Posted on 01/18/2014 11:23:29 AM PST by Salvation
January 2, 2011 By 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 Steier's)
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. Also among Steier's eye-opening statements:
Steier signed and submitted the declaration "under penalty of perjury" November 30, 2010. Los Angeles County Superior Court officially filed it at 11 a.m. on December 15, 2010.
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 collaborates!)
Yet there is a glaring absence from SNAP's statement. The organization does not refute nor deny any of the specific claims made by Steier. It simply labels them as "outrageous" and "hurtful." That is hardly a blow to the explosive declaration aired by the veteran attorney.
Yes, Catholic priests terribly abused minors, and bishops failed to stop the harm. That's an undeniable truth. There are few crimes that revolt more than sexual abuse. The abuse of minors is a dark episode that the Church will forever have to live with.
Yet major media outlets have largely ignored a major element to the entire Catholic abuse scandal narrative.
Here is Wall Street Journal writer Dorothy Rabinowitz:
"People have to come to understand that there is a large scam going on with personal injury attorneys, and what began as a serious effort has now expanded to become a huge money-making proposition."
Surprise: Ms. Rabinowitz made her remark in 2005. Since then, the Church has doled out an additional $1 billion in settlements.
Will 2011 be the year that the media finally begins to take a closer look at many of the claims being made? What about the suspicious relationships between SNAP, lawyers, and many in the media? (Vincent Carroll at the Denver Post is a rare voice of acknowledgement: "[F]raudulent or highly dubious accusations are more common than is acknowledged in coverage of the church scandals — although they should not be surprising, given the monumental settlements various dioceses have paid out over the years" (Oct. 10, 2010).)
Stay tuned.
“It does suggest a new PR campaign...”We don’t rape half as many kids as you think we do!””
“And sometimes the kids we do rape tend to exaggerate the extent of said rape trauma suffered said rape.”
LOL! It’s not new!
So?
In “many” cases. How many is many? 3? 4?
Not the majority, but many.
The average Roman Catholic on the street will be paying a lot of money by way of tithes for this evil perpetrated on their own children by the Roman Catholic Church.
And what about your church?
It is estimated that priests are way down on the list even after Protestant ministers.
Remember that celibacy does not cause this great sin, it’s homosexuality.
If it concerns Rome, I would automatically do a spell-check. You know, “trust but VERIFY”. “Many Abuse Claims...” COULD be spelled “MINI Abuse Claims”. I’m just sayin..
Other news: Pope defrocked 400 priests in 2 years, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/17/pope-defrocked-priests/4592907/
Experts to bishops: Pedophiles often lie, but victims usually tell truth: http://www.ohio.com/news/world/experts-to-bishops-pedophiles-often-lie-but-victims-usually-tell-truth-1.263764
Scripture requires zero tolerance:
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; (Ephesians 5:3)
Any such thing is serious and causes or could cause legitimate offense against the faith, and which most all have to varying degrees, myself included. Yet especially tragic is sexual abuse of children among clergy, even if the greatest occurrence is in the secular realm, especially among educators (if not the homosexual aspect yet as seen among many priests).
And due to lack of internal discipline, it also required the state to engage in punishment. The result is that the State now has little trepidation about getting involved in church matters, and can more easily stand where it ought not.
This is not to say that there aren't true victims, just that the public perception that any Catholic priest is almost certainly a gay pedophile is a media-manufactured falsehood.
Let us recall Father Benedict Groschel, who was vilified and booted from catholic media for suggesting that the anti-Catholic hysteria is a huge hoax.
“grown men (and women) who can give you excruciating details and names as to their abuse at the hands of clergy (or other authorities).”
The problem that I have that the story brings into focus is the very fact that there exists a “forum” where the details and names are bandied about among potential litigants.
The DIFFERENCE between RCC abuse and Protestant abuse is the FACT that ROME declares the ability to retain or remit the sins of her followers. Thereby putting the abuse victim at the hands of a PRIEST in order to have their sins forgiven on their "road to salvation". Protestants have no such claim on her followers. DON"T YOU GET IT YET??!
If they had been reporterd to the police....as they should have been, this second evil wouldn’t occur.
Duh!..... Of course some are false.. But MOST/many are not..
Seems most all pedophile priests are(seem to be) American...
Other countrys rarely have any of this...
UNLESS!.....................................
Let me know when an organization runs a deliberate conspiracy to coverup and evade punishment for large numbers of child molesters in their ranks, like the church did. I don’t know of any.
I really hope they have cleaned things up, but if they have, they had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do so. And attempts to minimize the damage only make things worse.
If a priest is accused, he’s guilty. No need for a trial, just lynch him and get it done with.
If a priest isn’t accused, he hasn’t gotten caught yet. But that doesn’t mean he’s any less guilty.
(Sadly, that is the way it is perceived by many)
Why not? He said that “all” of the other candidates were “fairies”.
Yes, Father Groeschel got a bum deal.
Oh, you mean the ambulance chasing attorneys and future clients check each other out? LOL!
Sexual Abuse of Children by Protestant Ministers
Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year
Abuse by Protestant Ministers of Every Denomination
Child Sexual Molestation by Various Protestant Clergy
"Yeshiva" of Brooklyn also Guilty of Child Abuse
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Teacher's Advocacy of Pedophilia Raises Legal Questions
Teachers and Pedophilia - In YOUR Backyard
Washington Post -- D.C. school officials reported 220 abuse allegations against teachers
Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church
WHEN BOYS ARE MOLESTED BY TEACHERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY
Forgotten Study: Abuse in School 100 Times Worse than by Priests
The schools cover up much more than anyone else.
Check the link.
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