Cat pictures are usually posted by girls, Mark.
Well, I'm not a girl and I love cat pictures.
Posted on 03/26/2011 12:59:03 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
At an intensely combative and vitriolic hearing Friday afternoon in a sex-abuse case that has shaken the Philadelphia Archdiocese to its core, a state court judge shocked one priest's defense attorney by disclosing that the government thinks he might be a witness as a former seminarian and could be disqualified from the case. The lawyer, who represents one of three current and former Roman Catholic priests charged with raping boys in their parish, fired back that prosecutors were being "anti-Catholic" and had uttered an "abomination."
Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes told defense attorney Richard DeSipio that she's received information that "might make you, in fact, a witness because of events that occurred while you were a seminarian."
The information "stems from the fact that you attended the seminary with a student who asserts he was abused," Hughes said, adding that DeSipio "may possess factual knowledge about abuse that occurred with that student."
She added that the substance of the claim that DiSipio witnessed something is still unclear. "I just don't know if it's true," Hughes said. "I really don't know if it's true."
Yelling and visibly upset, DeSipio demanded that the government, then and there, identify the source of the allegation. "Let them spill it out right now!" DeSipio demanded.
"How dare they send you a letter about that," DeSipio said, referring to the district attorney's office. "That's an abomination."
Prosecutors said only that part of DeSipio's seminary training overlapped with the tenure of a senior clergyman accused of endangering children by failing to protect them from priests with a known history of abuse.
Monsignor William Lynn, now pastor of St. Joseph Church in Downingtown, Pa., is reportedly the highest-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States ever to be charged with child endangerment. Between 1984 and 1992, he served as dean of men at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., according to his biography on St. Joseph's website. As the secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, Lynn acted as personnel director for priests. He is accused of ignoring reports of abuse, covering up for them and putting children in danger.
"They are anti-Catholic. I'll say it," DiSipio fumed. "[The district attorney is] attacking me as a Catholic!"
The judge rejected DiSipio's claim. "Attack you? You attacked me! You don't even know me!" Hughes said, referring to a prior argument over the necessity of a preliminary hearing, another hotly contested issue Friday afternoon.
"Mr. DeSipio, I suggest you shut up," Hughes said. "People are coming from out of the woodwork [to provide information to the commonwealth.]"
If the government can prove the allegation is credible in 30 days, DeSipio will be disqualified as the archdiocese's attorney.
"You can change lawyers now, you can change lawyers in 30," the judge warned DeSipio's client, the Rev. James Brennan. "[But] there are some conflicts that are not waivable."
DeSipio argued that the 30-day investigation was "really unfair to Father Brennan," given his mounting legal costs.
Judge Hughes was livid that DeSipio spoke up again. "If you open your mouth one more time I am going to have the sheriff take you out of here," she told DeSipio.
As DeSipio continued to argue, Hughes said she might have him "locked up and held in contempt." Instead she issued a gag order, responding to what she observed as attorneys having "gone to the airways to advocate."
"No more interviews with anyone," the judge ruled.
"Does that include the DA going on Chris Matthews' 'Hardball' and going to the New York Times," defense attorney Michael McGovern asked.
The judge responded affirmatively: "I don't want tweets. I don't want Facebook. I don't want IMs [instant messages]."
Hughes said the court will revisit the gag order on April 15, when defendants are to be arraigned. That date also marks the deadline for the DA to provide the defense with the first batch of discovery, she said.
All but one of the defense attorneys challenged the government's amendment to its case, which added a conspiracy charge that had not explicitly been requested of the grand jury.
"The issue here is that if the DA seeks to amend, it has to be subject to some sort of prima facie determination," the defense argued.
The judge found otherwise, ruling that the commonwealth established "good cause" in its pleadings and that "there is no constitutional right - federal or state - for a preliminary hearing."
It was "a technical error on the commonwealth not to charge conspiracy" originally, Hughes said. "Conspiracy is made," and the defendants will not be afforded a preliminary hearing, she ruled.
Hughes said there was abundant evidence to support the amendment.
"I'm the only person, besides the prosecutors, who has seen every stitch of evidence," she said.
Defense attorney McGovern argued that her admission was precisely the problem.
"Your Honor, this is patently unfair!" McGovern said. "You know the evidence. They know the evidence. I don't know what the evidence is! I haven't seen any!"
The attorney said proceeding to trial without a preliminary hearing was like saying, "Let's have a dart game in a dark room."
"What kind of country is this where we have this?" he shouted.
The judge yelled back, baring her teeth: "You sit down! Sit, sit, sit!"
DeSipio agreed with McGovern that their clients deserve a preliminary hearing, which could allow them to confront their accusers.
"There's no witness. I know that they [the prosecutors] don't like that he's in jail," DeSipio said. "This accuser says there was an erect penis in his buttocks."
"Was it in your buttocks, or was it in your anus," he asked rhetorically. "If that question wasn't asked [of the grand jury], and he didn't specify anus or butt cheeks, I have a right to ask that."
"What you can't do, and what I submit they're trying to do, is say just because we have a grand jury, we have good cause [to by-pass a preliminary hearing]," DeSipio said.
The judge also addressed a potential conflict of interest concerning Monsignor Lynn, who unlike the three current and former priests, faces child endangerment charges - not rape or sexual assault. Plans for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to pay Lynn's legal costs present "a whole array of conflicts that I can't even imagine at this point in time," Hughes said.
"It's real simple," the judge said to Lynn, who was donning his clerical collar, "your master is the person that's putting bread on the table."
"It may be in your best interest to put forth a defense that attacks other people [or the church]," Hughes said.
She told Lynn he was putting himself in the position of receiving "advice from people who are being paid by people whose interests don't necessarily align with yours."
The stakes of this gamble could amount to "14 years of incarceration versus probation," she said.
Lynn, in a calm voice, declined. "Well, I trust these two men." he said, adding that the church hadn't placed any conditions on the payment of his legal costs.
Hughes was incredulous. "You are making a knowing, voluntary and intelligent decision to place yourself in conflict with your attorneys?" she asked.
"I am," Lynn responded, waiving his right to any future appeal based on the argument that his attorneys had a conflict of interest.
"Then we're moving forward," the judge said.
After arraignments and release of the first batch of discovery, which will include grand jury notes and testimony, on April 15, the government will begin putting together a second batch. The government said that batch would take longer to produce, as it will include roughly 10,000 pages of documentation, much of which will need to be redacted.
Hughes said the government must give the defense a specific timeline for the production of the second batch. "There has to be some finality," she said.
In January, a grand jury returned an indictment for rape and sexual assault against one current priest, one defrocked priest and one man who taught at a Catholic school. Monsignor Lynn, the third cleric who worked for the archdiocese as secretary of clergy, is accused of giving known abusers easy access to minors.
Occasionally maybe no for a Proddy.
For RC’s they’ve usually earned it 10 X’s over. Their brazenness seems to be ignored for dozens of posts if not hours and days far too often.
Only the Catholic church gave them cover from the law and moved them to different hunting grounds..
It doesn't take very long at all to tell if someone is Catholic or not.
They're all still here.
Buccaneer81 is not.
No, I don't know of any Roman Catholic who's been kicked off the forum permanently.
I'm only talking about Catholics being kicked off particular threads, not being zottd.
Exactly ...There is a bias for the gospel that is a natural bias against false teaching
It seemed to me that people were doubting that I have lurked a while before signing up.
False
Exactly, just look at the religious forum..it looks like the playground at a catholic school..I expected to be asked to put on a uniform when I came back
Psss in case you have not noticed no one takes claims like that seriously
Nationwide, 54 percent of Catholics supported Obama and 44 percent voted for McCain. Of the total population, 52 percent voted for Obama and 46 percent for McCain.
WOW! Papists are more lest than the rest of America. Thanks a lot Catholics.
Ohh I suspect he is still around with a different IP :>)
Well, I'm not a girl and I love cat pictures.
Yea well why not as the church itself is the left.. listen to Rome speak for redistribution ...listen to the west coast bishops applauding illegal immigrants and giving them cover..
The are the left one world government folks and so their folks vote that way
LOL.... of course they do.. just cause it is a church with lots of rules to get into heaven does not mean it is not socialist one world to its core
PRIESTS ACCUSED of SEXUAL MISCONDUCT WHO WORKED As MILITARY CHAPLAINS or CHAPLAINS at VA HOSPITALS
* * * * * * *
“This page presents a preliminary list of accused priests who have worked as military chaplains and chaplains at Veteran’s Administration hospitals.
It has been common practice for bishops and superiors of religious orders in the United States to use chaplaincies in the armed forces as a convenient place to send priests who have molested children.
As a result, servicemen have been sexually assaulted, the children of soldiers have been abused, and children visiting a parent or relative at a VA hospital have been endangered.
A priest’s time in the military often ends with a transfer back into a parish, where parishioners know nothing of their new priest’s sexual history, and the priest can use his military career in grooming new victims.
The preliminary list on this page provides the names of 95 priests accused of sexual abuse who have worked as military chaplains and/or VA chaplains, with information on their military service and links to articles.
Our 95 is a small fraction of the true total.
Yet when Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore, who ran the Archdiocese for the Military Services in 1997-2007, was asked in 2004 to give an account of sexual abuse in his chaplain ranks, he could count only 2 offending priests.”
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Military_Chaplains/
Everything is not about the wrongs done by clergy and bishops. It is about hating Catholicism and hoping and praying that this crisis will lead the the Church’s downfall and her silence.
There are two groups who embrace this idea. The first is the liberal secularists who hate the Church’s defense of life and Christian morality. The second is those rabid, vitrolic Protestants who hate Catholicism and Catholics. Guess who the group on FR are???
Lovely.
Yet notice the very first comment you made in this post was to deflect attention away from 37 accused priests in one city in one diocese and onto public schools...
It is also the concern of faithful Catholics. It is also the conccern of those who see cover up of sexual abuse in other institutions such as public schools.
The really pathetic thing about this entire scandal is that Protestants seems to be more concerned about the welfare of Roman Catholic children than their own parents are.
Maybe those who defend these pederasts don't have children. God forgive those who do.
![[Waterboarding+Middle+Ages.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ADzQse4ayoM/SXD5KZzO1VI/AAAAAAAABD0/8XNx9HxvLM4/s1600/Waterboarding%2BMiddle%2BAges.jpg)
Drip drip drip
All my cats have been rendered asexual. Perhaps this is a good idea to guarantee celibacy by those who take the vow????
LOL.... of course they don't.
This page presents a preliminary list of accused priests who have worked as military chaplains and chaplains at Veteran’s Administration hospitals.
It has been common practice for bishops and superiors of religious orders in the United States to use chaplaincies in the armed forces as a convenient place to send priests who have molested children.
As a result, servicemen have been sexually assaulted, the children of soldiers have been abused, and children visiting a parent or relative at a VA hospital have been endangered.
A priest’s time in the military often ends with a transfer back into a parish, where parishioners know nothing of their new priest’s sexual history, and the priest can use his military career in grooming new victims.
The preliminary list on this page provides the names of 95 priests accused of sexual abuse who have worked as military chaplains and/or VA chaplains, with information on their military service and links to articles.
Our 95 is a small fraction of the true total.
Yet when Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore, who ran the Archdiocese for the Military Services in 1997-2007, was asked in 2004 to give an account of sexual abuse in his chaplain ranks, he could count only 2 offending priests.”
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Military_Chaplains/
So he remembers only two of 95 cases. Convenient forgetfulness.
Awwwe poor ex-Catholic babies.. one would think they were not allowed to return to their church.
They could easily come back, instead of spreading hatred and being in denial about how poor their decision to leave the Church was.
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