Dr. Judith Reisman, Advises Catholic Church to Sue the Sex Experts for Medical Malpractice

Catholic C itizens of Illinois ^

[livius]

Thanks for the ping!

Yes, this is a great article with lots of info. And I really like the idea of suing the "experts." Are there any legal folk out there who might know if this is workable?

I think you're right, saradippity, there is definitely a decline in interest in actually doing anything about this problem. Once the press got Law out (although I personally think he should have resigned in shame much earlier, and given the press less fodder), the story lost momentum with them. In any case, they certainly don't want to examine the issue of the devastation wrought by homosexual clergy.

And I suspect there are many in the Church who also just want to keep their heads down for a bit, until the whole thing has gone away and they can go back to business as usual.

[Desdemona]

Q: Who is going to be hurt by the lawsuits?
A: Certainly not the guilty -- not the pederast and not the negligent bishops.

True. I have a friend who teaches at the school in the parish in St. Louis that was hardest hit. In the last couple weeks, the former associate pleaded guitly and my friend told me that it just brought all the anger and resentment back to the surface. Here was the priest they confessed sins to. The counselor. The "good guy" going to jail for a heinous crime - where EVERYONE is a victim and nothing can change that. I'm just glad that the child and that parish were spared a trial. Those people really feel betrayed because that associate was the one who told them about the pastor and was the comforter, the healer - when all along he was just as guilty. And not even a month later, Bishop Dolan, who was living there, was sent to Milwaulkee.

[eastsider]

Does anyone know who was on the bishops committee that appointed these characters?

The members of the episcopal committees are not publicly identified by the NCCB, although individual members sometimes choose to identify themselves (see, for example, Bishop Pilarczyk's CV).

My initial suspicion is that the bishop of the diocese in which John Hopkins is found had a hand in this. That would be Cardinal Keeler, Diocese of Baltimore. Sound familiar? : )

[Romulus]

But, I can see the odd archbishop giving it a try anyway.

With respect, I'd say that a better use of the "odd archbishop's" time would be in cleaning his own house. This is not by way of excusing quack therapists, but simply to say that corrupt bishops consulted quack practitioners because they wanted quack results.

These sex therapists were running a laundry for soiled priests, and all concerned knew it.

[RobbyS]

How did we get to this point? Every priest I knew in the '50s said that such therapy was quackery.

[Romulus]

Every priest I knew in the '50s said that such therapy was quackery.

Don't think that bishops in the 80s and 90s didn't know it too. See my post #24. It's all about process, papering a file till every guilty ass is covered and a "cured" priest can be re-launched with plausible denibility for all.

[Romulus]

Correction. NOT Cardinal Keeler, but Cardinal McCarrick, who sought to put us at ease, thus: "And it won't happen again. I can't see how it could happen again, you know, because the procedures are right there."

Feel better?

[livius]

NOT Cardinal Keeler, but Cardinal McCarrick, who sought to put us at ease,

The same Cardinal McCarrick who had a "Christmas" article published in Parade Magazine (which comes with my Sunday paper) extolling Islam?

[Siobhan]

Beware Cardinal McCarrick. Beware him.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

And what if the secular medical professionals really told the hierarchy not to let these clowns back into contact with children, but the hierarchy did so anyway?

As usual, secular society is better than the RCC and ahead of the curve, while the hides behind joke, grifting academics to defraud people of knowledge of its misdeeds.

As usual, conservative Catholicism cooks up a lie. It has no integrity, and nothing to offer Americans beyond smoky bingo halls, fish fries and the smell of cheap, stale beer.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

while the hides=while the RCC hides

[livius]

Thanks, Siobhan. That's sort of the feeling I had. I thought he was pro-life (which in my mind always takes priority), but I've never been entirely comfortable with him. I had the same feeling about Law: orthodox on the surface, but obviously with a lot of other things going on, as we have all discovered.

I don't know if any other Freepers read McCarrick's "Christmas" article, but it nearly ruined my day.

[sitetest]

Dear Siobhan,

"Beware Cardinal McCarrick. Beware him."

Why?


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[ArrogantBustard]

I don't trust McCarrick at all. I know of too much feminist/homosexual dissent¹ festering in the Archdiocese of Washington. He tolerates the intolerable. The place seems to be ruled by the bureaucracy. And the bureaucracy is not entirely orthodox.

1) I am not aware of any cases of sexual abuse. If I were, somdbody would be linking the Washington Post article...

[sitetest]

Dear ArrogantBustard,

Cardinal McCarrick has been here in Washington not quite two years.

Do you believe that the "feminist/homosexual dissent" began with him?

"The place seems to be ruled by the bureaucracy. And the bureaucracy is not entirely orthodox."

This is not surprising in that the Archdiocese of Washington is the physical nexus for Georgetown University, The Catholic University of America, the bishops' conference, and several other related, wooly organizations.

Cardinal Hickey labored here for 20 years, and achieved many victories over these folks, but nonetheless, did not achieve anything approaching complete success.

Furthermore, Cardinal Hickey had a heck of a time getting traction here. It took years before he figured out how to effectively rout the heterodox. And he learned that patience was his friend. He learned that in being patient with the heterodox, once he disciplined them, no one could argue that he had not gone the extra mile to win them back.

Why do you believe that in less than two years, Cardinal McCarrick should have accomplished what Cardinal Hickey fought for 20 years?


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[ArrogantBustard]

Dear Brother Knight, I thought you were stuck in Richmond??? Virginia Beach, to be exact?

I've been in the "Washington Area" since the late 1980s. I've been personally connected to ADW Catholic High Schools (in what capacity I will not specify in an open forum) for almost that entire time. I have also been personally connected with the Pro-life office for much of that time.

The Pro-life office is run by a gentleman of sterling character; I have naught but praise for him and and the work of his group. The High Schools are a different matter. The handful of orthodox Theology teachers whom I know, from several schools, report constant struggle with their administrations to maintain some semblance of a Catholic identity to the school. One school's principal is a dissident feminist ex-nun (I'm referring to a specific person) who deliberately hired a male homosexual religion teacher (again, specific person in mind, here), and earlier had vetoed an ex-lesbian guest speaker, on the grounds that homosexuality is not an abnormality. I find this principal, and her protestant/dissident administration to be typical of the suburban Washington High Schools I am familiar with. I saw no change in this problem over the past 15 years, and Cardinal McCarrick seems to me to be going along to get along.

In sum, the problem began before Cardinal McCarrick showed up, it festered under the bishopric of Cardinal Hickey, and continues unabated.

In fairness, I have the understanding the Catholic University has somewhat cleaned up its act in the past few years. And the worst of the liturgical abuses I used to see in some parishes have been corrected. But the problems of inadequate and heterodox catechesis in primary and secondary schools, fostered by dissident and protestant school administrations, continues unabated.

[sitetest]

Dear AB,

Vivat Jesus!

No, I'm here in the Archdiocese of Washington, though now I live just across the line in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. I'm a "transdiocesan". I told my pastor that perhaps I should transfer, but he likes us Knights (he instigated the institution of our Council), and won't let me go. I caught him muttering something about Fr. "X" of my geographical parish, and draft picks and several players in trade. ;-)

I appreciate your comments regarding Catholic high schools in our archdiocese. I am a graduate of one. I can assure you, they were worse when I graduated (1978). I'm unsure whether or not my senior religion teacher was even a theist. Pretty sure he wasn't a Christian (Ironically, some years after I left, he sort of "converted" to Catholicism - after having been the head of the religion department at a Catholic high school for nearly 20 years!!). The catholicity of my alma mater is dramatically improved since I went there. And frankly, I don't think the folks running my old school were the worst of the lot.

As to the elementary schools, many of them have improved even more dramatically. I've seen the religious education homework of the kids at the local regional school. It is worlds away better than what they did to us thirty-plus years ago. I regret to say that CCD doesn't seemed to have improved much, that I can see, but it's a long war, not a short battle.

"But the problems of inadequate and heterodox catechesis in primary and secondary schools, fostered by dissident and protestant school administrations, continues unabated."

Pope St. Pius X made complaints about the poor catechesis of Catholics in his day. I suspect that it's like shoveling sand against the tide.

I just don't see that one can yet hold Cardinal McCarrick responsible for things which, as you say, have their roots going back decades.


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[Siobhan]

Cardinal Hickey is a man of valor who had a careful and purposed plan for his pastoral leadership and the tending of the straying. Mind you his method was not my cup of tea ( coming from the "off with their heads" school of thought as I do ), but I have great respect for him. If you look to Cardinal McCarrick's previous diocese, you will find something very different indeed having transpired there. Part of our family had a grave issue with a priest, and they were treated by the then bishop in such a cold calculating way that I can only describe his actions as without honor.

A man can become more than his past or past choices. But to do that, a man must change his friends and stop listening to those who have given him bad counsel in the past. Would that Cardinal McCarrick would say adieu to some of those who give him close counsel. Such cold, calculating men can do more harm than most would imagine.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

obvious protestant here:
This is not a uniquely Roman Catholic issue, though your church has my sympathy and prayers for healing with the attention it has drawn from these matters. We protestants have some of the same issues, though heterosexual abuse seems to predominate. This article should go out to All Christian churches both Catholic and Protestant. i'll bet some of those seminaries referred to in the article were Protestant, in fact i'll bet a lot of them were. This Kinsey view has permeated all of society. i once heard James Dobson (Focus on the Family) say that abuse of (male) children by men was not homosexual! There is much propoganda in our society to counter, and both branches of Christianity should turn their attention to it.

[sitetest]

Dear Siobhan,

Life has its ironies.

"Cardinal Hickey is a man of valor who had a careful and purposed plan for his pastoral leadership and the tending of the straying. Mind you his method was not my cup of tea ( coming from the 'off with their heads' school of thought as I do ), but I have great respect for him."

When I was young (and even more stupid than I am now, if that can be believed), I was one of the folks quite horrified when Cardinal (then merely Archbishop) Hickey took the "off with their heads" approach. In his early years, he had an iron fist, no velvet glove. There is a parish nearby that was absolutely traumatized by his poor handling of appointing a new pastor. The wound has not healed nearly 20 years later.

The cardinal grew wise after a while, and came to understand that frontal assault was often ineffective. It didn't play well to the media or to a large majority of less-than-fully knowledgeable Catholics, it gave ammunition to his enemies, and it often accomplished little at a very great price.

In his later years, he waited patiently to do the things he needed to do. He provided every opportunity for folks to get back on the program. He let out enough rope so that folks would hang themselves. This seemed to be more effective.

"If you look to Cardinal McCarrick's previous diocese, you will find something very different indeed having transpired there. Part of our family had a grave issue with a priest, and they were treated by the then bishop in such a cold calculating way that I can only describe his actions as without honor."

I saw Cardinal Hickey do things which could be fairly called the same. I suppose that effective bishops must be cold and calculating, even ruthless. I wish that instead of maintaining his warm personal relationships that he'd had with his own errant priests, that Cardinal Law had acted more ruthlessly years ago.

That being said, I'm a great fan of Cardinal Hickey. When I weigh the bad against the good, he seems to me to have been better than most.


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