Replies

Yet nowhere is it shown that the Archdiocese refused to believe him. That the Archdiocese and the board failed to give adequate consideration to the claim and to investigate it as fully as they should have I agree. But that is not the same as them not believing the victim.

That is an amazing bit of deflection.

The Grand Jury reported...

In September 2003, a grand jury of local citizens released a report detailing a sad history of sexual abuse by priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. That abuse was known, tolerated, and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the Cardinal himself...
The rapist priests we accuse were all well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again. The procedures implemented by the Archdiocese to help victims are in fact designed to help the abusers, and the Archdiocese itself...

Again reading comprehension is usually grasped in the lower grades. Where does it show that Archdiocese or the board refused to believe Daniel Neill.

That a grand jury in 2003 found that “In September 2003, a grand jury of local citizens released a report detailing a sad history of sexual abuse by priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. That abuse was known, tolerated, and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the Cardinal himself...” does not mean that in 2007 the
Archdiocese refused to believe Daniel Neill.

The article offers no evidence that the archdiocese and the boards failure to substantiate the abuse was because they refused to believe him. It does not state if they disbelieved or believed his claim only that they could not substantiate it. Usually this would take form of additional evidence and testimony regarding the abuse. Why they did not have this I don’t know.

So again you offer no proof nor does the reporter that the archdiocese refused to believe Daniel Neill.

You know, in reading about this whole nasty, miserable case, I am grateful for a few things:

1. God KNOWS the truth, even when facts are covered up and the victims cowered and perpetrators allowed free reign, AND, he does not forget! He will require an accounting of ALL regardless of status or place or false claims of innocence. Every secret will be revealed, every hidden thing will be brought into the light. "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 10:31)

2. God is the Great Healer - Jehovah Rapha. No wound is too deep, no heart too broken, no soul too lost to despair, that He is not able to bind back up. He is the God of all comfort and He alone works miracles in those who, to Him, surrender all their burdens.

3. We are called to "come out from the world and be separate". Only by His grace and mercy through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ - God in the flesh - are we empowered to do that. Those, who by horrific, long-term acts of evil, prove they are NOT His own. Superficial acts of piety do not prove what is in the heart and that is true regardless of religiosity or status attained. Those who commit such atrocities while hiding behind the outward appearance of holiness will be exposed in this life or the next. God is not a respecter of persons - we are all naked before him - and only those clothed in the righteousness of Christ will be welcomed into Heaven.

4. Genuine heart wrenching repentance NOW and a full "coming clean" confession to those injured and acceptance of the consequences of the full force of the law is what God requires for those who would have any chance of redemption over this deep gaping wound. It is needed as far up the pike as it needs to go and, unless it happens, the edifice that claims the criminals will also be brought down with them. Of this I am SURE! God's people MUST MUST make a stand and demand accountability. No more leaving it to the higher-ups to sort out. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. (I Peter 4:17)

We ARE the house of God now, we ARE the temple of God.