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One lawyer behind many allegations of Catholic Church abuse
CNN ^ | April 26, 2010 | Dan Gilgoff,

Posted on 04/27/2010 8:08:38 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The last month has seen a blizzard of new sex abuse accusations against the Catholic Church from across the United States. Almost all of them--and the intense media attention they've garnered--can be traced to one man: a Minnesota lawyer named Jeff Anderson.

Last week, an alleged victim of priest abuse in Wisconsin announced a lawsuit against the Vatican itself. Anderson is representing the alleged victim.

A couple of days earlier, a Mexican man who alleged abuse by a priest years ago filed suit against Mexico's top Catholic cleric in a U.S. court. The plaintiff is another Anderson client.

And throughout April, new documents have come to light suggesting that the current pope may have played down warnings about abusive priests in the United States. Those documents came from Anderson's St. Paul, Minnesota, office.

For decades, Anderson has won settlements from Catholic archdioceses across the country for abuse victims and, more than any other attorney in the country, has driven American media coverage of the church abuse scandal.

Now, with the church abuse crisis embroiling Europe for the first time and raising questions about whether the pope himself did enough to respond to church abuse, Anderson is employing novel legal tactics in an attempt to take his campaign all the way to the Vatican.

"I'm getting far more aggressive because all roads are leading to Rome," Anderson, 62, said last Thursday, after filing suit against the Vatican on behalf of the alleged Wisconsin abuse victim.

"I'm pessimistic that the Vatican is capable of changing itself but I'm optimistic that external pressure will," Anderson said. "We're at a tipping point."

Anderson's last sex abuse suit against the Vatican, filed in 2002, has wound its way through the courts, with the U.S. Supreme Court now considering whether to hear the case.(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: ambulancechaser; catholic; catholicchurch; catholics; childabuse; jeffanderson; popebenedict; scandal; shyster; triallawyers

1 posted on 04/27/2010 8:08:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have a personal beef with the Roman Catholic Church, thanks to my ex-Mother-in-Law, but this is typical bottom-feeder tactics...looking for the deepest pockets.


2 posted on 04/27/2010 8:10:46 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (RAT Hunting Season started the evening of March 21st, 2010!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Anderson has pocketed $60 million. I suspect he’s looking for the billion dollar pay out.


3 posted on 04/27/2010 8:10:50 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ping to read later


4 posted on 04/27/2010 8:12:05 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: massgopguy
I suspect he’s looking for the billion dollar pay out.

Big Tobacco, Big Church...who's next?

I am all for compensation to victims, but I'd bet this guy gets the lion's share.

5 posted on 04/27/2010 8:15:38 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: massgopguy

While I am not a Roman Catholic, I strongly suspect that I know what payout this parasite will get in the long term. I guess he has decided that it’s worth it if he can pile up treasure here on earth. I would not even speak to such a person if this scum lived in my neighborhood. Those who harm children are the lowest of the low, and I’d put the lawyers who create these predatory lawsuits against BSA and against the Church right up there with the pedophiles they complain about.


6 posted on 04/27/2010 8:20:37 AM PDT by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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Jeff "Show me the money" Anderson

Anderson hasn't announced any plans to sue the NEA for covering up sexual abuse in public education most likely due to the fact that any damage awards would be statutorially capped. In other words, there's not enough money in it for him to be interested.

7 posted on 04/27/2010 8:21:14 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“One lawyer behind many allegations of Catholic Church abuse”

Silly me, I thought it was the anal rape of young boys.


8 posted on 04/27/2010 8:23:21 AM PDT by Grunthor (Over YOUR dead body!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"I'm pessimistic that the Vatican is capable of changing itself but I'm optimistic that external pressure will," Anderson said. "We're at a tipping point."

Hearken to the voice of morality.

An ambulance chaser in search of mega-lucre, conveniently dons the garb of the saintly social conscience of Catholicism.

Gag!

9 posted on 04/27/2010 8:24:15 AM PDT by marshmallow ("A country which kills its own children has no future" -Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I'm not Catholic and even I can see that there does, indeed, seem to be a "blizzard" of charges as regards child molestation. I have to wonder, why didn't these alleged victims poke their heads out during the last "blizzard" of charges? What is causing them to suddenly come forward now, when they could have come forward the last time?

Call me a skeptic, but I have to wonder if this is really about victims trying to confront their abusers and achieve justice.

10 posted on 04/27/2010 12:35:45 PM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: Grunthor

Troll much?


11 posted on 04/27/2010 2:21:56 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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