, master multi- decade pedophile enabler, in Fresno, Stockton and now LA, and you, are GONE, Tod.

Your disinformation rivals that of the old Soviet Union (note: they not longer exists dure to body count and lack of truth), all at the expense of the "good parents" and laity, as well as their wallets, not yours, you seem to think support your continued obstruction of justice, and child endangerment.
I again encourage my fellow laity, throughout California, and the United States, and globally, not to donate any monies to any Roman Catholic Church cause, until the likes of Mahony (there are many dozens, if not hundreds, of such unaccountable miters and red hats in the USA) are indeed removed from office for past, present, and ongoing crimes against children, at 100% laity expense.

Your failure to ever discuss FACTS, TOD, speaks volumes to any thinking parent, or laity, as to your motives to deceive.

Your attempt to contain the dissemination of truth about what you and Mahony have done will not stand.
Russ Bianchi
Lay Member Diocese of Monterey, CA
A "Suffragan" of The Los Angeles Archdiocese

By Kay Ebeling
[12] | 01/27/08 03:38PM
It's not a vendetta. It's about getting the truth out in spite of a powerful criminal wealthy organization's obstruction, the corporate/religion that hired you, Mr. Tamberg. Those much touted programs started by the church that you say solved the problem: COLORING BOOKS? Try living with my life, Mr. Tamberg. Everything was and still is affected by being raped at age five by a pervert priest who was aided and abetted by your bosses. The fact you call this a "vendetta" shows how totally clueless you are, even after hearing our stories all these years. Please, Tod and Roger, get your noses out of martini glasses and pay attention to what happened to families and children in your parishes. Your coloring books and "How To's" for teachers don't even start to solve this problem. WAKE UP!

By Kay Ebeling
[13] | 01/27/08 03:54PM
If we all weren't seriously damaged, why did you pay out 660 million to just 500 of us last year. What's under all the black redaction lines in the documents you finally released. Of course there's more people coming to church in LA. People audition for American Idol every season too.

By tod1
[14] | 01/27/08 04:07PM
Both of you purposely ignore and deny the facts as stated in my earlier post about speaking truth to falsehoods. It is clear that when someone stands up to speak truth to your constant mudslinging you don't like it one bit. Russ talks about relatives who are close to the pope. Baloney. He's blowing smoke, and he knows it. Also, "suffragan" is a term used by the Episcopal Church, so that raises the question of whether Russ is even Catholic.

Kay, you should be pleased that lay people are in charge of the programs to protect children in the church. The fact that these programs exist to prevent in the future what happened to you in darkness so long ago, should at least get some acknowlegement from you that they are in place. But you seem to be not only uninterested in these programs, you feel compelled to belittle them and the people who run them. I am sorry that you've let your anger therapy -- as you've described your blogging -- to cloud your vision of the good work that is being done to protect children.

That's all I'm going to post or read. I know the rants will continue. I've said my bit.

By Kay Ebeling
[15] | 01/27/08 04:11PM
Your church LET priests rape children on your altars, in your rectories, in your confessionals at your summer camps, in motels -- and you think we should all just sweep it under the table and forget it? Have you ever thought about the effect 50 years of unfettered pedophilia in the catholic church had on the rest of American culture? Read cityofangels4.blogspot.com -- today's post, in fact, is about the residual effects; how pedophiles saw priests get away with it and became empowered, and now we have an epidemic of murdered and raped children. And coloring books.

Tamberg recommends you go to: www.la-clergycases.com. That is a website run by Hennigan et al, the Archdiocese's law firm, well one of them. No one puts a by line on any article there, no organization takes credit for any of the stories written there, there's no attribution, just a lot of anonymous "rebuttals" and lies. And Tamberg recommends it. 'nuff said.

RUSS BIANCHI THEN WROTE THIS:
"Suffragan" from Church if England Tod "with the theology degree" refers to any bishop to the archbishop or metroploitan, who is his superior, or as applied to an assistant of subsidiary bishop, who performs episcopal functions in a diocese, but has no ordinary (landed) jurisdiction.

We in the Roman Catholic Church would classify such a definition as an "Auxillary Bishop".

Suffragan, as defined on several Roman Catholic Diocese of California web sites, including Fresno's, Monterey's, and on the beginning pages of The Ordo(s) for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, specifically states, in writing, that Monterey is a "suffragan" Diocese, currently under Bishop Richard Garcia, formerly Sylvester Ryan, recently semi retired, to the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Again Tod, you pretend not to know, a typical curial, or across the Tiber, playbook trick.

By the way tod, how is Mahony's cancer doing?
Taht (false) rumor, that he was "dying" to gain sympathy has been going on since for at least 7 years.
Quick call the Vatican, it's a MIRACLE! Sains preserve us, Rog has been cured! Or was that a deal with The Devil?

By tod1
[20] | 01/27/08 07:28PM
Well, maybe one more post. Kay writes: "Sorry can't stop: Tamberg writes: 'all priests, employees and volunteers must be fingerprinted and background checked before working with children.' Big deal. Every organization does that and has for decades."
Wrong.

Kay, certainly you've read the Associated Press series on Public Schools. But it is probably info that you don't want people to know.

Well, there's another story published today re: public schools. Now, will SNAP finally agree to expand statute-lifting laws to include public institutions? Doubtful, since they've been fine with promoting such legislation that leaves public school victims completely unprotected.

Fact is, the Catholic church is at the forefront of organizations that protect kids. Don't believe otherwise, folks. Kay and Russ will throw angry words at this, but even they can't disappear 250,000 kids and 50,000 adults trained in abuse prevention in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

By Kay Ebeling
[21] | 01/27/08 07:42PM
I'm not mad, I'm laughing out loud. You guys in church hierarchy are so isolated you don't see how blatant and obvious your lies and manipulations are to the rest of us. It's funny it really is and you make my work so easy. 'night.

By Kay Ebeling
[22] | 01/27/08 07:43PM
"the forefront of organizations that protec kids." i'm going to laugh on that one for hours...

From Russ Bianchi
"Some say he is TURKISH. Some say his father was GERMAN. Nobody believe he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick The Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Kevin Spacy's Character in 'The Usual Suspects'
What better place to hide The Devil, than in a red outfit, inside the most jaded city in the world, in the most modern, expensive, & largest organized religion and Cathedral, in an archdiocese with the highest per annum tax free laity collection of revenue, claiming to be at the forefront of child protection (when in fact the last statement is 180 degrees from it)?

By sebb
[24] | 01/27/08 11:38PM
wow - Ive stayed up past my bedtime just to read the comments here and its all been pretty insightful. Russ, youre amazing! Tod, youre not very good at what you do. And Kay, you go, girl!
And to think, usually I just wanna feed the christians to the lions!

By (Unknown Poster)
[25] | 01/28/08 08:17AM
In reading all the above commentary, I think Russ owes Tod an apology.

It's pretty clear to me that Tod and Cardinal Mahony have done a great deal in educating many of the LA Archdiocese and beyond.

Now that I'm retired, with extra time, though admittedly not a regular church goer, I must tell you all, I have benefited from the OLA Gift Shop self improvement book section.

Among my favorite titles are;

Must See Playgrounds Of Ireland by Oliver O'Grady
My Search For The Real Killers by OJ Simpson
Ethical Accounting by the late Vatican Bank head Paul Marcinkus, and forwatd by the late Enron CEO Ken Lay
Marital Bliss by Phil Spector
Organic Cooking by Jeffery Dahmer
Truth & Ethics by Cardinal Roger Mahony
Maybe, if I can get my recently completed manuscript published, it too can make this cutting-edge powerful self-help and improvement book section, everyone wants to be a part of, as the author, in my upcoming offering, FAMILY MATTERS.
Sincerely,
Charles Manson

*****

Here is the Paid Puff Piece that shows up at places like Irish Independent Online.

It claims, basically that the secrecy of the Conffessional applies to just about all communication between the priest and the bishop, so their mouths are nailed shut, or something like that, it’s ludicrous: They say they can’t testify or even give records to prosecutors:
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Several myths that need to be dispelled

1. The Archdiocese went to the Supreme Court in an effort to block public release of the proffers.
Some members of the media persist in getting this wrong.

No, the Archdiocese is not trying to block public release of the proffers. In fact, the Archdiocese very much wants to release them; it was the Archdiocese attorneys who prepared them in the first place.

Instead, the objections to the release of the proffers, which summarize the essential contents of priests' personnel files, were raised by a number of the priests named. It was their appeal, first to the California Court of Appeal and later to the state Supreme Court, which has delayed release. (These priests have legal representation completely separate from the Archdiocese. They are not told by the Archdiocese lawyers what course to pursue, nor, for that matter, do they ask.)

Again, it was the Archdiocese attorneys who proposed the proffer procedure. The goal was to provide the information needed for the parties involved to negotiate a fair and reasonable settlement of the clergy abuse civil cases while at the same time protecting spiritual and confidential communications between accused priests and their superiors in the Church. The alternative would have been years of litigation, which would have delayed a settlement.

Important note: All parties to the mediation and settlement process agreed to the proffer procedure.
2. The Archdiocese is deliberately impeding the prosecution of priests charged with abusing minors.
This myth arises from the fact that the Archdiocese is fighting to protect spiritual and confidential communications between priests and the Archbishop, Chancellor and Vicar for Clergy, the privacy of which goes to the heart of the way the Catholic Church practices religion. The District Attorney would have you believe - and some reporters have bought into this - that he needs these documents in order to prosecute.

The exercise of a little common sense will quickly show the fallacy in this. The simple fact is that for years all across California (and, for that matter, the United States) sexual abusers from all walks of life have been convicted without the kind of private and protected information the DA seeks from the Archdiocese.

The fact is - and this rarely gets reported - that the Archdiocese has offered to provide the District Attorney with the names of all accused priests, records of their assignments and other related information. On top of this, the District Attorney has available the testimony of the victims and others.

That should be enough for a competent prosecutor to make a case, if there is a case to be made.
3. The Archdiocese has done little to help victims of sexual abuse by priests.
Interest in allegations of abuse has been extensive; less so the attention paid to Archdiocese efforts to reach out to and aid victims. These efforts have been wide-ranging and intense.

Aiding the healing of victims and their reconciliation with the Church is a priority for everyone in the Archdiocese. Starting at the top, Cardinal Mahony himself has publicly apologized for the harm done by abusers within the Church and acknowledged the past mistakes that were made in dealing with abusive priests. He has participated in a number of private prayer and apology services with victims of clergy misconduct and their families.

The Office of Assistance Ministry works throughout the Archdiocese to find solutions for the needs of victims, working to arrange pastoral outreach, counseling, residential treatment, housing, schooling, insurance and child care. Representatives of the Ministry are constantly out in the community meeting with individuals who have been affected by abuse. Several victims of abuse act as advisors for the Office.

Since the beginning of 2004, the Office of Assistance Ministry has been involved in 125 cases. Interestingly, only 40 of these concerned allegations of abuse (either present or past) against clergy. The rest concerned allegations against teachers, coaches, volunteers and family members.
4. Sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church is far more prevalent than in other institutions.
From the coverage by the media, you'd think that this was the case. But this contention is simply not supported by the facts, according to one of the country's foremost education researchers.

In fact, says Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Hofstra University in New York, there are no reliable national statistics at all on what percentage of children have been exploited by Catholic clergy or employees.

Shakeshaft has, however, as part of a report for the U. S. Department of Education, set out the parameters of the problem in another major national institution, the school system, where she found that fully 7 percent of students report physical sexual exploitation by a teacher or other school employee. Shakeshaft notes that sexual exploitation of children has been reported in other religious denominations and in groups serving youth such as the Scouts.

In other words, sexual exploitation of young people is a universal problem.

In her research, Shakeshaft came to another interesting conclusion. The response of educators to the problem of abuse in the schools is now at about the same level that of the Catholic Church was in the 80s and 90s.

REMINDER: The story right above is written by the Church PR machine, not me. Right now I'm late for work, more to come.

Onward