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.
**If a priest is accused, he’s guilty.**
That is exactly what happened in one of the three cases I know of.
Three attorneys attended the trial in Portland — and there were dates to verify when this priest worked for a state institution.
On one — he wasn’t even there yet.
On another — he had already gotten another assignment
On the third accuser — it was another priest who took the youth to view a site when his sister had supposedly drowned.
One of the jurors talked with the attorneys afterward, and the juror’s words from what was spoken in the deliberation room: “He’s a Catholic priest; now let’s prove that he’s guilty.”
Not the Church.
Pedophile priests.
“I mean, the TV probably told you there was a conspiracy, and it never lies, right? “
And the lack of proof of a conspiracy proves how good the cover-up is. . .
I can give you a long list of seminary links that prove that the emissaries sent by Pope Benedict XVI did indeed happen and the seminaries were cleaned out.
Now future seminariarians have to undergo a two day psychological exam, multiple interview (4 or 5), having parents, priest mentors interviewed, etc., etc. even before he is accepted into the seminary!
So not to worry, OK. Tell you acquaintance that he can go back to that seminary now and find a completely different culture!
Ever hear of that obscure group called the American public schools? No bigger cover up of child abuse has ever existed.
No one has ever gotten you to publish the numbers of homosexual rapes by various denominations, why won’t you do that?
So far, it appears that the Catholic denomination suffers from a problem of homosexuality.
Fr. Groeschel’s statement was not even about fraud, but about the realities of a priest counseling a gay youth and ending up seduced himself.
It is another case of the sex abuse scandal being a no-free-speech zone in the American media.
This lawyer is a courageous man voicing this.
Over and over again priests who were accused were transferred to other parishes without letting people in the new parish know, and the accusations were hushed up by Bishops. That was standard operating procedure. They had to know it was systemic, and they let it continue until public pressure and the cost of lawsuits became too great. Spin all you want, but minimizing what happened is pathetic.
What is pathetic is your constant trolling of any article and post that has ‘Roman Catholic’ in it so you can stop by to bash the Church.
Why don’t you stop being a Catholic bashing bigot? Have you nothing better to do?
Many of our enemies rejoice at evil.
Been that way for years, but shyster lawyers know where the money is.
Wow!
Father Benedict Groschel is one of the greatest Catholic priests that ever lived.
Percentage wise there is more sexual abuse in protestant faiths than Catholicism. Don’t make me give you the stats. And no other Pope in history did more to clean up the Catholic Church and weed out, AND GET RID OF, sexual abusers than Pope Benedict.
Thanks for your links.
Why? Willie Sutton, a man ahead of his time, knew it: because that’s where the money is!
It’s amazing that non-Catholics and other protestants can post innumerable threads about the Catholic Church. But when one thread is posted about the truth, all the nonsensical stuff appears.
If innocent priests are being accused, the truth must out. Anyone remember all the claims against child care providers? Therapists were implanting false memories in the children. None of the claims were true in the ones I am familiar with.
You like seeing innocent people convicted by liars?
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