By Kay Ebeling
It’s not a church, it’s a compound. As you approach the LA cathedral downtown, you see organized crime at work. Thug security guards, who look like they can kill with their bare hands, stand at each entrance, barely two feet between them. The local don, Cardinal Roger Mahony, carries himself with the same sense of doomed destiny as does Godfather Michael Corleone. Both men live deep in the compound, separated from their foes by shields of concrete and state of the art security, living out their years in hiding.
The Catholic Church does not even try to hide its resemblance to the MAFIA anymore. Attorney Jeff Anderson spoke about the brotherhood that is Church heirarchy on KCTU Wichita last week:
“When I ask a bishop the question, why didn't you immediately report these crimes to the police and remove the priest, so often I get the answer, we thought we could handle it internally and we felt a loyalty to our fellow priest. They answer, It’s like a brotherhood it’s our family.”
Sounds like Michael Corleone in The Godfather to me.
The conversation with Jeff Anderson took place on Educating to End Abuse, and we have more quotes below. Peggy Warren hosts the caller participation webcast the third Thursday of each month.
December 18, the guest is Tom Doyle.
“Every month the Catholic Church gives us new stuff to talk about,” Warren, who is a predator priest survivor herself, said recently. “They really make it easy for us to come up with topics, but I wish we didn't have to have this conversation at all. What I do want to push/mention on every show is the importance of lengthening the statute of limitations on childhood sex abuse. The SOL needs to be at the top of everyone's list of priorities.”
Similarities between church hierarchy and The Sopranos slip out in depositions for civil lawsuits against different archdioceses around the country. Cardinals and bishops under subpoena have to answer civil plaintiff attorneys under oath, meet them eye to eye, one-on-one.
“There are documents that have surfaced in litigation, documents generated by the Vatican and maintained at every archdiocese. And every archdiocese shows a pattern.
"Bishops who know about these crimes are required to be complicit and protect themselves and perpetrators against scandal."
ME: So they are committing felonies, right?
Jeff Anderson on Educating to End Abuse, November 2008, continued:
“Not just priests offending children, but documented back hundreds of years, there is a pattern and a practice, a protocol that requires them (church heirarchy) to handle any criminal behavior in secret and keep it secret.
“Bishops have to respond the way they do because of orders from the Vatican. They are required to keep secrets by the Vatican. By Secret I mean not reporting the abuse, not making it public, and protecting themselves.
"The justification they give is, 'we didn't understand the scope of the problem.'"
Moderator Warren took a call from the father of a pedophile priest crime victim. The caller said, he feels the church is a place where pedophiles are protected.
Warren said, as long as statute of limitation changes are not passed, the criminals are off the hook.
CALLER: It’s a collective crime that comes from the pope down and anybody in the church who knows about it in the church is responsible, each and every one of them.
Caller (Cont'd):
“What, have people got rocks in their heads? Why do they still take their kids in there and give the church money?”
PEGGY WARREN : Lay people are living in denial. We need to convince them this is a real serious enormous problem that is continuing. It’s going to take victims’ stories, people like yourself, parents, saying enough is enough, we're not going to let our children be hurt anymore.
CALLER: The way the church has concealed the abuse, they've enabled these guys to avoid prosecution and they're probably serial abusers. These guys are out there. They've never been convicted. The only way to find them is to open SOL windows in other states like they did in California, so victims can come forward.
“Because these guys are out there."
The Caller to KCTU Educating to End Abuse continued:
“How does the church get away with having lobbyists. Isn’t that against the Constitution? Why does a church need lobbyists?”
JEFF ANDERSON: The observations about the SOL couldn't be more right on. In Legislatures across the country statute of limitation laws protect the offenders and those that protect them. SOL laws keep victims from being able to expose offenders through the criminal and civil courts. SOL reform is going to be necessary to protect children in the future.
“In California the one year period of time where survivors could come forward brought up close to a thousand lawsuits, just in California.
"250 Catholic priests, over two dozen bishops were exposed by that one year window in the Statute of Limitations in California.
“250 priests who committed abuse that had not been exposed before and two dozen bishops who took part in the coverup were exposed,” Anderson said.
“250 priests we found in California because the SOL was open and we were allowed to expose them.”
Warren commented about Denial:
"Why is this being allowed to happen. Catholic Church hierarchy denying that they are the problem. It’s not a few offending priests, as the pope suggested in America, there are a lot of offending priests, and the problem is the bishops in control of them are in denial. They're the ones responsible for not dealing with it.
"They are offenders themselves, thinking they could deal with it themselves instead of allowing law enforcement to handle it.
"The dynamic of denial is allowing molestations and rapes to continue in so many ways.
CALLER: Why doesn't the church handle these cases with more consideration for the parishioners? They’d have a lot more credibility if they’d take a hard line against the priests that are being reported.
ANDERSON: My answer to that is it’s baffling as to why the Church hasn’t taken a different approach.
“When I ask a bishop that question, why didn't you immediately report this to the police and remove the priest, so often I get the answer, we thought we could handle it internally and we felt a loyalty to our fellow priest. It’s like a brotherhood it’s our family
ME(at home listening): As in MAFIA
The bishops when forced to answer under oath, reveal it is a Mafia
ANDERSON: So that's the answer that they give, and as unsatisfactory as it is, that's the answer that I'm still getting from the church hierarchy when I ask them that question.
************
Security thugs glared into the group of eight advocates who showed up for a SNAP press conference in front of the cathedral late last month. Coincidentally all three Godfather movies have shown repeatedly on cable TV lately, and you can really feel the similarity between the LA Cathedral and Michael Corleone’s compound.
Everywhere inside and out the cathedral grounds are these thugs, either in maroon jackets to identify themselves as security or sitting solo, behind dark glasses, invisible receivers in their ears.
Nothing about the concrete slab of real estate that is the LA cathedral emanates anything resembling religion or church.
Why should it?
Onward. . .
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