It Ain't Just the Catholic Church

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Good-oh... then we're grand to both contribute to the thread designated 'It Ain't Just the Catholic Church'... so there's no problem and little fear of derangement.

Have a nice day.

[Apjp]

Equally it could be your motivation for selecting that particular heading for this thread that concerns me.

However- carry on as it is useful to point out whenever you are busy with the notion that child abuse is not confined to the RCC (which no-one has ever claimed) that none of the organisations you come up with have a policy of swearing victims to silence, ceremonies at which the predator is forgiven and the slate wiped clean or an internal transfer system which actively facilitates further attacks.

I'll be popping in on this thread from time to time just to point these salient facts out. If your purpose is not to convey some impression that the church is any different to Penn State or any other organisation employing paedophiles then I suppose you'll just have to offer up your suffering.

I'm not fooled by your motivation on this thread for one minute.

He has a point. The church is the only known global organization that threatens victims on a global and consistent scale to this day. It is also the only one mentioned on this or any other thread/news source I've read, or that I'm aware of that has a policy of covering up such abuses. The worst other organizations can do is collude(ie the Irish State), but the Church is on another scale of sickness altogether by facilitating such abuse with it's internal policies.

I definitely won't be raising kids here when the time comes for the sake of a communion/confirmation money. Just on that point alone, its worth raising your family elsewhere.

[Count Bobulescu]

Lest I be accused of covering for the RCC, there was another sex abuse conviction yesterday, also in Pa. and it was RCC, but got completely overshadowed by the Sandusky affair.

PHILADELPHIA — A Roman Catholic church official was convicted of child endangerment but acquitted of conspiracy Friday in a landmark clergy-abuse trial, making him the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up abuse claims.

Monsignor William Lynn helped the archdiocese keep predators in ministry, and the public in the dark, by telling parishes their priests were being removed for health reasons and then sending the men to unsuspecting churches, prosecutors said.

Lynn had faced about 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of all three counts he faced — conspiracy and two counts of child endangerment. He was convicted of only a single endangerment count, which carries a possible 3 1/2- to seven-year prison term.

The jury could not reach a verdict for Lynn’s co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, who was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1999.
Despite Lynn’s acquittal on the conspiracy charge, the trial exposed how deeply involved the late cardinal was in dealing with accused priests.

Bevilacqua had the final say on what to do with priests accused of abuse, transferred many of them to new parishes and dressed down anyone who complained, according to testimony. He also ordered the shredding of a 1994 list that Lynn prepared, warning that the archdiocese had three diagnosed pedophiles, a dozen confirmed predators and another 20 possible abusers in its midst.

Read more.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...y.html?hpid=z6

[Count Bobulescu]

Oops!

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Joe Paterno’s family and supporters are defending the late coach against a leak of apparently damaging material released during highly secretive investigations into former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Details from a decade-old email have raised new questions about whether the Hall of Fame coach tried to cover up a sex abuse complaint against Sandusky.
Former Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington laments that he did not pay closer attention to a young man he knew who testified he was abused by Jerry Sandusky.
With Paterno no longer able to come to his own defense, his family has fought back, with their lawyer accusing “someone in a position of authority” of trying to smear the late coach.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...y.html?hpid=z5

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Why are these investigations highly secretive? Or will it be one of those plays from the team which indicates they are only thinking of the victims where in reality they are using that strategy to try to suppress information?

[Count Bobulescu]

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A potentially explosive report into whether football coach Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials took steps to conceal that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was a child molester will be released Thursday — online for all to see, officials said Tuesday.

Attorneys for the university’s deposed president, meanwhile, broke a monthslong silence and denied suggestions that Graham Spanier participated in a cover-up with the image of Penn State and its powerful and lucrative football program at stake.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...saW_story.html

[Count Bobulescu]

They tried to save their reputations rather than the kids. Now we know, Joe Paterno lied.

Four of Penn State University’s most powerful leaders, including president Graham Spanier and head football coach Joe Paterno, covered up allegations of sexual abuse by an assistant coach because they were concerned about negative publicity, a team of investigators concluded in a report released Thursday following an eight-month probe.

Confronted with horrifying reports that Jerry Sandusky lured boys to the State College campus where he sexually abused them, Penn State’s leadership deferred to a “culture of reverence for the football program” and repeatedly “concealed Sandusky’s activities” from authorities, according to the investigation led by former FBI director Louis Freeh.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports...y.html?hpid=z1

[Count Bobulescu]

A lesson in the pitfalls of erecting statues to living people. I thought it was only dictators who did that.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The family of late coach Joe Paterno says the removal of his statue from outside Penn State’s football stadium “does not serve the victims” of the sex abuse scandal that has engulfed the university.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...x1W_story.html

[Andrew49]

US college sport authorities have fined Penn State University $60m (£39m) in the wake of child sex abuse perpetrated by a long-serving football coach. The university - a famous US football school - will be banned from competing for honours for four years, and lose all wins from 1998-2011. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) said the punishments were "corrective and punitive". Source

Interesting quote from NCAA President Mark Emmert:

"Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people. The sanctions needed to reflect our goals of providing cultural change."

Meanwhile the Catholic Church is STILL of the view that it will only report instances of abuse when reporting agrees with canon law!

[Count Bobulescu]

68 year old Sandusky was sentenced on Tuesday to 30-60 years, (not less than thirty to be served), effectively life. He plans to appeal.

[Count Bobulescu]

Equally it could be your motivation for selecting that particular heading for this thread that concerns me.

However- carry on as it is useful to point out whenever you are busy with the notion that child abuse is not confined to the RCC (which no-one has ever claimed) that none of the organisations you come up with have a policy of swearing victims to silence, ceremonies at which the predator is forgiven and the slate wiped clean or an internal transfer system which actively facilitates further attacks.

I'll be popping in on this thread from time to time just to point these salient facts out. If your purpose is not to convey some impression that the church is any different to Penn State or any other organisation employing paedophiles then I suppose you'll just have to offer up your suffering.

I'm not fooled by your motivation on this thread for one minute.

Given the Captain’s admonition I’m half afraid to post this, but in the the interests of truth I’ll be brave and steel myself to suffer his wrath if he catches me posting about non-RCC sex abuse.

Files allege sex abuse in Boy Scouts
L.A. Times is set to post exhaustive compilation of alleged sex offenders investigated by the Boy Scouts of America over the past several decades, including those from the Washington region.
( by Ian Shapira , The Washington Post)

The newspaper said it would release at 2:30 p.m. Eastern about 1,200 files dating from 1965 to 1985 that were ordered public by the Oregon Supreme Court. The release marks the first opportunity for people to comb through a vast number of alleged sex-crime reports filed internally with the Boy Scouts. The names of alleged victims will be redacted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...c=nl_headlines

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Are there 3,000 scout leaders involved in the abuse? Child abuse can happen in any organisation structured around children. Organisations to varying extent will be caught between the duty to report to the authorities any incidence and the desire to cover up such events.

We see that with the BBC also. However, as I undertook to do on this thread I will point out that the only known organisation still attempting to cover up its active policy of evading discovery to the point of having to defrock 3,000 priests around the world unavoidably, attempting to cover up the rest, delay till they die, attempting to buy off the abused on courthouse steps and an active policy of refusing to admit secular jurisdiction the catholic church remains the SS of organised child abuse in the world.

Thanks.

[Andrew49]

Are there 3,000 scout leaders involved in the abuse? Child abuse can happen in any organisation structured around children. Organisations to varying extent will be caught between the duty to report to the authorities any incidence and the desire to cover up such events.

We see that with the BBC also. However, as I undertook to do on this thread I will point out that the only known organisation still attempting to cover up its active policy of evading discovery to the point of having to defrock 3,000 priests around the world unavoidably, attempting to cover up the rest, delay till they die, attempting to buy off the abused on courthouse steps and an active policy of refusing to admit secular jurisdiction the catholic church remains the SS of organised child abuse in the world.

Thanks.

And in the ... 'painful Irish happenings' we have the Church involved in the physical torture of children, the starvation of children, the use of children as slave labour, the incarceration (sometimes for life) of women who bore children out of wedlock, the trafficking of these babies, the use of the mothers of these babies as slave labour in brutal laundries. Also, disturbingly, in Ireland we have the possibility that many women and children incarcerated in these institutions may have been victims of homicide.

In 1993, church property held by the Sisters of Charity in Dublin which once served as a convent laundry was to be sold back to the Republic for public use. It was discovered at that time that some 133 graves existed, unmarked, in a cemetery on the convent grounds. The graves belonged to women who had worked in the service of the convent all their lives, buried without notification to possible family...unmarked, unremembered. When the discovery was made, a cry arose in the streets of Dublin...families came forth to identify and claim some of the women as their long-lost daughters, mothers, grandmothers, and sisters. Yet many remained unidentified. At the time of the 1993 discovery, a memorial was established and the remaining, unclaimed bodies were to be cremated and reinterred in the Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin. But a problem arose: an initial exhumation order was given for 133 bodies, yet at time of exhumation, another 22 bodies were discovered.

There were no death certificates extant for many of these women (and their children, some of whom were also found buried on the High Park grounds). It is and has been illegal in many countries, including Ireland, to fail to report a death. One must wonder why — what has the Church to hide regarding these deaths?

Then there's the Institution (opened in 1930 and closed in 1970) that had the misfortune of losing [through death] half of their child detainees in the first year of its operation. The institution was expanded through the following years and a Warwickshire professor has worked it out that 2,400 children died over the 40 years of it's operation. There were many Institutions in Ireland like that one ... indeed one of the ones I was in it managed to produce THREE mass graves over its existence.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Can't see a better candidate thread for this update- on the Saville & BBC capers the Metropolitan Police have now launched a formal criminal inquiry; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20006049

'He added: "We are dealing with alleged abuse on an unprecedented scale. The profile of this operation has empowered a staggering number of victims to come forward to report the sexual exploitation which occurred during their childhood.

"I am pleased that victims feel confident enough to speak out about the abuse they suffered and would like to reassure the public that we take all these cases very seriously and they will be investigated with the utmost sensitivity."

They've decided not to have a an 'Enquirocommissiobunal' like in Ireland. Straightforward criminal inquiry.

[Ephilant]

Does it surprise you?

On order of the Oregon Supreme Court, files containing over 14,500 pages detailing child sex abuse in the US Boy Scouts between 1959 and 1985 were released yesterday. According to the evidence released, an array of US local authorities - police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and town Boy Scout leaders among them - quietly shielded scoutmasters and others who allegedly molested children. Portland attorney Kelly Clark blasted the Boy Scouts for their continuing legal battles to try to keep the full trove of files secret.
The files highlight some disturbing patterns. In many instances police were simply not told about the alleged abuse. Welfare of Scouts who were allegedly abused by their leaders doesn't feature very high in the documents either. However

In a letter to the local districts Scouts executive, the prosecutor in a 1961 case involving 2 men, and all the evidence needed (including admission of guilt by the 2 men) wrote:

I came to the decision that to openly prosecute would cause great harm to the reputations of two organizations which we have involved here - the Boy Scouts of America and the local YMCA

Nobody was prosecuted!

There are however numerous documents showing compassion for suspected abusers, who were often times sent to the local pastors to get help....
In 1972, a Pennsylvania Scouting executive wrote a memo recommending a case against a suspected abuser be dropped with the words: "If it don't stink, don't stir it."

The US Boy Scouts fought the release of these papers for over a year in every court going. It was thanks to the tenacity of Portland prosecutor Kelly Clark that the papers finally were released yesterday. Clark got to see the papers last year when a landmark lawsuit against the Boy Scouts for molestation in the 80's of then plaintiff was won.