Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Pedophile Priest Defense Attorney Extends L.A. Fight for Personnel File Release into Eternity
*
(Another Summer Rerun, this story first appeared Jan. 23, 2009, at City of Angels 5, now here slightly edited:)
(Attorney Donald Steier appears every time an L.A. pedophile priest needs defense, whether it's criminal, civil, or appeals court. Rough transcript of a hearing on personnel files below shows Steier (pictured) is adept at extending the legal process ad infinitum. One tactic he uses is to continue and continue and continue hearings, hoping plaintiff attorneys will simply drop out of the fight due to depleted resources. Steier has admitted in a California state court that he is paid by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a corporation sole. Here is how a hearing about release of priest personnel files went in L.A. Superior Court in Jan. 2009:)
Steier: I won’t accept this. There are particular realities of the situation. I am going to ask for a hearing date and then determine if an appellate filing would be appropriate. (In other words, he’s already planning to appeal the decision that will be made next hearing.)
Tony DeMarco, Attorney for the plaintiffs (pictured left), turns around to Steier and says, “It’s been fully briefed. Do you still want to formulate arguments? There’s no need to extend more and more delays.” (See Video of interview with DeMarco after this hearing at bottom of this blog post.)
Steier: The delay is not mine. I'm not a total idiot. This issue is different from Clergy Two. Now we're going forward with a new discussion and I'm going to argue it.
********
Here’s where it gets murky. Steier asks everyone to coordinate their calendars around this trip he’s taking. I sense others in the court have been impatient with him for a long time. It’s in the body language.
An ephemeral slouch comes over the attorneys as Steier jumps up yet again and asks for more time to file more briefs, more hearings, more ways to stretch this thing out so long that the Los Angeles news media has long forgotten the Clergy Cases, even some of the plaintiffs seem to have forgotten that release of personnel files on their perpetrators was part of the July-Dec 2007 L.A. settlement agreement between 510 plaintiffs and the Catholic Church.
At this Jan. 2009 hearing, the lawyers and judge juggled the hearing date so that Donald Steier, who represents an undetermined number of priests, could file yet another opposition brief and the date is especially important as Steier is taking a vacation. He wants to be sure he's back for the hearing but it may mean putting off the whole operation another couple months, but then DeMarco has to be in Fresno for a trial in March.
*****************
I know something is happening here, without me knowing what it is - Hmm. "You know something's happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" Bob Dylan, 1965
***********************************
I’ve kept an eye on Superior Court notices at the county website. Even when it says “nothing on calendar next two weeks” there can still be L.A. Clergy Case hearings scheduled. You have to go to the Case Summary section, not the Court Calendar section.
Still, when the clergy cases were downtown in the Superior Court building on Hill Street, I could jump on a Metro and be there in half an hour, look things up, and be home, real quick.
It's near impossible for me to get to this Dept 308 location.
As a result, since I am now the only journalist in the world covering these 500-plus pedophile priest cases, a lot has been decided concerning release of documents, a lot has been ordered to remain sealed, and I have yet to get down there to read the judge's orders, maybe one afternoon next week -
(Update Aug 31, 2010: between my job and this court location that is hard to get to on transit, I've barely gotten back to the courthouse. Clicks on my PayPal button would help me with things like cab fare and buying what documents there are at 50 cents a page....)
Here is what I was able to write down from that hearing on a Tuesday in January 2009:
They worked it out that the hearing on Donald Steier’s latest arguments to seal documents will be March 5th.
(I could have sworn I saw a Hawaiian shirt in Steier’s briefcase, but he slammed it shut real quick.)
“I’ll get the briefing done in my absence,” he said in short curt tones, like to say - you people are causing me such an inconvenience. The judge and plaintiff attorneys are forcing him to work while he's in the Bahamas or wherever. “It’s not our fault,” Steier said.
Judge: I know, I just hope in my lifetime we get the stuff in the jury room moved into storage.
Steier: Well you don't even have these files. (He is bristling)
DeMarco: Would you mind telling the court the anticipated length of this next brief?
Steier: It will be a complete briefing.
DeMarco: Are we talking about another 50-page--?
Judge: He needs my permission to file a 50-page brief.
Steier: Well there’s constitutional law issues, and if the court - I will write it to any deadline you set.
(You get the feeling Donald Steier is a battery bunny on autopilot. He can file objections, file objections, copy and paste paragraphs, fill pages with legalspeak, stuff up everybody’s time and minds with mounds of arguments - then take off on vacation leaving the rest of the Court to wade through his work. What really bugs me is Steier's tactic appears to be working. Steier is getting a lot of documents sealed. He’s wearing down the court system. The pervert priests get to keep their reputations.)
The Pervert Priests Get to Keep Their Reputations
Judge: The hearing has to be before Mr. Steier goes on vacation.
(Several attorneys overlap each other discussing exactly how many days prior to a hearing a briefing must be filed. Six of them get out hand-held digital devices to check their calendars.)
(Steier reaches in and caresses the fabric of the getaway shirt in his briefcase.)
The judge asks more questions about this trip Steier is taking. He glances back at me then says, May I approach the bench. The rest of the discussion takes place way up there where I can’t hear a thing. I try to sketch, but my hands just don’t want to draw anything.
Truth is my hands are shaking. My whole body is shaking. That incident with the Armenians in my apartment building had repercussions. I guess because I already have PTSD, the way I responded to it, I kept re-seeing them, all 11 of them standing under my balcony, hollering hate at me, waving their buzz saws.
Problem is, with PTSD, I was shaking, literally shaking after the incident, inside, not just my hands, my entire being -
I shook for a week.
I think Tony DeMarco thinks I'm a junkie the way I was shaking when I interviewed him.
(See video below)
Wow.
I'm starting to shake again now as I write about the incident last week where I was assaulted by 11 Armenians in my apartment building, three of them wielding buzz saws. That really happened.
There isn't really a Hawaiian shirt in Steier's briefcase. . .
Back to Court:
Steier: I have no objection to anything but Exhibits from third party files.
That means Police files in this case.
Judge: Okay then we're sending this pile back where they came from?
Steier: No.
Judge: Okay, we'll go look at that room. There are over three hundred (300) exhibits in the jury room. This stack (She pulls out one of several stacks of papers behind her) these are the ones someone objected to.
(She picks up another stack)
Judge: We have motions to seal, okay, we'll just keep all of these under seal.
(And the stack goes back. Piles and piles of documents remaining under seal.)
Judge: Then there are these two other stacks. Two, one for a tentative to unseal - this relates to the other order, and then there’s this pile.
(Will anyone ever be able to figure out what happened here?)
DeMarco speaks to the Judge: We've already spent time on arguments. I did not submit an objection to the order to leave these sealed.
Judge: And this stack, these DeMarco briefed with arguments why they are sealed (He later told me these would be personal private information about plaintiffs, left under seal now as well.)
Judge: Okay we had a motion to unseal on this stack quite a while ago. (She brings out another pile) Recently there was a supplemental brief, but the newer brief doesn't mention these.
Church attorney Sean Kneafsey looks back at me and says something I can't hear.
Judge: This stack is staying sealed.
(Several attorneys stand up and speak about right to privacy, and Griswold vs. Connecticut. )
Judge: They're all staying sealed. So let’s get everything boxed up and everything in that room outta here. So I’ll go look at the boxes and then this will be all wrapped up.
Steier: No.
(Steier Says No Again )
Steier: I did file objections and I was prepared to argue those today. There are documents not in the courtroom but they are in the order. I am objecting to those going to the referee.
DeMarco: The protocol is that they should go to the referee, after we hear arguments over -
Judge: Some are to be sent back where they came from and some are going to the referee.
Then all the attorneys, the court reporter, and the judge all got up and went to look at the documents that are stored in a room across the hall.
They left me behind so I could not hear what they said. That's the way they seem to like it.
************
That's the best I can do on this for now, guys, my two other jobs are slamming.
Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign.
Send City of Angels $5 through a PayPal button on the left, just now and then, to pay for Readership.
Video of interview w/ Tony DeMarco and Original Jan. 2009 Story Linked Below this picture
(Another Summer Rerun, this story first appeared Jan. 23, 2009, at City of Angels 5, now here slightly edited:)
(Attorney Donald Steier appears every time an L.A. pedophile priest needs defense, whether it's criminal, civil, or appeals court. Rough transcript of a hearing on personnel files below shows Steier (pictured) is adept at extending the legal process ad infinitum. One tactic he uses is to continue and continue and continue hearings, hoping plaintiff attorneys will simply drop out of the fight due to depleted resources. Steier has admitted in a California state court that he is paid by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a corporation sole. Here is how a hearing about release of priest personnel files went in L.A. Superior Court in Jan. 2009:)Steier: I won’t accept this. There are particular realities of the situation. I am going to ask for a hearing date and then determine if an appellate filing would be appropriate. (In other words, he’s already planning to appeal the decision that will be made next hearing.)
Tony DeMarco, Attorney for the plaintiffs (pictured left), turns around to Steier and says, “It’s been fully briefed. Do you still want to formulate arguments? There’s no need to extend more and more delays.” (See Video of interview with DeMarco after this hearing at bottom of this blog post.)Steier: The delay is not mine. I'm not a total idiot. This issue is different from Clergy Two. Now we're going forward with a new discussion and I'm going to argue it.
********
Here’s where it gets murky. Steier asks everyone to coordinate their calendars around this trip he’s taking. I sense others in the court have been impatient with him for a long time. It’s in the body language.
An ephemeral slouch comes over the attorneys as Steier jumps up yet again and asks for more time to file more briefs, more hearings, more ways to stretch this thing out so long that the Los Angeles news media has long forgotten the Clergy Cases, even some of the plaintiffs seem to have forgotten that release of personnel files on their perpetrators was part of the July-Dec 2007 L.A. settlement agreement between 510 plaintiffs and the Catholic Church.
At this Jan. 2009 hearing, the lawyers and judge juggled the hearing date so that Donald Steier, who represents an undetermined number of priests, could file yet another opposition brief and the date is especially important as Steier is taking a vacation. He wants to be sure he's back for the hearing but it may mean putting off the whole operation another couple months, but then DeMarco has to be in Fresno for a trial in March.
*****************
I know something is happening here, without me knowing what it is - Hmm. "You know something's happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?" Bob Dylan, 1965
***********************************
I’ve kept an eye on Superior Court notices at the county website. Even when it says “nothing on calendar next two weeks” there can still be L.A. Clergy Case hearings scheduled. You have to go to the Case Summary section, not the Court Calendar section.
Still, when the clergy cases were downtown in the Superior Court building on Hill Street, I could jump on a Metro and be there in half an hour, look things up, and be home, real quick.
It's near impossible for me to get to this Dept 308 location.
As a result, since I am now the only journalist in the world covering these 500-plus pedophile priest cases, a lot has been decided concerning release of documents, a lot has been ordered to remain sealed, and I have yet to get down there to read the judge's orders, maybe one afternoon next week -
(Update Aug 31, 2010: between my job and this court location that is hard to get to on transit, I've barely gotten back to the courthouse. Clicks on my PayPal button would help me with things like cab fare and buying what documents there are at 50 cents a page....)
Here is what I was able to write down from that hearing on a Tuesday in January 2009:
They worked it out that the hearing on Donald Steier’s latest arguments to seal documents will be March 5th.
(I could have sworn I saw a Hawaiian shirt in Steier’s briefcase, but he slammed it shut real quick.)
“I’ll get the briefing done in my absence,” he said in short curt tones, like to say - you people are causing me such an inconvenience. The judge and plaintiff attorneys are forcing him to work while he's in the Bahamas or wherever. “It’s not our fault,” Steier said.
Judge: I know, I just hope in my lifetime we get the stuff in the jury room moved into storage.
Steier: Well you don't even have these files. (He is bristling)
DeMarco: Would you mind telling the court the anticipated length of this next brief?
Steier: It will be a complete briefing.
DeMarco: Are we talking about another 50-page--?
Judge: He needs my permission to file a 50-page brief.
Steier: Well there’s constitutional law issues, and if the court - I will write it to any deadline you set.
(You get the feeling Donald Steier is a battery bunny on autopilot. He can file objections, file objections, copy and paste paragraphs, fill pages with legalspeak, stuff up everybody’s time and minds with mounds of arguments - then take off on vacation leaving the rest of the Court to wade through his work. What really bugs me is Steier's tactic appears to be working. Steier is getting a lot of documents sealed. He’s wearing down the court system. The pervert priests get to keep their reputations.)
The Pervert Priests Get to Keep Their Reputations
Judge: The hearing has to be before Mr. Steier goes on vacation.
(Several attorneys overlap each other discussing exactly how many days prior to a hearing a briefing must be filed. Six of them get out hand-held digital devices to check their calendars.)
(Steier reaches in and caresses the fabric of the getaway shirt in his briefcase.)
The judge asks more questions about this trip Steier is taking. He glances back at me then says, May I approach the bench. The rest of the discussion takes place way up there where I can’t hear a thing. I try to sketch, but my hands just don’t want to draw anything.
Truth is my hands are shaking. My whole body is shaking. That incident with the Armenians in my apartment building had repercussions. I guess because I already have PTSD, the way I responded to it, I kept re-seeing them, all 11 of them standing under my balcony, hollering hate at me, waving their buzz saws.
Problem is, with PTSD, I was shaking, literally shaking after the incident, inside, not just my hands, my entire being -
I shook for a week.
I think Tony DeMarco thinks I'm a junkie the way I was shaking when I interviewed him.
(See video below)
Wow.
I'm starting to shake again now as I write about the incident last week where I was assaulted by 11 Armenians in my apartment building, three of them wielding buzz saws. That really happened.
There isn't really a Hawaiian shirt in Steier's briefcase. . .
Back to Court:
Steier: I have no objection to anything but Exhibits from third party files.
That means Police files in this case.
Judge: Okay then we're sending this pile back where they came from?
Steier: No.
Judge: Okay, we'll go look at that room. There are over three hundred (300) exhibits in the jury room. This stack (She pulls out one of several stacks of papers behind her) these are the ones someone objected to.
(She picks up another stack)
Judge: We have motions to seal, okay, we'll just keep all of these under seal.
(And the stack goes back. Piles and piles of documents remaining under seal.)
Judge: Then there are these two other stacks. Two, one for a tentative to unseal - this relates to the other order, and then there’s this pile.
(Will anyone ever be able to figure out what happened here?)
DeMarco speaks to the Judge: We've already spent time on arguments. I did not submit an objection to the order to leave these sealed.
Judge: And this stack, these DeMarco briefed with arguments why they are sealed (He later told me these would be personal private information about plaintiffs, left under seal now as well.)
Judge: Okay we had a motion to unseal on this stack quite a while ago. (She brings out another pile) Recently there was a supplemental brief, but the newer brief doesn't mention these.
Church attorney Sean Kneafsey looks back at me and says something I can't hear.
Judge: This stack is staying sealed.
(Several attorneys stand up and speak about right to privacy, and Griswold vs. Connecticut. )
Judge: They're all staying sealed. So let’s get everything boxed up and everything in that room outta here. So I’ll go look at the boxes and then this will be all wrapped up.
Steier: No.
(Steier Says No Again )
Steier: I did file objections and I was prepared to argue those today. There are documents not in the courtroom but they are in the order. I am objecting to those going to the referee.
DeMarco: The protocol is that they should go to the referee, after we hear arguments over -
Judge: Some are to be sent back where they came from and some are going to the referee.
Then all the attorneys, the court reporter, and the judge all got up and went to look at the documents that are stored in a room across the hall.
They left me behind so I could not hear what they said. That's the way they seem to like it.
************
That's the best I can do on this for now, guys, my two other jobs are slamming.
Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign.
Send City of Angels $5 through a PayPal button on the left, just now and then, to pay for Readership.
Video of interview w/ Tony DeMarco and Original Jan. 2009 Story Linked Below this picture
Friday, January 23, 2009
Here is what happened at hearing last Tuesday, in fact, here is what is happening in release of documents from Clergy Cases settled in LA in July 2007
Steier: I won’t accept this. There are particular realities of the situation. I am going to ask for a hearing date and then determine if an appellate (filing?) would be appropriate. (He’s already planning to appeal the decision that will be made next hearing.)
More About L.A. Clergy Case Documents Tuesday, January 20, 2009
VIDEO: DeMarco talks to City of Angels after an L.A. Superior Court Hearing on Priest Personnel File Release.
AND
In the post below is text from one of Donald Steier's most copy and pasted documents arguing against release of documents:
Monday, February 8, 2010
What L.A. plaintiffs are up against re release of perp priest personnel files
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"Not one trial occurred, not one allegation against any priest was proved." Attorneys for pedophile priests filed this objection to unseal docs November 2008. CofA will post more docs filed subsequently by the Guzin & Steier lawfirm to prevent release of documents momentarily: Father Doe, for himself and other non-party priests similarly situated and identified in their Objection to the Proposed Transfer of Records filed in this court on or about January 28, 2008, the public disclosure of whose privileged and private personnel records are the subject of the Application for Order of Reference, hereby appears specially to oppose the Order and the proposed transfer...
********
Blog posted by Kay Ebeling, Producer, City of Angels Blog
.
Video originally posted and transcribed here:
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Release of LA Clergy Case documents to begin, with 30 to 40 bankers boxes to be made public within days, interview w/Tony DeMarco
*
Monday, August 30, 2010
Someone Else Was Angry about Fr. Thomas Barry Horne
.
Lightning
Strikes Bartlett, Illinois, Church 1953
Right behind altar, which was also living quarters for Fr. Thomas Barry Horne at St. Peter Damian Church. After this fire, Horne's shelter was in a separate building next door, where I was banging on his door around 1954 at age six, begging for more of that fun thing he showed me how to do. (Article about fire at church at left is from June 11, 1953, Roselle Register)
(The producer of this blog is seeking other victims of Father Thomas Barry Horne, padre pedophilius flagrante, of Bartlett Illinois, from 1949 to 1975, when he was pastor of St. Peter Damian Church, or from before 1949, his years as a traveling missionary all over the United States. Contact cityofangelslady@yahoo.com )
Personally, I don't believe the "modern" three-year-old church was struck by lightning. I think some other angry confused kid from Bartlett, or a relative of a damaged kid, started the fire, and not wanting to start a scandal, local officials agreed to say it was lightning.
On a church that had been constructed in 1950? There was no lightning rod?
I doubt it.
I think there is something untrue and bent about this story that lightning struck St. Peter Damian Church in June 1953 and destroyed the living quarters of the priest, behind the altar. I think one of Horne's other victims started the fire.
What else could you do in 1953, when no one ever even spoke out loud about sex?
But it's also strange that the altar and organ in choir loft were also damaged.
My mom was the organist.
/
LightningStrikes Bartlett, Illinois, Church 1953
Right behind altar, which was also living quarters for Fr. Thomas Barry Horne at St. Peter Damian Church. After this fire, Horne's shelter was in a separate building next door, where I was banging on his door around 1954 at age six, begging for more of that fun thing he showed me how to do. (Article about fire at church at left is from June 11, 1953, Roselle Register)
(The producer of this blog is seeking other victims of Father Thomas Barry Horne, padre pedophilius flagrante, of Bartlett Illinois, from 1949 to 1975, when he was pastor of St. Peter Damian Church, or from before 1949, his years as a traveling missionary all over the United States. Contact cityofangelslady@yahoo.com )
Personally, I don't believe the "modern" three-year-old church was struck by lightning. I think some other angry confused kid from Bartlett, or a relative of a damaged kid, started the fire, and not wanting to start a scandal, local officials agreed to say it was lightning.
On a church that had been constructed in 1950? There was no lightning rod?
I doubt it.
I think there is something untrue and bent about this story that lightning struck St. Peter Damian Church in June 1953 and destroyed the living quarters of the priest, behind the altar. I think one of Horne's other victims started the fire.
What else could you do in 1953, when no one ever even spoke out loud about sex?
But it's also strange that the altar and organ in choir loft were also damaged.
My mom was the organist.
/
Friday, August 27, 2010
Pattern/MO in Catholic Hierarchy the Same in Any Crime
.
“This was, I think, a face saving exercise for the Catholic Church. If anyone had really wanted to deal with the man (Father James Chesney), they could have. They certainly wouldn’t just have moved him over the Derry/Donegal Border where he could have still carried on doing what he had been doing.”- (Police in Ireland re a priest accused of bombings and other IRA activity in the early 1970s: Read N.Y. Times calls for IRA priest bomber inquiry )
“This was, I think, a face saving exercise for the Catholic Church. If anyone had really wanted to deal with the man (Father James Chesney), they could have. They certainly wouldn’t just have moved him over the Derry/Donegal Border where he could have still carried on doing what he had been doing.”- (Police in Ireland re a priest accused of bombings and other IRA activity in the early 1970s: Read N.Y. Times calls for IRA priest bomber inquiry )
Something we will hear about next year
900 abuse cases in Dutch clergy
2010-08-25
The Hague - A Dutch commission set up five months ago to look into suspected sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in the Netherlands said on Wednesday it has received about 900 reports from alleged victims. "The 900 reports come mainly from victims but also from relatives of the victims who contacted us," Gert Jan Verhoog, a spokesperson for the commission told AFP....Some members of the clergy accused of abuse gave themselves up to the commission, Verhoog said....At the same time, a Catholic Church committee called Hulp & Recht (Support and Right), tasked with collecting reports from alleged victims, has so far received about 1 600 statements, spokesperson Ben Spekman told AFP. Read More
2010-08-25
The Hague - A Dutch commission set up five months ago to look into suspected sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in the Netherlands said on Wednesday it has received about 900 reports from alleged victims. "The 900 reports come mainly from victims but also from relatives of the victims who contacted us," Gert Jan Verhoog, a spokesperson for the commission told AFP....Some members of the clergy accused of abuse gave themselves up to the commission, Verhoog said....At the same time, a Catholic Church committee called Hulp & Recht (Support and Right), tasked with collecting reports from alleged victims, has so far received about 1 600 statements, spokesperson Ben Spekman told AFP. Read More
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Get Real at Age 100 about Flying Nun
.
Mother Teresa is 100 today, time to take a closer look at this media savvy fundraising nun's work.
Per Forbes India: Followers and volunteers feel the Missionaries’ care centres are allergic to using modern-day therapy and technology to care for the inhabitants. Often untrained volunteers are given tasks that would normally require one to be trained in medicine and therapy. Missionaries (of Charity) has always kept change at bay. But in a world where it is very difficult to hide behind secrecy, the number of disillusioned followers is increasing. Missionaries doesn’t keep a tab on the financial transactions that take place. No one other than the sisters knows where the money that is donated is spent. Donations continue to pour in but people are asking for transparency on how the money is used.
(Read entire article from Forbes India Aug. 8, 2010: Mother Teresa’s Legacy is Under a Cloud - "Mother Teresa’s legacy of compassion finds itself under a very critical public scanner today."
*****
At Facebook: "STOP The Missionaries of Charity" say Patients at the home of the dying in Kalighat lay motionless for hours on end; the nuns refuse to allow any entertainment or wellness programs. To learn more and speak up about the negligence and financial fraud of this organization please visit STOP The Missionaries of Charity by Hemley Gonzalez
.
(City of Angels returns from hiatus in September )
Mother Teresa is 100 today, time to take a closer look at this media savvy fundraising nun's work.
Per Forbes India: Followers and volunteers feel the Missionaries’ care centres are allergic to using modern-day therapy and technology to care for the inhabitants. Often untrained volunteers are given tasks that would normally require one to be trained in medicine and therapy. Missionaries (of Charity) has always kept change at bay. But in a world where it is very difficult to hide behind secrecy, the number of disillusioned followers is increasing. Missionaries doesn’t keep a tab on the financial transactions that take place. No one other than the sisters knows where the money that is donated is spent. Donations continue to pour in but people are asking for transparency on how the money is used.
(Read entire article from Forbes India Aug. 8, 2010: Mother Teresa’s Legacy is Under a Cloud - "Mother Teresa’s legacy of compassion finds itself under a very critical public scanner today."
*****
At Facebook: "STOP The Missionaries of Charity" say Patients at the home of the dying in Kalighat lay motionless for hours on end; the nuns refuse to allow any entertainment or wellness programs. To learn more and speak up about the negligence and financial fraud of this organization please visit STOP The Missionaries of Charity by Hemley Gonzalez
.
(City of Angels returns from hiatus in September )
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
BARE NAKED Father Daly Burst Out and Turned Himself in to Police Surrounding the Church
.
(Another Summer Rerun, this post first appeared March 31, 2007, at CityofAngels3 )
Dive in the files and find the felonies
It had been one short wet ride after another for the two hitchhiking boys. They’d been on the onramp for hours when more rain came. The Arizona-Calexico region got 14 inches after Hurricane Heather that August 1977, but two teenagers hitchhiking to the Haight Ashbury weren't thinking about the weather. Finally headlights approached and slowed to a stop. The boys didn’t even look in the car, just jumped inside.
The driver said in an Irish brogue that he worked and lived at a Catholic Church where there was a place for hitchhikers to clean up, even have a bed to sleep in.
Around two AM the boys burst out of the church doors, one vomited on the side of the road. They ran into the town of Holtville, California, and found a cop.
Soon, officers with weapons drawn heard loud thumps coming from the room in back of the Church where the priest lived. Then…
Out came Father John Daly totally naked, holding the right and left doors wide open with the light pouring down on him, all 250 pounds of his body billowing in the rain and early morning light.
The naked priest snarled as a young Mike Shoemaker identified the priest who sexually assaulted him through the police car window. (In late 2007 Shoemaker won a settlement with the San Diego Archdiocese over the incident.)
----------------------------------
Summer 2006 the arresting officer Dutton testified in deposition for Mike’s case against the San Diego Archdiocese, which settled in 2007.
DUTTON: “I’ve looked at the report you've handed me and it’s incomplete.”
Q: When you say it’s incomplete, what do you mean?
DUTTON: Well the statements aren’t there, the evidence list isn’t there, the copies of the reports that I received from La Mesa and other places about him aren’t there.
Q: Are you talking about the NCIC?
A: No those are also not here. NCIC is not here CI&I is not here if I ran it, I’m sure I did, but also the police reports or whatever department reports from other law enforcement agencies are also not here in what they provided you. And we did receive those and those were made part of the investigative file.
===========================
Holtville is a small town today and in 1977 with no radio, TV, or news report, word got out that Father Daly had been arrested. Dutton testified that people from town started to call, with stories about Father Daly coming out of the rectory with a young boy, and his fly was open.
Mike and Mark stayed in a nearby motel sleeping for several days after John Daly’s arrest.
As they slept the Catholic protect-the-perpetrator machinery went into action.
=======================
(This letter is in the exhibits from Mike Shoemaker’s case against the San Diego Archdiocese, a letter from the local church attorney to Bishop Maher in San Diego explaining how the local parish dispatched of the Father John Daly problem:)
To Bishop Maher
San Diego
Diocesesan office for apostolic Ministry in Alcalala Park, San Diego
“Mr. Flourd, attorney, contacted me, Mark A. Medaer, voluntarily, to engage my assistance in a legal matter.
“On Friday Father John and myself were called to the office of Mr. Flourd. We were told that the District Attorney considered the case “a chargeable criminal complaint.” Mr. Flourd echoing hints from other sources, advised us that if Father John would leave his post he thought some authorities could “argue down” the case with any dissenting parties.
Father John and myself consulted. At 2:00 PM Father Daly decided to go to El Carmelo Retreat, awaiting instructions from the Bishop. (sloppy typing here) Mr. Flourd was advised of the move. He would contact the District Attorney. At 3:00 PM Father John left.
I contacted Father Richard Duncanson and Msgr William Cooney.
“NO COMPLAINT BEING FILED, (their caps) I did not think it necessary to contact the Chancery, knowing furthermore that our Bishop and Chancellor were absent.
======================
DALY’S SENTENCE: A MONTH IN A RETREAT
John Daly went to El Carmelo Retreat House on August 17, three days after the incident, “upon the advice of Mr. Lewis Flourd, attorney at El Centro,
and myself
Mark Medaer episcopal vicar in the Imperial Valley.”
============
January 22 2007
Mike opens the package from his attorney, a copy of the church’s Motion for Summary Judgment granted last week on his case. Mike wasn’t as upset as he’d expected to have his case dismissed. It just meant a few more years of legal lunacy. Other cases had been appealed for disallowed testimony so it was just a matter filing an appeal. (UPDATE: Since his case was dismissed within the same year as the settlement in others in the Coordinated Cases and plaintiff had no time to appeal, Mike got a settlement anyway, ah California law if only all states were so progressive....)
It was the wording of the Motion for Summary Judgment itself, a collection of sentences in the first paragraph of the introduction by Brandy Stanton Cody of DiSante & Freudenberger in San Diego
that still to this day make Mike break out in a string on invectives:
==========================
15 YEAR OLD’S “LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP” WITH AIRLINE PILOT
“Nor was plaintiff a naïve, sexually inexperienced child when the events occurred," reads the first paragraph of the motion.
"A year before the alleged assault, when he was 15, Plaintiff began a long-term relationship with an adult male airline pilot in Arizona in which he exchanged sexual favors for flying time in the pilot’s plane,” writes Brandy Cody.
SHOCK.
CHURCH ATTORNEY calls it consensual sex
For Mike at age 15 waking up in a room behind a church altar to find a burly Irishman sucking him off was traumatic, doubly so when he found out the ephebophile was a priest.
Brandy Stanton Cody denigrated Michael with a low blow attack that makes it now open season on Brandy Stanton Cody, Associate, Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger LLP, 2001-present. (March 2007)
Church attorneys investigated Mike’s life and found that when he was 15 and hanging out at an airport, he’d been molested by a pilot.
At age 15 Mike was a preying pedophile’s dream target: boy living in trailer with mom and grandmother, some neglect, starved for father figure and support. For Brandy Stanton Cody to represent this earlier molest as a consensual relationship between Mike and an older man --
To make a troglodyte statement that a 15 year old is responsible for whatever sexual situations he finds himself in -
Brandy Stanton Cody, church attorney, has apparently sold her soul to the devil.
I’m sure the San Diego Archdiocese paid Brandy Stanton Cody dearly to smear Mike and twist history, even call Mike a 15 year old predator himself, anything to protect the church’s assets and slam down on the plaintiffs.
==============================
MORE ON BRANDY STANTON CODY
Church Attorneys Deserve Little Respect
As Brandy faced the judge, she was standing in the middle of a line of male lawyers, and I was staring at their backs:
I saw: pants, pants, pants, pants, silky black sheen stockings covering calves and a skirt that barely touches the knees, pants, pants.
Don’t think for a minute that attorneys don’t plan their wardrobes for effect.
-------------
BRANDY STANTON CODY works at (as of March 2007)
Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger
4510 Executive Drive, Suite 300
San Diego CA 92121
858 – 646-0007
Call her. Or better yet, call her boss and complain that she had the audacity to argue that 15-year-old boy is in a consensual relationship with a man in his forties
========================
WHAT HAPPENED TO DALY'S ARREST RECORD?
Soon after putting some clothes on Father Daly, Dutton ran an NCIC on the station telex. The National Crime Index machine using 1977 state of the art technology printed out an arrest record of Fr. John Daly, for sexual molestation, one in La Mesa a few years earlier and another from San Antonio, Texas.
Where did the NCIC report go from Father Daly’s arrest record?
===================================
CLUES IN THE LETTER TO THE BISHOP
Dutton says that when word got out in Holtville that he'd arrested Father John Daly, several community members contacted him.
“A couple of them said that they recall him coming out of the children’s playroom where children were in the playroom, with his zipper down," he testified in Mike's case.
Q: Okay anything else they recall?
A: They were suspicious of him. But these conversations occurred from community inquiries after the decision had been made not to file charges
Eerily similar words were used in the vicar’s letter to Bishop Maher in San Diego:
“NO COMPLAINT BEING FILED, (their caps) I did not think it necessary to contact the Chancery
Daly spent a month at the retreat house then took another assignment as a priest, and apparently never acted out again. Or at least he never got caught.
===========================
WHY SUE THE CHURCH?
Mike talked recently about why he’d filed the civil case against the San Diego Archdiocese in the first place:
“In 2000 Boston was on TV every night. I did not think that I was affected by the abuse. I had never held a job longer than 18 months, had insomnia, was diagnosed bi polar, but anyway.....so these news stories reminded me of the past and I began to wonder what had happened to Daly. I was certain that he had gone to prison for what he did to me. I emailed the Holtville newspaper ( and only them ) asking what had happened to Daly. They never responded, but KFMB TV in San Diego did instead. The new producer told me that Daly had got off, pardon the pun. because the bishop interviened."
Mike hired an attorney and waited.
He described what happened when he and Mark ran out of the little room behind the church altar, where Daly had a pedophile's pantry of audio tapes of boys talking about sex (exhibits listed on what's left of the police report).
The room was not the rectory. Daly lived in a different building on the church lot. This room was a pedophile den directly behind the altar - a fold out bed, a room divider and another bed, a portable shower -- little else.
"Mark held a large coffee cup over Daly's head, ready to bury it in Daly's head per my profane instruction... while I got dressed...fast. Then I held the pipe I had found while Mark got dressed. During this time we made it very very clear to Daly that if he so much as twitched we do all in our power to stop/kill him."
It was only when he returned with Dutton that Mike realized there was another bed behind the divider. Daly had insisted he had to get in bed with the boys because it was the only bed, and the sleeping bags were drenched. He had to be naked as his clothes were wet too.
==================
WERE THE DOCUMENTS SHREDDED IN THE NINETIES OR IN 2003?
Did Callahan shred personnel files that were needed as evidence?
This is the case where Monsignor Steve Callahan of San Diego admitted in deposition that in the mid nineties he systematically destroyed personnel documents that dealt with crime or psychological problems such as alcoholism. He used a shredding machine in the basement of University of San Diego’s student pastoral center.
But Callahan did not become Chancellor of San Diego until 2002. The Chancellor is the person who maintains personnel records, so this destruction of files may have been after 2002, or even after 2003, after the one year window for civil action opened in California.
There’s a good chance the Chancellor was destroying files in 2003 after knowing those files would be needed for evidence in upcoming lawsuits.
ISN’T THAT ILLEGAL?
One way to find out when Monsignor Steve Callahan shredded personnel files would be to get him to testify again.
This much did come up in Callahan's deposition in Mike’s case.
Q: So did you keep a summary of the documents?
CALLAHAN: No.
Q: And did you have Bishop Brom’s full permission to do this?
CALLAHAN: Yes.
CHURCH ATTORNEY: Objection, asked and answered.
Too late. A fact about a bishop slipped through.
Callahan also mentioned destroying Servants of the Paraclete files with his shredder. Servants of the Paraclete is a spa in New Mexico that in the sixties and seventies was a “recovery center” for priests with sexual problems.
MONSIGNOR STEVEN CALLAHAN needs to talk at more depositions.
==================================
MY OWN PERSONAL RANT:
If only the church hierarchy had done the right thing as soon as they knew instead of avoiding prosecution and scandal.
They didn't even avoid prosecution and scandal, just put it off a few generations and created thousands of damaged people reeling through life
People like me, with diagnoses like mine: Prolonged PTSD with continued re-victimization (from age 5 to age 45), and now in my late fifties, just PTSD probably for the rest of my life…
**********
STORY FIRST APPEARED HERE when City of Angels was in its infancy:
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Cover-ups, Destruction of Documents, Concern for Pedophile Pederast Priests Over Children in Just One Clergy Case on San Diego Archdiocese
Dive in the files and find the felonies
"Out came Father John Daly totally naked, holding the doors wide open."It had been one short wet ride after another...
****
Summer Rerun posted by Kay Ebeling, Producer, City of Angels Blog
(Another Summer Rerun, this post first appeared March 31, 2007, at CityofAngels3 )
Dive in the files and find the felonies
It had been one short wet ride after another for the two hitchhiking boys. They’d been on the onramp for hours when more rain came. The Arizona-Calexico region got 14 inches after Hurricane Heather that August 1977, but two teenagers hitchhiking to the Haight Ashbury weren't thinking about the weather. Finally headlights approached and slowed to a stop. The boys didn’t even look in the car, just jumped inside.
The driver said in an Irish brogue that he worked and lived at a Catholic Church where there was a place for hitchhikers to clean up, even have a bed to sleep in.
Around two AM the boys burst out of the church doors, one vomited on the side of the road. They ran into the town of Holtville, California, and found a cop.
Soon, officers with weapons drawn heard loud thumps coming from the room in back of the Church where the priest lived. Then…
Out came Father John Daly totally naked, holding the right and left doors wide open with the light pouring down on him, all 250 pounds of his body billowing in the rain and early morning light.
The naked priest snarled as a young Mike Shoemaker identified the priest who sexually assaulted him through the police car window. (In late 2007 Shoemaker won a settlement with the San Diego Archdiocese over the incident.)
----------------------------------
Summer 2006 the arresting officer Dutton testified in deposition for Mike’s case against the San Diego Archdiocese, which settled in 2007.
DUTTON: “I’ve looked at the report you've handed me and it’s incomplete.”
Q: When you say it’s incomplete, what do you mean?
DUTTON: Well the statements aren’t there, the evidence list isn’t there, the copies of the reports that I received from La Mesa and other places about him aren’t there.
Q: Are you talking about the NCIC?
A: No those are also not here. NCIC is not here CI&I is not here if I ran it, I’m sure I did, but also the police reports or whatever department reports from other law enforcement agencies are also not here in what they provided you. And we did receive those and those were made part of the investigative file.
===========================
Holtville is a small town today and in 1977 with no radio, TV, or news report, word got out that Father Daly had been arrested. Dutton testified that people from town started to call, with stories about Father Daly coming out of the rectory with a young boy, and his fly was open.
Mike and Mark stayed in a nearby motel sleeping for several days after John Daly’s arrest.
As they slept the Catholic protect-the-perpetrator machinery went into action.
=======================
(This letter is in the exhibits from Mike Shoemaker’s case against the San Diego Archdiocese, a letter from the local church attorney to Bishop Maher in San Diego explaining how the local parish dispatched of the Father John Daly problem:)
To Bishop Maher
San Diego
Diocesesan office for apostolic Ministry in Alcalala Park, San Diego
“Mr. Flourd, attorney, contacted me, Mark A. Medaer, voluntarily, to engage my assistance in a legal matter.
“On Friday Father John and myself were called to the office of Mr. Flourd. We were told that the District Attorney considered the case “a chargeable criminal complaint.” Mr. Flourd echoing hints from other sources, advised us that if Father John would leave his post he thought some authorities could “argue down” the case with any dissenting parties.
Father John and myself consulted. At 2:00 PM Father Daly decided to go to El Carmelo Retreat, awaiting instructions from the Bishop. (sloppy typing here) Mr. Flourd was advised of the move. He would contact the District Attorney. At 3:00 PM Father John left.
I contacted Father Richard Duncanson and Msgr William Cooney.
“NO COMPLAINT BEING FILED, (their caps) I did not think it necessary to contact the Chancery, knowing furthermore that our Bishop and Chancellor were absent.
======================
DALY’S SENTENCE: A MONTH IN A RETREAT
John Daly went to El Carmelo Retreat House on August 17, three days after the incident, “upon the advice of Mr. Lewis Flourd, attorney at El Centro,
and myself
Mark Medaer episcopal vicar in the Imperial Valley.”
============
January 22 2007
Mike opens the package from his attorney, a copy of the church’s Motion for Summary Judgment granted last week on his case. Mike wasn’t as upset as he’d expected to have his case dismissed. It just meant a few more years of legal lunacy. Other cases had been appealed for disallowed testimony so it was just a matter filing an appeal. (UPDATE: Since his case was dismissed within the same year as the settlement in others in the Coordinated Cases and plaintiff had no time to appeal, Mike got a settlement anyway, ah California law if only all states were so progressive....)
It was the wording of the Motion for Summary Judgment itself, a collection of sentences in the first paragraph of the introduction by Brandy Stanton Cody of DiSante & Freudenberger in San Diego
that still to this day make Mike break out in a string on invectives:
==========================
15 YEAR OLD’S “LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP” WITH AIRLINE PILOT
“Nor was plaintiff a naïve, sexually inexperienced child when the events occurred," reads the first paragraph of the motion.
"A year before the alleged assault, when he was 15, Plaintiff began a long-term relationship with an adult male airline pilot in Arizona in which he exchanged sexual favors for flying time in the pilot’s plane,” writes Brandy Cody.
SHOCK.
“It's never consensual sex with a 15 year old.” -ADA Alexandra Cabot, Law & Order Special Victims“I was set up like a bowling pin by this guy,” Mike said recently. “And Brom's lawyer places me on intellectual and chronological equal footing with him. I was just another adult, equal to his 30 years or so of college and government training....according to this attorney, I apologize, but this female lawyer is just plainly evil in my sight. I know of no other way to describe her.”
CHURCH ATTORNEY calls it consensual sex
For Mike at age 15 waking up in a room behind a church altar to find a burly Irishman sucking him off was traumatic, doubly so when he found out the ephebophile was a priest.
Brandy Stanton Cody denigrated Michael with a low blow attack that makes it now open season on Brandy Stanton Cody, Associate, Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger LLP, 2001-present. (March 2007)
Church attorneys investigated Mike’s life and found that when he was 15 and hanging out at an airport, he’d been molested by a pilot.
At age 15 Mike was a preying pedophile’s dream target: boy living in trailer with mom and grandmother, some neglect, starved for father figure and support. For Brandy Stanton Cody to represent this earlier molest as a consensual relationship between Mike and an older man --
To make a troglodyte statement that a 15 year old is responsible for whatever sexual situations he finds himself in -
Brandy Stanton Cody, church attorney, has apparently sold her soul to the devil.
I’m sure the San Diego Archdiocese paid Brandy Stanton Cody dearly to smear Mike and twist history, even call Mike a 15 year old predator himself, anything to protect the church’s assets and slam down on the plaintiffs.
==============================
MORE ON BRANDY STANTON CODY
Church Attorneys Deserve Little Respect
As Brandy faced the judge, she was standing in the middle of a line of male lawyers, and I was staring at their backs:
I saw: pants, pants, pants, pants, silky black sheen stockings covering calves and a skirt that barely touches the knees, pants, pants.
Don’t think for a minute that attorneys don’t plan their wardrobes for effect.
-------------
BRANDY STANTON CODY works at (as of March 2007)
Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger
4510 Executive Drive, Suite 300
San Diego CA 92121
858 – 646-0007
Call her. Or better yet, call her boss and complain that she had the audacity to argue that 15-year-old boy is in a consensual relationship with a man in his forties
========================
WHAT HAPPENED TO DALY'S ARREST RECORD?
Soon after putting some clothes on Father Daly, Dutton ran an NCIC on the station telex. The National Crime Index machine using 1977 state of the art technology printed out an arrest record of Fr. John Daly, for sexual molestation, one in La Mesa a few years earlier and another from San Antonio, Texas.
Where did the NCIC report go from Father Daly’s arrest record?
===================================
CLUES IN THE LETTER TO THE BISHOP
Dutton says that when word got out in Holtville that he'd arrested Father John Daly, several community members contacted him.
“A couple of them said that they recall him coming out of the children’s playroom where children were in the playroom, with his zipper down," he testified in Mike's case.
Q: Okay anything else they recall?
A: They were suspicious of him. But these conversations occurred from community inquiries after the decision had been made not to file charges
Eerily similar words were used in the vicar’s letter to Bishop Maher in San Diego:
“NO COMPLAINT BEING FILED, (their caps) I did not think it necessary to contact the Chancery
Daly spent a month at the retreat house then took another assignment as a priest, and apparently never acted out again. Or at least he never got caught.
===========================
WHY SUE THE CHURCH?
Mike talked recently about why he’d filed the civil case against the San Diego Archdiocese in the first place:
“In 2000 Boston was on TV every night. I did not think that I was affected by the abuse. I had never held a job longer than 18 months, had insomnia, was diagnosed bi polar, but anyway.....so these news stories reminded me of the past and I began to wonder what had happened to Daly. I was certain that he had gone to prison for what he did to me. I emailed the Holtville newspaper ( and only them ) asking what had happened to Daly. They never responded, but KFMB TV in San Diego did instead. The new producer told me that Daly had got off, pardon the pun. because the bishop interviened."
Mike hired an attorney and waited.
He described what happened when he and Mark ran out of the little room behind the church altar, where Daly had a pedophile's pantry of audio tapes of boys talking about sex (exhibits listed on what's left of the police report).
The room was not the rectory. Daly lived in a different building on the church lot. This room was a pedophile den directly behind the altar - a fold out bed, a room divider and another bed, a portable shower -- little else.
"Mark held a large coffee cup over Daly's head, ready to bury it in Daly's head per my profane instruction... while I got dressed...fast. Then I held the pipe I had found while Mark got dressed. During this time we made it very very clear to Daly that if he so much as twitched we do all in our power to stop/kill him."
It was only when he returned with Dutton that Mike realized there was another bed behind the divider. Daly had insisted he had to get in bed with the boys because it was the only bed, and the sleeping bags were drenched. He had to be naked as his clothes were wet too.
==================
WERE THE DOCUMENTS SHREDDED IN THE NINETIES OR IN 2003?
Did Callahan shred personnel files that were needed as evidence?
This is the case where Monsignor Steve Callahan of San Diego admitted in deposition that in the mid nineties he systematically destroyed personnel documents that dealt with crime or psychological problems such as alcoholism. He used a shredding machine in the basement of University of San Diego’s student pastoral center.
But Callahan did not become Chancellor of San Diego until 2002. The Chancellor is the person who maintains personnel records, so this destruction of files may have been after 2002, or even after 2003, after the one year window for civil action opened in California.
There’s a good chance the Chancellor was destroying files in 2003 after knowing those files would be needed for evidence in upcoming lawsuits.
ISN’T THAT ILLEGAL?
One way to find out when Monsignor Steve Callahan shredded personnel files would be to get him to testify again.
This much did come up in Callahan's deposition in Mike’s case.
Q: So did you keep a summary of the documents?
CALLAHAN: No.
Q: And did you have Bishop Brom’s full permission to do this?
CALLAHAN: Yes.
CHURCH ATTORNEY: Objection, asked and answered.
Too late. A fact about a bishop slipped through.
Callahan also mentioned destroying Servants of the Paraclete files with his shredder. Servants of the Paraclete is a spa in New Mexico that in the sixties and seventies was a “recovery center” for priests with sexual problems.
MONSIGNOR STEVEN CALLAHAN needs to talk at more depositions.
==================================
MY OWN PERSONAL RANT:
If only the church hierarchy had done the right thing as soon as they knew instead of avoiding prosecution and scandal.
They didn't even avoid prosecution and scandal, just put it off a few generations and created thousands of damaged people reeling through life
People like me, with diagnoses like mine: Prolonged PTSD with continued re-victimization (from age 5 to age 45), and now in my late fifties, just PTSD probably for the rest of my life…
**********
STORY FIRST APPEARED HERE when City of Angels was in its infancy:
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Cover-ups, Destruction of Documents, Concern for Pedophile Pederast Priests Over Children in Just One Clergy Case on San Diego Archdiocese
Dive in the files and find the felonies
"Out came Father John Daly totally naked, holding the doors wide open."It had been one short wet ride after another...
****
Summer Rerun posted by Kay Ebeling, Producer, City of Angels Blog
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Photos of People in My Neighborhood
.
At CityofA15
More photos plus stories about the Homeless in 2010
See: Documenting These Strange Times in Photos Photos by Kay Ebeling, posted today.
.
See More photos of Homeless in L.A. here at CofA 15 by Kay Ebeling
.
.
At CityofA15 More photos plus stories about the Homeless in 2010
See: Documenting These Strange Times in Photos Photos by Kay Ebeling, posted today.
.
See More photos of Homeless in L.A. here at CofA 15 by Kay Ebeling
.
.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Perplexed, But Not Giving Up
.
Re emails that came in about this post
Linkup's "The Farm," is long gone but it proved that retreat type therapy is what victims of pedophile priests need.
The Church could donate land for us. I know of three places right here in the hills in Hollywood, property the Catholic Church owns that is almost dormant, no monks there anymore, no nuns there, just a rotting old cross hanging over growing weeds.
One archdiocese at a time, they should be looking for treatment centers real estate they can give us.
ACTION WE COULD TAKE TODAY:
Copy and send link to the Anger Management post below, a post saying we don't have anyplace really to get therapy we need, send the link to bishops and archdiocese email addresses, or Catholic activists you know, saying why hasn't this been done long ago.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
You Know you are in trouble when you leave Anger Management angrier than when you arrived
Not at anyone or anything, Just flabbergasted trying to explain the anger I have as a pedophile priest rape victim, without telling the Anger Management group details, because I have yet to tell anyone else in the room that's why I'm angry. I don't feel like I can just bring up pedophile priests with people, it will only make them angrier. Why aren't there Recovery Centers for pedophile priest rape victims? We need retreats where we can go- for weeks, months, even years- to get treatment and healing. Right now there are perpetrator priests in recovery centers all over the country, with full-time support in peaceful surroundings, such as......
***
ke, still on hiatus but...
Re emails that came in about this post
Linkup's "The Farm," is long gone but it proved that retreat type therapy is what victims of pedophile priests need.
The Church could donate land for us. I know of three places right here in the hills in Hollywood, property the Catholic Church owns that is almost dormant, no monks there anymore, no nuns there, just a rotting old cross hanging over growing weeds.
One archdiocese at a time, they should be looking for treatment centers real estate they can give us.
ACTION WE COULD TAKE TODAY:
Copy and send link to the Anger Management post below, a post saying we don't have anyplace really to get therapy we need, send the link to bishops and archdiocese email addresses, or Catholic activists you know, saying why hasn't this been done long ago.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
You Know you are in trouble when you leave Anger Management angrier than when you arrived
Not at anyone or anything, Just flabbergasted trying to explain the anger I have as a pedophile priest rape victim, without telling the Anger Management group details, because I have yet to tell anyone else in the room that's why I'm angry. I don't feel like I can just bring up pedophile priests with people, it will only make them angrier. Why aren't there Recovery Centers for pedophile priest rape victims? We need retreats where we can go- for weeks, months, even years- to get treatment and healing. Right now there are perpetrator priests in recovery centers all over the country, with full-time support in peaceful surroundings, such as......
***
ke, still on hiatus but...
Thursday, August 19, 2010
PROOF: Santa Barbara was Dumping Ground for problem priests. PROOF: Franciscan sex crime ploys continue in 2009
.
(Another Summer Rerun: This 8-part series* began November 20, 2009, at City of Angels Blog.)
Part One: The bishop of San Diego used the words "dumping ground" in 1950 when he wrote to the Vatican that too many problem priests were ending up in Banning, Beaumont and other towns in the developing region. By the 1960s the Franciscans had moved 26 priests from San Diego to Santa Barbara, where they then raped more than 60 children. The letter to Rev. James T. Booth in Rome April 26, 1950, is Exhibit A attached to two new lawsuits filed Nov. 3, 2009, in Santa Barbara Superior Court.
Franciscan pedophiles removed from the priesthood in past years, are now showing up as therapists and teachers- Working with Teenagers, Living near Children- in towns around the Northwestern United States, because the Francicans continue to hide the crimes of their pedophile priests, other evidence in the Complaints shows.
********************
* (Series Continues with Part Two "A New Sex Crime Ploy by Franciscans" Part Three: "Money Available for Therapy for Victims" Part Four "Franciscan Grabbed Freshman by the Genitals" Part Five: "Pedophilia is a Privacy Right for Franciscans" and Part 6 is here "Priests Take Boys on Drunken Camping Trip." Part 7 is here "First Year in Seminary, Assaulted by two Franciscans")
********************
There are so many new charges, so much new evidence, new stories about old pedophile priests and old stories about new ones in the pages of these two new lawsuits filed November 3 in Santa Barbara that City of Angels has to break our reporting into several different parts.
The letter from the Bishop of San Diego to the Pope in 1950 reads:
The Complaint then says the Bishop was frustrated with the Franciscans and began applying to religious bodies in Rome to evict the problem Franciscan Friars from parishes in the Diocese of San Diego.
"It would appear the Bishop eventually succeeded," read the Complaints, "and sometime in the 1950s the Franciscans made Santa Barbara their new dumping ground for Franciscan perpetrators.”
The legal briefs read like literature, so here are paragraphs, City of Angels copy-and-pasted from Paragraphs of two First Complaints, written by Tim Hale of the Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale lawfirm in Santa Barbara.
“Franciscan perpetrators have been sexually assaulting children in Santa Barbara since at least 1936. During this time at least forty-four (44) pedophilic and/or ephebophilic Roman Catholic priests or religious brothers have been assigned to work at and were living at and/or visiting various locations around Santa Barbara County.”
Beginning in the late 1950s the Franciscans began sending the first of at least twenty-six (26) Franciscan perpetrators to Santa Barbara following their expulsion from the San Diego Diocese. Those perpetrators are identified below in the decades they first appeared and continued to reside in or visit Santa Barbara based on information known to date:
26 Pedophile Priests Transferred From San Diego to Santa Barbara:
1 - Fr. Owen Da Silva (1930s)
2 - Brother Berard Connolly (1940s, 1980s - 1990s)
3 - Fr. Martin McKeon (1950s - 1960s)
4 - Fr. Edward Henriques (1960s)
5 - Fr. Mario Cimmarrusti (1960s - 1970s)
6 - Fr. Mel Bucher (1960s)
7 - Fr. Forrest McDonald (1960s - 1970s)
8 - Br. Kevin Dunne (1960s - 1970s)
9 - Br. Sam Cabot (1960s-1980s)
10 - Fr. Edmund Austin (1970s)
11 - Fr. Gus Krumm (1970s - 1980s)
12 - Fr. Paul Conn (1970s - 1980s)
13 - Fr. Dave Johnson (1970s - 1980s)
14 - Fr. Joseph Prochnow (1970s - 1980s)
15 - Br. Matteo Guerrero (1970s, 1990s - 2000s)
16 - Fr. Robert Van Handel (1970s -1990s)
17 - Fr. David Carriere (1970s - 2000s)
18 - Fr. Steve Kain (1980s)
19 - Fr. Philip Wolfe (1980s)
20 - Pre-novitiate candidate Ed Byrom (1980s)
21 - Pre-novitiate candidate Tom Thing (1980s)
22 - Fr. Chris Berbena (1980s)
23 - Fr. Remy Rudin (1980s - 1990s)
24 - Br. Gerald Chumik (2000s)
25 - Pedro Vasquez (2000s)
26 - Fr. Claude Riffel (1941-44, 1975-76)"
***************************
First Complaints Read Like Literature
(Both First Complaints contain the paragraphs below, which as a Blogger, I love, as I don't have to do anything but cut and paste, they are written so well.)
By the 1960s if not sooner these corrupt seeds planted by the Franciscans began bearing poisonous fruit as Franciscan perpetrators abused Santa Barbara children at a horrifying rate.
At least eighty-five (85) children have been sexually abused in Santa Barbara by Roman Catholic priests or religious brothers since 1936. Sixty-two (62) of those children were abused by Franciscan priests or religious brothers since 1960.
The confirmed number of victims and Franciscan perpetrators grows each year.
The consequences of the Franciscans’ continuing corporate practices with regards to Franciscan perpetrators have been disastrous both for local children, and for a society that continues to bear the financial burden of the psychological fallout for abuse survivors.
*****************
If the Church does not handle the pedophile priest problem, U.S. taxpayers end up paying for damages.
*******************************
NOV 3 COMPLAINT QUOTES CONT'D:
Abuse survivors often engage in addictive, self-destructive, and, unfortunately, sometimes criminal behavior as they deal with the psychological scars caused by childhood sexual abuse.
These behaviors in turn result in things such as divorce proceedings on court calendars, substance abuse, arrests, and incarcerations, all of which are paid for by the common taxpayer rather than by the truly culpable but tax-exempt organizations that protected the perpetrators.
The evidence of the Franciscans’ culpability in this regard is overwhelming.
Time and again the Franciscans have had the opportunity to end the cycle of abuse by reporting perpetrators to law enforcement, and by warning the general public when a Franciscan has been accused of sexually assaulting a child. Since at least 1964 the Franciscans have been concealing these crimes and shielding their criminal members from discovery.
Sadly, even with the global settlement of the 2003-2006 litigation, the Franciscans have not changed their ways. The following are examples only of some of the most recent known Franciscan conduct placing today’s children at risk. These examples illustrate the Franciscans’ conduct remains a present day threat to children wherever the Franciscans conduct their business:
*******************
Franciscan 'Did Not Think It Appropriate' to Tell Parishioners New Priest is Admitted Pedophile
************************
In July of 2003, the Franciscans assigned an admitted perpetrator – Father Gus Krumm – to a Sacramento parish next door to a school without any warning to the community. One Franciscan priest readily admitted he was aware of Father Krumm’s prior abuses but did not think it was appropriate to share such information with parishioners.
Despite the fact the Franciscans claimed Father Krumm was forbidden contact with young children, he did in fact have direct contact with young children while at this assignment.
*******************
In Arizona, didn't notify parishioiners new priest was a pedophile. 'Probably should have.'
******************************
In January 2004 it was revealed that the Franciscans had assigned perpetrator Brother Kevin Dunne to a Franciscan-run parish in Phoenix, St. Mary’s Basilica. The Franciscans warned neither the parishioners nor the community of the risk Dunne posed, and the Phoenix community had no means of identifying Dunne as a perpetrator as – thanks to the Franciscans never having reported Dunne’s crimes to law enforcement – he had never been prosecuted and is not a registered sex offender.
Thus, the fact Dunne had raped at least one St. Anthony’s student, and the fact the Franciscans had settled a claim made by that student, was known only to the Franciscans. The parish manager stated the Franciscans had never advised him of Dunne’s criminal conduct, and that "they probably should have."
*******************
Dallas Morning News Forces Franciscans to Admit Priest a Pedophile
******************************
In July 2004 the Franciscans admitted – albeit only after a reporter from the Dallas Morning News made the facts public – that yet another predator had been calling the Old Mission Santa Barbara home for over two years. Specifically, in the early to mid-1970's Franciscan Brother Gerald Chumik assaulted at least one victim in Canada. Canadian authorities attempted to prosecute Brother Chumik in the 1990s, but Chumik fled to the United States.
The Franciscans successfully and secretly harbored Brother Chumik, a fugitive from justice, behind the walls of the Mission for over two years. The Franciscans provided no warning to the public, much less to neighboring schools, of the threat Brother Chumik posed until the Dallas Morning News published the truth about Chumik.
**************
Continuing to hide pedophiles at Old Santa Barbara Mission
**************************
In July 2005, the Franciscan Vicar Provincial, Brother Tom West, admitted Mission resident, Franciscan Pedro Vasquez, had been accused of sexually assaulting a person West described as a "young man."
The Franciscans had allowed Vasquez to live at the Mission for three years without any warning to the community, and admitted to this fact in July of 2005 only when they knew its publication was inevitable.
*************
2001: Father Kain Abuses Again, Gets Moved to San Francisco
***********************
In 2005, the former rector of St. Anthony’s, Father Xavier Harris, testified that while he was assigned at St. Williams in Los Altos in 2001, a well-known Franciscan perpetrator, Father Steve Kain, assisted there as well.
Father Harris did not warn any of the parishioners of Father Kain’s propensities, nor, to his knowledge, did any other Franciscans warn any parishioners about Father Kain.
With no shortage of victims who were unaware of the risk he posed, Father Kain abused again. Father Harris testified that Father Kain was then forced to stop assisting at St. Williams due to the abuse allegations, and was transferred to St. Boniface in San Francisco.
Once again, Father Harris testified he had no knowledge of any warnings to parishioners at St. Boniface regarding Father Kain’s propensities.
************
No One Knows Where Father Mateo Guererro Goes
**********************
In late 2006 a victim spoke with Father Virgil Cordano at the Mission and informed Cordano he had been raped in 1976 by a Franciscan religious brother, Brother Mateo Guererro.
Cordano did not act surprised at this information, admitted there had been other complaints against Mateo, and admitted that Mateo had been transferred as a result. To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Mateo who have not come forward, no steps to notify the communities in which Mateo has been assigned over the course of his career as a Franciscan, and no steps to warn the current community where Mateo is assigned.
***************
Perpetrator Punishment: Become Manager of Retreat Center for School-Aged Children. Pedophile priest still at San Luis Rey in 2008.
***********************
From approximately 1994 to at least 2008 the Franciscans assigned another admitted perpetrator – Fr. Mel Bucher – to Old Mission San Luis Rey. Fr. Bucher sexually assaulted at least one adolescent boy in Oregon in the early 1970s. Despite this admission, the Franciscans allowed Fr. Bucher to manage the Mission San Luis Rey retreat center.
The retreat center conducts retreats for, among others, high school-aged children, including overnight retreats for students from, among other locations, Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
At least one current Franciscan and former Mater Dei faculty member has stated he would not discuss the allegations of abuse by Fr. Bucher with Mater Dei faculty or administrators because he does not "see any purpose being served in that."
The Franciscans have never warned the families of these students of Fr. Bucher’s history of abuse.
*****************
Now Oregon Seems to Be New Dumping Ground for Predator Pedophile Priests in the Franciscans.
******************************
In February 2009, Father Claude Riffel was accused of sexually assaulting a boy at another Franciscan seminary, St. Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale, Oregon, in the early 1960s. Riffel was dean of discipline for the school when he would call the teenager out of class on the pretext of assigning work and then abuse him.
To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, and no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Riffel who have not come forward. The Franciscans also have taken no steps to notify the communities in which Riffel has been assigned during his career as a Franciscan, including but not limited to the Santa Barbara community where from approximately 1941-44, and again from 1975-76, Riffel was assigned to St. Anthony’s and worked with boys the same age as those he is accused of abusing at the seminary in Oregon.
*****************
Pedophilia among the priests keeps going on and on, because the Church has changed nothing within, where the problem germinated and festered for decades.
**************************
In June 2009 Franciscan Father Alexander Manville was accused of the sexual abuse of an approximately eight-year-old boy in 1992-93. To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, and no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Manville who have not come forward.
The Franciscans also have taken no steps to notify the communities in which Manville has been assigned over the course of his career as a Franciscan, including but not limited to the Santa Barbara community where for approximately thirteen years, from 1960-73, Manville served on the faculty at Bishop Diego High School.
(Quotes from First Complaints filed November 3, 2009, in Santa Barbara Superior Court, continued:)
Such action and inaction by the Franciscans has and will continue to produce disastrous results, as evidenced by the case of Fr. Louis Ladenburger. Ladenburger left the priesthood and the Franciscan order in 1996. However, early in his career as a Franciscan Ladenburger was treated for what former St. Anthony’s rector and Franciscan Provincial Minister, Mel Jurisich, has described only as "inappropriate professional behavior and relationships."
**********************
New Euphemism for pedophile priests' crimes: "Inappropriate Professional Behavior and Relationships."
*********************
Such vague terms are standard procedure for the Franciscans when describing acts of childhood sexual abuse by their priests and religious brothers.
After sending Ladenburger for treatment for his criminal conduct twice in the 1980s, the Franciscans allowed him to continue to work as a priest, including working at high schools. After another psychological review in 1993 the Franciscans were sufficiently concerned to restrict Ladenburger’s ministry.
However, at no time did the Franciscans report Ladenburger’s criminal acts to law enforcement. At no time did the Franciscans warn any families or communities where Ladenburger had worked or was working as a priest.
*****************
Ladenburger accused in 1980s, arrested in 2007. How many more kids was he able to rape in those 27 years?
***************************
As a result, when he left the priesthood nearly twenty-years after the Franciscans first learned of and began to conceal the risk he posed to children, Ladenburger had never been convicted of a sex crime, was not a registered sex offender, and only the Franciscans were aware of his pedophilic propensities. An unknown number of children have been sexually assaulted by Ladenburger as a result.
In May of 2007 Ladenburger was arrested for sexually assaulting several children in Idaho.
When first contacted shortly after Ladenburger’s arrest the Franciscans denied having any record of past abuses by Ladenburger. After this initial denial, Fr. Jurisich finally admitted to Ladenburger’s sordid history, and the Franciscans’ knowledge since the 1980s of the risk he posed to children. Ladenburger has since pleaded guilty to lewd conduct with two boarding school students, and on March 24, 2008, was sentenced to five years in prison.
The sentencing judge, the Honorable John Luster, found Ladenburger’s conduct so severe that he rejected a joint request by the prosecution and the defense of a suspended sentence. Ladenburger has admitted he is a sex addict.
These latest victims are further evidence of the continuing threat to all children posed by the Franciscans’ refusal to warn the public of their current and former members who have been accused of sexual abuse.
***********
The Story Is Not Over
********************
(More Quotes Copy and Pasted Directly from First Complaints filed Nov. 3 in Santa Barbara Superior Court:)
Four months after the Franciscans first denied then admitted they knew about the threat posed by Ladenburger, they were at it again. One would hope that after decades of Franciscan sexual abuse and cover-ups, at some point – perhaps, for instance, now that the number of confirmed Santa Barbara victims of Franciscan childhood sexual abuse has risen to sixty-three (63) – the Franciscan hierarchy would finally reconsider the corporation’s horribly flawed strategy of lying about and refusing to identify Franciscan priests and brothers accused of sexual abuse.
One would hope that after seeing today’s children continuing to be victimized as a result of this failed corporate strategy they would finally recognize that for the sake of both past and future victims, it was time to tell the truth.
Tragically, the Franciscans’ ongoing efforts to protect their pedophilic members, and to protect the corporation’s financial interests, establish a continuing pattern of conduct causing new harm to today’s children, new trauma to adult survivors of Franciscan childhood sexual abuse, and causing the continuing financial burden to a society paying for the resulting psychological fallout.
The Franciscans have learned nothing from the sad events involving Ladenburger, much less from their sordid history. Instead, they continue to re-victimize survivors of Franciscan sexual abuse, to create new victims, and to increase the resulting financial burden on society, by continuing to lie, conceal and cover-up the identities of Franciscans who pose a risk to children.
****************
Part Two Coming In a Matter of Moments, Hours, or Days, depending on how much work I have to do for the reality TV shows I work for - ke
**********************
Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign for City of Angels, using Donate buttons on the left.
After each post we pass the hat, that's how it works.
.
stay tooned
***************
* Series Continues with Part Two A New Sex Crime Ploy by Franciscans Part Three: Money Available for Therapy for VictimsPart Four Franciscan Grabbed Freshman by the Genitals Part Five Pedophilia is a Privacy Right for FranciscansPart 6 is here and Priests Take Boys on Drunken Camping TripPart 7 is here First Year in Seminary, Assaulted by two Franciscans)
***************
AND THERE WILL BE MORE.
***************
Posted as a summer rerun today by Kay Ebeling, The City of Angels Is Everywhere
.
(Another Summer Rerun: This 8-part series* began November 20, 2009, at City of Angels Blog.)
Part One: The bishop of San Diego used the words "dumping ground" in 1950 when he wrote to the Vatican that too many problem priests were ending up in Banning, Beaumont and other towns in the developing region. By the 1960s the Franciscans had moved 26 priests from San Diego to Santa Barbara, where they then raped more than 60 children. The letter to Rev. James T. Booth in Rome April 26, 1950, is Exhibit A attached to two new lawsuits filed Nov. 3, 2009, in Santa Barbara Superior Court.
Franciscan pedophiles removed from the priesthood in past years, are now showing up as therapists and teachers- Working with Teenagers, Living near Children- in towns around the Northwestern United States, because the Francicans continue to hide the crimes of their pedophile priests, other evidence in the Complaints shows.
********************
* (Series Continues with Part Two "A New Sex Crime Ploy by Franciscans" Part Three: "Money Available for Therapy for Victims" Part Four "Franciscan Grabbed Freshman by the Genitals" Part Five: "Pedophilia is a Privacy Right for Franciscans" and Part 6 is here "Priests Take Boys on Drunken Camping Trip." Part 7 is here "First Year in Seminary, Assaulted by two Franciscans")
********************
There are so many new charges, so much new evidence, new stories about old pedophile priests and old stories about new ones in the pages of these two new lawsuits filed November 3 in Santa Barbara that City of Angels has to break our reporting into several different parts.
The letter from the Bishop of San Diego to the Pope in 1950 reads:
"During the thirteen years since this Diocese was erected, to my own personal knowledge, the Saint Barbara Province of the Franciscan Fathers has used this Diocese as a dumping ground for their moral, mental and physical problems. It became necessary for me some time ago to demand the withdrawal of one misfit after another. (From Exhibit A, attached as evidence to two new lawsuits filed November 3, 2009 in Santa Barbara Superior Court.)
The Complaint then says the Bishop was frustrated with the Franciscans and began applying to religious bodies in Rome to evict the problem Franciscan Friars from parishes in the Diocese of San Diego.
"It would appear the Bishop eventually succeeded," read the Complaints, "and sometime in the 1950s the Franciscans made Santa Barbara their new dumping ground for Franciscan perpetrators.”
The legal briefs read like literature, so here are paragraphs, City of Angels copy-and-pasted from Paragraphs of two First Complaints, written by Tim Hale of the Nye Peabody Stirling & Hale lawfirm in Santa Barbara.
“Franciscan perpetrators have been sexually assaulting children in Santa Barbara since at least 1936. During this time at least forty-four (44) pedophilic and/or ephebophilic Roman Catholic priests or religious brothers have been assigned to work at and were living at and/or visiting various locations around Santa Barbara County.”
Beginning in the late 1950s the Franciscans began sending the first of at least twenty-six (26) Franciscan perpetrators to Santa Barbara following their expulsion from the San Diego Diocese. Those perpetrators are identified below in the decades they first appeared and continued to reside in or visit Santa Barbara based on information known to date:
26 Pedophile Priests Transferred From San Diego to Santa Barbara:
1 - Fr. Owen Da Silva (1930s)
2 - Brother Berard Connolly (1940s, 1980s - 1990s)
3 - Fr. Martin McKeon (1950s - 1960s)
4 - Fr. Edward Henriques (1960s)
5 - Fr. Mario Cimmarrusti (1960s - 1970s)
6 - Fr. Mel Bucher (1960s)
7 - Fr. Forrest McDonald (1960s - 1970s)
8 - Br. Kevin Dunne (1960s - 1970s)
9 - Br. Sam Cabot (1960s-1980s)
10 - Fr. Edmund Austin (1970s)
11 - Fr. Gus Krumm (1970s - 1980s)
12 - Fr. Paul Conn (1970s - 1980s)
13 - Fr. Dave Johnson (1970s - 1980s)
14 - Fr. Joseph Prochnow (1970s - 1980s)
15 - Br. Matteo Guerrero (1970s, 1990s - 2000s)
16 - Fr. Robert Van Handel (1970s -1990s)
17 - Fr. David Carriere (1970s - 2000s)
18 - Fr. Steve Kain (1980s)
19 - Fr. Philip Wolfe (1980s)
20 - Pre-novitiate candidate Ed Byrom (1980s)
21 - Pre-novitiate candidate Tom Thing (1980s)
22 - Fr. Chris Berbena (1980s)
23 - Fr. Remy Rudin (1980s - 1990s)
24 - Br. Gerald Chumik (2000s)
25 - Pedro Vasquez (2000s)
26 - Fr. Claude Riffel (1941-44, 1975-76)"
***************************
First Complaints Read Like Literature
(Both First Complaints contain the paragraphs below, which as a Blogger, I love, as I don't have to do anything but cut and paste, they are written so well.)
By the 1960s if not sooner these corrupt seeds planted by the Franciscans began bearing poisonous fruit as Franciscan perpetrators abused Santa Barbara children at a horrifying rate.
At least eighty-five (85) children have been sexually abused in Santa Barbara by Roman Catholic priests or religious brothers since 1936. Sixty-two (62) of those children were abused by Franciscan priests or religious brothers since 1960.
The confirmed number of victims and Franciscan perpetrators grows each year.
The consequences of the Franciscans’ continuing corporate practices with regards to Franciscan perpetrators have been disastrous both for local children, and for a society that continues to bear the financial burden of the psychological fallout for abuse survivors.
*****************
If the Church does not handle the pedophile priest problem, U.S. taxpayers end up paying for damages.
*******************************
NOV 3 COMPLAINT QUOTES CONT'D:
Abuse survivors often engage in addictive, self-destructive, and, unfortunately, sometimes criminal behavior as they deal with the psychological scars caused by childhood sexual abuse.
These behaviors in turn result in things such as divorce proceedings on court calendars, substance abuse, arrests, and incarcerations, all of which are paid for by the common taxpayer rather than by the truly culpable but tax-exempt organizations that protected the perpetrators.
The evidence of the Franciscans’ culpability in this regard is overwhelming.
Time and again the Franciscans have had the opportunity to end the cycle of abuse by reporting perpetrators to law enforcement, and by warning the general public when a Franciscan has been accused of sexually assaulting a child. Since at least 1964 the Franciscans have been concealing these crimes and shielding their criminal members from discovery.
Sadly, even with the global settlement of the 2003-2006 litigation, the Franciscans have not changed their ways. The following are examples only of some of the most recent known Franciscan conduct placing today’s children at risk. These examples illustrate the Franciscans’ conduct remains a present day threat to children wherever the Franciscans conduct their business:
*******************
Franciscan 'Did Not Think It Appropriate' to Tell Parishioners New Priest is Admitted Pedophile
************************
In July of 2003, the Franciscans assigned an admitted perpetrator – Father Gus Krumm – to a Sacramento parish next door to a school without any warning to the community. One Franciscan priest readily admitted he was aware of Father Krumm’s prior abuses but did not think it was appropriate to share such information with parishioners.
Despite the fact the Franciscans claimed Father Krumm was forbidden contact with young children, he did in fact have direct contact with young children while at this assignment.
*******************
In Arizona, didn't notify parishioiners new priest was a pedophile. 'Probably should have.'
******************************
In January 2004 it was revealed that the Franciscans had assigned perpetrator Brother Kevin Dunne to a Franciscan-run parish in Phoenix, St. Mary’s Basilica. The Franciscans warned neither the parishioners nor the community of the risk Dunne posed, and the Phoenix community had no means of identifying Dunne as a perpetrator as – thanks to the Franciscans never having reported Dunne’s crimes to law enforcement – he had never been prosecuted and is not a registered sex offender.
Thus, the fact Dunne had raped at least one St. Anthony’s student, and the fact the Franciscans had settled a claim made by that student, was known only to the Franciscans. The parish manager stated the Franciscans had never advised him of Dunne’s criminal conduct, and that "they probably should have."
*******************
Dallas Morning News Forces Franciscans to Admit Priest a Pedophile
******************************
In July 2004 the Franciscans admitted – albeit only after a reporter from the Dallas Morning News made the facts public – that yet another predator had been calling the Old Mission Santa Barbara home for over two years. Specifically, in the early to mid-1970's Franciscan Brother Gerald Chumik assaulted at least one victim in Canada. Canadian authorities attempted to prosecute Brother Chumik in the 1990s, but Chumik fled to the United States.
The Franciscans successfully and secretly harbored Brother Chumik, a fugitive from justice, behind the walls of the Mission for over two years. The Franciscans provided no warning to the public, much less to neighboring schools, of the threat Brother Chumik posed until the Dallas Morning News published the truth about Chumik.
**************
Continuing to hide pedophiles at Old Santa Barbara Mission
**************************
In July 2005, the Franciscan Vicar Provincial, Brother Tom West, admitted Mission resident, Franciscan Pedro Vasquez, had been accused of sexually assaulting a person West described as a "young man."
The Franciscans had allowed Vasquez to live at the Mission for three years without any warning to the community, and admitted to this fact in July of 2005 only when they knew its publication was inevitable.
*************
2001: Father Kain Abuses Again, Gets Moved to San Francisco
***********************
In 2005, the former rector of St. Anthony’s, Father Xavier Harris, testified that while he was assigned at St. Williams in Los Altos in 2001, a well-known Franciscan perpetrator, Father Steve Kain, assisted there as well.
Father Harris did not warn any of the parishioners of Father Kain’s propensities, nor, to his knowledge, did any other Franciscans warn any parishioners about Father Kain.
With no shortage of victims who were unaware of the risk he posed, Father Kain abused again. Father Harris testified that Father Kain was then forced to stop assisting at St. Williams due to the abuse allegations, and was transferred to St. Boniface in San Francisco.
Once again, Father Harris testified he had no knowledge of any warnings to parishioners at St. Boniface regarding Father Kain’s propensities.
************
No One Knows Where Father Mateo Guererro Goes
**********************
In late 2006 a victim spoke with Father Virgil Cordano at the Mission and informed Cordano he had been raped in 1976 by a Franciscan religious brother, Brother Mateo Guererro.
Cordano did not act surprised at this information, admitted there had been other complaints against Mateo, and admitted that Mateo had been transferred as a result. To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Mateo who have not come forward, no steps to notify the communities in which Mateo has been assigned over the course of his career as a Franciscan, and no steps to warn the current community where Mateo is assigned.
***************
Perpetrator Punishment: Become Manager of Retreat Center for School-Aged Children. Pedophile priest still at San Luis Rey in 2008.
***********************
From approximately 1994 to at least 2008 the Franciscans assigned another admitted perpetrator – Fr. Mel Bucher – to Old Mission San Luis Rey. Fr. Bucher sexually assaulted at least one adolescent boy in Oregon in the early 1970s. Despite this admission, the Franciscans allowed Fr. Bucher to manage the Mission San Luis Rey retreat center.
The retreat center conducts retreats for, among others, high school-aged children, including overnight retreats for students from, among other locations, Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana.
At least one current Franciscan and former Mater Dei faculty member has stated he would not discuss the allegations of abuse by Fr. Bucher with Mater Dei faculty or administrators because he does not "see any purpose being served in that."
The Franciscans have never warned the families of these students of Fr. Bucher’s history of abuse.
*****************
Now Oregon Seems to Be New Dumping Ground for Predator Pedophile Priests in the Franciscans.
******************************
In February 2009, Father Claude Riffel was accused of sexually assaulting a boy at another Franciscan seminary, St. Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale, Oregon, in the early 1960s. Riffel was dean of discipline for the school when he would call the teenager out of class on the pretext of assigning work and then abuse him.
To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, and no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Riffel who have not come forward. The Franciscans also have taken no steps to notify the communities in which Riffel has been assigned during his career as a Franciscan, including but not limited to the Santa Barbara community where from approximately 1941-44, and again from 1975-76, Riffel was assigned to St. Anthony’s and worked with boys the same age as those he is accused of abusing at the seminary in Oregon.
*****************
Pedophilia among the priests keeps going on and on, because the Church has changed nothing within, where the problem germinated and festered for decades.
**************************
In June 2009 Franciscan Father Alexander Manville was accused of the sexual abuse of an approximately eight-year-old boy in 1992-93. To date, the Franciscans have taken no steps to make this information public, and no steps to determine whether there are any other victims of Manville who have not come forward.
The Franciscans also have taken no steps to notify the communities in which Manville has been assigned over the course of his career as a Franciscan, including but not limited to the Santa Barbara community where for approximately thirteen years, from 1960-73, Manville served on the faculty at Bishop Diego High School.
(Quotes from First Complaints filed November 3, 2009, in Santa Barbara Superior Court, continued:)
Such action and inaction by the Franciscans has and will continue to produce disastrous results, as evidenced by the case of Fr. Louis Ladenburger. Ladenburger left the priesthood and the Franciscan order in 1996. However, early in his career as a Franciscan Ladenburger was treated for what former St. Anthony’s rector and Franciscan Provincial Minister, Mel Jurisich, has described only as "inappropriate professional behavior and relationships."
**********************
New Euphemism for pedophile priests' crimes: "Inappropriate Professional Behavior and Relationships."
*********************
Such vague terms are standard procedure for the Franciscans when describing acts of childhood sexual abuse by their priests and religious brothers.
After sending Ladenburger for treatment for his criminal conduct twice in the 1980s, the Franciscans allowed him to continue to work as a priest, including working at high schools. After another psychological review in 1993 the Franciscans were sufficiently concerned to restrict Ladenburger’s ministry.
However, at no time did the Franciscans report Ladenburger’s criminal acts to law enforcement. At no time did the Franciscans warn any families or communities where Ladenburger had worked or was working as a priest.
*****************
Ladenburger accused in 1980s, arrested in 2007. How many more kids was he able to rape in those 27 years?
***************************
As a result, when he left the priesthood nearly twenty-years after the Franciscans first learned of and began to conceal the risk he posed to children, Ladenburger had never been convicted of a sex crime, was not a registered sex offender, and only the Franciscans were aware of his pedophilic propensities. An unknown number of children have been sexually assaulted by Ladenburger as a result.
In May of 2007 Ladenburger was arrested for sexually assaulting several children in Idaho.
When first contacted shortly after Ladenburger’s arrest the Franciscans denied having any record of past abuses by Ladenburger. After this initial denial, Fr. Jurisich finally admitted to Ladenburger’s sordid history, and the Franciscans’ knowledge since the 1980s of the risk he posed to children. Ladenburger has since pleaded guilty to lewd conduct with two boarding school students, and on March 24, 2008, was sentenced to five years in prison.
The sentencing judge, the Honorable John Luster, found Ladenburger’s conduct so severe that he rejected a joint request by the prosecution and the defense of a suspended sentence. Ladenburger has admitted he is a sex addict.
These latest victims are further evidence of the continuing threat to all children posed by the Franciscans’ refusal to warn the public of their current and former members who have been accused of sexual abuse.
***********
The Story Is Not Over
********************
(More Quotes Copy and Pasted Directly from First Complaints filed Nov. 3 in Santa Barbara Superior Court:)
Four months after the Franciscans first denied then admitted they knew about the threat posed by Ladenburger, they were at it again. One would hope that after decades of Franciscan sexual abuse and cover-ups, at some point – perhaps, for instance, now that the number of confirmed Santa Barbara victims of Franciscan childhood sexual abuse has risen to sixty-three (63) – the Franciscan hierarchy would finally reconsider the corporation’s horribly flawed strategy of lying about and refusing to identify Franciscan priests and brothers accused of sexual abuse.
One would hope that after seeing today’s children continuing to be victimized as a result of this failed corporate strategy they would finally recognize that for the sake of both past and future victims, it was time to tell the truth.
Tragically, the Franciscans’ ongoing efforts to protect their pedophilic members, and to protect the corporation’s financial interests, establish a continuing pattern of conduct causing new harm to today’s children, new trauma to adult survivors of Franciscan childhood sexual abuse, and causing the continuing financial burden to a society paying for the resulting psychological fallout.
The Franciscans have learned nothing from the sad events involving Ladenburger, much less from their sordid history. Instead, they continue to re-victimize survivors of Franciscan sexual abuse, to create new victims, and to increase the resulting financial burden on society, by continuing to lie, conceal and cover-up the identities of Franciscans who pose a risk to children.
****************
Part Two Coming In a Matter of Moments, Hours, or Days, depending on how much work I have to do for the reality TV shows I work for - ke
**********************
Don't forget the PayPal High Five Campaign for City of Angels, using Donate buttons on the left.
After each post we pass the hat, that's how it works.
.
stay tooned
***************
* Series Continues with Part Two A New Sex Crime Ploy by Franciscans Part Three: Money Available for Therapy for VictimsPart Four Franciscan Grabbed Freshman by the Genitals Part Five Pedophilia is a Privacy Right for FranciscansPart 6 is here and Priests Take Boys on Drunken Camping TripPart 7 is here First Year in Seminary, Assaulted by two Franciscans)
***************
AND THERE WILL BE MORE.
***************
Posted as a summer rerun today by Kay Ebeling, The City of Angels Is Everywhere
.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
PerpPriest Joke on The Daily Show Monday August 16
.
Jon Stewart is with "senior religion correspondent John Oliver" discussing the Islamic Commuity Center "Mosque” controversy in New York.
Oliver explains, “Well, Jon, there’s a difference between what you can and should do. For instance, you can build a Catholic Church next to a playground, but should you?"
[CHEERS/APPLAUSE]
OLIVER: "I'm thinking, it’s a little too soon for that."
[BIG LAUGH]
(Little sigh. Why is Comedy Central the only major broadcast network that truly gets the story of this crime spree?)
Jon Stewart is with "senior religion correspondent John Oliver" discussing the Islamic Commuity Center "Mosque” controversy in New York.
Oliver explains, “Well, Jon, there’s a difference between what you can and should do. For instance, you can build a Catholic Church next to a playground, but should you?"
[CHEERS/APPLAUSE]
OLIVER: "I'm thinking, it’s a little too soon for that."
[BIG LAUGH]
(Little sigh. Why is Comedy Central the only major broadcast network that truly gets the story of this crime spree?)
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Michael Baumann started a blog and in weeks found more victims of Robert Gibson and other Scranton area pedophile priests
*
(Summer Rerun, this story first appeared at City of Angels July 13, 2009.)
When Michael Baumann started Off My Knees Blog in fall 2008, he found other victims of pedophile priest Robert Gibson “who told almost exactly the exact same story as mine.”
Baumann told City of Angels, “The first emails were kind of strange, asking leading questions. I decided to email back, did he abuse you as well?" They were victims of Robert Gibson, or a sibling of a victim, one was a neighbor and Gibson as his parish priest raped him. "Names came back from our very small high school," Baumann said. "There were only 42 kids in the graduating class of Notre Dame in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.”
Since starting Off My Knees, Baumann is convinced blogs bring power and control of the message to the survivors. “To use a military term, we should use blogs and technology as a Force Multiplier, to make us more effective,” Baumann says. (See more on Network of Bloggers idea at bottom of blog.)
Left: Michael Baumann, Commander, US Navy, 2007
.....
“Since starting the blog last October, I’ve talked to or corresponded with probably fifteen people from the Scranton area that had a connection to Father Gibson. They write they're concerned if siblings had been abused by him. One wrote an email, I recognized her name from my classmate, she was a friend of the family.
"She said her biggest fear when her mother passed away was that Gibson would show up at the funeral, because she was pretty sure that her two older brothers were abused by him. She was pretty sure they had been raped by Gibson.
“She alluded to conversations she had, problems her brothers had. I’ll be honest, one reason I joined the Navy was to get the hell out of Pennsylvania, I think it’s mostly because of him.”
Baumann says Gibson isolated him and molested him for a six month period when he was thirteen years old.
*********************
Baumann started the Off My Knees Blog in October 2008.
How did he reach so many people so fast?
"I tag everything," he said.
*********************************
Baumann, a retired military officer now living and working in Virginia, describes how Gibson in a way stalked him past high school.
WEEK BEFORE THIS STORY APPEARED AT CITY OF ANGELS, we ran this preview
PREVIEW: Since starting his blog Off My Knees last fall, Michael Baumann, adult victim of a pedophile Catholic priest, has found dozens more victims of similar crimes from the same diocese. He's uncovered signs of conspiratorial aiding and abetting concerning perpetrator Father Robert Gibson and the Bishop of Scranton. Among other things, Baumann wrote the letter copied below to the the the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania May 19th. He's yet to get a reply of any kind.
Baumann reports to the U.S. Attorney that Gibson, used to take children across state lines. Baumann points out lies the Diocese of Scranton continues to tell Catholics in its parishes about pedophile priests, while sequestering them away from prosecution. Fraud, collusion and conspiracy in the Diocese of Scranton, and the U.S. Attorney does not reply. Here is the letter Baumann sent: Story to come this weekend.
*****************
12 May 2009 from: Michael Baumann, Chesapeake, VA, to:
United States Attorney
Middle District of Pennsylvania
William J. Nealon Federal Building and Courthouse235 N. Washington Ave., Suite 311Scranton, PA 18503
Sir,
In 1974, at the age of 13, I was raped repeatedly over a period of approximately nine months by a priest assigned to the Diocese of Scranton. His name is Robert J.Gibson. The rapes and abuse were committed in the rectory of Our Lady, Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, a hotel in Orlando, Florida and a hotel in New York City as well as other locations. I know that I am not his only victim.
The Diocese of Scranton also knows that I am not his only victim. In 1998 they removed this man from the jurisdiction where he committed offenses against young boys and placed him in a church run facility in Missouri. At the time of his removal from ministry the Diocese had complaints against this priest and had not taken any action to report him to civil authority. He has been kept in comfort and away from any potential civil or criminal consequence in church run facilities outside of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1998.
The Diocese of Scranton has had more than 16 publicly identified priests, and at least 10 others who have had their identities protected by the Bishops of the Diocese, accused of sexual crimes, misconduct or abuse in the last 50 years. In almost all cases they have covered up the crimes and moved the offending priests to other assignments or moved them outside of the reach of authorities that could have prosecuted them. They have shown a reckless disregard for the citizens in the geographic area covered by the Diocese and, in particular, the parishioners of parishes where these men were assigned.
The Bishops of Scranton have conspired with other church officials to keep these activities quiet and away from the attention of civil authorities to avoid prosecution of those who had been accused of committing acts from indecent exposure to statutory rape of young children. Having knowledge of such acts, the Diocese of Scranton has not made proper notification to law enforcement when a credible accusation has been made against a priest.
In my case, notifications were only made to law enforcement in accordance with Diocesan policy after I wrote directly to the Bishop to point out his failure to do so. They have failed, in almost all cases, to notify parishioners about the activities of these perpetrator priests (by name), willfully and recklessly placing children and vulnerable adults at risk as a result of their practice of hiding pedophile and sexually predatory priests.
They continued to defraud parishioners in the Diocese of Scranton by collecting money in the form of offerings and donations to individual parishes and to the Diocese of Scranton directly while diverting funds from legitimate church uses to pay the expenses of shielding criminal priests from prosecution. Funds, donated in good faith by the laity, are used to bankroll the ongoing criminal conspiracy that includes the obstruction of justice, paying off witnesses to these criminal acts and covering up the crimes through intimidation of victims. I am sure that the parishioners of the Diocese of Scranton would not support the use of their hard earned money to willingly support a criminal enterprise run from the Chancery in Scranton.
Additionally, they are potentially defrauding insurance carriers by using health insurance claims to pay the expenses of the priests they have kept sequestered to avoid prosecution or civil action.
I respectfully request that your office conduct a formal investigation into the Diocese of Scranton’s activities to hide sexual predators, obstruct justice and defraud parishioners in order to conceal the criminal activities of its priests and employees. I am seeking this investigation at the U.S. Attorney level because crimes committed included activities where children were taken across recognized state borders for the purpose of committing criminal activity as well actions by the Diocese to remove a priest accused of criminal activity from the jurisdiction where he could face trial.
Additionally, funds are being transferred across state lines to pay for the expenses of the acts of obstruction. The Diocese of Scranton thinks it is above the law and has recklessly continues to put parishioners at risk.
I can be reached at the address above or by phone at (757) --- ----. My email address is (REDACTED)
Documentation of my particular circumstances and acknowledgement from the Diocese of Scranton that I have filed a credible allegation against Robert J. Gibson will be made available upon your request or can be found at my blog, Off My Knees (http://michaelbaumann.wordpress.com/).
Very respectfully,
Michael B. Baumann
****
Posted by Kay Ebeling
Don't forget we need PayPal clicks to pay for resources
*****
ORIGINAL STORIES at CofA:
Friday, July 10, 2009
US Attorney ignores pedophile taking child across state lines, plus fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy in Scranton
AND
Monday, July 13, 2009
We had long conversations, the guy telling me the same story as what happened to me. Father Gibson had his routine down
And always more to come
************
City of Angels: A network of blogs could be the best way for crime victims of pedophile priests around the country to keep tabs on individual archdioceses, as well as a way to find each other, perhaps find other perpetrators, and expand and centralize coverage of sex crime cover-ups in the church across the country.
*****************
A network of bloggers
*******************************
This is something we don't have to consciously start or form a 501(c)3 to make happen. This project takes little overhead, just a passion on the part of the blogger to get out the truth.
Baumann and I mainly communicate today about our mutual dream, of bloggers in every major city across the country, who are shadowing the local diocese, the local bishops, the shenanigans of attorneys hired by the bishops.
Blogs in each city could keep up with new cases as they get filed, uploading copies of documents that you are able to find in your own Superior Court archives, criminal court archives, documents attorneys for plaintiffs will send you once they start knowing they can trust you.
*****************
My dream is that this network of blogs be called City of Angels Network and incorporate our slogan that we run at the top of the blog:
The City of Angels is Everywhere.
************************************
Because The City of Angels IS everywhere.
And if there was ever a mission for Earth Angels, it’s uncovering and eradicating sex crimes in the Catholic church, especially against children.
So if you want to start a blog and feel your English is not good enough, I’ll help you construct sentences. If you want to just use your camera and capture stuff from around the web, you can do a blog and barely know English.
The City of Angels is Everywhere.
****
Don't forget PayPal Buttons on left side of blog
.
(Summer Rerun, this story first appeared at City of Angels July 13, 2009.)
When Michael Baumann started Off My Knees Blog in fall 2008, he found other victims of pedophile priest Robert Gibson “who told almost exactly the exact same story as mine.”
Baumann told City of Angels, “The first emails were kind of strange, asking leading questions. I decided to email back, did he abuse you as well?" They were victims of Robert Gibson, or a sibling of a victim, one was a neighbor and Gibson as his parish priest raped him. "Names came back from our very small high school," Baumann said. "There were only 42 kids in the graduating class of Notre Dame in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.”
Since starting Off My Knees, Baumann is convinced blogs bring power and control of the message to the survivors. “To use a military term, we should use blogs and technology as a Force Multiplier, to make us more effective,” Baumann says. (See more on Network of Bloggers idea at bottom of blog.)
Left: Michael Baumann, Commander, US Navy, 2007
.....
“Since starting the blog last October, I’ve talked to or corresponded with probably fifteen people from the Scranton area that had a connection to Father Gibson. They write they're concerned if siblings had been abused by him. One wrote an email, I recognized her name from my classmate, she was a friend of the family.
"She said her biggest fear when her mother passed away was that Gibson would show up at the funeral, because she was pretty sure that her two older brothers were abused by him. She was pretty sure they had been raped by Gibson.
“She alluded to conversations she had, problems her brothers had. I’ll be honest, one reason I joined the Navy was to get the hell out of Pennsylvania, I think it’s mostly because of him.”
Baumann says Gibson isolated him and molested him for a six month period when he was thirteen years old.
*********************
Baumann started the Off My Knees Blog in October 2008.
How did he reach so many people so fast?
"I tag everything," he said.
*********************************
Baumann, a retired military officer now living and working in Virginia, describes how Gibson in a way stalked him past high school.
Above: Notre Dame High School, Scranton Diocese, as remodeled in 2004
.
“I went to college in Scranton,” Baumann said.
After graduating from Notre Dame in 1978, Baumann attended the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, and Gibson found him there.
“Gibson rolls into the restaurant where I was working downtown Scranton. Right away, I wanted to bolt. To go to my room, empty my bank account, go to the bus station, and go anywhere my money would take me.”
Baumann entered the Navy as an Ensign in 1982 as soon as he graduated college.
Gibson says he enlisted in part to get away from Gibson and Pennsylvania and everything from his teen years, post Gibson.
******************
“After initial emails we had long conversations on the telephone, the guy telling me same story as what happened to me, Gibson had this routine down. "
********************************
City of Angels asked Baumann how his blog could have been so successful so quickly?
“I tag everything,” Baumann said. “I specifically wrote the posts to try to find other survivors. In Word Press, when I look at my stats, I can see where people have come in from, using what searches, and I get a lot of people looking by name for these priests. The first emails were kind of strange, asking leading questions. I decided to email back, did he abuse you as well.
“The first two people were victims of the same perpetrator as me, Father Robert Gibson. Those two persons told me almost exactly the same story as my own. One was the brother of a classmate of my brother’s who didn't go to my high school but Gibson was his parish priest.
“After initial emails we had long conversations on the telephone, the guy telling me same story as what happened to me, Gibson had this routine down.
“I’ve asked the diocese to notify jurisdictions where Gibson took me. They finally did, in Monroe County Pennsylvania, but the Statute Of Limitations is way past.”
Between 12 and 15 persons contacted Baumann (as of July 2009) through his blog Off My Knees.
“Of those 12 to 15, probably eight of them were siblings of someone they think was victimized or friends of someone molested by Father Gibson.”
By the same perpetrator
ROBERT GIBSON
*************************
Between 12 and 15 persons, many connected to the same perpetrator as Baumann, have contacted him through his blog Off My Knees.
*******************************************
Baumann has also gotten emails from people who had other problems with the Diocese of Scranton.
‘The blog is a struggle because I still have in the back of my mind that no one is going to believe me.
“I think that people in our situation want to be able to do a blog but don’t know how, don't know if they can keep coming up with ideas. I agonize over what I put up with my blog. I gotta come up with idea, how graphic do I want to be.
“It’s a struggle because I still have in the back of my mind that no one is going to believe me. For all that time that he kept saying no one is going to believe me. I went into that in the post last night, no one is going to believe this crap. I have letter from Bishop of Scranton saying your allegations are credible, but I’ve also gotten things saying you're being disgraceful and maligning this good man of God."
*******************
In addition I have had emails from several people who were either victims or family of victims of other priests in the diocese of Scranton.
********************************
“I have spoken with two of Gibson's victims directly.
“One is bound by a confidentiality agreement with the Diocese from the 1990's as a result of a token settlement. I have the names of 8 other probable victims, since starting the blog. Some of these came from siblings of the potential victims, the other names came from the other victims who were painfully aware of what Gibson was doing.
"In addition I have had emails from several people who were either victims or family of victims of other priests in the diocese of Scranton. Some of those priests were on the Bishop Accountability website, two others Father Austin Flanagan and Father Houston (I don't have a first name) were not identified on the web until they were mentioned in my blog.
Flanagan was removed from ministry by the diocese based on allegations from one of two boys he molested. Houston's status is unknown at the time. His victims were girls (I am not sure why the Catholic Church feels molesting girls is not as bad as molesting boys?) The consensus of all these people is that the Bishops in Scranton have bullied victims in order to avoid the public scandal of more perp priests hitting the media. On my blog, there are links to newspaper articles in the Scranton/Wilkes Barre, there’s an area on priests in the Diocese of Scranton who have been accused/prosecuted. Among them is Robert Capparelli who was my parents' pastor at St Vincent's. My Dad has been sober since 1979. Capparerlli is the guy that got my father into a residential alcohol treatment facility.
“Capparelli was a prolific pedophile, known to the Diocese, who allegedly died of AIDS in prison in the mid 1990's.
*******************
ME: What about Gibson’s MO have you found out from other victims through your blog?
********************************
"He would usually identify families that were dysfunctional or vulnerable for whatever reason, alcoholism, death in the family - he would say he’d mentor the kids, be a good male role model."
"He would take us out of state, to New York to see Broadway plays.
"He would serve us alcohol, vodka usually, mixed with orange juice
At left, Mike Baumann at 13, age Gibson got to him.
.
********
"He took me to Disney World
“The two locations he took me out of state were New York City - Manhattan , and one Orlando Florida.
“He’d bring boys to the rectory."
**************
“To use a military term, we should use blogs and technology as a Force Multiplier, to make us more effective.”
*************************************
“Two gentlemen I spoke to directly from the blog told me same story, that Father Gibson took them to the Rectory at St. Luke’s.
“When Father Gibson was made pastor, he was building the rectory and he was living in the trailer. That's where I had my first experience with him. Then when it was finished, I guess the new rectory turned into his pleasure palace.
He was the only priest in the parish, but he had this huge showpiece rectory.
At Our Lady Queen of Peace In Brodheadsville PA
Accused pedophile priest Robert Gibson of Pennsylvanis is alive.
Gibson is currently in Price Memorial Hospital in Eureka, Missouri
That's just outside St. Vianney’s, the Servants of the Paracletes refuse for pedophile priests where Gibson had lived up to a few months ago.
Price Memorial Hospital in Eureka, Missouri.
“I found that out from somebody in the diocese. He’s been in the hospital about six months. It’s in another suburb of St. Louis,”
Protected by Servants of the Paracletes.
Who are in another suburb of St. Louis, a short cab ride away.
“He’s probably in his mid seventies now. I’ve been told he suffers from dementia,” Baumann said.
“They all seem to lose their memories from dementia or alcoholism or terminal foot fungus, whatever, it can decimate their memory. I don't know what he has or if he’s just hiding.
“He’s being sequestered outside anybody’s jurisdiction for a long time.”
********************
ME: What would you say to someone who wanted to start a blog and start shadowing pedophile Catholic priests, but didn't know how, or thinks they aren’t smart enough?
*********************************
Baumann: If they don't know how, I think I can demonstrate how easy it is, because if I can do it, just about anybody on Earth can. I'm not the most tech savvy person, people in my family are tech literate and they're my tech support.
“If somebody says they're not smart enough, you don't have to be smart.
“I’ll help them out.
“If somebody wants to send me a guest blog, I’ll cut and paste it in."
***********************
That's at Michael Baumann’s blog: Off My Knees
***********************
Background:
Scranton Diocese Comes Clean on Abusive Priest
By Laura LegereThe Times-Tribune
September 27, 2008
The Diocese of Scranton has released the name and history of a priest who was found by the church to have sexually abused one boy in the 1970s and who is suspected of abusing at least three more. The diocese had never before disclosed the Rev. Robert Gibson as a sex offender.The diocese’s account of the priest opens a window on an internal process designed in the 1990s to allow the church to investigate and discipline its own spiritual leaders while also addressing emerging concerns about sexually abusive members of the clergy.The diocese released the account to address concerns voiced by one of the Rev. Gibson’s victims, now a 48-year-old retired Navy officer, who criticized the diocese’s policy for dealing with abuse victims after reading a story about other victims’ similar concerns published in The Sunday Times in July.In 2007, Michael Baumann, who now lives in Chesapeake, Va., told the diocese that the Rev. Gibson had sexually abused him in 1973 and 1974, when the Rev. Gibson was his eighth-grade religion teacher at Notre Dame Junior/Senior High School in East Stroudsburg.
********************************
And something else to think about:
********************************
Pope John Paul the Great High School
$49 million project begun in 2002 - near Arlington, Virginia
Great place for the Church to hide and launder money, as well as provide an educational opportunity in a setting replete with pedophile enablers for high school age children.
Pope John Paul the Great High School?
Finished in 2008 started in 2002
“Cost $49.000.000.00 million” writes a friend in West Virginia. “Yes just a high school
“Talk about PR and wasn’t that a great way to divert money from other dioceses and hide assets!”
.
*************
Don't forget to High $5 me through PayPal at top of left-hand column.
WEEK BEFORE THIS STORY APPEARED AT CITY OF ANGELS, we ran this preview
PREVIEW: Since starting his blog Off My Knees last fall, Michael Baumann, adult victim of a pedophile Catholic priest, has found dozens more victims of similar crimes from the same diocese. He's uncovered signs of conspiratorial aiding and abetting concerning perpetrator Father Robert Gibson and the Bishop of Scranton. Among other things, Baumann wrote the letter copied below to the the the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania May 19th. He's yet to get a reply of any kind.
Baumann reports to the U.S. Attorney that Gibson, used to take children across state lines. Baumann points out lies the Diocese of Scranton continues to tell Catholics in its parishes about pedophile priests, while sequestering them away from prosecution. Fraud, collusion and conspiracy in the Diocese of Scranton, and the U.S. Attorney does not reply. Here is the letter Baumann sent: Story to come this weekend.
*****************
12 May 2009 from: Michael Baumann, Chesapeake, VA, to:
United States Attorney
Middle District of Pennsylvania
William J. Nealon Federal Building and Courthouse235 N. Washington Ave., Suite 311Scranton, PA 18503
Sir,
In 1974, at the age of 13, I was raped repeatedly over a period of approximately nine months by a priest assigned to the Diocese of Scranton. His name is Robert J.Gibson. The rapes and abuse were committed in the rectory of Our Lady, Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, a hotel in Orlando, Florida and a hotel in New York City as well as other locations. I know that I am not his only victim.
The Diocese of Scranton also knows that I am not his only victim. In 1998 they removed this man from the jurisdiction where he committed offenses against young boys and placed him in a church run facility in Missouri. At the time of his removal from ministry the Diocese had complaints against this priest and had not taken any action to report him to civil authority. He has been kept in comfort and away from any potential civil or criminal consequence in church run facilities outside of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1998.
The Diocese of Scranton has had more than 16 publicly identified priests, and at least 10 others who have had their identities protected by the Bishops of the Diocese, accused of sexual crimes, misconduct or abuse in the last 50 years. In almost all cases they have covered up the crimes and moved the offending priests to other assignments or moved them outside of the reach of authorities that could have prosecuted them. They have shown a reckless disregard for the citizens in the geographic area covered by the Diocese and, in particular, the parishioners of parishes where these men were assigned.
The Bishops of Scranton have conspired with other church officials to keep these activities quiet and away from the attention of civil authorities to avoid prosecution of those who had been accused of committing acts from indecent exposure to statutory rape of young children. Having knowledge of such acts, the Diocese of Scranton has not made proper notification to law enforcement when a credible accusation has been made against a priest.
In my case, notifications were only made to law enforcement in accordance with Diocesan policy after I wrote directly to the Bishop to point out his failure to do so. They have failed, in almost all cases, to notify parishioners about the activities of these perpetrator priests (by name), willfully and recklessly placing children and vulnerable adults at risk as a result of their practice of hiding pedophile and sexually predatory priests.
They continued to defraud parishioners in the Diocese of Scranton by collecting money in the form of offerings and donations to individual parishes and to the Diocese of Scranton directly while diverting funds from legitimate church uses to pay the expenses of shielding criminal priests from prosecution. Funds, donated in good faith by the laity, are used to bankroll the ongoing criminal conspiracy that includes the obstruction of justice, paying off witnesses to these criminal acts and covering up the crimes through intimidation of victims. I am sure that the parishioners of the Diocese of Scranton would not support the use of their hard earned money to willingly support a criminal enterprise run from the Chancery in Scranton.
Additionally, they are potentially defrauding insurance carriers by using health insurance claims to pay the expenses of the priests they have kept sequestered to avoid prosecution or civil action.
I respectfully request that your office conduct a formal investigation into the Diocese of Scranton’s activities to hide sexual predators, obstruct justice and defraud parishioners in order to conceal the criminal activities of its priests and employees. I am seeking this investigation at the U.S. Attorney level because crimes committed included activities where children were taken across recognized state borders for the purpose of committing criminal activity as well actions by the Diocese to remove a priest accused of criminal activity from the jurisdiction where he could face trial.
Additionally, funds are being transferred across state lines to pay for the expenses of the acts of obstruction. The Diocese of Scranton thinks it is above the law and has recklessly continues to put parishioners at risk.
I can be reached at the address above or by phone at (757) --- ----. My email address is (REDACTED)
Documentation of my particular circumstances and acknowledgement from the Diocese of Scranton that I have filed a credible allegation against Robert J. Gibson will be made available upon your request or can be found at my blog, Off My Knees (http://michaelbaumann.wordpress.com/).
Very respectfully,
Michael B. Baumann
****
Posted by Kay Ebeling
Don't forget we need PayPal clicks to pay for resources
*****
ORIGINAL STORIES at CofA:
Friday, July 10, 2009
US Attorney ignores pedophile taking child across state lines, plus fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy in Scranton
AND
Monday, July 13, 2009
We had long conversations, the guy telling me the same story as what happened to me. Father Gibson had his routine down
And always more to come
************
City of Angels: A network of blogs could be the best way for crime victims of pedophile priests around the country to keep tabs on individual archdioceses, as well as a way to find each other, perhaps find other perpetrators, and expand and centralize coverage of sex crime cover-ups in the church across the country.
*****************
A network of bloggers
*******************************
This is something we don't have to consciously start or form a 501(c)3 to make happen. This project takes little overhead, just a passion on the part of the blogger to get out the truth.
Baumann and I mainly communicate today about our mutual dream, of bloggers in every major city across the country, who are shadowing the local diocese, the local bishops, the shenanigans of attorneys hired by the bishops.
Blogs in each city could keep up with new cases as they get filed, uploading copies of documents that you are able to find in your own Superior Court archives, criminal court archives, documents attorneys for plaintiffs will send you once they start knowing they can trust you.
*****************
My dream is that this network of blogs be called City of Angels Network and incorporate our slogan that we run at the top of the blog:
The City of Angels is Everywhere.
************************************
Because The City of Angels IS everywhere.
And if there was ever a mission for Earth Angels, it’s uncovering and eradicating sex crimes in the Catholic church, especially against children.
So if you want to start a blog and feel your English is not good enough, I’ll help you construct sentences. If you want to just use your camera and capture stuff from around the web, you can do a blog and barely know English.
The City of Angels is Everywhere.
****
Don't forget PayPal Buttons on left side of blog
.
Homeless News Roundup at City of Angels 15
.
We continue: Documenting These Strange Times where people live in drainage pipes and parks, while CEO's eat diet food on yachts, at City of Angels 15.
.
We continue: Documenting These Strange Times where people live in drainage pipes and parks, while CEO's eat diet food on yachts, at City of Angels 15.
.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
None of this stuff will go away, no matter how hard we try to avoid it
.
This comment was emailed to me by a friend in Chicago after Michael for his own reasons did not post it:
2) Re: Kay Ebeling's SNAP document postings. You may recall that Kay posts an early SNAP membership brochure. The Chicago address on that item is 8025 S. Honore. That was the address of the convent of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus parish. One can see this in OCD 1978, page 187, first column. (By OCD 1985 the convent was gone from the pages of OCD; by OCD 1994 the parish itself was gone from OCD being listed as closed.)
Comments at Off My Knees responding to Parting Company With SNAP by Michael Baumann
Just found out there are more comments here, have to chime in to defend myself.
When I found them in 1994 I adored SNAP thought they were true heroes for more than ten years, but after observing and experiencing firsthand what i did with SNAP, I then became suspicious of them. Never set out to berate them, kept my mouth shut another two years after problems became obvious, as I spoke to other people around the country while writing City of Angels.
At first I was convinced I could not be right with what i was concluding. Then decided it must be true and wrote what i wrote about SNAP. I still stand by it. If someone can give another explanation... (Go to Mike Baumann's Off My Knees blog to read the conversation as it is still ongoing.)
***************
This comment was emailed to me by a friend in Chicago after Michael for his own reasons did not post it:
2) Re: Kay Ebeling's SNAP document postings. You may recall that Kay posts an early SNAP membership brochure. The Chicago address on that item is 8025 S. Honore. That was the address of the convent of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus parish. One can see this in OCD 1978, page 187, first column. (By OCD 1985 the convent was gone from the pages of OCD; by OCD 1994 the parish itself was gone from OCD being listed as closed.)
Comments at Off My Knees responding to Parting Company With SNAP by Michael Baumann
Just found out there are more comments here, have to chime in to defend myself.
When I found them in 1994 I adored SNAP thought they were true heroes for more than ten years, but after observing and experiencing firsthand what i did with SNAP, I then became suspicious of them. Never set out to berate them, kept my mouth shut another two years after problems became obvious, as I spoke to other people around the country while writing City of Angels.
At first I was convinced I could not be right with what i was concluding. Then decided it must be true and wrote what i wrote about SNAP. I still stand by it. If someone can give another explanation... (Go to Mike Baumann's Off My Knees blog to read the conversation as it is still ongoing.)
***************
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Photos of Homeless in L.A. in 2009, coming soon, more homeless in 2010
.
Remember these? Posted Wednesday, June 10, 2009,
Homeless Slide Show Sidewalk Style:
Here are photos of homeless originally taken for LA City Buzz, removed from Examiner before they could lock me out, here for City of Angels readers:
More photos like the ones at link above, taken recently, to come soon.
Remember these? Posted Wednesday, June 10, 2009,
Homeless Slide Show Sidewalk Style:
Here are photos of homeless originally taken for LA City Buzz, removed from Examiner before they could lock me out, here for City of Angels readers:
More photos like the ones at link above, taken recently, to come soon.
Vatican Using Wrong Set of Words re post-pedophile priest epidemic statements
.
I finally figured out what bothers me about the Vatican and bishops bantering around the words "protect the children," a phrase that pops up over and over in news stories about pedophile priest crimes, such as this from today's Associated Press:
"The Vatican spokesman said justice for the victims and the protection of children remain a priority. The three plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville, Kentucky, to dismiss their claims...."
After thousands of pedophile priest crimes exposed in last 20 years, the Catholic Church has No Credibility on the issue of child protection. None at all. The sound byte they use should be changed to:
"Making sure children never get raped again in Catholic Churches remains a priority."
Say it like it is.
"Protecting children" does not even need to be said, it's a no brainer, goes without saying.
The news is going to bishops for quotes because thousands of priests raped children in Catholic Churches around the world.
The focus here should be on prosecuting criminals, and, I mean, do we really need to take up media and print space to say, "protect children"?
In most human beings protecting children comes by instinct.
These guys are CRIMINALS! Don't quote them, expose them.
ke Original AP story
Photo below from Boston June 2007
I finally figured out what bothers me about the Vatican and bishops bantering around the words "protect the children," a phrase that pops up over and over in news stories about pedophile priest crimes, such as this from today's Associated Press:
"The Vatican spokesman said justice for the victims and the protection of children remain a priority. The three plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville, Kentucky, to dismiss their claims...."
After thousands of pedophile priest crimes exposed in last 20 years, the Catholic Church has No Credibility on the issue of child protection. None at all. The sound byte they use should be changed to:
"Making sure children never get raped again in Catholic Churches remains a priority."
Say it like it is.
"Protecting children" does not even need to be said, it's a no brainer, goes without saying.
The news is going to bishops for quotes because thousands of priests raped children in Catholic Churches around the world.
The focus here should be on prosecuting criminals, and, I mean, do we really need to take up media and print space to say, "protect children"?
In most human beings protecting children comes by instinct.
These guys are CRIMINALS! Don't quote them, expose them.
ke Original AP story
Photo below from Boston June 2007
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
New at CofA 14: Anger Management
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Amazing How Stories Take Form in My Head Before They Even Happen:
STEP AWAY So You Can See More Clearly
From Anger Management Class at Hope Again today...
Amazing How Stories Take Form in My Head Before They Even Happen:
STEP AWAY So You Can See More Clearly
From Anger Management Class at Hope Again today...
VIDEOS: Mother Teresa and her Special Billionaire Fraud Friends, Hitchens Documentary from 2007
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The Missionaries of Charity have a "special vocation for work among the rich," says Christopher Hitchens:
Part 2:
"Does Mother Teresa pick frauds because they need help more than other billionaires?" From Part 3:
Enjoy your summer, back like gangbusters in September
-ke
The Missionaries of Charity have a "special vocation for work among the rich," says Christopher Hitchens:
Part 2:
"Does Mother Teresa pick frauds because they need help more than other billionaires?" From Part 3:
Enjoy your summer, back like gangbusters in September
-ke
Monday, August 9, 2010
Pedophile Priest Treatment No Secret to Catholic Bishops in 1950s, Contrary to Recent Mahony Testimony
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Summer Rerun, first published here June 2008, Paraclete documents for your summer reading pleasure.
(UPDATE: In sworn deposition January 2010, Cardinal Roger Mahony of L.A. repeated, "You have to remember the times," when asked why he did not call the police in the 1980s about a pedophile priest. Documents from Servants of the Paraclete scanned here, found in discovery for lawsuits that settled against the L.A. Archdiocese in 2007, show plenty of interaction between the pedophile priest treatment center in New Mexico and bishops around the country, including James Francis McIntyre, archbishop of Los Angeles in 1959.)
Several American bishops have said in sworn testimony, how could they have know about pedophile priests? Truth is in the 1960s Timothy Manning, Archbishop of Los Angeles, was sending so many priests to Via Coeli in New Mexico (pictured), he was talking with center director Father Gerald Fitzgerald about opening a branch of the rehab center near Los Angeles.
(SIDE TRIP: We are still looking for victims of Fr. Thomas Barry Horne of Bartlett, Illinois, 1940s to 1970s)
Fitzgerald's assistant, Fr. Joseph McNamara, even made a trip to San Bernardino to meet with Bishop Phillip Straling about opening up such a branch.
Below, McNamara testifies for the LA Clergy Cases about the relationship between the LA Archdiocese and Via Coeli in a June 2007 deposition. He confirms he and Father Gerald took bishops from all over the country on tours of the rehab center. Also below, Letters from 1959 and
1960 reveal a regular conversation between hierarchy "padres" about the pedophile priest problem in the LA Archdiocese and at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo Ca. (A young McNamara is pictured at right.)
Click documents here to enlarge, read, and print. More docs linked at the bottom of this post.
Summer Rerun, first published here June 2008, Paraclete documents for your summer reading pleasure.
(UPDATE: In sworn deposition January 2010, Cardinal Roger Mahony of L.A. repeated, "You have to remember the times," when asked why he did not call the police in the 1980s about a pedophile priest. Documents from Servants of the Paraclete scanned here, found in discovery for lawsuits that settled against the L.A. Archdiocese in 2007, show plenty of interaction between the pedophile priest treatment center in New Mexico and bishops around the country, including James Francis McIntyre, archbishop of Los Angeles in 1959.)
Several American bishops have said in sworn testimony, how could they have know about pedophile priests? Truth is in the 1960s Timothy Manning, Archbishop of Los Angeles, was sending so many priests to Via Coeli in New Mexico (pictured), he was talking with center director Father Gerald Fitzgerald about opening a branch of the rehab center near Los Angeles.
(SIDE TRIP: We are still looking for victims of Fr. Thomas Barry Horne of Bartlett, Illinois, 1940s to 1970s)
Fitzgerald's assistant, Fr. Joseph McNamara, even made a trip to San Bernardino to meet with Bishop Phillip Straling about opening up such a branch.
Below, McNamara testifies for the LA Clergy Cases about the relationship between the LA Archdiocese and Via Coeli in a June 2007 deposition. He confirms he and Father Gerald took bishops from all over the country on tours of the rehab center. Also below, Letters from 1959 and
1960 reveal a regular conversation between hierarchy "padres" about the pedophile priest problem in the LA Archdiocese and at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo Ca. (A young McNamara is pictured at right.)Click documents here to enlarge, read, and print. More docs linked at the bottom of this post.
Page 2
Page 3
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Page 4
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THERE’S MORE deposition testimony pages at bottom of blog:
READ the First Kenneally letter below: 
The above letter from William J. Kenneally to James Francis Cardinal McIntyre, then Archbishop of Los Angeles (April 6, 1959, date of this letter) significant because it references Via Coeli and conversations between McIntyre and Kenneally, who was Rector of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California, at the time.
Yes, St. John’s Seminary, where future pedophiles were trained by practicing pedophiles, and later turned loose on the Southern California population as parish priests.
QUOTES OF NOTE FROM THE April 6, 1959 Kenneally letter above:
“A recent letter from a priest guest at Via Coeli informs me that they have begun a series of informal lectures there for padres. I do not know whether there is any information between this fact and our recent conversations, but I thought Your Eminence might like to know this fact.”
Reveals that the Archbishop of LA and the Rector of St. John's seminary discussed priests with sexual problems and treatment at Via Coeli in 1959.
Also in the above letter they discuss a pedophile priest Cleve Carey, from the era. We have the Rector of St. John’s Seminary saying:
FATHER CLEVE W. CAREY
“Many thanks for deciding the case of MR. CLEVE CAREY whose scrutinium was somewhat uncomplimentary. Actually we felt the same about it as does Your Eminence.”
The Rector of the seminary and the Archbishop of Los Angeles here are talking over Cleve Carey, soon to become a pedophile priest.
And it's 1959!!!!
PROOF
The Archbishop of Los Angeles talked over Via Coeli including its tours with the Rector of St. John's Seminary. And wait until you see the Bishop Buddy letters about San Diego pedophile priests who went to Via Coeli, soon to be scanned for a post next week.
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BISHOP ACCOUNTABILITY HAS THIS TO SAY ABOUT CLEVE CAREY:
Dead. Los Angeles. Accused of abuse between 1963-1966. Died 1988. LA archdiocese says 2 accusers. Named in at least 1 civil suit.
This is from the LA Times database in bishop accountability:
(Note seven transfers since the Rector of St. John's Seminary and the Archbishop of Los Angeles discussed him in 1959 in the same letter where they discussed Via Coeli.)
FATHER CLEVE W. CAREY
Diocese
Status: Dead
Named in civil lawsuit and in archdiocesan report.
Assignments
1961-63 St. Barnabas Catholic Church Long Beach
1964-66 St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Gardena
1967-67 St. Kevin Catholic Church Los Angeles
1968-70 Holy Cross Catholic Church Los Angeles
1971-71 St. Luke Hospital Pasadena
1972-74 Little Company of Mary Hospital Torrance
1975-76 St. Frances X. Cabrini Catholic Church Los Angeles
1977- Retired
Lawsuits
Each entry represents an allegation of molestation of one plaintiff at the location. Some plaintiffs have accused a priest of sexual misconduct in more than one parish or other location.
1958, 1963-66 St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Gardena
1963-64 St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Gardena
1963-64 St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Gardena
1964-65 St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church Gardena
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Something tells me there are more victims of Cleve Carey.
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AND THERE'S MORE DOCUMENTS HERE:
Read the back and forth between Kenneally and Gerald Fitzgerald in the 1959 letter below:
In the 2nd Kenneally Letter, (at left) we have a banter about AA, and how it calls, “unscientific and outmoded the good old fashioned sensible petition of the Church. Interesting because it shows the friendship and closeness between Kenneally and Fitzgerald.
But the letter (Page 2 at left) also reveals the chism Fitzgerald was beginning to feel as the new secular approaches came in and made his treatment techniques, which were based on prayer and the spirit, seem to be outmoded.
The letter above left shows a pretty close friendship between Fitzgerald and the Rector of St. John’s Seminary, and open talk about the treatment at Via Coeli.
In 1959!!!
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IT DOES NOT STOP:
August 1960 letter below from Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald to "Very Reverend Provincial"
QUOTES:
“In God’s Name, get this man laicized as quickly as possible.”
“Men who sin repeatedly with little children certainly fall under the classification of those who ‘it were b better had they not been born.’
“As a layman, the civil authorities will make short work of his activity and place him in the protective custody that his type merit.
“As there are many little children in this Canyon, where I am the shepherd of souls, I could not in conscience consider receiving him here.”
August 1960 letter to Provincial is below:
ABOVE: In God's Name get this man laicized.
Could they have been talking about Titian Miani?
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THERE'S MORE
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MORE DOCUMENTS HERE
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SALESIAN CONNECTION as it was cases against that religious order that produced these docs in the Los Angeles 2003 lawsuitsAND
LAST BATCH
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Posted By Kay Ebeling
First posted here: Monday, June 16, 2008
LA PROOF: Ties between St. John Seminary, LA Archbishop, & Paracletes rehab center for pedophile priests shown in deposition testimony & letters
The bishops claim times were different back then ...
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Posted by Kay Ebeling, Producer,
The City of Angels Is Everywhere Blog.
Deposition testimony continues
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