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An alleged victim is called negligent
The Boston Globe ^ | April 29, 2002 | Walter Robinson

Posted on 04/29/2002 5:00:20 AM PDT by american colleen

Edited on 04/13/2004 2:07:44 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

The cardinal's claim, filed in court by his attorneys, is boilerplate legal defense language. But a lawyer who is not involved in the case and has handled other cases involving allegations of clergy sex abuse said last night that the decision to use such a claim in so sensitive a case showed poor judgment.


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


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cardinallaw; catholicchurch; catholiclist
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To: history_matters
No, just to invoke God's blessing and guidance upon their work.

Thanks for the explaination.

61 posted on 04/29/2002 8:26:14 AM PDT by sneakypete
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To: livius
DITTO! Beyond belief!
62 posted on 04/29/2002 8:29:49 AM PDT by ThomasMore
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To: CatoRenasci
Where we disagree greatly is whether this crisis of leadership will turn into a crisis of faith: I think it will, you don't

That's right. I think the faithful will blame the individual priests and/or Cardinals (and rightly so!),and overlook the role played by the "system" (Vatican)in covering this up and allowing it to continue.

(but it sounds like you think it should).

You betcha! This is just more proof that ALL organized religions are evil. They have nothing to do with religion,and everything to do with wealth and power.

If you can't trust a priest to be alone with your kid, why would you ever give money to the church (which supports said priest) or trust him or those who back him about anything?

Because of blind faith,and the need some people have to believe.Their faith gives them the emotional comfort they need,and it's going to take something a LOT more powerful than a few priests molesting children to make them give that comfort up.

63 posted on 04/29/2002 8:34:16 AM PDT by sneakypete
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To: Mike Fieschko
No.

A Mass never does that, for anyone or any mortal/grave sin.

Thanks for the explanation.

64 posted on 04/29/2002 8:36:19 AM PDT by sneakypete
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To: american colleen
No, I don't think he's an abuser, and I expect if there were evidence of that we'd know it. That said, he is as guilty as the evil, debased priests that he sheilds and has sheilded since he came to Boston.

Cardinal Law is beginning to look like an enabler of the worst kind. Who's more guilty...the enabler or the abuser, who in many cases is psychologically unfit for his position?

65 posted on 04/29/2002 8:42:33 AM PDT by grania
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To: sneakypete
You seem convinced that come what may, the blind faith of the innocent (or at least naiive) will protect the Church and keep the membership on the reservation.

The problem with faith (and relying on it) is that while strong, it can be fragile, that is, subject to catasrophic failure in the face of a crises that makes those who have had blind faith question whether they've been fools. Such was the situation in the Reformation, and such, I think, may be the situation now.

66 posted on 04/29/2002 8:57:45 AM PDT by CatoRenasci
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To: history_matters
Have you ever read Cardinal Mahony's pamphlet on Adoration? I saw it in a Church a couple of year's ago. It was written in the 60's, I think.

That said, I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. He certainly has changed his tune since the old days.

67 posted on 04/29/2002 9:02:47 AM PDT by sockmonkey
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To: sockmonkey
Re: Copper Sunday

A friend of mine, and I went to a couple of local Parishes yesterday to pick up bulletins..we do this just to read the latest heterodox Catholic news. Anyway, we compared the weekly collections from what they were previously.

I don't know if it's due to the scandals, hard times or what, but collections had dropped about a third at the ones we checked out...when $32,000 a week becomes $19,000, I bet someone notices.

68 posted on 04/29/2002 9:08:56 AM PDT by sockmonkey
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To: Arthur McGowan
No. I am an observer of Massachusetts.

If YOU covered up pedophilia over and over, YOU would be hauled in.

69 posted on 04/29/2002 9:19:24 AM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: american colleen
The Rev. and the Cardinal apparently both have a death wish -- in the legal sense and otherwise
70 posted on 04/29/2002 9:41:33 AM PDT by tracer
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To: sneakypete
Because of blind faith,and the need some people have to believe.Their faith gives them the emotional comfort they need,and it's going to take something a LOT more powerful than a few priests molesting children to make them give that comfort up.

But I think you are speaking of those that have blind faith in men. The test (for me, anyway) is to look at what and how the Catholic Church teaches and believes and decide if you believe that is the Truth and the Way of Jesus. My faith in men in the Church has certainly changed, but my faith in the Truth of the Catholic Church is the same, and possibly stronger.

71 posted on 04/29/2002 9:51:43 AM PDT by american colleen
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To: grania
Cardinal Law is beginning to look like an enabler of the worst kind. Who's more guilty...the enabler or the abuser, who in many cases is psychologically unfit for his position?

I'd say that Cardinal Law IS an enabler of the worst kind. In fact, I think he is more guilty than any one perpetrator as his actions/lack thereof, have enabled many perpetrators.

All he ever had to do was to ask himself "What would Jesus do?"

72 posted on 04/29/2002 9:55:48 AM PDT by american colleen
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To: sockmonkey
I belong to a tiny parish within the Archdiocese of Boston - for the first time, I noticed yesterday that the collection of the previous week was down to $3,800.00 - a drop of about $1000.00
73 posted on 04/29/2002 9:57:55 AM PDT by american colleen
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To: Notwithstanding
It is the every day practice of law.

Yes, but the diocese should be using some discernment here, and tell their lawyers what to do -- not the other way around. As someone noted above, it's a sensitive situation, and lawyers are not especially noted for their sensitivity. (Apologies to sensitive lawyers. ;-))

74 posted on 04/29/2002 10:03:43 AM PDT by BlessedBeGod
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To: american colleen
The Red Mass recalls martyrs such as St. Thomas More.
75 posted on 04/29/2002 10:24:00 AM PDT by BlackElk
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To: CatoRenasci
I agree with your remedy. However, I am not convinced that more cardinals have not done what Law has done, so having them watch the henhouse doesn't encourage me.

Quite frankly, the Pope should hire outside attorneys, have them come in and review the files of all priests alleged to have committed sexual abuse, and also find out if bishops & cardinals knowingly moved these people around, and present the findings to the Pope. Then the Pope defrocks his people who were part of the collusion, puts in replacements who have a heart for God and their hands in their pockets, and lets them defrock the priests at the local level where the allegations are legitimate. The Church openly makes restitution - spiritually and psychologically and financially in each case. The police are made aware of who the abusers are, and the local DA's can decide who to try.

If this doesn't come from the top, I don't think anything of any lasting significance is going to happen. The cardinals are already disagreeing among themselves about one strike and you're out.

I'm not a Catholic, but have much respect for my fellow Catholics and I sure hope the lay people are not going to settle for anything less.

76 posted on 04/29/2002 10:47:13 AM PDT by Endeavor
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To: tracer
The Rev. and the Cardinal apparently both have a death wish -- in the legal sense and otherwise

It does appear that way.

77 posted on 04/29/2002 11:02:28 AM PDT by Steve0113
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To: american colleen
bttt
78 posted on 04/29/2002 11:04:39 AM PDT by Travis McGee
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To: history_matters
Actually, as much as I normally agree with you, I must disagree with the notion that this is evil. The language quoted is what lawyers call legal "boilerplate." If they do not use such language, suggesting contributory negligence or comparative negligence, the lawyers would be guilty of malpractice, sued by the archdiocese and their malpractice insurance carrier required to pay substantial sums to the archdiocese to indemnify (subsidize) the payment to the victims. It's not pretty but that is the legal system we have.

Lest I be misunderstood, I much prefer the adversarial legal system of the United States with all of its flaws to the therapeutic model of the old USSR which is the only feasible alternative. In the USSR, if the government charged you with misbehavior, you must be guilty because the state is always right. Thus the real question was why were you guilty and will you cooperate in rehabilitation if applicable.

Many Americans are tempted to raise militant ignorance of legal standards to an art form, as in the reaction to the OJ verdict in the criminal matter when the fact was that the state did NOT prove him guilty in the contemplation of our law. Not having learned its lesso, the same police department in LA has already claimed that the murder weapon in the Robert Blake case was retrieved from a dumpster next to the car where she was shot and today admitted that the gun was, in fact retrieved from a landfill, the department has previously claimed that Blake wore rubber gloves and today claims that his hands were covered with powder residue from the firing of the gun. If we think we KNOW what happened, we may be tempted to demand "justice" regardless of the facts and regardless of the law. Blake may well be guilty but California has to PROVE him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that effort is not assisted by the LA PD arguing with itself in public and making utterly inconsistent evidentiary claims which can lead to "reasonable doubt" and acquittal.

In any event, the answer to the AmChurch problem of liberals posing as Catholics, liberals who are comfy and cozy with al social revolutions such as lavender lifestyles among the clergy, liberals who continually substitute their non'judgmental Kumbaya for the hammer of justice within the Church is evident no matter how much smoke is blown by those who love the liberals.

Start with a total purge of the lavenders. That they are protesting outside churches is reason enough but virtually all events complained of result from the love that formerly dared not speak its name and now will not shut up. One of the really great things about Catholicism (the real thing not the AmChurch kind) is that due process can be dispensed with when necessary. Thus, hang 'em high!

Second, shut down every seminary in America and lay off their entire staffs. Create four regional seminaries overseen by an archbishop with all necessary authority, no other responsibilities and total power to conduct ongoing purges. Seminaries are no place for ANY sort of female authority and no place for the atheistic presumptions of psychology and psychiatry. Put men's men of orthodox persuasion and performance in charge of everything from administration to janitorial service. Anyone who must then be discharged for misbehavior should be held fully and publicly accountable with oceans of publicity.

There is a move in the Boston archdiocese to create a network of parish councils to stick generally uninformed lay opinions (often liberal) in the faces of the clergy. Abolish the parish councils there and do likewise anywhere else that this particular form of inappropriate "democratic" busibodiness raises its head.

Speaking of which, it would also be a good time to abolish the National Bishopps' organizayions here and elsewhere since they are forever behaving as though morality were determined by a democratic vote of bishops posing for secular cameras. Let each bishop take responsibility for his own diocese and face punishment, including firing, for dereliction of duty.

For those who note the reluctance of the Roman Catholic Church to submit to knuckle under to soi-disant "authority" in the form of transitory governments, you are right. Pope Pius XII warned the Church during the 1940s that knucling under to the government as though it were a higher power will, inevitably, lead to the loss of the freedoms necessary to those nations and their people. The likes of Fr. Shanley have violated criminal laws whose validity is not contested by the Church. The state serves the Church's interest and many other good interests if it puts Shanley behind bars for as long as possible, along with every similar abuser and every bishop or religious superior who has tolerated the pattern of abuse by negligence or worse.

That does not mean that the state may substitute its judgment as to Church matters or demand that bishops or others act as their henchmen in politically popular prosecutions. In our country, it was the state and not the Church that demanded separation of Church and state or whatever is represented by the First Amendment right of freedom of worship and non-establishment clause. The Roman Catholic Church is far more permanent than any government including ours. To the extent that the state can temporarily succeed in attacking the Church structure, make no mistake about it: EVERY Church is thereby threatened.

79 posted on 04/29/2002 11:07:10 AM PDT by BlackElk
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To: sneakypete
Gee, you seeem to be establishing a one-stop delicatessen for multiple forms of bigotry. First, the Catholics and then the Mexicans. You must have opinions about blacks and Jews too. Don't be bashful.
80 posted on 04/29/2002 11:16:24 AM PDT by BlackElk
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