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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / No More Excuses

No More Excuses

by John Cole|  October 5, 20091:31 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

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About damned time:

The United States Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport to delay the court-ordered release of thousands of legal documents from lawsuits filed against priests accused of child sex abuse.

The decision leaves few options for the diocese after a seven-year tug-of-war with four newspapers, including The New York Times, over the release of more than 12,000 pages of depositions and church records.

The diocese still has another request before the court, asking the justices to hear arguments that release of the records would violate the First Amendment rights accorded to religious groups. But such a hearing appears unlikely after the court’s refusal on Monday, in a single-sentence ruling, to stay a lower-court order that the records be unsealed.

I honestly wonder what the Church is thinking by trying to keep covering up this stuff. Wouldn’t you want to do the document dump as close to the revelations of abuse, rather than keeping it lingering in the public mind? Dump the info, take your hit, and move on. Although I suppose that only works if you have stopped buggering children, have reassigned all the priests, that or if the information in the documents is truly well beyond what any of us knew was going on.

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29Comments

  1. 1.

    MattMinus

    October 5, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    “The diocese still has another request before the court, asking the justices to hear arguments that release of the records would violate the First Amendment rights accorded to religious groups.”

    Are they claiming they have a constitutional right to rape children, or at least to cover it up?

  2. 2.

    Erik Vanderhoff

    October 5, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    The church is thinking WHY DO YOU HATE JESUS SHUT UP.

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    October 5, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    I honestly wonder what the Church is thinking by trying to keep covering up this stuff.

    They think they’re above the law. The church has never liked answering to secular authority, and they seem to hate it even more when they know damn well that they were wrong and are going to suffer for it. I say fuck them. They need to have their thinking updated from the Dark Ages ideal of the church having the authority to overthrow any secular government that annoyed it.

  4. 4.

    Zifnab

    October 5, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    Wouldn’t you want to do the document dump as close to the revelations of abuse, rather than keeping it lingering in the public mind?

    The Catholic MO for the past century has been cover up, cover up, cover up. At this point, I imagine it’s standing Vatican policy to fight everything tooth and nail simply on principle.

    They probably thought they had enough sympathy among their constituencies and apathy among the prosecutors that they could keep it all under wraps. After all, who really wants to go after the Catholic Church?

  5. 5.

    ET

    October 5, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    I am assuming that what is in those files is either worse than we imaging OR information in other files not currently covered by this and that may demanded now that this is “settled” is worse than we imagine and that they were trying to head off release of those. Of course it could be both.

    Just glad that there is one less thing they can use to buy cover.

  6. 6.

    DougJ

    October 5, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    They think they’re above the law.

    For the most part, they are treated as if they were above the law.

  7. 7.

    Penfold

    October 5, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    I want to be above the law. And I think FSM needs a tax-exempt organization through which His Noodly Appendage can work great miracles (of religiously-sanctioned transfer payments!).

  8. 8.

    Bullsmith

    October 5, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    I fear the Church thinks about itself and, in an issue like this, not much more. It has a sacred duty to survive and while the victims are to be pitied, the justice system is to by stymied and avoided in any ways possible. Mother Church cannot be bankrupted.

    That’s all pretty much understandable, in a way. The hard thing is that predator priests have been a significant element within the Church for years. People who aren’t interested in normal sex have lots of reasons to be attracted to a place that not only explains away their lack of normal relations but makes it a holy thing and, the real icing on the cake, gives them more-than-physical power over their victims. There is a vast, widespread culture of turning a blind eye, because while the victims are your flock, the abusers are your family.

    These scandals have been going on for decades, and the Church has done nothing but fight justice, minimize the transgressions of the abusers as if each were a random isolated event. Meanwhile, where I live a priest who was convicted of raping and abusing children just got out of prison. The church is paying for him to get a doctoral degree.

  9. 9.

    RSA

    October 5, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    I honestly wonder what the Church is thinking by trying to keep covering up this stuff.

    The Bush administration ended up being able to kick the can down the road until after the 2008 election; maybe the Catholic Church has inside information about the Second Coming?

  10. 10.

    aimai

    October 5, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    They think they’re above the law.

    They had such good luck with that argument in the twelfth century.

    aimai

  11. 11.

    jimBOB

    October 5, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    An organization that hasn’t experienced public accountability can’t conceive of the idea that they’ll be held accountable. It was much the same with the Republicans prior to the 2006 elections; it was obvious to anyone looking on that between numerous scandals, shrub’s unpopularity, and the Foley business, the GOP really needed to dump its damaged leadership if they were to recover. But they just couldn’t make themselves do it – Hastert et al stayed on right up to the end.

    The RCC is the same, but even worse, because they think their sky fairy will save them.

  12. 12.

    ed

    October 5, 2009 at 2:02 pm

    And the Nazi Pope (what?) was a key figure in the cover up. Lovely organization. Just fucking lovely.

  13. 13.

    Mark S.

    October 5, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    If Catholic values of forgiveness and redemption are among the considerations employed in deciding whether priests accused of sexual abuse work again — even priests known for a certainty to have committed abuse — juries “are not to be allowed, in retrospect, to conclude that the diocese’s weighing of these factors resulted in a misguided or negligent decision,” the diocese argued in its petition.

    To do so would constitute government interference in “ecclesiastical policy decisions,” the diocese petition maintained. To release church documents concerning such decisions to the public, it added, would undermine the diocese’s “right to function as a religious institution.”

    Wow, that is fucking insane. So if the Church decides that Fr. Chester is ready to start working with children again, that’s all there is to it.

  14. 14.

    boomshanka

    October 5, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    I honestly wonder what the Church is thinking by trying to keep covering up this stuff.

    Hmmm, may have something to do with the fact that Cardinal Egan was the Bishop of Bridgeport from 1988-2000.

  15. 15.

    Midnight Marauder

    October 5, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    I’m just curious to see how Sullivan wanks his way around this one.

  16. 16.

    Fulcanelli

    October 5, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    Religion FAIL.

    Losing My Religion and here’s why: The Arrogance Of Clergy Corrupt bastards, the lot of ’em.

    Too big to fail? I think not, and the sooner the better.

  17. 17.

    jrg

    October 5, 2009 at 2:19 pm

    My favorite bit of the article:

    It’s main argument was that the release of the records would severely undermine protections against state interference in church business.

    So, in other words, they don’t want the state involved in church “business” (read: “molesting kids”) except in instances where the church wants to influence the business of the state (read: “denying pro-choice senators communion”).

    For the most part, they are treated as if they were above the law.

    No joke. Can we please revoke their tax-exempt status now?

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    October 5, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    I honestly wonder what the Church is thinking by trying to keep covering up this stuff. Wouldn’t you want to do the document dump as close to the revelations of abuse, rather than keeping it lingering in the public mind? Dump the info, take your hit, and move on.

    No. The strategy (especially in the LA diocese of Cardinal Roger Mahoney) was to hold out as long as possible, withhold any relevant documentation, hire a public relations firm to continually minimize the wrongdoing and to suggest that victims are simply out for money, and then, when all avenues have been exhausted and it appears as though criminal prosecution of a priest might be imminent, then quietly settle and pay the victims.

    The Church picked up this strategy watching corporations fight liability and injury claims.

  19. 19.

    tamied

    October 5, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    @jrg: I like the idea of granting tax-exempt status to The Church of the FSM.

  20. 20.

    Ash Can

    October 5, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    This is great news. I hope the courts ride roughshod on their asses. And I say this because I’m a Catholic, not in spite of it.

  21. 21.

    slag

    October 5, 2009 at 4:03 pm

    As wrong as NYT and other papers are sometimes, we really need organizations that will fight for this kind of information. Non-profits can do some of the work, but I like that newspapers have the potential to be all-purpose muckrakers. Should they choose to use it, that is.

  22. 22.

    Rick Taylor

    October 5, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    Wouldn’t you want to do the document dump as close to the revelations of abuse, rather than keeping it lingering in the public mind?

    Easy to say in the abstract, but human nature being what it is, people will usually do their best to cover wrong doing up. George Washington couldn’t tell a lie, but he was the rule rather than the exception. And of course the parallels with the governments desire to sweep any torture that may have occurred under the rug is just another example.

  23. 23.

    slippy

    October 5, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    @Rick Taylor: You mean, exception rather than the rule.

  24. 24.

    Michael Scott

    October 5, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    But such a hearing appears unlikely after the court’s refusal on Monday, in a single-sentence ruling, to stay a lower-court order that the records be unsealed.

    Not a bad outcome, considering that six out of nine current Justices were at least baptized and raised Catholic . . .

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    October 5, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    @Brachiator:

    The strategy.. was to hold out as long as possible, withhold any relevant documentation, hire a public relations firm to continually minimize the wrongdoing and to suggest that victims are simply out for money, and then, when all avenues have been exhausted and it appears as though criminal prosecution of a priest might be imminent, then quietly settle and pay the victims.
    …
    The Church picked up this strategy watching corporations fight liability and injury claims.

    Bingo. As someone who grew up in the Catholic Church, I want to add one thing to the excellent analyses already posted: The RCC, after centuries as a very powerful political institution, really does consider itself to be “in the business of dealing with souls”. And souls are defined as person-units, bodies to be worked and minds to be used for the Corporate Church’s own purposes. First preference, among the corporate hierarchy, will always be to use the person-units directly (via tithes & labor) but selling explotation rights to fellow corporate hierarchies (i.e., trading pro-Repub sermons/endorsements in return for anti-choice rhetoric) is just good business practice. In fact, if you look beyond region-specific legal tactics, the question might be raised as to whether the Church “picked up this strategy” watching corporations, or whether the modern American corporations are the natural inheritors of the medieval fiefdoms who based their political strategies on the tactics of possibly the world’s oldest surviving multinational corporation.

  26. 26.

    Gary

    October 5, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    A cousin of mine lives in the diocese of Bridgeport. She’s active in her parish, acts as lector on Sundays, etc. and claims to get great satisfaction from shredding all the bishop’s fund-raising appeals unread.

  27. 27.

    Raincitygirl

    October 5, 2009 at 9:01 pm

    Gary,

    Your cousin might get even more satisfaction from collecting the shredded bits of bishop appeal into an envelope and sending it back to the diocese by courier. She should just be sure to tick the box on the waybill that says “recipient will pay.”

  28. 28.

    Lizzy L

    October 6, 2009 at 2:57 am

    I’m a faithful Catholic, and I say right on for the SC. Don’t let the b——ds get away with anything!

    I do have one concern. There are some decent, honorable priests and lay people who have been accused of being predators, and who are not guilty. I personally know one such person. Those who have truly done nothing need to be protected.

    But those who have abused, and their bishops, who lied and who covered up the abuse to save their own reputations, and their lawyers — let them all be exposed.

  29. 29.

    Ken

    October 6, 2009 at 10:54 am

    MattMinus @1, Mark S. @13, jrg @17: If the church does try to use that line of argument, I hope that the remaining Branch Davidians, Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, and so forth file briefs. They, and similar groups, have similarly suffered from government interference with internal religious policies.

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