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Subscribe to RSSFour clergy sex abuse cases will cost the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles nearly $10 million, a law firm representing the alleged victims announced Tuesday.
The cases, in which settlements were reached ranging from $995,000 to $4,000,000, allege that former priest Michael Baker repeatedly molested four victims beginning in the 1970s, and that Cardinal Roger Mahony knew of Baker's criminal behavior and allowed him to continue as a priest.
“These cases against former priest Michael Baker are symbolic of the sex abuse scandals that rocked the Los Angeles Archdiocese under Cardinal Roger Mahony,” lawyers for the alleged victims said in a statement.
Two of the now settled cases involving Baker were set to go to trial next month. A judge had said attorneys for the plaintiffs could pursue punitive damages.
In 2007, Baker was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to 12 counts of molestation against young boys. In 2011, he was released with credit for time served.
Mahony is currently in Rome helping to select the next pope.
J. Michael Hennigan, an attorney for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, said Mahony is aware of the settlement and the cardinal acknowledges that mistakes were made. He confirmed that the total settlement was for $9.9 million.
"The Archdiocese has always taken full responsibility for Michael Baker's actions, it was just a matter of agreeing on a number," said Hennigan. "We're happy to move passed this."
Mahony — who retired as head of the L.A. Archdiocese in 2011 and was stripped of his remaining diocesan duties in January — has repeatedly apologized for the handling of the sex abuse scandal.
But he again found himself the subject of scrutiny after publishing blog posts referring to himself as a scapegoat amid calls for him to abstain from attending the papal conclave.
Lawyers for the victims said they will hold a press conference Thursday in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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The Catholic church is LA's largest organized crime family, and largest child terrorist organization, sending out child rapists, protecting them at al costs, and terrorizing children, and getting a billion followers to think that's cool.
All in God's name.
And that's exactly What Satan Would Do.
Are they really changing the name to Cath-Lick ?
That is some rich-ass church alright. Wow, look at all those millions from them stupid parishioners that don't have @!$%#!
The RCC is the largest crime syndicate in the world.
The Catholic Church is a road block to progress as a society.
How many children in LA go hungry every day? How many children in LA are homeless? And the the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles can afford to pay out $10 MILLION? What is wrong with that picture?
Hello folks, I see it's business as usual in the Catholic Church.
In 2007 the Los Angeles Archdiocese on July 15 agreed to pay more than 500 alleged victims a total of $660 million. The abuse continues and the wealthy Vatican is easily able to cover these claims. The Vatican even has insurance policies to cover these operating costs.
Pedophile priests have molested innocent children in the Roman Catholic Church probably since the beginning of the church. These pedophiles have been protected and their horrendous crimes against children have gone unpunished. It is amazing to me that there are over a billion Catholics. I guess acceptance of pedophilia in the church is the cost of salvation!
The RCC is a pedophile protection racket.
The religious bashers are having a hay-day with this crap. I do not condone the despicable sins of these sick priests, I would suggest that all of you pull the plank out of your own eye first.
Judge not, lest yea be judged. The Catholic church and these priests will have their day before God, just as you and I.
10 million settlement huh......?....Oh look...the vatican is blowing out smoke....!....Right up your a$$!!!!
look at all the damge they have done to children.....had they not hired and protected pedophiles....that money could be used for feeding the poor and starving children of the world....NAW...It still would be needed for building bigger churches and buying more party hats and costumes and gold thingys for their alters....!
Back in my younger days in Catholic school, the priest and nuns always preached we were supposed to "turn the other cheek." Guess they had something else in mind other than not fighting......
Johnny
If I was accused of rape dozens of times, you would judge me.
This is not an isolated incident. It is frequent throughout the church.
So what are you REALLY worshipping?
Guess they don't call it the cock-lick church for nothing..
Just a note for all of the Catholic Haters religious or not, who have made their comments.
Seventy-five percent of all
Sexual abuse by the clergy in the United States is committed by clergymen and women not affiliated with
the Catholic Church. "Let He who is without sin, cast the first stone"
I feel like casting a stone directly at your face.
Wake the f&@k up...
1. all religions are a joke, the catholic church is no worse than the rest. some protestant "minister" (whatever that is, since any idiot can get a certificate off a want ad in the back of the national enquirer and start his own "church") is on trial for torturing a teenage boy with pliers on his nipples and making him dig his own grave in the desert. and a sheriff deputy is charged with not reporting it. good luck getting a settlement from that psycho.
2. the catholic church has been around since christ so i hope they have some money. i have to laugh when the haters here see nothing wrong with that piece of sh*t jimmy swaggert or that b*tch who started the crystal cathedral lining their pockets by threatening poor seniors with going to hell if they dont pay up. you really think that simpering clown joel osteen isnt in it for the bucks?
3. if the catholic church was the only problem, why are they finding so many molesters among boy scout leaders and girls athletic coaches? you know, didnt they have some problem with that coach from, ah, was it penn state? yeah, we need to get rid of all those colleges!
4. i think a lot of these "damaged" boys are just fags anyway. i know if some older guy, priest, coach, uncle, etc, wanted to pull my pants down when i was 12, i would been outta there. but if sister mary or one of these hot 20 something teachers they have boning students today had wanted to abuse me, i wouldnt have turned her in unless she wanted to quit putting out.
antireagan - I see you have some serious issues here. I'm assuming that it stems from being touched when you were small. I'm sorry for that...
1) Religion is not a joke. The problem comes from not living what a person is suppose to. If these religious leaders would have been living the Gospel, this would have never happened.
2) When someone donates / pays money to their Church, how does that hurt you? No one is asking you to pay anything. A lot of donated money goes toward charities, like feeding the poor, helping people during rough times, etc. Religious charities are funded by people that want to make a difference. You seem angry but you don't give yourself. It is easier to poke sticks and be a hypocrite than to give yourself.
3) You are right on this one. Pedophiles are every where, in every church, not in churches, every business / career, in every race.
4) This is the one that shows you as unstable and probably an abuser yourself. Victims are never at fault. Not only were some of these victims unable to physically defend against or stop these horrible acts but their mental capacity as children is not the same as an adult. In one breath you attack the predator and in the next you attack the victim. I hope you never know that pain that you mock.
PS In the end it doesn't matter what others do. You will be judged according to your own sins.
There's an old saying. When you go to church the devil is the first one through the door. Just shows there's truth in some sayings.
Antireagan wrote:
Pssst - you blew the credible points in your post. I agreed with much of what you said; yes, there seems to be a climate of what can be perceived as misplaced protectionism in many churches and organizations when it comes to pedophilia, brought on by these entities trying to avoid legal pursuits.
However, to turn around and blame the victims, call them F*** is disgusting. First, you obviously have hatred for gay people; shame on you. Second, how many altar GIRLS have you known? Last time I checked, only young males were selected for that position within the Catholic church (that whole patriarchal thing). As an adult you can sit in your chair and assert had someone approached you with the intent to molest, you would have been "outta there", but that's a pretty safe thing to say. Chances are, you could have been just as much a victim as they are; mentally and physically overpowered, emotionally manipulated. See, those are the true elements of peodphilia, not sexual orientation.
Then you top it all off by stating you wouldn't have minded being a victim of a nun or teacher = pedophilia! You may have stated that last comment in jest, but somehow I don't think you are, particularly because you quantified it with a threat to have turned in the "hot" pedophile if she stopped putting out. You may want to get some antibiotic ointment for those knuckles of yours.
I think it is unconscionable that the Cardinal is still participating in the conclave this week. Knowingly turning a blind eye to child molestation should strip him of his priesthood as well. These molesters could not commit crimes against children if the people around them would step up and stop them.
How can someone who has allowed children to be hurt be worthy to "elect" God's mouth piece? (I am not Catholic, and the idea that any man "elects" God's mouth piece it insulting to God himself, anyway.) But putting someone in that room guilty of complicity to child molestation is disgusting!
Although I don't support the catholic church or any church, child molestation is not just a catholic problem. What makes it a catholic problem is that they have money to pay. Ever try to get an attorney to sue someone without insurance or deep pockets? It won't happen! However it doesn't mean the crime didn't happen. Money makes the news not the crime, crime happens everyday without publishing but rarely happens without publishing if it involves big dollars.
Cathy - The Catholic Church has had female Alter Servers (as they are called today) for at least ten years.
Why is Mohony in Rome and not in jail!!!!!!!
I praise these kids for their strengh of telling their stories, and I respect the grown up men and women, who has come forward telling their horrible experiences in sexual abuse at the hands of perverts who abuse their positions of authority.
I'm so glad they came forward! They have brought awareness to our kids, how much our kids need to be protected, and how vulnerable they are! They are giving kids a loud voice!
The faithful will need to pony up big time to pay the claims of their corrupt church.
Put your money in the collection plate, Catholics, and pray your kid won't be the next victim.
As I'm neither a child molester nor a pretender to represent god, here's your stone!
Millions of kids raped and church leaders protecting these pedophiles for decades and there's still people defending these animals. What a sad state of affairs.
New Gawker - and who is defending them?
kaybeetoys - so what you are saying, since there are some bad people out there all catholics are guilty of their sins by association? Catholics should all stop being good people and doing good works for Christ because of sinners? BTW, you are a sinner to and you just through the stone....interesting you brought that biblical quote up
Let's see now according to the catholic church sex before marriage is a sin, but child molestation is not.
Yeah thats real healthy...not and the very same Cardinal who covered this up is over in Rome voting for the new
Pope ???? you catholics make sheep look very independent...talk about brainwashed.
Yep. That's exactly what I'm saying. Catholics either support the corruption in their church hierarchy or they don't...and it looks like they're continuing to tolerate it. Am I wrong?
You must believe that the only way to be a good person and do good works is through the Catholic Church, as you were doubtless taught.
Here's another useful quote:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." ~ Edmund Burke
Have the courage to decide within yourself what is GOOD and JUST. That is true morality.
Jack: "How do you get a nun pregnant?"
Jill: "Dress her up like an altar boy."
How long will it take to get this comment collapsed? Let's start a pool. I pick 10 minutes.
I agree with kaybeetoys, any priest,bishop or cardinal who had knowledge of these crimes and covered it up, should be defrocked, stripped of their standing and booted out of the church and any legal proceedings due them.
Instead they are over in Rome voting for the Pope. It is quite clear the catholic religion considers child rape
an embarrasment, just like a few higher ups at Penn st did...got news for you catholics..ITS A CRIME.
Moral people (not Catholics) who are reading these boards should just look at a Catholic site from time to time. The commentators there DEFEND the pedophiles on their own sites.
It will be one of the most heart breaking things you'll see online. Catholics twisting their brains into every type of pretzel logic to defend a pedophile or his protector.
Catholics are far too silent on this issue. Shame on them all. All.
Atheist-6939529
Please give the addresses of a few of these sites, so I can see for myself.
Here are the words of a high profile priest on a Catholic site (EWTN) Fr. Benedict Groeschel who said this about the pedophiles (just last year in 2012).
"People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to- a psychopath. But that's not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown and a youngster comes after him. Alot of the cases, the youngster 14-16-18 is the seducer."
THIS IS WHAT A PRIEST is telling his Catholics on TV! That particular broadcast gets even more evil. But there you have it. A Catholic on a Catholic site defending pedophiles. You can do the homework and find the rest of it if you are so inclined.
Put that in your thurible and smoke it! What would it take for you to walk away? Get help. You are not a free thinker. I left Catholicism. You can be good, moral, and free without the need of the Church!
Links, man, links. There is no PedoPriestApologists.com site up --- I checked --- so we need some URLs.
Horace and Leonard = blindly faithful.
I realize this post isn't politically correct, but, when a single male, wants to be a priest, shouldn't that be a red flag and require extra scrutiny?
Speaking of Red Flags. You would think there would have been a BIG RED FLAG, when a drug using,
lying, muslim homosexual, ran for office in the United States, and the majority of Americans voted
for him.
Maybe all of us should quit hating and pray for the survival of this once great country.
Atheist, you are correct about Catholic priests claiming they were seduced by children. They refer to them as 'black widow children'.
As for the previous comment, you do not know truth and you do not represent truth.
Only a complete and utter moron aka republican would find an article about priest raping boys and use it to attack the POTUS.
Preying upon the congregational members by taking their contributions, much of which is from weak mined poor who could really use the money rather than give to the church, making them pay for the paedophile priest who molest and rape their children to boot. Sickness within the church and sickness of the mind to believe the fantasy teachings of the Bible, which is a myth.
Ten million dollars is chump change for the Vatican Crime Syndicate. The Roman Catholic Church is sitting tens of trillions of dollars in tax-free donations.
Tens of trillions? Where do you get this figure Butterfly Image? From your minds eye?
$10,000,000,000,000.00
The Church has been hoarding wealth for about 1700 years. $10 trillion is not unreasonable
Mahony should have been thrown in jail right along side of his pedophile buddy!
Agreed.
One has to wonder where Baker is today? Is he on the registered sex offender list in what ever state he found a rock to crawl under? And just think...... Baker "resigned" from the priesthood under pressure from the archdiocese. He was not kicked out..... not even ex-communicated from the RCC. There is no upside to the RCC and pedophilia. You cannot find a story where they have willingly done the right thing.
As far as I am concerned (as a former catholic no less) every parishioner out there that goes into a RCC church, gives of their money, time and effort, are aiding and abetting this criminal behavior. If every single person stopped walking through those doors the RCC would soon change their tune. Money talks.
You're a sinner if you're homosexual. You're going to h_ll if you have an abortion, have sex outside of marriage, or use birth control. But if you're a pedophile, then I guess you deserve to be forgiven. I try to be tolerant of people I have differences of opinion with...and then I read a story like this and feel outraged! The hypocrisy is unbelievable.
God will forgive anything except and look it up. Homosexuality is an abomination to Him. He doesn't say that of any other sin. And these people are phedophiles ad as such should be in a prison if not stonedl And they let them out on time served so they can go to the conclave and vote. Totally disgusting. If I had a child in that church, believe they would not be there longl. And while we are ate it You receive salvation from God thru Christ not by drinking the blood of Christ that they think the priest has to power to turn it into. Sorry just plain old wine from a bottle. What do you call that???? Nothing. And most of the priest also have drinking problems. It goes on and on. Talk about an abomination to God.
Ah, Carolyn - where to begin? The Bible is a book written (and re-written) by MAN. Christianity is actually one of the youngest organized religions being practiced today. Chances are you could pick up a few Humanities texts at your local universities' used book store for a few bucks.
More than anything, however, your post magnifies the hypocrisy within Christianity: you are all supposed to be followers of Christ, yet you back stab other denominations within the religion. Classic.
I could not agree more. The RCC would collapse overnight if it were not propped up by the sheep that blindly, fearfully support that corrupt, money-grubbing and power-hungry institution.
Babylon the Great
You got that right!!
Yes it is part of Babylon in the last days. The religiigous end of Babylon.
The sad thing about this is that the Catholic fold will still follow the church as if this never happened. How they can blindly believe that priests have some connection to a supreme being is beyond me. Defies simple logic/intelligence. If priests at the time of ordination were truly elevated to some supernatural state, it would be impossible for them to be pedophiles. Yet the church has institutionalized pedophilia.
$10 million is only a small percent of what has been paid and what will be paid in the future.
first of all texas, priests are not elevated to supreme beings. They are teachers. And I am disgusted by what happened in LA. Mahonie should not be allowed in the conclave. I am ashamed that he is there but it does not change my beliefs. We cannot get rid of an entire church because some have gone bad. If that were the case we wouldn't have schools, churches of any sort, Penn State, boy scouts, little league, etc. etc. Yes, each of these organizations had cover-ups. I do agree though that any cardinal that knew of abuse shouldn't be involved in picking the new pope..They should be out of a job as well. For those of you sick of it all, turn the channel and don't look at the website. I have to do it all the time.
saneg, they ALL know about the abuses and are all involved in protecting these pedophiles.
Jail time for all involved. Nothing less is justice. 10 years, not enough.
$10 mil, not enough, should have been $20 mil.
Please join FFRF and help fight religious idiocy. FFRF.ORG
Yes, TL, the fine should have brought that diocese to its knees. Send a message of "never more." The only way to do that is to break the bank. $100 million may have worked.
Except that would have left all the other victims in the LA Diocese without any recourse for justice. These 4 are just the tip of the iceberg since Mahony himself admits that he helped cover up the crimes of at least 122 pedophile priests, many of whom are known to have raped multiple children.
http://clergyfiles.la-archdiocese.org/listing.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/cardinal-mahony-priest-abuse-files.html
And they will let him pick the next pope?
And this is exactly why myself and many Catholics will never step into another church or give them another dime until all of this, and I mean all of this stops. The next Pope better clean house and get it together or he will be the last Pope.
Good luck with that. Even the papal candidate who supposedly has the cleanest hands on this issue, Cardinal Tagle, has said that he wouldn't call the cops if he learns about a pedophile priest because "it causes too much harm."
The church simply doesn't get it.
That's because they were more interested in protecting the power structure than the people they tended to. And to be fair the church in the US didn't hide this from the Vatican. The Vatican was informed in the 70's about this sort of thing happening and they instructed that nothing be done about it. You should really check out Mea Maxima Culpa. I believe this is the reason that Pope John Paul II has been put on the fast track to sainthood. Who would call a man who knowingly let pedophiles have their way with the children of the flock and actively covered it up a saint? I sure wouldn't.
skrekk,
I hadn't heard that. Wow. You do know that they take an oath NOT to bring scandal to the Church. Just think of the mindset needed to even consider concocting an oath like that.
How about we take an oath to be moral? I doubt such an oath even exists.
Here's a link:
In other words, don't call the cops and don't notify the public that there's a pedophile in their midst.
The Mormons are just as f@#%ing sick!
There is nothing worst than a priest molesting a child. And Cardinal Mahony is a disaster to the Catholic for not dealing severly with these degenerates wearing robes. They are all going to hell and Mahony should not be in Rome picking a Pope. He should have been sent to Devils Island with the rest of those degenerates.
The priest no more believe in a heaven or hell, much less an all powerful god than Jim & Tammy Baker fleecing their flock for $millions. The RCC has been doing this for the past 1,600 years +/-.
How about you sending me a couple $million and I'll put in a good word for you with the Supreme Being. Has to be the world's oldest scam.
Which came first, religion or prostitution? It's a trick question.
This is why I have such a hard time with religion. I will just have faith and believe, but I will do it my own way without going to a church. I personally believe you should just be a good person and that's all you need to do to go to heaven (if there is a heaven; one never really knows).
WHY is the Roman Catholic Church even relevant? This abuse of kids should put a huge number of priests in jail for life! If one of those kids were my child, all hell would break loose!
I take it you aren't Catholic. Catholic parents are probably very afraid to question a priest, even if rape is involved. As crazy as that sounds, how can it be otherwise? Do you know there was a fundraiser in LA to ask money to help fund the Church's legal fund? These are the kinds of people moral people are trying to understand. What I'm learning is that there is no understanding evil.
If someone attempted to hurt even my spaniel, I would put a stop to it immediately. Why aren't Catholics speaking up?
Atheist,
Catholics are speaking out, that's how this is was uncovered. You also need to search the web, catholics have protested around the world, look at the decline in catholic following in Ireland. From your handle it's pretty obvious you won't be satisfied until the church is gone entirely.
If these victims really just want the church to do what's right, why is the church paying them so much money? Just saying. I haven't seen any Catholic sites defending pedophiles but really, who's looking? It's a very sad time for the Catholic church but as Christians, we should pray for them.
And pray for them u should, after all it isn't ur kid they raped, right? Christians have done MORE damage in this world than ANY despot, it's in the genes. WTF, monetary payment does NOT make the nightmares, the PTSD, the self-WORTHLESSNESS that results from these MF's pumping little boys and girls. The swiftest and most reliable way to end this is to start giving them the execution sign as their Roman ancestors gave to the brave and honorable Gladiators. People are people first, with all the faults, but once a menace is found, it should be immediately irradicated. If they were a rabid dog running loose in your neighborhood biting people, would u pray for them or shoot them? I would should first, last and always, let's stop F..... aroung with these degenerates and eliminate the problem. Have a nice day, God loves you!
The CC is more like organized crime than a church -- hiding/shielding criminals, hiding money -- secrecy and hoards of money with a small group of men engaged in secret votes to select the next "god" father (so to speak) ...
On top of that the Vatican bank refuses to disclose information that all other banks would disclose....
Sounds criminal to me ...
Yes ! I am sure every Catholic who has given 10% of their earnings to the Church as a tithe is just thrilled that 10 million went towards paying off the crimes of a Member of the Clergy. Yeah ! Catholics!,, you go guys!
The Catholic Church and it's contributing parishioners should consider closing all of their hospitals and charitable organizations and let the people they help fend for themselves or rely on the atheists and generous democrats for assistance. I would like to see how that works.
Amen brother. For all of you atheist's and catholic bashers on here do me a favor, next time you need emergency care please don't go to a St. Jude, St. Joseph, St. Mary hospital etc, ask the EMT to take you somewhere else. Yes there is a major problem with the church, walking away from it isn't the solution. If we used that mind set I guess I need to start looking for another country to live in.
One priest. Most priests are not pedophiles despite what the preponderance of bloggers think. I grew up with 3 priests in our parish. They were all decent individuals. One priest and everyone smears the priesthood. How many pedophiles are in the same field of work that you are. I know there was at least one engineer and I are an engineer who was a pedophile. I worked with him. We both applied for the same job and he got it because he was seen as more straight laced than I was and a much more responsible individual. Months later he got arrested for molesting young boys that he would take on camping trips with his church group. No it wasn't a Catholic church group. It was a Protestant one.
The issue isn't that some priests rape children, the issue is that the Catholic church conspired to cover up the crime and never once called the cops.
That's why the church just paid $10 million to only 4 victims (of countless other victims just in the LA Diocese).
First, I agree with you, not all priests are pedophiles and, yes, pedophiles may be found in any occupation, teacher, physician, priest, etc.
That being said, this is not about "one priest." In fact, attempting to frame it as such only perpetuates the real problem. This mess was brought about by a number of priests, over a number of years. Further, the Church received a number of complaints over those years and, as has been documented in some cases, merely moved those priests around in response, or covered it up actively.
So, it is not "one priest" that has people angry. It is a long-entrenched systematic response of ignoring (which in turn enables) multiple priests engaged in the on-going abuse of children. A claim of "one priest" is, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, harmful to the broader societal problem here.
Denial not only fails to address the root problem, it allows that problem the ability to grow. Had it truly been "one priest" and had the Church responded to the problem of that priest in a manner that protected the victims, not only would the Church not be facing multiple large settlements and ligation, you would also not see the anger evidenced so often in public forums toward the Church with regard to the abuse these children tragically endured.
Ludvig,
You're not very good at this whole subject are you? Read what skrekk wrote. And then read it again. And perhaps read it then once more.
Got it? Tell your friends. Onto ignore you go, you backhanded defender of evil.
When you think of Hitler you think of Jewish people being murdered when you think of priests you think of pedophilia Yes it's that simple. If you don't want to be known for bad things don't do them.
When I think of former democratic presidents, I think of Bill Clinton and Monica in the oval office.
That simple.
Hey, Bill screwed Monica, but Bush screwed us ALL!
ludvig:
The significant fact here is the cover-up, which allowed the abusive behavior to continue. Same thing that happened at Penn State, and they paid too. I had a skating coach who turned out to be a pedophile...no club or skating association defended or protected him, and he went to jail. The Catholic Church, as an institution, hid what they knew was going on, and how many more children were molested as a result. Come to think of it, didn't the boy scouts have a similar problem, and also sweep it under the rug? The more it's covered up, the more it will continue. The Church was wrong, wrong, wrong.
red wing, I knew someone somehow would make this Clinton's fault. Maybe you should go back to a Catholic president, say it's John Kennedy's fault why don't you?
Pathetic people got to be pathetic.
Homo / pedophile Priests are effing EXPENSIVE!!! I'm sure God is VERY proud. Morons.
"Mistakes were made."
Really? An ethical person would have called the cops rather than conspiring to cover up the rape of children. That's not a "mistake", that's pure evil and a criminal conspiracy.
See the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State.
The entire university suffered because of a few people not reporting what they knew was happening in their organization. That blind eye thingy can be costly as well as being immoral.
Well done Cath-Licks. All churches (organized crime) should pay taxes !!!!!!
Amen!
What is of God will be GOOD what is of Satan will be HORRID and full of sin. This just can not be denied.
So, being punked in the a&& by a person you are to respect and admire is actually a good thing? Is that what you're saying?
Just sit back, or bend over, and think of heaven, angels and unicorns and such?
awabnavi - are the priest on the good or horrid side of your equation? You're either for adolescent rape by a religious authoritative person or you're against having your priest, prince of the church, diddling your son or daughter. Which is it?
@ awabnavi -- So, instead of being angry at the pedophile priests or their superiors who turned a blind eye and covered up the abuse of children...instead you prefer to pin the blame on "Satan"? Is that what you are saying?
Satan runs the catholic church!
Rape and pedophalia are only two things he's good at......leave the rest to the @!$%#ing church!
I am no longer a practicing "Catholic" This is the main reason why. Children are being brutalized and raped by these priests. Their superiors know it...cover it...and look the other way. This Cardinal knew this was going on and did nothing about it. Obviously the Vatican doesn't care cause this Cardinal who turned and looked the other way....is at the Vatican helping to select another Pope. We need another commandment: "Thou shalt not molest a child."
Cindy I knew a bishop for many years. We went for dinner one night (he was actually a decent guy from what I knew of him though just this year evidence is coming out he had "concerns" over certain priests as was found in his notes left for the next bishop to take his place. The concerns aren't specifically identified...), Anyway, we talked about the ordination of women. He said JPII had put the kibash on that from ever happening with his pronouncement that the Church had no authority to ordain women.
With that I asked him, maybe in time it will happen. The bishop looked at me and said, and I'll never forget it, "The Church has NOTHING but time."
This has resonated with me and helped me leave the Catholic Church. They WAIT OUT every scandal. They don't actually change. They wait until accusers die and then a whole new generation grows up under the same delusion.
It's hideously brilliant.
Yep. It's also why the church has aggressively lobbied against extending the statute of limitations on pedophilia.
The teabagger Senator in my state of Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, even successfully lobbied the state legislature against extending the statute of limitations, but neglected to tell the legislators that he sat on the finance board of the Green Bay Archdiocese which was fighting a lawsuit by several victims of a pedophile priest.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead has as it's (their) harshest punishments the harming of a child or causing a child to go hungry. The sins after that are murder and animal brutality in descending order.
We could learn a lot from the ancients -
I agree Cindy.......but that won't stop them!
Pony up this Sunday at church when the collection plate comes around as your priest's are horny again. P.S. The tithe will be increasing to 20 % this year. Avoid the middle man and send your checks directly to N.A.M.B.L.A.
Hillarous Dave!
Interesting, didn't I read where Mahony is one of those deciding who the next pope is? So, we had a Nazi, and now we'll get chester, friend of the molester.
And to think we have to suffer all these so called conservative, pompous arse catholics in our communities screaming about gays and birth control constantly, and yet not once have they uttered a word in condemnation of their own so called church.
The Catholic Church is the Largest World-Wide Business and has been sweeping this under the rug for years. They have brought shame to honest Catholics World Wide. They need to purge their entire church of all these sick people. There is no excuse for not doing this ASAP. They need to purge their ranks of all Progressive Liberals as well. These people supported Obama and should be ashamed of themselves
"These people supported Obama and should be ashamed of themselves"
Whoever "Compromise Now" is--your assertion is the most ridiculous, baseless statement I've ever seen on this "Board".
This article- and the topic at hand- has zero, nadda, zippo to do with President Obama, or frankly, US politics in general. Find me 1 single politician of either political party that has spoken out in favor of the heinous acts of pedophile pastors- Catholic or otherwise.
Sir or Madam--you are simply an ass.
That would be like telling a Mafia Godfather to purge his organization of the criminal element.
If they don't start allowing all priests to marry there may soon be a foreclosure sign on the Vatican.
We couldn't get that lucky.