If true,..indeed a bombshell...(about ONE-HALF of the claims..entirely false or..exaggerated

Insigt Scoop.com ^ | 01-02-11 | posted by Carl Olson

[Salvation]

If true, this is indeed a bombshell...

Dave Pierre, the author of the book, Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church, reports the following on his site, TheMediaReport.com:

In a stunning ten-page declaration recently submitted to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, veteran attorney Donald H. Steier stated that his investigations into claims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests have uncovered vast fraud and that his probes have revealed that many accusations are completely false.

Counselor Steier has played a role in over one hundred investigations involving Catholic clergy in Los Angeles. In his missive Mr. Steier relayed, "One retired F.B.I. agent who worked with me to investigate many claims in the Clergy Cases told me, in his opinion, about ONE-HALF of the claims made in the Clergy Cases were either entirely false or so greatly exaggerated that the truth would not have supported a prosecutable claim for childhood sexual abuse" (capital letters are his).

Mr. Steier also added, "In several cases my investigation has provided objective information that could not be reconciled with the truthfulness of the subjective allegations. In other words, in many cases objective facts showed that accusations were false."

Mr. Steier's declaration is a stunner. He is as experienced as anyone in studying the claims of abuse against Catholic clergy in the Los Angeles area.

Pierre has several quotes from Steier declaration, as well as links to images of the declaration. Pierre further notes:

Steier also took aim at the outspoken advocacy group SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests):

They maintain an interactive Internet website with a user 'Forum' and 'Message Board,' among other features, where people can share detailed information between alleged victims pertaining to identity of specific alleged perpetrators, their alleged 'modus operandi,' and other details of alleged molestation. In effect, a person who wanted to make a false claim of sexual abuse by a priest could go to that website and find a 'blueprint' of factual allegations to make that would coincide with allegations made by other people. Law enforcement also uses the S.N.A.P. website to attempt to locate new victims and allegations against Catholic priests.

Needless to say, SNAP had a fit at the sight of Steier's declaration. In a frantic press statement dated December 13, 2010, SNAP derided Steier's declaration as a "legal maneuver" that was "among the most outrageous and hurtful ever made by a church defense lawyer." In addition to claiming it will file a complaint with the California Bar Association, it demanded that Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony "denounce Steier's claims and to disclose how much archdiocesan money has been paid to Steier." (Gee, the last time I checked, SNAP steadfastly refused to divulge how much of its income is derived from the number of lawyers with whom it closely corroborates!)

Read the entire post for more.

[Pikachu_Dad]

No, it does NOT mean that “5 are true”

There is a category between “true” and “false” and that is “not proven/not conclusive”.

Most of those remaining 5 allegations will fall into the ‘not proven’ category.

[JSteff]

I suspected it all along. That is not to say thought that the church was correct in allowing its seminaries to be over run with homosexuals.

They all should have been removed as found. ANY case where there is good provable evidence that there is a homo among the clergy should be dealt with severely and quickly. NO forgiveness, NO mercy.

The church should have a policy of cooperating at bringing priest to answer for their crimes in court and do it ruthlessly and quickly. That would get the bad ones to leave and keep out the others.

[cherry]

I've said his all along....people out to get money and lawyers eagerly raking in the money...

I want CRIMINAL trials for all priests accused...I want the accusers to stand up in court and face the justice system.....until they do, I don't believe most of them....the evidence needs to be tested just like it would in other criminal cases...

many of the accused are dead and never could defend their names....

[cherry]

with your logic, it also means that since most men like to look at pretty women they obviously are also adulterers and rapists...

[Vermont Lt]

Oh, I forgot the one that was sent to our parish. He had his “friend” come up during the holidays and stay at the
Rectory with him. Then when the accusers showed up, he took off—down to Cape Cod with the other sodomites. Where he lives to this day, with his “friend” and his “cousins.”

I still go to church because I believe in forgiveness and redemption. But these guys will burn in hell.

And what I have against the “church” is the backwards way they deal with these cases. The delay, they lie. The obfuscate. The fall back on Canon Law, not civil law.

If they turned these guys over the authorities when the complaints came in, no one would be angry. You see...its not the money. Its the fact that they hold YOU to a higher standard than they hold themselves.

I hope they hear the cries of these boys in their sleep.

[LadyDoc]

When I did sexual abuse exams on girls, about half the cases were fake, often “diagnosed” by an eager social worker or mom who wanted to target her ex. Usually the girls would let me know this during the exam.

Second, When you see money, the false accusations will pop up and give you fancy stories, which any normal person would wonder about they are so absurd.

I know of one famous court case when my boys were young, and in this case the accuser claimed a priest abused him at age 14-16...in reality, it was his much older brother who concocted the story. The brother, who was 17 or 18, met the priest in a nearby gay bar (not in the church) and had a relationship with him and later the family decided to sue for money...since the older brother had a weak case, they concocted a story about the younger one being abused.
The family won a lot of money not because anyone really believed his story, but because everyone knew that the bishop had covered up a lot of this stuff, and they wanted to punish the diocese.

That said, the sad part is that probably most of the abuse cases will never be reported.

This is sad, because a lot of these priests were serial molesters...they were actually “nice guys”, i.e. gay priests who got turned on by young boys and saw the relationship as something good. (and the psychiatrists instructed the bishop it was merely a lapse that should be overlooked).

So they continued to “lapse”, harming more young boys... and the families who did complain were “persuaded” to cover up the molestation because arresting a priest would harm this nice priest and embarrass their son, and they didn't want to do that, did they?(and I know of one of these cases too).

[Salvation]

And what about those innocent priest who were accused unjustly? Are their accusers going to burn in hell too? Or is lying in court and taking money that really isn’t yours OK with you.

Souble standard showing.

[LadyDoc]

that is not true. The present Pope is the one who arranged for the Vatican office to take over these cases because too many bishops were covering them up.

The cases he was accused of “ignoring” are like that one in Wisconsin, where the diocese did nothing for 25 years, and then decided to defrock him when the guy was dying. The Pope pointed out they needed to do their paperwork to defrock him (legally true) and they hadn’t bothered to do it.

You have to realize that the press hates this pope, because for years his job was to check on bad theology (not bad behavior) and they hate the church’s theology. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that he took over the “abuse” stuff and then had to fight the bureaucracy to change things.

There are a billion Catholics, and pointing the finger to the guy in charge is like blaming Obama for a fight at the local bar. And although one abuse case is too many, child abuse is so common that the uproar against the Catholic church, and only the Catholic church, seems a bit absurd.

[Vermont Lt]

The problem is that the church delayed and covered up so long that the civil courts were the only recourse...and the church was quick to settle.

If the church acted as the just men they say they are, they would have called in the local authorities. Not the moving truck.

Having close, lifelong friends involved with these cases—as well as a very close relative working on the church side of the legal issues—I can attest with first hand knowledge how the church acts.

If there are innocent men being accused so that money may be extorted, I would lay that blame not only on the accuser—but also at the feet of the church. For their inaction and fear of being shown to be complicit with these predators caused the problem to be much worse than it needed to be.

[dsc]

” the fact that the current Pope and the legal offices of the Vatican have done so much to try and hide the true facts”

False witness is false witness, even if you don’t like the Catholic Church.

[Salvation]

Many people do not realize that the Catholic Church already has a system set up for this — a tribunal made up of lawyer priests.

An analogy can be made with the military — they have the military tribunals/courts and cases are heard there.

Not everything goes to civil court in either case.

[Natural Law]

"1 abused kid is one too many, and I don’t care who’s doing it."

Then you will have no problem directing us to one of your posts condemning the far more prevelant sexual abuse in Protestant churches. I agree with your position and understand why I hold the Catholic Church to a higher standard, I just don't understand why you do.

[dsc]

“If they turned these guys over the authorities when the complaints came in...”

...then at least half of the priests they turned over would have been innocent. Where’s the justice in that?

“no one would be angry.”

Sure, they would. The primary goal of this exercise was not to achieve justice, but to harm the Church.

“its not the money.”

No, it’s the harm to the Church.

“Its the fact that they hold YOU to a higher standard than they hold themselves.”

Do what?

[dsc]

“If they turned these guys over the authorities when the complaints came in...”

...then at least half of the priests they turned over would have been innocent. Where’s the justice in that?

“no one would be angry.”

Sure, they would. The primary goal of this exercise was not to achieve justice, but to harm the Church.

“its not the money.”

No, it’s the harm to the Church.

“Its the fact that they hold YOU to a higher standard than they hold themselves.”

Do what?

[Salvation]

What about the Protestant churches that are openly ordaining homosexual or lesbian priests?

Where is the justice?

Why do you only talk about the Catholic Church?

Do you need to take the log out of your eye first?

[eyedigress]

It is downright wild on FR tonight. Careful

[notaliberal]

These posts always go the same way and yet you and your compadre’s daily post these types of articles about the Church want to keep it in everyone’s face!

[Salvation]

Sure is. Also what about all the married ministers who abuse children. That's the most prevalent.

 

The most probable pedophiles in order are:

Fathers
Teachers
Coaches
Protestant ministers

Priests are way down on the list.

So if a father is a teacher of mid-high history, coaches the girl’s basketball team and is a youth minister at his church on weekends/Sundays — watch out! He would be much more prone to pedophilia that any priest.

[Alex Murphy]

So... of 10 allegations, 5 are false/exaggerated... that means there’s still 5 that are true, when there should be zero, and the church is/was lax in dealing with it.

[Faithful Departed author Philip] Lawler points out that while less than five percent of American priests have been accused of sexual abuse, some two-thirds of our bishops were apparently complicit in cover-ups. The real scandal isn't the sick excesses of a few dozen pedophiles, or even the hundreds of priests who had affairs with teenage boys -- the bulk of abuse cases. No, according to Lawler, it is the malfeasance of wealthy, powerful, and evidently worldly men who fill the thrones -- but not the shoes -- of the apostles. In case after case, we read in their correspondence, in the records of their soulless, bureaucratic responses to victims of psychic torture and spiritual betrayal, these bishops' prime concern was to save the infrastructure, the bricks and mortar and mortgages. Ironically, their lack of a supernatural concern for souls is precisely what cost them so much money in the end.
-- from the thread Kneeling Before the World

"The Dublin Archdiocese's preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid-1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets," said the report. "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state"....
-- from the thread Pope calls Irish church leaders to Vatican to discuss abuse report

[eyedigress]

Psalm 14:2......”The Lord looks down from Heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek GOD.

They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is None who does good, No not one.

You Salvation, may finish these words.............