Posted on 08/16/2019 5:51:10 PM PDT by marshmallow
Suit alleges diocesan 'racketeering enterprise' facilitated sex abuse
BUFFALO, N.Y. (ChurchMilitant.com) - The scandal-plagued diocese of Buffalo is now the subject of a RICO lawsuit.
Acting on behalf of almost two dozen predator priest victims, on Wednesday, Buffalo-area attorney Kevin Stocker filed suit against the diocese, alleging "a pattern of racketeering activity" that concealed and facilitated clerical sex abuse.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Bp. Richard Malone, Bp. Emeritus Edward U. Kmiec, Christ the King Seminary, the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus, various diocesan-affiliated funds as well as multiple Buffalo-area priests, parishes and high schools.
Enacted in 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was designed to combat organized crime. Owing to "the number of priests involved, the extent of the cover-up and the transferring around to unsuspecting parishes and parents," RICO is undoubtedly applicable to the Church, Stocker told Church Militant on Friday.
"When you take a step back and look at all the dioceses in this country, all the priests, and all the victims involved — and then also worldwide — it's a problem," he said. "It comes across to me as an organization that has criminal activity and is making money based on that activity. This is the RICO definition."
Stocker said that he sees "the same organizational hierarchy" between corrupt dioceses and the organized criminal enterprises RICO was designed to eradicate.
"If you look at the structure of the Church, money flows from the parishes — from the ground level — up to the bishops, up to the cardinals, up to the Pope. It's structured similarly," he observed. "As a Catholic, whose kids go to Catholic schools, I hate to even make that analogy, but I dare somebody to tell me I'm wrong."
(Excerpt) Read more at churchmilitant.com ...
Better get those kids out of Catholic schools.
Just say’n
RICO was never intended to be a hammer to take down churches. But it will end up being used that way.
If your church is knowingly using its money and power to hide criminal activity it would fall under RICO laws. It becomes worse because the Vatican is a sovereign nation and has used that status to hide even more criminal wrongdoing.
RICO was designed to take down organized criminal enterprises. If individuals within the diocese acted in coordination in covering up child sexual abuse...that would be an organized criminal act(s).
Churches were never intended to be refuges for pederast and homosexuals but they have become such (and not just the Catholic church).
I think you could convict individual (Bishops, assistant Bishops and other hierarchy) of conspiracy to conceal felony crimes.
"When you take a step back and look at all the dioceses in this country, all the priests, and all the victims involved — and then also worldwide — it's a problem," he said. "It comes across to me as an organization that has criminal activity and is making money based on that activity.
But I have a hard time seeing where this conspiracy was making money. Perhaps it might be shown that the coverup was intended to prevent the loss of Sunday collections but I don’t think that would be the same thing.
I expected and predicted this - and I still expect a nationwide RICO suit of this criminal organization.
I agree that it is time for RICO lawsuits, but not against the church as an institution. Rather, they should be directed at the gay mafia that has infiltrated the church. These wicked men should be held personally responsible. The church, as an institution, is just as much a victim of these men as those who were abused. These men are not the church; they are parasites who have sucked the life out of a holy institution. If those filing these lawsuits are interested in justice, then they should target those who are responsible, and not just look for where the money is.
Forgotten Study: Abuse in School 100 Times Worse than by Priests
And the Catholic Church does not have a pedophile problem.
It has a homosexual predator problem.
HOMOSEXUAL PREDATORS, NOT PEDOPHILE PRIESTS, ARE CHURCH’S DEADLY CANCER
“RICO was never intended to be a hammer to take down churches.”
Churches were never intended to be havens for child molesting monsters. But they ended up being that way.
L
Can we do the same thing to our Fake Congress? Taking money under false pretenses is a crime. Claiming to represent the people while voting lock step with whatever The Party says is NOT representing us.
The Fake Congress meets the classic definition for organized crime - conspiracy, criminal and coordination.
I’m Catholic and believe this may be the only way to rid the institution of the Lavender Mafia that has corrupted and ruined it; if the law fits, use it. They destroyed lives, faith, the institution...
>>But I have a hard time seeing where this conspiracy was making money.<<
The Catholic church does not make money based on production, it makes money from the continuous giving of parishioners.
Covering up child sexual crimes committed by priest, bishops, lay persons by two or more people would be a conspiracy...in order to keep $$$ flowing.
So sad. Once upon a time, I revered the catholic church and wanted to become a catholic....no longer.
It very much looks to me like organized criminal activity.
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