MacKillop Order abused thousands of children, Mahony once a gay rights activist, accused pedophile priest refrocked: One Week of Truth vs. News

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Coverage of three issues re Catholic Church sex crimes last week resulted in news stories that are only half true, if they are true at all, another revelation of today's rushed reporters in mainstream media rarely digging an inch deeper than a corporate press release for their reports.

First, Cardinal Roger Mahony used to advocate for gay rights, but you have to read a blog about a blog to see it in the news today, linked below. When reporters in Boston covered a priest accused of pedophilia being reinstated last week, they left out critical facts, such as the Catholic Church review board who found the priest innocent never interviewed the victim.

But the upcoming sainthood of Sister Mary MacKillop, Australian nun, was the worst aberration of truth by the "news" last week. The nun's reporting of one pedophile priest in 1870 got her excommunicated and is today driving her canonization. Sister MacKillop was soon reinstated and founded the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart religious order.

What the news left out is that a century later MacKillop's Josephite nuns were running orphanages in Australia where thousands of adults today say they were abused as children.

“The Worst headline in the world,” a victim of clergy abuse at the hands of Josephite nuns in Australia wrote to City of Angels, reacting to this story: Mary MacKillop: Patron Saint of Sexual Abuse Victims? and other articles that appeared in a flurry last week about her canonization. “She ran the religious order where I along with thousands were sexually and physically abused at the hands of the Sisters of St Joseph / Sacred Heart," writes John Brown of Toowoomba (pictured). "This must come as the most offensive headline yet." (John has written much on his experiences at Molested Catholic one of his websites.)

The Catholic PR machine is running full speed to make MacKillop's canonization a sign of the Vatican's new attitude towards its pedophile priest victims, like this from Oregon Faith Report Oct. 4th:

"With Sister MacKillop’s recent canonization, victims of sex abuse, their friends and families now can pray to her for reconciliation and healing. Sister MacKillop has clearly shown an understanding of the pain and suffering they endured."

John Brown writes: "Only the Catholic church could attempt to make this person a patron saint of survivors of sexual abuse - how utterly repugnant.”

On Roger Mahony's Previous Life:

West Hollywood city councilman Steve Schulte writes a guest blog at lgbt pov reminiscing about the momentous event when the L.A. Archbishop founded outreach ministries for gays and lesbians, before the Cardinal adopted America's new right wing aberrations of Christianity.

On still Rev. Charles Murphy of Weymouth, Massachusetts:

Few reporters last week mentioned that Fr. Charles Murphy had been charged, removed and reinstated in 2004 under nearly the same circumstances, after a church run review board found him innocent. All the reporters left out the six-figure settlement paid by the Church to the first victim, and that the parish in Weymouth who welcomed back Murphy has had four accused pedophiles on its staff.

"Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer for Murphy’s accuser, slammed the decision, saying the board did not question his client on the allegations," reported the Boston Herald in a three-paragraph story, posted as an after thought, following the onslaught of articles proclaiming the priest's innocence.

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Sainthood for the “foundress” of Sisters of Saint Joseph religious order, aka the Josephites, takes place October 17th, after the release October 10 of a documentary glorifying her life (Wonder what Public Relations firm is orchestrating this one, read how "the Sisters of St Joseph are 'frantically' preparing celebrations for the canonisation of Australia’s first saint, including a live broadcast from Rome to six screens at North Sydney’s Mary MacKillop Place" here in the Mosman Daily.)

***I mean, if the pope wants a woman with ties to pedophile priest justice to make into a saint, why not beatify Barbara Blaine? Sainthood for the founder of SNAP would spin a lot better for the Catholic Church in the media.***

Truly, what you read and hear repeated in mainstream media is rarely the whole story. When the same sound byte shows up over and over, you can be sure there are more facts being kept secret. The sound bytes are a PR director’s way to placate overworked reporters with quotes and to give readers and viewers the impression a topic is being covered, when it's not. In reality, the mainstream press is often used to further obfuscate the truth.

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John Brown sent links to more information about the abuse of children by Josephite nuns, where I found out:

"Leesa, an Australian citizen. wrote about how she was forced to kiss a dead priest, about how nuns force-fed her meals until she vomited, and chained to her cot, when she was orphaned in The Nazareth House. Leesa wrote how the nuns routinely checked the derrieres of the orphans, to make sure they had wiped their behinds properly. These nuns also beat Leesa with a switch until she bled and locked her in rooms for hours at a time (which reminded me of what the nuns at St. Joseph had done to me.) (Continue reading here at Ex Christian dot org.

"Dr Vaux said he could only assume that consent to use the babies came from the Roman Catholic order that ran the orphanage, the Sisters of St Joseph. Sister Colleen O'Dwyer, the order's province leader, claimed she was unaware of any form of medical experimentation having taken place" (Read more at Broadmeadows

OR

From a report to the Australian Parliament :

In their submission, the Sisters of St Joseph suggested that the policy of not having mothers who intended to keep their babies with mothers who did not was based on “the belief that one group would influence the other in their decision making.

The submission noted that “in hindsight” it is possible that the assumption that the baby would be adopted was that of the family, and not necessarily what the young pregnant woman wanted.

A representative from the Sisters of St Joseph commented that their adoption practices, "evolved over time and no doubt at times mistakes were made." The Committee was told that those women who may have been hurt while in their care 'were entitled to an apology.'
P.202

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"The nuns at St. Joseph subjected me to both physical and sexual abuse (torture). I was only age seven at the time." "The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research admitted it had conducted tests with a killed herpes simplex vaccine on 16 children at the St Joseph's Foundling Hospital." (Read more at here at Ex Christian">ex-Christian link)

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From an article about the documentary:

“The story of the excommunication amounts to this: that some priests had been uncovered for being involved in the sexual abuse of children," Father Paul Gardiner, a campaigner for MacKillop's sainthood told the documentary makers.

"MacKillop and her nuns told their superiors and severe action was taken, including sending one priest back to Ireland, and this so enraged other priests that they swore to take revenge against MacKillop's order, he said.

"Part of this revenge included encouraging the then Bishop of Adelaide Laurence Shiel to excommunicate MacKillop, something he duly did in 1871." (I would say Read more at AFP Sydney, but the story is no longer online. )

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So Sister Mary MacKillop got excommunicated at the hands of devious backhanded priests. Then she returned to the Church, attained a position of power, and created a religious order that turned loose a bunch of avenging angel nuns on the population of Australia and other countries.

This is the best female the Vatican can find for a timely image-repairing canonization?

Like I said, why not just

Beatify Barbara Blaine?
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Posted by Kay Ebeling, producer, City of Angels Blog, October 5, 2010.

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More Reading:

Cardinal Roger Mahony: A Mixed Legacy
By guest blogger Steve Schulte

Though it seems impossible now, on a Sunday nearly twenty-five years ago Cardinal (then just “Archbishop”) Roger Mahony visited Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood and, with a simple gesture, founded two exceptional ministries. The first an outreach to “gay and lesbian Catholics”, which would later be called “Communidad,” and the second an AIDS Ministry. In their way, each was revolutionary and evinced hope.
I remember these events well—and painfully—since I, like many of my friends and acquaintances, attended this event with great hopefulness. Poignantly, my parents, now deceased, as well as my lover were at this Mass with me. Today it may be difficult to recall, but both announcements were nothing short of courageous and even uplifting. New frontiers, heated battlefields, singular gestures. Other than Mother Theresa ... (Read more by Steve Schulte)

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More evidence Mainstream Media never digs an inch deeper than what a corporate PR machine releases in a press release.

For shame:

Read Church reinstates priest‎ Boston Herald - 5 days ago - The Archdiocese of Boston yesterday announced a review board has found sexual abuse allegations against Charles J. Murphy were unsubstantiated and he is being restored to senior priest status. Murphy was placed on leave in April, accused of sexually abusing a ...

Media Frenzy around nun who will be saint

Sainthood for Australian nun who exposed paedophile priest‎Irish Times - Pádraig Collins - THE FOUNDER of the Sisters of St Joseph, who will be canonised as Australia's ... She told Josephites director Fr Julian Tenison-Woods about the abuse. ...

Mary Mackillop exposed child sex abuse‎ - ABC Online

Australia's first saint 'exposed paedophile priest'‎ - AFP

Mackillop Exposed a Case of Pedophilia‎ - DigitalJournal.com

CathNews -

Coff's Coast Advocate

all 73 news articles »

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Read blogs, it's the only place you will find the truth in news media anymore. Read blogs and then figure out what is the truth based on your gut, as most corporate media is produced with a spin intended.

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What you read in mainstream media is rarely the whole story, no matter how many times a sound byte gets repeated.
ke

What does Mahony's activism have to do with pedophile priests? Well, he oversaw two regions, Central and Southern California, during a period when thousands of pedophile priests thrived whose crimes have been documented, as bishop of Stockton and Archbishop of Los Angeles. And he's still in office...