Los Angeles Archdiocese kept sexual abuse in the shadows

by Dogpatch 3 Replies latest social current

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    The REAL question is: When will private investigations and disclosure of Bethel's Own Secrets start the ball REALLY Rolling? We all know that there are untold thousands of pedophiles attending Jehovah's Witness meetings and going door-to-door without those they talk to having the slightest idea of the dirty secrets some of the JWs they meet hold buried in their past. The REAL damning problem is, many of them are KNOWN by the Watchtower's Service Dept., or at least one or two individuals at Bethel AND in the local congregations, to be dangerous criminals at large with little or no fear of prosecution. How many years has Mahoney purportedly been a friend of such criminals... evading public expose' and disclosure? Is there a "tipping point" reached where they are forced out of the woodwork into the open? What is required to get the legal ball rolling? Your thoughts are appreciated. Here is today's "Daily Breeze" take on the Catholic Cardinal Mahoney, a loved public figure of large and wealthy proportions: (and where is Ratz -inger hiding now?) SPECIAL REPORT

    Los Angeles Archdiocese kept sexual abuse in the shadows

    Church protected priests accused of child molesting Posted: 01/26/2013 02:50:17 PM PST Updated: 01/26/2013 10:42:31 PM PST
    A parishoner makes his way to an early mass at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Van Nuys, Ca January 24, 2013. (Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News)

    Join Los Angeles News Group City Editor Harrison Sheppard and reporters Susan Abram and Tracy Manzer in a live chat Monday at 11 a.m. to discuss this report.

    Jump to:
    Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony
    The Catholic Church
    Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera
    Father Michael Baker
    Father Michael Wempe
    Father James M. Ford Father Matthew Michael Sprouffske
    Father Michael Daniel Buckley
    Father Santiago Tamayo
    Monsignor Benjamin Hawkes
    Father Lynn R. Caffoe Father Eleutorio Ramos
    Monsignor Peter E. Garcia
    Father Cristobal Garcia
    Father Fidencio Silva
    Father Larry Lovell



    Thousands of pages of court documents show how the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for decades knowingly shielded more than a dozen priests suspected of child sex abuse.

    A Los Angeles News Group special report offers an in-depth look into how and when the church knew about the abuse and chose instead to move accused priests from parish to parish, even allowing the most abusive to move out of the country.

    Church officials in some cases tried to get priests into therapy, but at the same time took steps to keep the horrific accusations from ever surfacing or being reported to authorities. Victims and their families pleaded for justice, only to fall on deaf ears. This report details the depth of secrecy and covert actions taken by top church officials to keep the accusations in the shadows.

    In the decades since, archdioceses everywhere have taken steps to recognize and stop such abuse from happening again.

    In the meantime, victims feel the weight and still live in the shadow of abuse.

    Cardinal Roger Mahony squarely at the center of the sex-abuse scandal

      "We must realize that Christ came as the son of God not only to spend his time in the synagogue, but also to involve himself in the daily life of the people," he said in an interview at the time.

      "We as his disciples must realize the Gospel must speak to actual, current situations."

      For Mahony, those situations would include complaints that scores of his priests were abusing children - altar boys, students in parochial schools, sons and daughters of their parishioners.

    Church emerges with widespread reforms

      It's been more than 10 years since the Catholic Church faced the pinnacle of its sex abuse scandal, one which many refer to as the church's greatest crisis since the Reformation.

      In this last decade, church leaders and members say, they have had to come to terms with feelings of anger, confusion and shame over the dark history of child molestation and the cover-up.

    Father Nicholas Aguilar Rivera: Accused of molesting 13 youngsters in nine-month term in L.A.

      What transpired in the predominantly Latino congregation in East L.A., and at nearby St. Agatha's Church, is at the heart of a suit that led to the release last week of thousands of pages of personnel documents.

      A 35-year-old man who says he was molested by the priest as a youth claims church leaders knew Aguilar Rivera was a pedophile when they assigned him to the two local parishes and that they knowingly concealed his misdeeds.

    Father Michael Baker was accused of molesting 23 youngsters

      In a scandal that implicated dozens of priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the case of Father Michael Baker is the one that Cardinal Roger Mahony has said troubles him the most.

      An energetic priest who was popular with the young people in his congregations, Baker confided to Mahony during a spiritual retreat in late December 1986 that he'd molested two young boys from 1978-85.

    Father Michael Wempe: Tears at his own trial

      Retired priest Michael Wempe cried during his 2006 molestation trial as witness after witness testified how his sexual abuse of them had damaged them for life.

      But files released last week reveal his efforts and those of church officials to shield Wempe from the law.

    Father James M. Ford: In 45 years with the church, alleged abuse dates back to 1968

      Father James M. Ford's career in the Los Angeles Archdiocese didn't end until 2005, though he faced questions back to the early 1980s about inappropriate contact with male students and was known to have had an affair with a former seminary student who died of AIDS, according to his personnel files.
    Father Matthew Michael Sprouffske: History of abuse began before his ordination

      It took 30 years for the victim of Father Matthew Michael Sprouffske to work up the courage to confront her abuser, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

      It was 1986 when the woman penned two eloquent and powerful missives, one to Sprouffske and one to Monsignor John Rawden, an archdiocese official, and she spoke plainly about the abuse she suffered from the age of about 4 until 16.

    Father Michael Daniel Buckley: Suspended nearly 30 years after the first allegations

      In the case of Father Michael Daniel Buckley, the signs of abuse were there as early as 1965.

      That was the year parents of children at Immaculate Conception Church in Monrovia sent two letters to then-Bishop Timothy Manning demanding Buckley's removal due to "grave moral reasons" and threatening to picket if their demands were not met.

    Father Santiago Tamayo one of a group of priests that assaulted teen girl

      The case files of Father Santiago Tamayo and Father Angel Cruces read like lurid dime-store novels.

      Appropriately enough, the tales of how Tamayo, Cruces and five other priests sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl were fodder for the tabloids in the 1980s, which dubbed it "Snow White and the Seven Priests."

    Monsignor Benjamin Hawkes: Too powerful to cross

      After washing his hands and asking the Lord to cleanse him of his sins, Monsignor Benjamin Hawkes turned to an altar boy and winked.

      Hawkes would do this during Sunday Mass, just before serving Holy Communion.

    Father Lynn R. Caffoe: Church took 30 years to dismiss him after first allegations

      In a 2004 letter to the Vatican, Cardinal Roger Mahony revealed that a priest within the Los Angeles Archdiocese was a danger to children and must be dismissed.

      "(Father) Caffoe has not truly resolved his inner anger and sexual tension, so that he remains a real threat to minors. This is confirmed by his subsequent behavior," Mahony wrote to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI.

    Father Eleutorio Ramos: Transferred 15 times in two decades because of reports of sexual abuse

      Father Eleutorio Ramos admitted to police in Orange County that he had molested at least 25 boys over the span of a decade. It was, according to published reports, the largest single admission of child abuse in the history of the Orange County diocese
    Monsignor Peter E. Garcia: Preyed on illegal immigrant boys

      Among the various priests accused over the years of sexual abuse, Monsignor Peter E. Garcia seemed to have a specialty.

      Garcia's victims - he confessed at one point to having 20 - were primarily young undocumented immigrants, a quality that made their families less likely to prosecute.

    Father Cristobal Garcia: Priest fled to the Philippines and rose in the Church

      Father Vincent Serpa, pastor of St. Dominic Catholic Church in Eagle Rock, knew he had a problem with Father Cristobal Garcia.

      He just didn't know how big.

    Father Fidencio Silva: Twenty-nine altar boys claimed he molested them

      When Father Fidencio Silva first appeared at Oxnard's Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in 1979, he was young, good-looking and charismatic.

      He was apparently also far too chummy with some of the 60 altar boys in his charge. He would eventually be accused of molesting more than two dozen of them.

    Father Larry Lovell: Serving a prison sentence

      Whatever church Father Larry Lovell passed through, he left abused children and sickened parents in his wake.

      The defrocked Claretian priest, convicted of sexually molesting boys at two Arizona parishes in the 1970s and '80s, is now serving a 26-year combined prison sentence.

    http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_22457658/los-angeles-archdiocese-kept-sexual-abuse-shadows
  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    I'll bet you the Witnesses don't even have a "re-education" policy to at least try to keep further such crimes at bay!

    You know they don't! It would be an admission of their own guilt... something even the Catholic Church is less-inclined to hide than abusive cults.

    Randy Watters

    http://freeminds2.org

    http://freeminds.org

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    I paid money to hear Mahoney and some right wing idiot debate immigration policy at the National Constituion Center. There were so many priests in attendance. Normally, there are none. He was so moving. Immigration pushes my buttons. The Spanish language situation drives me berserk. My relatives learned English. It is the first business for Chinese and Russian immigrants. So be it.

    My sentiments were for more regulation and enforcement. Everything was fine in my mind until Mahoney started Jesusing me. He was such a superb apologist for immigration reform and accomodation. He had good business reasons. The Jesus quote ones got me in my gut.

    One thing I noted was that his priestly garb was very nice. The priests had bare bones, thread worn clothes on them. All the poor priests added to my guilt feelings.

    It is a shame that such a powerful advocate for the poor could not view sexual abuse of the most vulnerable population in the same light. Protectors of pedophiles pass for normal. They do not have horns and have a pitchfork. The evidence against Mahoney is damning. He had a lot of gall flying out to the papal enclave. The outcry was so furious he said he would not participate. His very presence showed he did not learn.

    Mahoney was not only a cardinal. He was a leading one. None of this good stuff can possibly balance his lack of protection for innocent children. I know that pedophilia was viewed as treatable as one time. The church believes repentance is possible. He had to know better. I hope he is sued personally and pays plenty.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    Anybody who still insists that Ratzinger's retirement had nothing to do with this shit is a complete fukktarrd.

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