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.
So true!! ;^)
We'd miss out on a lot of Modern Catholic belief this way!
Everybody’s a comedian these days.
These priests are not pedophiles, they are homosexual men. Eighty-five percent of the victims were boys, and most of those were young adolescent males.
Oh man, you’re too smart for us. For a non-Catholic, you sure know an awful lot about how things “work” in the Church. Guess it’s back to the drawing board....
“400 defrocked out of a claimed 1 billion church membership. The percentages are staggering. /s
400 would cover maybe the New York area.”
There are only about 400,000 priests in the entire world, not 1 billion as you disingenuously posted. Instead of 0.000004 percent defrocked, it was 0.001. Quite a difference, I’d say.
“We are told almost daily by your caucus that mother church is “it.” What she says will be obeyed or else.”
Well, here’s a suggestion: don’t click on those links.
Nobody is forcing you to do so, you’re CHOOSING to open that thread. It’s called trolling, and it’s very un-Christian behavior.
So you’re a lapsed Catholic. That explains it, I guess.
“I am a paedobaptistic, covenantal, confessor of the ecumenical creeds in the Scottish Reformed tradition of the Christian church.”
Wow, a bunch of fancy terms to state how superior you are compared to the rest of us, lol. But seriously, isn’t being prideful a sin?
They’re not child rapists, they’re homosexuals. And every diocese has in place a procedure to follow when a priest is accused of sexual abuse, which involves calling the civil authorities to investigate the matter. The priest is immediately removed from his duties as well. The Church knows that its rabid critics, such as yourself, would love nothing more than to see it fall.
Precision is not pride.
Though I do wonder about folks think they are humble and validate said humility by calling others superior.
A lapsed Catholic? No I am no longer Catholic. I belong to a Christian church which does not recognize the bishop of Rome as the one ring that rules them all. You are at liberty to do so.
Remember you are still a baptized Catholic and the mark of baptism on your soul, confirmation, too, if you were confirmed, will be there FOREVER.
We welcome you back at anytime. Find a priest that you can sit down with and talk.
LOL trolling? Here’s a suggestion, if groups can’t take criticism then don’t post articles which will surely draw such. Label it caucus.
Thanks for posting.
Any priest who has sex with a minor is a child rapist.
Nonsense. If those activities left a mark on the soul, we'd see a bigger difference between Catholics and the rest of the world.
There is none unless that Catholic has actually put their trust in Christ and is saved. Then the Holy Spirit changes them forever, but getting sprinkled as an infant does nothing more than make them wet.
The chutzpah of Catholicism that does not want to relinquish one iota of control of a person's soul. A religion of control freaks if ever there was one. It's about control form the top down, from a person's first breath until death. there isn't an aspect of one's life the Church does not claim to have a say in to tell you what to do and how to live.
There is no liberty and no freedom. It's rules and regulations from the start.
The Catholic church does not own me and it can't control me, no matter how bad it wants to.
And even if baptism left a mark on my soul, which it didn't, then God can erase that mark of bondage when a person gets saved because He whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
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