Posted on 03/07/2011 7:23:40 PM PST by Dr. Eckleburg
WILLIAM LYNN FIRST HIGH-RANKING CHURCH OFFICIAL TO FACE CHILD ENDANGERMENT CHARGES; DOZENS ACCUSED OF ABUSE REMAIN IN ACTIVE MINISTRY
(CBS News) Phil Gaughan can't bring himself to talk about it in detail, but said when he was a teenager, he was sexually abused by a catholic priest, reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.
"It just can't happen to anybody else," Gaughan said. "Nobody should have deal with what I've dealt with for 15 years, the way that I felt and no child should ever have to go through this again."
After years of silence, Gaughan is publicly filing suit against top officials in the Philadelphia archdiocese, who he said failed to protect him from a predator priest. One of those named in his civil lawsuit is Monsignor William Lynn.
Lynn is already facing charges in a separate criminal case. For 12 years, Lynn was in charge of recommending work assignments for priests in the Philadelphia archdiocese. The district attorney believes Lynn knowingly recommended abusive priests be reassigned, without ever warning the parishes.
"They did in fact re-offend," said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. "They did in fact rape and sodomize other children."
Lynn has now become the first high-ranking U.S. church official ever to face criminal child endangerment charges for allegedly covering-up abuse. But prosecutors said there are other problems.
Allegations against Lynn resulted from a 124-page grand jury report that concludes, "Apparent abusers - dozens of them, we believe - remain on duty in the Archdiocese, today, with open access to new young prey."
For now, the archdiocese has suspended three priests, but according to the report, 34 others accused of abuse or inappropriate behavior with minors remain in active ministry.
The archdiocese has hired a former prosecutor to re-examine past cases.
"I will not turn my back on evidence of a cover up," said Gina Smith.
The archdiocese is not commenting on recent legal action, but church officials have vowed to do better.
"We have now taken action and we hope that our actions speak to our resolve," said Bishop Daniel Thomas with the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
That's little comfort to Gaughan, who hopes by coming forward he's giving children the protection he never had.
If this diocese in Philadelphia is any example of Rome's repentance, then clearly nothing has changed. Thirty-four suspected and accused pederast priests are still ministering to children in Roman Catholic churches in Philadelphia.
The Grand Jury report was scathing against the church and its criminal handling of these pederasts.
And Ratzinger was tasked with keeping a lid on the sex scandals for years in his job in Rome before ascending to the gold crown. There's no evidence he has changed his tactics. Deny, stall, dismiss, hide evidence, destroy the victims, criticize the critics, and by any means possible, keep the pederast priests on the job.
Because the thin skinned hit the abuse button. Whaaa!!
No one that I know of hit the abuse button. In fact, sometimes it’s preferable to leave these idiotic, rule-breaking comments up for lurkers to see how some people are completely incapable or unwilling to follow the rules.
I always thought Calvin was a fan favorite in these parts...one would think Calvinists would have been honored by the post.
Gibberish
I can give you some of those too, if you want.
Was that it? Okay, I’ll re-post it without the caucus. I’d be happy to see your spin on it.
Read it; there were protestants conplaining on the thread.
Ahhh, the “We’re not so bad, look at the teachers” defense.
I would think that an organization that claims the title church would hold itself to a higher standard than a secular group.
***Because the thin skinned hit the abuse button.***
So which mod told you that the abuse button was pressed? Or are you just making an assumption?
Interestingly I saw a Catholic call foul on that thread.
First time I have a Catholic stand up on FR and do the right thing in quite some time.
Pastor Kerry Clyde Martin (CA, molested children at three other churches before being caught)
dozen church elders decided unanimously that pastor Rev. Lawrence French, who says he is innocent, should remain as pastor. Convinced that the 72-year-old pastor could not have committed the alleged offenses, they also concluded that it would be unfair to French to notify other members of the church about the allegations. (The Boston Globe, November 1, 2002)
Pastor Ilger (CA, "We've lived and learned a painful lesson," the Rev. Jeff Fischer of Hope Chapel said outside court. Fischer has said he and about 30 church elders knew that Ilger had molested young girls before he was hired." (emphasis mine) )
"We would be naïve and dishonest were we to say this is a Roman Catholic problem and has nothing to do with us because we have married and female priests in our church. Sin and abusive behavior know no ecclesial or other boundaries." Rt. Rev. William Persell, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, Good Friday Sermon, 2002.
/sarc
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I never said it was only a Catholic problem. Nobody ever denied it. We recognize that it happens in almost any situation and that it is impossible to prevent. People who will do evil will find way to do so, no matter what safeguards are in place.
The problem is the way that the Catholic church handled, or rather didn’t handle, the priests it knew were molesting children.
Any church, school, or organization which doesn’t address the issue when it comes to light, or who gives people who do things like this a pass, or works to protect them, is WRONG.
Any church is more culpable as it has Scripture to set the standards. Churches take the high moral ground, claiming to be representatives of Christ, or God, here on earth. For that reason it’s more abominable when a church tries to cover stuff like this up instead of dealing with in in the appropriate Biblical manner.
It’s the height of hypocrisy for the Catholic church to put itself forth as champions for the unborn and then turn its collective clergy back on the born and not protect them, who cannot protect themselves. To condemn homosexuality and be rife with practicing homosexual priests who prey on the children they are to nurture and raise in the faith.
The Catholic church should have dealt with it so that when it came to light, they could go to the civil authorities and demonstrate that it was dealt with promptly and decisively, that the civil authorities would have nothing to do in those cases.
Considering that it is more than apparent enough that the Catholic church took virtually NO action to address the problem until people had enough and went public with it, indicates that it is not serious about or interested in dealing with the corruption and perversion of its own clergy.
It therefore has no one but itself to blame for all the criticism and bad publicity that it has brought on itself. No one can be rightly condemned for not believing that the Catholic church is taking the matter seriously in light of the inaction of the hierarchy in relation to this mess.
I believe these kinds of threads have increased in quantity and lack of quality over the last months. Flame bait and flame wars, anger and personal attacks. Long strings of near occasions of sin.
They’re not good for Christians and even worse for Christianity. They reflect badly on Free Republic.
Click on my profile page for more guidelines pertaining to the Religion Forum.
No one has hit the abuse button on this thread.
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