21 Priests Suspended in Philadelphia

New York Times ^ | March 8, 2011 | Katharine Q. Seelve

[Dr. Eckleburg]

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that it had suspended 21 priests from active ministry in connection with accusations that involved sexual abuse or otherwise inappropriate behavior with minors.

The mass suspension was the single-most sweeping in the history of the sexual-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents from the abuse scandal in dioceses across the country.

The archdiocese’s action follows a damning grand jury report issued Feb. 10 that accused the archdiocese of a widespread cover-up of predatory priests, stretching over decades, and said that as many as 37 priests remained active in the ministry despite credible accusations against them.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Evil is real, evil is ugly and evil deceives. It couldn’t survive if it didn’t deceive.

AMEN!

Just like the rampant pederasty in the RCC priesthood could not exist if men were not deceived and blinded to the evil permeating and emitting from that church.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

So it's still back to the "he wasn't really saved in the first place" argument then.

Knowing we can only surmise by the guidelines of Scripture, do you think someone who does not display the good fruits of the Holy Spirit is saved?

[boatbums]

My Mom said when she was a girl they didn't have canned tuna so their Friday meal was sometimes canned peas mixed with hard-boiled eggs. Yuck! I think with a meal like that I would have rather gone without dinner.

When I was a kid I remember giving up things for Lent but I never was told why, nor what was the point other than that's what Catholics do. I gave up bubblegum one time and the Easter Bunny included a big box of it in my Easter basket. Talk about confusion!

[Dr. Scarpetta]

‘Smiling Padre’: His Path to Court

Case May be a Guide in Phila. Prosecution...

By John P. Martin

Phila Inquirer Staff Writer...3/14/11

“In 1995, a few hundred people packed a Northeast Philadelphia banquet hall to mark a milestone for the Rev. Edward Avery: a quarter-century in the priesthood.

Few knew the underside of Avery’s record. Two years earlier, he had been plucked from his parish & secretly sent to an inpatient program for sexually abusive priests.

In a letter in September 1992, a 29-year-old medical student accused Avery of having molested him when he was an altar boy at St. Philip Neri in Pennsburg in the late 1970s.

Upon his release, doctors urged officials of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to keep Avery away from adolescents and ‘vulnerable minority populations.’

Avery became a hospital chaplain, but church leaders let him live at St. Jerome’s, a Northeast parish with a school.

Twice in 1999 - four years after his anniversary dinner - Avery forced a fifth-grade altar boy there to perform oral sex on him in the sacristy after Mass, prosecutors say.

Now 68 and defrocked, Avery is one of four current or former priests due in court Monday for the first time since their arrests last month on abuse or related charges.”

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110313__Smiling_Padre___His_path_to_court.html

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Rev. Edward Avery in 1980...

One of four current or former priests due in court Monday for the first time since their arrests last month on abuse or related charges.

[HossB86]

"It is finished." Christ has atoned for all the sins of His sheep. That's the Good News of the Gospel. Very sad that some don't hear it.

So true. So very true! Sadly the truth of the Gospel is drowned out by the din of the false gospel being taught by the Roman Catholic Church. I pray that The Lord sees fit to open those "tinned" ears!!!

:D

Hoss

[presently no screen name]

I think with a meal like that I would have rather gone without dinner.

Those tuna sandwiches were for First Fridays throughout the year. We brought our lunch boxes to school and ate in our classroom after mass because we had to fast from midnight until we received HC. It was either tuna, peanut butter/jelly or egg sandwiches. In our thermos was chocolate milk and desert was a devil dog and I find that so appropriate now. Some kids would trade their apple for a devil dog.

[presently no screen name]

I think with a meal like that I would have rather gone without dinner.

Those tuna sandwiches were for First Fridays throughout the year. We brought our lunch boxes to school and ate in our classroom after mass because we had to fast from midnight until we received HC. It was either tuna, peanut butter/jelly or egg sandwiches. In our thermos was chocolate milk and desert was a devil dog and I find that so appropriate now. Some kids would trade their apple for a devil dog.

[presently no screen name]

Just like the rampant pederasty in the RCC priesthood could not exist if men were not deceived and blinded to the evil permeating and emitting from that church.

Right. And the pew sitters taking a ho hum attitude about it for years and years. It was those that spoke out against the evil that was the problem for them with a 'shush - don't judge'.

[boatbums]

When I was in Catholic school, we had our choice of tuna sandwiches or grilled cheese. I just LOVED the way they made their tuna salad, so it was always my choice.

Another thing about my Mom’s upbringing she told me about was people who lived in New Orleans NEVER thought going without meat on Fridays or during Lent was any big sacrifice. It was almost comical to some as they have amazing seafood there and anytime they could eat it was okay fine with them. When we visited, going out for seafood was a treat. Even now, in NC, we try to eat some kind of meatless dinner on Friday. My husband and I do not do it out of any religious observance but, because Mom lives with us and she tries to observe the fast, we go along with it. It is no big ordeal anyway and probably a healthy thing to do.

[Religion Moderator]

Do not make this thread "about" individual Freepers. That is also a form of "making it personal."

Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Dr. E is given to overstatement and misstatement

This is the religion forum and you're breaking the rules by "making it personal."

when called on it, says that there are dueling experts and she can, at best, only trust "her own lying eyes."

Funny that you're continuing to harp about my fairly harmless observation that more babies are born around the full moon. You've posted dozens of paragraphs to me in rebuttal to this simple statement. I suppose when one has nothing to argue but still wants to argue, swatting at any pitch will do.

That is, she wants to have her polemical cake and eat it, too.

That statement is also against the rules of the religion forum because it's a type of "mind-reading."

And finally, you are dragging an argument from one thread to another, even from one forum to another.

And that's against the rules of the religion forum.

You're three for three, aruanan.

This thread is about pederast priests raping children and the church that harbors and promotes them. Do you have anything to say about the topic of this thread?

[aruanan]

Okay.

[aruanan]

That is, she wants to have her polemical cake and eat it, too.

That statement is also against the rules of the religion forum because it's a type of "mind-reading."

And finally, you are dragging an argument from one thread to another, even from one forum to another.

And that's against the rules of the religion forum.

You're three for three, aruanan.

This thread is about pederast priests raping children and the church that harbors and promotes them. Do you have anything to say about the topic of this thread?

Actually, I was answering a particular question. So let me rephrase the subsequent remark, "That is, certain people give all indications of wanting to have their polemical cake and eat it, too."

There, no mind-reading.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Judge Chastises Priest over Legal-bills Plan
...By David O’Reilly & Nancy Phillips

Inquirer Staff Writers...3/15/11

In court for the first time Monday on charges of sexual assault and child endangerment, four current or former priests and an ex-parochial schoolteacher watched the judge erupt in anger over one’s plan to ask the Philadelphia Archdiocese to pay his legal fees if acquitted.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110315_Judge_chastises_priest_over_legal-bills_plan.html

[Dr. Eckleburg]

let me rephrase the subsequent remark, "That is, certain people give all indications of wanting to have their polemical cake and eat it, too."

How does that relate to this thread and the article above?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

From the article...

"...In addition to Brennan, two priests, a defrocked priest, and the teacher face criminal charges at the recommendation of a grand jury, which blasted the archdiocese last month for harboring sexually abusive priests. The archdiocese has placed 24 priests on administrative leave since the report was made public early last month.

Of the five criminal cases, the one against Msgr. William J. Lynn marks the first time in the nation that a member of the Catholic hierarchy has been charged with child endangerment...

On Friday, the District Attorney's Office added conspiracy charges against Lynn and the others..."

That should be interesting.

"They include the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 64, an Oblate priest; Edward Avery, 68, the defrocked priest; and Bernard Shero, 48, a former parochial schoolteacher, all charged with sodomizing or raping a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome's Parish in Northeast Philadelphia in 1996.

Brennan is charged with raping a teenage boy in Chester County in 1998. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse..."

[Gamecock]

Obfuscation!

[betty boop]

Several of the elders of the Church, men and women who have been Christians for 40 years or more, have said that they’ve never seen the Spirit move with a sense of urgency like this among the children before.

Here's a wild thought, dear brother in Christ: Maybe children are just more "sensitive" to the currents of objective evil moving through our world today than their parents are. After all, little children have not been fully acculturated in the general denial of good and evil that is promoted in the public schools and increasingly in the public at large.

People can call me nutz, but it does very much feel to me like satanic evil is overspreading our world like a metastasizing cancer. Or maybe a better analogy would be the Ebola Mayinga virus (thought to be airborne).

This virus...was only equivocally alive. It could act only with help, and that help had to come from its host, which by providing the means for the virus to activate, also conspired in its own death. — Tom Clancy, Executive Orders, 1996, p. 308

I do believe Satan is a kind of "virus" in this sense. And the disease is spreading rapidly. It will destroy our world sooner or later. I do not know how long God is going to let this process continue, before exercising the divine intervention described in John's Apocalypse....

But these children are saying we're running out of time! This is the critical time for repentance. I think we should be listening to them.

Thanks so much for writing, dear Quix!