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At age five, 1954, "the Bishop" (Card. Stritch) stood over me and said, "Stop babbling about what Father Horne did to you." It took me 40 years to talk about it again. Now, I babble. - ke
**********The City of Angels is Everywhere*********
in 2009 our ongoing coverage of the pedophile epidemic in the Catholic Church will be at City fAngels5. in 2010 at CityofAngels8
Showing posts with label LA Archdiocese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LA Archdiocese. Show all posts

Monday, May 12, 2008

Cardboard Cardinal meets with LA plaintiff from 07 civil cases, says her perpetrator George Rucker laicized this year, no one knows where he is, shrug


*****
By Kay Ebeling

When drawing a picture of Cardinal Roger Mahony, the face becomes more lifelike when you begin to erase lines. I sat in on a conference Saturday with the Cardinal and Cindy Falter, one of the LA plaintiffs from last year’s civil cases, in response to Mahony's call for victims of church sex crimes to come to him, meet with him. (Above is raw video, a standup interview with Cindy right after the meeting.) At one point she kept asking the cardinal to answer, “How do you explain George Neville Rucker openly taking children out of the classroom to the rectory to be raped on school days?”

“Well, it’s evil, it’s just pure evil,” was the Cardinal’s response. The room was silent so he repeated, “It was evil pure evil.” That was all he had to say.

Mahony did tell us that Cindy’s perpetrator, George Neville Rucker, was laicized earlier this year, and the archdiocese confirmed to me today by phone, that by a decree from Rome, Rucker was removed in 2008 from the priesthood. Mahony assured us we no longer have to worry about the church expending funds to pay for Rucker’s stay in Nazareth House, where he’s apparently been the past few years.

“He’s on Social Security now,” Mahony told us, which means the pedophile priest George Neville Rucker will have a steady income, he'll stay healthy with MediCare, probably get section 8 housing before long or county funded board and care help until he dies. Rucker was convicted once but the 2003 US Supreme Court Stogner decision released him and a lot of priests from their crimes.

So Rucker won't be on any offenders lists. The archdiocese would not give any information about when or where George Neville Rucker was laicized and turned out for the taxpayers to support.

Where are the documents? Cindy asked, and learned that a lot of plaintiffs ask that question. Apparently they have to get a lawyer and request their perpetrator’s personnel files, then the priest inevitably appeals release of documents claiming privacy issues, inevitably then you have a hearing in front of a judge who finally decides how much of your perpetrator’s documents you can have. So plaintiffs have to take the initial step requesting the documents through lawyers. Mahony held up his hands and flecks of cardboard dust fell to the floor, he is not part of this process.

At one point while Cindy was puking, I took advantage of the break in her talk to pipe in like the ever dreaming flower child I am, seizing the moment to say things I’ve always wanted to say to Cardinal Roger Mahony, who sat unmoved watching Cindy spasm puke after puke into the nearby trashcan.

ME: Cardinal Mahony, you have this golden opportunity. You are in a position to DO SOMETHING and all over the world people are watching you. Look at Cindy’s sister, look at me, there are probably 9 in 10 victims who haven’t gotten settlements or help from the church.

Would God Care About the Statute of Limitations?

I went on and on waving my arms in the air: “Would God even acknowledge the statute of limitations? Why the arbitrary help, where it all depends on what state you live in? This was a national problem!"
**********
A Mother's Confession, at least this Survivor gets an response from her Family during the meeting
*************

At one point Cindy’s mother spoke in tears saying “I think all my life, this is my fault.” Ah, there’s a phrase Mahony is familiar with, he’d been trained for a response.

The Manchurian Cardinal opens his mouth and out comes, “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.” Small voice, almost no lilt or life, but the words are professional, like Mahony spent a lot of time with consultants learning listening and responding skills before starting these meetings with the plaintiffs. Another time all three women were begging, how could this happen. Mahony's response:

"It was evil, pure evil."

Vapid.

Now as the woman in her seventies cries to him that she feels like it was her fault, Mahony stares bland faced at her and listens. She talks about Father Rucker coming to their small house in El Segundo, where the single mother supported practically the only non-Anglo family in town and how important it was for her children to go to Catholic school.
**********
The church always guaranteed the young girls’ tuition.
*************

Cindy’s mom in tears said, “He was so tall. He would be holding her and I saw one time his hand go on her in the wrong place. And I reached up and tried to move his hand and he pulled away, and laughed and said, don’t worry it’s all right.”

Over dinner later Cindy got stoic.

“Did you hear my mama admit that?” she said. “Don’t you remember I told you that, that I had this kind of memory of being touched by him even when I was a baby, but I couldn't be sure, and now she just confirmed that.”

So the meetings between Mahony and the plaintiffs can result in progress.

But still there was that sense that Mahony and Suzanne Healy, his new coordinator of the assistance ministry were too practiced in their responses. That “It was evil, pure evil” is so bland and noncommittal. Are you admitting you are evil, the church, that one priest? There was just a lot of evil all around and the church didn't want to be bothered dealing with it?

You’re the Cardinal, do something, say something.

Cindy bent his ear a good 45 minutes. She said, “If you had paid any attention to our stories in the 500 cases the last six years you would not show up here for this meeting with a collar around your neck and wearing that priest dress."

Then she turned her head, grabbed a nearby trash can, and started puking, deep from her gut puking.

Now my intent was to be quiet and just listen, as this was Cindy’s meeting, but I decided to

Seize The Moment

So while Cindy puked, I chimed in:

“You know, Cardinal Mahony, I keep watching you and it’s like you're thinking, well what is it you want me to do.”

Mahony and Healy’s heads turned to me, their eyes watched me, like cardboard characters they listened. Cindy continued to puke in the background. I was ever the flower child thinking I could use this 30 seconds to completely change the Cardinal:

“Someone in your position with your power, you could set up a foundation that we could apply to for grants. Don’t make the parishes pay for it, just sell a statue at the Vatican to create a bank account for victims of sex crimes by priests.

“Because each of us needs something different. I don't want therapy. I want a scholarship for my daughter or something to make up for her having to be raised in poverty.

“Each one of us has one specific thing that would change our lives and make up for 40 years of being a total basket case. I'm not putting down what you've done, but it’s not enough.

"Look at Cindy over there puking right now. These crimes leave physical effects.

“Would God really care about the statute of limitations, or what state a person is in, whether they can have justice?"


Cindy was still barfing, Mahony and Healy were still professionally listening so I found more power in my flower child memory:

“Stop being so officious, Cardinal Mahony, and saying this legal thing here is stopping me from helping. You're the Cardinal. You have power.

“We're almost like holocaust survivors.” We still need attention.


At this Ms. Healy actually nodded. So I went on.

“Maybe we are the last victims, but we're still here and we're damaged and the church did it to us and we still need help, the other 90 percent who can’t file lawsuits.”

My voice was higher and louder and Cindy was starting to wipe her mouth. I sat up halfway in my chair leaning on the table my arm raised in the sky, and I said to the cardinal.

“Do it. Do something.

“You could start a change and stop the church’s demise. You could begin the difference in the church’s image that brings people back.”


I have to admit when I mentioned the church’s image, Mahony did give a glint of response, but for the rest of my speech he sat, expression never changing from when Cindy’s sister was giving details about being raped on an altar to when Cindy’s mom was in tears over letting Rucker touch her daughter, to my tiny tirade about his opportunity to change the church.

**********
Cardboard is the word Cindy’s friend Tony used when he seized a moment to throw in a few words. He started to rail about “cardboard Catholics”
*************


Cindy’s boyfriend standing behind her at one point began railing about organized religion especially the Cardboard Catholics and I saw it then. Cardinal Mahony with his unusually flat head, vapid eyes, one-liners fully practiced, his quiet responses, he is actually part cardboard. How else could his expression hardly change from a skilled practiced gaze as he listened to the story of one family, out of thousands in LA destroyed by his negligence and pandering to the pedophiles in the church over the children over decades. Not until towards the end of the meeting, was there a glint of life in Mahony’s eyes, apparently thinking I can’t wait to get outta here.

We all could tell as we watched Mahony glide up the hallway toward his living quarters behind the cathedral offices that the Cardinal carries this burden.

He probably carries this burden well at cocktail parties. He bows his head and shares with his pals how emotionally draining it is to have to execute these listening sessions with the plaintiffs as they tell their horrid stories. He gets a lot of mileage out of these meetings, we all agreed sitting over dinner later, both in PR and in getting pats on the back from the brothers.

At one point during the meeting with Mahony, Cindy tried to get the Cardinal to see, “It means nothing” meaning the settlement money meant nothing, and she threw a new diamond ring on the table in front of him.

MY NASTY JOKE:

Talking to Mahony is like having sex with a man who’s impotent. You just keep trying and trying and giving and giving, and you know you should be getting a response, but there’s just nothing there, nothing happens.

Keep in mind I come from a life of profound promiscuity after a priest planted sexuality in me at age five with his diddling little fingers on my privates. So my sense of humor is a little sick. At the end of the session I had to repeat to everyone my new joke and I'm repeating it here:

Talking to Roger Mahony about how to handle us victims is like having sex with an impotent man. You keep trying and trying and giving more and more and you never get anything out of him.

*****

At one point all three women, Cindy, her sister and Mother were in tears, wailing in front of the cardinal that he has to do more. Over a good 50 minutes Cindy lashed out at the Cardinal. Her mother, in her mid-seventies, sat straight and back straight proud staring at the cardinal through tears, “I go to mass and communion still, they don’t, but I think it was my fault, this was all my fault.”

At this the cardinal raised his hands from the table and spread them in front of him stating,

“It was not your fault. It was not your fault.”

We’d found another buzz word that ignited a response in the Manchurian Cardinal. When someone says they think it’s their fault, the Manchurian Cardinal turns to them and say with compassion, “It’s not your fault, no it’s not your fault.”

Roger Mahony is the Manchurian Cardinal.

It’s evil pure evil,

A perfect combination of words.


It hints at the religion without putting it in your face, it hints at compassion without really having to give any.
**********
After sitting in on this meeting, I do think the cardinal is made of cardboard. The man has no feelings, no emotions.
******************

How else could he blow with the winds up the hierarchy career ladder in the seventies and eighties in the Southern California Catholic Church, where we see now there was truly an epidemic of pedophilia that started in the seminaries and got transferred from parish to parish in what were then rural parts of the landscape.

Becoming bishop of Stockton where O’Grady festered and then Archbishop of Los Angeles where pedophiles picked freely from the children in the pews from Santa Barbara to Riverside for a good 50 years,

MAHONY CLAIMS to have had no knowledge at all that pedophilia was a problem among priests in California, that he first heard of it only when Fr. Baker confessed to him, or no, when O’Grady first was transferred. He never has quite pinpointed it.

“Mahony’s gay,” says my friend Jay (Not his real name) another LA plaintiff who is tres gay himself so can say, “I have great gay-dar, the man is completely homosexual.” I reply, no I think he’s asexual, there’s just nothing there. So it’s easy for him to be celibate.”

As Cindy railed on in the cardinal’s face to “Do Something” he and his new Assistance Ministry Coordinator Suzanne Healy stared continuously into her eyes, nodded, were totally trained and professional listeners, responding barely at all. Occasionally the cardinal would try to inject the old, look at our great fingerprint and background check but Cindy wouldn't let him, spitting out, so what, every other public school and institution has done that for decades. You have to do something more.
*******
Cindy Takes No Sh---
*************

“Wait a minute hold it right there. To begin with I'm not a victim I'm a survivor.

“Alright, I’ll call you a victim."

The Cardboard Cardinal has a temporary glitch. Cindy's mom says again, "I think it's my fault." Mahony's eyes fixate, he turns, his body slim and straight, his eyes a blunt brown, he stares at Cindy's mom, stares as inside his head, synapses reconnect as programmed.

Flatly, he says, "It was evil, just pure evil."

He's the Manchurian Cardinal.

A LOT MORE LAWSUITS LIKELY COMING:

As the assistance coordinator proudly described the church’s new policy where even the volunteers have to be fingerprinted, background checked, and taught how to report, I was thinking, do you mean you haven’t been doing that at Catholic places for the last 20 years like the rest of American society? Oh boy, there’s going to be a lot more lawsuits. . .

And don’t forget, none of the religious order priests has to be background checked and fingerprinted. The edict for this policy from US bishops did not include religious order priests.

Sigh.

I think I heard this dialogue between Cindy and the Cardinal.

CINDY: How could you not know?

MAHONY: Who not know?

CINDY: How could you not know.


MAHONY: Not know what?

Cindy thinks the church hired FBI guys or maybe Homeland Security to follow her around before the settlements. She was very vocal throughout the lawsuits and said weird things happened.

She said the lawsuits were vicious

And Mahony said, yes, they were, on both sides.

Always deflecting, always deflecting, a cardboard Cardinal sometimes covered in aluminum foil for master deflecting.

ME: Why should somebody have to hire an attorney and go through litigation to get help from the Catholic Church?

Mahony and Healy’s heads turned to the left, their eyes met mine, and they listened to me, then turned back to Cindy.

Cindy’s sister said, she had trouble being touched her entire life. It made her feel bad inside.

Cindy says, I need to go to the rectory. I need to go down below. I need to go back to that space. And I want to know if the altar is changed. I just need to know that the same altar where I was raped is gone.

Next day Cindy called me and said, I did go to the rectory. It’s all so different. But I think going there changed me. It changed me. It's like it is finally over.

I wonder how it will affect me to go to Chicago in July and take the train to Bartlett and see the church where I was raped in 1953. Wonder if I’ll find other survivors of Father Thomas Barry Horne.

PS GREAT NEWS: I’ve raised enough to fly to Chicago, go to the SNAP conference and stay in a hotel for five nights. I want to stay about three weeks, to do my research, so please keep clicking the PayPal button in the top left corner to help fund this trip.

Thank you,
Kay


GEORGE NEVILLE RUCKER
From Bishopaccountability dot org:

Record of abuse began shortly after ordination. First investigated by police in 1967. 1st civil suit filed 1994. Arrested 2002 on charges involving 12 girls. Criminal charges dropped 2003 due to Supreme Court ruling. Named as #1 on list of top 10 abusive priests in LA Archdiocese with 38-41 known accusers. Some claims settled in 12/06 massive $60 million settlement re 22 priests. Other claims settled in massive 7/07 $660 mil settlement by Archdiocese

More to come.
Salesians Jury Trial starts Wednesday morning.

Onward. . .


COMING SOON: For a good 45 minutes Cindy slammed Mahony and the church for taking six years to settle the cases and what that put her family through. It had a lot to do with her losing custody of her child, as she was homeless and destitute for a large part of the time.

We hope to do a story in the near future about how the litigation affected the plaintiffs.

Stay tuned

Friday, March 28, 2008

He got to them at Arrow Bear Camp, in his car, in hotel rooms, in his office at St. John Bosco School, in family homes, now Motion to Strike April 1st

*****
By Kay Ebeling
Catholic Church Attorneys try again to have civil cases against them thrown out of court next week in a hearing that was first on calendar April 7th then moved up to March 19th, then slipped to March 21st. Now the Motion to Strike hearing takes place on April Fools’ Day. First jury trial in LA regarding a Salesian pedophile priest is still on calendar April 14th.

Re Father Titian Miani: “The first documented incident of child molestation took place in 1947," reads a plaintiff motion from June 2007. "On a retreat with other clerics Miani ‘attempted a dishonest act’ with a 13 year old boy who ‘knew how to resist.’ (Salesians try again to have the 1947 exhibit dismissed in hearings on motions in limine April 10th.)

In Miani’s personnel file translated into English are several documents from the 1940s from reverends and others with very Italian names that City of Angels unfortunately did not copy into notes last June.

“Still he was ordained in 1955 into the Salesian order."

Once Titian (Jim) Miani came to St. John Bosco in 1958 he immediately began molesting children

His file includes a case of Father Jim “having his hand on a boy’s crotch. . ."

At the Bellflower high school, "Miani immediately began molesting children and tartgeted 8th grader Plaintiff (Ron H). Despite the so-called Salesian “mantra” of “no two alone,” Miani repeatedly isolated Ron, abusing him in his “off limits” bedroom in the priests’ quarters, as well as on a trip to the Salesian campsite at Arrow Bear. (as exhibited in Declarations and depositions attached)

Ron reported the abuse to a priest.

“No one stepped in to save Ron,” continues the plaintiffs’ motion.

Salesian Clergymen “are quite possibly the most dangerous and despicable child molesters in the Catholic clergy.”

Today’s Salesian Society has made a mockery of Giovanni Melchior Bosco’s “dedication to guide and protect vulnerable youth in 19th Century Italy” by knowingly permitting its priests to engage in egregious and outrageous practices towards children in their parishes.

Father Titan Miani.
Brother John Verhart.
Brother Anthony Juarez.
Brother Mark Epperson.
and Fr Larry Lorenzoni
As well as every Salesian Priest and Brother who knew of their habitual molestation of children --

-- used and manipulated the respect and reverence given to Catholic clergy in order to prey on innocent young boys and girls.


II:: THE NUMEROUS REPEATED, EGREGIOUS ACTS OF SALESIAN CLERGY CLEARLY ESTABLISH A PRIMA FACIE CASE

Quotes from earlier plaintiff documents in upcoming Salesians trial continue:

Miani worked at Salesian High School in Richmond until 1968 and then came back to St. John Bosco to “once again to work under his friend and Director, Father John Malloy.”

Miani was promoted to Prefect as well as Latin teacher.

Miani molested at least one more boy and two females who are all plaintiffs here now in this case. Plus other victims who are witnesses.

He got to them at Arrow Bear Camp, in hotel rooms on overnight stays, in his car on trips to Sebastopol, in Miani’s office during the school day, behind closed doors at St. John Bosco School. And in the family homes.

Malloy obviously knew about Miani’s proclivities in 1967, as shown by his letters, argue the plaintiffs.

“Despite 20 years of knowledge that Miani was a dangerous pedophile, the Salesian Order allowed Miani to leave the Salesians “for personal reasons.”

He then went to the Stockton Diocese in 1974 and nobody warned anybody in advance.

Titian Miani was finally arrested in 2003 and released weeks later due to the Stogner Decision.

“To this day, Father John Malloy states that since Miani was such a ‘model priest’ that he never had any reason to read his personnel file.”

City of Angels Blog will be there to cover the motion to strike April 1st -- if it happens -- pretrial motions April 10 and 11, and the jury trial April 14th.

Onward. . .

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Exhibit: Salesian President warned US consul about Titian Miani in 1950. Scanned here, click to enlarge. . .


At left (Click to enlarge) is an exhibit acquired by City of Angels Blog from the Titian Miani cases going to trial April 14th. The letter written by Ernest Giovannini, President Salesian Society and sent to the American Consul in Genoa, Italy, has the tone of a warning. Read between the lines and you know a lot was discussed about pedophile priest Titian Miani before this letter was written. It reads: "I can assure you, (Miani) is not being brought to this country at his own request. He has a vow of obedience and is only assigned where his superiors desire him," and it continues:

"His assignment to our Seminary here in the United States for studies has not been at his request but at the decision of his superiors here and abroad.

"He is coming to this country solely and entirely to continue with his studies in view of ordination to the Salesian Priesthood, and for no other purpose whatsoever."

How did Titian Miani end up at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower 20 years later? How can the Western Province claim the Salesian Solciety headquarters in Rome has nothing to do with the Western Province in California?

The document above is one of many exhibits in the upcoming Salesian cases jury trial, acquired by City of Angels Blog and here for you to read and absorb. This letter is attached to plaintiffs' request for discovery of financial records for the Entire Salesian Society. Defendants argue the Western Province is totally separate from the entity in Rome, but with evidence like this, it's hard to understand why the Salesians just don't give in.

If Plaintiffs win this motion, the Salesians will have to supply financial records for the entire Salesians Society, as the Rector Major in Rome is just as libel as the Western Province. We can see by reading this letter, there's no disconnect between the two.

Keep reading City of Angels Blog for coverage of the trial getting ready for April 14 jury selection.

For Continued Freedom of Speech and Expression, Please Click My PayPal Button at the top left column to support the producer and keep this blog alive.

-- Kay Ebeling

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Anonymous keeps tapping the keys, and Rocky hits home harder on his webcast, as the comments saga here and attacks on advocates in Illinois continue

*****
By Kay Ebeling
"A more clear question for ‘Anonymous:’ how has the PRIESTHOOD where all of this filth thrived been changed? How has the training and recruitment of priests changed? What has the LA Archdiocese changed in priests' lives to ensure your priests aren't wacko sickos who only come to the church because they know that there, in the seminaries and confessionals, they can get away with all these sex crimes and NO ONE WILL STOP THEM?

“How has the archdiocese addressed that problem, the real problem that exists in the Catholic church and the Catholic church alone, because of its sick preoccupation with sexuality in the first place. Phew.”

The above quote is my response to a person called “Anonymous” who jumps in to the comments section here at City of Angels Blog after almost every post. He/she copy and pastes articles from The Tidings and archdiocese press releases to show what a great job Roger Mahony and the bishops have done handling perpetrator priests. The more he posts, the more I see the holes in the church’s claims.

I'm swamped at work, but went over to the CTL website to see what they're up to and found “Rocky’s” latest webcast (see February 23rd post) with this rant:

“Individuals who have stated both privately and publicly that they have been abused either by a priest or a lay person. (We have) validated, validated, confirmed, that they lied, that they simply lied, many thinking, wanting, needing, desiring the financial gain, a quick settlement, a quick way out, the sympathy from the public."

The Rush Limbaugh imitation continues:

"CTL NYC Documentary news has documented moneys that were given to charitable organizations to help those credibly abused who have stated that they have been abused sexually as an adolescent, validated where that money went, nowhere near the sexual abuse victims.”

The voice of CTL never follows any of these accusations with facts. Just promises that we’ll all find out the whole truth when the documentary they are producing comes out. . . .
====
The Truth Pops Up in the Strangest Places
On my other job, the one that pays, not this blog, I was transcribing an interview for an upcoming show on E! Entertainment Network called:

“15 BEAUTY QUEENS GONE WRONG”
Honest that's the name of the show.

Anyway, this woman who is a former Miss Universe said:

"It depends on how the girls handle the scandal, if they come out of it, if they're honest. If they are saying this is who I am, I'm learning from my mistakes, this is who I am, let me be, then they really can thrive. If they just sort of shy away from it, it really can hurt their career in the long run."

Now why couldn't the church have said that a long time ago? Roger Mahony and the bishops should spend more time listening to the words of beauty queens.

*****
Thoughts on a rainy afternoon: People say why focus on priests, there’s sex abuse everywhere. Why single out the Catholic Church.

It’s not the same in other churches. In American Bible-based churches the pastors have no private life. There are committees overseeing everything they do, investigating everything they’ve ever done. As one lady said to me, “People be in their business all the time.”

With the Catholic Church it’s the secrecy, the sacrosanct, the very mysticism on which the church rests, that attracts deviant men to the priesthood from the beginning. There, they can disconnect from normal life attachments like a wife and family. They wear robes (do they wear underwear under those long flowing robes?). They wear dressed in a world where men wear pants.

And that silly celibacy vow.

*****
One more excerpt from The Rock at CTL narrowcast radio punditry:

(Choir sings in Latin)
DIFFERENT MALE VOICE: Because it’s not only pastors who are not trained in seminary to deal with clergy killers, media reporters were not trained to understand the impact of this, that when a people abuse and kill their spiritual leader, that is damaging not only to that community of faith, but to the surrounding community as well. And when we now have this happening to thousands of spiritual leaders, there is a ripple effect that simply cannot be ignored. WHEN you kill your shaman you kill yourself.

(CHOIR: sings Latin)

ROCKY: A clergy killer is a member of a congregation who has a desire to meet some need either personal or on behalf of the congregation. And they use the pastor as a means of getting that need met.”


By the way at CTL a Clergy Killer is someone who opposes the way the church has handled the perpetrator priest crimes so far. Anyone who doesn't continue to sit in the pews and spew adoration on criminal priests is in their eyes a "clergy killer."

Onward
Don't forget to click my PayPal button
If every reader sends five dollars I have plane far and hotel room paid for to SNAP in July.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

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:
-----
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

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Extreme Makeover Home Edition Builds Priest Rape Crime Victim Rehab Centers, but in the end, it’s all a dream, or is it...

*****
By Kay Ebeling
TY PENNINGTON: We're here today to visit the Ebeling family in Los Angeles and here’s the deal. Kay, the mother, is a single mom who works two jobs, and not only has she raised her children to be promising adults, but she’s done so while dealing with sometimes devastating physical and mental problems. Kay was raped by a Catholic priest at age five and has been diagnosed with long term PTSD, in her case 40-plus years of PTSD, her nerves damaged from responding to the crime for 40 years. Long term PTSD is a diagnosis many priest rape victims receive, so we wanted to see what we could do about that here at Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Now, normally you would expect an organization like the Catholic Church to step forward in a case like this, since, well, they are a church. So we sent two members of our design team over to meet with Cardinal Roger Mahony at the temple on Temple Street in Los Angeles. We wanted the cardinal to tell us how he thought we should design the recovery center and how much the church would participate in the costs.

CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY: This is the first I've heard that there are still victims of these unfortunate incidents here in Los Angeles. I thought we settled all this last July.

TY PENNINGTON: As is true with many of our families, this mom Kay Ebeling devotes hours of her time as a volunteer to a cause that's important to her. She’s a journalist who just happens to also be a victim of Catholic Priest pedophilia, so Kay produces City of Angels blog where she is determined to get out the truth, about sex crimes in the Catholic Church.

So here at Extreme Makeover we are going to reward the Ebeling family with a brand new home

AND

We are also going to build a recovery center for victims of priest pedophilia here in Los Angeles.

CUT TO:
CARDINAL MAHONY:
In the settlements last summer, as you know we were so generous and willing and caring for these poor victims, and so I thought we could put this all behind us. We gave as much money as we could, willingly, without question.

TY PENNINGTON: We thought that now you might sell several churches and put that money in a fund that we could use to build more recovery centers.

CARDINAL MAHONY: Honest, Mr. Pennington, we thought with the settlements last summer we could put this issue behind us. I had no idea there were still victims of this unfortunate incidents living in Los Angeles.

TY PENNINGTON: You already said that. And they're not incidents they are sex crimes where --

MAHONY (Raises his hand for Ty to stop) Even though Ms. Ebeling’s perpetrator was in Illinois, we acknowledge that the church is a national, nee practically an international source of wide open support of Christians no matter what denomination--

TY PENNINGTON: You are going to pay for some of this?

MAHONY: We will throw open our doors and our hearts to Ms. Ebeling. Anything we can do to help.

TY PENNINGTON: So you will sell severael churches and give those resources to your crime victims?

MAHONY: Well, we've already arranged the transfer of most of those church real estate assets to the Vatican, in fact I finished the paperwork just before meeting with you. But we do have one church we can donate.

CUT TO TY PENNINGTON: Well Sears and ABC provided the materials and most of the financial support needed to do this particular makeover for the Ebeling family. And Cardinal Mahony said the church could not do more, they just no longer have the money or the assets.

However, one of our interns, while doing research into the Catholic Church here in Los Angeles, discovered that there is a strange connection between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and owners of a piece of real estate on Sunset Boulevard. We're talking about:

The Crossroads of the World

-- touted as America’s first mall. The collection of shops and offices sits directly next to Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunset Blvd, one of many churches where a Jesuit priest’s Father Mark Falvey sexual molestation of nine children resulted in civil lawsuit and a settlement in 2007.

Crossroads of the World is also birthplace of the pornography industry in Los Angeles.

CARDINAL MAHONY: I had no idea. Is it true, there really is a thriving industry of pornographers in Los Angeles? And the church may have helped them get their fledgling industry off the ground?

TY PENNINGTON: In the late 1960s the main tenant at Crossroads of the World was Pretty Girl International, an agency that connected women with what seemed like legitimate jobs, new modeling and film jobs that opened up when movie industry censorship and ratings standards changed in the 1950s.

Right there directly under the church tower of Blessed Sacrament, in this development of offices that was obviously carved out of the church’s property was the birth of the pornography industry in Los Angeles in 1968-1969.

TY PENNINGTON (CONT'D:) As a designer I noticed that Crossroads and Blessed Sacrament church even have the same architectural touches in their roofs and tiles, and inside the Crossroads property we found several signs that this land used to be part of the church.

This beautiful fountain is dedicated to a saint and is obviously more than a hundred years old.

It was right here at Crossroads of the World under the church tower of Blessed Sacrament that the pornography industry took off in Los Angeles.

CARDINAL MAHONY: Well in that case, we feel doubly responsible. Somehow the American culture has lost its way, even though the Roman Catholic Church in this country still has hundreds and thousands of members left.

MAHONY: Thank you, Ty, if it weren’t for you, I would not have even know there were still victims of clergy sex abuse in Los Angeles who have not seen justice. And I also would have never know that church property may have been used for non-church purposes such as the production of mainstream pornography back in the 1960s and 1970s which actually I can say that sale and continued operation of that piece of land on Sunset Boulevard did bring us a nice chunk o' cash.

CARDINAL MAHONY: We do see now that maybe we owe some recompense. (He hangs his head in a gesture of penance grasping his $80K gold cross, his body spasms with dry sobs. Then Roger Mahony raises his head.)

MAHONY: I'm going to let you demolish one of our Los Angeles area churches so you can use the land to create a national institute for research and treatment of sex abuse victims.


TY PENNINGTON: The centers will be places where these crime victims, who are so often isolated and in need of support, can come and work on their unique problems together, and maybe even begin some sort of social action to get justice at the same time.

CUT TO:
EXT. LARGE PIECE OF CHURCH REAL ESTATE IN LOS ANGELES.

Thousands of people in blue shirts stand on the streets and nearby rooftops cheering. The church building shows signs of neglect, the grounds are unkempt and there is mold on the walls. A fish pond is full of algae. On either side of the church are two large electronic structures pointed at the church.

TY PENNINGTON: Since we're in Los Angeles, home of so much of our nations’ aeronautic and astrophysical research and at the same time home of Hollywood and the movie industry,

This week we are going to demolish a church using these giant sound ray boom devices designed by NASA JPL in Pasadena. And to make things even better, George Lucas has come down out of the redwoods of Northern California to join us here and try out his new sound wave special effects device, to make this demolition the most astounding and amazing one ever here at Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

CUT TO:
TY PENNINGTON IN FRONT OF HUGE CROWD, THE NASA JPL ELECTRONIC SOUND WAVE DEMOLITION DEVICES ARE POISED, GEORGE LUCAS' SOUND EFFECTS ENHANCEMENT ANTENNA IS SET

TY PENNINGTON: So let the demolition begin!

No one knows exactly how to explain what happened that day. Scientists say it was a combination of the extreme power of the JPL sound wave device combined with the electronics of George Lucas’ sound effects enhancement machine.

As the church disintegrated where these devices were pointed, at the same time Catholic Churches in cities across the country disintegrated in exactly the same way. National news reporters realized that the same crimes were committed using the same modus operandi in each church across the country that disintegrated, they had aided and abetted pedophile priests while lying to the victims.

National news reporters finally realized the connection between these crimes across the country and a wave of news stories resulted in Senate hearings. Today in 2015 several dozen bishops are behind bars in American prisons.

Weeks after the synchronous demolitions, Pope Benedict stood at one of these Ground Zero Halos as they had come to be called, because of the strange glow that remained where each of the disintegrated churches had stood.

The pope raised his arms in supplication saying, Lord, what is it you are telling me. His face went red with rage and then as white as his own robes. He turned to the assembled crowd, bishops and other hierarchy, and said, “The message is clear. We need to start over from square one.”

The bishops and the pope stripped off their vestments and began to dig with their hands in the rubble, then someone turned on a radio and The Village People began singing YMCA and these newly bare chested priests and bishops started dancing --

And I woke up.

And realized I was late. Gotta run, no time to blog I’m doing these 16-hour shifts with about three hours sleep a night--

WORKING Extreme Long Hours
On Extreme Makeover Home Edition

We're all trying to get through House 522 - 525 so we can all take a three month hiatus.

It never ceases to astound me how this one TV show on one network is doing more for the poor and needy in this country than either the US government or the Catholic Church, both of which are obviously asleep at the controls while families in this country are living in Third World conditions.

I'm only a sub-sub contractor for Extreme Makeover Home Edition, but I'm still more proud right now to be working for them than I ever would be of being Catholic.

These days I have Ty Pennington and Pedophile Priests in my head all the time. No wonder I had this weird dream.

Onward.

(When Extreme does go on hiatus in a few weeks I’ll have about 20 more hours a week to put into this blog.)

In the end all we want is justice, which will happen when the whole story comes out. Me, I plan to write about this until I die, and I’ll be able to retire in a few years and do this blog full time.

So stay tuned.

Friday, February 1, 2008

SNAP Mexico City challenge unique: find protection and safe haven for victims before going to the police

*****
By Kay Ebeling

“To accuse a priest in Mexico is like going to the White House and saying I’m going to kill the president.”-- Eric Barragan.

Among pedophile priests who’ve evaded prosecution in the US by running to Mexico: Nicolas Aguilar, Gerardo Beltran, Jesus Armando Dominguez, a Salesian whose cases are set for jury trial in LA August 2008, Jose Luis Urbina, Xavier Ochoa, and Fidencio Simon Silva, who is discussed at the end of the first video in the top row above. (We found 10 short videos about pedophile priests and linked them here at the top of City of Angels Blog, for your weekend viewing.)

“There's more than a hundred priests accused of molesting kids who fled from the US to Mexico,” said Eric Barragan who since July of 2007 has run an office of SNAP* in Mexico City. Barragan founded the branch with money from a settlement with the LA Archdiocese in Fall of 2006. He’s already working with 15 families there.

Priests wanted for sex crimes in the US today work in Mexico in orphanages, schools, hospitals, as psychologists, as teachers. “Also they have churches in provincia,” he added, “which means out in the boonies, where there’s no TV, no radio, where people don’t have access to information about who’s working in their community.”

HALFWAY HOUSES
Unlike SNAP’s US approach to opening new regions with press conferences and leafleting, in Mexico the first job is to get victims and families into halfway houses.

“Society down there is so Catholic,” said Barragan. “A lot of times when someone denounces the perps, they get threatened, thrown out of their homes, thrown out of their jobs, thrown out of their communities.”

The street location of SNAP Mexico City has to be kept secret.

“It’s really a Catch 22 with the work we're doing down there,” Barragan said, “because we want to help the victims, but then they have even more damage done to them by the community and the society.

“A lot of them are really scared. We have to work with the victims, make sure they have enough strength and courage.

“We have to create a lot of halfway houses.

“We're working right now with offices of the state and federal government in Mexico to provide support so that when survivors do go to the police, they have somewhere to go and they have money to live on.

“Because again, they're losing their homes, they're losing their jobs, and they're getting kicked out of the communities.”

“To accuse a priest in Mexico is like going to the White House and saying I’m going to kill the president,” Barragan said. “The priest is not only the god of the community, but he is mayor, he is sheriff. He is the priest, the courts, and he is the do all and say all, whatever he says goes.”

As we stand outside LA Cathedral talking, the bells start to toll.

“They do that down there all the time,” Barragan said.

“Whenever we have a press conference outside the cathedral they start ringing the bells,” he says and laughs.

More on priests hiding out in Mexico after this:


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Cardinal Norberta Rivera, the Roger Mahony / George W Bush of Mexico

Barragan and his colleagues in Mexico are following the case in LA where Cardinal Norberto Rivero of Mexico, the most powerful bishop hence most powerful man in Latin America, and LA’s own Roger Mahony conspired to protect pedophile priest, Nicolas Aguilar.

Nicolas Aguilar abused 80 kids in Mexico, was moved to LA, abused 24 kids in LA, then was transferred back to Mexico, where he was charged with forcing four more children to have sex with him.

The charges in Mexico did not stick.

“We're working with some of those victims now,” Barragan said.

To Call SNAP Mexico City: Call 55 1993 3678

The web page for SNAP Mexico is snapmexico.org but it is still in production.
==========
PRIESTS ON THE LAM IN MEXICO

JESUS ARMANDO DOMINGUEZ
Likely fled to Mexico right before Riverside County prosecutors charged him in January 2005 with 58 counts of unlawful oral copulation, sexual penetration and sodomy. A conviction on all charges could carry a prison sentence of 43 years.

Civil cases regarding the former Salesian Dominguez were set to take place in January 2008, but when Judge Haley Fromholz retired late last year, the Salesian jury trials moved to Dept. 308, Central Civil West Courthouse, 600 South Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, Judge Emilie H. Elias.

The Dominguez Jury Trial is now on calendar for August 25, 2008. (we’ll see. . .)
=======

JOSE LUIS URBINA
Has served as a priest in his hometown parish in Navojoa, Mexico, for more than a decade.

While in the Sacramento diocese, Urbina molested a boy over a period of several years. In one episode, he pointed a gun at the boy before raping him. Urbina admitted guilt and was convicted of sex molest of a minor in 1989.

Urbina left the country before sentencing.
====

NICOLAS AGUILAR
According to: Houston Chronicle
Nicolas Aguilar is believed to be hiding out in his native Puebla state, where witnesses say he surfaces occasionally to officiate Mass and sell religious music outside churches.

In 1997, he was charged with sexually abusing four boys in the state, according to Mexican news reports.

Aguilar was convicted on one count in 2004, but the Mexican judge waived the sentence, citing the statute of limitations.

In Mexico the statute of limitations on sex crime charges expires in some cases after a year.


In 1987, got a fresh start in Southern California, after he developed problems in his home parishes in Mexico. Nine months later, he was back in Mexico again. He left behind a reputation as one of the fastest pedophiles in LA Archdiocese.

In California, police say Aguilar molested at least 26 boys. There were more matters was pending in Mexico, even after his conviction in 2003.

Cardinal Rivera famously wrote to Cardinal Mahony in a letter dated March 17, 1988. "I can tell you that the (Fr. Aguilar ) was in San Sebastian Cuacnopalan parish for over 10 years, and surely the police there can find much information."

From: The Dallas Morning News, June 22, 2004

By 1997, Father Aguilar was back in his home Diocese of Tehuacan, working on the outskirts of town. His base was the chapel of San Vicente Ferrer, a spare, concrete building in San Nicolas Tolentino Parish.

One day, a 12-year-old boy who'd become active in the parish ran away. His frantic parents found him at a relative's house 75 miles away, where he'd gone by bus with a 14-year-old friend.

The son told his father why he ran: Father Aguilar had been molesting him for months, according to the boy's statement to police. Soon, his friend and two other boys said Father Aguilar had abused them, too.

=====

GERARDO BELTRAN
Disappeared in 1991 after Sacramento police began investigating allegations that he molested two young girls. Beltran was known to be serving as a priest in a remote region of southern Mexico as of March 2005.

A CBS 13 (Sacramento) investigation revealed that Beltran has been hiding out in the tiny village of Igualita, Mexico for more than a dozen years.

The people of Igualita told CBS 13 numerous stories of how they believe Gerardo Beltran continues to molest children there.

Their investigation also revealed that 15 years after filing charges against Beltran the Sacramento county district attorney's office, headed by Jan Scully, has still not filed the necessary paperwork with federal authorities to have Beltran arrested by Mexican police and extradited back to the United States.

FROM the CBS 13 Website:

One week before we flew to Mexico, A CBS 13 producer placed a phone call to Igualita Mexico and personally spoke to Beltran. Beltran's name is engraved on the front of the only church in Igualita. More than a dozen people who live in Igualita confirmed to us, on-camera and off-camera, that Beltran has been living there and saying mass there for more than a dozen years.

Scully also writes none of statements about Beltran's alleged conduct in the village of Iqualita, Mexico made by the people of that village appear to be reliable. Margarito Leon Merino chief of police in Igualita told us that not only is Beltran suspected by many in Igualita of molesting children there for years, but that villagers were so concerned they tried to meet with their bishop to have Beltran removed from their village, but the bishop refused to meet with them.

Then there's Juan Leon Aviles, the Assistant Police Chief who told us that he and others in Igualita believe Beltran impregnated his daughter when she was 17-years-old.

=====

FIDENCIO SIMON SILVA
Accused of abuse of boys from 1979-1985. Criminal charges dropped due to Supreme Court ruling in 2003.

Believed to be in Mexico.

He molested at least 15 persons at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Oxnard from 1977 to 1992.

15 plaintiffs in the recent LA cases had claims against him from that Oxnard parish from 1977 to 1992.

June 30th 1993 Silva was assigned tto Hispanic Young Adult Ministry in the Archdiocese's Office of Hispanic Ministry, residing in Long Beach.. . .
====

XAVIER OCHOA
Sonoma County district attorney's office prepared a criminal complaint and requested an arrest warrant for Sonoma priest, Francisco Xavier Ochoa

He was charged with committing lewd acts against three underage boys.

Ochoa, 67, is believed to be in Mexico.


The complaint alleges 10 felony offenses and one misdemeanor offense, including forcible sodomy and forcible oral copulation, against three alleged victims between 1988 and the present.

Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said Ochoa faces life in prison if convicted of the offenses against two or more victims.

Ochoa admitted the most recent alleged sexual assault at a meeting with Santa Rosa Diocese Bishop Daniel Walsh and other priests on April 28 and Ochoa was relieved of his duties, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. Ochoa then left for Mexico and arrived by May 4.

From: CBS 5 [Santa Rosa CA]
June 22, 2006


Onward. . .

*SNAP is Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

So Cal children in danger thanks to early release of pedophile priest Carlos Rodriguez from Norco Prison last Sunday

*****
By Kay Ebeling
Pedophile priest Carlos Rodriguez was released from Norco Prison east of Los Angeles Sunday January 20th, after serving 3 years and 8 months of an 8 year 8 month sentence for child molestation. Rodriguez was released to the Huntington Park parole office jurisdiction and is known to have extended family in nearby City of Commerce.

“I found out Friday and he was released on Sunday,” said Rodriguez crime victim Eric Barragan, who lives in Mexico City. “I got the call from California’s Victims office. They gave me these 800 numbers that I couldn't call from Mexico, so I called SNAP and they organized this event.”

The SNAP press conference took place Tuesday afternoon January 22, and was attended by 3 survivors, a survivor’s mom, and 4 news reporters, two with cameras. Across the street an ecology group bussed in more than a hundred protesters and a parking lot full of reporters covered their demonstration. They were protesting plastic bags. They had a six foot tall sculpture made from used plastic bags and signs with pictures of a dead seal, beached and strangled by plastic bags in the ocean. . .

Hundreds of protesters across the street because of seals in the ocean and plastic bags, a handful at the LA “cathedral” to protest the early release from prison of a pedophile priest turned loose once again on LA thanks to the lax tactics and blatant neglect of the catholic archdiocese and the criminal justice system in California.

The SNAP announcement read:

WHAT:
At a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will:

--Blast Gov. Schwarzenegger and state officials for the proposal to let criminals out of jail early,

--Prod them to keep child molesters locked up for their full terms, and,

--Urge Cardinal Roger Mahony to use his considerable resources to warn his flock about a newly-released predator priest and any other clergy who may be released from incarceration.

Joelle Casteix from SNAP said to City of Angels blog:

“The public needs to have information about where Carolos Rodriguez is living, what are the limitations of his parole, if he’s wearing a GPS bracelet.”

Someone pointed out to me Todd Tamberg, the LA archdiocese PR front man, standing on archdiocese grounds watching us, but a guy in a red jacket kept blocking my view of Tamberg’s face. . .

“We want Cardinal Mahony to do whatever is in his power, in his communications, in his radio spots, because all his flock need to be warned about this dangerous man,” said crime victim Eric Barragan.

I glanced over and Tamberg was laughing at some joke with Red Jacket, totally out of earshot, totally not caring what we were saying, totally preoccupied with protecting their grounds from we pedophile priest crime victims still seeking justice from the sidewalk outside.

Barragan continued: "We are not asking Cardinal Mahony, but demanding of Cardinal Mahony, that he announce to the communities, specifically the Latino community, and this county and this archdiocese, that this is a very dangerous man who worked with a lot of families, at the Office of Family Life in Santa Barbara.

“Carlos Rodriguez had access to a lot of families, so they all need to be warned that he has been released from prison and that he poses a threat to the community where he was released and where he used to work, which is Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara County.

“Mahony has to do whatever is in his power in his communications, in his radio spots, that all the flock need to be warned about this dangerous man.”

QUESTION FROM NEWS PERSON: How do you feel?

BARRAGAN: I’m very angry and I’m very upset because I was notified only two days before he was being released. And of course the community right now is at a greater risk because of these actions.

COFA: Do you have any idea where he went when he was released?

I understand that he was released from Norco but from what I understand his whole family moved out of the City of Commerce area where he lived. I don't know specifically where he’s going to go.

NOTE:
CITY OF ANGELS BLOG
Tracked down Rodriguez’ parole officer, at the Huntington Park area office
And will try to contact him by phone in the next day or two.


COFA: He had family in the City of Commerce area before?

BARRAGAN: Yes, that's actually where my family and I met him. I met his family, because they all lived in the City of Commerce. His family owned a home there and so he’s got little sisters and of course a lot of extended family.

“I know wherever he is,” Barragan said, “I know the tendency he had was to visit a lot of the families he worked, even after he was accused of sexually abusing their children. I found out that he was still visiting a lot of families in Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, and Los Angeles County, even though there was a legal process against him.

CofA: Wasn't he in prison before this, and released in 2003?

Barragan: Yes he was. Exactly, because of some of the victims here from Los Angeles.

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Carlos Rodriguez is one of the more prolific pedophiles who preyed in Southern California parishes in the eighties and nineties. Carlos Rodriguez’ case is yet another example of the church’s mishandling of pedophile priests -- with denial and disordered priorities

Rodriguez was ordained and came to St. Vincents Church in LA in the summer of 1986. By July of 1987 Father Rodriguez was in St. Luke Institute for “evaluation and treatment” after a report of “inappropriate conduct with a minor.” (see Assignments:
LA Archdiocesan Report Addendum 11.15.05; LA Times Database 4.20.06 )

When Rodriguez was released from St. Luke’s and went into after care --

The Catholic Church gave the known pedophile priest a job part time at the Office of Family Life in Santa Barbara. Until 1993 when he left the Vincentian community and “Archdiocese removes and denies request to renew faculties.”


Barragan began an impromptu press conference:

My name is Eric Barragan I’m a victim of Carlos Rodriquez who just yesterday was released from Norco Correctional Facility, after serving less than four years and less than 40 percent of his mandatory sentence of eight years and eight months as he was sentenced back in 2004.

And I’m very upset because I’m finding out that the governor, California Governor Schwarzenegger, in order to cut about $400 million dollars from his budget, is releasing a lot of inmates, and one of those happens to be a very dangerous pedophile that actually abused not only myself but my two brothers, and dozens of children here in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.


COFA: He had family in the City of Commerce area before?

Barragan: Yes, that's actually where my family and I met him. Well I met his family, because they all lived in the City of Commerce. From what I understand the family moved out of the area when he was incarcerated, so I don't know where specifically he moved to.

City of Angels Blog found out late this afternoon that Rodriguez was released to a parole officer in Huntington Park area, just blocks from City of Commerce.

Barragan continued: “Wherever he is, I know the tendency he had was to visit a lot of the families he worked with, even after he was accused of sexually abusing their children. I found out that he was still visiting a lot of families in Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, and Los Angeles County, even though there was a legal process against him.

COFA: WASN’T HE IN PRISON BEFORE AND THEN RELEASED?

Barragan: Yes he was. Some of the victims here from Los Angeles actually pressed criminal charges against him and he was incarcerated here in Los Angeles County. Because of the Stogner case in 2003, he was released.”

*****
From LA Daily News July 2003
By Michael Gougis
Los Angeles Daily News [California]
Downloaded to bishopaccountability July 1, 2003

“…Authorities freed more people facing decades-old charges of child molestation. . .
“…Victims of abuse by priests expressed their outrage at the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last week that overturned California's 1994 law retroactively lifting the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases….

“While prosecutors had used the law in high-profile investigations against priests accused of sex crimes decades ago, the ruling affected far more than clergy. ..

“In Los Angeles, a judge ordered former priest Carlos Rene Rodriguez, 46, who had been in custody for nine months, released on his own recognizance. Rodriguez is charged with eight felony counts stemming from alleged crimes that occurred between 1984 and 1986 when he was a priest assigned to St. Vincent's Church in Los Angeles.”


========

“A month after he was released in LA, there was a warrant out for his arrest,” Barragan said. “They couldn't find him he disappeared he was on the lam.”

“Luckily on my birthday in 2003 he was caught, incarcerated, and in April of 2004 he was sentenced to eight years eight months in prison.”

Barragan said that at that time “the judge ordered he had to serve a mandatory 80 percent sentence

“He wasn’t eligible for parole until after 80 percent of his time was served, but now under four years of him being in jail, he’s been released.”

“Rodriguez was released from Norco Correctional Facility, after serving less than four years and less than 40 percent of his mandatory sentence of eight years and eight months as he was sentenced back in 2004.

COFA: From what you remember, from your experience, do you feel there’s other crime victims of Father Carlos Rodriguez out there?

BARRAGAN: Definitely. He had access to a lot of families. He was working predominantly in the Latino Community in all three counties, Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

*****
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I don't know if I am a reporter or survivor when I go to these SNAP events, since well I am both a reporter and a survivor. SNAP events give me a kind of identity crisis --

This time I beat down any weird feelings by getting there early and going inside the cathedral first. I saw other people going in, it’s open during the day.

For years I could not go into a church as it would
double me over in stomach pain.

Even First Baptist Church of Hollywood gave me trouble as the building is the same architecture as a Catholic Church with the high beam ceilings and stained glass windows. I kept jerking to the side thinking I saw a confessional when I was there and finally had to quit going.

Sometimes I miss Mass and I’d like to get past the doubled over stomach pains…

So today I went inside the cathedral and felt nothing.

This building, this structure downtown LA is so barren and empty that there’s nothing there evil or good. So it can’t make me double over in pain. I went inside and caught the last half of noon time daily Mass.

A smattering of people, a lot of them tourists, walked in and out as the Mass went on.

Up on the altar a guy in red tunic with very wide sleeves waved his arms around.


They have this bizarre crucifix on the altar of the LA cathedral. Jesus hangs there, all black and moderne, his body skewed in and twisted in such anguish

he could be doing a Bob Fosse dance.


The music at noon time Mass was okay, the soprano was off key, the art is great to look at.

I’d like to have the run of the place some day and at one point felt like I might sometime in the future. . .

Came back outside and the SNAP press conference was just beginning:

Barragan:
I opened up an office of SNAP in Mexico City.

What? Tell me more.

He told me so much that it will have to wait until:

More about SNAP Mexico City next post.

Also coming soon, the story of Kathy Shaw and Abuse Tracker

PLUS WE WILL HAVE OUR OWN VIDEOS PRODUCED BY CITY OF ANGELS PRODUCTIONS IN FEBRUARY 2008


NEXT MONTH!!

Original City of Angels Videos running on the blog next month!

Onward. . .

Related stories at bishop accountability dot org under R for Rodriguez, etcetera
CALL: Target Crimes, LA DA's Office, to report sex crimes in the Catholic Church: Phone: (213) 974-5985

City of Angels Lady