Gods And Monsters – Senior Monster Backslides


... clearly trying to find a judicious, objective-sounding way of telling us that Cardinal Egan is a lying, evil SOB -  No More Mr Nice Blog


Sean Brady, leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, has used the Eucharistic Conference to issue an apology to the many victims raped by Church officials.  Noticeably he did not explain away the culpability for child abuse with reference alone to individuals but specifically mentioned the institution of the Church, attenuating the bad apple theory.

But how seriously will society take this public breast beating? Church apologies for the reign of rape the cartel subjected countless children to must be treated with a large dose of scepticism. Rather than being a heartfelt expression of contrition it seems apologies may well be nothing other than a holding operation with which to weather the storm and get through. Once anchored in a safe port reverting to form is to be expected.

In the spring of 2002 a moral tempest was unleashed that lashed its way from the American East Coast to the West, blowing away the camouflage that concealed the scenes of crimes where Catholic clerics had plied their rape trade. Bridgeport was one stone tossed over forcing the numerous beetles in black to scuttle in a bid to escape public exposure. In one particularly vile case there, a priest explained to one of his victims that oral sex was just another way of receiving Holy Communion, inviting a comparison with the Jewish practice of Metzitzah B’Peh. This was serial rapist Lawrence Brett who was sent on a tour of eight parishes and a family of ten between Bridgeport and California as part of Church policy of recycling child molesting clerics.

At the time of the first trials in Bridgeport there were over 1000 lawsuits pending against priests throughout the United States. The issue could not be hidden behind some facade of prayer and praise the lord sessions no matter how well stage managed.

On the back foot Cardinal Edward Egan, then Archbishop of New York, gazed upward to heaven, and proffered his upturned oily palms and apologised for the behaviour of the Catholic Church. His apology was addressed to the dioceses of Bridgeport where he had served as bishop up until 2000 and where at the time 23 lawsuits were underway against seven diocesan priests. Truly, truly Egan said unto them::

If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry ... I will do everything in my power to ensure, as much as is humanly possible, that such abuse by clergy will never happen again ... You should expect nothing less of me, and the other leaders of our church.

Egan at the time was not taken by everyone at face value. Suspicions were expressed that the apology was merely an exercise in damage limitation. After all, Egan took the helm directly from the man in charge throughout the period covered by accusations, from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s when priests on a rape rampage molested numerous children. It was widely believed that Egan was less than forthcoming about what went on under the reign of Walter Curtis described by Egan as ‘a wonderful, wonderful, dear gentleman.’ Wonderful Walter who happened to do Sweet FA about the countless rapists he had under his command other than to slap their hindquarters and say 'ride on.' 

Through it all, the diocese ... officially remained remarkably indifferent to the alleged victims of the crimes ... Unlike other dioceses around the country Bridgeport has acknowledged little and apologised for nothing. Beginning with the first lawsuit filed in 1993, dioscean officials  have delayed testimony, had actions sealed, defied court orders, concealed evidence and stonewalled proceedings through restraining orders and other legal devices.

Three years prior to his 2002 apology a Connecticut Magazine investigated the complaints against Bridgeport priests. Egan refused to speak to it and his demeanour was later reported by the magazine was anything but contrite. In Gods and Monsters:

Egan was portrayed as a wily, coldly-calculating defender of the Church and abusive priests, more corporate lawyer than spiritual guardian. The article revealed that he had let accused priests continue to work in local parishes, authorized payments to victims in exchange for silence agreements, and lied about those payments during a deposition.

Egan was yet another canon law chancer with a doctorate in club house rules which made him immune, so he thought, to public scrutiny. Subsequently, he reversed the apology he had made a decade earlier: ‘First of all, I should never have said that. I did say if we did anything wrong, I’m sorry, but I don’t think we did anything wrong.’

They didn’t do anything wrong. Nothing your honour. It was the frog’s fault.

25 comments:

  1. Double standards again.

    A court has just ordered the Boy Scouts in America to hand over a 20,000 pages listing of institutionalised child abuse. You said you ‘simply haven’t the time’ to read about it.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/14/us-usa-boyscouts-abuse-idUSBRE85D1MM20120614

    But you do ‘have the time’ to attack the Church again, about historical abuse cases that have been resolved and had the time to dredge up an old article written in February, about words said 10 years before, about events decades ago.

    You would be so much more convincing if you applied the same standard to ALL cases rather than always come up with another reason that ‘Catholic abuse’ is some how different to that meted out to others.

    The major differences I see are that the abuse going on, in e.g. the US public schools, are ongoing and current, as with the scouts, while that which took place in the post-Vatican II Church lasted from about the 1960s to the 1980s and was dealt with.

    You are using the abuse of children as a weapon to attack an organization. The fact that you lash out at all within that organization demonstrates beyond doubt that you are motivated more by hatred of the Catholic Church than by sympathy for victims of abuse.

    If not, you would ‘find the time’ and address abuse wherever it occurred and be concerned that those guilty should be isolated and punished.

    Applying doubles standards weakens your case and makes me look at Cardinal Egan more sympathetically than I might otherwise be inclined to.

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  2. John McGirr,

    'The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it'

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  3. @ Anthony RE: 'Rather than being a heartfelt expression of contrition it seems apologies may well be nothing other than a holding operation with which to weather the storm and get through. Once anchored in a safe port reverting to form is to be expected.'
    ='s YES!

    OFFTOPIC here but have you read that book titled Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef published 2010? I have ordered it and was hunting round on your blog to see if you had reviewed it as curious to what u think. His dad was one of the founders of Hamas Moseuf worked for Mossad eventually, left Islam, left Hamas left Palestine, converted to Christianity and got refugee status in US.

    And wrote the book of course. Currently he is visiting Israel. That link has all the info on book if u haven’t read it.
    http://sonofhamas.com/

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  4. @ JohnMcGirr Anthony has given u a good fair run here & u r acting like a right idiot – all petulant and gameplaying. The best to date you have contributed is bewailing the loss of Latin Masses & googling up other examples of abuse of minors by other organisations like some sort of evidence that the Vatican is pure. Focus on the facts at hand and the religious construct The Catholic Church is no Mother – She is a Whore.

    Long after you and i have shuffled off our mortal coils there will be thousands more abuse cases coming to light in nations such as Africa... What we know now of the crimes is only the tip of the iceberg. The Vatican top down is corrupted to the core . You can hang on your cross JohnMcgirr crying out how wonderful the Catholic Church is but Jesus didn’t die for a corrupt religion – he died for humanity to be free from shackles such as a perverted religion.
    Edumakation for you:
    Old but gold Max Romeo and the Upsetters -War Ina Babylon (War in Babylon)
    ‘Fire fe the Vatican! (Fire for the Vatican)
    Now look at that!
    Blood for the poor man
    Who say? Revelations say!
    (In Revelations - purple and scarlet robes worn by the Great Whore – same colors worn by Vatican headhonchos – wot a surprise – NOT!)
    Who say?
    So the prophets say
    And what them saying now?
    Fire for the Vatican...
    Who say?...’
    Whole song here I LOVE this song. Should be played on loudspeakers outside the Unholy See. Enjoy the truth to a jiggy beat
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIQ3UpORjHE

    In case you attempt to climb back on your cross aka the self appointed false martyr syndrome asuffering for a poxy cause such as the Vatican - I say FIRE for ALL false religions who subjugate through using God as a tool to decimate the peoples. It is brill being a EX Catholic – feedom/freedom!
    PS I snapped the head of the Virgin Mary wooden statue passed down to me and burnt the whole caboodle in the fireplace Will I go to Hell? No. Who wants useless idols made of stone plaster and wood to cry out to? Not me. Read ur Bible McGirr...

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  5. SMH,

    Jennifer Anniston I mean for wearing a short skirt. God didn't create legs, that was the work of the Devil. Not you for burning crucifixes to keep warm.

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  6. @ Anthony yeah lolz re the false piety stuff re clothing... it is all so pathetic...
    I wouldnt burn a cross as i love the meaning of the symbol BUT if i was freezing and it was the only wood in the house yes i would. God is Spirit not lumps of wood, plaster etc The cross is a symbol only. McGirr is gonna be all over this like a bubonic plague!

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  7. Satanic Prickly Being?

    ‘The Catholic Church is no Mother – She is a Whore.’

    ‘PS I snapped the head of the Virgin Mary wooden statue passed down to me and burnt the whole caboodle in the fireplace Will I go to Hell? No. Who wants useless idols made of stone plaster and wood to cry out to? Not me. Read ur Bible McG’

    I do believe that you could do with a good dose of exorcism. But it does illustrate my point. Ongoing child sexual abuse does not bother many here, even when it accounts for 99.9% of all abuse. You would rather cynically use the historical abuse of the 0.1%, as a tool to attack what you hate.

    There are some here whose hatred of the catholic religion motivates them more than anything else, and I would include you in that number. You have a friend in Paisley. For all you and Anthony supposedly despising him, you are more alike than you realize.

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  8. Sorry there is no anti-Catholic rage here. But look at what is going on NOW near at hand.

    The HISTORICAL abuses in parts of the Catholic Church that have been dealt with are not happening NOW.

    This is going on NOW!

    www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9327534/Child-abuse-taking-place-in-every-town-village-and-hamlet-in-England.html


    www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/13/sexual-abuse-children-difficult-truth?newsfeed=true

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  9. AM,

    Your link clearly shows the historical nature of it and that it is now practically non-existent.

    “… from 2005 to 2009, the average number of new credible accusations made against over 40,000 priests was 8.6,” he said.
    Donohue also referenced research from a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Charol Shakeshaft, saying sexual abuse of children was 100 times more likely in schools than by priests, …”

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  10. @PopeMcGirr lol I just aknew u would write this:

    'I do believe that you could do with a good dose of exorcism'

    And u did right on cue LOL Now then an exorcism of my mind and spirit to clear all the filth and memories of Catholicism would be beneficial not just to me but to any survivor. It is the oldest trick in the book to say to someone they are satanic as a response to being challenged with reality/facts. Ach it was a good larf...
    Only a fool would admire Paisley - he is a disgusting creature who used God as a tool to murder innocent people/whip up hate. Both the Pope and Paisley are the two faces of the one head aka oppressive deceptive religions with the blood of the slaughtered innocent dripping off them. Nothing godly about either of them.
    Btw JohnMc where are all the Catholics in here defending your viewpoints Not one... Does that not tell u something or does it feed into your notion you are some kind of hero battling gallantly on for the Vatican cause...

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  11. John,

    only in religion does going up mean going down. That's magic for you!

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  12. John,

    I have been following this discussion between you and Anthony, but I have not had any time to comment myself. However, I noticed that you and Bill Donohue have misinterpreted Charol Shakeshaft's research again. Dr. Shakeshaft does not argue that teachers are 100 times more likely to abuse children than priests. She merely argues that sexual abuse is a problem in the US school system and that, in absolute terms, there are roughly 100 times more abuse cases involving teachers than those involving priests. However, this difference is primarily explained by the fact that there are about 4 million teachers in the US but only about 40,000 priests. When you first made the "100 times more likely" claim, I contacted Dr. Shakeshaft and this is what she had to say:

    "We don't know if priests are less likely than teachers [to abuse minors]. There are no comparable data that would allow us to draw these conclusions.

    There are more teachers than priests and more students in PreK-12 school than in Catholic churches. Therefore, there are more students abused by teachers/educators than by priests. Proportionally, I don't know, nor does anyone else."

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  13. Alfie,

    a useful background provided there which unfortunately John failed to fill us in on.

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  14. AM, Alfie
    'a useful background provided there which unfortunately John failed to fill us in on.'

    I agree that this gives us a useful background.

    However, why would I 'fill you in' on private correspondence that Alfie and Dr. Shakeshaft had, that I had no knowledge of? Especially as I was merely quoting from something that you posted.

    Also, what Alfie says may clarify what Bill Donahue said but it does not negate it. For whatever reason, it is 100 times more likely that a child suffer sexual abuse in public schools in America rather than by priests.

    And even if the levels were the same proportionally, (which according to Dr. Shakeshaft we don't know), then where are the calls to close the American schools?

    SMH
    'Btw JohnMc where are all the Catholics in here defending your viewpoints’

    Are there any Catholics in here? Maybe there are, I don’t know. I would be surprised. I can’t imagine many Catholics would want to read a Blog attacking their Faith on a daily basis.

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  15. John,

    There is an important difference between what you and Charol Shakeshaft are saying. Dr. Shakeshaft claims that "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests." She is saying that the number of abuse cases involving teachers is probably more than 100 times the number of abuse cases involving priests. As I said before, this is mostly explained by the fact that there are about 4 million teachers in the USA but only about 40,000 priests. Also access to children is a factor; I would say that teachers have more access to children that any other profession. Indeed, primary school teachers probably spend more time with children during the school year than parents do. Anyway, what you inferred from Shakeshaft's statement was that "a child is literally over 100 times more likely to be molested in a public school than in a Catholic church." That may be true of the average child, particularly one who is not Catholic, but you cannot infer that from what Dr. Shakeshaft claimed. For example, let's say there was a country which had 1000 priests and 1 million teachers; let's also assume that 10% of priests and 1% of teachers abused children. In this case, you would have 100 times more cases of abuse by teachers than by priests, but priests would be ten times more likely to abuse.

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  16. Alfie,
    What I posted was cut and pasted from the link posted by Anthony.
    Here it it:

    “… from 2005 to 2009, the average number of new credible accusations made against over 40,000 priests was 8.6,” he said.
    Donohue also referenced research from a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Charol Shakeshaft, saying sexual abuse of children was 100 times more likely in schools than by priests, …”

    I am not claiming that a teacher is 100 times more likely to abuse so am not making the inference you suggest.

    What I do think is of great significance though is the first sentence of the above quote:

    “… from 2005 to 2009, the average number of new credible accusations made against over 40,000 priests was 8.6,”

    That shows that whatever had been going on has come to a virtual stop and is almost totally historical. Of course even one case of abuse is one too many, but it is minimal in comparison to what is going on in society, ‘in every town, village and hamlet.’


    www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9327534/Child-abuse-taking-place-in-every-town-village-and-hamlet-in-England.html

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  17. Saint?MaryHedgehog,

    ‘The Catholic Church is no Mother – She is a Whore.’

    A whore would not lower herself to the level attained by many clerics. I think even John would agree with us on this one while he would oppose their work.

    ‘What we know now of the crimes is only the tip of the iceberg. The Vatican top down is corrupted to the core.’

    I think this is pretty much how things stand. We must always welcome the progress made as a result of societal scrutiny but keep the jury out for much longer.

    ‘It is brill being a EX Catholic – feedom/freedom!’

    I never experienced any brilliance. I was never given the choice to be a Catholic and was unfortunate enough to be grabbed at birth by them and accused of having an original sin. What an appalling act of hatred for children just born to be accused of that. A sick mind devised that one. It suggests to me that such a concept feeds into the widespread contempt for children. Who made that thing up? I am currently reading God No by Penn Jillette which deals with people who escape religion. And they really felt they had escaped. They experience elation.

    Even if you snapped the head of six children you would still not be going to hell. All a load of bollix. It is a weapon of intimidation.

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  18. AM,
    'Even if you snapped the head of six children you would still not be going to hell.'

    See how devotees to the religion of atheism are so ready to 'advocate' murder. I can just picture Joe Stalin muttering that to himself as another million die. Or an atheist baby-slaying abortionist, as he sharpens his scalpel for a 'pound of flesh!'

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  19. Saint?MaryHedgehog

    I haven’t read the book Son of Hamas. Another two hardbacks were given to me this afternoon as a father’s day present – each over 600 pages long. I’ll never get to read all that I want. There was a scene in Spooks one evening where the character Ros said she wasn’t yet ready to die as she had too many books to read before she did that! That is how I feel. Why did it capture your interest to the point that you ordered it?

    God isn’t spirit at all. He is a wafer! That is why I believe in two gods – so I can get two wafers and make an ice cream slider. As it melts in my mouth I say ‘heavenly.’

    John is the bubonic plague!

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  20. AM, (or is it Jack Chick?)

    ‘God isn’t spirit at all. He is a wafer! That is why I believe in two gods – so I can get two wafers and make an ice cream slider. As it melts in my mouth I say ‘heavenly.’ ‘

    http://www.chick.com/bc/1999/perpetualadoration.asp

    Oh what friends you have, Anthony! One big united band of Catholic ‘intensely dislikers. (liberals can’t ever ‘hate’ of course).

    When will you get the sandwich board with ‘The Mass is a Blasphemous Fable’ on it?

    It is not just the GFA that has betrayed us. All who lap up centuries of Protestant hate to deride their fellow Catholics have probably ensured that there is no future for the Irish Nation.

    You call for the Catholic Church to be banned, you insult what many hold dear, and then you can’t understand why God does not favour your ravings.

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  21. John,

    at least you are a likeable lunatic with a sense of humour!

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  22. @ PopeMcGirr DemonTest LOLOL by Bob Larson See link(of course u have to pay to take it) LMBO!!!
    There r more so believers who riddled with the evil like a swiss cheese. I didnt charge u a brass razoo for this information.
    http://demontest.com/

    now must get me non satanic prickly arse outta here

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  23. John

    If I was to read everything somebody else suggested I read, there would be no time to read what I want to read. Reading is one of life’s pleasures (although I notice you want much of that banned to) and we don’t have our pleasures dictated to by others. It is about consent John, Hard for the religious mind to grasp but ...

    ‘For all you and Anthony supposedly despising (Paisley) you are more alike than you realize.’

    And there is us thinking you, him, Willie McCrea and Iris the Virus are all apples from the same tree.

    ‘why would I 'fill you in' on private correspondence that Alfie and Dr. Shakeshaft had, that I had no knowledge of?’

    Because as Alfie suggested, if I remember right, is that you were figure fiddling. Don’t worry we can live with that. It is the kiddie fiddling of your priestly types that is unacceptable.

    ‘For whatever reason, it is 100 times more likely that a child suffer sexual abuse in public schools in America rather than by priests ... where are the calls to close the American schools?’

    If the US school system was one big organised rape cartel it would have to close and an alternative found. How could society leave a rape cartel open even if children need education in a way that they don’t need religion?

    ‘I can't imagine many Catholics would want to read a Blog attacking their Faith on a daily basis.’

    Not moths to the flame like yourself then. They have every right not to read it. No compulsion. Just as we have every right not to read the bible despite my enjoyment of fiction. We simply respect each other’s right not to be compelled to read what we don’t want to read and to be free to read that which we choose to.

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